Democrats move within striking range of taking the Senate.

The Senate landscape has improved so much for Democrats that top party operatives are calling and texting one another to say they wish the election were held today.

Election Day is still five months away, but recent polls, fundraising deficits and other problems for Republican incumbents have diminished their prospects and opened up several possible avenues for Democrats to take control of the chamber.

"I would rather be the Democrats than Republicans right now," said Jessica Taylor, the Senate editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election forecaster. "Democrats have expanded the map and put Republicans on defense even in some very red states."

The stakes are enormous for the legislative agenda of the next president — a re-elected Donald Trump or apparent Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who leads in national polls and most swing states — as well as the future of the courts. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the leader of the liberal wing, turns 88 next year, and the next Senate might get to confirm her successor.

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