President-elect Joe Biden got a late but a priceless Christmas gift on Wednesday. That is; victories of candidates of the Democratic Party in runoff elections for two senate seats in the state of Georgia.
The win of Raphael Warnok and Jon Ossoff over the republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue handed the control of the all-important Senate, the upper chamber of the United States Congress, over to the Democrats. Their victories are more convincing than Biden in the presidential election on November 3.
What a turnaround for the Democrats in Georgia! On November 3, both the Republican candidates received many more votes than their rivals. But, as required by the the election law of the state of Georgia neither of them could cross more than 50% of the votes, forcing the runoff elections. In the last two months, the Democrats regrouped and took the advantage of disarray among the Republicans, especially the erratic behavior of outgoing President Donald Trump, to turn the tide.
With the surprising outcome of the runoffs, both the parties have now 50 senators each in the 100-member chamber. The Democrats will control the Senate because as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have the tie-breaking vote as the president of the upper chamber.
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Seizing the control of the senate after winning the presidency and House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Congress, on December 3 will enable former Vice President Biden, who will be sworn in on January 20 as the US president, to move forward his domestic and international agenda more easily.
In short, the American voters gave everything that the Democrats asked for to rescue the country from the mess President Trump, who even after two months after the election loss is yet to concede, created in the last four years.
The control of the Senate will allow the Biden administration the cabinet picks and other important nominations to be confirmed easily. It will also give the incoming president and his administration more leverages to deal with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that is hurting the US the most and problems evolved from it, mend the damaged economy, to work on social justice, to ensure rule of law and to fix other problems related to lives of everyday American.
As far as the international agenda is concerned, Biden will be in a better position to be engaged in some important aspects like Paris Climate Deal, Iran Nuclear Agreement, Middle East peace process. Most importantly, with the two chambers at his side, he will be able to reassure the international community that the US, the most powerful country both economically and militarily, will act responsibly and be more proactive in trying to contribute to the solution to problems across the globe.
One thing must be kept in mind that both the parties are evenly split. Democrats are in the driver's seat due to the tie-breaking vote of the vice president. So, the Democrats will have to work across the aisle from time to time to get the desired results.
