Republicans despair as Democrats retain control of the Senate despite the polarized political climate.
Though control of the House remained undetermined on Sunday, Democrats were already celebrating retaining their majority in the Senate after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was projected to win reelection. Her victory secured the 50th Senate seat for Democrats and quashed Republicans’ hopes of taking control of both chambers of Congress, as many had predicted in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
“When far-right Republicans said they knew better, I knew we would prove them wrong,” Cortez Masto said in a victory speech on Sunday. “This election, Nevadans rejected the far-right politicians working to divide us. We rejected their conspiracies, their attacks on our workers and their efforts to restrict our freedoms.”
With the Senate runoff in Georgia next month between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker, Democrats have a chance to pick up a 51st seat, a stunning feat in a midterm election year that typically does not favor the party in power.
The developments have prompted some frustrated Republicans to call on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to clearly lay out a Republican agenda and to delay their leadership elections that are scheduled for Wednesday.
If Democrats win a 51st Senate seat, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) would be able to bypass a power-sharing resolution with Republicans, in place because of the 50-50 Senate, and more easily confirm President Biden’s judicial nominees.
Schumer on Saturday night called the results a “vindication” for the Democratic agenda and a rejection of Republican extremism. On Sunday, he called on Republican lawmakers to work with Democrats but declined to get into specifics about what they would try to accomplish in the future. He said Democrats would try to have “as productive a lame-duck session as possible.”
“Maybe the Republican Party, which has been so negative on so many different issues, will realize that the election was a clarion call by the American people: Stop all this negativity, stop flirting with autocracy, stop spending your time denying the election, and work to get something done,” Schumer said.
