By: Sam Gruetter
Opinion Editor
On Jan. 3, 2025, the 119th Congress met for the first time to swear in its new senators, including a new group of four Democrats and six Republicans. The list of new Republicans includes Jim Banks from Indiana, Tim Sheehy from Montana, Bernie Moreno from Ohio, Dave McCormick from West Virginia, and John Curtis from Utah. The new Democrats include four senators: Elissa Slotkin from Michigan, Angela Alsobrooks from Maryland, Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware, and Ruben Gallego from Arizona. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks will be the first black women to serve in the Senate simultaneously. The admission of the ten new senators marked both chambers of Congress having a Republican majority, alongside a Republican president, Donald Trump.
Both the Senate and the House must undergo extensive ceremonies for the members to be sworn in to their new roles in Congress. These ceremonies included an election for the Speaker of the House, which Mike Johnson won in a 218-215 vote; swearing in the senators; establishing the quorum; and receiving speeches from influential political figures. Vice President Kamala Harris certified this process.
The swearing-in of Congress was not the only important political event Harris presided over during her final days in office. On Jan. 6, 2025, Harris oversaw the counting of each state’s electoral college votes, officially certifying Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. This peaceful and efficient certification is a sharp contrast to its predecessor, which saw the 2021 Capitol riots and protests. After the official certification of the 2024 election, Harris commented, “I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it” and that the certification process was “about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is one of the most important pillars of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.”
The ceremony itself proceeded without a hitch. Per tradition, the electoral votes from each US state were delivered to the capitals, and political figures, such as Senators, gathered to watch as Harris read the Republicans’ triumph: 312 electoral votes over 226, totaling only about thirty minutes. However, the tumult from four years ago was still felt, as the Electoral Count Act now declares that one-fifth of each chamber of Congress must support an objection for the objection to be considered legally valid. Trump himself shared his opinions on the 2025 certification process on social media, stating that the event was a “big moment in history.”
(Sources: ABC News, AP News, CBS News, NPR)