- Title: ANALYSIS-Abortion, Trump dash Republican hopes for 'red wave
- Date: 9th November 2022
- Summary: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 8, 2022) (REUTERS) SIGNS OUTSIDE POLLING LOCATION WARREN, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 8, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VOTERS CASTING BALLOTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE PRZYBRANOWSKI, 67, MICHIGAN VOTER, SAYING: "The democrats are spending out of control, Congress is spending out of control. That needs to come back in line." DE
- Embargoed: 23rd November 2022 19:32
- Keywords: Biden House Senate Trump abortion battle for control democrats midterm republicans
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Government/Politics,United States,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001825909112022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Republicans made modest gains in U.S. midterm elections but Democrats performed better than expected, as control of the Senate hinged on three races that remained too close to call on Wednesday (November 9), by when any wave had flattened out into a ripple.
Republicans were confident that Democratic President Joe Biden's unpopularity and Americans' angst over rising food and gas prices would help them take the majority from Democrats in both houses.
Exit polling and interviews with analysts and voters showed that while inflation was a leading driver for voters, the issue of protecting abortion rights was nearly as paramount.
"But nothing has been more of a sea change than stripping away the fundamental right of letting women control their own bodies. And I think the fact that putting them (Republicans) in power and the threat of a national van, I think was pretty terrifying to a lot of Americans," Navin Nayak, Counselor at The Center for American Progress told Reuters.
That surprised Democratic Party strategists and pollsters, who had expected inflation would trump everything, including concerns about the loss of abortion rights. They had urged the party to spend more time focusing on inflation.
The results appeared to show voters punishing Biden for presiding over an economy hit by steep inflation, while also lashing out against Republican efforts to ban abortion.
Poor performances by some candidates backed by Donald Trump -- including former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia -- indicated exhaustion with the kind of chaos fomented by the former Republican president, raising questions about the viability of his possible run for the White House in 2024.
Florida could be a battleground in any nominating contest because its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is viewed by strategists as a formidable contender for the Republican nomination, should he throw his hat in the ring.
That has made DeSantis a target for former President Donald Trump, who called the governor "Ron DeSanctimonious" while stumping for Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
"Oh, my goodness. This seems like a soap opera. And if our country's democracy wasn't at stake. I would be watching this popcorn," Nathaniel Birkhead, Political Science Professor at Kansas State University said.
Only 26 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters, had been decided as of Wednesday morning, raising the prospect that the final outcome may not be known for some time. Democrats won 20 of those 26 contests.
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