2022 election recap: Democrats hold US Senate with win in Nevada
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- Democrats held control of the US Senate and could even gain a seat depending on a run-off race in Georgia.
- A few outstanding races in the 2022 elections will determine control of the House.
- The results were a disappointment for Republicans, who had hoped to win many seats in both chambers.
Rachel La Corte/ AP Photo
Democratic Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez defeated Republican Joe Kent to win the US House race for Washington's 3rd Congressional District. Pérez's win will flip the district from Republican to Democrat, a first in 12 years.
Control of the House still hangs in the balance, with only a handful of outstanding races yet to be called.
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Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt to win the Nevada senate election.
Matt Larkin's campaign; Elaine Thompson/AP Photo; Insider
Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier defeated Republican Matt Larkin in Washington's 8th Congressional District.Read Full Story
US Senate; AP; Marianne Ayala/Insider
Freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona defeated newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat.
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Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was defeated by Republican Joe Lombardo in Nevada's gubernatorial election.
Once one of 14 Democratic trifectas in the country, Lombardo's win overturned this status.
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Democratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeated Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District.
It marks the second critical house race taken by Democratic candidates Friday evening, along with Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, who defeated April Becker in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District election.
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Democratic Rep. David Trone held off a challenge from Republican Neil Parrott in Maryland's 6th Congressional District in a rematch.
Trone — the millionaire owner of Total Wine & More retailers — is one of Congress' wealthiest members.
He is also among dozens of members of Congress found since last year to have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 for failing to properly disclose financial investments.
His victory shores up another seat for Democrats as control of the House remains too close to call.
Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty Images
As of Friday morning — three days after Election Day — neither party has taken control of the Senate or House just yet.
Democrats have amassed victories in 48 Senate races and need to eke out wins in two more states to keep power in the Senate with 50 senators and Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker.
Republicans, meanwhile, need to win two of those races to flip control.
As it stands, Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada haven't been resolved.
Georgia's race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is going to a December runoff election, making Nevada and Arizona the two most important states to watch at the moment.
In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by about 9,000 votes — less than 1% of the overall vote — with 6% of votes still left to be reported, according to Insider's data partner, Decision Desk HQ.
In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly holds a 5% lead, or about 115,000 votes, over Republican challenger Blake Masters with 84% of all votes reported so far.
On the House side, there are still 31 races that DDHQ has yet to call, many of which are in California and New York. As it stands, Republicans have netted 210 seats in the House so far, besting the Democrats' 194.
Either party needs 218 seats to have a majority.
That the election remains so close is a stunning result considering economic headwinds and historic trends of the party in power losing seats in Congress during midterm elections. The GOP had hoped for a "red wave" of victories, but Republicans have been held to only a few pickups in razor-tight races.
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The GOP's nominee for Maryland's attorney general has refused to concede, despite trailing his opponent by more than 300,000 votes.
Right-wing candidate Michael Peroutka emailed his supporters suggesting without evidence that election fraud had taken place.
Meanwhile, the Maryland State Board of Elections said Marylanders can be "confident" in the result, according to a statement seen by the Washington Post.
Though many high-profile election deniers ran in the 2022 midterm elections, most Republicans who lost have quickly conceded their races.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
A New York Congressman who lost his seat in the midterm elections criticized New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying she didn't do enough to help.
Sean Patrick Maloney has represented New York's 17th congressional district in the House of Representatives since 2013 but lost to his Republican rival this week, a stunning defeat for the party.
When asked who was to blame for Democrats' poor performance in the usually safe blue state, Maloney said of Ocasio-Cortez: "I didn't see her one minute of these midterms helping our House majority" — noting that she endorsed a candidate who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him in the primaries.
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Former President Donald Trump ripped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Thursday, calling him an "average Republican governor with great Public Relations."
In a public statement also posted on Truth Social, Trump unleashed on his one-time ally, offering a taste of the potential insults to come if the two face off in 2024. The Florida governor is seen as a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, which could challenge the former president's hold on the GOP should DeSantis decide to run for president.
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Republicans have been publicly souring on former President Donald Trump after candidates he endorsed underperformed in the midterm elections, but whether that drumbeat grows loud enough to drive him out as the party's leader remains uncertain.
"There's an old Frank Sinatra song where he says, 'I've heard that song before.' — We've heard this song before," Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist, told Insider on Thursday. "What we don't know is: what is that second verse going to be, and are Republicans going to actually stick to it?"
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GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert broke two days of Twitter silence on Thursday morning as leads her race by just under 400 votes — a stunningly close situation for the incumbent Congresswoman who was widely expected to trounce her opponent in a heavily Republican district.
Her opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch, has tweeted a handful of times since polls first closed in Colorado.
His most recent update came Thursday night around 9 p.m. ET, when he urged Coloradans to cure their ballots — meaning fix errors that will allow the vote to be counted, as per state law — if needed.
Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
As of 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, 34 House seats were uncalled.
Republicans would need to pick up eight more House seats to retake the chamber, and have plenty of chances to do so even in the absence of an overwhelming "red wave" for the party.
Three still-live races were also uncalled in the Senate, which will decide control of that chamber.
Arizona and Nevada remained open for either party, while in Alaska the race is between two Republican candidates, with the Democratic candidate way behind.
The Senate race in Georgia ended in a stalemate after neither party's candidate exceeded 50% of the vote. That race will be decided in a runoff vote in December.
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Republican Ryan Zinke defeated Democrat Monica Tranel in Montana's 1st Congressional District.
Barbara Kirkmeyer's campaign; Yadira Caraveo's campaign; Insider
Democrat Yadira Caraveo defeated Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer in Colorado's new 8th Congressional District.
Caraveo scored a narrow victory with 48.4% of the vote to Kirkmeyer's 47.7%.
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Republican New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell lost her bid for reelection against Democrat Gabriel Vasquez in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District.
Vasquez beat Herrell by less than a 1 percentage point margin.
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As the anticipated "red wave" failed to fully materialize on Tuesday, one Republican in Florida was having an exceptionally good night.
Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won reelection in a state that has long been considered a swing state, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist with a roughly 20-point lead as of Wednesday. By comparison, DeSantis in 2018 won the governorship by less than a percentage point, in a state that twice voted for former President Barack Obama.
DeSantis' dominating performance is all the more noteworthy compared to the underwhelming results delivered by Republicans elsewhere, including some of former President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters and endorsees. The drastic difference has already led Republicans to turn to DeSantis for 2024 hopes, a prospect that now seems all the more likely.
"Certainly DeSantis's overwhelming victory just puts more wind in his sails," Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Congress and US politics, told Insider. "The failure of various Trump pick candidates is a blow against him."
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President Joe Biden on Wednesday projected confidence in the country's direction after the midterm elections, responding "nothing" when asked what he will do differently in the next two years.
"The more they know about what we're doing, the more support there is," Biden said of voters during a nearly hour-long news conference after midterm election results exceeded expectations for Democrats.
With many race results still pending, Republicans are likely to capture control of the House and the Senate is still in play for both parties. But Democrats dodged a so-called "red wave" as midterm elections have historically punished the president's party two years after his first election.
"It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden said, later adding: "I know you were somewhat miffed by my obsessive optimism, but I felt good during the whole process."
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Five states had marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots in 2022.
On Tuesday, Maryland and Missouri joined the ranks of the growing number of states where cannabis is legal, while legalization votes failed in Arkansas and South Dakota. As of Wednesday afternoon, North Dakota's ballot measure has yet to be called.
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Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his voter support on Wednesday, just one day after the Republican governor pulled off a historic, 20-percentage point victory in the state.
"Now that the election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn't it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
The numbers Trump presented on Truth Social on Wednesday were accurate, but the margins Trump had against Biden in 2020 were far smaller than DeSantis had against his Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist. Trump won Florida in 2020 by a 3.4-percentage point margin.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Michael Lawler's campaign; Insider
Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney lost his bid for reelection against Republican Michael Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District.
Robert Zimmerman's campaign; George Devolder-Santos' campaign; Insider
Republican George Devolder-Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in New York's 3rd Congressional District. It was the first US House general election with two openly gay candidates running against each other.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
The hotly-contested race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker is headed to a December 6 runoff election since neither candidate hit the 50% threshold of victory mandated by state law, per Insider and Decision Desk HQ.
Warnock is the senior pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church who was elected to the Senate in a January 2021 runoff election to fill the remaining term of Republican Johnny Isakson. He has now seen his name on the ballot before Georgia voters four times over the past three years — in November 2020, January 2021, and May and November 2022.
Juan Ciscomani's campaign; Kirsten Engel's campaign; Insider
Republican Juan Ciscomani defeated Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District, flipping the seat from Democratic to Republican control.
Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee/Twitter
A Democratic state lawmaker in Pennsylvania won re-election by a landslide — even though he died last month.
Rep. Tony DeLuca, who died at the age of 85 on October 9 from lymphoma, crushed Green Party challenger Zarah Livingston in Tuesday's midterm elections.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Zach Nunn's campaign; Insider
Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne lost her bid for reelection against Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.
Carl Marlinga's campaign; JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images; Insider
Republican John James defeated Democrat Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th Congressional District. It marks another seat Republicans have flipped in the election.
Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General
Several candidates made history during Tuesday's midterm elections by winning their respective races and breaking barriers on both the state and national levels.
From the first openly lesbian governor in US history to the first Gen Z member of Congress, here's who made strides during the 2022 midterms.
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It was supposed to be a "red wave," but midterm elections that typically hand a huge defeat to the party that controls the White House instead appears to have given Democrats in Pennsylvaniacontrol of the state House of Representatives for the first time in more than a decade.
Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Photos from Republican election night events across the US show widespread disappointment as candidates and their constituents awaited a "red wave" that never came.
Big ticket names, like Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, trailed in the polls after expecting to easily clinch their races, proving a more successful night for Democrats than initially expected.
AP
New York's highest court's decision to reject an attempt by state Democrats to gerrymander the state's congressional maps months ago has apparently handed the GOP a rare lifeline in the battle for control of the House of Representatives.
A much-anticipated "red wave" failed to materialize in Tuesday's midterm elections, with Republicans losing Pennsylvania's Senate seat and dropping toss-up races they'd hoped to dominate.
But in Democratic stronghold New York, Republicans in the House saw significant wins, thanks in part to the April ruling by the state's Court of Appeals that sided with Republicans.
The court had struck down the new district lines, ruling that the congressional map was unconstitutional as it favored Democrats.
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Ex-White House aide and co-host of "The View" Alyssa Farah Griffin branded former President Donald Trump a "loser" — and said the Republican Party needs to admit that in order to finally "thrive."
GOP analysts and pundits have raised the prospect of abandoning Trump after the GOP's underwhelming performance on Election Day. Meanwhile, the former president appears to be forging ahead with his rumored announcement he'll run in 2024
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Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney on Wednesday conceded defeat to a New York Republican, a shocking loss for the House Democrats' campaign chief that comes as his party performed surprisingly well in the midterms.
As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maloney took a lead role in recruiting candidates and raising money to defend a number of embattled Democratic incumbents. As of Wednesday morning, the House majority remains too close to call, a development that has taken Washington by surprise.
Caroline Brehman/Pool via CQ Roll Call
It's been hours since the polls closed on Election Day and the control of Congress still hangs in the balance.
First, in Georgia's Senate race, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock pulled ahead of GOP challenger and former football star Herschel Walker, but not enough to lock up the win. That's because the Peach State requires candidates to win 50% of the vote plus one more.
Warnock currently has 49.42% of the vote to Walker's 48.52%, meaning the two are now headed for a run-off election in December. It's familiar ground for Warnock, who won a run-off election in 2020 that tipped the balance of the Senate for Democrats. His run-off race may again decide the balance of power in Congress' upper chamber.
Meanwhile, incumbent DC mayor Muriel Bowser easily fended off a Republican challenger, Stacia Hall. With just 70% of the vote in, it's already clear Bowser will easily win the race.
And in one of the more tightly contested ballot initiatives, Colorado voters are nearly evenly split on whether to reclassify some psychedelics — like mushrooms — as natural medicine and decriminalize them.
The yeses for the proposition currently lead in the counting 51.03% to 48.97% with about a quarter of the vote still remaining.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
Cobb County, a one-time GOP stronghold, will be critical for Warnock to win in his upcoming runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.
The county is poised to become a powerful source of support for Warnock next month and for Democrats running in statewide elections going forward.
With over 95% of county precincts reporting in the Senate race, Warnock was leading Walker by nearly 17 points (57%-40.5%) in Cobb County.
Eric Sorensen's campaign; Esther Joy King's campaign; Insider
Republican Esther Joy King ran against Democrat Eric Sorensen in Illinois' 17th Congressional District in a race sparked by incumbent Rep Cheri Bustos' retirement.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Matt York/AP Photo; Insider
Stanton defeated Cooper in Arizona's 4th Congressional district, which is located in Maricopa county.
Despite recent redistricting making the district less Democrat-leaning, the Cook Political Report had forecasted to favor Democrats ahead of the election.
Getty; Marianne Ayala/Insider
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's too-close-to-call race against Republican Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff that will take place in December.
The runoff potentially means the Senate majority may not be determined for several weeks.
Warnock, who is seeking election for a full six-year term, won a previous runoff to win his Senate seat in the first place.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Democratic candidate Marcus Flowers raised $15.6 million for his campaign to take on Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but he still lost Georgia's 14th district by more than 31 points, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Flowers, a former defense contractor employee and US Army veteran with a questionable past, ran a campaign heavy on social media and email-based fundraising appeals; much of his war chest was spent on fundraising and digital advertising, along with more traditional media.
And his appeals centered primarily on the Georgia congresswoman, known for her far-right, conspiratorial brand of politics and close relationship with former President Donald Trump.
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Democrats spent millions of dollars on advertisements designed to boost election chances for Republicans who denied the 2020 presidential election, and the strategy seemed to pay off.
In competitive races in states across the US, Republicans who benefited from the ads were set to be defeated.
Four key examples of those candidates include:
- Senate candidate Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, projected to lose to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.
- House candidate John Gibbs in Michigan, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Hillary Scholten.
- Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.
- Gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox of Maryland, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Wes Moore.
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An advisor to Trump told CNN that the former president is "screaming at everyone" after many Republican candidates backed by him underperformed in the midterm elections.
"Candidates matter," the Trump advisor, who was not named, told CNN on Wednesday. "They were all bad candidates."
Sarah Burnett/AP Photo; Will Weissert/AP Photo; Insider
Gibbs had ousted incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, who supported impeaching President Donald Trump, in a primary before Tuesday's election.
Gibb's win and redistricting in the state had Democrats optimistic that the seat could be flipped.
Michelle Lujan Grisham, Eddie Moore/AP; Insider
Grisham is the 32nd governor of New Mexico, and she previously represented the 1st Congressional District in the US House for three terms.
Ronchetti, a certified meteorologist who worked as the chief meteorologist for Albuquerque's CBS and FOX affiliates, conceded to Grisham on Tuesday night.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
"I called Governor Whitmer this morning to concede and wish her well," Dixon said in a statement.
"Michigan's future success rests not in elected officials or government, but all of us," she added. "It is incumbent upon all of us to help our children read, support law enforcement, and grow our economy."
Dixon had previously pushed conspiracies around the 2020 presidential election, MLive reported earlier this year.
—Mark Cavitt (@MarkCavitt) November 9, 2022
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The former president had endorsed hundreds of candidates in the midterm elections as he sought to cement his control over the party. But as of early Wednesday many were performing poorly.
In a CNN interview, former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin blamed the failures on the poor quality of the candidates Trump championed.
"If you want the Republican Party to thrive, we've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser, he lost 2020, he's losing a seat that is winnable this time," she said.
Scott Jennings, a conservative analyst and former advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the results showed that Trump's hopes of winning back the presidency were a non-starter.
"How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?" he said.
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"Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis," Mulvaney told CBS News, NBC reported. "DeSantis wins tonight and Trump is not doing very well."
His comments came after DeSantis, largely seen as Trump's biggest rival, pulled off a huge victory over Charlie Crist in Florida on Tuesday night, which could potentially set him up for a Republican presidential primary in 2024.
Meanwhile, numerous Trump-backed candidates, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan, have underperformed or lost the mid-term races, Insider and its election partner DDH
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Former President Donald Trump's plans to claim credit for Republican Party wins in the midterms at triumphant party held at Mar-a-Lago party fell flat as an anticipated "red wave' of GOP success never appeared.
Trump had hoped to cement his place as the Republican Party's king maker at a glitzy party in his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
He invited influential supporters and members of the media to join him and watch on giant TVs as results flowed in, reports said.
But major GOP successes never came, and results as of Wednesday morning were mixed. A slew of candidates Trump had endorsed fell short.
Trump's remarks at the event were muted, as results early Wednesday suggested a bleak outlook for his party.
Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Getty Images / Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The GOP House Rep. who got Elon Musk's first Republican vote earlier this year was booted out of Congress in the midterms just five months later.
Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores lost her seat in the state's 34th Congressional District to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez by a wide margin. As of early Wednesday, 96% of the votes were counted, leaving Flores trailing by almost nine percentage points.
When Flores won in June, Musk predicted big gains for the Republicans that failed to materialize as results came in late on Tuesday.
"I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican," he said in June, adding: "Massive red wave in 2022."
It's unclear who Musk voted for in this election, though on Monday he tweeted to advocate voting Republican in Congressional races.
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Democrat John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz in a tense face-off for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania on, Insider and its election partner DDHQ projected early on Wednesday.
After the race was called, a stunned-looking Fetterman addressed cheering supporters at a concert venue in Pittsburgh, telling them: "I'm not really sure what to say right now, my goodness."
He wiped away tears as he spoke.
"We jammed them up. We held the line ... I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do," Fetterman continued.
Scott Olson/Getty; Insider
Incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson barely held off Democrat Mandela Barnes to hold his seat, winning a surprisingly close election by mere thousands of votes.
The election was an unexpected nailbiter for Johnson, a two-term senator.
Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images
Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores wasted no time in ripping her voters after she lost a competitive House seat during Tuesday's midterm elections.
"The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home," Flores said on Twitter. "DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!"
Insider
Democrat John Fetterman has won Pennsylvania's Senate seat over Trump-backed TV show host Mehmet Oz, dealing a serious blow to Republicans' hopes of taking control of the US Senate.
"We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didn't let us down," Fetterman wrote on Twitter as he declared victory. "And I won't let you down. Thank you."
The win is the first Democratic pickup in the Senate.
Fetterman, who had a stroke shortly before winning the Democratic primary, eeked out a victory after an uneven debate performance gave new life to Oz's campaign. Fetterman has insisted that the stroke affected only his hearing, not his cognition and that he is fit for office.
Oz — who has never held office — faced accusations that he didn't really live in Pennsylvania as well as criticism of his embrace of Trump and anti-abortion rhetoric. Oz has not spoken at his election night event.
AP Images; Insider
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won re-election, fending off a challenge from Trump-backed Republican Tudor Dixon.
Republicans began this cycle eager to knock out Whitmer over her management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the targeting of Whitmer wasn't just at the ballot box.
In 2020, federal law enforcement arrested 13 men suspected of engineering a terrorist plot to kidnap Whitmer and attempt to overthrow Michigan's government. The subsequent cases against them have resulted in a mixture of convictions, acquittals, and plea deals.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
At a party for campaign supporters, Michigan's Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon said she refused to accept that her race had been called for her opponent.
"This race is going to be too close to call, despite what Fox thinks," Dixon told attendees after Democrat Gretchen Whitmer had been declared the projected winner by some outlets, including Fox News. "We don't accept that Fox is calling this."
Fox News projected that Whitmer had defeated Tudor, a Trump-backed candidate, with approximately 48% of votes tallied.
Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images
GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest current US senator, won re-election at age 89.
He is the serving president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate and represents a generation of political leaders who have held on to power despite their advanced ages.
An Insider investigation into gerontocracy — the term for a government run by old people — found that young officials feel blocked by those clinging to power and that their issues are being downplayed.
(Aside: Grassley was born five years before the chocolate chip cookie was invented. The beloved cookie first appeared in Ruth Wakefield's 1938 cookbook "Tried and True."
Grassley was born in September 1933.)
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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham weighed in on his party's midterms performance as election results began trickling in on Tuesday evening, declaring, it's "definitely not a Republican wave — that's for darn sure."
"I think we're gonna be at 51, 52 when it's all said in done in the Senate," the South Carolina senator said during an interview with NBC News, holding out hope for the GOP's chances.
Reuters
Control of the House remains too close to call, a shocking scenario that raises the possibility Democrats' could escape the midterms with little damage.
As of 11:45 p.m. EST, Decision Desk HQ and Insider are unable to project which party will control either house in Congress. While the Senate was always expected to be close, few, if any, pundits foretold of a House contest that would be this narrow.
—Walter Hickey (@WaltHickey) November 9, 2022
Republicans began the cycle giddy with excitement. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy even poised that his party could flip 60 seats. Instead, fury over the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade appears to have not only dampened a possible wave election but may even lead to Democratic gains.
There have only been two times since World War II that a president's party has gained seats in a midterm election, one of which occurred in the months after the September 11th attacks.
—Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022
Joshua Bessex/AP Photo; Mary Altaffer/AP Photo; Insider
Trump-backed GOP candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin made a huge push in the final weeks of the race for New York governor, pushing concerns about crime as his opponent flagged in the polls and insisting the wedge issue would flip the Democratic stronghold red.
It didn't.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin after an unexpectedly strong challenge in New York's gubernatorial election.
Appointed governor following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul is the first woman to be governor of New York.
If elected, Zeldin would have dismantled New York's Democratic trifecta, where Democrats hold the governorship and majorities in both legislative chambers.
AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson
If Oz wants to win Pennsylvania, he'll need to outperform former President Donald Trump's results in 2020, when he lost the state by just over 80,000 votes.
So far, Oz is falling short.
"This is Western Pennsylvania, small county ... but again Trump ran up huge numbers in Western Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz is going to win Clarion County overwhelmingly but it's five points less than Trump got," MSNBC's Steve Kornacki said as he ticked off results across the Keystone State.
Kornacki pointed out that Oz is underperforming compared to Trump elsewhere too. In Bedford County, a rural county near the Maryland border, Oz received 80.7% of the vote compared to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's 17%. But Oz's commanding performance is still not enough to match Trump's mark of 83.5%.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her bid for reelection on the same night when Republicans appear to be poised to take control of the US House.
Boebert is facing off against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman.
Ap Images; Insider
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection in Florida by historic margins on Tuesday, flipping the state from purple to red and doing it all without former President Donald Trump's help.
Trump has continually teased the prospect of another presidential run, and could announce soon after the midterms. DeSantis has consistently polled behind the former president as a 2024 GOP favorite, and hasn't said whether he plans to serve out all four years as governor.
Trump, who is now a Florida resident, cast his vote for DeSantis on Tuesday but told reporters he didn't think the governor should run against him. "If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign."
Charles Krupa/AP Photo; Cheryl Senter/AP Photo
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas defeated Republican Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.
Leavitt — a 25-year-old former White House staffer for President Donald Trump — would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
AP Images; Insider
Republican author J.D. Vance defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio, holding a Senate seat for the GOP as they seek to flip one Democratic seat and regain control of Congress' upper chamber.
The race was among the most expensive in the country, with Ryan's holding a large financial lead and forcing Republicans to spend big to win.
Trump endorsed Vance ahead of the primaries despite the candidate previously comparing the former president to "America's Hitler" in private messages.
Icon Sportswire/Getty, Insider
Incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fended off a challenge from Democrat Beto O'Rourke, leaning on a right-wing base energized by policies that have antagonized liberals.
Abbott pushed his state into the forefront of numerous national fights, from slashing abortion rights to shipping migrants from the southern border to Democratic cities as a protest of Joe Biden's border policies.
Abbott's win marked the second statewide loss for O'Rourke, who failed to unseat Ted Cruz in 2018. Democrats had hoped to flip Texas blue, but fell short again.
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A Trump-backed election denier has lost the race for Pennsylvania governor.
Democrat Josh Shapiro has defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the consequential open race. The election determined not just who controls the governor's house, but also who will ultimately oversee the 2024 election in a key swing state.
Getty Images; Insider
Democrat Wes Moore made history, winning the Maryland gubernatorial election and becoming the first Black governor in the state's history.
Moore — a combat veteran in the US Army and a small business owner — defeated Cox, a state representative endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Paras Griffin/Getty, Insider
Incumbent Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has won re-election, defeating Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their race in 2018.
Kemp was openly insulted by former President Donald Trump for not backing his election lies in 2020.
He's held off Abrams, a Democratic star whose get-out-the-vote efforts were credited with flipping Georgia blue in 2020 but who has failed to win statewide office herself.
Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
A consequential bellwether House race is coming down to the wire in Virginia.
Both parties have targeted the seat held by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
It's the kind of district that — if the Democrats were to lose it — would bode ill for their chances for the rest of the evening and would hint that they'd have a difficult path to retain the majority in the House.
(Aside: the origin of the word "bellwether" has nothing to do with rain, but comes from the Middle English word "bellewether," which refers to the bell put on a castrated ram's neck to help shepherds keep track of their flocks.)
AP Photo/Matt York, File
A judge on Tuesday evening rejected Republicans' request to keep polling centers in Maricopa County, Arizona, open for three more hours, until 10 p.m. local time.
The ruling came after the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Blake Masters campaign, and Kari Lake campaign filed an emergency complaint asking to extend voting hours in the county amid news that dozens of vote tabulating machines had glitched and refused to accept ballots.
County officials put out a press release in the afternoon saying the problem had been identified and technicians were working on it. They added that it was unclear how many ballots had been affected but that all of them would be counted.
Election officials also noted that the problem wasn't that vote tabulating machines were incorrectly reading ballots but that they weren't reading them at all.
"Everyone is still getting to vote," Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, said at a news conference in Phoenix amid reports of the voting machine issues.
"We do not believe that anyone has been disenfranchised because no one has been turned away," he added.
But Republicans still pounced on reports of the glitch.
"The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues," RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement. "The widespread issues — in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day."
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz — a longtime Trump ally and outspoken member of the right-wing GOP House — has won re-election in Florida.
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders defeated Democrat Chris Jones in Arkansas' gubernatorial race.
Sanders, a former Trump administration official, is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
She will be the first woman governor of Arkansas.
AP Images; Insider
Massachusetts' Attorney General Maura Healey has won the state's gubernatorial election against Trump-backed Republican Geoff Diehl.
The current governor, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, decided against seeking a third term.
Healey has now flipped the Massachusetts governor's office. She makes history as the first openly gay person and first woman elected governor.
Steve Cannon/AP photo; Alan Cohn's campaign; Insider
Republican Laurel Lee defeated Democrat Alan Cohn in Florida's newest congressional district, which was added based on 2020 Census results.
Cory Mills' campaign; Karen Green's campaign; Insider
Republican Cory Mills won an open seat in Florida's redrawn 7th Congressional District against Democrat Karen Green. The seat was open following Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy's decision to not seek re-election after serving three terms.
Insider
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising Republican star and possible 2024 challenger to Donald Trump, is projected to win re-election.
DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist, who resigned his congressional seat in August after his primary victory.
DeSantis cruised to a historic victory — despite catching heat from Trump in the days before the election.
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Andrew Burton/Getty, Insider
Sen. Marco Rubio is projected to have beaten Democratic Rep. Val Demings.
Decision Desk HQ and Insider project Rubio will win his third term in the Senate as of 8 pm EST.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Donald Trump ensured he was on the ballot Tuesday night even if all he could do was wait for the election results like everyone else.
The twice-impeached former president has put great effort into continuing to rebrand the Republican Party while in his Mar-a-Lago home. He made more than 250 general election endorsements, according to Ballotpedia. Many of his endorsees have echoed his lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.Keep Reading
ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
Philadelphia's last-minute decision to reinstate a policy requiring poll workers to check for double votes during — not after — the election-night tallying of ballots will further delay final results, a fact that a local Republican election official blames squarely on the GOP.
"I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia — and only Philadelphia — to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does," City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said Tuesday morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Bluestein is the sole Republican on Philadelphia's elections commission.
Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Tens of millions of Americans are casting their ballots freely and fairly, and tens of thousands of poll workers across the nation are doing their duties "with high integrity and working truly hard to make sure votes are counted fairly and accurately," US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks told Insider.
"If someone is eligible to cast their vote, they should be able to do so free and without any encumbrance, and those who put those encumbrances up there to harass or intimidate should be prosecuted," Hicks said.
AP Photo/Ben Gray
Across the Atlanta area on Election Day, voters came out to cast ballots in the highly-consequential Georgia US Senate and gubernatorial races, with the results likely to determine the trajectory of the state for years to come.
On Tuesday, citizens had their final say in the race, and whether it was a rejection of the GOP or simply pursuing a civic duty, a range of voters in Cobb and DeKalb counties told Insider that they came out to the polls not dissatisfied with the candidates themselves but the state of politics.
Evan Vucci/AP
Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview on Tuesday he should "get all the credit" if the slew of GOP candidates he endorsed win big in the 2022 midterm elections — but also said he shouldn't be blamed if they don't come out on top.
"I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all," Trump told NewsNation during an interview on Tuesday when asked how much he thinks Republicans' victories or losses in the midterms will be because of him.
Trump has endorsed more than 330 GOP candidates running for both state and federal office in this election cycle, including Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, and Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters.
James Gilbert/Getty Images
The DeSantis administration said DOJ-appointed election monitors aren't allowed inside Florida polling places.
A letter from Florida Department of State General Counsel Brad McVay said the federal monitors aren't legally allowed inside.
McVay said Florida's own inspectors will monitor the three locations — all Democratic strongholds. The Justice Department will still send observers to the three polling sites, but they will remain outside.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday.
Trump's baseless post appeared to echo claims that Kristina Karamo, the Republican candidate running for secretary of state in Michigan, made earlier Tuesday after her lawsuit challenging absentee voting in only Democrat-heavy Detroit was thrown out of court.
Judge Timothy Kenny issued a scathing opinion saying she had "raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit's procedures for the November 8th election."
Kimberly Leonard/Insider
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is up for reelection Tuesday and could seek the White House in 2024.
Insider interviewed voters from his small hometown of Dunedin, Florida.
Republican voters said they were thrilled that the man who played baseball just up the street could have a shot at the White House someday. Democratic voters said it was hard for them to believe the governor spent most of his youth in this town, one they said they don't see as a red stalwart.
AP Photo
Two Georgia poll workers in Fulton County were removed from their duties on Tuesday after Facebook posts were discovered showing them at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Washington Post reported.
The poll workers — a mother and son — were removed shortly before voting started.
One of the Facebook posts shared with the Post echoed former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.
According to the report, the Facebook post said: "I stood up for what's right today in Washington DC. This election was a sham. Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol building. And my children have had the best learning experience of their lives."
Kris Connor/Getty Images
As Insider justice correspondent C. Ryan Barber wrote: "In the five years since former President Donald Trump's election, the number of reported threats against lawmakers increased tenfold — to more than 9,625 in 2021, according to the Capitol police."
"That rise has mirrored a similar increase in threats to other public figures and officials, including federal judges, who faced a surge in threats during the Trump administration," Barber added.
Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons/Wikimedia Commons
"By taking back Congress, we're going to send Biden the message. We're going to bear hug his whole administration," Masters told Fox Business during an interview on Tuesday morning as voters across the country headed to the polls.
The Republican Senate hopeful added, "I'm going to grind his agenda to a halt unless and until we get border security. Period."
"I'm not going to vote for a single thing — not a single continuing resolution, not a single appointee — unless Joe Biden actually does something to secure our border," Masters said.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
When asked whether he voted for DeSantis after he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump replied: "Yes, I did," according to a video shared on Twitter.
Former first lady Melania Trump was alongside him.
"No matter who you vote for, you have to vote," Trump told reporters gathered outside the polling site.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
The Wall Street Journal reported that voting tabulation machines in about 20% of Maricopa County's 223 voting centers were malfunctioning on Tuesday.
Maricopa County said on Twitter that in one instance, a password was entered too many times, causing built-in security measures to lock a ballot scanner.
"If you're at a polling place experiencing an issue with a tabulator, you have three options & your vote will be counted in each. 1) stay where you are and wait for tabulator to come online 2) drop your ballot in the secure slot (door 3) on tabulator 3) go to a nearby vote center," Bill Gates, chairman of the county board of supervisors said on Twitter.
Thomas Galvin, Maricopa County Supervisor, said on Twitter that election operations were "going well."
"But I've been fielding some complaints & concerns from constituents about issues at polling booths. I'm here to listen, to get to the bottom of ALL issues," he said. "Please email me at District2@Maricopa.gov. My team & I will reach out to you ASAP."
Susan Walsh/AP
These are lawmakers who invest, or who've recently invested, in one of Musk's publicly traded companies — Tesla, and until recently, Twitter — either on their own or through a spouse.
In all, there's a dozen of them, reports Insider's Madison Hall.
One name is particularly notable: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who's husband, Paul, who earlier this year exercised 25 call options (2,500 shares) of Tesla stock at a strike price of $500, with the trade valued at between $1 million and $5 million.
STILLFX/Getty Images
As Insider's Madison Hall reported, nonpartisan money-in-politics research organization OpenSecrets has estimated that all federal- and state-level contests will together be worth $16.7 billion.
"For perspective: the states of Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii each have annual state budgets that are around, or in some cases, much less than, $16.7 billion," Hall noted.
Getty; Rebecca Zisser/Insider
Congress has never been older than it is today, Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" project revealed in September.
And the results of the 2022 midterms could very well keep what's been a 20-year trend toward gerontocracy very much in motion.
Age and experience have factored into a number of US House and Senate races, but two stand out.
First is Iowa's US Senate race, where Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking another six-year term that'd keep him on Capitol Hill until he's 95 years old.
Then there Ohio's 9th District race, where Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur is facing the strongest challenge of her 40-year congressional career by Republican J.R. Majewski in what's become one of the more wild House races this election cycle.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Aides to former President Donald Trump persuaded him not to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday, fearing it could upend the midterm elections, The Washington Post reported.
According to three sources who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, Trump had touted the idea of formally announcing his bid for the 2024 presidency at a rally for GOP Senate candidate JD Vance in Ohio on Monday night.
The suggestion prompted a scramble by top Republicans and Trump some aides to stop any announcement, two of the sources told the publication. Other aides, it reported, wanted Trump to go ahead.
Thomas Peipert/AP Photo
Today America will vote on the midterm elections, with the consequences of results poised to reverberate across the government for years to come.
Insider will have real-time live election results on thousands of races across the country, including every House, Senate, Governor, and State Legislative election happening in the United States.
The most significant story is unfolding in dozens of House races across the country, as the Democrats' tenuous control of the chamber is being challenged by the GOP. Midterms tend to be disastrous for the incumbent president's party, and this election has control of the House very much up for grabs. Insider is tracking close to 90 of the most consequential races.
The Senate is currently split 50-50, and each party wants to get control of the upper chamber. Senators serve for six years, which means the impacts of this election will reverberate through at least 2028. The contest for control of the Senate might not be decided on election night, as it'll likely come down to just a few individual races and counting could continue for several days.
There are also dozens of gubernatorial elections. These races are full of potential contenders for 2024, and, more consequentially, whoever wins the governor's race in a number of key swing states will have control over the levers of power around elections.
Lastly, with the Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a number of gubernatorial races will end up functionally deciding the legality and availability of abortion in any number of states.
This is why this cycle has a number of critically important state legislative races. As power to regulate the right to choose has been turned over to individual states, the battles over legislative chambers are of significant importance this cycle.
Lastly, many states will have ballot referendum for their citizens to consider. These run the gamut, with some potentially legalizing marijuana, others establishing or stripping citizens' right to abortion access, and others opening up multi-billion dollar gambling markets.
Insider will be closely monitoring the coverage on all of this today, tonight, and through the final calls of the races. The first polls close at 6 p.m. EST, come along and follow all the critical races of this election here.
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