In addition, all three of the chamber’s independents are also up for reelection this cycle. There are nearly twice as many Democratically-held seats up for reelection next fall-20-than there are Republican seats-11. Regardless of the specifics of each contest, Democrats face a particularly challenging electoral map in 2024. At some level, of course, this is premature it’s not even clear who the candidates will be for many of the seats up for election in this cycle! Still, given how closely divided the current Senate is (48 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 3 independents who caucus with the Democrats), it’s not surprising that the 2024 Senate elections are top of mind for politicos on both sides of the partisan divide. Already, the journalists and pundits are making predictions about the next round of US Senate elections in November 2024, which will happen alongside the presidential election. If you are interested in contributing to the series contact Peter Finn ( it comes to American politics, it seems it’s never too early to think about the next election. Ahead of the 2024 election, this series is exploring the US elections at the state and national level. ‘ This article is part ‘ The 2024 Elections’ series curated by Peter Finn (Kingston University).

We should also not discount the impact of the presidential election, including the elephant in the room – Donald Trump. Some candidates have defied the odds before and may do so again.

Lauren Bell writes that while the Senate election map generally favors the Republican incumbents, who are only facing challengers for 11 seats, there is still a great deal that we don’t know about specific races and candidates. A 34 th seat will be filled via special election to replace former Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse, who resigned to become president of the University of Florida in January 2023. In November 2024, alongside the presidential contest, 33 of the 100 US Senate seats will be up for re-election.

Challengers of the unknown