A mother holds her 11-month-old son while marking her ballot at a polling centre in the South Valley area of Albuquerque on Tuesday. AP

Razor-thin margins around the country left control of Congress still undetermined on Wednesday, but Democrats showed surprising strength in the midterm election, topping Republicans in a series of competitive races and defying expectations that high inflation and President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings would drag his party to key defeats.

In the most heartening news for Democrats, John Fetterman flipped Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Senate seat that's key to the party’s hopes of maintaining control of the chamber. It was too early to call critical Senate seats in Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona that could determine the majority.

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In the House, Democrats kept seats in districts from Virginia to Kansas to Rhode Island, while many districts in states like New York and California had not been called.

Democrats also were successful in governors’ races, winning in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - battlegrounds critical to Biden’s 2020 win over Donald Trump.

But Republicans held on to governors’ mansions in Florida, Texas and Georgia, another battleground state Biden narrowly won two years ago.

Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump

Votes were still being counted across the country, meaning Republicans could still emerge with control of both chambers of Congress.

But there was no strong GOP surge, uplifting for Democrats who had braced for sweeping losses - and raised questions about the size of Republicans’ governing majority if they win the House.

A woman votes with her sons at the Arlee Senior Citizen Centre on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee. AP

The House and Senate races will determine the future of Biden’s agenda and serve as a referendum on his administration as the nation reels from record-high inflation and concerns over the direction of the country.

Republican control of the House would likely trigger a spate of investigations into Biden and his family, while a GOP Senate takeover would hobble the president's ability to make judicial appointments.

Democrats faced historic headwinds. The party in power almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm elections, but Democrats bet that anger from the Supreme Court’s decision to gut abortion rights might energize their voters to buck historical trends.

Associated Press