Comment Democrats on Sunday were celebrating retaining their Senate majority after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was projected to win re-election, even though control of the House remained undecided. Her victory clinched the 50th Senate seat for Democrats and dashed Republican hopes of taking control of both chambers of Congress, as many had predicted in the weeks leading up to Election Day. “When the far-right Republicans said they knew better, I knew we were going to prove them wrong,” Cortez Masto said in a victory speech Sunday. “This election, Nevadans rejected far-right politicians working to divide us. We have rejected their conspiracies, their attacks on our workers and their attempts to curtail our freedoms.” With a Senate runoff in Georgia next month between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker, Democrats have a chance to pick up the 51st seat, a stunning feat in a typically unfavorable midterm election year party. power. The developments prompted some frustrated Republicans to call on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to clearly lay out a Republican agenda and delay their leadership election scheduled for Wednesday. The parties are gearing up for the last great Senate race in Georgia If Democrats win a 51st Senate seat, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) could override a power-sharing resolution with Republicans that is in place because of the Senate’s 50-50, and more easily confirm President Biden’s resolution. judicial candidates. Schumer on Saturday night called the results a “vindication” of the Democratic agenda and a rejection of Republican extremism. On Sunday, he called on Republican lawmakers to work with Democrats, but declined to elaborate on what they would try to accomplish. He said Democrats will try to have “as productive a session as possible. “Maybe the Republican Party, which has been so negative on so many different issues, will understand that the election was a clarion call from the American people: Stop all this negativity, stop flirting with authoritarianism, stop spending your time refusing the election and work to get something done,” Schumer said. Some Senate Republicans, including Rick Scott (Fla.), the chairman of the chamber’s Republican campaign division, criticized McConnell for allowing Republicans to cross the aisle and help Democrats pass some key bills with their narrow majorities. over the past two years, including an infrastructure bill and investment in microchip manufacturing. “The Republican leadership caved in on the debt ceiling, caved in on the arms deal, caved in on a bogus infrastructure deal,” Scott said Sunday on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” while criticizing McConnell for not releasing his Republican agenda before the midterms. Scott’s Republican agenda, which calls for tax increases on lower-income people and frequent reauthorization votes on Social Security and Medicare, has been accused by some Republicans, including New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), of scaring off elderly voters before the midterm elections. The White House and Democrats used the plan repeatedly to warn that Republicans wanted to target entitlement programs if elected. Democratic lawmakers remained confident on Nov. 13 after their party won control of the Senate, although control of the House remains unknown. (Video: The Washington Post) Rep. Chris Pappas (DN.H.) won a third term — a feat that hasn’t happened in his district in 25 years — because he hammered Trump aide Caroline Levitt over her positions on Social Security. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who narrowly won re-election, echoed much of Scott’s criticism on Fox News and also called for a delay in the leadership election. But other Republican senators, including Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Bill Cassidy (La.), publicly defended McConnell on Sunday and said they supported his leadership bid. No senator has yet announced a challenge to McConnell, who would become the longest-serving leader of any party in the Senate in the next Congress if re-elected. A McConnell spokesman declined to comment Sunday. As of November 12, Democrats held enough seats in the Senate to retain their majority, while the House was still undecided. See how long it can take. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post) Others put the blame squarely on former President Donald Trump, who endorsed several Republican candidates in losing battleground states, including Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters. “It’s basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race. And it’s like, three strikes you’re out,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (D), a longtime Trump critic, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result,” he said. “I’m tired of losing. That’s all he’s done.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday credited Biden and Democratic voters for the midterm victories. She called on her party to lift the debt ceiling in session to ensure Republicans can’t hold back votes to lift it next year if Republicans win back the House. Some House Republicans had floated the idea of demanding spending cuts and new border policies in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. House Republican aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters, acknowledged they will need help from Democrats if they are to secure a slim majority to pass must-pass legislation such as funding the government. Many hope Democrats will pass the debt ceiling in the debt session, a concession just weeks ago when they hoped to use it as leverage to pass key GOP priorities next year. Control of the House remained balanced on Sunday, with no party yet to secure the 218 seats needed to obtain a majority. Most of the uncalled congressional races are in California, where ballots are valid as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and where final tallies can take weeks to determine. Check out the latest House by-election results here In a major upset Saturday night, Democrats won a seat in a reliably Republican district in Washington state as Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez defeated Trump-backed Republican challenger Joe Kent. The former president promoted Kent in the primary over Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Could the Democrats win the House majority? As of Sunday, Republicans have won 211 House seats, while Democrats have won 203. Democrats have little chance of retaining control of the House, though Republicans are still favored to take a narrow majority. Still, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck an upbeat and celebratory tone in interviews Sunday. “We never accepted anything when the pundits in Washington said we couldn’t win because history, history, history. The election is about the future,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m very proud of our candidates, both our incumbents and our red-blue candidates. They never accepted the pundit that they couldn’t win, they had courage, they had purpose and they understood their territory.” Pelosi brushed off any questions about whether she would run again for House speaker if Democrats retain a majority in the chamber, saying she wanted to focus only on the results of the race. She added that she was “disappointed” by what happened in New York. That’s where Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lost his race. “But we didn’t give up,” Pelosi said. “We have the White House, we have the Senate, and we’re going to have a big strong vote in the House, a very different outcome than some would have predicted.” Steven Zeitchik contributed to this report.
