Four Senate and governor races remain uncalled in Alaska, Kansas and Mississippi

Democrats have secured control of the House and Senate for next year

Just four races for U.S. Senate and governor remained uncalled as of Thursday, with contests in Alaska, Kansas and Mississippi still separated by narrow margins as outstanding votes are counted, according to The Associated Press. The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner “only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap.”

The uncalled contests remain open even as the scale of Democrats’ midterm victory across the country comes into focus, ensuring the party will control the House and the Senate next year, according to the AP. In the House, 35 races in which party control of the seat is at stake had yet to be called.

In Mississippi’s Senate race, Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith grew to 1,145 votes with 96% of ballots counted, after standing at only a few dozen votes earlier in the tally. Several thousand provisional ballots are expected to be counted in the race, and the state has until Nov. 10 to resolve those ballots, the AP reported. The wire service said those votes will be decisive.

Mississippi counted about 5,700 provisional ballots in 2022, according to the AP. The state does not have an automatic recount process, but a challenger can seek a court order for one.

Alaska’s Senate contest between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola also remains uncalled. Peltola held a 637-vote lead over Sullivan with an estimated 74% of votes counted, at 48.2% to his 47.9%. Under Alaska law, if neither candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the contest goes to ranked-choice tabulation.

In the Alaska governor’s race, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins held a 20-percentage-point lead over Republican Bernadette Wilson, with 49.2% of the vote and an estimated 74% of ballots counted. Like the Senate contest, the governor’s election advances to another round if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.

In Kansas, Democrat Cindy Holscher’s 7,045-vote lead over Republican Ty Masterson amounted to less than 1 percentage point, with an estimated 99% of votes counted. The uncalled governor’s race comes after Democrat Adam Hamilton became the first member of his party to win a Senate seat in the state in nearly a century, according to the AP.

Holscher and Masterson both serve in the state Senate, where Masterson, the Republican, serves as its president.