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President Joe Biden insisted that hopes for Democrats to retain the House of Representatives are still alive, even as the GOP closes in with a narrow majority. “It’s still alive. It’s still alive. But it’s like I’m drawing an inside straight,” he told reporters. President Biden also earlier denied acknowledging the Republican victory during a conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “I said if you win the majority, congratulations,” Mr. Biden clarified. Meanwhile, control of the US Senate now hinges on two tight races in Arizona and Nevada, after the race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker in Georgia headed to a runoff. Both Republicans and Democrats need two of those three remaining Senate seats to take the upper house after Democrats won the red Pennsylvania seat where John Fetterman pulled off a victory over TV doctor Mehmet Oz. Both Arizona and Nevada are still too close to call. In Arizona, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly currently leads Republican Blake Masters with more than 20 percent of the vote yet to be counted. His colleague in the Nevada party, Kathryn Cortez Masto, is still trailing Republican Adam Laxalt.
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Analysis: Midterms reveal America’s deep divide
Red wave? Not really. How about a blue wave? Not that either. In fact, as America voted in the midterm elections that will decide control of the houses of Congress and start the 2024 presidential race, all we really learned was something we already knew – that America is bitterly and deeply divided. Andrew Buncombe weighs in on what the results tell us about the state of the country. Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 18:15 1668188700
Dispatch from Alaska: The conservative ship has sailed
Reporting from the last frontier, Summer Koester has this report on how Sarah Palin and other right-wing Republicans found themselves fighting the Alaskan election after decades of near-total Republican rule. Mary Peltola’s victory in a special congressional election this summer, it seems, may have been anything but a fluke. Andrew Naughtie November 11, 2022 5:45 p.m 1668188026
Rubio, Hawley seek postponement of Senate GOP leadership vote
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has called for a postponement of the Senate GOP leadership vote, currently scheduled for next week. He argues: “First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are truly committed to fighting for the priorities and values of working Americans (of every background) that gave us big wins in states like Florida.” His call was echoed by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley: “Exactly right. I don’t know why the Senate GOP would hold a leadership vote for the next Congress before this election is over. We have runoff [Georgia] — they say it’s okay? Don’t disenfranchise Herschel Walker.” Florida Representative Matt Gaetz also applauded Mr. Rubio’s call: “So proud of my senator! We should not hold a House or Senate leadership election until we know exactly who will make up the Republican caucuses in each chamber.” He adds: “Marco knows that we have to be very careful about this and make good choices for the world!” Oliver O’Connell November 11, 2022 5:33 p.m 1668186900
How the Democrats quashed their own revelation
Eric Garcia spent this week having no idea what awaited the US when the midterm polls closed – and in the end his reticence to predict an overall result proved justified: Before the final polls closed, I said that this election did for the midterms what the election of Donald Trump in 2016 did for the presidential races: it shook up everything we thought we knew about politics. Democrats overwhelmingly defied what pundits, the press, political professionals and yes, even I thought would happen, holding tight in many House races and successfully flipping a Pennsylvania Senate seat. Read his entire mission below. Andrew Naughtie November 11, 2022 5:15 p.m 1668185100
Sarah Palin vs. the GOP
In a conspiracy-filled Instagram post, Ms Palin blamed the “cockamamie” ranked-choice voting system, Senator Lisa Murkowski and the “dark, dysfunctional GOP machine” after she was seemingly trounced by Democrat Mary Peltola for the second time in three months . “They opposed me every step of the way in my run for Congress, which is par for the course.” With 80 percent of the votes cast in Alaska’s first congressional race, Ms. Peltola appears to have an undisputed lead of 47 percent. Ms. Palin is second with 26.6 percent and Republican Nick Begich with 24 percent. Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 16:45 1668183300
Endangered Boebert shares Veterans Day message
Republican MAGA shared a video on Twitter Friday morning where she told veterans she is “so proud to be an American and so grateful for the freedom we all enjoy because of you.” “You are more loved than you will ever know,” he added as he spoke in front of an American flag. Ms Boebert captioned the post: “We can never thank our veterans enough. God bless you as we honor your service to our great country on Veterans Day!” Her message comes after she came under fire from rival Adam Frisch on the campaign trail for her “lies” about her support for veterans. Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 16:15 1668181504
Opinion: Why Abortion Matters After All
Writing for The Independent, Clémence Michallon examines the revival of abortion rights at the polls – and examines how its importance has been lost to tens of millions of voters. Of course, we can still expect a world of turmoil if the Republicans take the House. But the midterms already tell us a few things: one, that Trumpism is on the wane, and two, that abortion really matters in the voting world. And why wouldn’t he? It is a social issue, a human rights issue and an economic issue. It affects everyone – not just the people who have access or not, but also their partners and other relatives. It’s front of mind, as it should be. Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 15:45 1668180298
Trump Claims NV and AZ Votes ‘Rigged’
With two states still counting their votes in crucial Senate and gubernatorial contests, Donald Trump is rehashing his 2020 campaign plan and trying to drive home the idea that the election is being stolen: However, there are some key differences from 2020: first, this particular lie about the results is focused on state-level races rather than a presidential campaign, and second, there is still no sign of a majoritarian trend at the top of the Republican Party that is boosting the baseless claims by Mr. Trump. Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 15:24 1668177904
Trump participates in the Arizona races…
Donald Trump’s morning rant on Truth Social continues, this time with a muddled message falsely alleging fraud in Arizona’s extraordinary Senate and gubernatorial races: Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 14:45 1668176104
Nevada continues to go the way of Catherine Cortez Masto
A recent batch of mail-in ballots from Nevada’s Clark County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Las Vegas, the state’s most populous city, pushed Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto closer to Republican Adam Laxalt’s lead. An early morning batch of more than 35,000 postal ballots were counted, which were part of the more than 50,000 ballots that remained to be counted by late Thursday night. County Clerk Joe Gloria confirmed late Thursday night that those ballots were in “various stages of the validation process.” At the Friday morning briefing, the results gave incumbent Mrs. Cortez Masto a net positive of over 6,000 votes. Of the 35,183 votes added, 14,756 (41.9 percent) went to the Democratic senator while 8,688 (24.7 percent) went to Mr. Laxalt, giving Ms. Cortez Masto a net 6,068. The remaining 11,739 (33.4 percent) went to other. Earlier, Mr. Laxalt had led the race by about 9,000 votes, but with this latest batch, Ms. Cortez Masto is closing in and that margin is likely to shrink to less than 4,000. As the Nevada Independent put it: if the Democrat continues to collect ballots at a rate of 60 percent and Mr. Laxalt at 35 percent, “he could get 9,000 in that lot alone.” “Bottom line: Unless the trend suddenly changes, this lot will help her a lot,” said Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston. Johanna Chisholm11 November 2022 14:15
