Gulp: GOP Getting Outspent in Nearly Every Major Senate Race
Guy Benson
Posted: Oct 09, 2020 10:25 AM
We've been writing about the importance of US Senate races for months, for two reasons: First, if President Trump wins re-election, but the Democrats gain control of at least 51 Senate seats, his ability to continue to shape the judiciary -- his most significant legacy to date -- will be significantly hobbled, if not crippled. This scenario is possible but unlikely. If Trump defies the odds and secures another term, it seems far-fetched that Democrats would simultaneously net five Senate seats, including several in states Trump almost certainly would have just carried (although Senate Republicans could conceivably run behind Trump this cycle, unlike in 2016, when many of them ran ahead of the man at the top of their ticket).
The second scenario is more plausible and more urgent. If Joe Biden meets expectations and wins the presidency, and Democrats retain their House majority as anticipated, the US Senate could be the only lever of power standing in the way of unified Democratic control -- and potentially unified Democratic dominance. Would-be majority leader Chuck Schumer has openly stated that he'd like to add blue states to the union, and therefore Democratic senators. He's strongly indicated that he intends to blow up the legislative filibuster, which would empower him and Pelosi to pass whatever they want with simple majorities. And on the radical notion of packing the Supreme Court, about which Biden won't answer questions (Harris continued the pattern on Wednesday night), Schumer has averred that "everything" would be on the table if his party is put in charge.
One could make an argument that a Biden presidency, tempered by a GOP-held Senate, could result in a desirable "cool-down period" of divided government, after years of off-the-charts acrimony. But if a wave sweeps Republicans out of power entirely, Democratic leaders are signaling that they would move to consolidate their newfound power in ways that would attempt to make their advantage insurmountable or permanent. The party that had just spent four years loudly fretting about Trump's impact on "norms and institutions" is threatening to violate norms and reshape institutions as naked power grabs -- which would ignite a new and ferocious round of partisan fury. If Biden is indeed the strong frontrunner, then it's not unreasonable to conclude that a Republican Senate is a critical bulwark against massive overreach, and therefore an essential component to something approaching the type of "return to normalcy" with which Democrats are disingenuously tempting exhausted voters.
more
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/10/09/gulp-gop-getting-outspent-in-nearly-every-major-senate-race-n2577473
