Schumer says Democrats are ‘feeling good’ about keeping majority after pundits ‘missed it’
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that Democrats are “still feeling good” about the outstanding races that will determine whether they keep their majority in the chamber.
Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Schumer referenced predictions of a “red wave” that failed to materialize, adding that voters rejected “the Republican MAGA agenda.”
“I think the pundits missed it,” he said. “People are really worried about democracy. And it may not have been when they answered a poll question, but I think it played a much greater role than people realized.”
As of Wednesday night, Democrats and Republicans will each have 48 seats in the Senate, according to NBC News projections, with four seats yet to be called.
Abortion rights advocates see a flurry of post-Roe victories in midterms
Voters in states from across the political spectrum chose to enshrine abortion rights on Tuesday, a major victory for reproductive rights advocates in the first national election since the fall of Roe v. Wade in June.
There were a record number of abortion-related proposals this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: Five states had midterm ballot initiatives, while another, Kansas, voted on a measure over the summer concerning abortion protections.
Voters in Kentucky, a Republican stronghold that has a near-total ban on abortion, rejected an initiative to amend the state constitution to explicitly state that there is no right to an abortion. If approved, it would have made it nearly impossible to legally challenge anti-abortion legislation in Kentucky.
NBC News projections showed that over 52% voted against the measure. While the amendment’s defeat will not change whether Kentucky residents have abortion access if the state Supreme Court continues to allow a ban that is currently being challenged, abortion rights advocates were thrilled by voters’ support.
Biden says he will make decision ‘early next year’ about 2024 bid
President Joe Biden reiterated Wednesday that he intends to run for re-election, while noting that he is likely to firm up his decision by “early next year.”
“My guess is it would be early next year, that we would make that judgment,” Biden told reporters at the White House in a post-midterms news conference.
Asked whether Democrats’ performance at the polls on Tuesday had influenced his 2024 plans, Biden said: “Our intention is to run again, that’s been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was.”
Biden said Democrats had “outperformed anything anyone expected,” noting that so-called MAGA Republicans had not flipped as many seats as predicted, but added that his decision to run for re-election would ultimately be made together with his wife.
“This is ultimately a family decision,” Biden said, adding that he didn’t feel “in any hurry” to make the decision despite former President Donald Trump signaling he’ll announce his own 2024 plans next week.
What the midterm election results mean for inflation and the economy
With nearly one-third of midterm election voters indicating inflation as their top concern this year, attention now turns to what the new political alignment in Washington, D.C., will mean for tackling the issue.
But with multiple key races still up for grabs as of Wednesday, it is too soon to say exactly how federal lawmakers would address the rampant price increases.
U.S. Senate races in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada remained undecided Wednesday afternoon — while the fate of the U.S. House, even with Republicans in the lead, was also still unknown.
Were they to gain full control of Congress, Republicans have pledged to roll back the Biden administration’s spending efforts, which opponents of President Joe Biden blame for inflation.
Biden touts ‘strong night’ for Democrats after predicted red wave ‘didn’t happen’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Democrats had a strong showing in the midterm elections after a predicted GOP red wave did not materialize.
“While any seat lost is painful — some good Democrats didn’t win last night — Democrats had a strong night,” Biden said during remarks at the White House. “While the press and the pundits were predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen.”
Ahead of the election, Biden had repeatedly suggested that democracy was on the ballot, and he leaned into that message Wednesday.
“Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are,” he said.
Biden insisted that voters “sent a clear and unmistakable message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose in this country.”
Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan on Tuesday opted to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky rejected a ballot proposal that would have amended their state’s constitution to say it doesn’t protect abortion rights.
Dominion points to ‘printing issue’ after N.J. county reports issues with ballot scanning
Dominion Voting Systems said Wednesday that purported issues with ballot scanning in Mercer County, New Jersey, on election night were a result of a “printing issue.”
“The Dominion tabulators functioned exactly as they should by rejecting incorrectly printed ballots,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “We are actively working with Royal Printing and Mercer County election officials on this issue.”
Dominion’s statement came after officials in Mercer County asked the local prosecutor to look into issues with machines that they said failed to scan ballots on Tuesday.
Mercer County clerk Paula Sollami Covello said Wednesday in a phone interview that the ballots that could not be scanned by the Dominion machines were ultimately counted at a board of elections office in a process supervised by a bipartisan commission.
“We are not suspicious of any specific wrongdoing, but we do need to investigate the matter fully,” the clerk added.
In an email, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the clerk had gotten in touch.
Dominion was the subject of a string of unfounded conspiracy theories and baseless claims following the 2020 presidential election. The firm sued Fox News as well as some Trump allies and right-wing broadcasters alleging defamation.
Mike Pence releases op-ed about 2020 election pressures from Donald Trump
Former Vice President Mike Pence released a new Wall Street Journal op-ed discussing his final days working with former President Donald Trump in the White House.
The piece, adapted from Pence’s memoir set for release Nov. 15, was published Wednesday afternoon as Republicans have begun finger-pointing about whether Trump was to blame for their lackluster election night.
The memoir excerpt includes snapshots of Pence’s interactions with Trump following the 2020 election as the former president and his allies tried to pressure Pence to help overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
On Jan. 5, Trump “laid into” Pence, the former vice president wrote. “‘You’ll go down as a wimp,’ he said. ‘If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!'”
“But when he said, ‘You’re not protecting our country, you’re supposed to support and defend our country!’ I calmly reminded him, ‘We both took an oath to support and defend the Constitution.'”
The op-ed comes a day after Election Day in a cycle in which many Republican candidates who cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election were elected. It also comes ahead of a speech Trump said he plans to make on Nov. 15, which he has teased will be his announcement for a third White House bid.
In partisan state Supreme Court races, GOP sweeps Ohio and flips North Carolina
Closely watched state Supreme Court races, in which divisive issues such as abortion rights and redistricting fueled political donations and record campaign fundraising, ended with mixed results on Election Day.
Republican-affiliated justices retained their 4-3 majority on the Ohio Supreme Court by sweeping all three open seats over their Democratic challengers, while Democrats held on to at least one of two vacant seats on the Illinois Supreme Court, blocking Republicans’ attempt to wrest control of the court for the first time in 50 years.
The midterm election’s biggest losing bets: Two measures seeking sports gambling in California
Nearly a half-billion dollars were poured into campaigns aimed at bringing sports gambling to California at tribal casinos and online, in what turned out to be the biggest losing bets of this political season.
Propositions 26 and 27 not only lost, but also went down in overwhelming numbers rarely seen in modern 50-50 politics.
Proposition 26, which sought to bring point spreads to Native American casinos, was rejected by a margin of 70.1% to 29.1%, with nearly all precincts reporting, tallies showed Wednesday. Meanwhile, Proposition 27, the measure that sought to legalize online sports betting, went down to even greater defeat by a margin of 83.3% to 16.7%.
“This might go down in history, in the Michael Bloomberg Hall of Fame,” Dan Schnur, a campaign finance reform advocate, said poking fun at the former New York City mayor and media tycoon’s brief $1 billion presidential run of 2020.
Nevada’s largest county still days from completing ballot count
LAS VEGAS — Clark County election officials said Wednesday they are still days from completing ballot counting in the state’s largest county, leaving up in the air the results of a contest that could determine…
Read More:Midterm elections see key runoff, razor-thin races as Senate and House control hangs in the balance
2022-11-10 00:03:00