Donald Trump is headed back to the White House, Republicans have taken control in the U.S. Senate and the party has a chance to hang onto and possibly grow its majority in the House.
That leaves the GOP members in Georgia’s delegation looking forward to pursuing Trump’s America First agenda once the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.
“Now, we have the opportunity to rightsize the economy, secure our border, restore our respect on the world stage, combat the fentanyl crisis, reestablish law and order in our cities, and make America great once again,” U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, said in a statement late Tuesday.
That sentiment was shared by U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, who said he wants Congress to quickly move to reverse policies implemented under the last four years by the Biden administration.
Carter and Allen were among the eight GOP incumbents in Georgia’s delegation to win reelection in the U.S. House. The only open seat was won by Republican Brian Jack, a former aide to Trump during his first four years in the White House who leaned heavily into his ties with the former and future president.
The one wild card is whether any GOP members decide to take jobs in Trump’s administration, which would create a vacancy in their seat and likely trigger a special election. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, has said in the past she would like to serve in Trump’s Cabinet, perhaps as the Department of Homeland Security’s chief over border security.
All five Democrats in Georgia’s House delegation were reelected. Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, were not on the ballot but will move from the majority to the minority.
Republicans flipped at least three seats held by Democrats in the Senate, and after all races are called they could have as much as a five-seat advantage.
Ossoff and Warnock will lose their leadership positions as chairs of Senate subcommittees, although they still could serve as the top-ranking Democrats on these panels. And Ossoff, who is up for reelection in 2026, will likely campaign with fellow Democrats seeking to serve as a check on the balance of power in Washington.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is stepping down from his leadership role, told reporters Wednesday that he was happy to leave with the GOP in the majority after leading the conference for nearly two decades. He said he was hopeful that when all votes are counted Republicans remain in the majority in the House so they can work to implement Trump’s agenda in the same way Democrats did during the first two years of Biden’s administration through budget reconciliation.
Reconciliation is an expedited process Congress can use to implement policy by including its language in spending bills. It is often the method of choice for turning a president’s platform into law when his party controls both chambers of Congress because it is not subject to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rules.
“We hear optimistic reports of what may have happened in the House,” McConnell said. “Obviously, if you were going to legitimately work around the filibuster, it would be through reconciliation.”
The change in the balance of power in Washington is likely to motivate Democrats, and even some Republicans, to try to get as much done during the six-week lame-duck session that starts when lawmakers return to Washington on Tuesday and ends the week before Christmas.
In addition to facing a Dec. 20 government funding deadline, there is also pressure to increase funding for natural disaster recovery after back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton. And both a five-year federal farm bill and the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a military funding package, need to be finalized.
And with Trump and his MAGA allies questioning additional spending for Ukraine and showing little interest in humanitarian support for Gaza, there may be an attempt to handle foreign aid before the current session of Congress goes into recess at the end of the year.
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams of Atlanta, who also serves as chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, was reelected Tuesday night and said she is ready to get back to work.
“My approach remains that we have to fight for the people who are counting on us,” Williams said, “because we know that what we also heard from people on the campaign trail is, regardless of who’s in power, what people feel is what impacts them every day.”
Williams said voters in her district are the same people who helped elect Ossoff and Warnock, and who are now counting on their representatives in Congress to get back to work on the issues that matter most.
“It is going to be more important than ever that we have people looking out for the little guy, looking out for working families, looking out for those of us who don’t own a social media company, looking out for those of us who are not billionaires,” she said. “And so, we’ve got work to do, and I stand ready to do it.”
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