2022-12-07 08:00:00
At 10:30 p.m., clarity finally prevailed. When the American media, following counting 97 percent of the votes in Georgia, declared Democrat Raphael Warnock the winner of the runoff, cheers broke out among his supporters at the election party in Atlanta. The incumbent had defended his seat in the second chamber once morest Republican Herschel Walker. At the end of a long campaign, the Democrats achieved an important success: Their position in the Senate has been strengthened following the congressional elections.
It was a nail biting night. While the constituencies reported their results, it kept going back and forth: sometimes Warnock was ahead, sometimes Walker. In the end, the Democrat was right: With a view to polls that saw him just ahead before election day, he had warned his supporters that every vote counts. He was less than two percentage points ahead in the runoff election, which had become necessary because he had not cracked the 50 percent mark on November 8th.
Walker was the first to address his followers: he asked them to keep believing in America and in the Constitution. The Republican did not mention Warnock. All he said was that he would not make excuses. His team did an excellent campaign. Warnock said shortly followingwards that the people had spoken. He won. He added: Just because citizens were willing to stand in long lines in front of the polling stations, no matter what the weather, one cannot claim that there was no attempt to suppress voters’ votes. Addressing his followers, he added, “You made your voice heard.”
Republican Geoff Duncan, Deputy Governor of Georgia, explained his party’s performance in clear terms: It was all regarding the quality of the candidates. He himself did not choose Walker. Members of the former football professional’s family had warned once morest him. There were allegations once morest him of domestic violence. In addition, two women had reported that he, who advocates a strict abortion ban, had paid for them to have abortions in the past.
Headwind for Trump
The fact that the election result was so close in the end was also due to Governor Brian Kemp. The Republican, who was firmly confirmed in office on November 8, decided to run alongside Walker ahead of the runoff and field his own campaigners for the nominee. Before November 8 there had been separate campaigns.
It was always clear that Georgia would be regarding more than just the last open Senate seat and whether Democrats would win a real majority in the second chamber. In the future, they will no longer be dependent on Vice President Kamala Harris, who has previously acted as a tie-breaker, in the plenary session. With 51 seats in the Senate, they will also have the majority in the committees in the future.
Also on Tuesday was the question of whether Donald Trump, whose nominee was Walker, would suffer another defeat and give Republicans new arguments for those who want to leave the former president’s era behind. Republicans said on Tuesday evening that Trump was solely responsible for the defeat. A serious candidate would have won the Georgia election. The former president announced in mid-November that he would run once more for his party’s presidential candidacy in 2024. Now the wind is blowing in his face. In the evening he wrote on his online platform Truth Social: The country is in big trouble – “what a mess”.
Success for Biden instead of Republican landslide victory
President Joe Biden was hoping for Warnock’s victory for very personal reasons. He is now the first Democratic president since John F. Kennedy in 1962 to increase his Senate faction in the midterm elections. In addition, the number of seats lost in the House of Representatives is the smallest for a Democratic incumbent in 60 years. Although Republicans will have a slim majority in the first chamber going forward, the congressional elections are ultimately a relative success for Biden, especially since the Republicans were predicted a landslide victory before November 8th.
Majid Sattar, Atlanta/Savannah Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 12 Majid Sattar Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 22 Majid Sattar, Washington Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 56
Now comes the Christmas break for the President. At the beginning of the year, Biden announced that he wanted to announce whether he would also be running once more in 2024. The New York Times reported that First Lady Jill Biden told French President Emmanuel Macron at the state banquet last week that she and her husband were ready.
1693760208
#Democrat #Raphael #Warnock #wins #runoff #strengthens #Senate
