(The Center Square) – Michigan’s race for U.S. Senate remains too close to call on election night.
Republican Mike Johnson led Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin 50.2% to 47% at around 11:45 p.m. Eastern, with 40% of votes counted.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday in most places across the state, with those in line at 8 allowed to complete the voting process.
FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast showed Slotkin “won” the seat 76 out of 100 times, while Rogers “won” the seat 24 out of 100 times. The current seat holder, Democrat Debbie Stabennow, will be vacating the position to retire, leaving open the possibility that Republicans could flip the seat.
Earlier in the night, Republican wins in Ohio and West Virginia put the party two seats ahead in the race for control of the U.S. Senate.
Republican businessman Bernie Moreno beat incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, improving Republican chances of taking back control of the Senate.
Moreno came out on top in the most expensive Senate race in the nation, which saw $536 million spent.
Republican Jim Justice won the West Virginia Senate race, giving the party its first gain of the night.
Michigan had more than 2.1 million absentee ballots returned and 1.2 ballots cast during early voting as of Tuesday morning. There are around 7.2 million active registered voters in Michigan.
Michigan’s total voter turnout for the 2020 election was about 5.6 million total voters.
The U.S. The Department of Justice deployed staff from its Civil Rights Division at six jurisdictions in Michigan to ensure poll compliance with federal voting rights laws, including at some polling locations in the cities of Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, and Warren.
