The Associated Press has called Nebraska's Senate race for Republican Pete Ricketts, defeating independent Dan Osborn 356,592 votes to 312,117. Ricketts, a former Nebraska governor, was appointed to the seat in January 2023 after Ben Sasse resigned, won the 2024 special election to keep it, and has now won a full term. Osborn, the independent steamfitter who ran him close in 2024, challenged him again and fell short a second time. Ricketts' election-night message was blunt: “Tonight, Nebraska was the wall against socialism.”
In Oregon, the AP called the governor's race for Democrat Tina Kotek, defeating Republican Christine Drazan 787,787 to 689,577 in the count at call time. It was a rematch of their close 2022 contest, and the result extends Democratic control of Oregon for another four years — Republicans had hoped to notch a historic upset. Kotek, who takes a second term, posted: “Thank you, Oregon. I'm honored to keep serving you. Let's get back to work.”
Mississippi's Senate race is the one that still will not end. It remains too early to call, with Democrat Scott Colom leading Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 43 votes — 462,821 to 462,778 — with 99.83 percent of the vote reported. Thousands of affidavit ballots still have to be processed, a count that could take up to five days, and Mississippi's Senate race is decided by plurality: whoever finishes with the most votes takes the seat, with no runoff. Independent Ty Pinkins holds 19,934 votes in third.
For voters, the three races show how much single seats now carry. Nebraska's hold keeps a Republican vote in a Senate the Democrats will run 51-49. Oregon families get four more years of Kotek's government rather than the change Drazan promised. And in Mississippi, a United States Senate seat is hanging on a margin smaller than a high-school auditorium — every affidavit ballot processed this week is a lawful vote that helps decide it.
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