Elections in the US: Democrats hope for the Senate again

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The US Senate has its seat in the Capitol in Washington

Photo: 

Zach Gibson / AFP

How much room for maneuver the next US president will have also depends on whether he holds a majority in the US Senate.

Even if the race for the Senate receives far less attention than that for the White House, it is almost as important.

If the President lacks a majority in the Senate, he cannot pass many important laws.

Republicans currently have a majority, but it's not that big.

They have 53 seats, the Democrats 47. Only four additional seats were enough to take over the majority.

Over 35 places were voted in the course of the presidential election.

All hope is in Georgia

For a long time it looked as if the Republicans would retain the Senate majority.

But the forces shift the longer the count takes.

In the state of Georgia, Republican incumbent

a Trump ally,

slipped

below the 50 percent mark, he is currently more than a hundred votes away from a clear victory.

The votes still to be counted tend to be in districts with democratic voters.

Perdue's Democratic challenger

, an investigative journalist and CEO of a UK production company, is 47.7 percent.

If Perdue stays below 50 percent of the vote, he will have to run a runoff against Ossof in January.

This would be the second runoff election for a Senate seat in the state.

Because the Senator and Republican

has to run in a runoff election against her Democratic challenger: the Afro-American pastor

.

About this close election, Loeffler, a very conservative senator, said on election evening: "The radical left wants to take over the country. It will be a long struggle." 

Without a vote in the Senate, Biden would be blocked as president

The senators are each appointed for a six-year term, with a third being elected every two years.

Without a majority in the Senate, Joe Biden would have his hands tied on numerous projects should he become president.

For example, with Corona aid or reforms in the health system, in climate policy: The Republicans could block it.

Filling judges would also be impossible without the approval of Republican senators.

Biden would then have to rule with regulations, so-called executive orders.

Re-elected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he would pursue a policy of blockade under a Democratic President.

Should the Democrats win both seats and Joe Biden the presidency, they would have the number of 50 senators they need.

Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris would then be the tie-breaker, she would give the Democrats the - very narrow - majority in the Senate.

In a statement by Ossof's election campaign team on Thursday it was said to be "confident," and it sounded similar to the Republican Perdue.

The Senate race, like the one for the presidency, remains extremely close.

While the Democrats won a seat previously held by Republicans in Colorado and Arizona, they lost one in Alabama.

In other states, too, their often very expensive and tough election campaigns have not paid off.

If Donald Trump wins the election, it will be difficult for the Democrats to get a majority in the Senate.

You would then have to get both the Georgia seats and the Republican Thom Tillis seat in North Carolina.

Tillis is currently ahead.

He has already declared his victory.

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