Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday lamented Republicans’ inability to pick up early wins during the midterm elections on Nov. 8.
“Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure,” Graham told NBC, adding, “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”
Referring to Republican Don Bolduc, a New Hampshire Senate candidate who lost to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Graham said that “when you run that far behind your governor candidate [Chris Sununu], you probably made a mistake.”
Graham noted that if the GOP takes the House, there is good that comes from “a divided government” because lawmakers will have to work together.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also noted there wasn’t a red wave, as some GOP officials have predicted, during a YouTube livestream.
Some key races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada are still too close to call. In Georgia, it’s likely Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) will face GOP candidate Herschel Walker during a runoff next month, according to state officials.
Election data as of Wednesday show GOP challenger Adam Laxalt ahead of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) for Nevada’s Senate seat. Sen. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) was up against GOP challenger Blake Masters, data shows.
In Pennsylvania, Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz conceded the race to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, on Wednesday morning.
Election forecasters largely predicted the House of Representatives would go to Republicans, but it’s still too close to call. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declared victory on Tuesday night.
Data showed incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is poised to defeat Democrat Mandela Barnes, while Republican J.D. Vance likely defeated Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) for Ohio’s Senate seat.
Should Masters lose and Laxalt win, it means that control of the Senate would hinge on Georgia’s race between Warnock and Walker. Although Warnock is ahead of Walker by a slim margin, he failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote, meaning a runoff is now likely.
One of Georgia’s top election officials, Gabriel Sterling, wrote on Twitter “while county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the U.S. Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6.”
Libertarian Senate candidate Chase Oliver garnered about 2.1 percent of the vote. Oliver will be removed from the ballot if the race heads to runoff territory.
