US midterms: Democrats retain control of Senate after crucial Nevada victory

US president Joe Biden’s Democratic Party will retain control of the Senate following the midterm elections last week.

The move came following projections that Democrats would retain their senate seat in Nevada, says US media.

Separately the contest for control of the US House of Representatives has intensified after Democrats won a number of seats in the west of the country. Republicans at present retain a narrow lead with several seats still be decided. The most likely scenario is that Republicans will secure a small majority in the House of Representatives although Democrats have a narrow path which could see the party hold on to control in the chamber.

On Saturday night authorities in Nevada released a new batch of results from the midterm election which showed the serving Democratic senator Catherine Cortez-Masto moving into the lead in her contest with challenger Adam Lexalt, a former state attorney general.

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Although thousands of votes remain to be counted in Nevada, US media including Associated Press, NBC, CBS and CNN projected that Ms Cortez-Masto would hold on to her seat.

Her victory meant that Democrats would hold at least 50 seats in the 100-member chamber.

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Given that US vice-president Kamala Harris has a casting vote in the event of a tie in the senate, securing 50 seats means that Democrats will have a majority when the new congress convenes in January.

Ms Cortez-Masto had been considered before the midterm elections last week to be the most vulnerable of Democratic senators seeking re-election.

Her projected victory also means that to obtain a majority in the senate Democrats do not need to win in the forthcoming run-off election in Georgia between serving senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker who is backed by former president Donald Trump.

Mr Trump is scheduled to make a “big announcement” on Tuesday amid much speculation that he will confirm he is to run again for the White House in 2024.

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However, Mr Trump has faced criticism from some within his own Republican Party after the results in the midterm elections last week which saw the defeat of several candidates he had personally promoted.

Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey, who is retiring and whose seat was won by the Democrat John Fetterman, was one of those who blamed Mr Trump.

“The data is overwhelmingly clear – the more candidates who are associated with Donald Trump, and the ultra MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, and this false notion that the election was stolen from him in 2020, the more that was the message, the more they lost,” he said in an interview on Fox News Saturday.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said on Saturday night that the election was a great win for the American people as well as a victory and vindication of his party and its agenda.

He said three things had helped the Democrats secure control in the senate. He said these were: “One, our terrific candidates. Two, our agenda and our accomplishments. And three, the American people rejected the anti-democratic extremist MAGA Republicans.”

Meanwhile, on Saturday night Democrats won a seat in the House of Representatives which is held by the Republicans.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, won a seat in southern Washington defeating Joe Kent, a Republican and retired green beret and combat veteran who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and supported defendants facing prosecution arising from events at the US Capitol on January 6th last year.