(NewsNation) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took a victory lap as the U.S. Senate is now projected to be firmly in democratic control for the next two years.
“The roots of democracy are deep, and strong, and real with the American people, as this election showed,” Schumer said.
Schumer says voters rejected extremism and an anti-Democratic MAGA agenda loud and clear.
“We were on the edge of autocracy, and thank God the American people pulled us back in this election,” Schumer said.
For Republicans, the disappointment is just setting in. The party is already trying to diagnose the problem with its campaign messaging and its candidates.
Many are pointing the finger of blame at former President Donald Trump who hand-picked a number of candidates in battleground states that lost.
“Those who most closely aligned with the former president underperformed. Those who are talking about the future, who managed their states well, they overperformed,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said. “We’re not a cult. We’re not like ‘OK, there’s one person who leads our party.'”
With control of the House still hanging in the balance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stayed mum Sunday on her future plans but said congressional colleagues are urging her to seek another term as Democratic leader following a strong showing in the midterm elections.
“Whatever the outcome, we’re on the path to taking our country to a better place than was being dragged down by the other side, so we’ll see,” Pelosi said. “We were very united in terms of being there for America’s working families.”
If Republicans do manage to take back the House, it’ll be close.
Strategists say a historically small House majority means there’s not a whole lot the party can actually accomplish in Congress.
“Now with just a few seats, I think it makes it increasingly difficult for leadership to get priorities over the line,” Republican strategist and former RNC spokesperson Lisa Camoosa Miller said.
With a Democratic-controlled White House and Senate, House Republicans won’t be able to pass party-prior bills.
Miller says if Republicans do win the House, their priority will have to be messaging ahead of 2024.
But, she says, even that will be a challenge with such a small majority.
“The party is so fragmented and so in a different place with the different factions,” Miller said.