An election worker processes a ballot at the Clark County Election Department on Nov. 9, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP)United States (US) Midterm Elections 2022 Results Highlights: Following the US midterm elections, the Republican party Thursday remained close to winning enough seats to gain a majority in the House, but the control of the Senate remained up for grabs. Either party could secure a Senate majority with wins in both Nevada and Arizona — where the races were too early to call.
In a related development, President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Donald Trump’s bid to avoid complying with a Democratic-led congressional panel’s request for his tax returns that the Republican former president calls politically motivated. If the Supreme Court grants Trump’s request, the fight over the tax documents – which began in 2019 when the committee sued to force their disclosure – might become moot as the outcome of Tuesday’s midterm elections could hand a House majority to Republicans, who likely would drop the request.
President Joe Biden said there was a strong possibility that the Senate majority could come down to a runoff in Georgia next month. Biden, in his first public comments since voting ended, said that the Democrats had a “strong night” and expressed willingness to work with his Republican colleagues. “While the press and the pundits were predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden waves with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's 3rd Annual Independence Dinner in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Donald Trump's bid to avoid complying with a Democratic-led congressional panel's request for his tax returns that the Republican former president calls politically motivated.
The Justice Department in a filing asked the justices to deny Trump's Oct. 31 emergency application to block a lower court's ruling that upheld the request for the tax records as a justified part of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee's legislative work while his lawyers prepare an appeal.
If the Supreme Court grants Trump's request, the fight over the tax documents - which began in 2019 when the committee sued to force their disclosure - might become moot as the outcome of Tuesday's midterm elections could hand a House majority to Republicans, who likely would drop the request. (Reuters)
The elections held midway through a president’s four-year term usually goes badly for the president’s party. Seen from that perspective, President Joe Biden and the Democrats have done better than expected in Tuesday’s mid-term elections.
With cost-of-living issues — surging food, energy, and housing prices — rising in saliency and Biden’s approval rating at a record low, few expected Democrats to buck this historical trend. Yet while the Democrats are on track to losing their narrow majority in the House of Representatives, the widely predicted Republican wave did not materialise. Sanjib Baruah writes
As vote counting progressed in Arizona and Nevada on Thursday, the US House looked set to flip to the Republicans with 207 seats against 184 seats won by Democrats.
In the US Senate, after flipping a seat in Pennsylvania, the Democrats hampered Republican hopes of controlling the upper house.
Price increases moderated in the United States last month in the latest sign that the inflation pressures that have gripped the nation might be easing as the economy slows and consumers grow more cautious.
Consumer inflation reached 7.7% in October from a year earlier and 0.4% from September, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The year-over-year gain was the smallest since January. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, “core” inflation rose 6.3% in the past 12 months and 0.3% from September. Read more
The fierce race between Georgia’s Democratic incumbent senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker moved to a runoff. Warnock is narrowly leading Walker, but neither candidate will be able to clear the 50% threshold needed to win outright after the polls closed on Tuesday and avoid a 6 December runoff.
In Nevada as of midday on Wednesday, with about 77% of the votes counted, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto was trailing her Republican rival Adam Laxalt, 47.2% to 49.9%. Both candidates have urged patience as residents wait to hear the outcome of the race and several other close elections, which could take days.
Arizona’s Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly was ahead of his Republican challenger, Blake Masters, 51.4% to 46.4%, with 45% of the vote counted.
The Democrats need to win two of those Senate seats to effectively maintain control of the Senate with a 50-50 split on Senators and the vice president having the casting vote. (The Guardian)
Democratic lawmakers at the UN climate summit in Egypt expressed concern on Thursday that Republican gains in the midterm Congressional elections could spell trouble for America's efforts to fight climate change.
The administration of Democrat U.S. President Joe Biden is hoping the United States, the world's second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind China, can be a world leader in slashing emissions but has faced political opposition from Republicans who argue his environmental policies are unwarranted.
Kathy Castor, the Chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, told an audience at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday that if Republicans take control of the Congress it could reduce the chances for additional legislative action to fight global warming. "It's quite likely if for some reason the GOP ekes out control of the House of Representatives, they will nix the Climate Committee," she said during a panel discussion. "They have not really been partners in tackling the climate crisis." (Reuters)
Indian shares fell on Thursday, dragged by auto and metal companies, as investors braced for crucial U.S. inflation data that will provide clues about the severity of the Federal Reserve's future interest rate hikes.
The NSE Nifty 50 index closed down 0.71% to 18,028, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.69% to 60,613.70.
The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data for October is due at 1330 GMT, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a decline in both monthly and yearly core numbers to 0.5% and 6.5%, respectively.
"Markets have been rising, gearing up for a less aggressive rate hike from the Fed. But with a fractured U.S midterm election verdict and the inflation data due, we are seeing some corrections with markets getting ready for some surprises," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. (Reuters)
The dollar inched higher ahead of U.S. inflation data due later on Thursday, while cryptocurrencies remained under pressure after crypto exchange Binance scrapped plans to rescue its ailing rival FTX.
The greenback surged on Wednesday against its peers but later pared some of those gains, with investors also digesting the U.S. midterm election results. The dollar index, which tracks the currency against major peers, was last up 0.11% to 110.48.
All eyes were on U.S. inflation figures due later on Thursday, which could have a big impact on the scale of the U.S. Federal Reserve's future interest rate hikes. Economists polled by Reuters expect the headline consumer price index to show an 8% year-on-year rise in October, down from 8.2% in September. (Reuters)
On the morning of Election Day, Charlie Kirk, the conservative talk show host from Arizona, shared a video on Twitter about broken voting machines in Maricopa County, followed by a series of posts suggesting that the problems were intentional.
“This is manufactured chaos,” he wrote, calling for those responsible to be arrested.
The video was shared nearly 20,000 times and liked by more than 30,000 users, including many prominent accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. The post and others like it on a dozen online platforms kindled a false narrative of widespread voting shenanigans among those predisposed to believe that the country’s elections are rigged. And yet as Election Day unfolded, that narrative’s momentum seemed to wane. (Read more)
It was supposed to be a red wave that former President Donald Trump could triumphantly ride to the Republican nomination as he prepares to launch another White House run. Instead, Tuesday night’s disappointing results for the GOP are raising new questions about Trump's appeal and the future of a party that has fully embraced him, seemingly at its peril, while at the same time giving new momentum to his most potent potential rival.
Indeed, some allies were calling on Trump to delay his planned announcement next week, saying the party's full focus needs to be on Georgia, where Trump-backed football great Herschel Walker's effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is headed to a runoff that could determine control of the Senate once again.
“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” said former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who spent the night with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now," he said. (AP)
Gov. Ron DeSantis steadfastly focused his reelection campaign on President Joe Biden rather than on his Democratic opponent in Florida. But DeSantis’ runaway victory Tuesday, while crushing to Democrats, felt more like a win over a different rival: former President Donald Trump.
While candidates endorsed or hand-picked by Trump stumbled nationally, DeSantis routed former Rep. Charlie Crist by 19 percentage points, an astonishing result that Republicans in the state were still marvelling over Wednesday.
The party’s smashing success in Florida — among its brightest spots in a national midterm election with decidedly mixed outcomes — was a result of its relentless voter registration and turnout efforts there, DeSantis’ commanding campaign and Democrats’ utter collapse in a state in which they failed to effectively compete at all, leaving it to turn solidly red. (Read more)
Democratic Governor Laura Kelly has won reelection in the state of Kansas, defeating Republican Derek Schmidt, the state's three-term attorney general.
"The people of Kansas sent a very clear message at the polls yesterday," Kelly said in a statement. "Kansans said we will keep moving forward as a state, full steam ahead — there will be no turning backward.''
"Perhaps above all, I believe Kansans voted today for civility, for cooperation, for listening to one another, and for a spirit of bi-partisan problem-solving, that's become all too rare in our politics today," she said.
Kelly's victory signals a bitter blow for Republicans, who had sought to tie her to President Joe Biden and soaring prices. During the campaign, Kelly pointed to improved finances and greater spending on public schools in the state under her leadership. (DW)
Control of the 100-seat Senate has come down to three key races that are still on a knife-edge. Here's a roundup:
1. In Georgia, the battleground state with the largest Black population, Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock is a pastor at Atlanta's famous Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King preached. His opponent, Herschel Walker, was an American football player and a member of the 1992 US Olympic bobsleigh team; he was tapped to enter the political arena by former President Donald Trump. If neither candidate secures a majority, the race will head to a runoff on December 6.
2. In Arizona, Democrat incumbent and retired astronaut Mark Kelly is facing a challenge from Blake Masters, a young, Trump-backed protege of German-American billionaire and key Republican donor Peter Thiel. Opinion polls gave Kelly a slight edge, but the state tends to be closely contested.
3. In Nevada, America's first Latina Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is facing a tough re-election battle against Adam Laxalt, formerly a state attorney general. Polls were neck and neck in the build-up to voting. Both Arizona and Nevada conduct elections in part by mail ballots, which means the results in those states may not be known for days. (DW)
American voters elected a record number of women governors, a position that has some of the lowest female representation in US politics.
Twelve women will hold the highest state executive office after Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Democratic stronghold Massachusetts and Republican-controlled Arkansas picking their first female governors. Women have already won ten races, while Arizona and Oregon, which were too close to call, have female candidates leading.
The tally rose Wednesday after Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly defeated her Republican challenger, Derek Schmidt. (Read more)
Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock will face Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a second round of voting in Georgia after both failed to secure a majority.
The final outcome in the runoff — scheduled for December 6 — could determine whether the Republicans or Democrats control the upper chamber of Congress.
Warnock, a 53-year-old Black pastor at a historic church, is seeking a full term after winning the seat in a runoff in January 2021. That win helped secure the Democrat's control of the Senate for the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
Walker, 60, is a former American football star backed by Donald Trump. His campaign was dogged by allegations of past domestic abuse and reports that he paid for the abortions of former girlfriends. (DW)
For months, the midterm elections appeared to be a clash over rising prices, public safety worries and fears of a looming recession.
But another driving issue proved almost as powerful for voters: abortion rights.
In the first major election since the Supreme Court overturned the case that ensured a federal right to an abortion for nearly half a century, abortion rights broke through, lifting Democrats to victory in Virginia, Minnesota, Michigan and New Mexico. (Read more)
Former President Donald Trump continues to be an influential figure among the Republicans, and according to calculations by The Washington Post, 291 of the 569 party’s candidates have questioned or refuted Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. While a number of election deniers have, or are on track to win, Democratic Party candidates were able to fend off Trump-backed nominees in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire.
In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock held a small lead over Trump-backed Republican nominee Herschel Walker on Wednesday, however since he did not pass the 50 per cent mark, two will face each other in a run-off. (Read more)
US President Joe Biden vowed to work with Republicans and said he understood voters are frustrated despite Democrats' surprisingly competitive campaign.
"The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well," Biden said. He also reiterated his intention to run for re-election in 2024 and said he would make a final decision early next year. (Read more)
The races in three key states — Arizona, Nevada and Georgia — will ultimately decide which party controls the Senate. It is still too early to call Arizona and Nevada, while Georgia is set for a runoff vote next month.
Meanwhile, Republicans appear on track to seize power in the 435-seat House of Representatives, albeit with lower numbers than forecasts had suggested. (DW)
Former President Donald Trump was not a candidate in these elections. But he cast a long shadow over them. As expected, he has already tried to take credit for the Republican victory. But a few of the high-profile unconventional candidates that he hand-picked have lost, which will undoubtedly weaken his position as undisputed leader of the Republican Party.
An analysis by CBS News found that more than half of the Republican contestants in the mid-term elections (308 of the 597 Republican candidates for congressional and state-wide offices) are “election deniers”. In other words, they publicly deny or question the 2020 presidential election results. They either believe or go along with the “big lie”: Trump’s absurd claim that the 2020 election — only the presidential election and not the elections to other offices held that day — was rigged. (Read more)
The widely anticipated “red wave” in the United States midterm elections — in which Republicans would comprehensively win the House and probably also wrest control of the Senate — appeared to have turned into a “red ripple” by late evening (in India) on Wednesday. As counting progressed, it seemed Democrats had a slightly better chance of holding on to the Senate, while Republicans were favoured to win control of the House by a smaller-than-expected margin.
While the midterms have traditionally been tough for the party in the White House — in 2006, when George W Bush was President, Democrats won both chambers; in 2010 (Obama) Republicans took back the House and in 2014 flipped the Senate as well; in 2018 (Trump), Democrats reclaimed the House — the state of the US economy was expected to hurt President Joe Biden and the Democrats particularly hard in 2022. (Read more)
The massive ‘red wave’ that Republicans and analysts had predicted would splash across the US — in light of high inflation rates and President Biden’s low approval rating — came as a whimper rather than a bang. Conceding that his party’s results by Tuesday night were not up to mark, Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC, “Definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure.”
While the Republican Party is still likely to take over the House of Representatives (lower chamber), the Democrats put up a strong defence. Early results and predictions have shown that they outperformed expectations and won in a number of states, such as Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fettermen defeated Republican candidate Mehmet Oz. Anger among the electorate over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the nationwide right to abortion helped the Democrats curb their losses, the Associate Press reported. (Read more)
A Republican will hold Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat following the state's ranked choice election, with Donald Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow Republican, leading in early returns.
A candidate can win outright with more than 50% of the vote in the first round. If no one hits that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes count for their next choice.Rounds continue until two candidates remain, and whoever has the most votes wins. (AP)
Control of the U.S. Senate may once again be decided in Georgia, weeks after Election Day as a tight race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker was headed to a Dec. 6 runoff.
With more than 99% of the vote counted, Warnock is narrowly leading against Walker, a former football star endorsed by former President Donald Trump. But Warnock has not yet reached the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff, according to data from Edison Research.
"While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the US Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6," Gabe Sterling, chief operating officer for Georgia secretary of state, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday. (Reuters)
At the end of a campaign in which the fundamental conditions for Democrats seemed dire — inflation at a 40-year high, an unpopular president — Republicans could do no better than to end the evening still scratching here and there for the seats they needed to win control of the House, the minimum they could call a victory.
All indications were that they would end up at best with one of the weakest performances in decades by the out-of-power party against a first-term president’s party, a stark contrast to Republican gains of 54 House seats against President Bill Clinton in 1994 and 64 seats against President Barack Obama in 2010. New York Times Reports.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot decisively won a third term, defeating Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. Abbot’s win extends decades of GOP dominance in the state, AP reported.
Investors were weighing a less clear outcome in the U.S. midterm elections on Wednesday, with Democrats doing better than expected, making questions about fiscal spending and regulation more ambiguous.
Control of Congress was still up for grabs early on Wednesday with many of the most competitive races uncalled, leaving it unclear whether Republicans would crack Democrats' tenuous hold on power. (Reuters)
With the votes still being counted in the high-stakes US midterm polls, it remains unclear which party will control the Senate and the House of Representatives, which together form the United States Congress. While the Senate is still a toss-up, Republicans are favoured to win a narrow majority in the House.
Democrats presently control the 50-50 Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break any ties. Defying expectations that high inflation and President Joe Biden's low approval ratings would drag the party down, Democrats showed surprising strength as it defeated Republicans in a series of competitive races.
The outcome of races for House and Senate will determine the future of Biden’s agenda and serve as a referendum on his administration. The party in power almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm elections, but Democrats had been hoping that anger from the Supreme Court’s decision to gut abortion rights might energize their voters to buck historical trends.
This is the second match between Kemp and his 2018 opponent Democrat Stacey Abrams.
'Across the country, we took the first step to save America. This election proves that when Republican stay focused on real world solutions... we can win now and also in the future,' Kemp said during his victory speech.
Hawaii gubernatorial candidate James 'Duke' Aiona, right, greets supporters at his campaign headquarters Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Waipahu, Hawaii. Lt. Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, defeated former Lt. Gov. Aiona to be Hawaii's next governor. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP)
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected as the governor of Massachusetts making history as the nation’s first openly lesbian governor. Healey defeated Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative, AP reported.
In the video, Healey can be seen saying, 'We made history. Didn't we?'.
The promise of a red wave receding, Republicans slogged state by state in a determined fight to break the Democrats’ one-party hold on Washington as anxiety set in over the dragged-out race for control of Congress and the future of President Joe Biden's agenda.
On Wednesday, the Democrats' fragile grasp on power in the House and the Senate remained at risk.
Races stayed tight, and Republicans ran into stiff competition in their march across the country, dashing hopes for the sweeping gains they had promised, particularly in the House. Instead, they inched toward what could be another narrowly split Congress. (AP)
In Nevada's rural northern district where no Democrats have ever won, Republican Mark Amodei has defeated Elizabeth Mercedes Krause, AP reports.
Utah Republican Mike Lee has been reelected to a third term in the U.S. Senate, defeating independent challenger Evan McMullin on Tuesday in the state’s most closely watched Senate race in decades.
Lee’s win keeps Utah in Republican hands as the party vies for control of Congress and reflects that the libertarian-leaning conservative’s popularity has endured in Utah. (AP)
Control of US Congress was yet to be determined early on Wednesday as Democrats defeated Republicans in a series of pivotal races and defied forecasts that predicted high inflation and President Joe Biden's low approval ratings would make them lose out on votes.
Democrat John Fetterman took the Republican-controlled Senate seat in Pennsylvania in a move that is key to his party's hopes of maintaining control of the chamber. For now, it is too early to call critical Senate seats in Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgie and Arizona, which could determine which party lead the chamber.
Incumbent Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "While many races remain too close to call, it is clear that House Democratic members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.''
While Democrats were able to retain seats in the House of Representatives from Virginia to Kansa and Rhode Island, current results show Republicans flipping eight House seats, which would be enough to give them control of the lower chamber of Congress if vote counts match electoral projections. (DW)
Democrat Megan Srinivas has defeated Republican Jerry Cheevers in Iowa, as per a report in Des Moines Register.
Dr. Srinivas is an infectious disease physician who graduated from the Harvard University.
Incumbent US Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, Tuesday was re-elected to another six-year term, defeating Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott.
"We’ve got a tremendous amount of challenges across the state of Hawaii. Huge challenges, but also huge opportunities," Schatz said at an election party held by the Democratic Party of Hawaii. "And we’re going to work together and we’re going to work for all the Democrats and all the independents and even the Republicans that didn’t vote for us."
Schatz was heavily favoured to win the race in Democratic Party-dominated Hawaii. (AP)
Election experts reported the spread of new falsehoods across Twitter and other social media services on Tuesday as Americans voted in midterm elections, four days after Twitter Inc fired half its staff and new owner Elon Musk tweeted a recommendation to vote for Republican candidates.
The nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause, which monitors social media for voter suppression efforts, said that Twitter took no action on high-profile posts that the organization flagged on Tuesday as problematic. (Read more)
In a major win Wednesday for Democrats, John Fetterman defeated Republican Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, flipping a highly competitive Senate seat and sustaining the party’s hopes of maintaining control of the upper chamber.
Fetterman had faced questions about his fitness for office after suffering a stroke just days before the state’s primary, but nonetheless bested Oz in a major rebuke to former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement helped Oz win his competitive primary. The win gives Democrats breathing room as they seek to maintain their narrow control of the Senate and the House remains to early to call.
“I’m so humbled,” Fetterman, wearing his signature hoodie, told his supporters early Wednesday morning. “This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone whose ever been knocked down that ever got back up.” (AP)
Democrat Josh Shapiro has been elected as governor of Pennsylvania, defeating hard-right Republican candidate Doug Mastriano after a highly anticipated battle in a key battleground state.
Shapiro, a two-term state attorney general, will replace the term-limited Democrat Tom Wolf.
Mastriano, a member of the state Senate, courted controversy as a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump's discredited claims that he was cheated out of victory in the 2020 elections. (AP)
Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost won handily over his Republican rival in Florida, becoming the first member of Generation Z to win a seat in Congress.
Frost, a 25-year-old social justice activist, ran on a platform of gun control and boosting Medicare. He ran in a heavily blue Orlando-area district. Frost took to Twitter to celebrate his victory, saying "WE WON!!! History was made tonight."
"We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress,'' Frost continued.
Gen Z generally refers to those born between the late 1990s to early 2010s. To become a member of Congress, candidates must be at least 25-years-old. (DW)
Progressive members of the Democratic party Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Corey Bush, dubbed 'The Squad' have all been re-elected from the seats.
AOC was won in New York, Omar in Minnesota, Pressley in Massachusetts, Tlaib in Michigan and Bush in Missouri.
Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams conceded to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday in a rematch of their 2018 race. Abrams called Kemp to concede, according to his campaign, and went on stage minutes later to congratulate the governor.
“I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to make sure the people of Georgia have a voice,” she said.
Kemp, who was a developer before serving as a state senator and secretary of state, clinched another term despite attacks from former President Donald Trump that threatened to snuff out support in his own party. “Well, it looks like the reports of my political death have been greatly exaggerated,” Kemp told supporters after Abrams' concession. (AP)
Republicans have picked up a net four seats in the US House of Representatives that had previously been held by Democrats with 100 of 435 races not yet called, Edison Research projected Tuesday.
For House races, Edison Research is tracking the net number of seats that flip from one party to another, as opposed to the net gain or loss of overall seats by either party.
The number of flips does not take into account seven new seats created during congressional redistricting and two races in which an incumbent Democrat and an incumbent Republican are facing each other due to redistricting. So far, Republicans have won 184 seats in the 435-seat House and Democrats have won 151 seats, Edison projected. (Reuters)
Of the 100 seats in the US Senate, 34 are up for grabs in this round of elections. Here's what the results look like so far.
Democratic US Sen. Maggie Hassan won a second term representing New Hampshire Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Don Bolduc to keep a seat once viewed as ripe for a GOP pickup.
Hassan, a former governor, had been considered vulnerable given her narrow win in 2016. But her odds improved after popular Gov. Chris Sununu took a pass at challenging her, and Republicans nominated Bolduc, a retired Army general who has espoused conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 2020 presidential election. (AP)
Democrats easily repelled Republicans backed by former President Donald Trump in several left-leaning states Tuesday, while tougher tests that could decide control of Congress and the future of Joe Biden’s presidency awaited in more competitive territory.
Despite their liberal history, states like Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois have elected moderate Republican governors in the past. But the Republicans this year appeared to be too conservative in these states, handing Democrats easy victories in midterm elections that could otherwise prove difficult for the party.
Massachusetts and Maryland also saw historic firsts: Democrat Maura Healey became the first woman elected as Massachusetts governor, as well as the first openly lesbian governor of any state, and Wes Moore became the first Black governor of Maryland. (Read more)
Democrat Wes Moore was elected Maryland’s first Black governor Tuesday, defeating Republican Dan Cox in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1.
Moore’s victory flips a governor’s office from Republican to Democratic. Of the 36 governor’s races this year, Maryland and Massachusetts represented the best chances for Democrats to regain a governor’s office at a time when the GOP holds a 28-22 edge in governor’s seats. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is term-limited.
Only two other Black politicians have ever been elected governor in the United States — Virginia’s Douglas Wilder in 1989, and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts in 2006. (AP)
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts, making history as the nation's first openly lesbian governor.
Healey, the state’s first woman and openly gay candidate elected to the office, defeated Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Her election returns the governor’s office to Democrats after eight years of Republican leadership under the popular Gov. Charlie Baker, who opted not to seek reelection.
Healey and her running mate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, were among three all-female governor/lieutenant governor tickets in the US that began Election Day with a chance to become the first such pairing elected to lead a state. (AP)
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was elected Arkansas governor Tuesday, becoming the first woman to lead the state and the highest profile Trump administration official in elected office.
Sanders defeated Democratic nominee Chris Jones in the race for governor in her predominantly Republican home state, where former President Donald Trump remains popular. Sanders had been heavily favoured to win the race, which also included Libertarian nominee Ricky Dale Harrington.
Sanders shattered state fundraising records with her campaign, which focused primarily on national issues. Sanders, the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, regularly promised to use the office to fight President Joe Biden and the “radical left.” (AP)
Indian-American Aruna Miller made Maryland history by becoming the first immigrant to win the lieutenant governor's office.
Miller, who immigrated from Hyderabad in India, also is the first Asian American elected statewide. She has a degree in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and years of experience working in the Transportation departments of the local and state governments. She is married with three children.
A printing malfunction at about one-quarter of the polling places across Arizona's most populous county slowed down voting Tuesday, but election officials assured voters that every ballot would be counted.
Still, the issue at 60 of 223 vote centers in Maricopa County gave rise to conspiracy theories about the integrity of the vote in the pivotal state.
Former President Donald Trump, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and others weighed in to claim that Democrats were trying to subvert the vote of Republicans, who tend to show up in greater numbers in person on Election Day. (AP)
Republicans who back former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen have become their party’s nominees for secretary of state in battleground states where they can play a decisive role in choosing a US president.
Should they defeat their Democratic opponents in Tuesday’s vote, these election deniers will be in charge of elections and vote counts in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Nevada during the 2024 White House contest. Democratic President Joe Biden narrowly won all three states in 2020.
Voting rights groups say the election of any of these Republican candidates threatens both the integrity of the next presidential election and US democracy itself. The fear is they could help Trump, if he decides to run again, or another like-minded Republican, overturn election results in 2024. (Read more)
The top American cybersecurity agency said Tuesday it was helping to fix problems with some state websites that were hit by cyberattacks during the US midterm election, but it saw no credible threats aimed at disrupting the voting infrastructure.
"There is no specific or credible threat that is disrupting election infrastructure," a senior official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told reporters.
Election security has emerged as a key issue in the United States ever since officials found Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda intended to hurt Hillary Clinton's chances of winning against Donald Trump. (Reuters)
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian-leaning conservative and former presidential candidate, won a third term Tuesday by defeating a rival from the other end of the political spectrum, progressive Democrat Charles Booker.
First elected in the tea party-driven wave of 2010, Paul’s victory extended a long GOP winning streak in Kentucky Senate races. The Bluegrass State hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992. (AP)
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was among a wave of incumbents who easily won re-election Tuesday in US midterm elections, early in a night that could usher in an era of divided government and scale back Democratic President Joe Biden's power in Washington.
DeSantis, a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, turned away Democratic Representative Charlie Crist, Edison Research projected. Seven Republicans also won US Senate seats, according to Edison, though none was unexpected. (Reuters)