WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell was unanimously re-elected Senate Republican leader on Tuesday, continuing his reign as one of the most powerful figures in Washington.
The Republican conference bestowed the honor on McConnell (R-Ky.) and applause could be heard from outside the room, sources confirmed.
The 78-year-old lawmaker defied naysayers last week when he won his own race in Kentucky for the seventh time in a landslide, prevailing over Democratic opponent Amy McGrath, a well-funded military veteran who raised more than $80 million.
Republicans under McConnell’s stewardship are poised to keep control of the Senate, but face two fiercely contested runoff elections in Georgia in January.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats re-elected Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the minority leader and kept the leadership team intact, including Sen. Dick Durbin as minority whip and Sen. Patty Murray as assistant Democratic leader.
But it’s still to be determined whether McConnell will retain his role as majority leader or cede it to Schumer as the final races for the U.S. Senate play out.
After defending a number of heavily contested seats, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the Senate is now gridlocked at 48-48 with four races yet to be called, including the Georgia elections which will determine control of the Senate. The two GOP incumbents in the Peach State have been forced into another round of elections after all of the candidates failed to garner 50 percent of the vote, as required.
Two other seats in North Carolina and Alaska remain too early to call. In North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tillis is trying to fend off Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham in a tight race. Alaska GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan is favored for another term against Al Gross, an independent running as a Democrat.
Even if Republicans secure the final two races where ballots are still being counted in North Carolina and Alaska, they would still fall short of the 51 seats needed.
The math has become more challenging for McConnell because the vice president of the party holding the White House casts the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Next year that would be Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. That means 50 seats for Democrats would result in control over the chamber. But Republicans would need 51 seats to cement their hold on power.
The stakes are high for all sides, with strategists expecting an eye-popping $500 million could be spent on the Georgia runoff elections in the weeks ahead.
GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Rafael Warnock, a Black pastor from the church where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached. And Republican Sen. David Perdue, a top Trump ally, will face Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff.
In a fiery speech on the Senate floor Monday, his first remarks since Joe Biden was named president-elect, McConnell blasted Democrats for telling President Trump and the GOP to accept the election results when they had been so unwilling to do the same after the bitter 2016 election.
“Let’s not have any lectures, no lectures, about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election and who insinuated that this one would be illegitimate too if they lost again — only if they lost,” the Kentucky Republican said.
–with Post wires