Dems’ control of Senate greenlights Biden judicial nominees with input from Trump attorneys MORE’s (R-Ill.) seat was the first of many to open, and by the summer of 2010 nearly 20 were in the Senate, nearly all of them Democrats.
The new senators made good on their pledges to serve on a yearlong Senate term, but their first legislative agenda was an unimpressive attempt at gun safety.
So when the party took control of the House in the fall of 2010, the majority in Washington seemed like it was the result of an election. The “green-light bill” sent to the Senate was considered a first step in changing the country’s gun laws.
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The legislation would have established a new federal task force to look into gun violence and give background checks to virtually all gun buyers.
The measure was seen as a long-awaited way to address guns and gun violence that was passed with the backing of Democrats and the support of Republicans.
On the floor, Republican Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Reid’s Nevada colleague, described the bill as “a pretty good way” of getting “some gun control.” President Obama in mid-2011 praised “a bipartisan group of Senate Democrats” in a statement.
In the end, the bill failed to gain passage.
A bipartisan bipartisan group of senators with the Democratic staff of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., voted against the measure and the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobby, voted against it as well. Both the bill and the NRA have called the proposal a “top priority” for their members.
The following Senate session was the largest in decades and ended with Republicans holding a 53-47 majority, a result that was seen as a strong rebuke to Democrats.
In 2011, it was a blue-collar state senator who broke the streak of non-incumbents. He defeated an entrenched veteran lawmaker in favor of an up-and-coming Democrat who represented a traditionally conservative district.
Reid was ready for the challenge of his new colleague, who won re-election with more than 50 percent
