Republicans win Senate control. What that means for President-elect Trump

WASHINGTON – Republicans have won control of the Senate, a major boost for President-elect Donald Trump to enact his agenda, confirm his Cabinet officials and secure lifetime appointments for federal judges, including any potential openings on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ultimately, Trump's legislative ambitions on issues including taxes, health care and energy will have a much better chance if Republicans can also hold on to their majority in the U.S. House, which as of early Thursday afternoon remains uncertain with 36 races still without a called winner.

Odds have favored the GOP this entire election cycle, with all of the most competitive races in states represented by vulnerable Democratic senators. The retirement of Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia gave Republicans one clear pick-up in a ruby-red state.

Republicans only needed to win one more race to retake control of the chamber that is currently controlled 51-49 by Democrats. They managed to do that on Election Day – and still could flip one or more seats to expand their majority.

What's already clear from the 2024 election results is that the Senate will soon have a new Republican majority leader for the first time in a decade.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has led his fellow Republicans since 2007, plans to step down from leadership at the end of the year. Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida are running to succeed him. The leadership election is likely to happen as soon as next week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to become the minority leader.

The Senate is solely responsible for confirming Cabinet nominees and judges, from federal district courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where four of the nine justices will soon be in their 70s.

Republicans have been on offense in the 2024 election cycle, defending 11 seats compared with 23 for Democrats.

Three-term incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, lost to GOP candidate Bernie Moreno. Moreno owns a network of car dealerships and had previously run in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio in 2022.

But it was the defeat of independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska that clinched the deal for Republicans. Fischer ended up beating Osborn by 8 points, despite last-minute fears that Osborn could be a threat to the incumbent Republican.

All eyes heading into Election Day were also on Montana, where Republican businessman and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester by 8 points. Trump won that state by 20 points Tuesday, and it has been leaning increasingly Republican in recent years.

And Republicans had picked up yet another seat by Thursday, when the Associated Press declared Republican businessman David McCormick the winner in the Pennsylvania Senate race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. He won by 0.5 points.

Still in the air, but leaning toward the Democrats, are the Senate races in Arizona and Nevada.

In Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego holds a 2 percentage point lead over Republican former TV broadcaster Kari Lake, with nearly 70 percent of the vote counted as of 5:30 p.m. EST Thursday.

In Nevada, incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen leads Republican Sam Brown, a former Army captain, by 1 percentage point with 90 percent of the vote counted as of 5:30 PM EST Thursday.

Democrats have gotten a couple tiny bits of good news in defending two battleground seats.

In Wisconsin, two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin beat Eric Hovde, a businessman who owns a real estate development company and Sunwest Bank, by 0.9 percentage points. Hovde also ran in the state's GOP Senate primary in 2012.

In Michigan, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA analyst, defeated former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, another former House member who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, by 0.3 percentage points.

Democrats also won the Maryland Senate race, where Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland defeated former Gov. Larry Hogan. That race was expected to lean Democratic but was made competitive by Hogan, a moderate Republican with widespread name recognition in the state.

For their part, Republicans also defended two GOP-held seats that Democrats targeted in a last-minute push as the pre-election polls signaled Tester was unlikely to win in Montana. Ultimately, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, won a third term by beating Democratic Rep. Collin Allred in the Lone Star State while Sen. Rick Scott prevailed over Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for a second term in the Sunshine State.

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(This story has been updated with more information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republicans win Senate control: What that means for Trump