WASHINGTON -- Just a handful of races for Senate and governor have not yet been called by The Associated Press as of 4 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. The narrow margins come as Democrats flipped seats in places Republicans comfortably won two years ago, securing control of both chambers of Congress. In the House, 59 races where party control of the seat is at stake have yet to be called. The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap. In Mississippi’s Senate race, Democrat Scott Colom has a lead of a few dozen votes over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Several thousand provisional ballots are expected to be counted in the race and the state has until Nov. 10 to resolve those ballots. Those votes will be decisive. In 2022, the state counted about 5,700 provisional ballots. Mississippi does not have an automatic recount process, but a challenger can seek a court order for one. The Associated Press has also not called Alaska’s Senate contest between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, who has a 626-vote lead over Sullivan with an estimated 74 per cent of votes counted. Under Alaska law, if neither candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote then it goes to ranked-choice tabulation. Also in Alaska, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has a 20 percentage point lead over Republican Bernadette Wilson in Alaska’s governor’s race. Kreiss-Tomkins had 49.2 per cent of the vote with an estimated 74 per cent of the ballots counted. Like the Senate contest, the governor’s election advances to another round if no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes. In Kansas, Democrat Cindy Holscher has less than a percentage point lead over Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race. Holscher’s 5,557 vote lead with an estimated 98 per cent of votes counted comes after Democrat Adam Hamilton became the first member of his party to win a Senate seat in nearly a century. Both Holscher and Masterson serve in the state Senate, where the Republican serves as its president. Mike Catalini, The Associated Press
