Control of the Senate remains a toss-up following the 2022 midterms. As of Friday evening, Democrats and Republicans had each secured 49 seats, with three races yet to be called, CBS News projects.
The Georgia race will go to a runoff in December between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, after neither cleared 50%. CBS News characterizes Nevada as a toss-up.
Alaska, where three candidates are on the ballot in a ranked-choice voting system, had not yet been called, but with the top two finishers both Republicans, CBS News projects it will stay in Republican hands.
On Friday evening, CBS News projected Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly will win reelection over Republican challenger Blake Masters.
In other battleground states, CBS News projected the races in Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina will go to Republicans, while Democrats will win in Colorado, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
In each of the Senate battlegrounds where CBS News has conducted exit polls, voters said control of the Senate was important to their vote. CBS News conducted statewide surveys in 11 key battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
In each of these states, voters had negative views of the nation’s economy.
In most of the Senate battleground states, the issue of inflation is outpacing abortion in terms of the importance of the issue to voters. But in Pennsylvania’s closely-watched race, where Democrat John Fetterman came out ahead of Dr. Mehmet Oz, early exit polling showed abortion outpaced inflation as a concern for voters.
Nearly three in four voters said they were dissatisfied about the country as they headed to the polls Tuesday, according to early exit polling. That includes almost a third who said they were angry. Almost three-quarters said the economy is bad, and nearly half of voters said their family’s finances are worse than they were two years ago.
Thirty-five Senate seats were up for grabs in total in the 2022 midterm elections, but under a third were expected to be close.
