The latest on the midterm elections.
Kelly Win in Arizona Puts Dems 1 seat from Senate control
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly won his bid for reelection Friday in the crucial swing state of Arizona, defeating Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters to put his party one victory away from clinching control of the chamber for the next two years of Joe Biden’s presidency.With Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote, Democrats can retain control of the Senate by winning either the Nevada race, which remains too early to call, or next month’s runoff in Georgia. Republicans now must win both those races to take the majority.
The Arizona race is one of a handful of contests that Republicans targeted in their bid to take control of the 50-50 Senate.
Maricopa County reported a large batch of results that increased Kelly’s lead and made clear Masters could not make up the difference with the remaining ballots.
“It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve as Arizona’s Senator,” Kelly said in a statement. “I’m humbled by the trust our state has placed in me to continue this work.”
Kelly’s victory in a 2020 special election spurred by the death of Republican Sen. John McCain gave Democrats both of Arizona’s Senate seats for the first time in 70 years.
Kelly’s 2022 campaign largely focused on his support for abortion, protecting Social Security, lowering drug prices and ensuring a stable water supply in the midst of a drought, which has curtailed Arizona’s cut of Colorado River water.
With President Joe Biden struggling with low approval ratings, Kelly distanced himself from the president, particularly on border security, and played down his Democratic affiliation amid angst about the state of the economy. He also styled himself as an independent willing to buck his party, in the style of McCain.
Masters, an acolyte of billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, tried to penetrate Kelly’s independent image, aligning him with Biden’s failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and tamp down on rampant inflation.
He earned Trump’s endorsement after claiming “Trump won in 2020,” and later doubled down on his statement.
Masters called for privatizing Social Security, took a hard-line stance against abortion and promoted a theory that Democrats are seeking to use immigration to replace white people in America. But after emerging bruised from a contentious primary, Masters struggled to raise money and was put on the defense over his positions.
Democrat David Trone Reelected to US House in Maryland
Maryland U.S. Rep. David Trone has been reelected, defeating Republican Neil Parrott in a rematch that was much closer this time because of changes in the western Maryland district’s boundaries.Trone, a Democrat, won a third term to the state’s 6th Congressional District after it was redrawn with fewer Democrats than under the state’s previous congressional map due to a successful court challenge by the GOP.
“I am honored and grateful that the people of the 6th District have re-elected me to continue serving them. This victory a reflection of the time we spent in the district, our commitment to constituent services, and our focus on bipartisan solutions for critical issues like mental health and addiction,” he said in a statement.
Trone also said that he had spoken to Parrott and thanked him for his graciousness in conceding the race on Friday.
Parrott confirmed his concession and congratulatory call in a news release.
“I am incredibly grateful for everyone who worked with my family and me on the campaign trail. We have developed many close friendships that we value greatly,” he said.
Trone’s victory preserves the 7–1 advantage Maryland Democrats hold over Republicans in the state’s delegation to the U.S. House.
Gingrich: GOP Got Nearly 6 Million More Votes but Lost Many Races, ‘What’s Going On?’
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been in politics for decades, and never has an election bewildered him as much as the 2022 midterms.“I’ve never been as wrong as I was this year,” Gingrich, an Epoch Times contributor, said on Nov. 10.
“It makes me challenge every model I’m aware of, and realize that I have to really stop and spend a good bit of time thinking and trying to put it all together.”
The Senate is currently a tossup. And with 211 House seats won against the Democrats’ 192, the GOP is still poised to take charge of the lower chamber when Congress convenes in the new year, but with less leverage than initially hoped.
North Carolina Sees Red Wave Despite It Not Reaching Expected Peak Nationally: Analyst
Though the outcome of the midterms wasn’t the red wave that was predicted, a political analyst in North Carolina sees the statewide results as a victory for Republicans in the Tar Heel State.There were seven statewide races: the U.S. Senate and six judicial races, with two of those races being in the North Carolina Supreme Court, both won by Republicans.
“North Carolina Republicans swept all seven of the statewide races,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation—an independent research institute in North Carolina that examines issues of freedom, personal responsibility, and limited constitutional government—told The Epoch Times.
The primary Republican victory for North Carolina Republicans was Trump-endorsed Republican Ted Budd, who beat former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri Beasley for the Senate seat formerly occupied by Richard Burr, who didn’t seek reelection.
Budd was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, which was a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Supreme Court contesting the 2020 presidential election.
Trump Rips Nevada, Arizona, Over Slow Ballot Counting: ‘Corrupt Voting System’
Former President Donald Trump has ripped Nevada’s Clark County and Arizona over their slow pace of ballot counting.His remarks came as Senate control remains uncertain about continuing vote counting in the two states.
In Clark County, Nevada’s largest county, election officials told reporters that they will count and update ballot results over the next week.
Meanwhile, the Senate and gubernatorial races in Arizona don’t have conclusive results as hundreds of thousands of ballots await processing and tabulation.
Trump Targets Fox News Parent Corp, Paul Ryan Following Midterm Elections
Former President Donald Trump criticized Fox News parent News Corp after several negative articles were published after the Tuesday midterms.Another News Corp outlet, the New York Post, criticized Trump and appeared to blame him for the GOP’s midterm performance. “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall,” the NY Post headline read. “Can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?”
New Jersey Mayor Says Ballots Went Missing: ‘We Will Not Rest Until We Get to the Bottom of This’
Robbinsville, New Jersey, Mayor Dave Fried said in a Nov. 9 statement that officials were notified at approximately 5 p.m. that “the ballots of one of our districts had gone missing.”“The fundamentals of Democracy is that every vote would be counted. Clearly, this has yet to happen in Robbinsville, as approximately 11 percent of our residents’ votes have yet to be safely delivered and counted,” Fried said.
Fried said officials are working with the county, which is in charge of the election.
“We will not rest until we get to the bottom of this unconscionable mishap, and we will not consider the 2022 election over in Robbinsville until every single ballot is counted and done so securely,” he said.
Las Vegas Elections Chief Says Counting Going ‘as Quickly as We Can’
A top election official in Clark County, Nevada, asserted that workers are counting ballots “as quickly as we can” following widespread criticism over the pace.“I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that everything we are doing here in Clark County is moving those ballots as quickly as we can,“ Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria told reporters in North Las Vegas on Thursday. ”But I have to caution you in saying we don’t want to move too fast. We want to make sure we’re accurate, validating the signatures and the identity of these folks.”
Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has about 1.3 million registered voters. It’s the only county in the Silver State that has a Democrat lean.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) is trailing GOP candidate Adam Laxalt, while Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak is trailing Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a Republican. Sisolak is currently trailing Lombardo by more than 3 percentage points, while Cortez Masto is behind by 1 percent, or around 9,000 votes as of Friday morning.
McCarthy, Biden Disclose What They Discussed in First Call After Midterms
President Joe Biden and the top Republican in the House of Representatives offered slightly different accounts of their first phone call after the midterm elections.“He congratulated me, so for anyone who thinks we didn’t win the majority, Joe at least believes we did as well,” McCarthy said on Fox News.
Arizona Vote Counting Slows Down, ‘Lion’s Share’ Expected Done by Next Week
The Senate and gubernatorial races in Arizona still await conclusive results as hundreds of thousands of ballots await processing and tabulation. The process, which is notoriously slow, is made all the more frustrating by a lack of updates. Officials blame time-consuming ballot processing requirements.Maricopa County is by far the most populous county in the state and the one with most of the yet-to-be-counted ballots—more than 400,000.
More Democrats Win Reelection as Republicans Face Prospect of Ultraslim House Majority
More races have been called for Democrat incumbents in the House of Representatives, giving Republicans the prospect of an ultraslim majority in the lower chamber.The Associated Press called races for Reps. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), and Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), and Democrat Val Hoyle, late Nov. 10 and Nov. 11.
“We won! I am honored to represent this district once again in Congress. Thank you to every volunteer, supporter, and voter,” Schrier said in a statement.
Republican Senators Demand GOP Leadership Vote Postponed After Midterm Failures
Following worse-than-expected Republican gains in Congress, several Republican senators called on the GOP’s leadership vote next week to be postponed.“The Senate GOP leadership vote next week should be postponed,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and who recently won reelection, on Friday morning.
Cameras Go Dark at Vote Counting Facility in Key Nevada County
Cameras at the vote counting facility in a Nevada county still counting midterm election votes stopped broadcasting overnight, officials said on Nov. 10.The livestream computer application that provides the feeds “lost connection with” the cameras at 11:24 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Bethany Drysdale, a spokesperson for Washoe County.
County officials said all staff members left for the night about an hour before the issue and none returned until 7 a.m. on Thursday morning.
The connection was restored just before 8 a.m. on Nov. 10.
Warnock, Walker Pivot to Overtime in Georgia Senate Contest
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker pivoted to a decisive extra round of their Senate race Thursday with blistering attacks, while party leaders and donors around the country geared up for a four-week campaign blitz that could determine control of the chamber for the next two years.With votes still being counted in Senate contests in Arizona and Nevada, the single Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia could either decide majority control—as did the state’s twin runoffs in 2021—or further pad one party’s advantage. But neither Republicans nor Democrats were waiting for the Western states’ results to begin scrambling for big money.
The Democrats’ Senate campaign arm announced early plans for a $7 million investment in field operations, a sum certain to be dwarfed by what both parties’ various committees will eventually spend on the airwaves. Top Republicans in Washington began huddling with donors, urging their continued support after the party nationwide fell short of expectations in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Walker, sent out fundraising pitches based on the runoff. The White House offered assurances that President Joe Biden would do whatever was best to help Warnock—even if that means keeping his distance.
Notable Uncalled House Races Include Boebert, Katie Porter
Few people, except maybe voters in western Colorado, would have expected Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to be in such a tight race in the rural, mountainous district.The cable news figure known for her devotion to 2nd Amendment gun rights—and from Rifle, Colorado, no less—was narrowly ahead of Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd District, which covers 26 counties across the expansive southwestern half of the state.
This region of ski resorts, national forests and ranches, coal towns and desert mesas, has long bred low-key politicians. Elected in 2020, Boebert broke that mold as a fierce loyalist to former President Donald Trump, questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election results.
Democrat Schrier Wins Reelection to Washington’s 8th
Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) has won a third term in Washington’s 8th U.S. House district, fending off a challenge from Republicans who targeted the seat as part of their efforts to flip the chamber.Schrier, a pediatrician, is the only Democrat to have held the seat since the district was created in the early 1980s. She defeated Matt Larkin, a lawyer and former Washington attorney general candidate.
New England Republicans Score Zero Seats in Congress
Not one of the 20 New England Republicans looking for a seat in Washington won their races, and only two Republican governors pulled off a win out of the six New England states.“Abortion turned out to be the number one issue by a mile even though the polls said it wasn’t,” New Hampshire state Rep. Melissa Blasek (R-Hillsborough) told The Epoch Times, “the Dobbs is the fundraiser that keeps on giving.”
She, like others, say they saw an uptick in a drive by Democrats for new voter registration based on the Dobbs decision.
Democrat Declares Victory in Oregon Governor’s Race, Republican Not Conceding
With 200,000 votes left to count, Democrat Tina Kotek declared victory on Thursday morning in the highly contested Oregon governor’s race.Republican Christine Drazan has not conceded.
“With several hundred thousand ballots yet to be counted, we continue to exercise patience as we await additional clarity regarding the final outcome of this race,” the Drazan Campaign wrote to the Epoch Times on Thursday afternoon.
“Oregonians should have confidence that their votes will be counted, as our county clerks continue their diligent work.”
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