2022 midterm election results

Former Trump aide Sarah Matthews says the way 2022 Election Night went indicates that Donald Trump is costing Republicans winnable seats. In the walkup to midterm elections, the Republicans had hoped that they would have clear majority in the House of Representatives on Election Night.

However, as of Wednesday morning, the results are still coming and the control of Congress still hangs in the balance.

She added: "You have record inflation, increased fears over crime, the worst border crisis in history, an unpopular president and Republican performance was still underwhelming. And that was in large part due to the candidates that Trump backed. They weren't up to quality. I think this is lessons learned for Republicans that a, Trump is not a national winner, and, b, candidate quality matters."

CNN analyst Harry Enten explained this through the numbers.

"Donald Trump is not a well-liked politician," he said Wednesday, pointing to Trump's favorability standing at 39%.

People who held an unfavorable view of Trump voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in this election, Enten explained. "Basically, those people who said they voted for Biden two years ago, stuck by the Democratic candidates for the House. And this was despite the fact look how unpopular Joe Biden was."

Watch here:

It was 150 years ago this year that noted suffragette and voting rights activist Susan B. Anthony illegally cast her vote in her hometown of Rochester, New York. She was arrested, and then convicted for voting illegally. Nearly 50 years later, after the 19th amendment passed on June 4, 1919, White women like Anthony were legally granted the right to vote.

On Tuesday, women and men paid tribute to Anthony's trailblazing efforts by visiting her final resting place and leaving their “I Voted Today” stickers on her gravestone after voting in the 2022 midterm elections. It's been a local Rochester tradition for years now to visit the site at Mount Hope Cemetery, also the resting place of abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, on Election Day.

New York State Senator Samra Brouk, and Assemblymembers Sarah Clark and Jennifer Lunsford held a rally this year where supporters marched from Anthony's home to the nearest polling station in an effort to encourage women to vote in this year's midterm election.

"With all that’s going on with rights for women right now, and our ability to make decisions on our own bodies and healthcare eroding, it's important for us to show up and vote," Clark said.

Clark has been leaving her “I Voted Today” sticker at Anthony’s gravestone since 2016 when, like many others, she braved the long line to get a chance to place her sticker on the women’s right’s advocate’s gravestone in honor of Hilary Clinton.

On Tuesday, six years on, Clark visited the gravesite to place that sticker on Anthony's tombstone once again, as is Rochester tradition.

The headstone looks a little different than it did in 2016. For one, it's under a plastic cover protecting the grave marker being damaged from the myriad of stickers that often get placed on it every election cycle. There's also no throng of people waiting in line at the gravesite like in 2016.

Clark said 120 people marched and voted to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s historic vote. The assemblywoman said they handed out “I Voted When She Voted” stickers to all march-goers who voted. The hashtag #SusanBAnthony on social media shows women posting photos of their "I Voted Today" sticker on Anthony’s headstone.

As many in the country were going to bed last night, President Biden and his advisers – up late into the night watching the midterm returns come in — felt convinced of two things: Races across the board looked competitive, and Democrats appeared to have avoided a bloodbath that some had predicted and feared.

The White House wakes up this morning to real reasons for that optimism from the previous night to continue: The possibility of Democrats’ keeping the Senate in their hands very much remains intact, and they’ve seen Democratic governors of big swing states and key House frontliners in their party win their races.

A huge outstanding question, of course, remains the fate of the House – and just how many seats Republicans will ultimately end up picking up. 

Whether Democrats can keep control of the Senate – and how the makeup of the House will ultimately shake out – will have huge implications for President Biden and his party’s ability to govern in the second half of his first term.

And as the White House is poised to highlight some of the bright spots from last night’s results, a challenge for them will be whether they can successfully make the case that some of these Democrats were able to hold their own because of the White House and President Biden – not in spite of them.

Leading up to Election Day, there was already starting to be plenty of finger-pointing at the White House. Some House Democrats, for example, told CNN that Biden and his team failed to drive hard at an economic message, at a moment when voters have made clear that it is overwhelmingly their most important issue.

One progressive House member put it bluntly to CNN: “We knew the economy would be bad… and they didn’t have an economic message at all.”

The lawmaker lamented – echoing sentiments expressed by some of their colleagues – that they also didn’t see the White House adequately take credit for Democrats’ legislative wins, including last year’s passage of a major bipartisan infrastructure bill. It was a “total failure to take a victory lap,” they said.  

But if many Democrats were ready to start playing the blame game, the results so far could have bought everyone some breathing room – the White House most of all —at least for a few days.

White House officials have insisted in the final stretch of the midterms that Biden has consistently discussed the economy and made economic issues key to his political messaging.

They’ve also made clear that they believe voters are considering a range of issues as they head to ballot boxes – and not just the economy – and that it was critical for the leader of the Democratic Party to publicly discuss issues like abortion rights, gun safety and protecting democracy, which they believe have played major roles in animating the Democratic base.

The thinking goes like this – it would have been unthinkable for Biden to have not addressed the state of women’s reproductive rights in this country after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe; similarly, there was no scenario in which the president would have neglected to speak out publicly against election deniers and threats and acts and politically motivated violence, when it was plainly obvious to him just how serious these issues were this election cycle.

While the exact timing and plans remain in flux, Biden is expected to address the election results in some form on Wednesday.

The hotly contested Senate contest in Georgia is too early to call, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker locked in a tight race that could decide control of the US Senate.

Remember: If neither candidate surpasses the 50% threshold, Warnock and Walker will proceed to a Dec. 6 run-off. Depending on the outcome of Senate races in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, voters in Georgia could then – for the second consecutive election cycle – have the Senate majority in their hands.

That the race is so close underscores the prevalence of ticket-splitters in Georgia this year. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp comfortably defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams, CNN projected, but Walker has lagged Kemp’s margin all night, while Warnock has outpaced Abrams.

In brief remarks on Tuesday night, Walker asked supporters gathered in a hotel ballroom to “hang in there a little bit longer.”

“I’m telling you right now – I didn’t come to lose,” Walker said.

Warnock has not yet addressed the crowd at his election night headquarters. But on Monday night, he joked to CNN about a potential run-off campaign.

“I think that there is bipartisan agreement that we (would) rather not have politics and Thanksgiving mixed together,” Warnock said.

Some Republican candidates who have denied or refused to affirm the results of the 2020 election will be elected as state elections chief, CNN projects — though others will be defeated.

Here are three Republican secretary of state winners CNN has projected so far: 

In addition, Republican candidate Chuck Gray of Wyoming ran unopposed for secretary of state in the general election after winning the Republican primary.  

Here are five election deniers CNN projects will lose their 2022 races:

CNN found that at least 12 Republican candidates for secretary of state have questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. CNN had not yet projected the other races as of midnight ET on Wednesday morning.

The battle for control of Congress – both the House and the Senate – is coming down to a dwindling number of key races, with Democrats dashing Republicans’ hopes for a red wave and both parties hanging onto hopes of winning narrow majorities.

Republicans began the night with a rout in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis won heavily Latino, historically Democratic regions on his way to a blowout victory that could serve as a launch pad for a 2024 presidential run.

But in the hours that have followed, Democrats have fought back. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeated Republican Mehmet Oz for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Meanwhile, the battle for the House majority – one that favored Republicans, who expected to benefit from high inflation, historical trends and friendly new district lines after 2021’s redistricting – remains unsettled.

Here are some key takeaways as votes continue to be counted in key races:

Democrats go a long way to protecting their Senate majority: Republicans were not shy about the importance of Pennsylvania’s Senate race: “This is a must-win race. We believe if we win Pennsylvania, we win the majority,” said Steven Law, president of the preeminent Republican Senate super PAC. Early on Wednesday morning, CNN projected that Fetterman would be the next senator from Pennsylvania, defeating Oz in the most expensive and high stakes Senate campaign in the country. Fetterman’s win was a thunderclap for Democrats.

Democrats and the suburbs: Suburban areas across the country went a long way to helping Democrats avoid a significant red wave. Republicans may still win the House, but if the 2022 election was going to be a red wave, it was likely to come through suburban victories that have not materialized yet. Republicans did score some suburban victories – CNN projected Brandon Ogles the winner in a district around Nashville, Tom Kean Jr. winning in a suburban New Jersey district and Rich McCormick the victor in a district that included Atlanta’s northern suburbs – but it was their defeats that spoke volumes about the size of the GOP wave.

Virginia’s split decision offers early signals: Three Democratic-controlled House races in Virginia were widely viewed as an early warning signal of the night’s results. Democrats held seats in two Virginia districts Biden won in 2020. CNN projected that Democratic Jennifer Wexton won her reelection bid in Virginia’s 10th District. In an even more competitive race, CNN projected Rep. Abigail Spanberger also won reelection in Virginia’s 7th District. But Democrats lost in southeastern Virginia, with CNN projecting that Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans defeated Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria.

Another Jan. 6 committee member loses: Luria, a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, lost her Virginia Beach-based House seat, CNN projected. She had defeated former GOP Rep. Scott Taylor in 2018 and 2020. But the district had become slightly more favorable ground for Republicans in redistricting: Biden carried the previous version by 5 points, and would have lost the new district by 2 points.

DeSantis and 2024: Gov. Ron DeSantis led a dominant Republican ticket in Florida – delivering historic margins in Democratic territory in his victory over Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist on a night that provides him a powerful argument if he seeks the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. The easy wins by DeSantis, who led by nearly 20 percentage points with 92% of the estimated vote counted, and Sen. Marco Rubio, who was 17 points up, were enough to cast doubt on Florida’s status as a national bellwether.

GOP makes gains with Latinos in Florida: Republicans hoped to build on Trump’s inroads among Latino voters in 2020, a trend that could reshape the political landscapes in several swing states if it continues. The strongest early signal that the GOP had continued to make gains came in Miami-Dade County, home to a large Cuban population. But it’ll take a while to fully gauge whether those GOP gains take place outside of Florida.

Win for abortion rights: In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – who staked her reelection campaign on her successful efforts to block the enforcement of the state’s 1931 law banning abortion in almost all instances – defeated Republican challenger Tudor Dixon, who had waged a campaign focused on cultural battles. Michigan voters also approved a Whitmer-backed amendment to the state’s constitution that will scrap that 1931 law and guarantee abortion rights. Voters in California and Vermont also green-lit constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights.

A night of firsts: Up and down the ballot, in red states and blue, candidates from both parties are celebrating pathbreaking victories. Read about some of them here.