Two incumbent Democrats are fighting to hold onto their Senate seats in races that are still toss-ups 14 days from Election Day.
Polls from the summer had shifted the Democrats’ midterm outlook with a surprisingly optimistic trend. But the tide turned again with the arrival of fall, and now, with two weeks until Election Day, Democrats’ chances of retaining control of the U.S. Senate have narrowed.
As of Monday, Democrats were still projected to win the Senate with a 56-in-100 chance, according to FiveThirtyEight. In mid-September, those chances were 71 in 100.
Currently, Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate. With Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote, Senate Democrats could continue to approve President Joe Biden’s nomination of judges in the next term of Congress—the only measure that doesn’t run the chance of being filibustered by Republicans.
However, if Republicans successfully take the Senate—and election forecasting shows increasingly easy paths to victory—it will be likely for the GOP to block any spending requests from Biden, to force Congress to reauthorize Social Security and Medicare every five years (rather than allowing the programs to continue automatically), and to bring a vote on a national abortion ban.
