Newsman: Fifty states of the United States of America held midterm election’2022 Tuesday to determine the balance of power in Washington and state capitals across the nation. The 2022 midterm elections are shaping up to be a historic and decisive moment in American politics as several key races are still up in the air hours after the polls closed.
All 435 seats in the House and 35 of 100 seats in the Senate were on the ballot, as well as several influential gubernatorial elections in battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
The House still looks like it’s headed for GOP hands, but not by a huge margin. As latest, Republicans have flipped or lead in 17 races, while Democrats have flipped or lead in nine. If that holds, that would only be a net gain of eight seats, on the low end of forecasters’ projections. It’s also far below the average for a president’s first midterm.
Control of both the House and Senate are still not yet known, as of 5 a.m. ET. Senate races in the key states of Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin are still not called, though incumbent Republican Ron Johnson in Wisconsin led with 98% of votes in.
Democrat John Fetterman won in Pennsylvania, which was seen as a crucial state for Democrats to be able to retain control. It is likely their one flip of the evening, as Wisconsin looks less likely.
Republicans now need a net gain of two pickups to gain control. So far, they have gotten none. They were expecting to win up to 52 seats, and that now appears unlikely. Nevada and Georgia are close, but the Republican was ahead in Nevada and the Democrat was ahead in Georgia. Arizona only had about 58% of votes in, and Democrat Mark Kelly was ahead at that point.
In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock was narrowly ahead, but not quite above the 50% threshold needed for an outright victory. So, let’s say if Democrats hold on in Arizona, but lose in Nevada, then Georgia will decide control of the Senate in a runoff in about a month, Dec. 6. Wow.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy spoke at almost 2 a.m. ET and tried to set the narrative. “It is clear that we are going to take the House back,” McCarthy said. He pointed to diverse GOP candidates across the country and claimed that it was evidence of an expanding GOP tent. “When you wake up tomorrow we will be in the majority – Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority,” McCarthy added.
Democrats currently have a slim control over the U.S. Congress, and Republicans are hoping to make major gains to win back power.
