Warnock, a Democrat who flipped a long-held Republican Senate seat in a similar special election in 2020, beat back challenger Herschel Walker in a special election after neither he nor Walker secured at least fifty percent of the vote in November’s midterm election.
Warnock’s victory meant Democrats successfully defended every Senate challenge in the 2022 contests, and gained a seat after winning an election in Pennsylvania, transforming what was an evenly-divided chamber into one with a Democratic majority.
“After one year, ten months, and seventeen days of the longest fifty-fifty Senate in history, fifty one! A slim majority!” Schumer boasted.
The win gives Senate Democrats a bit more leeway in crafting legislation, a much quicker path to confirming U.S. President Joe Biden’s judicial and executive appointments, and full control of key Senate committees with subpoena power.
Schumer on Wednesday said Warnock’s victory showed voters decisively rejecting what Democrats have dubbed MAGA Republicans, those who have cleaved tightly to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 contest was marred by fraud.
“Many of the voters in the middle came over to us, cause they were worried what the Republican Party under MAGA control would do for democracy,” he said.
