Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Biden just took a gutshot.

Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) has suffered a stroke.

His absence means that Republicans now hold the advantage in the Senate by a 50-49 margin.

Sorry, Chuck

With an even Senate, Democrats need every member to show up or they risk failing.

Lujan recently suffered a stroke.

The 49-year-old Democrat is expected to recover, but we have yet to hear a timeline.

At the very least, Schumer is going to have to pause all voting for a few weeks, possibly longer.

Schumer was already struggling to get everyone on board, and now he is down another vote.

To their credit, Republicans have held firm thus far, so there are no voters for Schumer to steal across the aisle right now.

Keep in mind, even if Democrats use reconciliation for budgetary matters, they need every vote to get to Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker.

Now the question becomes if Schumer will try to adopt a similar measure as Pelosi by allowing proxy or absentee voting to get Lujan’s vote from his bed while he recovers.

Lujan’s absence has put all Biden cabinet positions on hold, as the three that are currently waiting to be voted on do not have any support from Republicans.

This could also put Biden’s Supreme Court nominee at risk if Lujan is out for a prolonged period.

Although, Senator Graham (R-S.C.) has already voiced his support for Judge Childs.

This is a bump in the road Democrats had not anticipated, literally bringing the government to a screeching halt until Lujan can get back to work.

Source: Daily Caller