(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Democrats will have a 51-49 advantage in the Senate after Raphael Warnock won the Georgia runoff election against Republican Herschel Walker.
The win means that the liberals will have the outright majority in the upper chamber for the last two years of President Joe Biden’s time in office. During the first two years, Democrats had a technical majority. While there was a 50-50 split in the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaking vote every time members voted along party lines.
While Republicans were originally predicted to win a red wave during the midterm elections, that never materialized — emphasized by the fact that the GOP actually lost a seat in the Senate, as opposed to winning back control of the upper chamber.
Now, Democrats will enjoy a bigger budget in the Senate, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer won’t have to confer with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on committee appointments.
It also means it’ll be much easier for Democrats to pass through nominees that Biden makes for various administrative and judicial jobs. And it’ll take away some power from moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who enjoyed an enormous amount of power over the last two years.
It won’t make passing legislation easier, though, as Democrats would still need 60 votes for a bill to avoid the Senate filibuster.
In the general election, Warnock was ahead of Walker by 37,000 votes, but he wasn’t able to reach the 50% threshold that was needed to avoid the runoff election. Walker wasn’t able to overcome some big criticisms and other allegations to overtake Warnock in the head-to-head runoff.
Warnock, who is 53 years old, became the first Black senator from Georgia when he won his seat two years ago. Throughout the campaign, Warnock said he would “work with anyone to get things done for the people of Georgia,” making a nod to the fact that Georgia was historically a conservative-leaning state.
He relied on independents and more moderate Republican voters to get past Walker in the runoff election. Walker was unable to take his local celebrity — he’s a former football star at the University of Georgia and in the NFL — as well as an endorsement from former President Donald Trump to overcome the doubt about his candidacy.
It became apparent in recent weeks that Republicans were not going to put too much more effort behind Walker’s campaign once it went to a runoff election.
Trump himself didn’t go to Georgia to stump for Walker leading up to the runoff in an apparent agreement with other Republican leaders. Apparently, some of the top members of the GOP were worried that Trump’s presence in Georgia — a state where he and his candidates haven’t performed well — would scare off voters.
It turns out that Trump staying away from Georgia wasn’t enough to swap voters to support Walker.
Warnock was once a senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the church where Martin Luther King Jr preached in the past.
