Trump has lost some battleground states despite early predictions of a win and particularly glaring is the defeat of Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania to stroke victim John Fetterman of the Democratic Party.
Trump is apparently upset over Oz’s loss and was reportedly ‘livid’ and ‘screaming’ his head off following the disappointing performance of GOP candidates in key contests and no clear direction of who would take the Senate or the House, as many key constituencies are undecided, the Business Insider reported.
Trump is said to be rather unsettled over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis retaining his seat and instead of congratulating him for retaining his governorship and the seat of Marco Rubio, Trump chose to launch a fusillade against Santi’s daring him to oppose him in the 2024 run for the White House and face dire consequences.
Trump and DeSantis have been exchanging hot words recently during campaigns as the former is visibly upset with some billionaires shying away from him and Republican National Committee saying they won’t pick up his legal bills and possibly not fund his rerun, media analysts said.
Another major upset for Trump was when the Democrats flipped the Massachusetts seat in their favour with Maura Healey winning decisively against another Trump candidate Representative Geoff Diehl. Healey, the state’s Attorney General since 2014, overwhelmed her Republican opponent, former state Representative Diehl, and pulled back the governorship to the Democrats after Republican Governor Charlie Baker turned down a third term. She is the state’s first woman Governor for the state who is an openly declared lesbian, media reports say.
Trump’s favourite newspaper the “New York Post” featured Ron DeSantis on the front page with his wife and kid with the headline DE Future, an apparent reference to Santi’s being the favourite of the Republicans who could swing the party to the White House on his own popularity in 2024. That hasn’t gone down well with Trump either.
Though the midterms have been closely fought, predicted wins and upsets have marked the results so far, there is an atmosphere of uncertainty as counting is still on in other several key constituencies and contests in battleground states.
Another major upset is California Governor Gavin Newsom has managed to retain his seat for the Democrats in a body blow to the Republicans.
Trump, who is carrying a huge legal baggage from alleged tax frauds, to twice being impeached, to stashing top secret documents and inciting violence, had amazingly tried to rebrand the Republican Party from his Mar-a-Lago home. More than 250 general election endorsements were made by him, as per ballotpedia. Most of them endorsed his allegedly false rhetoric of the 2020 elections being stolen to be characterized as “election deniers”.
Top Trump-backed candidate Mehmet Oz lost in Pennsylvania but author JD Vance just about beat Democrat Tim Ryan in Ohio, a battleground state. Trump reportedly reduced the chances of Republican nominees in key races such as Colorado’s Joe O’Dea, the rare one to win the Senate contest without the former President’s blessing.
Trump’s ire also reportedly chased away sitting Governors from challenging Democratic Senators — Mark Kelly of Arizone and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
Despite embarrassing GOP losses, Trump is still mulling his announcement for a presidential rerun for a third time in 2024 reportedly to be made on November 15. He has criticised possible challengers who could oppose him such as the re-elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis, to Trump’s ire, has won by a historic margin on a night when Trump’s endorsed candidates flopped. An ex-GOP strategist said that Trump had zero chances of winning the 2024 presidential election, should he run — as early results of the 2022 midterm elections were not in his favour.
“How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?” Scott Jennings, a former aide was quoted by the media as saying.
On the flip side as Democrats lost some battleground states like Georgia, several Democrat strategists feel that that the “Save democracy and abortion rights” wasn’t as powerful a campaign against the Trumpian rhetoric against inflation disrupting middle class lives and instead Biden should have flipped the Republican campaign saying they were the ones responsible for the inflation with their irresponsible strategies during the Covid-19 period that devastated the nation.
The key results so far: GOP Georgia Governor Republican Brian Kemp won his re-election defeating two times opponent Democrat Stacey Abrams in one of the eight battleground states. In other highest-profile races, in Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the Governor’s race.
While Herschel Walker has campaigned for abortion publicly, while his two former girlfriends scandalised him alleging that he wanted them to abort the unborn children. This seat could be a litmus test of just how strong the Democratic coalition in Georgia is, USA today reported.
Footballer Walker backed by Trump has a tough time as also sitting Senator Raphael Warnock, a pastor, who refused to pay off his wife in separation settlement and tried to run his car over her.
History reveals that midterms have always been a referendum on the incumbent President and mostly they have lost and Biden could be no exception, pollsters and poll strategists on both sides opine.
New Mexico Governor Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham was re-elected on Tuesday over Republican Mark Ronchetti, a local TV weatherman-turned-politician, who ran a campaign criticising the first-term Governor’s performance, according to NBC and ABC News.
Democrats won their races for the US Senate and governorship in Hawaii quite easily with Josh Green overcoming Republican challenger Duke Aiona. Meanwhile Senator Brian Schatz was re-elected against Republican Bob McDermott. Democrat Janet Mills was re-elected as Maine Governor. Mills beat her Republican opponent, Paul LePage.
Republican Jim Pillen wins Nebraska governorship replacing his current Governor Pete Ricketts, who couldn’t run for re-election due to term limits. Republican Kristi Noem re-elected as South Dakota Governor. Republican Governor Phil Scott wins re-election in Vermont. Republican Governor Phil Scott secured a fourth term in Vermont after defeating Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel.
Democratic Governor Jared Polis wins re-election in Colorado. Democratic Governor Jared Polis secured a second term after defeating Republican challenger Heidi Ganahal in Colorado’s gubernatorial race. Republican Governor Mark Gordon won re-election in Wyoming against Democratic challenger Theresa Livingston. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds wins re-election in Iowa.
Incumbent Republican Governor Kim Reynolds secured a victory in Iowa in her re-election bid against Democratic nominee and businessperson Deidre DeJear. The candidates clashed on abortion policy and school funding in their only debate ahead of the election.
–IANS