Mississippi and Alaska Senate races stay too close to call, with Democrats ahead in both

Two U.S. Senate races were still uncalled on Thursday, Nov. 5, two days after the midterms. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom was ahead of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 49.0% to 48.9% with 95.6% of the vote in. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan 48.2% to 47.9% with 74.1% in. Those figures come from NBC News' Senate results page, stamped 1:02 p.m. ET, which carries Associated Press data and NBC Decision Desk projections. We do not call races, and counts change as ballots are added.

The Times and the Daily News framed it the same way: The New York Times headlined that both races "remain too close to call," and the New York Daily News reported Democrats leading narrowly in each. Yahoo News, summarizing USA Today, reported that results in the two states "could take days or even weeks to be finalized."

What is already settled, and what is not

NBC projects that Democrats win Senate control, with 54 Democratic seats to 44 Republican seats, after flipping seven. The two uncalled races hold the remaining two seats. If Democrats won both, the chamber would be 56-44. If Republicans held both, it would be 54-46. Control does not depend on either race, so the open question is the size of the majority, which matters for how many Republican defections a Democratic-led Senate would need on nominations and legislation.

Why Alaska can take weeks

Alaska is the slower of the two. With about a quarter of the vote still outstanding and neither candidate above 50%, the count is not close to finished. Our earlier reporting covered the legal backdrop: the Justice Department sued over a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot, and a federal judge later rejected the DOJ's bid to delay certification of Alaska's results (our October 23 report; November 1 update). CNBC's live blog also reported that Senate Republicans launched a National Republican Senatorial Committee "recount fund" for Alaska before Election Day. We did not find an official Alaska certification date on a page we could read today, so we are not stating one.

Mississippi: a margin of 0.1 point

In Mississippi, the gap between the candidates is about a tenth of a percentage point with roughly 4% of the vote still to be counted. We could not read Mississippi's own results pages or its recount rules today, so we are not describing how a recount would work. Check the Secretary of State's site for official totals.

What it means for markets and business owners

Markets have already moved on the broad result. Yahoo's roundup, citing CBS, said the Dow posted its biggest gain of the year on Wednesday. Our own chart data shows the S&P 500 at 7,369.2 on Nov. 5, still 5.8% below its Oct. 6 peak, so the post-election rally has not erased the earlier decline.

The two seats are unlikely to change the market read, since the control question is answered. What a 54-seat versus 56-seat majority changes is the margin for error on confirmations and on any bill needing 60 votes, which is where tariff, tax and regulatory fights will play out for small businesses in 2027. Until the counts finish, treat any claim of a winner from a campaign as just that, a claim, and wait for the AP and the states.

What to watch: the next Alaska vote updates as mail and absentee ballots are added, any AP call in Mississippi, and official certification from each state.

Sources: NBC News Senate results (AP data, NBC News Decision Desk), Yahoo News/USA Today, The New York Times and New York Daily News (headlines only), CNBC, Yahoo Finance market data. Results are unofficial and change. This is market information, not investment advice.