US: Democrats eye Georgia in last hopes to take Senate

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - In US congressional elections, the Democratic Party's last hope to flip two seats in the state of Georgia in order to gain control of the Senate may come to a head on Thursday.

Before Election Day, Republicans held the majority with 53 seats in the upper chamber of Congress, while Democrats had 45, in addition to two independent senators who caucus with the Democratic party.

In Tuesday’s elections, Democrats managed to flip one seat each in Colorado and Arizona, but Republicans also picked one up in Alabama, which left Democrats with a net gain of just one seat, falling well short of their expectations.

This leaves Democrats hoping to flip both seats in Georgia in order to get a 50-50 split that would give them control of the Senate if Joe Biden wins the White House, since his Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote in any ties.

While the race between Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican incumbent David Perdue, who is close to a victory, has yet to be called, with votes still being counted, the race for the other Senate seat between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler will head to a runoff election on Jan. 5, since neither candidate got 50% of the vote.

The race in North Carolina is still up in the air, since the race between Democratic Cal Cunningham and Republican incumbent Thom Tillis is too close to call.

Two of the Democrats’ biggest targets, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both survived challenges on Tuesday, holding onto their seats representing South Carolina and Kentucky, respectively.

In the House of Representatives, before Election Day Democrats held the majority over Republicans with 232-197 seats, and they are most likely to keep control of the lower chamber.

Early Thursday, the Democrats were still ahead of the Republicans, 204 seats to 190, to capture the majority of 218 seats.

But their hopes of big gains were dashed, and may end up with the smallest majority in the House in 20 years after Republicans put up a strong fight.

Republicans managed to flip eight seats against Democrats' two for a net gain of six seats in the lower chamber.

In New Hampshire, both the state House and Senate flipped to the Republicans, which could be important when state legislators re-draw voting districts in the wake of this year’s census.