DLNews Politics:

President Joe Biden's Democrats defended their majority in the US congressional elections in the Senate.

They held a hard-fought Senate seat in the state of Nevada. Here, the Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was confirmed in office, as the US television channels CNN, NBC, and CBS reported on Saturday evening based on vote counts. Accordingly, the Democrats come to the necessary number of senators to control the Chamber of Congress. This is an excellent success for Biden and his party. However, it still needs to be determined who will have the majority in the House of Representatives.

Before the election, a wave of success was predicted for the Republicans and a debacle for the Democrats. Both failed. The Democrats performed much better than expected.

The midterm elections took place last Tuesday. The vote midway through Biden's four-year term saw all 435 House seats and about a third of the Senate seats up for grabs. In addition, important governorships were filled in numerous states.

Counting the votes in Nevada had taken a long time due to an extremely close race between the two opponents and due to electoral peculiarities in the state. However, after days of nail-biting, Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto finally prevailed against her Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, as broadcasters unanimously reported.

The Democrats now have 50 out of 100 seats in the chamber. So even if there is still a race for a Senate seat in Georgia, they are already assured of the Senate majority. Background: Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, President of the Senate, is allowed to vote in a deadlock. That means if Georgia Republicans were to win, there would be a 50-50 balance of power in the Senate - and through Harris, the Democrats still have a razor-thin majority.

In Georgia on December 6, there will be a runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker because neither got more than 50 percent of the vote in the first attempt. Should the Democrats also win in Georgia, they would have 51 Senate seats and no longer have to rely on Harris to tip the scales in their favor in a stalemate.

This scenario would already be a little more comfortable for Biden because the first half of his term in office has shown how difficult it is to govern with a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. Two party colleagues, in particular, made life difficult for him there: Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked various Biden projects.

The Senate is of particular importance in the political power structure of the USA. The Senate must confirm important personal details at the federal level - such as ambassadors, cabinet members, or federal judges. The appointment of judges is critical. Biden is now sure of the opportunity to push through further nominations.

How much else the president can achieve politically in the second half of his term in office now depends on whether his Democrats lose their majority in the House of Representatives or can maintain it. Should the Republicans have a say in the House of Representatives in the future, they can block legislative projects at will. The Republicans have also threatened various investigations against Democrats or even impeachment proceedings against members of the Biden cabinet. They could make life difficult for Biden and his government in the next two years.

Several voting results are still being counted in the House of Representatives. Two hundred eighteen seats are needed for a majority in the chamber. According to the votes counted so far, the Republicans came to 211 seats and the Democrats to 204 on Saturday evening. The race is also much closer than predicted before the election.