Control of Congress, future of Biden agenda, up for grabs in election 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to claw back power in Congress, energized Republicans worked Tuesday to break the Democrats' one-party hold on Washington and threaten the future of President Joe Biden's once-lofty agenda.

As polls began closing on the West Coast, the Democrats' fragile grasp on power was at risk. With the narrowly held House and an evenly split Senate, the party faced a new generation of Republican candidates — among them political newcomers, including deniers of the 2020 election and some extremists inspired by Donald Trump.

Early in the evening, three new senators were elected: Democrat Peter Welch of Vermont and Republicans Katie Britt of Alabama and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. All three will replace retiring senators.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, was reelected in New York. Republican Sens. Rand Paul in Kentucky and Marco Rubio in Florida prevailed over their Democratic opponents. Several Senate races were tightening late Tuesday. With more than 70% of votes counted, Republican challenger Herschel Walker held a slim lead over incumbent Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.

Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman clung to a razor-thin advantage over Republican Mehmet Oz, and Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, had pulled ahead of Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes.

In the House, several new Republicans were elected in redrawn Florida districts, including Aaron Bean, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna and Cory Mills. Joining them will be 25-year-old Democrat Maxwell Frost — the first member of Generation Z to win a seat in Congress. Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a top Trump ally, won reelection in Georgia.

Tuesday saw the first major national elections since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and emotions were raw. The violent assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband has stunned many, and federal law enforcement warned of heightened threats nationwide. Biden’s party labored to hold on by the most tenuous of margins.

“We intend to win,” Pelosi told the PBS “NewsHour,” insisting that Democrats have “far superior candidates” and voters will turn out to support them.

“So I think you’ll be surprised this evening,” Pelosi said.

All 435 seats in the House and one-third of the Senate were being decided. If Republican newcomers help the party seize control of the House, and possibly the Senate, the outcome will pose new challenges for Congress' ability to govern.

Republicans need a net gain of five seats in the House to achieve the 218-seat majority and a net gain of one to seize control of the Senate. The 50-50 Senate is now in Democratic hands because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote, in what has been one of the longest stretches of a split Senate in modern times.

Divided government has historically offered the possibility of bipartisan deal-making, but Republican candidates campaigned instead on a platform to stop Democrats.

“I do think that this will end up being a period of government that is defined by conflict,” said Brendan Buck, a former top aide to the past two Republican speakers of the House.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to seize the speaker's gavel from Pelosi next year if Democrats lose power, has recruited the most racially diverse class of House GOP candidates, with more women than ever. But it also has a new cadre of Trump loyalists, including election skeptics and deniers, some of whom were around the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In the fight for the House, Virginia’s marquee race pitted Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria against Republican challenger Jen Kiggans, both Navy veterans. The two-term Democrat Luria, first elected in the 2018 backlash to Trump, rose as part of the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but is now at risk of defeat.

Late Tuesday, Kiggans was in the lead.