As of yesterday, incumbent Mark Kelly won Arizona, awarding the tying 49th seat to Democrats. Kelly ran more so as a moderate, hoping to appeal to the independent voters of the state. His support for abortion and securing stable water supply in a hard-hitting drought for Arizona proved popular among residents. Also, Kelly’s incumbency likely contributed to his ability to raise more money than his Trump-endorsed election-denier opponent, Blake Masters, and maintain a small lead against him throughout the race.
If Democrats want to keep a majority in the Senate, they only need to win one state and Vice President Kamala Harris serves as the tiebreaker, but a Republican majority in the Senate would be more difficult, needing to win both Nevada and Georgia. Thus, Democrats are projected to slightly edge out the Republicans and take the Senate, creating a similar situation to how it’s been the past two years. However, Republicans are predicted to take the House with razor thin margins, currently leading 211 seats to 203. This creates a threat of congressional gridlock where one party controls the House and the other the Senate. In this situation, compromise between parties is crucial and should produce bipartisan legislature that reflects a broad range of ideas and people. Unfortunately, in our largely polarized political climate, this ideal outcome seems beyond our capabilities.
Alas, all eyes will be on Nevada and Georgia as the results for midterm elections continue.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-results-congress-senate-house-11-09-2022/in
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/what-happened-red-wave
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/11/democrat-mark-kelly-arizona-senate-blake-masters
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/12/nevada-senate-control-2022-elections-00066610
https://www.kiplinger.com/politics/afteru-the-midterms-expect-gridlock-to-reign-on-capitol-hhill
4 comments:
It seems unfair how one party can have majority seats in a part of the government but also, it isn't reflect the majority rule idea. Smaller states consist of majority Republicans and they can get more representation than democrats from largely pacted cities. The founders didn't like the majority party ruling part of the government and that is why checks and balances were created.
The election outcome is highly likely to produce a divided government, with Democrats as of today gaining control of the Senate and Republicans gaining control of the House of Representatives. Both parties control their respective houses by a razor-thin margins. However, this means that in either chamber, a small number of extremists in either party could derail legislation given the small margin each party has. In practice, this should require both parties to move to the center of the political perspective so that people "cross the aisle" and vote for legislation sponsored by the other party. Bipartisan legislation tends to endure longer than partisan legislation (as naturally it will have more support), although bipartisan legislation is more difficult to achieve.
I'm frustrated with how stagnant the government has been for the past few years and we are basically still in the same place. Because the Democrats are the majority party by a small margin, they can basically claim that their inaction is due to the Republicans. I can already tell that they will do almost nothing until the next midterms when they will bring up abortion again and goad the population into voting for them. While the Democrats are feigning helplessness, the Republicans will pass even more discriminatory legislation. I hoped that the midterms would have swung Congress strongly either to the left or to the right but they have not and now we are subject to even more alarmist rhetoric from the Democrats. The lesson, in my opinion, is that the American government is incapable of efficiently caring for the population and we have to turn to more communitarian forms of mutual aid. Looking beyond the scope of American institutions is necessary if we ever hope to achieve an egalitarian society within the millennium.
The senate election between Nevada and Georgia is very important because it decides which party will have more power in creating and successfully passing legislation. The house of representatives is republican majority, so if the senate becomes republican majority too then it will be more than difficult for the voices of the democrats to be heard. Nevertheless, the bills that the democrat party proposes to congress may be wielded by a filibuster because of the opposite beliefs many republicans hold, but also not all. I do agree with Armita that it’s going to be very difficult for the government to have a wide range of opinions in the system so it can cater to each and every constituent's beliefs in the nation because of the amount of competition in trying to gain more seats for more power in the House of representatives and the senate.
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