Conservative explains why Georgia’s Senate runoffs are a major victory for Joe Biden

On Tuesday night, January 5, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia — where the other Democratic Senate hopeful, Jon Ossoff, had a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in the vote count early Wednesday morning, January 6. If Ossoff prevails, Democrats will have a majority in the U.S. Senate. And Never Trump conservative William Kristol, in an article for The Bulwark, lays out some reasons why President-elect Joe Biden was among the winners in Georgia's Senate runoffs.

"As a newly inaugurated president, as the man who not only defeated Donald Trump but brought the Democratic Party back to power — albeit very narrowly — Biden will enter office with real momentum," Kristol explains. "Even Democrats, a notoriously unruly lot, will feel some obligation to go along with the new president. And some Republicans will, too."

Kristol adds, "Some congressional Republicans would like to be in the game and be able to play some role, even if a minor one, in legislation in return for their support. This will be the case especially if Biden begins mostly with legislative proposals — especially on the pandemic and also, some economic relief — that are reasonably easy for some Republicans to support."

If Ossoff prevails in the vote count, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will become Senate minority leader. McConnell has been a ruthless partisan, infamously refusing to even consider President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, in 2016. Yet McConnell has acknowledged Biden as president-elect and tried to discourage other Republicans from contesting the Electoral College results when the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives meet for a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Although Kristol is quite conservative, he has been a blistering critic of President Donald Trump and was a major cheerleader for Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. And the Never Trumper hails the Senate election results in Georgia as another defeat for Trumpism.

Kristol writes, "The odds tonight got quite a bit better that President Biden will have, and will be seen to have, a reasonably successful first few months in office…. A word about Joe Biden: he made a bet on America. He never wavered from the promise to unite the country and actually get things done. People to his left scoffed, Trump supporters disdained him. But Biden never gave in. Tonight's result in Georgia will at least give him a fighting chance to do what he promised — and to focus not just on the very real threats we face, but also, on the opportunities before us."