We are just days away from the US election, and the world waits with bated breath to see if Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be elected as the 47th president of the United States.
As important as that battle is, there are dozens of other contests taking place on November 5, with the US system seeing a wide range of races to be voted on other than the presidential race on polling day.
Some are extremely localised, such as whether to expand a local high school’s car park, but others could have seismic impacts on the function of the United States for at least the next two years.
On 5th November, 34 senate seats will be on the ballot, with the outcome having a huge sway on how freely the new president will be able to operate.
So, what exactly is the US Senate, and why are Tuesday’s Senate elections so important?
The US Senate is one of two houses that make up the United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives.
As in the UK political system where the House of Lords and House of Commons work together but independently to keep the wheels of politics turning, the two US houses operate in a similar manner.
In total, the Senate includes 100 senators, two from each state, meaning that each state, regardless of size, has the same amount of representation.
Senators are elected for a term of six years with a third of senate seats coming up for election every two years.
Currently, the Democrats narrowly hold the Senate, counting 51 senators against the 49 Republicans in the house, and this has been useful for Democrat president Joe Biden. In the event of a tied vote, the US Vice President, who chairs the house but is not a member, casts the deciding vote.
The Senate was designed by the Founding Fathers very much in the image of the Roman Senate, with the intention being that it would allow members to debate policy shielded from the gaze and influence of public opinion.
In the modern world, that is much harder to do, but debate remains at the heart of the Senate, with members given unlimited time to debate, meaning that they are able to delay or even block the approval of legislation via prolonged debate.
This is often known as “filibuster” and has in the past led to government shutdowns when compromise on issues such as the federal budget cannot be found between the president and the house.
The US Senate’s constitutional powers include proposing legislation, drafting or amending bills, oversight of the federal budget and approving federal employees.
If the president’s party enjoys a majority in the Senate, it allows the country’s leader to appoint their first-choice candidates for roles, rather than compromising with an opposing party if not in control of this house.
Another function of the Senate is to conduct impeachment trials, where two thirds of senators need to vote to remove a sitting president, a threshold that has not been reached in any of the three impeachment trials in US history.
