GOP starts boosting Walker in runoff amid calls to keep Trump away from Georgia
The head of the Senate Republican campaign committee pledged Wednesday to raise whatever money he can and begin an advertising blitz this week for Herschel Walker’s runoff in Georgia against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
But there’s one aspect Sen. Rick Scott of Florida won’t weigh in on: whether former President Donald Trump should stay out of the runoff in December.
GOP insiders faulted Trump, who has had a toxic relationship with popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp even though he endorsed him the day before his re-election, for costing the party control of the Senate in two simultaneous runoffs last year, after Trump lost his re-election bid to President Joe Biden and then advanced false conspiracy theories about voting that led many Republican voters in Georgia to stay home.
Warnock won his race against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and Sen. Jon Ossoff defeated GOP incumbent David Perdue, swinging control of the narrowly divided chamber.
Maricopa County officials apologize for Arizona ballot reader issue
Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, apologized Wednesday for issues with printers that prevented some ballots from being read by machine and reassured that all votes will be counted.
“To impacted voters, we recognize this isn’t how you pictured Election Day & we apologize for that inconvenience. We are committed to counting all legal votes and then finding the root cause of what happened so that it does not happen again,” the county’s Board of Supervisors tweeted.
In a statement, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clint Hickman said, “All ballots will be counted securely and accurately.”
The issue with printers occurred at about 70 of the county’s 223 voting locations, the officials said. Printer settings were later changed, fixing the problem. About 7% of the voters who cast ballots on Election Day — or about 17,000 people — were affected.
The problem in the state’s most populous county, which is home to Phoenix, prompted former President Donald Trump to claim it was a “disaster.”
New Hampshire’s James Roesener is first trans man elected to a state legislature
James Roesener of New Hampshire is the first transgender man elected to a state legislature in the U.S., according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which supports queer candidates running for office.
With 79% of precincts reporting Wednesday afternoon, Roesener, a Democrat, had won with 55% of the vote, while Republican Dennis Soucy had 45%, according to The New York Times, citing Associated Press data and race calls.
Roesener, 25, who lives in Concord with his wife and cat, “was born an advocate for the underdog,” according to his campaign website.
“I believe that it is imperative that all individuals have the ability to thrive in New Hampshire,” it says.
Here are the Black candidates who made history on election night
A record number of Black candidates from major parties ran for high office in the midterm elections. While it’s too soon to determine which party will control the House and the Senate, some states are already celebrating Black historic wins in races for jobs like governor to secretary of state.
“There’s an electorate, Black people are the center of it, who are understanding our political power,” said DaMareo Cooper, a co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group. “People are thinking about how their voice, and people who come from our community, should be the representatives and deciders for the type of society we want to develop that’s inclusive for everybody.”
The midterms brought a pair of historic victories in Maryland. The first was by Democrat Wes Moore, who beat Republican Dan Cox, to become Maryland’s first Black governor and only the third Black governor in the country. Second, the state gained its first Black attorney general, Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, who defeated far-right Republican Michael Peroutka.
“It is not lost on me that I’ve made some history here tonight, too. But I also know I’m not the first one to try,” Moore tweeted late Tuesday. “This is just more proof that progress is possible in Maryland. And I am humbled to be a part of this legacy.”
Biden speaks with McCarthy as House control remains too early to call
President Joe Biden spoke on the phone Wednesday night with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who earlier in the day announced his bid for House speaker should the GOP win control of the chamber.
Asked by reporters at the Capitol about the call, McCarthy said it was “good.”
The White House did not provide any details about the conversation.
Control of the House is too early to call, according to NBC News projections. Key races in California and other Western states have yet to be called.
‘So much relief’: South Dakota voters pass Medicaid expansion
South Dakotans voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, providing tens of thousands of impoverished people with access to health care and dismissing state GOP attempts to sink the effort.
With 56% of the vote, the successful ballot initiative should practically ensure that more than 40,000 people gain access to the program when it takes effect in July. Many would not have had access to health care otherwise.
For residents like Sarah Houska, the decision is life-changing. In the summer of 2021, she had to leave a job that provided health insurance to care for her 5-year-old son, who needed intensive medical care.
Although she has since taken a part-time job at a dental office, Houska, 29, said she lives with the worry that if she develops any health problems, her family could lose stability.
Counting in Nevada’s Clark County continues after 56,900 mail ballots were received on Election Day
Election officials in Nevada’s largest county said Wednesday that they received about 56,900 mail ballots on Election Day.
The ballots are contributing to what has become a lengthy tabulation of results that could decide which party controls the Senate.
Clark County election officials said they are still days from completing their tallies.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is trying to fend off a challenge from Republican Adam Laxalt.
NBC News’ latest tally shows Laxalt at 423,214 votes statewide to Cortez Masto’s 405,411, with 81% of expected votes in. The race is too early to call, according to NBC News.
Clark County’s registrar of voters, Joe Gloria, is expected to host a news conference Thursday afternoon to provide more details.
Earlier Wednesday, Gloria said election officials had counted and posted the in-person votes cast on Election Day but were still tabulating ballots deposited in drop boxes and mail ballots, which, if postmarked by Nov. 8, can still be counted if they arrive by Saturday.
Eric Sorensen becomes first LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Illinois
Democrat Eric Sorensen has won Illinois’ 17th Congressional District race, beating Republican Esther Joy King, NBC News projects.
With 88% of precincts reporting Wednesday night, Sorensen had 51.8% of the vote, while King had 48.2%.
Sorensen, who is gay, is the first LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Illinois.
Before he announced his candidacy, Sorensen spent over two decades as a weather forecaster in Illinois, and he is the first meteorologist elected to Congress in more than 50 years.
“There is not a single climate communicator in Congress who matches the communication and climate science backgrounds of Eric,” Sorensen’s campaign website reads.
Latino Republican voters are more progressive than white Republican voters on key issues, exit polls find
Latino Republican voters appear more progressive than white Republican voters on key issues like abortion and climate change, according to NBC News exit polls.
While they are likeminded on some issues, there are significant differences in others. There is a 20 percentage-point gap between Latino and white Republican voters on the issue of abortion: Around 46% of Latino Republicans said abortion should be legal, compared to 26% of white Republican voters.
Latinos who voted Republican in House races were also more likely to say climate change is a somewhat or very serious problem. Around 57% of Latino Republican voters held that view, compared to 45% of white Republican voters.
Latino Republican voters, at 29%, were nearly twice as likely to approve of Biden’s federal student debt cancellation plans compared to white Republican voters, at 15%.
Alaska Senate race headed to ranked choice runoff
The Alaska Senate race is headed to the ranked choice runoff process, as no candidate on the ballot, including the top two vote-getters, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski and GOP challenger Kelly Tshibaka, will reach 50%, according to NBC News.
However the eventual winner of the contest shakes out, the seat will remain in GOP hands. The ranked choice voting system is a method that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
In ranked choice elections, voters identify a first choice on their ballots, then rank the other candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes on the first count, the election moves to an instant runoff. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and ballots cast for that candidate are recast for voters’ second choices. The process repeats until a candidate reaches a majority.
In 2020, Alaska voters approved a move to nonpartisan primaries that send the…
Read More:Georgia Senate race heads to runoff as razor-thin contests make control of Congress too early to call
2022-11-10 04:30:00
