US election: Democrats’ Senate hopes boosted as races head to January run-offs

Majority in the upper-house could embolden a Joe Biden presidency or stifle Donald Trump’s second term

Democratic US Senate candidate Reverend Raphael Warnock gives a supporter a thumbs up at a campaign event
Democratic candidate for the Senate Reverend Raphael Warnock gives a thumbs-up at a campaign event
(Image credit: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

As the nervous wait continues for the few remaining swing states to announce the winner of the presidential election, two close races in Georgia have given the Democrats hope of wrenching control of the Senate from Republicans.

One of the tight Senate races is definitely heading to a run-off, while a second is too close to call a winner. And a further two races, in North Carolina and Alaska, also remain undecided.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.