President Donald J. Trump and former vice president Joseph R. Biden each failed to reach the key 270 electoral-vote threshold from the states that had reported decisive results by midnight on Election Day. The process to determine the winner in several states is ongoing, and we may not know who will be inaugurated in January for a few more days.

President Trump won key states like Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas, but Biden held him off in states like Wisconsin and Minnesota. Other states whose electoral votes have yet to be allocated at the time of this writing include Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Congressional Outlook

In January, a new Congress will be sworn in. While several House and Senate races have not yet been called, it appears that Congress will remain divided in 2021. The House majority will remain in Democrats’ hands, and the Senate will likely continue to be held by Republicans (although, at the time of this writing, five races, one of which will proceed to a runoff, remain undetermined).

While it is still possible for Democrats to take control of the Senate, it is increasingly unlikely. Democrats picked up a seat in Colorado with former governor John Hickenlooper defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Cory Gardner. Offsetting that Democratic gain was the victory of Republican Tommy Tuberville over incumbent Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama. Several other Republican incumbents won races in Maine, Iowa Montana, and Texas. The outcomes of other closely watched Senate races, like those in North Carolina and Michigan, have not been determined at the time of this writing.

The special Senate election in Georgia, with its crowded field of candidates, will go to a two-candidate runoff after no one received more than 50 percent of the votes cast. Incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler will face Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock on Jan. 5.

Democrats have likely kept control of the U.S. House, where all 435 members were up for reelection, though the final makeup of the chamber remains unclear as of this writing, with dozens of races yet to be called.

A major development in the House was the defeat of longtime Minnesota Democratic Representative Collin Peterson, who serves as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. His loss to Republican former Lieutenant Governor Michelle Fischbach leaves a vacuum in the leadership of the House Agriculture committee and removes a key champion of the federal crop insurance program in Congress.  

PIA National will update the blog with additional election results and analysis in the coming days as new information becomes available.