In Nevada, a head-to-head between Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and her Republican opponent Adam Laxalt was underway. Republicans hoped to take the Senate seat from Democrats. But with the postal votes counted, Cortez Masto caught up and narrowly prevailed. Rumors from the greater Las Vegas area were said to be the main reason for this. Ultimately, Democrats won 50 of Washington’s 100 Senate seats.
Earlier, Democrat Mark Kelly managed to retain his hard-fought Senate seat in the state of Arizona in a counting thriller. Former astronaut Kelly prevailed against Republican challenger Blake Masters.
String of failures by Trump candidates
The 36-year-old Masters, a technology investor from entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s background with very conservative views, was supported by former Republican President Donald Trump during the election campaign. He himself did not want to accept the defeat proclaimed by the media and wait for all the votes to be counted.
Master’s loss in Arizona joins the failures of many other Republican candidates who backed Trump. Their poor performance reflected on the former president and questioned his leadership in the Republican Party.
Ballot in Georgia
In Georgia on December 6 there will be a runoff between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker because neither opponent obtained more than 50 percent of the vote in the first attempt. But this duel is no longer decisive. What was striking about the Midterms was that only one Senate seat changed between parties: Democrat John Fetterman won a formerly Republican seat in Pennsylvania.
The outcome for the House of Representatives is also open
Furthermore, it is not yet clear who will dominate the House of Representatives in the future. 218 seats are needed for a majority. According to the votes counted so far, on Saturday morning (local time) the Republicans had 211 seats and the Democrats 203.
There, too, the race is much tighter than expected before the election. Republicans have an even better chance of winning a majority in the House. But the fact that Democrats are so close to defending their former majority was something many hadn’t thought possible before the election.
This election will likely be decided in California: Twelve constituencies were not yet tallied in full on Saturday afternoon (local time), in some of them opponents fought a close race with only a few thousand votes difference.
Biden ‘Incredibly Happy’
“I am incredibly pleased with the result,” Biden said Sunday in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where he is attending the ASEAN summit. “I feel good and I’m looking forward to the next few years.”
Biden has said he is an incorrigible optimist, so the result doesn’t surprise him. “And I think he reflects the quality of our candidates.” As for the Republican Party, Biden said they now have to decide “who they are.”
unrest among Republicans
On the Republican side, unrest is mounting within the ranks of congressmen ahead of what they see as disappointing results. Politico magazine published a letter in which several senators close to Trump called for the postponement of next week’s election of their Senate president, indicating mistrust in Mitch McConnell, who hopes for a re-election.
“We are all disappointed that a ‘red wave’ has not materialized, and there are numerous reasons for that,” the authors explained, calling for a debate on how to improve the chances for the 2024 presidential election.
Apparently Trump wants to announce his candidacy
Trump had promised a “very important announcement” on Tuesday. On Friday, longtime adviser Jason Miller said the 76-year-old actually plans to announce his reelection to the presidential nomination for the day. Many Republicans accuse Trump of harming the party with his intervention in the election campaign and the selection of controversial candidates.
