Two Democrats Sworn In to Senate, Cutting the Republican Edge to One

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WASHINGTON — Democrats counted their New Year’s blessings on Wednesday as two new senators — Doug Jones of Alabama and Tina Smith of Minnesota — joined their caucus, reshaping the balance of power in the Senate after a history-laden swearing-in ceremony attended by three current and former vice presidents.

The arrival of Mr. Jones, who replaced a Republican (Ms. Smith replaced a Democrat) alters the makeup of the Senate, giving Republicans a one-vote majority of 51 to 49. That could prove just enough to thwart much of President Trump’s legislative agenda.

It also provided the first tangible boost to Democratic power in Washington since the crushing and unexpected defeats of Election Day 2016, which many Democrats had believed would usher in a new Democratic president and a Democratic Senate.

“This is a miracle — to have a Democratic senator from Alabama!” Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said after mingling at a reception for Mr. Jones.

The new senator told his supporters that his arrival in Washington was “the fulfillment of a dream for a long time.”

Rare are the moments of bipartisan comity in the Senate, but Wednesday’s ceremony offered one, however fleeting. It was the senators’ first day back at work after their holiday break — a time of “fresh starts and new mercies,” as the Senate chaplain, Barry C. Black, said in his opening prayer at noon.

But the swearing-in of Mr. Jones and Ms. Smith almost certainly brought a measure of relief to senators in both parties. For Republicans, Senator Jones meant there would be no Senator Roy S. Moore, who faced accusations of child molestation and whose election would have been hung around each of their necks.

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For Democrats, Ms. Smith’s ascent ended a painful period when a popular colleague, Al Franken, was dogged by charges of sexual improprieties that blemished the Democrats’ efforts to capitalize on a tide of misconduct and harassment accusations.

Moments after the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, the new senators readied themselves to walk down the center aisle of the grand chamber, where Vice President Mike Pence sat high on the dais. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. escorted Mr. Jones while former Vice President Walter Mondale and Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, escorted Ms. Smith.

Mr. Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, administered the oath of office.

But the real stars of the day were the two former vice presidents, both of whom also served as senators. As they milled about the Senate chamber after the brief swearing-in, the gregarious Mr. Biden greeted former colleagues with a hearty clap on the shoulder.

“He’s a good guy,” Mr. Biden told Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, referring to Mr. Jones.

In a sense, the #MeToo movement played a hand in the arrival of both Mr. Jones and Ms. Smith. Mr. Jones, 63, comes to Washington after a raucous special election in which his Republican opponent, Mr. Moore, was accused of assault and molestation of girls as young as 14.

Ms. Smith, 59, the former lieutenant governor of Minnesota, was appointed by that state’s governor to fill the seat left vacant by the departure of Mr. Franken, who resigned amid allegations that he had forcibly kissed one woman and groped several others.

She becomes the 22nd woman in a chamber that remains heavily lopsided in favor of men. Nonetheless, there are more female senators now — 17 Democrats and five Republicans — than at any time in United States history. Ms. Smith has already said she will run in a special election in November to claim the seat in her own right.

Mr. Jones replaces Senator Luther Strange, a Republican who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when Mr. Sessions became Mr. Trump’s attorney general. His arrival in the Senate makes life more difficult for Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, who must now manage his sometimes fractious conference with a narrow majority.

Mr. Jones made his name in Alabama as a lawyer who successfully prosecuted two members of the Ku Klux Klan involved in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, nearly 40 years after the crime. He is the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in 25 years.

This is not his first encounter with the chamber; after he graduated from law school, he spent a year working for Senator Howell Heflin.

“It is still surreal,” Mr. Jones told supporters at his reception on Wednesday. “It is incredible to be that young staffer coming back.”

Ms. Smith seemed similarly awed. She said Ms. Klobuchar had schooled her in the dress code of the Senate — women cannot have bare arms in the chamber — and she learned very quickly the lesson that all female senators learn: It is nearly impossible to spend a day walking the hard tile floors of the Capitol in high heels. “I think I’d like to sit down,” she confessed, sometime around 4 p.m.

Black voters turned out in droves to support Mr. Jones, and he vowed in return to hire a diverse staff. He has already started to make good on that promise; on Tuesday, he named as his chief of staff Dana Gresham, an African-American who previously served as an assistant secretary of transportation under President Barack Obama.

Mr. Gresham is the only black Democratic chief of staff in the Senate, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research organization that tracks such appointments. Two Republican senators — Tim Scott of South Carolina and Jerry Moran of Kansas — have chiefs of staff who are black.

Among those attending the swearing-in was Eric H. Holder Jr., who served as attorney general under Mr. Obama; Mr. Holder and Mr. Jones worked together in the Justice Department in the 1990s. He said he expected his old friend to be a “principled moderate” and a “voice for justice and equality” on issues including criminal justice and voting rights.

While Wednesday’s ceremony was a time to look forward, it was also a time to look back.

In the tradition of the Senate, where photographs are not allowed in the chamber, the swearing-in was followed by a re-enactment photo opportunity in the richly-decorated Old Senate Chamber, where lawmakers conducted their business from 1819 to 1859.

There, Mr. Mondale, 89, moving a tad slowly, chatted amiably with Mr. Pence, who extended an invitation to the entire Mondale family to visit the vice president’s residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory here. The Mondales became its first occupants in 1977, when Mr. Mondale served under President Jimmy Carter.