Republicans will take control of the US Senate after taking seats away from Democrats in West Virginia and Ohio on Tuesday and easily seeing off challenges to the party’s incumbents in Florida and Texas.

With no further prospects of Democratic gains in any of the remaining outstanding races, Republicans were on track to retake Congress’s upper chamber for the first time in four years.

The strong showing by Republicans began in West Virginia, where a crushing victory by governor Jim Justice over Democratic candidate Glenn Elliott left the party needing just one more seat to win a majority. They did so later on Tuesday night in Ohio, with businessman Bernie Moreno edging out incumbent Sherrod Brown, who has served in the House and Senate for a combined 50 years.