Republicans challenging election results are ‘grasping for straws’: Delaware state senator-elect
Roughly a dozen Republican senators plan on objecting Wednesday to the Congressional certification of the electoral college results, prolonging the process of affirming President-elect Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
Challenging the certification process won’t change the outcome of the results; according to the Associated Press, Biden picked up 306 electoral college votes to win the presidency.
“These folks are grasping for straws, they are seeking to appease a dangerous authoritarian wannabe,” Delaware state Senator-elect Sarah McBride told Yahoo Finance. “And fortunately, history will not be kind to these elected officials, and certainly will not be kind to Donald Trump.”
“These attempts by Donald Trump to undermine the will of the American voter, and also to undermine credibility and faith in American democracy, are the last gasps of a despotic authoritarian wannabe who has clearly demonstrated throughout his time in office a complete disregard for the actual well-being of the people,” McBride said.
Trump, she explained, spent his time in office with “an entire focus on enriching himself, his friends, and avoiding humiliation at the ballot box, which is what the American voters delivered back in November for him.”
“I think that we will certainly see Congress uphold the legal, certified electoral college votes.” It’s time, McBride said, for Congress to “look forward,” to more stimulus legislation. “The stimulus package that was passed this past December was a start.”
“Making sure that we get those $2,000 checks to folks is critical,” she said, adding that the $600 checks were not enough for many of her constituents who are “struggling with increased debt, with challenges that they're going to face when they have to pay their bills that have maybe been deferred throughout the pandemic.”
McBride is hopeful Democrats will win the Georgia Senate runoff. If Democrats manage to secure both seats during the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, they will hold majorities in both the upper and lower chambers of Congress.
The Associated Press has called the race for Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock against incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler. The race between Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff and incumbent Senator David Perdue is still too close to call.
“As a state legislator, I am incredibly hopeful that President Biden will put forward a stimulus that provides support to state governments that really are on the front lines of the response to this pandemic, but who are struggling because of decreased revenue that's no fault of their own, but a byproduct of the public health and economic crisis that we're facing right now,” she said.
McBride added that she hopes aid to states will enable them to “fill those holes and continue to provide the services that our constituents need and expect.”
Historic win
The 2020 election cycle has been high-stakes not just in the presidential and senatorial races, but also on a state level.
Senator-elect McBride is the first openly transgender state senator in the country. “I didn't run to be a transgender state senator, or to make history, or headlines,” she said about her historic win. “I ran to make a difference in my community.”
“But I'm also mindful of the impact that my election could have for a young trans person here in Delaware, or elsewhere,” she explained. “I know how much of a difference it would have made for me growing up. And so my hope is that my election helps send a small but profound message to that young person.”
Kristin Myers is a reporter and anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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