WASHINGTON— Republicans notched a crucial win in the Senate majority race on Tuesday; Jim Justice easily settled into the seat in West Virginia following the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin III, leaving the chamber deadlocked with a 50-50 split for now.

Justice, the state governor who often appears with his English bulldog Babydog, was expected to serve Republicans trying to wrest control from Democrats. Republican Donald Trump is popular in the state, and Manchin, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent, has refused to run for another term.

West Virginia is the first of many states where Democrats see their tenuous hold in the legislature at serious risk. In a 50-50 split, the majority goes to the party in the White House because the vice president can cast tie-breaking votes. We have more races ahead of us.

With control of Congress at stake, the always bitter contests for the House and Senate will determine which party has the majority and the authority to support or block a president’s agenda, or whether the White House faces a divided Capitol Hill.

After all, just a handful of seats, or even just one seat, could upset the balance in both compartments.

Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s late challenge to Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida failed. Scott, who poured millions of dollars of his own fortune into the race, was re-elected.

Democrat Lisa Blunt became the third Black woman elected to the Senate by winning an open seat in Rochester, Delaware.

She could be joined by another Black woman, Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat who is in a tight race with the state’s Republican former governor, Larry Hogan. Never before have two Black women served together in the Senate at the same time.

And in New Jersey, Andy Kim became the first Korean American elected to the Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw. The seat opened when Democrat Robert Menendez resigned this year following his federal conviction on bribery charges.

In addition to the first competition, important competitions are also played presidential election Since the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, but also in unexpected corners of the country in the wake of one of the most chaotic congressional hearings of modern times.

Voters said the economy and immigration were the most important issues facing the country, but the future of democracy was also a primary motivation for many Americans to vote in the presidential election.

AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found a country mired in negativity, with Americans facing a stark choice between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Congress plays a role in continuing America’s tradition of peaceful transfers of presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent his mob of supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, and many Republicans in Congress voted to block the election of President Biden. Congress will be asked to certify the results of the 2025 presidential election.

The top House races focus on New York and California, where Democrats are trying to retake some of the roughly 10 seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years with star lawmakers who helped bring the party to power.

Other House races are scattered throughout the country, a sign of how narrow the field has become. Only a few dozen seats are seriously challenged; Some of the most contested seats are in Maine; the “blue dot” around Omaha, Neb.; and in Alaska.

Vote counting could extend into Tuesday in some races.

“We’re within striking distance of taking back the House,” New York House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would make history as the first black speaker if his party wins control, recently told The Associated Press. The campaign is moving quickly in Southern California.

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has approached Trump, predicts that he will “increase” the Republican majority. He took over after Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield was fired from the speaker’s office.

Billions of dollars have been spent by parties and outside groups in the narrow battleground for both the 435-member House and the 100-member Senate.

Republicans have put Senate Democrats on the defensive in a wide map of many states favoring the GOP, with little control over the House.

In Ohio, Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, is trying to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Approximately $400 million was spent on the race.

One of the most watched Senate races in Montana may be among the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a popular three-term senator and “dirt farmer,” is fighting for his political career against Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a former NAVY Seal who has made derogatory comments about Native Americans, a key Western constituency. situation.

Beyond the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republicans are banking on Trump as they try to unseat three incumbent Democratic senators.

Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has spent his career focused on gaining and maintaining majority power, but other opportunities for Republicans are shifting toward long shots.

In the southwestern states, Arizona’s firebrand Republican Kari Lake is running against Democrat Ruben Gallego in the seat opened by the retirement of independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. In Nevada, Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen is holding out against new Republican Sam Brown.

Democrats have stepped up their challenges to a pair of Republican senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Scott of Florida — in states where reproductive rights are a focus in the wake of the attack. Supreme Court decision to roll back access to abortion. Cruz faces Democrat Colin Allred, the Dallas-area congressman.

What started as a lackluster race for control of Congress instantly transformed as Harris replaced Biden in the top spot, energizing Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteers; lawmakers said 2008 reminded them of the Obama-era euphoria.

House candidate Sarah McBride, a Delaware state lawmaker who is close to the Biden family, is preparing to become the first transgender person to appear in Congress.

The consequences of redistricting also change the balance of power within the House of Representatives, as states redraw their maps for congressional districts; Republicans are poised to take several seats from Democrats in North Carolina, with Democrats picking up a second black-majority Republican-dominated seat. Alabama

While lawmakers in the House of Representatives appear before voters every two years, senators serve longer terms of six years.

If the two chambers do indeed engage in reverse party control, which is possible, it would be rare.

Records show that if Democrats take the House of Representatives and Republicans take the Senate, the halls of Congress will turn to opposing political parties for the first time.

Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnush Amiri contributed to this report.