Democrats secured the 50 seats needed to keep control of the Senate after the Nevada Senate race was called for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday.
Summary
Democrats secured the 50 seats needed to keep control of the Senate after the Nevada Senate race was called for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday.
- The first-term Democrat’s 5,000-vote lead over Republican Adam Laxalt proved insurmountable thanks to mail ballots counted since Election Day.
- The only remaining uncalled Senate race is in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will square off in a runoff election on Dec 6.
- Wins by Masto and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, whose victory over Republican Blake Masters was called Friday, secured the upper chamber for Democrats.
- Democratic Lt. Gov John Fetterman flipped Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, while incumbents in New Hampshire and Colorado beat back Republican challengers.
- A Democratic Senate majority smooths the confirmation process for Biden Cabinet and judicial appointments.
- A Senate majority gives Democrats control of committee chairmanships and subpoena power to conduct investigations and allows them to stop bills passed by the likely Republican House from reaching Biden’s desk.
- Senate Democrats’ victory bucks the historical trend of the president’s party losing seats in a midterm election.
- Democrats will now have their narrow Senate majority for two more years – barring an unexpected vacancy – until 2024 when the party will have to defend nearly two-dozen seats.
- NBC News emphasized the Democrats’ Senate victory came at the expense of a number of Trump-backed Republican challengers. Every Democratic Senator won reelection even as exit polls showed voters are “deeply dissatisfied with the state of the country and concerned about its future.”
- CNN noted nearly every Republican candidate who ran in a swing state while rejecting or vowing to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election was defeated on Tuesday. One possible exception, Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, trails her opponent but her race has not yet been called.
- Politico reported Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attributed the Democrats’ victory to “candidate quality, Democratic legislative accomplishments of the past two years and ‘anti-Democratic, extremist MAGA Republicans.’”
- The Washington Examiner reported Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrated Masto’s win as a “victory and a vindication” for Democrats, while Democratic control of the Senate was “a great win for the American people.”
- National Review covered Republican Senate campaign chief Rick Scott’s post-election comments. Scott called the midterms “a complete disappointment” and said Republicans need to “reflect” on what cost the party the victory it was so eagerly anticipating.
- The Wall Street Journal noted Cortez Masto’s ads attacking Laxalt’s pro-life positions and efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election appear to have outweighed Republican ads linking Cortez Masto to rising inflation and crime.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
