US Election Like White House race, Senate battle tightens in last days

Last week, it was looking likely that Democrats would ride Hillary Clinton's coattails on November 8 and reclaim the Senate.

As the US presidential race enters its frantic final 72 hours, a battle for Congress is also coming down to the wire, with the fate of the Senate teetering on a knife's edge.

Who runs the two chambers -- and the legislation introduced there -- is crucial, as bills can easily get stuck, particularly if the leadership does not belong to the same party as the president.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are currently under Republican control.

Last week, it was looking likely that Democrats would ride Hillary Clinton's coattails on November 8 and reclaim the Senate.

But then FBI Director James Comey entered the fray, and all bets are off.

Comey told congressional leaders on October 28 that the bureau, having discovered a fresh batch of emails that might be pertinent to an earlier probe of Clinton's private email server, was taking another look into the case.

Suddenly, national polls tightened, and congressional Republicans in tough re-election battles gleefully pounced on the news to remind voters of the importance of securing a check against a possible Clinton presidency.

Republicans enjoy a strong 59-seat majority in the 435-member House of Representatives, and most analysts say it would take a so-called 'wave election' -- when one party makes major gains in Congress -- for Democrats to flip the 30 seats needed to retake control.

"House generic polling averages don't indicate a wave is coming in the lower chamber," wrote a team of analysts from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

Attention falls therefore on the 100-member Senate, where Democrats would need to gain four seats for a majority in the event Clinton wins the White House, as ties in the Senate are broken by the vice president.

"I think having a Democratic Senate is absolutely critical," Clinton said Saturday on American Urban Radio Networks, explaining why she is pushing hard for candidates in states like Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The million-dollar question is: how much could an allegiance to Donald Trump impact the Republican Party's chances at the ballot box?