Democrats gain a majority in the Senate by winning the 50th seat in Nevada

The Democratic Party has renewed its majority by the minimum in the Senate having won 50 of the 100 seats in the House after a tense recount in the close race for the position in Nevada.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
12 November 2022 Saturday 21:31
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Democrats gain a majority in the Senate by winning the 50th seat in Nevada

The Democratic Party has renewed its majority by the minimum in the Senate having won 50 of the 100 seats in the House after a tense recount in the close race for the position in Nevada. That half of the seats is enough for the government formation to retain control of the parliamentary body thanks to the casting vote of Vice President Kamala Harris in cases of a tie.

It has been the triumph of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, granddaughter of Mexican immigrants born in Las Vegas and the first Latina to reach that House in the United States, which on Saturday night has tipped the balance of this institution of Congress in favor of Joe Biden's party. He has succeeded against his Republican opponent Adam Laxalt, who until yesterday was ahead of him in the vote count but with an advantage that was shortened as mail-in votes were counted from Clark County, with a strong Democratic base and the most populous in the state.

Hours before Cortez Masto's victory was proclaimed, his party had won seat number 49 in Arizona: the seat renewed by retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who won a no less difficult battle with Republican Blake Masters.

This key development in Arizona prompted Donald Trump to once again stir up the scarecrow of voter fraud. The pretext this time was a breakdown in part of the vote tabulators in Maricopa County, which in fact caused delays in the count from the outset. “Broken machines in Republican areas. A new election must be called immediately!” the former president wrote on his network, Truth Social.

A few dozen Trump supporters demonstrated outside the Maricopa election office with banners denouncing a "hoax" and claiming the Republican Master was the winner. In turn, Republican spokeswoman Harmeet Dhillon said that "this election has exposed deep flaws in the electoral administration of Maricopa County." And she added that “Arizona deserves better: transparency, certainty, efficiency and, most importantly, an accurate and prompt announcement of election results that all voters can accept.” But she did not speak of fraud.

In Nevada, however, the Republican and Trumpist Laxalt came out ahead of the news prior to the proclamation of the decisive results that attributed to him the purpose of demanding a verification recount if the data did not favor him: "That is totally false," he clarified. On twitter. He added that he was still confident of winning, but admitted that "if a strong pro-Democrat bias remains, then she (Cortez) will outpace us." And he concluded: "Thank you for all the prayers of millions of Nevadans and Americans who hope that we can still take back the Senate and begin to take back our country."

The Democrats can strengthen their majority in the Senate if on December 6 their candidate in Georgia, Raphael Warnock, wins the Republican Herschel Walker in the second round.

As for the House of Representatives, the counts still pending last night placed the Republicans seven seats out of the 218 they need to win the majority there, as they hope.

Gone is, in any case, the "red tide", that is to say Republican, that Donald Trump and many leaders of his party predicted for these mid-term legislative elections.