The Democratic leader still faces skeptics in his ranks and hostility from some activists, but aides say he has enough commitments of support to be elected majority leader.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, and his political team engaged in a $550 million push to put more Senate seats in play and increase their chances of regaining the majority.
Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee, has kept his edge over the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, as more provisional and mail ballots were reported throughout the state.
A phalanx of lawyers, observers and campaign officials are watching the counting of votes in the race for Senate, where a Democratic challenger has a slim lead.
Democrats in the South used anger over redistricting, cuts to key federal programs and attacks on Black history to help galvanize a crucial bloc of voters to the polls.
They won Senate races in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, with a Mississippi race still too close to call. Their wins lifted down-ballot candidates too.
Scott Colom, a Democrat, ran a viral ad and courted Republicans at a Trump rally before winning virtually the same number of votes as Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican.
President Trump on Monday was the latest big political star to swing through Mississippi and boost a candidate in a red-state Senate race that suddenly seems competitive.
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