The partial renewal of the Senate (34 seats out of 100) offered the Republican Party the opportunity to regain the majority there. In fact, a significant number of Democratic incumbents were in red strongholds. Encouraged by the impressive mobilization that Donald Trump benefited from for the presidential elections, victory was achieved. The first expected success was recorded very early in the afternoon of November 5 in West Virginia.
The governor, Jim Justice, a former Democrat who had made his fortune in mining, won without a fight the seat long held by one of his Democratic predecessors, Joe Manchin. Announcing a year ago his intention not to run again, the latter offered a seat to the conservatives on a platter in a solidly republican state, where he had managed to survive thanks to his party’s iconoclastic positions, particularly on energy issues. The obtaining of the seat of this elected, who completes his term as an independent, immediately placed the two parties tied, with 50 senators each, but the Republican Party had many other seats on its list occupied by Democrats.
In Ohio, Senator JD Vance’s state, Vice President-elect Sherrod Brown, was the first to bite the dust. The latter had resisted well in 2018 in this bastion conquered once again by Donald Trump on November 5, as in 2020 and 2016. However, its anchorage and the memory of the referendum on the protection of abortion won by the Democrats in 2023 were of no use. helps in the face of the show of Republican strength enjoyed by Bernie Moreno, who will be the first Hispanic to represent Ohio in the Senate.
A solid majority
The second struggling Democrat, Jon Tester, senator from a state, Montana, where Donald Trump had won by more than fifteen points in 2020, and seventeen points this year, was clearly behind in the middle of the night as the count continued. being partial. . The same was true for two other Democratic incumbents, by narrower margins, in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate for a seat vacated by a Democrat in Michigan was also slightly ahead. If all these States gave victory to the members of the Grand Old Party, the latter could have a solid majority, strong enough to resist the partial renewal of 2026, which is less favorable to it.
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