Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor
As the coronavirus devastates the economy, businesses lose millions, prompting over 25 million Americans to file for unemployment. The Republican Party, now controlling the White House and the U.S. Senate, is in danger of losing control of it all.
The first shot across the Republican bow arrived from Virginia in 2017, when three Democrats were elected statewide.
The next year in 2018, Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2019, Democrats took a Governorship in Kentucky, a red state, and took control of the Virginia legislature for the first time in two decades — another sign that Trump’s polarizing time in office was hurting the GOP brand.
The U.S. Senate was seen as out of play in terms of Democrats taking over. But now, with the coronavirus crisis turning the economy and the culture upside down, it’s even more in play than anyone previously predicted.
Republican Susan Collins is way down in the polls in Maine. Democrat Jamie Harrison is raising more money than incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham in the red state of South Carolina. In North Carolina, Republican incumbent Thom Tillis is in a tossup race in a traditionally red state.
In Colorado, Republican moderate Cory Gardner is in trouble against his Democratic opponent, former Governor John Hickenlooper. Suddenly, the U.S. Senate is within reach of team blue and Republicans are in danger of losing the Senate. Only Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama is in danger of losing his seat.
The White House attempted to assist Gardner by helping Colorado with valuable PPE supplies for the COVID-19 crisis. The bottom line is that President Trump is likely to be a major target of blame for a pandemic that was known about around the world — including by his closest advisors — but ignored by a President who refuses to read his intelligence briefing or listen to advisors.
The Senate is currently 53 Republicans and 45 Democrats. What’s at stake is who decides judgeships for decades to come and who controls budgets and tax policy for years.
The story of how the coronavirus is likely to turn election results upside down just as it has turned lives upside down. There is no what that over 1 million Americans can be impacted by a global pandemic and that not be the case.
Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke
