2022 midterm elections

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The 2022 midterms were a series of local, state, and federal elections in the United States on November 8, 2022. These included elections for all 435 members of the US House of Representatives, 35 US senators, 39 state and territorial governorships, and the majority of state legislative seats. Tensions were high between Republicans and Democrats for a wide variety of reasons. President Joe Biden was unpopular with many Americans on both sides of the political spectrum, and because of this and the general historical trend of the president's party suffering major losses during midterms, many people predicted that this would be a "red wave" year comparable to 2014, and while polling wasn't quite as bullish as what many pundits were saying, it still suggested that Democrats were in for a bad time. However, for various reasons, this red wave didn't quite pan out, and this became the first midterm since 2002 in which the incumbent president's party didn't suffer major losses.[note 1] Republicans won the House, but barely, while Democrats slightly expanded their Senate majority, governorships, and control of state legislatures.

Background[edit]

After Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Democrats Reverend Raphael WarnockWikipedia and Jon OssoffWikipedia flipped both of Georgia's Senate seats, Democrats held a federal trifecta for the first time in a decade. However, their narrow 50–50 majority combined with having two obstructive senators on top of an unfriendly Supreme Court limited what the Democrats could accomplish. That, rampant inflation, and the general historical trend of a president's party underperforming in the midterms, meant that many people thought the Republicans were poised for huge gains.

Virginia gubernatorial election[edit]

Results of the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election by county and city.Wikipedia

Virginia's gubernatorial race was the most watched U.S. election of 2021. This is because Virginia uniquely holds its statewide elections on the off-years,[note 2] and Ralph Northam'sWikipedia better-than-expected victory in 2017 was seen as an early bellwether of Democrats' success in the 2018 midterm elections. The Democrats nominated former governor Terry McAuliffe;Wikipedia the GOP, businessman Glenn Youngkin.Wikipedia[note 3] The election was very divisive, with Youngkin focusing on the then-popular moral panic of critical race theory and also his opposition to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions;[2] however, Youngkin wisely tried to distance himself from the unpopular former president Donald Trump.[3] Ultimately, Youngkin won by two points in a state that Biden had won by ten points,[4] and Republicans flipped seven seats in the state House, flipping the chamber.[5][note 4] Perhaps even more surprising was the concurrent governors' election in New Jersey, where incumbent Phil MurphyWikipedia was against election denier[6] Jack Ciattarelli,Wikipedia and while Murphy still won, it was only by a narrow margin of around three points.[7] This was seen as a sign that the Democrats were losing suburban support and a bad omen for their chances in the midterms.

Redistricting battles[edit]

With the results of the 2020 census in, every state was required to change its legislative map to account for changes in population. While some states like Colorado and Michigan were trying out independent commissions of map drawers for the first time and ended up with relatively fair maps, in other states it quickly turned into a race to see who could gerrymander the hardest. Lowlights include Tennessee breaking apart Nashville into multiple pieces to get rid of the Democrat-leaning fifth district,[8] Texas eliminating as many remotely competitive districts as possible,[9] and Ron DeSantis forcing a map which was too extreme a gerrymander for even the Republican-dominated Florida state legislature.[10] North Carolina's map was so bad that it was struck down by the state Supreme Court,[11] and Ohio saw a protracted battle where the state legislature repeatedly tried to pass a map that the state Supreme Court had repeatedly found unconstitutional.[12]

Even some of the Democratic gerrymanders were aggressive, such as Illinois's map, which had only three Republican-leaning seats,[13] and New York's map, which left only four Republican-leaning seats (this one was struck down).[14] Nevada also had an interesting gerrymander, where Democrats split the safely blue 1st district to make it easier for them to win the 3rd and 4th, even if all three districts only become narrowly blue in the process.[15] Federal courts tried to strike down notorious racial gerrymanders in states like Alabama and Louisiana, but the Supreme Court stayed the orders until after the midterms, when it will take up the cases;[16][17] depending upon the ruling, this could end up further weakening the Voting Rights Act by removing the ability for minorities to fight for more representative districts in federal courts.[18] Despite all the chaos, the results of the redistricting may have actually benefitted Democrats, at least relatively to the previous maps that were in use. That is because six of the seven districts that were eliminated in reapportionment were in rural, overwhelmingly Republican regions, while Democrats were able to win four of the seven new districts. Additionally, the general trend of populations moving away from rural regions and towards urban centers made it easier to draw compact urban districts, which benefit Democrats.[19]

Dobbs v. Jackson[edit]

Abortion rights protestors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after the Dobbs decision.

Despite the Democrats' trifecta in the elected branches, they didn't have full control of the American government. The Supreme Court of the United States is nonpartisan on paper, but in the last forty years or so it became increasingly partisan. A low point came in 2016, when Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell refused to hold hearings for a potential successor to be appointed by Barack Obama, saying that it was too close to an election to appoint a successor (never mind that this wasn't a rule before), gambling that he could allow a GOP president (who became Trump) to appoint a judge instead. Naturally, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, McConnell didn't give the same luxury to Trump's successor, which resulted in conservative justices having a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court over liberal ones. These justices spent years trying to overturn Roe v. Wade,[note 5] which they finally accomplished in 2022 with the ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a 5–4 decision[note 6] that overturned Roe v. Wade, putting the question of abortion up to the states.[20] The problem was, the right to an abortion is broadly popular throughout the U.S.,[21] and the bans that multiple states began to implement were very unpopular.[22] Shortly after the decision, voters in Kansas voted decisively to protect abortion rights during a referendum despite Kansas being a pretty red state.[23] This gave Democrats a winning issue on which to campaign during a time when many prominent concerns like inflation didn't seem to be in their favor.

Special elections[edit]

In addition to the elections in Virginia, there were numerous other special elections that were watched as potential indicators of the midterms. Initially, most of them had the results you'd expect, with seven House elections in early-mid 2021 that all had results roughly in line with their Cook Partisan Voting Index.Wikipedia There was additionally a failed attemptWikipedia to recall California governor (and former husband of Kimberly Guilfoyle)Wikipedia Gavin Newsom,Wikipedia spearheaded by Larry Elder, which miserably failed because Elder is a complete crank. However, after the Virginia elections, the results of these elections started to look bad for Democrats, notably when Texas Republican Maya FloresWikipedia won by over seven points in a Democrat-leaning district.[24] However, after the Dobbs decision, things began to look better for Democrats; while they still lost in Nebraska's 1st district and Minnesota's 1st district, the results were much narrower than what you would expect in these deep-red districts.[25][26] Additionally, Democrat Mary Peltola flipped Alaska's only House seat in a major upset,[27] while Democrat Pat Ryan also won in a Republican-leaning district in New York.[28] While Democrats' momentum had seemingly slowed down in the weeks before the midterms, the preceding special elections already showed a mixed bag for both parties.

U.S. House results[edit]

US House results by party: dark colors are gains, light colors are holds.

Ultimately, the House was a mixed bag for both parties. It took over a week to determine which party was the winner[29] because the results in many districts were so close, with 11 seats being decided by less than a 1% margin. Ultimately, Republicans flipped twenty-one Democratic-held districts, while Democrats flipped nine Republican districts. Of the seven new districts created due to reapportionment, Republicans won three of them while Democrats won the other four, and of the seven districts eliminated due to reapportionment, Republicans lost six while Democrats lost only one. This added up to a net +9 gain for Republicans, and when all was said and done Republicans had a 222–213 majority. Notable results include:

  • Colorado—Democrat Yadira CaraveoWikipedia narrowly won Colorado's new 8th district, which is very competitive and has a large Latino population.[30] The closest House race of the cycle was in Colorado's 3rd district, which is pretty red but is represented by the extreme Lauren Boebert, who was thrown into a surprisingly competitive race. While she was reelected, it was by only 546 votes.[31]
  • Florida—This state is one of the major reasons why Democrats lost the House, as Republicans won four additional seats here while Democrats lost three.[note 7] The horrific gerrymander here didn't even turn out to be necessary; Republicans would have performed just as well under the previous map, although the racial gerrymander definitely did cost Al LawsonWikipedia his seat.[32] On the bright side, Maxwell Frost, who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and is the first Gen Z House member, did win the Orlando-based 10th district,[33] but on the other hand Anna Paulina Luna won the Tampa-area 13th district.[34]
  • New York—This state is the other big reason that Democrats didn't win the House. Republicans flipped four seats[note 8] and Democrats lost a few other seats that could have been competitive. This has been attributed to a few factors, such as dissatisfaction with former governor Andrew Cuomo and just plain incompetence from the state's Democratic Party. Particularly embarrassing was the case of Sean Patrick Maloney,Wikipedia who was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; formerly representing the 18th district, he decided to run for reelection in the neighboring 17th district because he thought it would be easier to win in, forcing out the Democratic incumbent Mondaire Jones,Wikipedia who then had to run in the 10th district where he lost in the primary.[35] Despite being (let us remind you) the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he paid almost no attention to his own reelection, and ended up losing in an upset to Republican Mike Lawler.Wikipedia[36] And to add irony to the story, Pat Ryan, the Democrat who ended up running in the 18th district, actually won his reelection.[37] Another notable election was in the wealthy Long Island-based 3rd district, where Republican George Santos beat Democrat Robert Zimmerman by seven points in a district that Biden won by ten points. However, Santos would soon come under scrutiny when it turned out that he falsified most of his résumé.[38] Later, this spiraled into reports that he also lied about his high school, his college, his job, his source of campaign funds, his charity donations, his marriage, his sexuality, his religion, the reason for his mother's death, the reason for his grandmother's death, and much more.[39] From allegedly stealing from a fundraiser intended to help save the life of a military veteran's dog, to making false claims that he lost four employees to the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, no lie, scam, or scheme seemed too egregious for Mr. Santos.[40]
  • North Carolina—North Carolina ended up being a surprising ace in the hole for Democrats despite disappointing results in statewide races, as the state's Supreme Court drew a fair map to replace an attempted Republican gerrymander. Jeff JacksonWikipedia easily won the newly-created Charlotte-based 14th district,[41] while State Senator Wiley NickelWikipedia beat football player and election denier Bo HinesWikipedia in an upset, flipping the 13th district.[42]
  • Ohio—This was another state where Democrats did surprisingly well, but unlike in North Carolina where they were aided by a fair map, in Ohio they were dealing with a gerrymander that the state's Supreme Court would rule unconstitutional. Marcy KapturWikipedia easily won reelection in the 9th district despite it being redrawn to being Republican-leaning, making her the longest-serving woman in the House.[43] Emilia SykesWikipedia won an upset victory against Trump fan and former Miss Ohio Madison Gesiotto GilbertWikipedia in the Akron-based 13th district,[44] while Greg LandsmanWikipedia defeated thirteen-term incumbent Steve ChabotWikipedia in another upset in the Cincinnati-based 1st district.[45] This exposed Ohio's congressional map as being a Tullymander, as despite Republicans drawing the map to favor them as much as possible, Ohio's House delegation went from being 12–4 Republican before the midterms to 10–5 Republican after.
  • Washington—Washington's 3rd district had perhaps the most amusing election of the cycle. Jaime Herrera BeutlerWikipedia was the original incumbent of this red district, but after she had voted to impeach Donald Trump following the 2021 U.S. coup attempt, far-right challenger Joe Kent primaried her. Kent, having ties to White nationalism and militia groups.[46] was understandably too extreme for even this red district, so Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp PerezWikipedia won in an upset.[47] With this victory, it also means that Democrats won every single district that borders the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, Dan Newhouse,Wikipedia another Republican who voted to impeach Trump, won reelection in Washington's 4th district.[48][note 9]

U.S. Senate results[edit]

US Senate results by party: dark colors are gains, light colors are holds.

The results in the Senate were a bit more decisive, with Democrats slightly expanding their majority. Only one seat was flipped, which was in Pennsylvania, where Lieutenant Governor John FettermanWikipedia defeated Mehmet Oz in order to succeed Pat Toomey. This was the first election cycle in American history to date in which every incumbent senator who sought reelection won reelection.[50] Some other notable races include:

  • Alaska—This actually ended up being a competitive race between two Republicans, as many Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans backed Lisa Murkowski so that the Trump-backed Kelly TshibakaWikipedia wouldn't win. Murkowski actually pulled a similar thing off in 2010, when she defeated Tea Partier Joe Miller as a write-in candidate.[51]
  • ArizonaMark KellyWikipedia won his first full term in the Senate and defeated pro-Trump venture capitalist Blake Masters,[52] who became notorious for his creepy campaign ads.[53]
  • Georgia—Reverend Raphael Warnock won his first full term by defeating football player and deadbeat dad[54] Herschel Walker.Wikipedia Like the last Georgia Senate election, this one also went to a runoff, although Warnock did receive more votes than Walker on election day as well.[55]
  • Nevada—Incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez MastoWikipedia won reelection against Republican Adam Laxalt,Wikipedia who was considered one of the more normal Republican Senate nominees (which isn't really much of an accomplishment considering his competition) in the closest Senate election of the cycle, being decided by around 8,000 votes. When this race was called four days after election day, it was clear that Democrats kept their majority.[56]
  • New Hampshire—While there was speculation that New Hampshire's popular governor Chris SununuWikipedia would run, he pointedly decided to take a pass (if not have the balls to subsequently denounce what came next) and run for re-election as governor (since New Hampshire has two-year terms), so the actual nominee ended up being the election denier and conspiracy theorist Don Bolduc.Wikipedia[57] Naturally, incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie HassanWikipedia won this one, while Sununu cruised to a fourth term as governor.[58]
  • North Carolina—Democrats tend to come very close in statewide races here, but always narrowly losing to Republicans, with Roy CooperWikipedia being the only recent exception. The same thing happened when former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri BeasleyWikipedia lost to Representative Ted BuddWikipedia to succeed the retiring Richard Burr.Wikipedia[59]
  • Ohio—While the state has become much redder in recent years, Democrats had a strong nominee in Representative Tim RyanWikipedia while the Republicans nominated the politically inexperienced J. D. Vance. While Ryan lost, he is credited with inspiring turnout among Democratic-leaning voters to the point that they were able to win multiple competitive House races.[60]
  • Utah—Right-leaning independent Evan McMullin,Wikipedia who is famous for getting over 20% of Utah's vote during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, challenged Republican incumbent Mike Lee, who is considered one of the most conservative Senators. McMullin convinced the Democratic Party in Utah to not run a candidate so he could take on Lee himself, and pledged that if elected he would not caucus with either party (while unusual, this has some precedent in the Senate). While Lee won by a little over ten points, McMullin had the best performance of any non-Republican in Utah since 1976.[61]
  • Wisconsin—When he was reelected in 2016, Ron Johnson said he wouldn't run for another term, but of course he broke that promise. However, it was the closest race of his career, as he only managed to eke out a 1% win against Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.Wikipedia[62]

Governors' results[edit]

Gubernatorial results by party: dark colors are gains, light colors are holds.

The Democrats did relatively well in the 2022 gubernatorial elections, netting two seats and holding on to most of their competitive incumbencies, however, a few incumbent Republicans performed well too. The following governorships flipped in 2022:

  • Arizona—Despite being a MAGA lunatic in a state that tends to reject such extremists, Kari LakeWikipedia was heavily favored to win the governorship, since Arizona Secretary of State Katie HobbsWikipedia didn't campaign that much. However, Hobbs pulled off an upset, breaking a Republican trifecta in the state, while Lake followed in the footsteps of her idol and claimed election fraud (without evidence). A major source of conspiracy theories was that in Maricopa County, which contains 62% of the population, a bit more than a quarter of their voting tabulation machines malfunctioned; this despite the chairman of the electoral commission, himself a Republican, getting out in front of the problem as soon as it became evident and carefully explaining how the machines also had a backup method built in, which enabled voters to cast a ballot that would then be hand-counted. Unsurprisingly, the underlying issue was not actually a conspiracy against Republicans and turned out to be utterly mundane; some older printers weren't hot enough to make dark enough lines on ballots, which prevented the machines from properly reading them, and by early afternoon the voting machine technicians turned up the heat and got them to work.[63][64]
  • Maryland—Popular moderate Republican governor Larry HoganWikipedia was term-limited, and when election denier Dan CoxWikipedia defeated Hogan's chosen successor in the primaries, everyone knew that this governorship would flip regardless of whether there was a red wave.[65] Unsurprisingly, the Democratic nominee Wes MooreWikipedia won, and he became the state's first Black governor.[66]
  • Massachusetts—This was also not a surprise, as the incumbent Charlie BakerWikipedia chose to retire after two terms and the Republican who tried to succeed him was the far more conservative Geoff Diehl.Wikipedia Democrat Maura HealeyWikipedia won, becoming Massachusetts' first female governor[note 10] as well as the first lesbian governor in the country.[67]
  • Nevada—Ultimately, Democrats' only major setback in terms of state governments this cycle was here, as Clark County Sheriff Joe LombardoWikipedia narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak,Wikipedia breaking a Democratic trifecta.[68] However, Democrats kept control of both houses of the state legislature.[69]
  • Northern Mariana Islands—While it's a territorial race that received considerably less attention than the ones in the states, their incumbent governor Ralph TorresWikipedia is incredibly corrupt even by Saipan's dispiriting standards.[70] The Lieutenant Governor Arnold PalaciosWikipedia ran against Torres as an independent and defeated him after a runoff.[71]
Ron DeSantis, Kari Lake, and a terrifying-looking Charlie Kirk.

Some other notable races occurred in:

  • Florida—Ron DeSantis defeated the Democratic nominee, former Republican governor and Democratic representative Charlie Crist,Wikipedia by over 19 points, even winning in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Tampa, which are all typically considered Democratic strongholds. This election was a grim sign of just how scarily far Florida had moved to the right in only four years.[72]
  • Georgia—Despite Stacey AbramsWikipedia coming very close to defeating Brian KempWikipedia in 2018, this time it was not so close, with Abrams losing by 7.5 points. The fact that Kemp rejected Trump's election denialism probably saved him when Republicans who embraced it, like Herschel Walker on the same ballot, fell to Democrats in these swing states.[73] Abrams also had some issues that came from making herself a national figure, which raised questions as to how much she was focusing on the state she was campaigning to run as governor, plus her campaign was generally a complete mess with its spending (they set records for fundraising and still ended up over a million dollars in debt) and got caught making some fairly shady financial dealings with non-profits her campaign manager personally ran.[74][75]
  • Kansas—While this is a red state, memories of their former Republican governor Sam Brownback were bad enough that it allowed incumbent Democrat Laura KellyWikipedia to defeat Derek SchmidtWikipedia and win another term.[76]
  • Oregon—While this is a blue state that normally wouldn't even be competitive, billionaires like Nike CEO Phil KnightWikipedia astroturfed former Democrat Betsy JohnsonWikipedia as an independent candidate. Johnson's backers were worried about environmental regulations that Democratic nominee Tina KotekWikipedia supported.[77] However, when it was clear that Johnson was going nowhere, many of her billionaire supporters jumped ship to the Republican candidate Christine Drazan,Wikipedia which allowed Kotek to regain ground and eventually win.[78]
  • Pennsylvania—While this race was expected to be competitive, Republicans nominated January 6 participant[79] Doug Mastriano, whose extremist rhetoric and poor campaigning jeopardized any chances Republicans had at winning in this state. State attorney general Josh Shapiro (no relation to Ben Shapiro) ended up crushing Mastriano by almost 15 points.[80]
  • Wisconsin—The Dobbs v. Jackson decision put abortion in legal limbo in Wisconsin, and the Republican nominee Tim MichelsWikipedia said he would support a full ban on abortion, but fortunately incumbent Democrat Tony EversWikipedia defeated him.[81]

Other results[edit]

  • State legislatures—Democrats flipped the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,[82] the Minnesota Senate (giving them their first trifecta there since 2014),[83] and both houses of the Michigan state legislature, giving them a trifecta in Michigan for the first time since 1984.[84] Democrats also won a supermajority in the Vermont legislature, allowing them to overturn Republican governor Phil Scott'sWikipedia vetoes,[85] while Republicans conversely failed to gain supermajorities in North Carolina and Wisconsin, meaning that Roy Cooper and Tony Evers will continue to be able to veto Republican legislation.[86][87] This was the first time that the president's party didn't lose any state legislatures during the midterm elections since 1934,[88] and this meant that, for the first time in over a decade, more Americans lived in Democrat-controlled states than Republican ones.[89]
  • Secretaries of State—One type of election that is usually ignored by the majority of voters is that of the Secretary of State. In this case, however, coverage was given to far-right candidates who claimed they would not have certified the results of the 2020 presidential election, and were part of the America First Secretary of State Coalition, consisting of nominees who have attended QAnon conferences. Most of them lost to Democrats, though, including in battleground states like Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nevada, with Diego MoralesWikipedia of Indiana being the only one of these candidates to win.[90]
  • Ballot initiatives—In every state where there was an abortion-related ballot measure, the pro-choice side won, even in deep-red states like Kentucky and Montana—notably, abortion was made fully legal in Michigan after being in legal limbo for some time.[91] Slavery as a criminal punishment was outlawed in four states (yes, this was still a problem in 2022), although Louisiana rejected a similar measure (although to be fair it was because the measure was problematically worded).[92] Drug-related measures were more mixed: Maryland and Missouri both voted to legalize cannabis and Colorado voted to legalize psilocybin, but Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota voted against cannabis legalization.[93]

Aftermath[edit]

Like the last last time when Trump refused to concede defeat, other Republicans decided to take cues from the former president. Two notable examples come from Arizona, in the form of unsuccessful candidates Kari Lake (for governor) and Mark Finchem (for Secretary of State).[63] Speaking of Trump, he announced that he will be running for president again in 2024,[94] although this time many Republicans were not amused as Trump's handpicked candidates were blamed for the Republicans' poor performance in the midterms.[95] Overall, this sets the stage for a bitterly divisive 2024 Republican primary.

Notes[edit]

  1. Sadly, George W.'s GOP gained both Senate and House seats that year.
  2. New Jersey does this as well, while Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi elect their governors the year after the midterms.
  3. Northam couldn't run, as Virginia law prohibits governors from seeking consecutive terms. Northam's blackface scandal would have made a run difficult anyway.[1]
  4. The Virginia Senate was not up for election.
  5. Which was settled 7–2, with justices appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon voting for the majority's opinion, a reminder that the Court used to be a lot less partisan than it is now.
  6. John Roberts upheld the law that was being challenged but didn't yet want to outright overturn Roe.
  7. Florida gained an additional seat due to reapportionment.
  8. Though this is only a net gain of +3 since the Republican-held 22nd district was eliminated as a result of reapportionment.
  9. Of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, only Newhouse and David ValadaoWikipedia survived the 2022 midterms. Four others, including Beutler and Liz Cheney, were defeated in the primaries, while the remaining four chose to retire.[49]
  10. Aside from Jane SwiftWikipedia, who, due to a quirk of Bay State law, was officially only called "acting governor" during her caretaker administration from 2001 to 2003.

References[edit]

  1. ‘A wounded healer’: Ralph Northam wraps up term in office, forged by scandal into a governor of lasting consequence, Gregory S. Schneider, The Washington Post 9 January 2022
  2. In Virginia, Republicans see education, curriculum fears as a path to victory, Alex Seitz-Wald, NBC News 17 October 2021
  3. Tonight Is a Test of What Trumpism Could Be Without Trump, David A. Graham, The Atlantic 2 November 2021
  4. Virginia Governor, CNN
  5. Virginia certifies election results, but 2 recounts loom, Denise Lavoie, Associated Press 15 November 2021
  6. Eight Times Jack Ciattarelli Lied About Headlining a Trump “Stop the Steal” Rally, Insider NJ, 16 September 2021
  7. New Jersey Governor, CNN
  8. Tennessee, FiveThirtyEight
  9. Texas, FiveThirtyEight
  10. Florida, FiveThirtyEight
  11. North Carolina's Supreme Court strikes down redistricting maps that gave GOP an edge, Associated Press, 5 February 2022
  12. Out of bounds? Why Ohio’s redistricting fight matters., Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor 28 July 2022
  13. Illinois, FiveThirtyEight
  14. New York court rejects congressional maps drawn by Democrats, Marina Villeneuve, Associated Press 27 April 2022
  15. Nevada, FiveThirtyEight
  16. Supreme Court blocks order to create two Black congressional districts in Louisiana, Mark Ballard, The Advocate 28 June 2022
  17. Merrill v. Milligan, U.S. Supreme Court 7 February 2022
  18. How the Supreme Court’s New Gerrymandering Case Threatens the Voting Rights Act, Michael Li and Yurij Rudensky, Brennan Center 29 September 2022
  19. Did Redistricting Cost Democrats The House?, Nathaniel Rakich and Elena Mejia, FiveThirtyEight 1 December 2022
  20. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Oyez
  21. Majority of Americans don’t want Roe overturned, Laura Santhanam, PBS 19 May 2022
  22. States passing abortion bans reflect what only a small minority of their constituents actually want, Jasmine Mithani, The 19th 24 October 2022
  23. Voters in Kansas decide to keep abortion legal in the state, rejecting an amendment, Dylan Lysen, Laura Ziegler, and Blaise Mesa, NPR 3 August 2022
  24. Republicans flip U.S. House seat in South Texas, historically a Democratic stronghold, Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune 14 June 2022
  25. House District 1: Nebraska Special Election Results, CNN
  26. House District 1: Minnesota Special Election Results, CNN
  27. Democrat Mary Peltola tops Sarah Palin to win U.S. House special election in Alaska, Deepa Shivaram, NPR 1 September 2022
  28. House District 19: New York Special Election Results, CNN
  29. Republicans flip the House, Politico, November 16, 2017
  30. [Democrat Yadira Caraveo wins competitive District 8 race to represent Colorado’s newest congressional district], Bente Birkeland, CPR 9 November 2022
  31. Lauren Boebert officially wins U.S. Congressional District 3 in Colorado after recount, Tony Keith, 11 News 12 December 2022
  32. Analysis shows Ron DeSantis’ map kept Jax seat red, but cost GOP a shot at a Tampa seat, Jacob Ogles, Florida Politics 7 December 2022
  33. Maxwell Frost elected as the first Gen Z member of Congress, Elena Moore, NPR 8 November 2022
  34. Republican Anna Paulina Luna flips Florida seat in 13th Congressional District, Jiselle Lee, PBS 8 November 2022
  35. Dan Goldman wins NY primary in 10th Congressional District race, Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist 24 August 2022
  36. Results: Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney loses his bid for reelection against Republican Michael Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District election, Hanna Kang and Dorothy Cucci, Business Insider 9 November 2022
  37. Results: Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan defeats Republican state Rep. Colin Schmitt in New York's 18th Congressional District election, Hanna Kang and Rebecca Cohen, Business Insider 10 November 2022
  38. 'We were duped': How George Santos raised money from wealthy GOP donors while lying about his resume, Brian Schwartz, CNBC 9 November 2023
  39. "Here’s Every Single Lie Told by George Santos" by Matt Strieb, NYMag Intelligencer, 2022 January 23
  40. "George Santo's 11 Most Absurd Lies And cons (That We Know About So Far)" by Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 2023 January 18
  41. North Carolina 14th Congressional District Election Results, The New York Times
  42. Trump-Backed Starling Bo Hines Falls in Surprise Loss in North Carolina House Race, Prem Thakker, The New Republic 9 November 2022
  43. Results: Kaptur defeats Majewski for Ohio 9th Congressional district, WTOL 8 November 2022
  44. Sykes wins Ohio’s 13th Congressional District Race, Taylor Bruck, Spectrum News 1 9 November 2022
  45. Ohio First Congressional District Election Results, The New York Times
  46. GOP’s links to extremism surface in congressional primary, Brian Slodysko, Associated Press 27 July 2022
  47. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez defeats Trump-backed Joe Kent, flipping seat for Democrats, Melissa Santos, Axios 12 November 2022
  48. Washington 4th Congressional District Results, The New York Times
  49. Here's What Happened to the 10 House Republicans Who Voted for Trump's Second Impeachment, Aaron Parsley, People 13 November 2022
  50. Warnock Win Seals Perfect 2022 for Senators Seeking Re-election, Greg Giroux, Bloomberg Law 7 December 2022
  51. Murkowski wins Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, Jeremy Hsieh and Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media 23 November 2022
  52. Arizona U.S. Senate Election Results, The New York Times
  53. Watch the creepy Blake Masters campaign ad where he quietly plays with a silenced handgun, Rob Beschizza, Boingboing 12 November 2022
  54. Herschel Walker’s son lashes out at dad after news report the Senate GOP nominee paid for an abortion in 2009, Zoë Richards and Marc Caputo, NBC News 4 October 2022
  55. Live Election Results: Raphael Warnock Wins the Georgia Senate Runoff, The New Yorker
  56. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto wins Nevada Senate race, Dustin Jones, MPR 12 November 2022
  57. Sununu says he won't endorse "conspiracy-theory type" Bolduc in Senate Republican primary, Josh Rogers, New Hampshire Public Radio 19 August 2022
  58. Senate: New Hampshire, CNN
  59. Senate: North Carolina, CNN
  60. Senate: Ohio, CNN
  61. Senate: Utah, CNN
  62. Senate: Wisconsin, CNN
  63. 63.0 63.1 Kari Lake loses her legal challenge to the results of the Arizona governor's race, NPR 24 December 2022
  64. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/11/politics/maricopa-county-printer-investigation-2022-election/index.html
  65. Trump-backed election denier Dan Cox wins Maryland's GOP primary for governor, Henry Gomez, NBC News 19 July 2022
  66. Maryland governor's race: 2022 election results, WBAL TV, 9 November 2022
  67. Results: Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey defeats Trump-backed Republican Geoff Diehl in Massachusetts gubernatorial election, Hanna Kang, Business Insider 8 November 2022
  68. Las Vegas-area GOP Sheriff Joe Lombardo beats Nevada's incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak, Lucia Starbuck, NPR 11 November 2022
  69. Democrats expand control of Assembly, keep state Senate, Colton Lochhead and Taylor R. Avery, Las Vegas Review-Journal 16 November 2022
  70. CNMI governor impeached for corruption, felony, neglect of duty; Senate prepares for trial, Haidee Eugenio Gilbert, The Guam Daily Post 12 January 2022
  71. UPDATED: Team Palacios-Apatang wins, K-Andrea Evarose Limol, Marianas Variety 28 November 2022
  72. Florida governor race: Ron DeSantis wins in a landslide over Democrat Charlie Crist, Zac Anderson and Kathryn Varn, Tallahassee Democrat 8 November 2022
  73. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp fends off Democrat Stacey Abrams for a second term, NBC News projects, Emma Kinery, CNBC
  74. https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/incredibly-bad-abrams-big-spending-led-to-cash-crunch/BY4PHK2A65F5FFQTYLKMNQE5FI/
  75. https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2022/10/24/stacey-abrams-fair-fight-action-00061348
  76. Laura Kelly holds off Derek Schmidt to remain a Democratic governor in Republican Kansas, Dylan Lysen, Rose Conlon, and Blaise Mesa, NPR 9 November 2022
  77. Nike co-founder Phil Knight donated another $2 million to Betsy Johnson in September, Hillary Borrud, KGW8 4 October 2022
  78. Tina Kotek fends off two challengers in Oregon gubernatorial race, Mariana Alfaro, Washington Post 10 November 2022
  79. How Doug Mastriano promoted election lies between Election Day and Jan. 6, Robby Brod, WHYY 9 June 2022
  80. Democrat Josh Shapiro wins Pennsylvania governor’s race, Marc Levy, Associated Press 9 November 2022
  81. Tony Evers wins governor’s race in Wisconsin, Scott Bauer, PBS 9 November 2022
  82. Democrats win control of Pennsylvania state House after picking up 12 seats, Stephen Caruso and Katie Meyer, WESA 17 November 2022
  83. Democrats win Minnesota Senate to control state government, Steve Karnowski, Associated Press 9 November 2022
  84. Democrats win control of Michigan Legislature for 1st time in decades, Craig Mauger, Detroit News 9 November 2022
  85. How Democrats secured a historic majority in the Vermont House, Lola Duffort, VTDigger 9 November 2022
  86. NC Republicans fall one seat short of supermajority in General Assembly, Ely Portillo, WFAE 9 November 2022
  87. Wisconsin Republicans fail to achieve veto-proof majority, Bridgit Bowden, Wisconsin Public Radio 9 November 2022
  88. Is 2022 the first time since 1934 that the US president’s party retained its control of all state legislative chambers in a midterm election?, Todd Butterworth, The Nevada Independent
  89. Democrats now govern more Americans at the state level than Republicans, Aaron Blake, Washington Post 8 December 2022
  90. Democrats’ quietly effective strategy for defeating election deniers, Christian Paz, Vox 19 November 2022
  91. Voters deliver ringing endorsement of abortion rights on midterm ballot initiatives across the US, Veronica Stracqualursi, Devan Cole and Paul LeBlanc, CNN 9 November 2022
  92. Four states voted to abolish slavery, but not Louisiana. Here's why, Max Matza, BBC News 10 November 2022
  93. A Mixed Bag: State Marijuana Ballot Initiatives in the 2022 Election Cycle, Kristine Blackwood, David J.M. Skillman, Bobby McMillin, Evelina J. Norwinski, Paul A. Howard, Scarlett Bickerton, and Lucas Gorak, Arnold & Porter 9 December 2022
  94. Former President Donald Trump announces a White House bid for 2024, Gabby Orr, Kristen Holmes and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN 16 November 2022
  95. How Trump Cost Republicans the Senate, Dan McLaughlin, National Review 19 December 2022