Finally, some good news for Donald Trump: battling dismal approval ratings, the US president on Wednesday relished a Republican victory in a closely-watched congressional election in Georgia, calling it a vote of confidence in his administration.
Establishment Republican Karen Handel defeated Democratic novice Jon Ossoff in Tuesday’s contest after a bitter, months-long race, retaining a seat that her camp has safely held since 1979 — and calming party jitters about the impact of the president’s troubles on local and national politics.
Trump’s Republicans have now won all four special congressional elections held since his inauguration in January, leaving demoralized Democrats to pick up the pieces as they seek to snatch control of Congress in next year’s mid-term elections.
“Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O!” Trump crowed in a post-election tweet, presumably counting Ossoff’s failure to win the Georgia race in the first round, along with Democratic losses in South Carolina, Kansas and Montana.
“Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare, Tax Cuts, Security. Obstruction doesn’t work!” the president added.
The Republican Party interpreted the results as a sign Trump’s core supporters remain faithful despite turbulence in Washington: with no major legislative achievements to date, and a White House mired in scandal over the investigation looking into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, and potential obstruction of justice by the president himself.
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel hailed it as a shot in the arm for “Trump’s agenda of replacing our broken health care system (and) reforming an outdated tax code,” two challenges currently playing out in Congress.
The Senate’s Republican leadership said it expects to unveil on Thursday a new bill to replace Barack Obama’s flagship health reform. The legislation faces unanimous opposition from Democrats and skepticism from some Republicans, who have voiced concern about the secrecy of the drafting process.
The Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has insisted he wants a vote on the health care bill by June 30.
Also on the horizon is the possibility that the US Supreme Court decides to hear a case on Trump’s so-called travel ban that was blocked by federal courts.
The administration has requested an urgent review of the policy in the hopes the high court will allow it to temporarily close US borders to refugees and travelers from six majority-Muslim nations. It remains unclear whether or when the court will take up the case.
The Democratic losses of recent months have been demoralizing for the party, but some see reason for optimism.
In each of the four congressional races, Democrats did far better than in previous elections. Ossoff, for example, secured 48.1 percent of the vote, 10 points higher than the Democrat in November’s race.
“Last night’s results were far from a disaster for Democrats, and Republicans shouldn’t be tempted to believe their House majority is safe,” wrote David Wasserman, an editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
“In fact, their majority is still very much at risk.”
But some Democrats believe their party has been too busy licking its wounds from the presidential defeat instead of regrouping, and refocusing on top domestic issues such as the economy.
Senate Democrat Chris Murphy warned the mounting scandals in Trumpland had further diverted the party from addressing the needs of ordinary citizens.
“The fact that we had spent so much time talking about Russia… has been a distraction from what should be the clear contrast between Democrats and the Trump agenda, which is on economics,” he told MSNBC.
In what may have contributed to Ossoff’s defeat, Republicans painted him as a pawn of Nancy Pelosi, the 77-year-old leader of House Democrats and longtime target of conservatives, who depict her as a far-left San Francisco liberal disconnected from the challenges of middle America.
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