Month: November 2022

Stefanik endorses Trump ahead of expected 2024 announcement

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) has preemptively endorsed former President Trump for another White House bid ahead of his scheduled “special announcement” at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024. I fully support him running again,” Stefanik said in a statement to Breitbart News. “Under his presidency, America was strong at home and abroad, our economy was red hot, our border was secure, our neighborhoods were safe, our law enforcement was respected, and our enemies feared us.” 

“We cannot afford another four years of Joe Biden’s failed policies that have led to the inflation crisis, border crisis, and crime crisis. It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance,” Stefanik said.

Stefanik is currently the chair of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 position in the House GOP. She is running for reelection to that post, which would be the No. 4 position if Republicans win a majority in the chamber.

Trump endorsed Stefanik for another term as Conference Chair this week ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think she’s fantastic,” he told Fox News.

Her full-throated support of Trump comes as many in the Republican Party are growing more vocal about wanting Trump to step back from politics after the midterm elections fell well short of Republican expectations of a red wave.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is retiring from Congress, said on CNN that Trump’s inserting himself into primaries “changed the nature of the race and that created just too much of an obstacle.” Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that Trump is “a drag on our ticket” and “gives us problems politically.”

Stefanik, though, asserted that “it’s very clear President Trump is the leader of the Republican party.”

“It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance. Poll after poll shows that President Trump would defeat any Republican challenger by massive margins, and would beat Joe Biden if the election were held today,” she said.

When Stefanik entered Congress in 2015 — then the youngest woman ever elected to the House — she had a notably moderate tone and voting record. Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the influential conservative think tank, gave her just a 29 percent score on her first congressional session. 

But as Trump rose to power, she embraced him. She was on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment in 2019, drastically raising her profile and putting her in good graces with the then-president.

After Rep. Liz Cheney (N.Y.) was ousted from the GOP Conference chair position by House Republicans in 2021 for continuing to criticize Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Stefanik easily replaced her, despite grumbles from some House Republicans over whether she was sufficiently conservative.

Now, Stefanik proudly calls herself “ultra-MAGA.”

Trump has already begun taking aim at his expected GOP primary rivals, calling out Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of their own expected bids.

"Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games," Trump said in a lengthy statement Thursday evening.

“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future,’” Trump wrote.

“Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”

—Updated at 11:36 a.m.

Toomey blames Trump for GOP midterm losses

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) blamed former President Trump for Republicans losing the Pennsylvania Senate race and other close races this week, asserting there was “a high correlation between MAGA candidates and big losses.”  

Toomey, who twice won election in Pennsylvania in 2010 and 2016, said Trump created political problems for Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, who tried to distance himself from the former president's claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread fraud.  

“President Trump had to insert himself and that changed the nature of the race and that created just too much of an obstacle,” Toomey said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”  

“And by the way, it’s not just Pennsylvania. You look all over the country, there’s a very high correlation between MAGA candidates and big losses, or at least dramatically underperforming,” he added, referring to Trump’s slogan: Make America Great Again.  

Toomey predicted that the poor performance of Trump-backed candidates, especially those who embraced his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, will “accelerate” the former president’s loss of influence in the party.  

"So here's my theory on the case, is that there is not going to be one discrete moment at which the fever breaks and Donald Trump becomes irrelevant. That's not likely to happen. What I think is: his influence wanes,” Toomey said. 

“And a debacle like we had Tuesday night, from a Republican point of view, accelerates the pace at which that influence wanes,” he said.  

Toomey highlighted what he called “interesting data points” showing that Trump’s popularity in the party isn’t what it was even a year ago.  

“A year or two ago, if you ask Republican voters — ‘Do they consider themselves more traditional Republicans or Donald Trump Republicans?’ — he had a huge lead. That has flipped. And that’s telling, I think. I think that’s going to continue.” 

Toomey was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in February of 2021 on the impeachment charge that he incited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Other prominent Republicans are also blaming Trump for their party’s disappointing performance on Election Day.  

While Republicans are poised to capture control of the House and still have a chance to win the Senate, the red wave that many of them expected failed to form as Republican voters turned out to the polls in lower numbers than projected.  

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the GOP is suffering from a “Trump hangover.”

"I think Trump's kind of a drag on our ticket. I think Donald Trump gives us problems politically," he told a local television reporter in Janesville, Wis.  

"We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot, or in office," he said. "I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he's a drag on our ... races."

Senate Republican strategists weren’t thrilled that Trump decided to hold a rally with Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Latrobe, Pa., the Saturday before Election Day.  

One Senate Republican adviser warned before the event that it was “probably not” a good idea to appear on stage with Trump and Mastriano, an outspoken election denier and opponent of abortion rights, whom Democrats tried to tie to Oz.  

But the adviser acknowledged it was almost impossible for Oz to spurn Trump’s invitation to appear at a rally after the former president’s endorsement helped him beat hedge fund CEO David McCormick in the tightly contested Senate GOP primary.

“What are you going to do?” the source lamented, knowing that Trump’s appearance with Oz didn’t present the best optic for swing voters right before going to the polls.  

Mike Lillis contributed.  

MAGA Rep Matt Gaetz Torches ‘McFailures’ McConnell and McCarthy for Midterm Results

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz criticized Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel following a flaccid performance by GOP candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.

As of press time Thursday, the balance of power in Congress still remains undecided, with too many races yet to be called.

The House appears likely headed to a shift of power to the Republicans while the Senate will potentially be decided with a Georgia runoff in December.

But the margins in the House and questions lingering in the Senate are disappointing when a massive ‘red wave’ had been predicted. 

Gaetz took to social media to label McCarthy, McConnell, and McDaniel a bunch of “McFailure(s).”

RELATED: Report: ‘Knives Are Out’ For Kevin McCarthy After GOP’s Lackluster Midterm Performance

Matt Gaetz Guns For Kevin McCarthy

Matt Gaetz is taking out his frustration predominantly on Kevin McCarthy.

The House races shouldn’t have come down to the ones too close to call. This was supposed to be a slaughter at the ballot box, a lead so comfortable things couldn’t possibly be left to other mitigating factors.

This is the equivalent of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament having to go into overtime against the #16 seed. And, just as a coach’s career would be reevaluated after such a performance, so should McCarthy’s.

The Washington Examiner reports that Matt Gaetz has been making phone calls to encourage colleagues to turn their back on Kevin McCarthy’s bid to be the next House Speaker.

“Just as I have done after every election, you can count on me having conversations with my colleagues on matters of policy, politics, and leadership,” he said in a statement.

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported that a GOP source earlier this week had warned that the “knives are out” for McCarthy after the midterm performance.

RELATED: Matt Gaetz Warns There Are Republican Squishes Already Trying to Shut Down Biden Impeachment

Failure of Leadership

Matt Gaetz was already targeting weak Republicans, warning that there were some lawmakers voicing opposition to impeaching President Biden should the GOP take back the House.

“There are current members of the Republican majority, people who will be in the next Congress, who are arguing very, very fervently that they will oppose the use of the ‘I’ word, impeachment, in any context for any official in the Biden administration,” he said.

“And I believe that would totally misunderstand the mandate that the American people are giving us.”

That opposition is sure to grow now that the President has escaped relatively unscathed following the Republican election failure.

Likewise, McDaniel, the niece of Senator Mitt Romney, declared that Republicans will reach across the aisle and work with President Biden following the midterms.

“Would Republicans be willing to do the same and not just be a roadblock for him?” she was asked during a CNN interview.

“We have to,” McDaniel replied. “We have to work on behalf of the American people.”

She won’t have to worry about that too much, as President Biden has declared that he plans to change nothing about the way he’s governed based on the midterm results.

Meaning he’ll continue to rule by fiat, issuing executive orders and doing his best to circumvent Republicans in Congress. And he’ll get away with it too, so long as the McFailures are running the show.

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Klain: White House ready for possible GOP investigations

Posted on (Updated by Jared Gans

White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the Biden administration is ready for any potential investigations that Republicans launch if the GOP retakes the House majority.

Klain told CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on Wednesday that Republicans faded at the end of the midterm election campaign cycle because they were talking more about “what they were going to do to the president’s family” than what they could do for people. 

Some Republicans have indicated that they plan to launch investigations into a variety of topics if they regain the majority, including the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the situation on the southern border. 

Some far-right Republican candidates have said they support impeaching Biden or members of his administration over such issues. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has downplayed the prospect of launching impeachment proceedings. 

But with Republicans likely to win a narrower majority in the House than originally expected, far-right members of Congress who support impeachment could have more leverage over McCarthy, who would need their votes in his quest to become House Speaker.

Biden said at a press conference on Wednesday that the idea of Republicans launching their investigations and impeachment probes is “almost comedy.” 

“Look, I can’t control what they’re going to do. All I can do is continue to try to make life better for American people,” he said. 

Klain said people want to see Congress work to bring prices down, fight the COVID-19 pandemic and address economic challenges, not “political games.” 

He said Biden gave Democratic candidates accomplishments to run on, which is why Democratic incumbents largely succeeded in the midterm elections. He said they were able to run on job creation, infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing and fighting COVID-19. 

Republicans had hoped to make strong gains in both chambers of Congress, but the GOP appears set to likely win a narrow majority in the House, while control of the Senate is uncertain.

Disappointed House GOP reels ahead of choosing next leaders

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

Shell shock over midterm results is shaking up the House GOP conference ahead of internal leadership elections next week.House Republicans are still almost certain to capture control of the lower chamber, but their majority will be far smaller than anticipated and Democrats managed to capture or hold a number of key districts. While there is widespread disappointment within the GOP over an expected red wave looking more like a red ripple, there is not consensus on who or what is to blame.  

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who is tasked with getting House Republicans elected, both want to move up the ranks in the next session, but both risk becoming targets of GOP anger about the midterms. 

“This is like the epitome of overpromising and under-delivering, which is something that you do not want to do in politics,” said a senior GOP leadership staff member granted anonymity to speak candidly. “This is seriously disappointing, and it will have wide implications for people in leadership.” 

What those implications will be for McCarthy — who suggested a year ago that Republicans could flip 60 seats or more — are unclear. Few expect any serious challenge to his Speakership vote, but the right flank of the conference is starting to direct anger his way. 

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former chair of the confrontational conservative House Freedom Caucus, said of McCarthy’s Speakership chances in an interview with former Newsmax host Emerald Robinson on Wednesday: “Not so fast.” 

“We were told we were going to have an incredible, incredible wave, and if that would’ve been the case — I mean, 20-, 30-, 40-seat margin, anywhere in there, you would say, ‘OK, Kevin’s the presumptive Republican nominee for Speaker.’ But I think we need to have a discussion. He’s backpedaled on things like impeachment,” Biggs said. 

“If we’re going to go in for eight months of performance art instead of really getting things done, then we will fail in preparing for a 2024 election where we have to win to get the White House, the Senate and the House back,” Biggs said. 

The GOP leader has given firebrand right-flank members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) a seat at the table in the hope of shoring up his Speakership bid and to avoid the exact kind of threat that Biggs forecasted.  

But some say that strategy seems to have backfired. Former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen commented on Fox News that Greene being positioned behind McCarthy at a platform rollout event in Pennsylvania gave fuel to “Democrats’ anti-MAGA strategy.” 

“You’ve got to put your foot down” to prevent the “crazies” from running the conference and trying to exploit a slimmed majority, the senior GOP staffer said.  

McCarthy and members of his whip team started making calls to members on Wednesday to shore up his votes for Speaker and believe he will prevail in the election. Those arguing in McCarthy’s favor say that the GOP taking control of the House may be one of the only bright spots for Republicans in the midterms and that this is not a situation in which House Republicans missed out on a wave seen in the Senate and other statewide races. 

“Really, the top of the ticket in a lot of these states and a lot of the races really hurt us,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), who ran unopposed this year and is supportive of Emmer and McCarthy. Those suggesting McCarthy could be in trouble comes down to “saber rattling,” he said. 

Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), chair of the moderate Republican Governance Group, agreed that leaders helped deliver gains in places like New York and that poor top-of-ticket candidates in some states dragged down candidates who should have won. 

Emmer officially launched a bid for House majority whip, the No. 3 position, on Wednesday. He faces two competitors for the post: Chief Deputy Whip Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House. 

Emmer, who was careful to not make predictions about the final House breakdown ahead of the midterms, brushed off the prospect of the majority margin affecting his level of support. 

“I don’t know how” the slimmer majority would affect his whip bid, Emmer told reporters Wednesday. “We delivered. This is exactly what we thought we were going to do. We’re going to deliver a new Republican majority.” 

Banks and Ferguson, meanwhile, could benefit from any hesitance about Emmer with the conference elections happening quickly on Tuesday. 

Banks is running on his conservative credentials that he built up in the Republican Study Committee and his relationships with influential outside conservative groups. In a letter to members formally announcing his candidacy for whip on Wednesday, Banks pledged to be a “bridge between members and leadership and committee chairs.” He noted that he would be the only veteran in leadership. 

Concerned Women for America, a right-wing Christian group, endorsed Banks’s whip bid on Monday, and Donald Trump Jr. has also expressed support for Banks while publicly criticizing Emmer. 

But strengthening and maintaining a cozy relationship with Trump World may be off-putting to some members. The former president is taking heat for boosting candidates who either lost or were perceived to drag down House candidates. 

“Letting this guy be at the helm of the ship will screw you over, it’ll screw your conference over, it’ll screw your prospects for being able to lead the party like you want to. And I hope that’s what they’re realizing,” a senior House GOP aide said.

Biden calls potential House GOP probes, impeachment ‘almost comedy’

Posted on (Updated by Alex Gangitano

President Biden on Wednesday called impeachment threats from some House Republicans poised to take control of the chamber "almost comedy," arguing that the American people are not interested in investigations into him and his family.

“It was reported — whether it’s accurate or not, I’m not sure — but it was reported many times that Republicans are saying and the former president said, how many times you’re gonna impeach Biden?” Biden said at a post-midterm elections press conference at the White House. “I think the American people will look at all of that for what it is. It’s just almost comedy.”

While the races for power in both chambers of Congress were still too close to call on Wednesday evening, Republicans have been clear that if they flip the House, they are jumping headfirst into probes involving the business dealings of the president's son Hunter Biden. Republicans have also indicated that they could move to impeach the president over the business dealings of Hunter Biden as well as the White House’s reported request for Saudi Arabia and its oil-exporting allies to delay a production cut.

“Lots of luck in your senior year, as my coach used to say,” President Biden said when asked for his message to Republicans wanting to investigate him and his family. 

“I think the American public want us to move on and get things done for them,” he added.

The president noted, though, that he can’t control what Republicans do with the majority in Congress.

“Look, I can’t control what they’re going to do. All I can do is continue to try to make life better for American people,” he said.

President Biden took a victory lap of sorts on Wednesday after Democrats enjoyed an unexpectedly good night on Tuesday. While it is still possible that Republicans could win majorities in the House and Senate, the GOP margin in the House appears likely to be narrow, and Democrats have a fighting shot of retaining the Senate majority.

Report: ‘Knives Are Out’ For Kevin McCarthy After GOP’s Lackluster Midterm Performance

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

A Republican source is indicating that the “knives are out” for GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy following a lackluster performance for the party in the midterms.

McCarthy had widely been viewed as the likely Speaker of the House if Republicans delivered on their ‘red wave’ promises. But they didn’t. House control is still up in the air as of this morning, and even if they take control it appears it will be by a slimmer margin than anticipated.

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich received a text from an unnamed source that indicated the results could be perilous for the California lawmaker.

“Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy,” the source wrote. “If he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker.”

Steve Scalise (R-LA) had been speculated to be McCarthy’s number two guy just days ago.

RELATED: GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Caught On Audio Discussing Removing Trump From Office, Blaming Him For Capitol Riot

Will Kevin McCarthy be Speaker?

While conservative pundits are actively conducting a social media autopsy of just what the hell happened to last night’s red wave, Kevin McCarthy continued to express optimism about his chances of being House Speaker.

“Now let me tell you, you’re out late,” he told a crowd of supporters late Tuesday. “But when you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.”

It’s very likely to wind up being a true statement. The problem for him is, if the margin between Republicans and Democrats is thin, staunch conservative lawmakers will wield more power.

“The conservative House Freedom Caucus was set to have more sway, with lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Talor Greene of Georgia set to take an outsized role,” the Daily Mail reports.

RELATED: Tucker Rips GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy As Democrat ‘Puppet’ After Audio Surfaces of McCarthy Ripping Trump Supporters

Just a ‘Puppet’?

Conservatives have begrudgingly gone along with the idea of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, fully expecting a massive midterm election wave for Republicans.

But the actual results may have changed the calculus.

“A lot of rank and file members of Congress right now though are thinking to themselves that we need new energized leadership that is going to be focused on the working class voters,” a GOP source told Heinrich.

Audio surfaced this past April of McCarthy criticizing former President Donald Trump and some of his most resolute allies in Congress, even suggesting their social media accounts be banned.

The clips revealed McCarthy speaking with Scalise regarding concern over fellow Republicans – particularly America First Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Mo Brooks (R-AL) – ‘putting other lawmakers at risk’ with their comments about the 2020 election.

He said that referring to Republican candidates not willing to fight the election results as “anti-Trump” was “serious stuff” that “has to stop.”

“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” he asked.

The shocking comments prompted Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson to eviscerate McCarthy.

“Those are the tape-recorded words of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a man who in private, turns out, sounds like an MSNBC contributor,” he said.

Carlson warned at the time that McCarthy becoming Speaker “would mean you would have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party.”

Prior to the midterms, Kevin McCarthy was already telling anybody who would listen that he had no intentions of pursuing impeachment for President Biden.

“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” he said. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”

With a narrow margin, it’s likely McCarthy would have to bend the knee to some more conservative members of the House in order to win the speakership.

And that might be the one silver lining to come out of these midterms.

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Hundreds of thousands of votes still being counted in key Senate states

Posted on (Updated by By Zach Montellaro and Madison Fernandez

Control of both chambers of Congress is still up for grabs, with the Senate coming down to a pair of uncalled toss-up races that appear set to take days to resolve — and the possibility that a runoff in Georgia could once again decide the majority.

And while Republicans still have the inside track to retake the House, a large number of the most competitive House districts remain uncalled, after the GOP failed to capture numerous swing seats the party expected to flip on Tuesday.

Here are all the major outstanding contests, and where some of the ballots that still need to be counted could come from.

The Senate comes down to two key swing states — and maybe a runoff

Democrat John Fetterman flipped Pennsylvania early Wednesday morning, giving his party 48 seats, while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) secured reelection late Wednesday morning. That gives Democrats 48 seats and Republicans 49 — meaning whichever party wins two of the three outstanding contests in Arizona, Georgia — which is headed to another runoff — and Nevada will control the Senate.

Arizona and Nevada are the biggest question marks, with significant numbers of votes still to be counted in both states. If either party sweeps those two states, it will take control of the Senate regardless of what happens in Georgia next month.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is facing off with Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada. Laxalt leads with more than 80 percent of the expected vote counted. But there is still a long way to go in the state, and Laxalt's advantage is tenuous because of a glut of potentially Democratic-leaning outstanding ballots. Nevada's two most populous counties — Democratic-leaning Clark County, home of Las Vegas, and battleground Washoe County, home of Reno — have at least tens of thousands of outstanding ballots to be counted, but the exact number is not currently known.

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Clark County registrar of voters Joe Gloria, the chief election official there, said the county still had over 50,000 votes that need to be counted. Gloria said he expected the vast majority of those to be tallied by Saturday.

The county plans to publish results from a new tranche of counted ballots once a day going forward, which are expected to come sometime in the evening.

New mail ballots are also still arriving: Nevada ballots that have a USPS postmark by Election Day, but are delivered to election officials by Nov. 12, will also be counted, but it is hard to project that total. In Clark, for example, an additional 12,700 ballots were received from Postal Service officials on Wednesday, but just over 600 came in on Thursday.

Gloria also noted that through the end of Monday, voters can "cure" defective ballots — that is, if a ballot comes back unsigned, or election officials are unable to match the signature on the ballot to the one on the voter rolls, voters have an opportunity to prove their identity and get their ballot counted. There are over 7,000 of those ballots in Clark.

Additionally, provisional ballots — for voters who registered at the polling place, for example — likely won't be validated until Wednesday of next week. Gloria said there were over 5,500 of those in Clark County, but not every one of them will ultimately be ruled valid.

Similarly, officials in Washoe County have many ballots to count. Jamie Rodriguez, the interim registrar of voters, said in a press conference on Wednesday that she anticipated ballot tallying to run through at least Friday. A spokesperson for the county told CNN earlier on Thursday that it still has about 20,000 ballots that need to be tabulated. Some of the state's rural counties still likely have votes outstanding as well.

Arizona, too, still has many votes outstanding. Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly has the edge, and his lead over Republican Blake Masters is expected to shrink — but not erode completely.

As of Thursday evening, the secretary of state's office estimated that there were approximately 600,000 ballots left to tally across the state. The vast majority are from Maricopa County, the state's largest county, which has an estimated 400,000 left to count. Another big bucket is nearly 160,000 ballots in Pima County, according to the secretary of state's office.

Election officials there have long warned that this would be the case. Officials said before the election that they hoped to have 99 percent of ballots tabulated by Friday. (Unlike Nevada, late-arriving mail ballots cannot be counted in Arizona.) But on Friday, officials in Maricopa warned that they would not meet that Friday goal.

“The goalposts have changed,” said Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. He said the wave of mail ballots dropped off at vote centers on Election Day — some 290,000 of them — was slowing down the count, because of the time-consuming process to verify them.

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leads Republican Herschel Walker narrowly. The problem for Warnock — and Democrats — is that the incumbent fell below a majority of the vote, which triggered a Dec. 6 runoff between Warnock and Walker. The race was officially sent to a runoff on Wednesday afternoon.

If the two parties split Arizona and Nevada, Senate control would once again come down to Georgia, just as it did in 2020. Two years ago, Democrats swept a pair of runoffs in the state, securing a 50-50 split in the chamber and making Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote.

Warnock will finish in first in the November election, but that doesn't guarantee that he will prevail in December. In one of the two 2020 runoffs, then-Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) also finished just shy of the 50 percent threshold. But now-Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) stormed past him to win the race for a full term in the early 2021 runoff. Warnock, meanwhile, also won a special election Senate runoff in 2021, defeating then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) after the pair emerged from a fractured November field.

Warnock's victory then gave him two years in the Senate, while this year's contest will decide a full six-year term.

One significant difference for this year's runoff is the timing. Runoffs in the state used to be in early January. But after suffering those losses in 2021, Georgia Republicans changed the law in the state to bump runoffs up by about a month, setting them for early December.

GOP ahead in House battle — but winning smaller-than-expected gains

Republicans are still leading the race for the House majority, but the number of uncalled races point to how surprisingly close the battle for the chamber has been.

Of the 26 House races POLITICO forecast as “toss-ups,” nine remain uncalled as of Thursday morning. Another 18 races POLITICO rated as “Lean Democrat” or “Lean Republican” are also uncalled. Altogether, that includes nine races in California, a slow-counting state — one of several reasons why resolving control of the House majority could take some time.

Perhaps the most shocking seat still outstanding is in Colorado, where controversial Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who represents a heavily Republican seat that got redder in redistricting, narrowly trails Democratic opponent Adam Frisch with 98 percent of the vote tallied.

The unresolved toss-up districts include Maine's 2nd District, where Democratic Rep. Jared Golden leads former GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin. But the race is likely headed to a ranked choice tabulation, after an independent candidate pulled about 7 percent. (In 2018, Golden deleted Poliquin in a ranked choice runoff after Poliquin narrowly led in the first round.)

Democratic incumbents also hold narrow leads in some of their uncalled toss-up races sprinkled throughout the country, including seats in Nevada and Washington.

California — where counting can be slow and ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive later and still be counted — also have numerous uncalled House battleground races. Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and GOP Rep. David Valadao both hold on to narrow leads, but there are still votes coming in.

Western governor races still big question marks

For similar reasons to their Senate counterparts, the gubernatorial contests in Nevada and Arizona both remain uncalled, though Oregon's governor's race was called for Democrat Tina Kotek late Thursday.

Republican Joe Lombardo has a lead over Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in Nevada, while Democrat Katie Hobbs is up over Republican Kari Lake in Arizona for the open seat race there. Like the Senate races, those races are expected to tighten significantly, or outright flip, as more votes are counted.

It is worth noting that both Democratic candidates are running a bit behind their respective Senate incumbents, meaning these contests will likely be closer. Similarly, the secretary of state races in these states remain uncalled, with Democrats staking out a bit of a larger lead.

One final uncalled — but safely Republican — Senate seat

Alaska's Senate race is also unresolved. The question is not which party will control the seat but which Republican will win it.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski is facing a challenge from Trump-backed Republican, Kelly Tshibaka, after Murkowski voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2021. Both Republicans advanced through Alaska's new top-four, all-party primary into a ranked-choice general election. Murkowski is currently trailing Tshibaka in the vote count, but the incumbent is more likely to pick up Democratic voters who ranked her second in a ranked-choice retabulation, which would take place in late November if no candidate gets to 50 percent.

Kelly Hooper contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misspelled Gov. Steve Sisolak's name.
Posted in Uncategorized

McCarthy’s victory party fizzles

Posted on (Updated by By Olivia Beavers and Hailey Fuchs

Kevin McCarthy delayed a victory speech to what was supposed to be a jubilant party of Republicans until 2 a.m. Wednesday. By that time, a sizable number of attendees had already left.

And the GOP leader kept his speech brief, as he still didn’t have a firm call that his party had won the House.

“When you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority,” McCarthy said to a ballroom that quickly filled up with staffers after it had thinned in the early morning hours.

A year ago, McCarthy had predicted the GOP would pick up more than 60 seats in the chamber in a historic red wave. While that was before the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Republicans were still eagerly expecting dozens of House seats to swing in their favor after a campaign centered on economic woes and the underwater ratings of President Joe Biden.

Instead, election night saw a slow burn of those hopes, though party leaders were quick to point out they still had reason to celebrate.

McCarthy, flanked by RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and House GOP campaign arm chief Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), claimed that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) lost his race and would be the first Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair to be ousted in 40 years, and that Republican candidate Anthony D’Esposito had won his seat in New York. Neither race had been called.

The sleepy event was not the victory rager Republicans had envisioned. In downtown D.C. at the Westin Hotel, GOP staffers and lobbyists had flocked to different open bars scattered around the downstairs ballroom around 9 p.m., keenly awaiting election results to start rolling in from TVs tuned to Fox News.

However, in the hours leading up to McCarthy’s appearance, there were few cheers as the room watched as competitive races rolled in with mixed results.

“Oh no,” exclaimed a woman, as Fox News showed John Fetterman triumphing over Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race, hours after Republicans had started to acknowledge they wouldn’t get their red tsunami.

“The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!” tweeted Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas), who won her district in a June special election but lost the seat to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (R-Texas) Tuesday after redistricting.

Echoing this sentiment, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) proclaimed on NBC News: "Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure."

A number of seats targeted by Republicans had already been called for Democrats or looked likely to be won by them. Among them was Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who staved off a challenge from GOP candidate Yesli Vega in what was considered one of the most competitive races in the Commonwealth.

GOP hopes of flipping a district in deep-blue Rhode Island were also dashed as Democrat Seth Magaziner defeated GOP candidate Allan Fung. And Wiley Nickel held an edge against GOP candidate Bo Hines in North Carolina early Wednesday, though the race had yet to be officially called.

Despite Democrats holding their ground in some areas, some House Republicans were still publicly cheerful. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told reporters after midnight that he was “just as happy with a slim majority.” Then he illustrated why that narrow majority would benefit him but be tough on McCarthy and other Republican leaders.

“I mean, look at what Joe Manchin has done in the Senate as the one deciding vote, right? I would love for the Massie caucus to be relevant. If there's a one seat majority, my caucus has one person. It's me. So I can decide whether a bill passes or not,” Massie said, noting that 218 seats means they have subpoena power. “I’d be the wrong guy if you're trying to find somebody who's heartbroken that we don't have a 40-seat majority.”

Apart from Massie, the only other GOP lawmaker found at the flagship GOP election-night party in Washington was Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), who made an appearance in the early hours.

For much of the evening, the ballroom was relatively quiet and attendees were somewhat scant or scattered before McCarthy took the stage, which was emblazoned with the words “TAKE BACK THE HOUSE.” Planners apparently hadn't anticipated such a late night, as they sought to figure out how to ensure guests would still have access to alcohol after 1 a.m.

The muted affair contrasted with stood in stark contrast to an exultant private party beforehand, hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which included McCarthy and McDaniel as they prepared for the results.

Democrats, meanwhile, took their own victory lap of sorts, despite projections that they’ll still lose the House.

“While many races remain too close to call,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement at 1:30 a.m., “it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misspelled Anthony D’Esposito's last name.
Posted in Uncategorized

Marjorie Taylor Greene glides to reelection

Posted on (Updated by Mike Lillis

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is projected to easily win reelection on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from Democrat Marcus Flowers, an Army veteran, to secure a second term in Georgia’s deep-red 14th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race at 8:55 p.m.

In just two years on Capitol Hill, Greene has solidified her place as one of Congress’s most prominent — and controversial — conservative voices, building a national right-wing following for her opposition to COVID-19 restrictions, her endorsement of Christian nationalism and her avid support for former President Trump, to include the promotion of his false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who was projected to win a second term in the House, has become one of the loudest, most controversial conservative voices on Capitol Hill. (Greg Nash)

Greene’s provocations came with a political price: Just a month after she arrived in Washington, the House voted to strip her of her committee assignments in response to revelations that she had previously promoted a long series of conspiracy theories, including QAnon, as well as violence against Democrats, including the idea of assassinating Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

All the attention has made Greene one of the most polarizing figures on Capitol Hill. And Tuesday’s race took on outsized national dimensions as donors from around the country showered money on both candidates, making it the single most expensive House race of the 2022 cycle, according to OpenSecrets.

Flowers benefited most from all the attention, hauling in more than $15 million — an enormous number that reflected the appetite among national Democrats to defeat the figure who, perhaps more than any other congressional Republican, has come to exemplify the GOP’s populist turn under Trump.

In the end, it didn’t matter. The conservative district, where 68 percent of voters chose Trump in 2020, sided with Greene.

Greene has had a contentious relationship with her own Republican leadership, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). (Greg Nash)

Back in Congress, Greene will be closely watched next year. While a darling of the right, she has also been an outspoken critic of her own Republican leadership, particularly House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who is in line for the Speakership if the House changes hands. 

McCarthy has taken long steps this year to get into Greene’s good graces. But the tensions linger, and McCarthy will have to walk a delicate line if Greene and other far-right lawmakers press GOP leaders to advance a host of conservative demands, including the impeachment of President Biden and members of his Cabinet.