Sara Burnett, Jill Colvin and Will Weissert, The Associated Press Posted on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:51 am EST Last updated on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 11:19 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats were in a tight race for control of Congress and the governor’s offices Tuesday, with the outcome determining the future of Joe Biden’s agenda as polls closed across much of the country.
In Virginia, Rep. Elaine Luria, a Navy veteran who serves on the House committee investigating the January 6 uprising, was the first Democratic incumbent to lose a highly competitive House district, falling to the ‘former Navy helicopter pilot Jen Kiggans. But Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton held off spirited Republican challengers in districts the GOP hoped to flip.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, two future Republican presidential candidates, beat Democratic challengers to win re-election in the country’s two biggest red states. For Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who lost to Abbott, it was his third failed campaign since 2018.
It’s too early to say which party will be on top of the Senate, which Democrats currently control by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 50-50 tie-breaking vote in the chamber.
The outcome of the House and Senate races will determine the future of Biden’s agenda and serve as a referendum on his administration as the nation grapples with record inflation and concerns about the country’s direction . Republican control of the House would likely trigger a round of investigations into Biden and his family, while a GOP Senate takeover would hamper Biden’s ability to make judicial appointments.
Democrats were facing historic headwinds. The ruling party almost always suffers losses in a president’s first midterm election, but Democrats had hoped that anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate abortion rights could energize their voters to buck the trend. historical
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker were competing for a seat that could determine control of the Senate.
Republicans are betting that messages focused on the economy, gas prices and crime will resonate with voters at a time of rising inflation and rising violence.
AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the national electorate, showed that high inflation and concerns about the fragility of democracy weighed heavily on voters.
Half of voters said inflation played a big factor, with grocery, gas, housing, food and other costs all skyrocketing in the past year. Slightly fewer, 44%, said the future of democracy was their main consideration.
Overall, 7 in 10 voters said the ruling overturning the 1973 decision enshrining abortion rights was an important factor in their midterm decisions.
VoteCast also shows that the reversal was widely unpopular. About 6 in 10 say they are angry or dissatisfied with it, while about 4 in 10 were satisfied. And roughly 6 in 10 say they favor a law that would guarantee access to legal abortion nationwide.
There were no widespread problems with ballot boxes or voter intimidation across the country, although there were hiccups typical of most election days. Some tabulators did not work in a New Jersey county. In Philadelphia, where Democrats have a strong turnout, people complained of being turned away when they showed up in person to try to fix problems with their pre-cast mail ballots.
In Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix and is the state’s largest county, officials reported problems with vote tabulation machines at about 20 percent of polling places. That fueled anger and skepticism about the vote that has been growing among some Republicans since the state went to Biden in 2020.
Voters were also deciding high-profile races for Senate or governor in places like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan. There were also contests for secretaries of state, roles that typically draw little attention but have come under increasing scrutiny as Republican candidates who refused to accept the results of the 2020 campaign filed to control the management of future elections.
In the first national elections since the January 6 uprising, the country’s democratic future is at stake. Some who participated in the attack or were close to the attack are poised to win elected office Tuesday, including several candidates for House seats. Concerns about political violence are also rising less than two weeks after a suspect under the spell of conspiracy theories targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco and brutally beat the her husband of 82 years.
The 2022 election is on track to cost a projected $16.7 billion at the state and federal level, making it the most expensive midterms ever, according to the nonpartisan campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets.
Republicans entered the final stretch of the campaign in a strong position to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress, giving them the power to thwart Biden’s agenda during the remaining two years of his term. The GOP needed a net gain of just one seat to win the US Senate and five to retake the US House.
All House seats were up for grabs, as were 34 Senate seats, with Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona most likely to fall. Thirty-six states are electing governors, and many of those races are also about to come down to the smallest of margins.
The dynamics were more complicated in state capitals. The GOP faced unexpected headwinds in flipping the governor’s office in conservative Kansas. Democrats, meanwhile, were jittery about their prospects in the governor’s race in Oregon, normally a liberal stronghold.
Democrats easily repelled Republicans backed by former President Donald Trump in several left-leaning states, while tougher tests were expected in more competitive territory that could decide control of Congress and the future of the presidency. Joe Biden.
Despite their liberal history, states like Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois have elected moderate Republican governors in the past. But Republicans this year appeared to be too conservative in those states, handing Democrats easy wins 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 governor of Massachusetts, as well as the first openly lesbian governor of any state, and Wes Moore became the first black female governor of Maryland.
Healey beat Geoff Diehl in Massachusetts and Moore beat Dan Cox in Maryland, while Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker defeated state Sen. Darren Bailey. Cox and Bailey were among the far-right Republicans that Democrats spent tens of millions of dollars to bolster during the primaries, betting they would be easier to beat in the general election than their more moderate rivals.
If the GOP has a particularly strong election, winning Democratic congressional seats in places like New Hampshire or Washington state, pressure could mount for Biden to seek re-election in 2024. Meanwhile, Trump may try to capitalize on GOP gains if formally launching another bid for the White House during a “very big announcement” in Florida next week.
The former president endorsed more than 300 candidates in the midterms and hopes to use the Republican victories as a springboard for the 2024 presidential campaign.
“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I shouldn’t be blamed at all. But it will probably be the opposite,” Trump said in an interview with NewsNation.
It could be days or even weeks before the races and potentially control of Congress are decided. Some vote-by-mail states, such as Michigan, saw an increase in ballots compared to the 2018 midterms. Those votes may take longer to be counted because in many states ballots must be sealed by Tuesday, but they may not arrive at the electoral offices until days later. In the Georgia Senate race, candidates must win at least 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff on Dec. 6.
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Associated Press writers Corey Williams in Southfield, Mich., Anita Snow in Phoenix, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.