analysis
Status: 07.12.2022 08:55 a.m
Georgia’s Democrats won the last vacant seat in the US Senate by a razor-thin margin. This will make future legislative projects easier for US President Biden. Trump’s candidacy is weakened.
The significance of Georgia’s election crime thriller extends far beyond the borders of the eighth-largest state in the USA: While US President Joe Biden can look forward to more political room for maneuver in the second half of his first term in office, Donald Trump’s renewed presidential candidacy is facing difficult times.
At the midterms in November, the Democrats had already secured 50 of the 100 seats in the Senate and thus once again control of the important chamber of congresses. In close voting, however, the casting vote of the Democratic US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also President of the Senate, had to decide. With the Senate seat won in Georgia, the Democrats no longer need to tip the scales – as long as none of their senators backs down.
More room for maneuver for Biden
The first half of Biden’s tenure has shown just how important a 51st Senate seat could be for Democrats. Because with a wafer-thin majority, it is sometimes very difficult to govern: with senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, two party colleagues of all people made life difficult for him in the Senate and blocked several of his projects – including a huge investment program for climate and social affairs, which Biden considered legacy of his presidency and in the end could only be partially implemented.
Manchin in particular kept getting in the way. With his special power and negotiating position, the senator from West Virginia repeatedly snubbed his own party.
With the 51st seat won in Georgia, Biden’s Democrats now have a more comfortable majority in the Congress Chamber – and Manchin alone can no longer slow him down. Not having to rely on the power-conscious senator from the right wing of the party for every vote makes life much easier for Biden.
Trump bet on the loser
A majority of 51 senators also has the advantage for the Democrats that the committees of the upper house no longer have to be filled equally. This also makes the parliamentary work of the ruling party easier, including the confirmation of important personnel decisions in the government and federal judiciary – for example, the appointment of ambassadors or federal judges.
For Trump, the defeat of Herschel Walker is another setback in the Republican presidential race. With the former football star, another candidate who had previously been supported by Trump suffered a defeat.
For the critics of the president who was voted out, the lost runoff election in Georgia is further evidence of his waning charisma. Quite a few in his party already attributed the disappointing performance in the regular congressional elections in early November to him. In the final sprint for Herschel Walker, Donald Trump made himself scarce: no joint appearance, only a telephone campaign.
Obama instead of Biden in the election campaign
Biden was also not seen in Georgia in the election campaign before the run-off election – with his low popularity ratings, an appearance by his party friend would probably have been political ballast for Warnock. Instead, popular ex-President Barack Obama came to Georgia, which has a higher proportion of black voters than many other states.
The red wave hoped for by the Republicans before the congressional elections finally ended in a shallow splash with the lack of success in Georgia. As a result, Donald Trump is also missing the much-needed tailwind for the upcoming primary elections in his party.
It is quite possible that even more well-known opponents will now dare to come out of cover – above all Trump’s worst opponent within the party, Ron DeSantis, who, as the re-elected governor of Florida, was able to achieve a landslide victory in the midterms of all places in the native New Yorker’s adopted home.
Georgia now key state for Democrats
Warnock’s win makes Georgia a key state in the 2024 presidential election. Democrats have won three Senate elections in the former Republican stronghold in the past two years. Joe Biden also won the state in 2020.