US elections: who won, who lost and what the results mean so far

Hours after the first polls close, the results of many key contests in the US midterm elections remain to be known, and control of the Senate, in particular, is still up for grabs.

It was, as predicted, a good night republicansbut their hopes of a tidal wave that would carry them to victory in dozens of contests have so far failed to materialize.

They have already lost a seat in the Senate, in Pennsylvania, and they need to turn two of the three states of Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, to take control of that chamber.

Here we share some of the key points so far.

Although the Democrats have won some close races, it seems that the Republicans are in on the way to obtaining a majority in the House of Representatives. The question, however, is how big the majority will be.

Thanks to their surprisingly strong showing in 2020, Republicans were just a handful of seats short of a majority. And they started this election with a built-in lead after drawing some new boundaries on congressional districts in conservative states.

With any form of majority, Republicans will be able to slam the door on the Democratic legislative agenda and increase investigations into the Biden administration. That is a victory from any point of view.

But if the margin is narrow, Republicans will have to exercise incredible tactical and strategic skill to hold their party together on the most important votes.

Four years ago, Ron DeSantis won the Florida governorship by a fraction of one percent over Democrat Andrew Gillum.

After four years of his conservative leadership, where he leaned into hot cultural issues like transgender rights and “critical race theory,” he blasted the coronavirus pandemic restrictions and became a fixture at shows. conservative media, won re-election by a comfortable margin.

How he did it is particularly remarkable.

In 2018, he lost the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County by 20%. This year, he is on pace to be the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win in the area of majority hispanic since Jeb Bush in 2002. He might even do it by a double-digit percentage.

DeSantis’s decision to redraw the state’s district lines to heavily favor Republican candidates has also paid dividends nationally: It has given his party at least two of the five seats you need to win control of the House of Representatives.

These successes will go a long way toward providing the Governor of Florida with a springboard from which to launch a presidential campaignif you wish.

As if to emphasize this, the crowd at DeSantis’s victory rally Tuesday night chanted “two more years,” a tacit acknowledgment that if their man decided to run for president, he would have to step down as governor in the middle of his four-year term.

If DeSantis wants to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, he may have to go through his state’s most prominent Republican resident, former President Donald Trump, to do so.

Donald Trump may not have been on the ballot, but he has cast a shadow over it nonetheless. Early Tuesday night, the former president delivered a brief speech from his home in Mar-a-Lago and claimed a landslide victory for the candidates he endorsed.

The truth, however, is more complicated. In the highest-profile races, where he endorsed candidates over more conventional Republican options, his picks have struggled.

Mehmet Oz lost his race for the Senate in Pennsylvania. Herschel Walker appears headed for a runoff in Georgia. Blake Masters is behind in Arizona. Only JD Vance in Ohio had a clear victory, albeit by a narrower margin than the conservative-leaning state would suggest.

Republicans will question your political instincts after Tuesday night. And if he launches a new presidential bid next week, it will be at a disadvantage.

In 2018, Beto O’Rourke in Texas and Stacey Abrams in Georgia lost their state races, but won the hearts of Democrats with the narrowness of their defeats. Their ability to raise millions of dollars in campaign funds and build impressive bases made many on the left consider them the future of the party.

Supporters hoped they could climb the proverbial mountain when both ran for office in their home states again this year. They both fell short.

Abrams, who narrowly lost to Republican Matt Kemp four years ago, will finish far behind him this time. O’Rourke lost his race to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by a larger margin than he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz.

Democrats will have to go in search of new stars.

The race between John Fetterman and his Republican rival Mehmet Oz was one of the most high-profile of the election, with twists and turns in a campaign that involved everything from claims about the slaughter of puppies to questions about the health of the Democratic candidate. .

Fetterman had a big lead early in the campaign, but he suffered a stroke in may.

He remained out of the public eye for months, instead using television ads and an aggressively sarcastic social media campaign to build a polling advantage over his opponent, the famous surgeon Oz, whom he described as a super-rich opportunistic politician of Out of state.

In October, a report that the Republican had conducted experiments on puppies sparked memes on social media.

But Fetterman’s reluctance to participate in televised interviews led to concerns about your health and fitness to serve as a senator, and this seemed to have been reflected in the polls that tightened sharply in the final days of the race.

Despite the difficulties, Fetterman emerged victorious.

*Anthony Zurcher of BBC News in Washington contributed information and analysis to this article.

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