The Democratic party consolidates its majority in the Senate with the victory in the runoff in Georgia where outgoing Senator Raphael Warnock narrowly won with about 50.7% of the votes compared to the Republican candidate Herschel Walker (49.3%). A 51-49 Democratic lead in the Senate means that the party will no longer have to negotiate power-sharing agreements with the Republicans, but above all it will no longer have to allow itself to be ‘blackmailed’ by its own West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (he often did this by negotiating at in favor of her own very conservative environmental agenda), or by Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, also on positions distant from those of the Biden administration.
Warnock
The president comes out strengthened, even if during the electoral campaign the democratic candidate carefully avoided having him by his side, due to Biden’s low approval rating, preferring to appear in public next to the former president. Barack Obama. Warnock, whose 2021 victory came in a special election to fill the remainder of Republican Party Senator Johnny Isakson’s term, said he believed he had convinced enough voters, including independents and moderate Republicans.
The vote of moderate Republicans is the decisive issue in this phase of American politics. The midterm elections certified that the vote of ‘traditional’ Republicans no longer goes to Donald Trump or his candidates. Walker’s candidacy was the GOP’s last chance to clinch a Senate seat this year. Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz, Arizona’s Blake Masters, Nevada’s Adam Laxalt, and New Hampshire’s Don Bolduc, all loyal to Trump, all lost.
Herschel Walker, Republican Senate candidate from Georgia
These are often unlikely candidates: Herschel Walker fell more than 200,000 votes short of Republican (but not Trumpian) Governor Brian Kemp in last month’s midterm elections, after an election campaign characterized by self-congratulatory speeches that proved to be unfounded and lethal accusations for a self-styled defender of the traditional family against abortion: that of having paid for the abortion of two ex-girlfriends.
Walker himself must have sensed the wind and avoided campaigning with Trump until the last day, Monday, when he had to resign himself to a joint video conference with supporters of the Maga (Make America great again) ultras movement Trumpians.
Walker distinguished himself from Trump in yet another way: the former president spent two years falsely claiming his defeat in Georgia and nationwide was fraudulent, despite being refuted by numerous federal and local officials and a long list of law courts. During his one and only debate against Warnock in October, Walker was asked if he would accept the results even if he lost. He replied with one word: “Yes”.
