It’s a closer race than expected
Markets aren’t doing a whole lot so far today as most investors are focusing their attention on the US midterms. Most projections heading into this week showed that Republicans were likely to easily take control of the House and arguably wrestle back control for the Senate as well. That hasn’t quite panned out in the early vote count at least.
They still look fairly likely to take a majority in the House (218 seats needed), with a projected lead of about 4 seats at the moment. However, the race for the Senate control looks more tightly contested as the Democrats took New Hampshire while Republicans at least did their job in North Carolina. It’s currently neck and neck as we move towards the remaining key states left to count.
Pennsylvania is a key battleground and that remains a toss-up with Fetterman (D) slightly in the lead at 49.3% against Dr. Oz (R) at 48.3%, with roughly 88% of expected votes counted.
The other two key states in which Republicans would be hoping to swing is Nevada and Georgia. The latter in particular is expected to head into a run-off election on 6 December. As such, if it goes down to the wire, we may not know who gains control of the Senate until early next month.