Story of the Week •
November 10th, 2022
2022 Elections Shake Up Congress
via Washington Examiner
Interested in getting next week’s story and other AllSides newsletters in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to the AllSides Story of the Week Newsletter.
Congress will look a lot different when the final results from the 2022 midterm elections are tallied, but the expected "red wave" of Republican success amid frustration with inflation and President Joe Biden didn't materialize.
The Senate remains too close to call. Democrats flipped a key seat in Pennsylvania, while Republicans picked up wins in Ohio and Wisconsin. Winners have yet to be projected in Arizona and Nevada, and results might not be known until next week. Alaska's Senate race is going to a runoff, as is the potentially-pivotal Georgia race.
Republicans are still expected to win a majority in the House of Representatives, but it's unlikely to be as large as many predicted.
Reports from across the political spectrum highlighted Republican disappointment as the widely-expected red wave didn't happen, and some on both sides cited a lack of focus on abortion and too much influence from former President Donald Trump as potential factors driving GOP underperformance.
See the rest of our 2022 elections coverage:
- How Ticket Splitting Played a Role in the 2022 Elections
- How Ballot Measures on Key Issues Fared Nationwide
- Vote-Counting Issues in Arizona, Elsewhere Frustrate Voters
- Trump Warns DeSantis Against Challenging Him in 2024
- Women, Minorities Score Historic 2022 Election Wins
More from AllSides:
-
Explore all perspectives, stances, and arguments for voter rights and election security with AllStances™ by AllSides.
-
Here's who some of the major newspaper editorial boards endorsed in the 2022 midterms.
-
A recent AllSides survey asked Americans to blindly rate the political bias of news reports from The New York Times and The New York Post, and we noticed key differences in responses based on where people live.
Snippets from the Right
Pro-lifers blame Republican waffling on abortion for red-wave fizzle
Washington Times (analysis)
"With the final votes still trickling in, pro-choice forces were poised to deliver a clean sweep on the five abortion-related state ballot initiatives. Proposed constitutional amendments to “codify Roe” won handily in California, Michigan and Vermont, while a measure to add a pro-life provision to the state constitution was defeated in Kentucky by a 52% to 47% margin."
Here’s how Donald Trump sabotaged the Republican midterms
"Except for deep-red states where a Republican corpse would have beaten a Democrat, voters choosing in actually competitive races — who everyone expected would behave like midterm voters usually do and lean toward the out party — took one look at Trump’s handpicked acolytes and gagged."
Snippets from the Left
How did candidates who questioned, denied 2020 outcome fare in Tuesday's elections?
"Hundreds of candidates who openly questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election outcome ran for office in elections across the country Tuesday. They included candidates who ran in states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – allegedly targeted by a scheme to send fake electors to Congress for the purpose of falsely handing former President Donald Trump the 2020 presidential election."
People said voters wouldn’t care about this issue. Midterm election results tell a different story
"This summer’s Dobbs decision is hardly a magic bullet for Democrats, who still seem likely to lose control of the House of Representatives and may, depending on the outcome of three outstanding races, ultimately cede the Senate too. But despite those outcomes, the midterm shows a clear path forward for supporters of abortion rights: If a ballot initiative can win in Kansas or Kentucky, almost any place is fair game."
Snippets from the Center
Republicans' abortion silence backfires in midterms
Axios (analysis)
"Republicans are typically outspoken on abortion, particularly during the primaries. However, they went quiet following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and the Kansas abortion referendum, even as talking points from major GOP committees recommended the opposite."
‘Where’s the middle?’ In closely divided US, a country waits.
Christian Science Monitor (analysis)
"Candidate quality still matters, with polls pointing to weak Republican candidates in some important Senate and gubernatorial races. And in a post-Roe America, abortion is a driver at the ballot, with voters in five states – Michigan, Vermont, Kentucky, Montana, and California – all voting in favor of abortion rights."
