Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner looks below the presidential line on the election ballot and focuses on another major prize at stake in November: the U.S. Senate.

Republicans spent three election cycles chipping away at the Democratic majority, finally winning a 54-seat majority in the 2014 midterms.

Two years later, Democrats hope to reverse those losses in one sweeping election cycle.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Democratic leader-in-waiting, has good reason for hope. Republicans are defending 24 seats this year, while only 10 Democratic senators are on the ballot. Eight of those Dems will cruise to reelection.

Of the Republicans, 12 are all but guaranteed to keep their jobs, and another six are likely. But there are another six seats in states swamped by the 2010 GOP wave, which are really Democractic territories that President Obama won in 2008 and 2012.

Political experts see those seats as toss-ups for Republicans, at best, and worse than that in some cases. Democrats expect minority voters who turn out in presidential elections to recapture those seats for them from the Republicans.

They hope that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee will alienate independents, and that likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will inspire high turnout among Democratic women, perhaps even picking up some votes from Republican women.