Joe Biden won the Presidential Election
After a tough Primary and an even more brutal General Election, Joe Biden did it. He defeated Trump and was, last week, sworn in as President of the United States. However, it wasn’t easy in any sense of the word. The democratic primaries were a packed event as usual where President Biden had to fight off everyone from a socialist Bernie Sanders, billionaire Micheal Bloomberg, and even his future Vice President Kamala Harris. After fighting off the flock in a tough primary, Biden faced off against former President Trump in a General Election that included chaotic debates, an impeachment, a supreme court appointment, and the highest voter turnout in history.
Democrats regained control of the Senate
This election cycle Democrats didn’t just win the presidency but control of the senate as well. Although it happened after the November 3rd election, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff helped Democrats gain control of the Senate by winning twin special elections in Georgia. Their wins split the Senate 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, however with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote Democrats have a fragile majority. So what does this mean for the Senate? Above all, it means that the Democrat’s Boogeyman Sen. McConnell from Kentucky will no longer be the Senate majority leader being replaced by New York Sen. Schumer. Furthermore, Democrat’s flipping of the Senate also means new committee chairs. Some notable changes include Vermont Sen. Sanders now chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Schumer and the Democrats now have the ability to push progressive legislation such as medicare for all, immigration reform, and the green new deal. However, this may prove difficult not only because of their fragile majority but also because of their ineffective leadership. During his time as Senate Minority leader, Schumer consistently let President Trump get away with doing whatever he wanted from passing racist laws to appointing three supreme court justices with ease. He was easily and repeatedly outmaneuvered by then-Majority leader McConnell, failing to anything of substantial importance in the last 4 years and made it crystal clear that Democrats need to clean up their act if they want to get anything done during the Biden administration.
Democrats now have a weakened majority in the House.
Although Democrats didn’t exactly lose the House they didn’t do themselves any favors on November 3rd. In the 2020 House Elections Democrats lost a total of 13 seats shrinking their majority to just four seats despite Republicans being expected to lose as many as 15 seats. This disastrous result led to a heated race for Speaker of the House of Representatives between incumbent Nancy Pelosi and House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi narrowly edged out McCarthy winning by a thin margin of 216-209. Democrats’ weakened majority not only harmed Pelosi’s run for speaker but also future legislation as well. A weakened majority means that Democrats will have to work twice as hard to pass any partisan legislation even if they have control of the Senate and White House which is especially concerning considering how fractured the party already is.
