Raphael Warnock, the Democratic nominee for the as-yet-unassigned US Senate seat, one of two from Georgia, won the runoff against Republican Herschel Walker. Warnock won with 51 percent of the vote and his election strengthens the majority in the Senate of the Democratic Party, which now controls 51 seats against the 49 Republicans: this result will make it easier for the government to approve some measures President Joe Biden, also a Democrat.
The majority of 51 to 49 in fact allows not having to resort to the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris in the event of a tie and favors in particular the procedures for the appointment of federal judges, which are decided by the president but must be ratified by the Senate. During the previous administration of President Donald Trump, the Republican majority in the Senate ratified the appointment of 234 judges who will serve mostly for the next 30-40 years, until retirement, and will influence the interpretation of the Constitution. Biden has nominated 85 in these two years: the strengthened majority will allow this number to be significantly increased.
Furthermore, now it will be possible to create working commissions in the Senate with a Democratic majority and the negotiations with the Democratic senators closest to center or conservative positions – such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – will be less fundamental and binding to move forward legislative action.
Finally, the victory of the seat of Georgia could be important for the Democratic Party in two years, when the new presidential elections will be held and a third of the Senate will be renewed: the mandate obtained by Warnock lasts six years and for this reason his seat will remain Democratic in the 2024.
Also for this reason the Democrats have invested a lot of effort and money for the electoral campaign of this ballot, almost double that of the Republicans. They also engaged popular former President Barack Obama in the final days of the campaign.
The Republicans still have a majority in the House (which before the November elections had a Democratic majority), albeit much smaller than expected.
Warnock was the outgoing senator from the seat being voted for: he was elected only in 2020 in a by-election organized because the seat had remained vacant after the death of the previous senator, a Republican. On that occasion Warnock had become the first African-American senator ever elected to Georgia; he is 53 years old and is a Protestant pastor from Atlanta.
In the first round of the midterm elections, in November, neither Warnock nor Walker, who as the Republican candidate had been personally chosen by former President Donald Trump, had reached 50 percent of the votes: the outgoing senator had stopped at 49, 4 percent, his challenger at 48.5, a difference of just over 35,000 votes out of nearly 4 million overall.
