13-11-22, 05:51
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Re: US Midterm Elections: Democrats Retain Control of Senate
US Democrats Retain Control of Senate with Nevada Vctory
TRUMP Tries to Blame Elsewhere For Midterm Losses
After days waiting for votes to be counted in Nevada, we've just had a dramatic couple of hours - and one hugely significant result.
The Democratic win ensures Joe Biden's party will retain control of the US Senate for the next two years. Here's why that's important:
BBC News 13 NOV 2022
Democrats will continue to control the Senate following the 2022 midterm elections, after Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday was projected by CBS News to win a tight reelection race against Republican Adam Laxalt.
Her victory gives Democrats 50 seats in the 118th Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote, should it be needed, gives them the majority, regardless of the outcome of the Georgia runoff election in December between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
"The election is a great win for the American people," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a briefing late Saturday night. "With the races now called in Arizona and Nevada, Democrats will have a majority in the Senate, and I will once again be majority leader."
A pleased President Biden — who is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, attending the summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — told reporters Sunday morning that Schumer has "got a majority again."
"We're focusing now on Georgia," Mr. Biden said. "We feel good about where we are. And I know I'm a ****eyed optimist. I understand that from the beginning, but I'm not surprised by the turnout. I'm incredibly pleased by the turnout. And I think it's a reflection of the quality of our candidates. And they're all running on the same program. There wasn't anybody who wasn't running on what we did. They're all staying, sticking with it. And so, I feel good. I'm looking forward to the next couple years."
Before Election Day, some Republicans had begun to believe Senate control was within reach, since President Biden is suffering from underwater approval ratings amid high inflation and voters' negative views of the economy in all the battleground states.
But in the months before the general election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed doubt that Republicans could take the Senate, which he blamed on "candidate quality." Many of the Republican candidates who lost were far-right and endorsed by former President Donald Trump, which gave them momentum during the primary season. But they failed to appeal to independents and moderates in the general election.
Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring from the Senate, and whose seat was won by Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, blamed Trump for the missed GOP opportunity.
"The data is overwhelmingly clear — the more candidates who are associated with Donald Trump, and the ultra MAGA movement, and this false notion that the election was stolen from him in 2020, the more that was the message, the more they lost, and in many places, it was a stark to a more conventional Republican who was winning," he said in an interview on Fox News Saturday.
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