by Jamil Ragland CTNewsJunkie
It was a tale of 24 hours for US Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, who saw his own re-election campaign triumph while also witnessing the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris and the loss of Democratic control of the Senate in Washington.
“I’m really glad to see some new faces joining the Democratic caucuses in the State House and the State Senate,” Murphy said to reporters Wednesday afternoon at Capitol Lunch in New Britain. “But obviously, my victory last night is bittersweet to an extent because we lost a lot of good colleagues in the Senate, and Donald Trump seems poised to return to the White House, which is really bad news for Connecticut. Obviously I’m willing to work with President Trump wherever we have overlap that helps Connecticut. But I think those will be pretty small areas of overlap.”
Murphy also addressed the status of Democrats in the Senate, saying that the ability to pass laws will depend largely on whether Republicans choose to change the rules of the upper house of Congress.
“I’ve had plenty of legislative success when Democrats were in the minority, and I will continue to look for those areas of cooperation,” he said. “What’s discouraging is that when Republicans are typically in charge in Washington, they don’t actively look for bipartisan successes. When Democrats were running the Senate we were actively trying to pass bills on a bipartisan basis, whether it was the gun bill, the infrastructure bill.”
Murphy also was candid about the need for Democrats to take a close look at the results of the election to find what lessons there are for the party going forward.
“We’re sorting through the mistakes we made. The fact of the matter is Kamala Harris was put in a tough position. She was nominated at the very last minute. As the sitting vice president, it was always going to be hard for her to break out and have an agenda of her own, and that was made even more difficult by the fact that she had a very short calendar,” Murphy said. “So I think we have to be engaged in a much more comprehensive conversation about the state of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party platform and brand.”
Murphy defeated Republican challenger Matthew Corey with 57.5% of the vote to Corey’s 40.8%. The race was called shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m., and the celebration was on.
“There are no words to tell you how grateful I am to you,” Murphy said to a packed room in the premium level suite at Dunkin’ Park in Downtown Hartford. “But I get it. There’s a lot of anxiety tonight, right? We’re gonna stay up late this evening. But I feel optimistic about this country. I feel confident about what is going to happen tonight and over the next few days. Because I’ve seen what we have been able to do over the last six years. I’ve seen us, for decades, talk the talk on climate change and then I’ve watched us pass the most significant investment in green energy in the history of the country.
“I’ve watched us say that infrastructure is something that we could easily do and then all of a sudden we were able to bring Republicans and Democrats together to invest in infrastructure all across this country. I’ve seen the gun allowed to control Washington until all of a sudden it was not in control of Washington. I have seen the possibility of democracy. I’ve seen our work, our collective work, be able to change people’s lives.”
Sen. Chris Murphy chats with supporters outside the polling location at Cheshire High School on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. Credit: Johnathon Henninger / CTNewsJunkie
Yet as the night went on, the chances of a Democratic victory at the top of the ticket grew dimmer and dimmer. When the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for former President Donald Trump, it was all but over. Finally, at 5:34 a.m., the AP called Wisconsin for Trump, naming him the next President of the United States.
Republicans also managed to retake the Senate, holding their own contested seats while defeating Sherrod Brown in Ohio, John Tester in Montana, and claiming former Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat in West Virginia. The House of Representatives still remains in play, with several races undecided that may take days to sort out. The possibility exists that after the jubilation of victory, Murphy will head into the 119th Congress with Republicans in control of all three branches of government.