2022 midterm election thread

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Democrats will keep control of the Senate, CNN projects
Source: CNN

(CNN) Democrats will keep their narrow Senate majority for the next two years, CNN projects, after victories in close contests in Nevada and Arizona.

The party defied the historical trend of midterm elections breaking against parties in power and overcame anxiety over high inflation, cementing its majority as voters rejected Republican candidates who had aligned themselves with former President Donald Trump and in many cases parroted his lies about widespread election fraud.

Retaining Senate control is a huge boost to President Joe Biden over the remaining two years of his first term in the White House. It means Democrats will have the ability to confirm Biden's judicial nominees -- avoiding scenarios such as the one former President Barack Obama faced in 2016, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a vote on his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. It also means that Senate Democrats can reject bills passed by the House and can set their own agenda.

Read more: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/11/12/poli ... index.html

[caltrek]

MAGA Election Denier Jim Marchant Just Lost His Bid for Nevada Secretary of State
by Noah Lanard
November 12, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Last month, I published an investigation showing that Nevada Republican secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant was deceiving voters by wildly misrepresenting his business history. After the story came out, Marchant told fellow election denier Steve Bannon, “Mother Jones did some sort of colonoscopy on me and they came up with everything.” He contested nothing.

“Everything,” in this case, included a former employee who said he “would not want Jim to be secretary of a preschool,” overwhelming evidence that Marchant’s most prominent company quickly imploded, and previously unpublished divorce records that revealed that his career ended in financial ruin. Marchant was betting that it wouldn’t matter—having a R next to his name would be enough in 2022. He was wrong.

Marchant narrowly lost his race for secretary of state to Democrat Cisco Aguilar, a lawyer and former aide to the late Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Marchant was one of the most extreme candidates running for statewide office this year. He claimed that all Nevada elections since 2006 had been rigged and that the winners had been “installed by the deep-state cabal.” Nevertheless, he nearly found himself in charge of all elections in the state. (Marchant didn’t answer when I called him on Friday evening to see if he was conceding.)

The origin story for Marchant’s campaign would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. In 2020, Marchant lost his race for Congress by more than 16,000 votes. Instead of accepting defeat, he claimed that he and Donald Trump had been victims of voter fraud. The day after the election, he checked himself into the Venetian so that he could work with Trump’s team to try to overturn the results of both contests.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ga-trump/

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Election Denier Mark Finchem Loses Race for Arizona’s Top Election Post
by Abigail Weinberg and Noah Lanard
November 11, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Mark Finchem, a Trump-backed “poster child” of election denialism, has lost his bid to become Arizona’s top election official.

Even by the current standards of the Republican Party, Finchem is extreme. After spending the first part of his career as a public safety officer in Michigan, he relocated to Arizona and adopted the look of a western lawman. In 2014, while running for the state house, Finchem said he was a member of the Oath Keepers, the right-wing militia whose founder is now on trial for seditious conspiracy. He won that election and has been a state representative ever since.

On January 6, 2020, he was photographed outside the US Capitol in one of his trademark cowboy hats (he didn’t enter the building). The next year, he started his run for secretary of state. As Mother Jones explained in August, he called for decertifying the results of the 2020 election, said he supported banning early voting, and co-sponsored legislation that would allow state legislators to overturn election results. He told supporters that if he’d been secretary of state in 2020, “we would have won. Plain and simple.”

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump endorsed him and other members of the America First Secretary of State Coalition started by Nevada candidate Jim Marchant.

In August, Finchem won his primary by nearly 20 percentage points, despite GOP Gov. Doug Ducey endorsing his main opponent. In the general election, Finchem faced Democrat Adrian Fontes, who’d previously served as the recorder of Maricopa County.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -results/

[wjfox]

Party needs to move on from Trump - Republican senator

15:00

Last year, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was one of just seven Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection at his second impeachment trial.

On Sunday, Cassidy pulled no punches in saying who he blamed for an underwhelming midterm performance.

"Those who were most closely aligned with the former president underperformed," he told NBC's Meet the Press show.

"Those who were talking about the future or had managed their states well overperformed."

When pressed by moderator Chuck Todd if he was blaming Trump, he said that Republicans had to move on from "the past" by "offering an alternative".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-u ... type=share

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says Trump has cost the GOP the last three elections
Source: CNN

By Michelle Watson, CNN
Updated 1:41 PM EST, Sun November 13, 2022

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said Sunday that former President Donald Trump has cost the GOP the last three elections and it's past time to reassess what's important to the party.

"It's basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race, and it's like, three strikes, you're out," Hogan said during an appearance on "State of the Union" with CNN's Dana Bash.

"This should have been a huge red wave. It should have been one of the biggest red waves we've ever had," added Hogan, who was ineligible to run for a third term in Maryland this year. Despite President Joe Biden's low approval ratings, the governor said his party "still didn't perform."

"I think commonsense conservatives that focused on talking about issues people cared about, like the economy and crime and education, they did win," Hogan said. "But people who tried to relitigate the 2020 election and focused on conspiracy theories ... they were all almost universally rejected."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/politics ... index.html

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[caltrek]

Yes, Democrats Really Do “Need Georgia”
November 13, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) When Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto finally won her reelection battle Saturday evening, it became clear that Democrats would retain control of the US Senate. Cortez Masto’s victory gave her party 50 seats in the upper chamber, meaning that even if incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) were to lose to Herschel Walker (R) in next month’s Georgia runoff, Vice President Kamala Harris would be able to cast tie-breaking votes in the Dems’ favor. That’s the same situation that has existed for the last two years, and it has allowed Democrats to pass landmark legislation and confirm dozens of judicial nominees.

Shortly after Cortez Masto’s race was called, an influential journalist tweeted, “Democrats don’t even need Georgia.” The author deleted that tweet, but not before it went viral and sparked intense debate online. I don’t think there was anything nefarious about the tweet; it’s the type of poor phrasing that can happen to any of us—especially after five days of covering every twist in the midterm election results. Still, it’s worth taking a look at a few of the reasons why the Georgia runoff really is a very big deal:

1. The candidates
Let’s start with the most obvious point. There are nearly 11 million residents of Georgia, and many of them care deeply about who represents them in Washington. I’ll leave it at that.

2. The basic math
This is also pretty obvious, but 51 is more than 50. You’ve probably noticed that Democrats—two Senate Democrats, in particular—don’t always line up behind President Joe Biden’s agenda. More seats mean more room for comfort on any given vote. A Warnock victory would give the Dems a 51-49 advantage, so if either Sen. Joe Manchin or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema broke with their party, Harris could still cast a tie-breaking vote. In addition, Democrats could still win floor votes if one or two of their members were absent.

(See article linked below for Twitter feeds).

3. Control of committees
In the current 50-50 Senate, Democrats don’t fully control committees….Having a true majority in the Senate would give Democrats majorities on most committees, too.

The article also explains how majority control on most committees can help on procedural matters, including judicial appointments.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... majority/

[caltrek]

I was tempted to put this in my Yes, I am Just Joking thread, except that I guess these guys are trying to be serious.

'Meme War General' Donald Trump Jr. Spreads Conspiracy Theory About Republicans
by Bob Brigham
November 13, 2022

Introduction:

(Alternet) One day after Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was projected to win re-election in Arizona, Donald Trump, Jr. is spreading the idea that GOP Leader Mitch McConnell wanted Republican nominee Blake Masters to lose.

McConnell reportedly wanted to draft GOP Gov. Doug Ducey to challenge Kelly, but former President Trump put his weight behind Masters, a venture capitalist.

"Rumors are that Doug Ducey, the weak RINO Governor from Arizona, is being pushed by Old Crow Mitch McConnell to run for the U.S. Senate," Trump said in a January statement. "He will never have my endorsement or the support of MAGA nation!"

After Ducey did not run, he followed up by saying, "Smart move, Doug—there’s no room for RINOs."

"RINO" stands for "Republican in Name Only," which used to refer to moderates but is used by Trump to describe any Republican he dislikes.

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/donal ... ublicans/

caltrek's comment: If I had put it in my Yes, I am Just Joking thread I think I would have made some comparisons between RINOs and Mastodons.

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Hobbs Holds Narrow Lead as Lake Gains Ground in Arizona's Race for Governor
by Jeremy Duda
November 14, 2022 “Updated 1 Hour Ago”

Introduction:

(Axios) Democrat Katie Hobbs expanded her lead in the governor's race over the weekend, but Republican Kari Lake gained some ground over the past couple nights.

The latest: The governor's race is still too close to call, with 160,021 votes left to count statewide, including 94,285 in Maricopa County.

• Hobbs is up by 26,011 votes, a 50.5%-49.5% lead as of Sunday night.

• Lake is losing Maricopa County 52%-48%, but started picking up votes there as election officials began counting early ballots that voters dropped off on Election Day, which were widely expected to favor Republicans.

Yes, but: Hobbs dominated in Pima County over the weekend, which helped offset Lake's gains in Maricopa County.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2022/11/14/hobbs ... -governor

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