Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., attends a news conference after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 1, 2022.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Republicans are expected to regain majority control of the U.S. Senate in 2025, according to NBC News.
Democrats entered Tuesday’s elections with 47 seats out of 100 in the Senate. But the four independents in the chamber caucus with Democrats, giving the party a one-seat majority.
Republicans arguably faced an easier path to regaining a Senate majority this election cycle, and are set to have at least 51 seats in the chamber in January, when members of Congress are sworn in.
The GOP was defending just 11 seats where candidates were seeking reelection, compared with 23 seats that Democrats were trying to retain.
In Ohio, Republican nominee Bernie Moreno was projected by NBC News to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, boosting the GOP effort.
Another pickup for Republicans came in West Virginia, where Gov. Jim Justice cruised to victory in the race to replace Sen. Joe Manchin, who did not seek reelection to his seat, to which he had been elected a Democrat. Manchin quit the party in May.
In Nebraska, incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer won re-election.
A total of more than $1 billion was expected to be spent by Election Day on winning just three of the seats at stake, in Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.