Biden says Democrats “feel good” about where they are as they look ahead to Georgia’s runoff election
President Biden celebrated Democrats’ win in the Senate, telling reporters in remarks that the party is now focusing on the upcoming Georgia runoff election.
“We feel good about where we are, and I know I’m a cockeyed optimist, I understand that, from the beginning, but I’m not surprised by the turnout. I’m incredibly pleased by the turnout,” Biden said.
Biden said he believes the turnout is a reflection of “the quality of our candidates” and that they all are “running on the same program.”
“And so, I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years,” Biden said.
The president noted that the future of his agenda is “always better” with 51 Democratic senators.
“Because we are in a situation where you don’t have to have an even makeup of the committees — so that’s why it is important, mostly,” Biden said. “But, it’s simply better, the bigger the number the better.”
Biden spoke with Schumer and Cortez Masto following Senate projection
From CNN’s Allie Malloy in Bali, Indonesia
President Biden spoke Sunday with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the White House said.
Biden spoke with Cortez Masto at 10:08 a.m. local time and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at 10:28 a.m. local time, following the news that Democrats have held onto their majority in the Senate, according to the White House.
Nevada’s secretary of state-elect says “future of American democracy hinged on the outcome” of his race
From CNN’s Maeve Reston
Cisco Aguilar, the Democrat who will be Nevada’s next secretary of state, said the “future of American democracy hinged on the outcome” of his race in his matchup with avowed election denier Jim Marchant, who baselessly insisted that the 2020 presidential election in Nevada was “rigged.” Marchant said he would not have certified President Joe Biden’s win in Nevada if he had been secretary of state in 2020.
“My opponent was an election denier who ran a campaign on conspiracy theories,” Aguilar said in remarks prepared for delivery. “My campaign focused on protecting democracy for all Nevadans and ensuring our elections remain free and fair in the future.”
He praised voters “who put country over the party and rejected extremism so that the will of Nevada’s continues to determine the future of our believed state.”
“Nevada is going to determine who the president is in 2024 and my victory means that we will have elections we can trust,” he said.
Aguilar will be the first Latino to serve in that role in Nevada.
Analysis: Why the Georgia runoff election is still really important to Democrats
Although Democrats are already projected to win control of the Senate, CNN chief political Gloria Borger said the upcoming Dec. 6 Georgia runoff is still really important to the party.
“They want to have a clear majority,” Borger said on CNN. “But, I think that one vote actually does matter in so many ways because it doesn’t give anybody the kind of leverage that say a Joe Manchin had.”
“And no Democrat will tell you that they are going to fight any less hard for that seat,” she said.
In remarks to reporters tonight, President Biden celebrated Democrats’ win in the Senate and said the party is now focusing on the Georgia runoff. He noted that the future of his agenda is “always better” with 51 Democratic senators.
“Because we are in a situation where you don’t have to have an even makeup of the committees — so that’s why it is important, mostly,” Biden said. “But, it’s simply better, the bigger the number the better.”
More on the runoff: Neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker surpassed the 50% threshold needed to win the race outright Tuesday evening, CNN projected, forcing a runoff election.
With Democrats’ projected win in the Nevada Senate race, they now have 50 Senate seats to Republicans’ 49 seats.
Even if Republicans win the Georgia runoff, though, Vice President Kamala Harris would continue to cast the tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Senate to guarantee the Democratic majority.
CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed reporting to this post.
CNN Projection: Democrat Cisco Aguilar will defeat Jim Marchant in Nevada secretary of state race
From CNN’s Fredreka Schouten
Democrat Cisco Aguilar will win the contest for Nevada secretary of state, CNN projects, defeating Republican Jim Marchant, who repeatedly spread falsehoods about the legitimacy of recent elections in the state.
Aguilar, a Las Vegas attorney and former aide to the late US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, will be the state’s first Latino secretary of state. During the campaign, Aguilar said he wanted to “remove barriers to voter participation” and make elections more transparent “to maintain the public trust.”
But much of the attention in the race focused on Marchant, who falsely attributed former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss to a “rigged” election in the state and encouraged hand-counting of ballots, rather than the use of vote-tallying machines – a process critics say would lead to chaos and errors in running elections.
Aguilar will fill an open seat now held by a Republican Barbara Cegavske, who was censured by her party for refusing to go along with false claims pushed by allies of former President Donald Trump that he lost Nevada in 2020 because of widespread fraud.
Cegavske is term limited.
Aguilar’s previous roles have included working as general counsel to the management company of husband-and-wife tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff and serving on the state’s athletic commission.
Sen. Cortez Masto’s campaign reacts to her Nevada win: “She proved everyone wrong again”
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and Rosalina Nieves
Moments after CNN projected Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will keep her Senate seat, the senator’s campaign director of communications took to Twitter to say that the first Latina senator has never lost an election.
“You know who always said we were going to win this race? Catherine Cortez Masto,” Josh Marcus-Blank, the campaign’s communication director, tweeted. “So many people outside Nevada counted her out, but she knows her state, she campaigned everywhere, and she just beat the top Republican recruit in the country to deliver the Senate majority.”
Marcus-Blank went on to post, “What did people get wrong about this race? The first Latina Senator knows her community better than anonymous sources. The daughter of a Teamster knows how to fight for working families. And CCM’s a former AG — the crime attacks couldn’t stick.”
“Catherine Cortez Masto has never lost an election and delivered the Democratic majority as Chair of the DSCC in 2020. After a cycle as the most vulnerable incumbent Senator, she proved everyone wrong again,” he added.
With Cortez Masto’s win, the Democrats will keep their narrow Senate majority for the next two years.
See his tweet:
Schumer: This election is a “victory and a vindication for Democrats”
From CNN’s Sonnet Swire
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the midterm elections and the Democrats’ win in his chamber “a victory and vindication” for the party.
“This election is a victory — a victory and a vindication for Democrats, our agenda,” Schumer said in remarks from New York, adding that it was also a victory for the American people.
Schumer, who spoke after the Senate race in Nevada was called in favor of incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, said three things helped the Democrats secure the chamber: “One, our terrific candidates. Two, our agenda and our accomplishments. And three, the American people rejected the anti-democratic extremist MAGA Republicans.”
Schumer said Democrats had “faith we were talking to what American people really cared about.”
“And we knew the negativity, the nastiness, the condoning of Donald Trump’s Big Lie, and saying that the elections were rigged, when there’s no proof of that at all – would hurt the Republicans, not help them,” he said.
A Democratic majority in the US Senate also means Schumer remains leader in the upper chamber.
“I feel good,” Schumer said. “I feel good for the country because so many people worried – I did – about this democracy, with all the negativity and all the threats and even some people doing violence.”
“America showed that we believe in our democracy, that the roots of democracy are deep and strong, and it will prevail as long as we fight for it,” he added.
Schumer signaled that he would try to work across the aisle in the Senate, but isn’t opposed to taking on legislation “on our own.”
“My first choice is always to do it bipartisan,” Schumer said. “But on issues that really matter to the American people and when the Republicans aren’t being bipartisan, won’t be bipartisan, we try and do it on our own.”
GOP has “an awful lot of soul-searching” to do after Democrats’ win in the Senate, CNN’s Gloria Borger says
Following CNN’s projection that Democrats will keep control of the Senate, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger said Republicans now have “an awful lot of soul-searching” to do.
Borger said that this may be the moment that shows that former President Donald Trump “is not a kingmaker any longer.”
“This is it. His candidates did not do well. His election denial was not a big issue in this campaign. And I think that Republicans are going to have to do an awful lot of soul-searching about whether they actually ran on issues that were geared to them and how they could have lost the Senate with an election that was about inflation, that was about crime, that was about immigration, yes it was also about abortion rights,” she said on CNN.
“But I think that the fact that the Republicans couldn’t pull this off is going to force them to go to the couch and have a little bit of therapy and say, ‘Why did we do this? Were we following the wrong leaders? And how can we fix this?'” she said.
“One short-term answer might be to tell your voters that they should vote by mail because maybe it is easier and maybe more people do it,” she added.
CNN political director David Chalian explained what the win means for President Biden and his administration.
“This is very good news for the Biden administration, because things like judges and Cabinet appointments and what have you, that will not be under the purview of Mitch McConnell to navigate through the Senate, that will be under the purview of Chuck Schumer who will maintain his role of majority leader,” Chalian said.
“In terms of the balance of power shifting in Washington, with this Senate projection it doesn’t, because the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent figured her path to victory,” he added.
CNN Projection: Democrats will keep control of the Senate
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
Democrats will keep their narrow Senate majority for the next two years, CNN projects, after victories in close contests in Nevada and Arizona. Democrats now have 50 Senate seats to Republicans’ 49 seats.
In Nevada, CNN projects that Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, will defeat Republican Adam Laxalt, her successor in the attorney general’s office and the son and grandson of former senators.
In Arizona, CNN projects that Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will defeat Republican Blake Masters, a venture capitalist who was endorsed by Trump and supported by tech mogul and emerging GOP megadonor Peter Thiel.
Georgia’s race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker is headed to a December runoff after neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold on Tuesday.
Even if Republicans win the Georgia runoff, though, Vice President Kamala Harris would continue to cast the tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Senate to guarantee the Democratic majority.
Only one Senate seat has changed hands so far in the 2022 midterm elections: Pennsylvania, where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who campaigned as he recovered from a May stroke, defeated Republican Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Republicans successfully defended seats in hard-fought races in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, while Democrats retained their seats in competitive contests in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire.
More on the Democrats’ Senate win: Retaining Senate control is a huge boost to President Biden over the remaining two years of his first term in the White House.
It means Democrats will have the ability to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees — avoiding scenarios such as the one former President Barack Obama faced in 2016, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a vote on his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. It also means that Senate Democrats can reject bills passed by the House and can set their own agenda.