/

Democrats retain the Senate, Republicans take the House

3 mins read

Over a week after the Midterm elections, the final results are in; Democrats retain the Senate whilst Republicans take the House.

A few days after the November 8 election day, results remained inconclusive as races were too close to call, with many states taking a long time to count every district vote.

Democrats won the Senate on November 12.

The Senate results are 50-50, but with the Vice-President’s tie-breaking vote, the Democrats are given a 51 seat majority.

Two Senate races are still undecided:

The race in Georgia between Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock and Trump endorsed GOP candidate Hershel Walker has went to a run-off being held on December 6 due to neither reaching the 50% threshold.

In Alaska, incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski and GOP candidate Kelly Tshibaka are headed to a ranked-choice run-off, but it is clear that the open seat in the state will be claimed by the Republican party.

8 days after election day, who claimed the House of Representatives was officially declared.

The Republican party claimed a very slim majority in the House of Representatives after days of agonisingly slow ballot counting.

The Republican party have claimed 218 seats so far.

The Democratic party have claimed at least 210 seats.

218 seats are required for either party to win a majority.

222 Democratic seats were up for re-election, whereas Republicans had 213 up for grabs.

Pollsters predicted a “red-wave” for the Republican party, claiming they were going to capture many seats from Democrats, but that was not the case.

Seven districts still have yet to declare a definitive winner.

Democrats lead in four of those districts, whereas Republicans lead in three.

If these leads hold, the 118th House of Representatives will be made up of 221 Republicans and 214 Democrats.

On Tuesday the GOP voted to nominate California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader for the party, to become Speaker of the House, ousting Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi from her position.

Who will claim the position of House minority leader for the Democrats remains unknown as Pelosi’s future in Washington is the topic of speculation.

What these results mean for the future of the country is unclear.

Will Biden fail to pass many of his policies over the next two years due to a split Congress? Or do the Republican Party have too slim of a majority to halt anything and push their planned agenda?

What we do know is that Republicans have claimed the House of Representatives, whereas the Democrats have retained the Senate, leaving the nation with a split Congress and a divided country yet again.

Featured Image: BBC

+ posts

BA(Hons) International Politics and Languages
Politics and Music journalist

2 Comments

%d bloggers like this: