The shock of a sudden new vacancy on the US supreme court has rippled out to some of the most contentious Senate races in the final weeks before the 3 November elections, throwing the vital issue of who might win control of the body into confusion.
The recent death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg while Republicans control the Senate and the White House virtually ensures that her replacement will be conservative, swinging the court into a 6-3 conservative majority.
Donald Trump and Republicans have indicated they plan to move swiftly to install a new justice, meaning the vetting period and confirmation battle will happen during the days when incumbent senators and their challengers are making their final pitches to voters.
As a result, the dynamic in key races has shifted to varying degrees across the country, from Maine to Colorado. For Republicans, the battle for the Senate is an essential bid to cling to a hugely powerful body; for Democrats, wresting control of the chamber would be a hugely welcome – if previously unexpected – triumph.
In some races, the supreme court vacancy offers a chance for Democrats to rally their bases in states that increasingly lean left. In others, the vacancy gives Republican candidates the opportunity to remind voters who want the high court to tackle cases on abortion, deregulation, and overturning healthcare reform that senators can play a role.
“It should help red-state enthusiasm in that it’ll remind people what’s at stake in this election,” said the Republican strategist Cam Savage. “[But] there will be places in the country where it benefits the Democrats.”
Strategists and officials for both parties stress the campaign landscape is not yet clear.
Trump has not announced a nominee and only in the past few days have swing senators indicated whether they support quickly going through the process of confirmation.
In deciding whether to confirm a justice before the election or after, senators have signaled they are taking their own electoral prospects into account.
In Democratic-leaning Maine, where Senator Susan Collins is trailing her Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon, Collins has split with most of her Republican colleagues and said she would hold off on confirming a justice until after the November election.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
