Democrats fared better than expected in the US midterm elections. The election, which took place on the 8th of November, was the subject of the previous column here in our space and, now, we are going to see some of the results that are already available. Some will still have to wait, either for the counting of votes or for the rules of each dispute. Some things, however, are already clear.
First, Ron DeSantis consecrated his name as the main cadre of the Republican Party for the upcoming presidential elections. Our readers already knew this, in the most recent column we commented that he was gaining strength as a potential candidate in 2024 for being “a name that could unite both traditional Republicans and Trumpist Republicans”. What was not expected was the size of the victory he achieved.
DeSantis was re-elected governor of Florida with almost 60% of the votes, defeating former governor Charlie Crist, now a Democrat but previously also a Republican. In proportional numbers, it was the biggest electoral victory in the state since 1982 and, in absolute numbers of votes, it was the biggest washout in history. Several media outlets are already crowning DeSantis as a potential Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump, who is expected to make his candidacy official next week, already knows that he will have a tough opponent in the party’s primaries, if this scenario happens. be realized. To the point that, on a social network, he already went on the attack against DeSantis. It’s a game of politics, of course, with the right to Trump’s usual style: nickname for the criticized, placing himself as more republican than anyone else and that DeSantis is a “fruit” of himself.
Again , is from the game of politics, but it shows that Trump’s nose has detected the movements around DeSantis. If he were a “presidential candidate” only in the view of the column or other media outlets, Trump would not go into battle. Today, many party bigwigs see DeSantis as a way out and salvation. Including salvation from the influence of Trump himself.
House and states
And the Federal Congress, the main focus of the election? While the column is being written, the Republicans have 60 seats in the House, against 192 the Democrats. The remaining seats are still under count or recount. The trend is toward a Republican majority, of course, but with a smaller advantage than projected in the polls and than expected by the Joe Biden administration.
The title of the most recent column referred to the “fate ” of US presidents as they face their first midterm election. Joe Biden wrote on social media a celebration of how his defeat was less than the historic fate appointed. “We lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than the first midterm election of any Democratic president in at least years.”.
Joe Biden also celebrated that his party had “the best gubernatorial elections since 1986”. In the results already confirmed, Democrats won in two states previously ruled by Republicans, Maryland and Massachusetts. Arizona could be added to the list, with no final results yet. On the other hand, Democrats could lose the Nevada government.
Suspense in the Senate
The situation in the Senate, on the other hand , it will be a thriller for almost a month at least. Again, at the time of writing the Democrats have 48 seats and the Republicans have 1982 . Of the remaining three, Arizona is leaning Democratic and Nevada is leaning Republican. And Georgia again goes to the second round of its election for senator.
The same thing had already happened in November of 1986, in the special election after Johnny Isakson’s resignation for health reasons. The Republican died less than two years later. Raphael Warnock was elected on the occasion, the first African-American to represent the state in the Senate and the first black Democrat to be elected senator in a former Confederate state.
Now Warnock faces Herschel Walker in the first clash between two African-American candidates for the Georgian Senate. If the victory in Nevada is confirmed and Walker is elected, the Republicans will get 48 seats in the Senate and a majority in both houses of Congress. Warnock’s victory means a tie, which favors the Democrats, with the tiebreaker being made by Kamala Harris, the country’s vice president.
At least in the near future, the eyes of US politics are not they will only be centered on cosmopolitan New York or the superlatives of Texas and California. From Florida, the swing state always the subject of reporting during election periods, may come the new republican face of the USA. And from Georgia, a state of violent history and currently home to large corporations, will come the balance sheet of the US Senate.
