Control of the U.S. Senate turned fully toward Georgia on Wednesday, when Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan was reelected to his seat.
Sullivan’s victory over Democrat Al Gross gives Republicans 50 Senate seats to Democrats' 48. Both of Georgia’s Senate seats will be decided in a January runoff, and Republicans need only one of those seats to keep their majority.
On Tuesday, North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis won reelection to his North Carolina Senate seat, defeating Democrat Cal Cunningham.
President Donald Trump also won Alaska’s three electoral votes, bringing his total up to 217.
Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election Nov. 7 after several major media outlets projected him to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump won those states in 2016.
Biden currently has 290 electoral votes. On Wednesday, his popular vote total surpassed 5 million more than Trump.
The new numbers, reported by The Associated Press, show Biden with 76,998,462 votes to Trump’s 71,927,381. Other unspecified candidates hold 2% of the vote, in the AP’s latest calculations.
Biden is pushing forward with the business of preparing to become America’s 46th president. Trump and Biden marked Veterans Day, with Trump participating in a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia, and Biden visiting the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia.
Trump has yet to concede the election and is continuing to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. He has also blocked Biden from receiving intelligence briefings and has withheld federal funding intended to help facilitate the transfer of power.
Trump’s resistance, backed by senior Republicans in Washington and across the country, could also prevent background investigations and security clearances for prospective Biden staff and access to federal agencies to discuss transition planning.
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