Last week’s elections produced winners, losers and candidates like Kari Lake.
The Associated Press has already called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, but her Republican challenger Lake is refusing to concede. She said as much in a video released to supporters today:
Continue reading...The Democrat takes over as the second Black mayor in LA’s history, beating a rival who spent over $80m of his own money on the race
The congresswoman Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles, defeating billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and becoming the first woman to run the second-largest city in the US.
The Democrat, who has served as a US representative for more than a decade, had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes, with 70% of the votes counted, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, nearly one one week after the election. Caruso had a slight lead in the first counts after the polls closed, but Bass soon surpassed him and steadily increased her lead as ballots were counted.
Continue reading...The slim majority effectively hands great power to every member of the party, possibly stymying any legislation
Republicans have won back control of the House of Representatives scraping a victory from a midterms election that many had expected to be a red wave of wins but which instead turned into more of a trickle.
Nevertheless, the party finally won its crucial 218th seat in the lower chamber of Congress, wresting away control from the Democrats and setting the stage for a showdown with Joe Biden in the next two years of his presidency.
Continue reading...Mike Pence was once Donald Trump’s sidekick in the White House, but in an appearance on Fox News today, he made clear he doesn’t think much of the former president’s latest attempt to win office:
This isn’t exactly a new position for the former vice-president. The two fell out over Pence’s refusal to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, and he has since joined the apparently growing ranks of Republicans casting doubt on Trump’s ability to continue leading the party.
Continue reading...Rightwing media empire looks for new Republican protege after poor showing in midterm elections
Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.
Continue reading...Democrats’ slim hopes of holding on to lower chamber appear to be ebbing away as Donald Trump expected to announce 2024 run
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has more on the tensions within the Republican party over Donald Trump’s imminent announcement of a new campaign for the White House:
Donald Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday night as planned, according to multiple sources close to the former US president, inserting himself into the center of national politics as he attempts to box out potential rivals seeking the Republican nomination.
Continue reading...Democrats are behind in several districts needed to secure control of Congress’ lower chamber for another two years
The Senate will this week vote on a bill to codify same-sex marriage rights, Semafor reports.
Same-sex marriage rights are currently established nationwide by a supreme court ruling, but Democrats are trying to pass a law protecting the rights after rightwing justice Clarence Thomas in June mulled overturning the ruling.
Continue reading...Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer hail achievement after Nevada victory, while Georgia Senate heads to runoff
Analysts say victory by Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, which secured her party’s control of the Senate for two more years, will be of massive importance to Joe Biden’s plans for filling judicial vacancies.
Retaining the majority in the chamber gives the president the opportunity to keep getting his picks confirmed, something for which the incumbent senator was a key ally even before the midterms.
Continue reading...House control still undecided as Republicans lead and attention pivots to Florida, where Trump is expected to announce 2024 run
As the balance of power in the US House of Representatives remained unresolved on Sunday, Democrats are celebrating the projection that they won control of the Senate, marking a significant victory for Joe Biden as Republicans backed by his presidential predecessor Donald Trump underperformed in key battleground states.
While senior Democrats remained guarded Sunday about the chances of keeping control of both chambers of Congress, House speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the party’s performance in the midterms following months of projections indicating heavy losses.
Continue reading...Victory over Republican Jim Marchant for state’s top elections post is significant win against efforts to sow doubt in US elections
Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, was elected Nevada’s top election official, beating Jim Marchant, a Republican who is linked to the QAnon sought to spread misinformation about the results of the 2020 race.
His victory is a significant win against efforts to sow doubt in US elections, a growing force in the Republican party.
Continue reading...The race was among the tightest in the country and saw record spending with the incumbent senator nearly beaten
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto managed to hang on to her seat in a close race that nearly saw her beaten by her Republican adversary, with the result leaving control of the US Senate in the hands of Democrats.
After Democratic senator Mark Kelly’s victory in Arizona on Friday, the party now holds a 50-49 edge in the Senate. The Democratic party will retain control of the chamber, no matter how next month’s Georgia runoff plays out, by virtue of vice-president Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
Continue reading...Win takes Democrats to key number of 50 seats in Senate, in blow to Republicans who hoped for ‘red wave’
Democrats have kept control of the Senate after the crucial race in Nevada was announced in their favor, cementing a midterms election performance for the party that widely beat expectations.
Democratic US senator Catherine Cortez Masto has now beaten Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Power of Senate chamber remains at 49-49 as eyes on race between Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Adam Laxalt
Mark Kelly, whose win in his Senate race in Arizona moved Democrats to within one seat of retaining control of the chamber, has slammed election deniers and praised his late predecessor, Republican John McCain, in a victory speech in Phoenix.
Kelly was speaking to jubilant supporters on Saturday morning, with his wife Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who was shot and badly injured in an attempted assassination 11 years ago, at his side.
After a long election it can be tempting to remain focused on the things that divide us, but we’ve seen the consequences that come when leaders refuse to accept the truth and focus more on conspiracies of the past than solving the challenges that we face today.
And for the past two years, as we face these challenges, not a day has gone by where I have not remembered that I am sitting in the Senate seat [of] Senator John McCain.
Continue reading...Democrat Mark Kelly appears close to re-election in Arizona, with Nevada still up in the air and Georgia going to a runoff vote
All eyes are on media results trackers as Arizona and Nevada’s Senate races inch closer to official results and news on control of the House looms.
So a quick note about Alaska…
Continue reading...Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat, as electors across the US vote to decide whether the Republicans or Democrats will control the House of Representatives and Senate
US midterm elections 2022 – latest live news updates
All 435 seats in the lower chamber of the federal congress, the House of Representatives, are re-elected every two years. (There are no term limits, and incumbents are often returned, so there is substantial continuity in the membership). House seats are broadly proportional to population, so California has lots of seats but Montana only a few.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can find all our US midterms coverage here
Sheera Frenkel and Steven Lee Myers report for the New York Times that researchers who study election disinformation said most efforts to stoke doubt about the results of the midterms had failed to spread widely. They write:
The major social media platforms all struggled to combat misinformation and disinformation online as the results were tabulated, but researchers who study the problem said efforts to stoke doubt about the outcome of the American democratic process had — at least so far — failed to take root. Some saw it as a hopeful sign of the political system’s resilience, though few declared victory in the fight against misinformation.
According to a New York Times analysis, more than half of 370 candidates who in some way had cast doubt on President Biden’s victory had won their races as of midday on Wednesday. They included 170 members of the House, where Republicans appeared to be closing in on reclaiming a majority. Although the party fell short of the “red wave” that many had anticipated, its successes may have tempered some of the conspiracy theories that emerged early Tuesday.
“There is a lot of anger and noise on the mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but the most aggressive statements on the day of the midterms, including calls to violence, are found on the alt platforms including Gab, Parler and Telegram,” said Alex Stamos, the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, which tracked election disinformation online as part of the Elections Integrity Partnership. Users in some cases called for storming polling stations or using violence, though no significant attacks unfolded on election day.
Continue reading...Latest updates and results as Democrats perform better than expected and Georgia Senate race heads to runoff
One person who looks likely to benefit from the midterms results is ultra-conservative Republican Ron DeSantis. He was re-elected as governor of Florida, saying that the state is where “woke goes to die”. DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist in the midterm elections, granting him a second term as Florida’s governor. There is every likelihood, as the Republican party comes to terms with these results, that DeSantis could be their frontrunner for the White House nomination in 2024.
Young voters often come in for criticism for being apathetic about politics and staying at home, but at least one analyst is laying the cause of the Democrats better than anticipated performance at the feet of Generation Z, who appear from exit polls to have massively skewed towards them.
Continue reading...President says ‘giant red wave didn’t happen’ as Senate still in balance and race for House control much closer than predicted
Joe Biden hailed “a good day” for democracy after Democrats defied history and outperformed expectations in America’s midterm elections, leaving control of Congress on a knife-edge.
With ballots still being counted, Democrats were hopeful about holding the Senate while Republicans felt they were on course to win the House – but by a much narrower margin than widely predicted.
Continue reading...Support from Bernie Sanders and other leaders and key turnout by Gen Z voters led to victories in Texas, Florida and other states
Progressives had a lot to smile about as they woke up on Wednesday morning, after many of their preferred candidates won crucial races in the US midterm elections.
House progressives held on in closely fought races and appeared poised to expand their ranks, even as control of the lower chamber remained up for grabs on Wednesday. Dozens of progressive members of Congress secured re-election, including embattled incumbents like Angie Craig, whose Minnesota district was considered a toss-up.
Continue reading...Latest updates and results as millions across the US cast votes in what is largely seen as a referendum on Biden’s presidency
The Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, Kari Lake, told reporters earlier she will be their “worst fricking nightmare for eight years” if she defeats the Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Lake has been talked up as a running mate for Donald Trump in his widely expected run for the Republican presidential nomination.
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