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Election Day is over, polls have closed across the U.S. and counting is underway for the 2022 midterm elections. Early results showed success for Trump-endorsed candidates who scored early wins — including Matt Gaetz in Florida and of Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia. JD Vance also won the crucial open Ohio Senate seat. Trump’s husband-turned-potential 2024 opponent, Ron DeSandis, was convincingly re-elected Governor of Florida. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declared victory shortly after 2am. ET, but it’s unclear what the party’s majority in the lower house of Congress will be — not what they’d hoped for as a long-awaited “red wave” failed to materialize. Democrats performed stronger than expected, holding onto some Senate and House seats that were seen as at risk, as well as fending off challenges in gubernatorial races. Party mainstays Chuck Schumer, Gavin Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also easily won their races. The Senate remains on a knife’s edge. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock is tied with Herschel Walker in Georgia, but Democrat John Fetterman triumphed over Republican Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
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Report: Oz concedes PA fight
Sen.-elect John Fetterman’s campaign communications director confirmed that Mehmet Oz called to concede the race. Meanwhile, Mr. Fetterman’s campaign manager applauded the people in the Democratic Party who anonymously informed reporters of their concerns about the candidate’s performance in his televised debate with Dr. Oz: Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 14:38 1668004241
Michigan: Dixon concedes to Whitmer
Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer successfully fended off a challenge from hardline Republican Tudor Dixon, who has now congratulated Ms Whitmer after she refused to concede last night. Here is her statement on the outcome of the match. Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 14:30 1668003642
Kinzinger mocks McCarthy’s no-win “party.”
In the absence of a promised Republican sweep, Speaker-elect Kevin McCarthy’s “Take Back the House” event last night was a surprise, with the minority leader promising the House would be won by the time the people woke up. This has not happened. Meanwhile, the leader has been mocked by outgoing anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger: Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 14:20 1668002752
Listen: The Independent’s Eric Garcia does midterm reading
The Independent’s chief Washington correspondent, Eric Garcia, joins The Recount for a lively discussion about the outcome of the midterm elections. You can listen live below: Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 14:05 1668001848
Kari Lake follows Katie Hobbs as Arizona’s governor’s race is very close
The race to become Arizona’s next governor remains too close to be played a day after the 2022 midterm elections. Arizona officials said it could take up to five days for full results to be delivered as election officials open and count late mail-in ballots and ballots filed by Grand Canyon State voters. As of Wednesday morning, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, leads her GOP challenger, former TV news anchor and conspiracy theorist Carrie Lake, by a margin of 50.9% to 49.1%. The difference between the two candidates was just over 30,000 votes. Officials plan to release updated vote totals once a day, around 9:00 p.m. ET. Andrew Feinberg has more details here. Johanna Chisholm9 November 2022 13:50 1668001540
Kentucky voters reject abortion constitutional amendment
Kentucky voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have made it harder to challenge abortion laws in the deep red state, the Associated Press reported. The amendment’s rejection means that language that would have made clear that there is no right to abortion protected by the Kentucky constitution would not be added to the state constitution, proving a rare boon for abortion rights advocates. Under Amendment 2, the following language would have been added to the southern state constitution: “For the protection of human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to guarantee or protect the right to abortion or to require the financing of abortion.” Johanna Chisholm9 November 2022 13:45 1668001242
Analysis: Republicans are already lying about the results
Writing for The Independent, Ahmed Baba takes a look at the early spread of right-wing misinformation about interim results and how they are recorded: Let’s tackle this big conspiracy theory about how the delays in counting ballots are part of an attempt to steal the election. Such waiting times are normal. In a system where large volumes of mail-in ballots are counted, it takes time to accurately analyze the results. Ironically, these delays in some key states were actually engineered by Republicans themselves. Republican-controlled legislatures in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania have blocked election workers from prescreening mail-in ballots. By law, they must wait until Election Day to begin counting mail-in ballots. And just this week, Philadelphia City Commissioners voted to reinstate a lengthy process called Poll Book Reconciliation in response to a Republican lawsuit. In other words, Republicans are causing the delays they complain about. Read the full article below.
Republicans are already spreading lies about the results of the midterm elections
As delays were announced in Arizona’s ballot counting, Trump and his associates began repeating the same old lies from 2020. But the truth is, they’ve known all along about the “red mirage” that fools Republicans into thinking they’re doing better than it is — because they created it Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 13:40 1668000042
When a loss is not (entirely) a loss
Tim Ryan may have lost the Ohio Senate race to Trump-backed Republican Jay DeVance, but he ran it more narrowly than many hoped in a state that Trump won easily twice — and as many point out , high-profile candidates who are building excitement among the Democratic base have a history of elevating down-ballot nominees, especially critical in a year where the party is working hard to minimize the GOP’s chances in the House: Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 13:20 1667998842
The Kremlin’s view of intermediaries
The Kremlin has said the US midterm elections will not improve “poor” relations between Moscow and Washington, as it dismissed claims that Russia interfered in the US election, reports said. “These elections are important, but it is not necessary to exaggerate their importance in the short and medium term for our relations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. “These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations are still and will remain bad,” he added. Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 13:00 1667997642
Fox hosts struggle with results: ‘How do you explain this country?’
Fox News’ coverage of the election results was a stilted affair, with late-night anchors scrambling to explain to viewers — and each other — why the country they’re convinced is collapsing didn’t vote decisively to reject the Democrats. Check out a sample exchange below. The same three hosts are still grappling with what happened this morning, sifting through exit polls from John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania to illustrate how it defied the entire Republican narrative of what the election was about. In a wake of the 2020 election, where the Republican-aligned network was the first major news outlet to call Arizona for Joe Biden, Fox News’ decision desk chief insisted on air that contrary to conspiracy theories put forth by the Donald Trump and some of his followers, there is nothing wrong with the vote counting coming in at a slow pace. reports Richard Hall. Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 12:40
