The latest on the midterm elections.
Democrat Tina Kotek Wins Oregon Governor’s Race
Tina Kotek has been elected Oregon’s next governor, extending longtime Democratic control of the state and dashing Republican hopes for a rare win in a top race on the West Coast of the United States.The former longtime speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives had faced a stiff challenge from Republican Christine Drazan, who is also an ex-legislator.
Kotek stood in front of a fountain in Portland Thursday morning a few steps from the Willamette River and told an invitation-only crowd of reporters and supporters displaying her campaign signs that she was ready to get to work.
She said she plans to travel around Oregon starting in January to talk to community leaders about issues facing the state, particularly the shortage of affordable housing and addiction. She said her priorities are addressing homelessness, expanding access to mental health and addiction treatment and working to bridge the divisions in the state.
Kotek told reporters she has spoken with Drazan and Johnson, a former state senator who ran as an unaffiliated candidate and who conceded Tuesday night.
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.
By noon after Election Day, Arizona managed to count more than 1.8 million ballots, showing Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly ahead by about 5 percentage points of Republican Blake Masters, and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs about half a percent ahead of Republican Kari Lake in the gubernatorial race.
About seven hours later, another 100,000 votes were added to the count with little change to the results. At that point, the secretary of state’s office estimated that more than 600,000 ballots were still to be counted, including more than 300,000 early votes still waiting to be verified for signature match and other attributes.
There were no further updates over the following 18 hours. Then, less than 3,200 votes were added to the count around 1 p.m. on Nov. 10, all from Yavapai, Navajo, and Pima counties.
Another House Incumbent Defeated in Midterms as More Races Called
Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.), New Mexico’s only Republican in Congress, was defeated in the midterm elections.The race to represent New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District was called on Nov. 10, with Herrell, 58, losing to Democrat Gabriel Vasquez.
Charges Dropped Against CEO of Election Software Firm
A judge in California on Nov. 9 dismissed charges against the CEO of an election software firm, who prosecutors had accused of being behind “probably the largest data breach in United States history.”The Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out charges of conspiracy and grand theft by embezzlement of public funds against Eugene Yu, the CEO of Konnech, at the request of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón.
Konnech did not respond to a request for comment.
McCarthy, Top Republicans Announce Leadership Bids as GOP Poised to Flip House
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other top Republicans are announcing bids for House leadership positions as the GOP appears poised to flip control of the lower chamber.Senate Up for Grabs as Republicans Move Toward House Majority
Republicans edged closer on Thursday to securing a majority in the House of Representatives while control of the Senate hinged on a few tight races, two days after Democrats staved off an anticipated “red wave” of Republican gains in the midterm elections.Republicans have captured at least 210 House seats, Edison Research projected, eight short of the 218 needed to wrest the House away from Democrats and effectively halt President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
While Republicans remain favored, there were 33 House contests yet to be decided—including 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters—likely ensuring the final outcome will not be determined for some time.
The fate of the Senate was far less certain. Either party could seize control by winning too-close-to-call races in Nevada and Arizona, where officials are tallying thousands of uncounted ballots.
The party in power historically suffers heavy casualties in a president’s first midterm election and Tuesday’s results suggested voters were punishing Biden for the steepest inflation in 40 years.
But Democrats were able to avoid the major defeat that Republicans had anticipated and were holding on in the close Senate battles in Nevada and Arizona.
A split in the Senate vote would mean the majority would come down to a runoff election in Georgia for the second time in two years.
Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both failed to reach 50 percent on Tuesday, forcing them into a one-on-one battle on Dec. 6.
Thousands of votes still remained uncounted in the two closely competitive states of Arizona and Nevada. Election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, said it could take until at least Friday to tally all votes there.
Maricopa County Releases More Information on ‘Printer Issue,’ Says It ‘Impacted’ 17,000 Ballots
Authorities in Maricopa County, Arizona, have addressed a widespread problem that occurred with tabulation equipment on Election Day at dozens of polling sites across the county.‘White Wave’ of Mail-In Ballots Slammed Oz, Other Republicans
Call it “the White Wave.” A flood of white envelopes containing mail-in ballots lofted Democrat candidates to victories in several key Nov. 8 races.Case in point: Democrat John Fetterman will occupy Pennsylvania’s coveted U.S. Senate seat instead of Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In that race—and several others—mail-in ballots acted as a breaker against the “Red Wave” of wins that Republican leaders had hoped would wash across the nation at a time when Congress and the White House are both Democrat-controlled.
Voters in Western Orange County, New York, Most Concerned With Cost of Living and Crime
As food prices go up, Deerpark resident Gladys Murphy has quit buying cakes and started baking them at home. She also seldom purchases meat now, except for chicken on sale.“I cry every time I go to the store. I pick something up, and then I have to put it down because it costs too much,” Murphy told The Epoch Times outside the polling site at Deerpark Senior Center, New York, on Nov. 8.
Both Murphy and her husband are retired and live on Social Security income.
They use oil for winter heating, and the cost of filling up their 275-gallon tank could go well above $1,500 this year. Typically, they need to refill three times during the winter.
Oregon Governor’s Race on Knife’s Edge, Too Early to Call
Oregon’s gubernatorial election hung on a knife’s edge Wednesday, with the race too early to call in a state that has voted in Democratic governors since 1986.Democrat Tina Kotek was slightly ahead of Republican Christine Drazan, according to partial results from the secretary of state’s office. While the race is still too early to call because of the number of outstanding votes, the Kotek campaign issued a statement Wednesday night in which the Democratic candidate promised “to be a governor for all of Oregon.”
The Drazan campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The presence of a third, unaffiliated candidate in the race had buoyed GOP hopes they could win an Oregon governor’s race for the first time in 40 years and break the Democrats’ dominance of statewide races on the West Coast of the United States.
Because Oregon’s vote-by-mail system now allows ballots to be counted if they were postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day, an untold number of ballots are in the hands of the postal service. Nov. 15 is the last day for election officials to receive valid postmarked ballots by mail. In past general elections, votes needed to be received by election day.
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said verifying election results takes time.
“Every signature on every ballot envelope is verified. And the vote tallying process prioritizes accuracy and transparency, not speed,” Fagan said on Twitter. “Over the next week, elections officials will continue to count valid, on-time ballots.”
Drazan’s campaign said at midday Wednesday: “We continue to monitor returns with the expectation that this race will tighten.”
Nevada’s Critical US Senate, House Races Too Early to Call
Critical races in Nevada, including one that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, were too early to call amid a plodding vote count that includes more than 100,000 ballots still to count that were delivered at drop boxes on Election Day and sent by mail.Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was trailing in her effort to fend off a challenge from Republican Adam Laxalt. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was also in a tight race for reelection against Las Vegas-area Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who was also leading Wednesday, and three House seats are in limbo.
Democrat Edge Shrinks in Arizona Senate, Governor Races
Margins between Democrats and Republicans in key Arizona races narrowed considerably Wednesday as election officials chipped away at counting more than half a million mail ballots returned on Election Day and shortly before.Democrats maintained small but dwindling leads in key races for U.S. Senate, governor, and secretary of state, while Republicans were optimistic the late-counted ballots would break heavily in their favor, as they did in 2020.
It could take several days before it’s clear who won some of the closer contests.
Tight California Races May Determine US House Control
A string of too-early-to-call California U.S. House races remains in play and might end up determining whether Republicans seize control or Democrats hang on to power.With millions of votes still uncounted Wednesday across the nation’s most populous state, uncertainty remained for about a dozen of the state’s 52 House contests. The most competitive of those races were in the Los Angeles region and the Central Valley farm belt.
In Southern California, Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) were locked in close races. East of Los Angeles, Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) was trailing Democrat Will Rollins by 12 points, but less than one-third of the anticipated votes had been tallied.
Trump Says His Endorsed Candidates Secured ‘Very Big Victory’ in Midterms
Former President Donald Trump on Nov. 9 acknowledged that the results of the midterm elections were not a total triumph, but they were still a “very big victory.”Arizona Judge Rejects Republicans’ Request to Extend Voting Hours in County After Issues With Voting Machines
An Arizona judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by a Republican coalition to extend voting hours in Maricopa County after issues occurred earlier in the day with tabulation equipment at dozens of polling sites.“The court does not have evidence there was a voter who was precluded the right to vote from what was presented,” the judge, Timothy Ryan, said minutes before polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, reported multiple outlets.
Deceased Pennsylvania State Rep. Reelected in Landslide
A state lawmaker in Pennsylvania has been reelected to another term in office on Nov. 8 despite already passing away last month.State Rep. Tony DeLuca, a Democrat, died at age 85 on Oct. 9 due to lymphoma. The timing of his death was too late for election officials to change the ballots.
DeLuca had served as a representative in the Pennsylvania state legislature for 39 years. He received more than 85 percent of the vote in the 32nd District in Allegheny County. This accounted for nearly 14,000 votes on Election Day, and more than 7,000 votes via mail.
Republican Eli Crane Defeats Incumbent Tom O'Halleran in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District
Republican Eli Crane has defeated Democratic incumbent Tom O'Halleran in Tuesday’s election bid for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, according to projections.Crane was leading with 53.7 percent of the vote as of Wednesday evening, while to O’Halleran’ held 46.3 percent, according to projections from The Associated Press, bringing Republicans one step closer to control of the House.
NBC and ABC called the race in favor of Crane.
Kayleigh McEnany: Trump Should Wait Until After Georgia Senate Election to Declare 2024 Candidacy
Former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested former President Donald Trump should hold off on his expected announcement of a 2024 White House campaign until next month’s Georgia Senate runoff election is finished.A number of forecasters on Wednesday morning said the race between Sen. Raphael Warnock (R-Ga.) and GOP candidate Herschel Walker will advance to a Dec. 6 runoff election. Neither candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, although Warnock led by a small margin.
“I know there’s a temptation to starting talking about 2024—no, no, no, no, no,” McEnany, a Fox News hire, said on the network. The 2022 midterms are “not over,” she added, saying all “Republican energy needs to go to grinding the Biden agenda to a halt, and that could go straight through the state of Georgia.”
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Wins Reelection as Democrat Opponent Concedes
Democrat Mandela Barnes conceded the Senate race to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as numerous election projections show Johnson prevailing during Tuesday’s midterms.“The votes are in,” a statement from his campaign also said. “In all Democrat strongholds, municipalities are reporting 100% of wards are in and counted.” The campaign argued that the areas of the state with the highest percentages of outstanding votes are the ones that fell its way.
Kean Ousts Malinowski in Rematch, Gives GOP a Red Seat in a Blue State
Republican state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., who came within 1 percentage point of winning the seat two years ago, has ousted two-term incumbent Rep. Tom Malinowski’s (D-N.J.) in New Jersey’s Congressional District 7 (CD 7), picking up a key red win in a blue state.According to results posted by the New Jersey Secretary of State Office’s Division of Elections (DOE), Kean garnered 52.3 percent, or 153,535 of 293,340 ballots cast, to Malinowski’s 47.7 percent to win their Nov. 8 election.
Analysts nationwide were watching New Jersey’s marquee midterm rematch between Malinowski and Kean because it was viewed by the GOP as an opportunity for the GOP to flip one of the state’s 10 Democratic-held seats and send a third Republican to Congress.
Jack Phillips, Mimi Nguyen Ly, Katabella Roberts, John Haughey, Frank Fang, Cara Ding, Lorenz Duchamps, Janice Hisleand, Zachary Stieber, Joseph Lord, Petr Svab, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
