Democrats will continue to control the Senate following the 2022 midterm elections, after Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday was projected by CBS News to win a tight reelection race against Republican Adam Laxalt.
In a speech Sunday, Cortez Masto said when “national pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong.”
Cortez Masto highlighted her support for first responders and labor unions, as well as her Latino heritage — her grandfather immigrated to Nevada from Mexico. And she said Nevada voters “rejected the far-right.”
“We rejected their conspiracies, their attacks on our workers, and their efforts to restrict our freedoms,” Cortez Masto said.
Her victory gives Democrats 50 seats in the 118th Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, should it be needed, gives them the majority, regardless of the outcome of the Georgia runoff election in December between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
“The election is a great win for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a briefing late Saturday night. “With the races now called in Arizona and Nevada, Democrats will have a majority in the Senate, and I will once again be majority leader.”
Republicans could still take control of the House, where a handful of races remain unresolved. However, control of the Senate means Democrats will have the ability to effectively kill any legislation emerging from a GOP-led House, enabling them to shield President Biden from politically risky legislation that a Senate led by Republicans might have brought to a vote. A Democratic Senate also makes it much easier for Mr. Biden to win approval for judicial nominations and appoint his desired candidates to positions across the government over the last two years of his term.
A pleased Mr. Biden — who is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, attending the summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — told reporters Sunday morning that Schumer has “got a majority again.”
“We’re focusing now on Georgia,” Mr. Biden said. “We feel good about where we are. And I know I’m a cockeyed optimist. I understand that from the beginning, but I’m not surprised by the turnout. I’m incredibly pleased by the turnout. And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates. And they’re all running on the same program. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t running on what we did. They’re all staying, sticking with it. And so, I feel good. I’m looking forward to the next couple years.”
Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that control of the Senate is crucial for advancing the president’s agenda.
“Control of the Senate is hugely consequential both for judiciary nominations and appointments, the most diverse group of judicial nominations ever under the first two years of President Biden, but also for controlling the agenda in the U.S. Senate, and that means continued progress for the working families, middle class of this country,” she said.
Before Election Day, some Republicans had begun to believe Senate control was within reach, since Mr. Biden is suffering from underwater approval ratings amid high inflation and voters’ negative views of the economy in all the battleground states.