What Is The Senate Count For Democrats And Republicans

Who Now Controls The Senate

Chuck Schumer became majority leader following the swearing in of Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Alex Padilla of California by Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021.

Warnock, 51, and Ossoff, 33, had won special elections earlier in the month that determined control of the Senate.;

Schumer said in his first speech as majority leader: We have a lengthy agenda, and we need to get it done together.

This will be an exceptionally busy and consequential period for the United States Senate.

The ceremony officially cemented a shift in power in the chamber in the wake of the US election.

There is now a 50-50 split in the Senate which means the new Vice President will be able to break any possible ties as she will have the casting vote.

The Vice President also serves as president of the Senate.;

Speaker Of The House Of Representatives

The position of Speaker is constitutionally specified in Article 1, Section 2. The Speaker is the only party leader who is chosen by a roll-call vote of the full House of Representatives, which occurs after each party has nominated a candidate for the position when a new Congress convenes. House rules give the Speaker various formal duties. These include, for example, administering the oath of office to new Members, signing House-passed bills and resolutions, presiding over the House , referring measures to committees, and naming the partys slate of members for certain committee positions. Each party conference cedes additional powers and responsibilities to a Speaker from its own party, including influence over the makeup of certain standing committees. For more information, consult CRS Report 97-780, The Speaker of the House: House Officer, Party Leader, and Representative, by Valerie Heitshusen, and CRS Report RL30857, Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2019, by Valerie Heitshusen.

Table 1. Speakers of the House of Representatives, 1789-2019

See the section at the end of this report for a description and full citation of all sources.

Notes:A key to all party abbreviations can be found in the Appendix of this report.

b. Resigned from the House of Representatives, January 19, 1814.

c. Resigned the speakership on October 28, 1820.

d. Resigned from the House, March 6, 1825.

e. Resigned from the House, June 2, 1834.

i. Died in office, August 19, 1876.

California Voter And Party Profiles

NOTES: Likely voters are registered voters meeting criteria on interest in politics, attention to issues, voting behavior, and intention to vote. For a full description of these criteria and regional definitions, visit www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/SurveyMethodology.pdf. For race and ethnicity, results are presented for Latinos, non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic Asian Americans, non-Hispanic African Americans, and non-Hispanic other race and multiracial adults.

Sources: Seven PPIC Statewide Surveys from September 2019 to July 2020, including 11,725 adults and 7,243 likely voters. California Secretary of State, Report of Registration, August 2020. US Census Bureau, 20142018 American Community Survey.

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If The Filibuster Stays What Can Democrats Do

Because so much legislative action can be thwarted by a filibusteror simply by losing the support of one or two moderate Democratsthe partys slim majority will likely limit its ability to pass ambitious legislation. It gives sort of a fighting chance to make a down payment on some of those agenda items, Binder says. But its not sufficient in any way to really empower Democrats to do a lot of big stuff.

Depending on the issue, Democrats have some options. If a seat opens up on the Supreme Court, for example, Democrats could confirm a new justice with no Republican support. Democrats could also use the Congressional Review Act, which also requires just 51 votes, to unwind some of President Donald Trumps last-minute regulations.

Democrats also have access to a limited budget tool known as reconciliation, which can be used to pass legislation related to the budget or spending, and requires only 51 votes. In 2001, the Republicans used the tool to pass the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, and in 2017, they tried to use it to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This year, Democrats could use it to pass a larger coronavirus relief package, expand the Affordable Care Act, or pass some of Bidens proposed climate plansso long as the bills retain support from all 50 Democrats, including moderates, like Manchin or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Gallup: Democrats Now Outnumber Republicans By 9 Percentage Points Thanks To Independents

“I think what we have to do as a party is battle the damage to the Democratic brand,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison said on The Daily Beast‘s latest New Abnormal podcast. Gallup reported Wednesday that, at least relatively speaking, the Democratic brand is doing pretty good.

In the first quarter of 2021, 49 percent of U.S. adults identified as Democrats or independents with Democratic leanings, versus 40 percent for Republicans and GOP leaders, Gallup said. “The 9-percentage-point Democratic advantage is the largest Gallup has measured since the fourth quarter of 2012. In recent years, Democratic advantages have typically been between 4 and 6 percentage points.”

New Gallup polling finds that in the first quarter of 2021, an average of 49% of Americans identify with/lean toward the Democratic Party, versus 40 percent for Republicans.

That’s the largest gap since 2012:

Greg Sargent

Party identification, polled on every Gallup survey, is “something that we think is important to track to give a sense to the relevant strength of the two parties at any one point in time and how party preferences are responding to events,”Gallup senior editor Jeff Jones told USA Today.

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States That Lost Seats

California continues to be the most populous state in the country, but its pace of growth has slowed enough that it will lose a seat in the next Congress. That means the states independent redistricting commission will have to decide what part of the state loses representation, which could hurt one party. Based on population growth, the endangered seat could very well be a district located completely or partly in Los Angeles County. And because Democrats control almost all of those seats, that could mean they will suffer a net loss from Californias redistricting. However, the removal of a district could make Republican Rep. Mike Garcias seat in northern Los Angeles County even more Democratic-leaning than it already is Biden carried it by 10 points if the districts new lines stretch further southward, which would give Democrats a better chance of capturing that seat.

Lastly, we know for sure that Republicans will be the ones to lose a seat in West Virginia. All three current members of Congress from the Mountain State belong to the GOP, so at least one out of Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney or Carol Miller will not be in the next Congress. Expect a lot of intrigue surrounding how, exactly, the seat is redrawn and perhaps a rare incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary election.

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The First Hurdle Is The Organizing Resolution

Incoming Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and outgoing Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to agree on a set of rules, known as an organizing resolution, which governs how the Senate works. The organizing resolution determines everything from committee membership and staff budgets, to who gets the best office space.

Even with Harriss tie-breaking vote, Schumer will need McConnells support: passing the organizing resolution requires 60 votes. As a result, Republicans will likely end up with much more power than a minority would usually hold.

The last time the Senate was split 50-50, in 2001, lawmakers agreed on an organizing resolution that allowed both parties to share power. Under that deal, the parties agreed to split committee memberships and staff equally and changed the rules, making it so that if a tie vote prevented a measure from moving out of committee, either the majority or the minority leader could bring the bill to the Senate floor.

Schumer and McConnell may take a cue from that 2001 agreement, but Senate observers note that, in these hyper-partisan times, agreeing on even the rules of the road may be tricky. As partisan as it was in 2000, things have become even more partisan, says Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

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Lindsey Graham Votes In South Carolina

;Senator Lindsey Graham cast his ballot in Seneca, South Carolina, around 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, CBS Spartanburg, South Carolina affiliate WSPA-TV reports.

Graham, a close ally of President Trump, is locked in a tougher-than-expected reelection battle against Jaime Harrison in a race that has captured national attention. Harris raised $57 million between July and September alone, shattering the $38 million previous record for the most money raised in a Senate race in that three-month period.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who is running for re-election in South Carolina, cast his ballot and urged Republican voters to “show up in big numbers today to close the gap” after huge early voting numbers from Democrats

CBS News

United States Senate Elections 2016

Elections to the U.S. Senate were held on . A total of 34 of the 100 seats were up for regular election. Those elected to the U.S. Senate in the 34 regular elections on November 8, 2016, began their six-year terms on January 3, 2017.

Donald Trump‘s election to the presidency had a significant impact on the elections for U.S. House. The success of Trump at the top of the ticket led to smaller Republican losses in the Senate than expected. There were also several U.S. senators who ran for president in 2016. , Rand Paul , Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders all ran presidential campaigns. Of those senators who ran for president, only Rubio and Paul were up for re-election in 2016. Rubio ultimately sought re-election to the U.S. Senate after his presidential campaign ended, while Paul sought both the presidency and re-election simultaneously.

HIGHLIGHTS

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Forty Percent Of Young Americans Expect Their Lives To Be Better As A Result Of The Biden Administration; Many More Feel A Part Of Bidens America Than Trumps

By a margin of 2:1, young Americans expect their lives to become better under the Biden administration, rather than worse ; 25% tell us that they dont expect much of a difference. We found significant differences based on race and ethnicity.

• Whites: 30% better, 28% worse
• Blacks: 54% better, 4% worse
• Hispanics: 51% better, 10% worse

Forty-six percent of young Americans agreed that they feel included in Bidens America, 24% disagreed . With the exception of young people living in rural America, at least a plurality indicated they felt included. This stands in contrast to Trumps America. Forty-eight percent reported that they did not feel included in Trumps America, while 27% indicated that they felt included . The only major subgroup where a plurality or more felt included in Trumps America were rural Americans.;

• 39% of Whites feel included in Bidens America, 32% do not ; 35% of Whites feel included in Trumps America, 41% do not .
• 61% of Blacks feel included in Bidens America, 13% do not ; 16% of Blacks feel included in Trumps America, 60% do not .
• 51% of Hispanics feel included in Bidens America, 12% do not ; 17% of Hispanics feel included in Trumps America, 55% do not .

Y Control In Congress And State Legislatures

In the politics of education course I teach this semester, I was looking for a nice overview of trends in party control for Congress and state legislatures. Just a simple chart showing trends in which party holds the majority in the House and Senate and whether similar trends occur in state legislatures. We often just focus on one or the other, but I want to see Congress and states on the same graph.

But I couldnt quite find what I was looking for. So in its absence , I compiled data from the Senate and House history pages along with the National Conference of State Legislatures partisan composition page.

A few notes about whats being measured here. For the states, NCSL tells us whether both chambers are controlled by a given party. If Democrats hold both chambers, then the state is coded as Democrat. States are coded as Split if Democrats carry one chamber and Republicans the other. Nebraska is omitted because it has a non-partisan unicameral legislature, but I put them in the Split plus NE category just so we have all 50 states. And all data are as of January of the given year, except 2016, which uses December to reflect the outcomes of the most recent election:

Shifting gears to Congress, the chart shows the percentage of members from each of the two parties:

But these three charts are hard to put the full picture together, so the following combines them into a single visualization that I think tells the story a little clearer:

Data:

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Start Your Day With National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

Reprinted with permission from DC Report

The overwhelming failure in the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom should send a powerful message to those Republicans who think their future lies with Donald Trump and Trumpism. It doesnât.

Thatâs better than the record margin by which Newsom won in 2018. He won that race with just under 62 percent of the vote. It also equals the share of California votes for Biden against Trump in 2020.

The recall vote is a clear repudiation of the Trumpian tactic of trying to disrupt and delegitimize government when anyone but a Trumper wins the popular vote. Havoc will continue, but it can be defeated always if enough sensible Americans cast ballots.

Trumpism isnât dead, not yet. But itâs not attracting new adherents, either. Thatâs because all it offers is anger, the lethal rejection of medical science and cultish devotion to a deeply disturbed con artist who just makes stuff up like his very recent delusional claim of being rescued on 9/11 by two firefighters.

Trumpism is not an ideology, just political masturbation.

And no one in America is more captured by self-love than Donald Trump.

In spring, it looked like Newsom could become the third governor in American history to be recalled because rank-and-file Democrats werenât paying attention. Neither were the independents, whose numbers equal those of Republicans in California.

Who Ended Up With Majority Control Of The Us Senate

All eyes were on which party would control the U.S. Senate in 2015. The Democratic-controlled Senate in the 113th Congress had a partisan breakdown of 53-45-2, with the two Independents caucusing with the Democrats. For Republicans to take the majority in the Senate, they needed to take at least six of the 36 seats up for election that were held by Democrats, and retain control of the 15 seats held by Republicans. The section updated the seat count for each party throughout the night and the vote totals in the hotly contested races.

* indicates that the incumbent retired in 2014.

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Four Flips For Democrats One For Republicans

Going into the election, the Democrats held 47 seats in the U.S. Senate while the Republicans held 53.

The Democrats have succeeded in flipping four seats: in Colorado, where former Governor John Hickenlooper easily ousted incumbent Cory Gardner, in Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly defeated incumbent Martha McSally, and in Georgia, where Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Kelly Loeffler and Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent David Perdue.

The Republicans have wrested back one previously Democratic seat in Alabama, where one-term incumbent Doug Jones was emphatically denied a second term by Tommy Tuberville, a former college head football coach, most recently at the University of Cincinnati.

Outgoing freshman Sens. Jones and Gardner were both considered vulnerable, as each was elected with less than 50% of the vote in 2018.

Republican Thom Tilliss victory over Cal Cunningham in North Carolinaby less than 2 percentage points according to the North Carolina Secretary of States latest tallyis one of several close Senate races that were not called until after election night. In addition to the seats from Georgia, close races also include the victories of incumbent senators Gary Peters and Susan Collins , which were not called until Nov. 4.

Chuck Grassley Says Democrats Shouldn’t Count On Republican Help To Raise Debt Ceiling

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday that Democrats should raise the nation’s debt ceiling on their own since they are pushing new legislation to increase spending on health care and education that Republicans don’t support. On Monday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have kept funding the federal government…

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