Republicans take Senate, House too close to call

Washington: Defeating Democrats in key states, Republicans have taken control of the US Senate. This gives the Grand Old Party control over not just a chamber of the legislature to shape laws, but offers a powerful source of support to Donald Trump’s presidency in terms of confirming nominations and implementing his agenda.

On Tuesday, Republicans flipped the Senate seat of West Virginia which was earlier held by the right-leaning Democratic lawmaker Joe Manchin. Manchin decided to retire, allowing Republicans to field the state’s governor Jim Justice for the seat in a traditionally Red State.

The Republican candidate, Bernie Moreno, won a Senate seat in Ohio, defeating Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was an unlikely pillar of the party in a Red State that is overwhelmingly for Trump and has Vance as the second senator. In Montana, another Red state where a senate seat was held by a Democrat, the Republican candidate, Tim Sheehy, defeated Jon Tester.

At the time of going to press, the Republican candidate was leading in Pennsylvania while Democratic incumbents were holding on to their seats in Michigan and Wisconsin. But AP or the networks hadn’t called these races given the razor thin margins. But while those wins will give Republicans an extra cushion, the majority itself will be a huge boost to Trump’s governance plans.

All cabinet appointments, ambassadorial nominations, appointments to top intelligence agencies are subject to Senate confirmation. This gives a pathway to Trump to get all of whom he wants in his administration to get confirmed. While the House has the power to impeach, the Senate has the power to block it - this happened twice in Trump’s first term and will give the president elect another buffet in case House flips to Democrats.

Control over the Senate also allows Trump to nominate new justices to the Supreme Court, a high possibility if he nudges some of the older conservative judges to resign, to make way for younger judges in order to ensure that conservatives control the judiciary for a generation to come.

The battle to control the House of Representatives was still underway at the time of going to press.

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