Republicans Increase Senate Majority With Kennedy Win

The founding fathers of our nation put together a pretty good plan. The idea that there would be three branches of government offers our democracy a system of checks and balances that has worked for a very long time.

We've recently held elections in the executive branch with Donald Trump being chosen as our nation's president. Over the weekend in Louisiana voters made runoff choices for three key positions in the legislative branch. There were two new Representatives elected and one United States Senator.

The election of John Kennedy to the Senate was especially sweet for Republicans. By adding one more Republican party member to the upper chamber the majority in that body was increased to 52 compared to 48 Democratic senators.

They can lose a member or even two, remember Vice President-elect Mike Pence will now have a tie breaker.

Those are the comments of University of Louisiana at Monroe Political Science Professor Dr. Joshua Stockley.

This cushion of two Senators could be instrumental in helping President Elect Trump move his agenda forward through congress. While it is a simple majority, Stockley cautions that it likely won't be enough of a majority on partisan issues.

Sure the Republicans will have a majority in the Senate but let's not forget that the filibuster actually makes the number needed to pass anything is 60.

The good news is that in issues of infrastructure and debt reduction both parties seem to agree. It's the methods of solving those issues where the differences seem to occur.

I fully expect bi-partisanship to occur on some issues but at the same time, I don't see a decades long trend of polarization reversing itself.

The new members of congress will be sworn in on January 3rd. President Elect Trump will take his oath of office on January 20th.