Democrats will be running Congress for at least the next two years, though as of the writing of this newsletter, two Senate races and 59 House of Representatives races are still undecided. Individual races brought some good news for NCPA: Pharmacy owners Jerry Carl (R-Ala.) and Rep. Derek Tran (D-Calif.) have secured their wins, and pharmacist Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) has been re-elected. Additionally, we are seeing the return of former policy champions. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) will now become a senator for Alabama, and Sherrod Brown was re-elected to the Senate as an Ohio Democrat.
This was a landmark election in many ways, with record-breaking amounts of money spent, and potentially the highest number of seats flipped since the Watergate scandal.
So, what does this mean for Congress moving forward? Over the next few weeks, vote tallies will be rerun, and the final winners announced. The last will likely be Alaska; that state’s Nov. 18 tabulation means it’s generally one of the final races to be finalized.
No matter what these large changes in the makeup of each chamber add up to, they will impact committee rosters, which will likely be largely decided in December. First, however, the Republicans and Democrats will be looking to pick their leadership teams during November.
We will continue to keep you all updated as more information rolls in, and what this means for the end of the year. Roughly a quarter of those elected to Congress are new members, so no matter what, many officeholders will need to be educated on pharmacy matters. Materials for that will be coming in the near future.
