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ABC News
ABC News
National

US midterm election results: Republicans close to securing House majority, amid a tight battle for the Senate

Control of Congress still hangs in the balance, more than two days after the 2022 US midterm elections.

Here's the current state of play:

  • Republicans are edging closer to securing a majority in the House of Representatives, after Democrats staved off an anticipated "red wave" of Republican gains
  • The Senate is still neck and neck between the two parties
  • The remaining undecided Senate races include Alaska, Nevada and Arizona
  • Exactly who will win in Alaska's Senate contest isn't clear, but it will be a Republican, with Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka and incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in a tight race, with neither on track to win a majority. It means the race will proceed to ranked choice voting later this month
  • In Georgia, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will face a runoff in December after neither reached a majority. A runoff means they run the election again but with just two people in the race
  • Abortion rights supporters have won in five states where access was on the ballot, in Michigan, California, VermontKentucky and Montana.

House overall

Senate overall

Undecided senate races

Abortion and reproductive rights

Abortion rights supporters won in the four states where access was on the ballot, enshrining it into the state constitutions in blue California and Vermont, battleground Michigan, and deep-red Kentucky.

California already had passed several measures aimed at easing access to abortion and set aside millions of taxpayer dollars to help pay for some out-of-state abortion travel.

However, voters have now approved language that would explicitly guarantee access to abortion and contraception in the state's constitution.

In Vermont, the reproductive-rights question came after a law was passed in 2019, guaranteeing reproductive rights, including becoming pregnant and having access to birth control.

Supporters with the Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee said the overturning of Roe v Wade meant state-level protections were "vital to safeguarding access to reproductive health care".

In Michigan, supporters of the push to protect abortion rights collected more signatures than any other ballot initiative in state history to get it before the voters.

It puts a definitive end to a 1931 ban on abortion that had been blocked in court but could have been revived.

Kentucky’s election outcome doesn't lift its ban, which does not include exceptions for rape and incest, but it means a legal battle over the law will keep playing out.

The ban currently faces a legal challenge before that state's Supreme Court, and the amendment's rejection leaves open the possibility that the court could declare abortion a state right.

In Montana, abortion rights supporters secured another win as voters rejected a ballot measure that would have forced medical workers to intercede in the rare case of a baby born after an attempted abortion.

ABC/AP

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