Democrats and Republicans begin laying out strategies for new divided Congress

OAKLAND - Democrats and Republicans began laying out strategies and messages on Wednesday for what Americans can expect in the new, divided Congress following the decisive runoff victory in Georgia that secured incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock's seat and locked in a Democratic Senate majority when the new Congress convenes in January. 

Californians who spent long hours calling and texting Georgia voters in the high-stakes runoff election Tuesday, were celebrating what they saw as the payoff for their long hours of volunteer work to get out the vote.

"We were here all day between 10 a.m and 6-7 p.m. given the time zone change," said Gary McCoy, who helped with the phone-banking and outreach efforts in San Francisco and serves as the State Political Director for the Nancy Pelosi for Congress campaign.

"It was definitely a payoff for the all of the hours everybody put in. A good portion of the folks who had been volunteering were here last night. We were watching the results right from this room," said McCoy.

The question moving forward is how much can the new Congress get done, now that Democrats have locked in a 51-49 majority for Senate and Republicans are taking the house.

"One of the things I hope to do as leader is, even in this new electoral climate, is reach out to Republicans," said Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

"There's basically three things the Senate does. It passes legislation, it confirms nominees and treaties, and finally it does investigations," said Professor Henry Brady, with the U.C. Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.

Professor Henry Brady of U.C. Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy says it's likely Americans will see a flurry of judicial appointments as the Biden administration looks to fill empty positions.

"Now, the Democrats will fully control the Judiciary Committee and that means they can get the nominations out of committee, to the floor and then they can vote them in with 51 votes," said Brady.

Brady says Americans can also expect more contentious congressional investigations from both parties.

"We know the House is going to investigate all sorts of things, including Hunter Biden's laptop, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, probably January 6th but from a completely different perspective. 
so now what could happen is the Senate could have its own counterpoint to that with ongoing hearings," said Brady.

Exactly how much will get done in the new Congress, depends on who will be House Speaker.

California's Kevin McCarthy is facing a tough challenge from the GOP's far right.

"He's got to get a majority of people in the House. He's got 222 Republicans. A lot of them are Freedom Caucus. Roughly maybe 50. They've been very upset with Kevin McCarthy

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs says he plans to challenge McCarthy. 

"If we continue to elect the same leadership, we're gonna keep doing the same things that we're doing, and we're gonna make a change," said Republican Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona.

Brady says McCarthy and moderate Republicans likely will want to get legislation passed, and could be willing to work with Democrats, particularly on issues such as health care and trade.

"There's no question that McCarthy if he becomes speaker will want to have a record to run on. The question is if the Freedom Caucus and the conservative Republicans will allow him to do that," said Brady, "It's not clear what kind of deals McCarthy has to make to be speaker and how much that will hamstring him to work with the Democrats." 

Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU.  Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com and follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU or Facebook @NewsJana or ktvu.com.