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WASHINGTON: The election stirred the seats in the House and Senate, but ultimately left Congress as it began, deeply divided as voters resisted big changes despite the heated race to the top of the list for the White House .
It’s an outcome that dampens Democratic demands for a bold new agenda, emboldens Republicans, and nearly ensures a party stalemate regardless of who wins the presidency. Or perhaps, as some say, it provides a rare opportunity for modest cooperation across the hall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on her way to maintaining control of the Democratic House, but saw her majority shrink and her leadership questioned.
Republican control of the Senate leaned toward them as Republican senators fended off a barrage of energetic challengers, though some elections remained undecided on Wednesday (November 4).
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that he was confident that “no matter who ends up running the government,” they will be “trying to get through all of that and get results.”
One certainty is that the reversed projections will force a rethink of polls, fundraising, and the very messages that parties use to reach voters in the Trump era and beyond.
“Our purpose in this race was to win so we could protect the Affordable Care Act and be able to crush the virus,” Pelosi said earlier this week.
But the sad result for Democrats put a stop to ambitious health care, infrastructure and racial justice legislative reform plans pushed by the party, eager for a sweep of the Washington government.
Even if the Democrats capture the White House with Joe Biden and a narrowly divided Senate, Pelosi’s influence to force deals negotiated on her terms will be diminished by her losses in the House.
If Donald Trump wins another term, his Republican allies, particularly in the Senate, will likely feel more comfortable with him after escaping an electoral defeat, although they have yet to outline a Republican agenda.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist close to McConnell, said that winning or losing Trump “reorganized political parties” by making Republicans, not Democrats, America’s “working class” party.
“Democrats have a lot to think about when it comes to those voters,” Jennings said. “And Republicans have a lot to think about implementing policies relevant to those voters.”
More immediately, a COVID-19 relief bill remains within reach as the pandemic spreads through the states. McConnell said he would also like to negotiate a big spending bill to keep the government running past the mid-December deadline.
Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer were remarkably calm Wednesday.
House Republicans have won five seats so far, deflating Pelosi’s plans to reach deep into Trump’s country by making rare strides with minority women and candidates.
Republicans defeated several first-year Democratic freshmen who won a House majority in 2018 in a backlash against Trump, linking them to their more liberal members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and calling them “socialists.”
United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks with members of her staff and volunteers who helped with her campaign and with the vote, on November 3, 2020, outside her office in the Bronx borough of New York. (Photo: AP / Kathy Willens)
“We expanded this party that reflects America, which looks like America,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a conference call with reporters.
A handful of new progressives will come to Washington to join House Democrats, while Republicans will see new members on the right flank, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has championed unfounded QAnon conspiracy theories and won a vacant Northwest seat. from Georgia. Trump has called Greene a “future Republican star.”
While Democrats won essential seats in Colorado and Arizona, they suffered a setback in Alabama, and Republicans held fast in race after race – in South Carolina, Maine, Iowa, Texas, Kansas and Montana, limiting drastically the hopes of the Democrats. to make progress.
“I know people are anxious,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told supporters in a live Twitter video. “We need to count the votes.”
The races attracted an unprecedented flood of small donations of dollars for American Democrats who apparently voted out of their pockets to fuel risky campaigns.
“You wasted a lot of money,” said White House ally Senator Lindsey Graham in Columbia, South Carolina, after defeating Jamie Harrison, despite the Democrat’s staggering $ 100 million for his upstart campaign.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is retiring after giving his assessment of the Republican Party’s election performance to journalists on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2020 (Photo: AP / J Scott Applewhite).
Still, Republican strategist Steven Law, chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republican senators, said future candidates will have to step up their own fundraising.
“There is still a dinosaur mentality,” he said.
McConnell also warned of the continuing problems Republicans face in the Trump era as voters move away from the Republican Party.
“We need to take back the suburbs,” McConnell said. “We had a better choice than most people thought we would have, but we have improvements that we need to make.”
Republicans believe Democrats were wrong to focus almost exclusively on the COVID-19 crisis and health care risks for Americans as Trump and the Republican Party try to unravel the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.
Voters care almost as much about the economy, they said.
According to the AP VoteCast, a national poll of the electorate, voters ranked the pandemic and the economy as top concerns.
“It’s time for a different approach,” said Democrat John Hickenlooper, the former governor who ousted Republican Senator Cory Gardner in Colorado.
Yet voters, for the most part, stayed true to the status quo.
Securing a majority in the Senate will be vital to the winner of the presidency. Senators confirm the administration’s candidates, including for cabinet, and they can push or stop the White House agenda.
With Republicans now controlling the chamber, 53-47, three or four seats will determine control of the party, depending on who wins the presidency because the vice president can break a tie in the Senate.
The final collapse awaited the outcome of races in Alaska, Michigan and North Carolina, where Republican Senator Thom Tillis has battled Democrat Cal Cunningham, despite the challenger’s sexting scandal married to a public relations strategist.
In Georgia, two seats were being contested with at least one heading for a runoff after no candidate reached the 50 percent threshold to win.
Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a black pastor at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr preached, in the second round of the Jan.5 special election for the position Loeffler was elected to fill for the Retired Senator Johnny Isakson.
In the other Georgia race, Republican Senator David Perdue, the former business executive Trump calls his favorite senator, tried to scare off Democrat Jon Ossoff. It could also go to a second round.
On the Michigan presidential battlefield, Republicans aggressively lobbied John James, a black businessman trying to overthrow Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
