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Democrats led by President Joe Biden kept control of the US Senate on Saturday, defying expectations that the Republicans would take control of both chambers of Congress. The party in power is typically defeated in midterm elections, and with inflation skyrocketing and Joe Biden’s popularity in free fall, Republicans had been hoping to ride a massive “red wave” and win the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto won the crucial Senate contest in Nevada on Saturday, giving her party the 50 seats it needs for an actual majority. However, the wave never advanced much further than a ripple.
As Vice President Kamala Harris can deliver the tie-breaking vote in the event of a 50-50 deadlock in the upper chamber, the victory secures Democratic control of the Senate.
There is still one Senate election that could go to a runoff on December 6 in Georgia, where the Democrats could increase their majority.
Although Republicans are marginally favoured to win control, it would be with a much smaller majority than they had anticipated heading into Tuesday’s election. The outcome in the House of Representatives is still up in the air.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted that the outcome was a “vindication” of Democrats’ accomplishments as soon as his party had won.
“Come together” call
Minutes after the results were predicted, he said the outcome demonstrated that Americans “soundly rejected the anti-democratic, authoritarian, nasty and divisive direction the MAGA Republicans wanted to take our country.” He was referring to the “Make America Great Again” movement of former president Donald Trump.
Trump was omnipresent on the campaign trail, meddling in crucial Republican primaries and conducting rallies across the country where he repeated his flimsy allegations of election theft in 2020.
According to US media projections, more than 100 Republican candidates who challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election won their races; however, some of Trump’s hand-picked candidates underperformed, and the Republicans’ poor performance as a whole was a damaging political blow.
On Tuesday, Trump is expected to announce his bid for the presidency in 2024. He had planned this announcement as a triumphant response to the anticipated overwhelming election victory of the party he still controls.
