A predicted Republican “red wave” appeared to have turned into a tidal wave as Democrats held on to key races in the US midterm elections.
Democrats flipped a key Senate seat while several Trump-backed candidates appeared headed for defeat.
Republicans still appeared poised to overturn a narrow Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, but projections of a landslide victory appeared to have failed to materialize.
The fate of the US Senate, which is currently split 50-50, still hung in the balance with several races too close to call.
There had been predictions that the vote would be a total rejection of Joe Biden’s presidency by the American people, and that Republicans would easily regain control of both houses of Congress.
But when the first results came in, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “It’s definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for sure.”
Republicans had tried to make the election a referendum on Biden, who has only a 39 percent approval rating.
But Democratic candidates across the country fared much better than that.
The president tweeted a smile as the results came in.
Biden said: “I just got off the phone with some of tonight’s winners, including some people I saw on the road this year.”
Key races
In one of the biggest results for the Democrats, John Fetterman flipped the Senate seat in the state of Pennsylvania and cruised to a surprise victory in the early hours of the night.
In Georgia, which the Republicans were certain to take, the Democrats were leading by a narrow margin with most of the votes counted.
This means that control of the Senate itself may remain with the Democrats. The New York Times predicted that Biden would narrowly hang on to the Senate.
Strategists from both parties had been especially following a House race in Virginia’s seventh district.
It was seen as the best early indicator of whether the Republicans would pull off a big victory.
But Abigail Spanberger, the incumbent Democratic congresswoman and a former CIA officer, held tight to Yesli Vega, a former police officer.