Claim:
“If we lose these seats, we may not get another shot at this because [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer will get a perpetual majority and we won’t be able to break through there when he adds two new states and four new Democratic [Senate] seats.” -Sen. David Perdue, Nov. 18 interview, Fox News
What we found:
For sure, Georgia’s Jan. 5 Senate runoffs will decide control of the Senate. Republicans now hold a 50-48 advantage in the Senate. If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win Georgia’s runoffs, Democrats would secure a 50-50 split in the Senate and take control of the chamber with then newly sworn in Vice President Kamala Harris casting tiebreaking votes.
But a “perpetual” majority? Perpetual means never ending. Never say never in American politics. The White House and Congress, of course, have repeatedly changed hands following elections.
Yet, Perdue is alleging something else. Democrats, he says, would create two more states if they take control of the Senate, and that would give them control of four new U.S. Senate seats.
On June 26, the Democratic-controlled House voted nearly along party lines to grant statehood to Washington, D.C. That legislation, House Resolution 51, is now stuck in the Republican-led Senate. The resolution calls for a constitutional amendment, no easy task, given that it would require ratification by at least 38 states.
The process for making Puerto Rico a state could be simpler, requiring only approval by Congress and the president, The Hill reported. Last year, a bill to make that happen went nowhere in the House, though Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood last month.
Proponents say this is all about giving Puerto Ricans and D.C. residents, both of whom are taxed by the federal government, voting representation in Congress. Republicans argue such measures are schemes for adding Democratic seats in Congress.
Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In D.C., more than three-quarters of voters are registered Democrats. Approving D.C. statehood would likely add two new Democratic senators. Puerto Rico is a bigger question mark. Politico reported in September that seven of the past eight elections for governor or resident commissioner were won by members of the New Progressive Party, the more conservative of the island’s main parties. The territory’s nonvoting member of Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón, is the chairwoman of the Puerto Rico Republican Party. She told The Hill in September that Republicans who think Puerto Rico would consistently elect two Democratic senators don’t understand the island’s residents.
“They don’t know how conservative Hispanics and Puerto Ricans are,” she told The Hill, “and they don’t know the number of Puerto Ricans who have fought in the armed forces, and they don’t know the platform of the Republican Party, which for the last 45 years has supported statehood.”
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