(LifeSiteNews) – Democrats are projected to keep their majority in the Senate after holding key seats in Nevada and Arizona.
With 98 percent of the vote counted, Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Mastro leads Republican challenger Adam Laxalt by nearly 7,000 votes. Laxalt initially led Cortez Mastro by a large margin, but mail ballots counted since Election Day broke decisively for the Democrat. The remaining votes are mostly mail ballots.
In Arizona, Republican Blake Masters trails Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by five percentage points and more than 100,000 votes with 93 percent of ballots counted.
Neither Laxalt and Masters have conceded. Master said Saturday that “we are going to make sure that every legal vote is counted.”
“If, at the end, Senator Kelly has more of them than I do, then I will congratulate him on a hard-fought victory. But voters decide, not the media,” he added.
Laxalt is expected to ask for a recount.
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Republicans have criticized the slow, multi-day vote count in both Nevada and Arizona and raised concerns about election integrity. The largest county in Arizona reported “issues” with vote tabulation machines on Election Day.
As of Monday morning, the Arizona governor’s race remains uncalled, with more than 160,000 ballots uncounted. Democrat Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state, who oversaw the election process, leads Republican Kari Lake by around 25,000 votes. In Nevada, the Republican candidate for governor, Joe Lombardo, defeated Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.
Control of the Senate allows Democrats to continue rubber-stamping Joe Biden’s radical appointments to the executive branch and the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.
Senate Democrats, often aided by Republicans, have so far confirmed a record-breaking 84 judges nominated by Biden to lifetime positions on the federal bench.
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Democrats flipped a GOP-held Senate seat in Pennsylvania this year after celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, lost to Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
Republicans are poised to regain control of the House, however, which would allow them to block Biden’s legislative agenda and conduct investigations into his administration.