US Sen. Steve Daines of Montana won re-appointment by turning around a test mounted by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, as per a News projection early Wednesday morning.
Daines’ informal triumph made him the third of seven Republican legislators who scored triumphs in races considered shots in the dark, diminishing the chances that Democrats will pick up the four seats they have to assume responsibility for the upper office of Congress.
The GOP has a 53-47 edge in the Senate over Democrats, whose positions are helped by two Independents — Bernis Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine — who vote with them.