Joe Biden’s party won a new seat in the US Senate on Tuesday, with the victory of Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock in Georgia, according to media projections. The outgoing senator won against a Donald Trump protégé, Republican Herschel Walker. This victory confirms the slim majority of Democrats in the upper house of Congress.
Biden emerges stronger from the midterms
The two men had already met in November and a second round had to be arranged to decide between them.
The American president had been extremely confident, 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 ensured control of the Senate after the first round of the legislative elections in November. Meanwhile, the Republicans have taken over the House, but with a much shorter majority than expected.
But this new seat gives greater freedom to Joe Biden’s party, which has governed the last two years with a meager majority: 50 seats out of 100.
Among other things, it will enable them to exert greater influence on key parliamentary committees. And it will significantly limit the influence of a moderate Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, gravedigger of several major Biden administration projects.
With this seat, Republicans hoped for their part to offer themselves broader blocking powers to Joe Biden’s policies. With 700 days to go before the next elections, the opposition is eager to break the president’s dynamic, reinforced by these good results in the “mandate media”.
Source: BFM TV
