Midterms: Joe Biden and the Democrats consolidate their majority in the Senate


On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, Democrat Raphael Warnock was re-elected senator from Georgia. He narrowly defeated a candidate supported by Donald Trump.





SourceAFP


With this new victory at the polls, the Democrats control the Senate.
© CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

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LJoe Biden’s party consolidated its majority in the US Senate on Tuesday, December 6, with the victory of Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock in a poll in Georgia. The American president, who was predicted to suffer a severe defeat in the mid-term elections, is strengthened by this electoral sequence. His party’s candidate, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock was opposed to a protege of Donald Trump, Republican Herschel Walker for the last act of these “midterms”. The two men had already faced each other in November and a second round had to be organized to decide between them.

“Tonight (Tuesday), voters in Georgia stood up for our democracy, rejected ultra MAGAism and most importantly, they returned a good man to the Senate,” said Joe Biden, referring to the slogan of his predecessor Donald Trump: Make America Great Again.

The American president had shown himself to be extremely confident, a few minutes before the announcement of the results. “We’re going to win, we’re going to win in Georgia,” he told reporters. This victory does not change the balance of power in the US Congress: the Democrats had already made sure to keep control of the Senate after the first round of legislative elections in November. The Republicans have meanwhile taken over the chamber, but with a much shorter majority than expected.

But this new seat gives more freedom to Joe Biden’s party, which has governed for the past two years with an extremely slim majority: 50 seats out of 100. It will allow them, among other things, to exercise greater influence in essential parliamentary committees. . And will significantly limit the influence of a moderate Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, gravedigger of several major projects of the Biden administration.

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A Republican “wave”… which did not take place

With this seat, the Republicans hoped for their part to offer themselves broader blocking powers to the policies of Joe Biden. 700 days from the next election, the opposition is anxious to break the dynamics of the president, reinforced by these good results in the “midterms”.

The defeat of Donald Trump’s candidate is a new illustration that the Republican “wave” promised by the former president in the midterm elections has not materialized. This did not prevent the Republican, embroiled in various scandals and legal troubles, from declaring himself a candidate for the presidential election. A sign of the importance and interest in this last duel in Georgia: nearly 400 million dollars had been injected into the ballot, the most expensive of the mid-term elections. The few polls showed the candidates neck and neck.

To realize their ambitions, the Democrats had called on their heavyweights to the rescue. Former President Barack Obama, unquestionably one of the most charismatic figures of the party, was for example campaigning in Atlanta last week.

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Definitely Democratic Georgia?

Historically won over to Republicans, Georgia took America by surprise by preferring Joe Biden to Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, then sending two Democrats to the Senate two months later. This state bordering Florida was again at the heart of all desires, fueled by the atypical profile of the candidates.

With several athletic records to his credit, Republican Herschel Walker, considered one of the greatest players in college football history, entered politics late in life. The 60-year-old was seeking to take over the seat of Raphael Warnock, who before becoming a Georgia senator in 2021 served as a pastor from Martin Luther King’s former desk in Atlanta. The campaign of the pro-Trump African-American candidate had however been splashed by several scandals. Herschel Walker, known for his anti-abortion positions, has among other things been accused of having pushed several of his former companions to have abortions.

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