🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Democrats retained control of the Senate on Saturday, ensuring a harder time for Republicans to thwart President Joe Biden's agenda over the next two years.
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won reelection on Saturday, giving Democrats the 50 seats needed for control of the upper chamber, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast the tiebreaking vote.
Democrats could still win another, however, if Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock is able to retain his seat in a December 6 runoff against his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker.
Meanwhile, the fate of the House was still up in the air as of Sunday morning and with it, the legislative agenda. But the Senate result paves the way for Biden to keep reshaping the federal judiciary as he sees fit.
A Democratic-controlled Senate means the president's nominees to fill dozens of federal judgeships can win confirmation without needing Republican support. This will be even more significant should a seat on the Supreme Court, which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority, opens up.
It also means Biden will avoid what former President Barack Obama faced in 2016 when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a vote on Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Garland later became U.S. attorney general under the Biden administration.
The Senate has confirmed 84 judges nominated by Biden, matching former President Donald Trump's pace. They include Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court's first Black woman.
"Senate Democrats have been committed to restoring balance to the federal judiciary with professionally and personally diverse judges," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said during an interview with NBC News on Saturday. "With two more years of a Senate Democratic majority we will build on our historic pace of judicial confirmations and ensure the federal bench better reflects the diversity of America."
Although the Georgia runoff next month is no longer crucial for Democrats to control the Senate, expanding Democrats' majority to 51-49 would give the party an additional edge in passing the few bills that are able to advance with a simple majority.
Senate Democrats can also reject bills passed by a GOP-controlled House and set their own legislative agenda. However, Democrats still lack the 60 votes in the Senate needed to move many kinds of major legislative changes.
On Saturday, Biden said he was "looking forward to the next couple of years" with Democrats, and that the party was focused on winning a 51st Senate seat because it would boost their standing on committees.
"It's always better with 51, because we're in a situation where you don't have to have an even makeup of the committees," he told reporters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he is attending the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "It's just simply better. The bigger the numbers, the better."
Newsweek reached out to Schumer's office for comment.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more