With Americans worried about the country’s highest inflation in 40 years, not even his wildest dreams, President Joe Biden has been caught up in such a wave of votes and hopes. After a slow scrutiny, The expected key data has arrived: in legislative elections on Tuesday the Democratic Party also managed to maintain control of the Senate, a victory that will make it more difficult for the Republican opposition to counter the president’s agenda in the remaining two years of his term.
The count is still open, but the Democrats could also prevail in the House of Representatives – it would be almost a miracle, but it is still possible – or lose by a very small number of seats, a scenario that would make it even easier for Biden in government.
Thus, the president not only did not suffer the expected large retribution vote, but also carried it out the best midterm elections for an American president in 20 years.
After slow scrutiny, it was announced on Saturday at the stroke of midnight that the Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto retained the Nevada Senate seat, with which the party that controls the White House is left with 50 of the 100 seats in that chamber. That seat was key because it guarantees Democrats a majority, as Vice President Kamala Harris, in her capacity as Senate Speaker, will retain the tiebreaker power.
With Harris’ letter, the Democrats already have a majority, but you could still extend it: One last seat in the Senate still remains to be decided, in the state of Georgia, where there will be a second round on December 6. In the first round, the Democratic candidate had a one-point lead over the Republican, even though neither of them achieved 50% of the necessary votes and will go to the runoff.
Having control of the Senate is vital not only for the articulation of laws but also for the approval of judges, ambassadors, senior officials, international agreements and even Supreme Court magistrates. Furthermore, it is the adjudicatory chamber in case of possible impeachment or political trial.
About 20 seats in the lower house still remain to be defined. According to the television networks, Republicans would have a majority of just five seats there, far from the difference of dozens of seats they expected to win in Biden’s midterm elections. But now Democrats are even excited to keep adding hits.
Biden celebrated the result from Cambodia, where he is attending an ASEAN summit. “I feel good and with expectations for the next two years”, the president said. And he remarked that he is now politically “stronger” at the meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, scheduled for Monday at the G20 leaders’ meeting in Indonesia.
It is tradition in American history that ruling party loses midterm elections. In this 2022, experts, analysts and pollsters have predicted a landslide victory for the Republican opposition because, moreover, the pocket has always been fundamental when voting. Most Americans blamed Biden for the state of the economy and above all for the unprecedented inflation – now at 7.7%, but it is close to 9% annually – a rate not seen for 40 years.
The scenario was very murky for the Democrats: in a sweeping outcome they would lose both chambers and the Biden government would be blocked by paralyzing their initiatives in Congress and even launching investigations against them.
But the Democrats, led by Biden, they broke with history and trends. They managed to centralize their campaign message by saying that the election would mark not only the future of the president’s term but that of democracy in the country, because there were many Republican candidates who did not recognize the 2020 election results and who would hamper the electoral future of the United States from their new positions.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal legalization of abortion has encouraged Democrats to send out another strong message that has mobilized young people and the more liberal grassroots: A conservative victory would also extend the ban on abortion rights. and other civil rights to all states.
The democracy defense letter worked wonders for them. Americans voted against candidates Trump had encouraged to compete, most denying the results of the 2020 elections, when Biden won and the tycoon lost and denounced fraud.
Indeed, in the six major battlefields where Trump has tried to overturn his defeat in the last presidential election, voters on Tuesday rejected the state candidates chosen by the former president to control the electoral systems of their states, a resounding sign that Americans have had enough of the former president’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud.
“The American people rejected — and strongly rejected — the undemocratic, authoritarian, disgusting and divisive direction MAGA Republicans wanted to take in the country,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.
The results immediately opened a strong debate among Republicans. With Trump’s extremist candidates defeated, Is a game coming without Trump? Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said in interviews Sunday that Trump, who has been the most important and powerful figure in the Republican Party, Today he is no longer the leader of the group.
Former governor of New Jersey and former presidential candidate Chris Christie’sHe noted: “When Trump won in 2016, he said we would get tired of winning so much. But in 2018 we lost the lower house. In 2020 we lost the Senate and the White House, in 2021 we lose two seats [del Senado] winnable in Georgia. And in 2022, we’re underperforming well below historical guidelines given inflation, fuel prices, rising crime, and the president’s unpopularity. I’m tired of losing.”
Meanwhile, Trump, who has repeatedly hinted that he would use that result to launch his presidential bid, is backing his plans to make “a big announcement” Tuesday at his Florida residence.
Source: Clarin
