Since President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, Republicans have been riding high. What was predicted by pundits on both sides of the aisle to be a nail-biter of an election, with results that may not be certified for weeks or longer, became the modern version of a blowout. No, Trump didn’t put a Reagan vs. Mondale beating on his political foes, but in a country so polarized along party lines, with a clean sweep of all seven battleground states and a victory in the national popular vote by 2.3 million, the former president had as good a showing as any Republican could have wanted.
Congressional Republicans lagged behind Trump, but not by much. The GOP retained the House of Representatives, albeit with a historically tiny majority, and regained the Senate on the back of victories over longtime Democratic red-state stalwarts Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT), as well as Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV)’s retirement.
