The story has been updated. The House Democratic majority made net gains Tuesday night in the General Assembly, flipping at least six Republican seats and most likely losing two on a night marked by widespread frustration over slow and incomplete election returns in Connecticut. The Senate Democratic majority neither claimed victory nor conceded defeat in four districts represented by Republicans who won two years ago with less than 51% of the vote and were seen as vulnerable in a presidential year. By the end of the day Wednesday, their best outcome was a net gain of one seat. The Associated Press called two of those four races for Republicans, saying Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich and Sen. Jeff Gordon of Woodstock had been reelected, giving the Connecticut GOP a much-needed boost on a night when it failed win a competitive congressional seat and lost ground in the state House. Three other state Senate races initially were too close to call, but two broke for the GOP: Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, appeared to defeat Democrat Rob Blanchard, while Democratic challenger Paul Honig seemed on track to unseat Sen. Lisa Seminara, R-Avon. She conceded Wednesday afternoon. One Democrat, Sen. Mae Flexer of Windham, was in a close race with Chris Reddy, who had the lead in results posted on the state’s election reporting system. But the numbers from Mansfield, a Democratic stronghold, were incomplete, Democrats said. Republican and Democratic legislative leaders said they were unable to call many competitive races Tuesday night due to the failure by some local officials to run early-voting ballots through tabulators and post results by a midnight deadline. Democrats began the night with majorities of 24-12 in the Senate,  98-53 in the House and hopes for major gains, given expectations that Donald J. Trump would be a drag on down-ballot Republicans. The Associated Press quickly declared victories for the top of the Democratic ticket in Connecticut: Kamala Harris had carried Connecticut and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy had won a third term. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, was declared the winner over Republican George Logan at 2 a.m. in Connecticut’s only competitive congressional contest. But the state’s first experience with early in-person voting slowed results. Officials said 850,601 votes had been cast before Tuesday: 741,895 during the two weeks of early in-person voting that ended Sunday and another 108,706 by absentee. Early ballots were cast in sealed envelopes that had to be opened and fed into tabulators on Election Day. In some places, they were hand counted. Local officials had posted results from only 276 of the 760 polling places by 12:45 a.m. Wednesday. The gains claimed by House Democrats came at the expense of Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, and Rep. Kathleen McCarty, R-Waterford. To win, both would have had to significantly outperform Trump in their shoreline districts. Two first-term Republicans, Rep. Rachel Chaleski of Danbury and Rep. Laura Dancho of Stratford, also appeared to have lost. Unofficial results showed Nick Menapace defeating Cheeseman in the 37th District, Nick Gauthier besting McCarthy in the 38th, and Kenneth Gucker winning his rematch with Chaleski in the 138th. Kaitlyn Shake beat Dancho in the 120th District in Stratford. MJ Shannon won the open 117th District seat in West Haven that Republican Charles Ferraro had held for a decade. “It’s not a wave,” House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said late Tuesday night. “Or it’s a light wave.” Ritter said that Rebecca Martinez defeated Rep. Francis Cooley, R-Plainville, in a rematch of their close 2022 contest. AP called the race for Cooley, but Ritter said early-voted ballots counted Wednesday give Martinez the win. The Democratic victories were partly offset by Republicans winning back one of three House seats in Greenwich, despite Trump’s poor showing there. Tina Courpas defeated Rep. Rachel Khanna, whose victory over a conservative Republican two years ago gave Democrats a sweep there. House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said incomplete results left another close race in doubt: Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, faced a strong challenge from Joe Canino in a district favoring Trump. As counting continued Wednesday, Cook’s path to reelection grew unlikely. Democrats successfully defended seats in several districts targeted by the GOP, including the freshman who won two years ago by a single vote: Rep. Chris Poulos of Southington. Poulos, a teacher, had spent the summer door-knocking. Others to survive in competitive districts were Rep. Jaime Foster, D-Ellington, and Rep. Kara Rochelle, D-Ansonia. Rochelle was challenged by the Republican mayor, David Cassetti, and also faced a Democrat, Thomas Egan, running on the Independent Party line. Rep. Chris Aniskovich, R-Clinton, was narrowly reelected in his shoreline district, defeating Cinzia Lettieri. In the Senate, Democrats went to bed pessimistic about flipping seats held by two Republicans in Fairfield County: the 36th District of Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan; and the 28th of Bethel, Easton, Fairfield, Newtown and Weston. Connecticut state Sen. Ryan Fazio addresses a crowd of supporters at the Greenwich Republican watch party on election night 2024. Credit: Tyler Russell / Connecticut Public Fazio has, perhaps, the highest profile of the four vulnerable Republicans. When he narrowly won a special election in 2021, reclaiming the seat from Democrats, Fazio drew national attention. It was the first Democratic legislative seat flipped after Joe Biden took office. Fazio thanked the Republicans who gathered at a steakhouse in Greenwich early in the evening and recognized the difficulty of his reelection bid in an increasingly blue state.  Referencing the money that Democrat Nick Simmons, a former aide to Gov. Ned Lamont and President Joe Biden, raised and spent on the race, Fazio joked that he faced the “single most expensive state legislative campaign in state history.” As the results continued to come in, Jerry Cincotta, Greenwich’s Republican chairman, acknowledged the partisan drift of the state and the region towards Democrats.  “As Greenwich continues to change, there is always more to do,” Cincotta said.  But Democrats said they seemed to be underperforming in Greenwich. In the 8th Senate District of Farmington Valley, Honig had a lead over Seminara, the Republican who defeated him two years ago. With returns from nine of the 11 communities in the district, Honig had 52% of the vote. Honig ran strong in the district’s largest communities — the suburbs of Avon, Canton and Simsbury that once reliably elected Republicans, but have trended Democratic in recent cycles. House Democrats were reelected in those communities by overwhelming margins: Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, D-Avon, and Rep. Melissa Osborne, D-Simsbury, each won by at least 20 percentage points. Kavros DeGraw was opposed by Manju Gerber, a leader in arch-conservative Moms of Liberty. There are relatively few competitive races in the General Assembly.  Thirty-nine House members and five senators were unopposed, including Laurie Sweet, a Democratic candidate for the open seat vacated by retiring Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden. There were 13 open seats in the House and one in the Senate. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, a Democrat of Bridgeport, declared victory in the seat opened by the retirement of Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport.