Editing Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (section)

===2019–2021 election cycle===

First-term Senator [[Catherine Cortez Masto]] of Nevada chaired the DSCC for the [[2020 United States Senate elections|2019–2020 election cycle]], the first Latina to do so. Before the 2020 elections, Democrats held 47 seats, while Republicans held 53. In order to have gained a majority, Democrats would have needed to win at least 4 seats, or 3 seats and the presidency. If they won the presidency, Democrats would have been able to gain a majority with 48 seats (assuming the two Independents continued to caucus with them) because, in event of a tie vote, the Vice President becomes the tie-breaker.

Democrats needed to defend 12 seats this cycle, with only 2 in states Donald Trump won, Alabama and Michigan. In Alabama, Senator [[Doug Jones (politician)|Doug Jones]] had only managed to win due to an extremely flawed candidate in ([[Roy Moore]]), and was expected to lose due to the strong Republican lean there, which he did. In Michigan, Senator [[Gary Peters]] faced a very strong Republican candidate, businessman [[John E. James|John James]], but was nevertheless expected to win.

Republicans, on the other hand, needed to defend 21 seats, along with 2 seats up for special elections. Only 2 seats were in states that Democrats won in 2016, Maine and Colorado. Colorado was seen as the most likely flip for the Democrats, due to incumbent Senator [[Cory Gardner]] tying himself heavily to Trump in a state he had lost by 4.5 points in 2016, and expected to lose by a much larger margin this cycle. Popular former Governor [[John Hickenlooper]] was the Democratic nominee. In Maine, popular incumbent [[Susan Collins]] had won by a landslide in 2014, but was seen as weakened by her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice [[Brett Kavanaugh]] and her vote to acquit Trump during his first impeachment trial. This was seen as the third most likely flip for the Democrats, after Arizona.

Republicans needed to defend seats in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Iowa. Seats in South Carolina, Kansas, Montana, and Alaska became surprisingly competitive, compared to their usual Republican lean. Arizona was seen as the second most likely flip for the Democrats, as it was a key swing state, along with the incumbent Senator [[Martha McSally]] losing to [[Kyrsten Sinema]] for the other senate seat two years earlier, and a strong challenger, former astronaut [[Mark Kelly]]. North Carolina was seen as a highly likely flip, until the Democratic nominee, [[Cal Cunningham]], got involved in a sex scandal that significantly hurt his candidacy. Democrats failed to flip seats in North Carolina, possibly due to the scandal, Iowa, due to Trump's over performance there, Maine, due to an underestimation of Collins' popularity and continued ticket splitting, and the seats that had unexpectedly appeared competitive maintaining their partisan lean.

Democrats initially only flipped the seats in Arizona and Colorado, leaving the balance of power at 52–48. However, Democrats also defeated [[Donald Trump]], meaning there would be a Democratic vice president, and the two seats in Georgia went to runoffs because no candidate received a majority of the vote in either election. The [[2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia|runoffs]] were held on January 5, 2021. Democrats flipped both seats, allowing them to take control of the Senate, since Vice President [[Kamala Harris]] would cast the tie-breaking vote.