2026 Election: Could power shift in the Senate?

Welcome back, everybody. I'm Melissa Wilson. We are closely talking about what happens with the election today. Could power shift in the Senate? We are trying to look at all of the sides of this for you. So right now, we have our political guru, Lena DeFlorius. She's in studio today because she is going to be breaking down what all this means. And this is what I like about Lena. She can make it where it's super easy for us to understand and get. So let's go to her her live right now. She's in Studio A to break it all down for you. Lina, I see you got You've got all your graphics ready for us. There you go. Thank you so much for that compliment. I should have worn my glasses. Lena's little classroom. Come on in. All right, so there's going to be a lot of talk. Four hours, four days, four weeks, right? So I'm going to break down kind of the basics of what you need to be looking out for and what's happening today. So we're talking about the Senate. This is the big one that everyone is talking about. It is the upper chamber of Congress. Now remember, there are 100 seats. Every state gets two. It doesn't matter the size of the state, the population of the state. Every state has an equal amount of power in the Senate. So let's take little teeny tiny Rhode Island, right? And then big old Alaska. They both get two senators, Texas, Ohio, you can fit six Ohio's in the state of Texas. Doesn't matter, Texas gets two senators and Ohio gets two senators. So 100 seats here, but not all of them are on the ballot. Now, right now, Republicans have control. They have 52 seats, which means they basically control the chamber, right? And then you have 47 Democrats. That's why Democrats are looking to gain some seats and Republicans are looking to hold on to what they've got. Now, because not all 100 are on the ballot, you have to break it down. into what it's going to look like tonight. What's on the ballot? Now, Democrats are looking for a net gain of four seats. Republicans can afford to lose three and still be in control. Now, there is a possibility and a situation where the Senate is split 50-50. It happened before, if you remember when Biden was in office, it was a 50-50 split. In that case, it would be the vice president who is the tiebreaker, because the vice president of the country is the president of the Senate. So Democrats looking for four, but Possibly five, depending on Pennsylvania Senator Fetterman, because he has been caucusing with Republicans, he's expressed a lot of concern with Democrats. If that's the case, Democrats are going to need a net gain of five. Now, why do I say net gain? That's because maybe Republicans lose a seat, but Democrats also lose a seat. That doesn't change any of the numbers here. So they want a net gain with all the changes. Democrats want to come away with four more seats than they have right now, so they don't end up with that 50-50 split. Because if it's 50-50, Vice President Vance will come in and he will more than likely be voting with Republicans. Now, as the night goes on, here's a breakdown of the numbers. Remember, currently, Democrats have 47 seats, Republicans have 53. Democrats are looking to pick up a net gain of four, and Republicans can afford to lose three and still be in control. Now, these big bubbles here is what I want you to look at. So 35 seats are on the ballot today. That's because they rotate. There's a third of the Senate seats each election that you that you will find on your ballot. Now, of the 35, 22 of them are Republicans, so Republicans have nearly twice as many seats as Democrats that are on the ballot. That means that they have more seats that are in jeopardy, and that's when you're starting to see some of the states be toss-ups. And Texas is a toss-up state, which is something that we have not seen for a very long time. Now, if Allred were to win the Senate race tonight, this will be the first time that Texas is sending a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988, Melissa, a very long time. Some of our voters weren't even born then. Oh, my goodness. That's a wake up call. And I tell you what, I just learned a lot in Lena's classroom. So I know you're going to be keeping that information going for us all day. And you're going to be here at night. So everybody's used to getting up with you at four in the morning now, 4 p.m. on, right? Until the numbers are in. Yeah. So noon to midnight today. And then I'll see you tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. So please don't be surprised or send me messages if you see me in the same clothes. I hope you get a little nap in between.