Top senate races, Manchin, Feinstein

The Democrats won a majority in the Senate in 2022. They will be lucky to keep those gains in 2024.

Republicans, who took over the House after the midterm elections in November, are hoping to repeat that success in the Senate next year. They have reason to hope: Democrats face a tough Senate map in 2024 that leaves them on the defensive in 23 of the cycle’s 34 races, including many seats deemed ripe for the Republican challenge.

In some of the most vulnerable contests, Democrats are trying to keep Senate seats in states that voted for the former President. Donald Trump on the president Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

The grim prospect has some Senate Democrats consider retirementeven after the caucus expanded to a 51-49 majority after a better-than-expected performance in midterm elections.

Here are some of the top Senate races to watch:

Manchin’s potential Republican challengers aren’t waiting for the incumbent to reveal his plans. Representative Alex Mooney, who is backed by Trump for a successful House race in 2022, has scored a 10 million USD pledged support from the Conservative Development Club for his Senate primaries.

Manchin’s campaign had $9.7 million in cash as of end-March, FEC records shows.

But Manchin’s biggest possible GOP opponent might be the Governor of West Virginia. Justice Jimis said to be the richest man in the state and one of the richest in the state like candidate for the Senate race.

Election analysts at Sabato’s Crystal Ball in January gave West Virginia a “”CHEAP tilt” ratings, making it the most vulnerable Democratic-held Senate seat in the cycle.

Manchin who won 2018 Senate race by about three percentage points, which has recently created some distance between him and his Democrats. He even vowed to vote to rejected The Inflation Reduction Act, a spending bill signed by Biden that Manchin helped pass, while complaining on Fox News that the administration had broken its promise.

Democrats as well as Republicans are aiming for the Arizona seat held by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party at the end of 2022 to become a independence.

The move from Sinema, who continues to caucus with Democrats, allows her to bypass a potentially bitter Senate primary fight and compete head-to-head in the general election.

But this move does not guarantee her a path to victory in the state, which is considered a throw up and a prime takeover opportunity. Sinema has yet to announce whether she will run for re-election in 2024.

Once considered a progressive Democrat, Sinema has taken a moderate tack in recent years. She was criticized by some in her former party because of her vote against the minimum wage increase and she Opposition to change the filibuster.

Now she faces a potential challenge from her left in the Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallegowho reported offended Sinema while scrambling for her job.

Republican sheriff sheep mark also jumped into the race. He could go head to head in a GOP primary with Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who lost for Democrat Katie Hobbs in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race and is currently considering running for the Senate.

If Sinema runs, the race for the Arizona Senate could turn into a trilogy. It remains unclear who will have the advantage in the swing state, which Biden won over Trump in 2020 by less than a percentage point.

Although Sinema’s independent trademark may attract appeal in a state where bipartisan registration is competed by “Other,” polls show the senator still unpopular.

The Tester’s Chair is considered a crystal ball by Sabato, despite Cook’s Political Report speak chair in favor of Democrats.

of the tester decision Running for re-election is welcome news for Democrats, who would otherwise lose their incumbent advantage in an all-red state.

But he could still face a formidable threat from the Republican Party’s ultimate opponent. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Representative Matt Rosendale and Governor Greg Gianforte have eye as possible candidates.

But the 2024 Ohio Senate race is currently being treated as a run, as Republicans have launched significant benefits in the state during the last two election cycles.

Trump won the Buckeye State by more than eight points in 2020 and the GOP candidates he endorsed, including the current Sen. JD Vance and Governor Mike DeWine, won the midterm elections.

Matt Dolan, state senator and part owner of the Cleveland Guardians baseball team who competed in the 2022 Republican Senate primaries, is running for Brown’s seat in 2024. Bernie Moreno, another Republican candidate for the Senate seat, drew attention when he suggested that there should be indemnify to descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers who “died to save Negro lives.”

Senator Debbie Stabenow’s unexpected decision not seeking a fifth term erased the Democratic incumbent’s advantage over the chair, with no clear successor lined up to run for office at the time.

Democrats scored big wins in Michigan in the 2022 midterm elections, taking control of the state’s House of Representatives and Senate, and securing another term for Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Republicans Michael Hoover and Nikki Snyder have so far entered the race for Stabenow’s Senate seat.

On the Democratic side, Representative Elissa Slotkin, who won a tough re-election battle in the House in the middle of the term, is considered the leading candidate for the seat. Slotkin is approved in 2022 by former Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who loudly criticized Trump after the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill caused a rift with her party leadership as well as the rest of the party. great rank and profile of this party in the House of Representatives.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Cook’s Political Report both say the race for the Michigan Senate is in favor of the Democrats.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who held the seat for three decades, at 89 announced she would retire at the end of her current term.

At the time, many Democrats launched their campaigns for her work. The list of candidates announced so far includes Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie the porter And Barbara Leewith more potential along the way.

Feinstein, the oldest member of the US Senate, took a month-long leave in the spring due to health problems. Concerns about Feinstein’s ability to take office quickly became a point of contention among Democrats, with some openly calling for the senior senator to immediately resignation and others protect her. Feinstein’s absence from the Senate Judiciary Committee has slow down Democrats’ efforts to promote Biden’s judicial candidacy.

trumpet narrowly defeat in Nevada to Biden in 2020 and his handpicked Republican candidate Adam Laxalt lost an even closer race for the seat of Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022.

Now the state’s other Democratic senator, Jacky Rosen, is search re-elected in 2024. So far, her list of potential Republican challengers seems small.

Laxalt’s name has become a potential 2024 Senate nominee, but the former Nevada attorney general in April signed on to help lead a super PAC that encourages Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024 .