Six terms senator loses in Alaska
Alaska’s Republican Senator Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term in office after a knife-edge race against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
The Democratic candidate led the Senate’s longest-serving Republican by 3,724 after Tuesday’s count, with only 2,500 overseas votes to be tallied.
If the Democrats win two more Senate seats they would be able to prevent the Republicans from blocking legislation.
Minnesota’s vote is due to be recounted while Georgia will hold a run-off vote.
The result means the balance of power in the Senate now favours the Democrats, says the BBC’s Jonathan Beale in Washington.
With 58 of the 100 seats, they are now just two short of the 60 needed to overcome filibusters – a tactic used by the Senate minority to prevent legislation from coming to a vote.