Democrats projected to grab control of U.S. House as midterm results roll in
· Toronto Sun
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Some congressional Republicans are reportedly fearing a “bloodbath” in the U.S. midterm elections with the cost of living top of mind to a vast majority of voters across the nation.
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Democrats were projected to gain control of the House of Representatives, according to CNN, and had flipped at least eight seats in the House and at least four in the Senate at about 11 p.m. with polls just closing across the West Coast.
Bill Melugin, the congressional correspondent for Fox News in Washington, D.C., said in a post on X that his GOP sources were expressing pessimism about the early results with one calling them “f—ed” and another describing it as a “bloodbath across the board.”
“Nothing is going our way,” he quoted another Senate source as saying. “We stabilized in Florida, but the margins were so close. That’s the only good news.”
GOP Senate seats flipped in Carolinas
While a reason was not cited in a report by CNN, U.S. President Donald Trump – who urged voters to pretend that he was on the ballot – seemed to be feeling the heat as well and had no public events listed for Wednesday. The White House said he would instead focus on “executive time” in the morning followed by policy meetings.
Trump’s predecessors – specifically Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush – all held news conferences after being punished by voters in the midterms, CNN reported, something that he also did in his first term when the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives.
Some of the earliest signs of trouble for the Republicans coming in the North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas races for seats in the U.S. Senate.
By about 8:30 p.m., Fox News had already called the Senate race as a flip in North Carolina, where former governor Roy Cooper was leading GOP candidate Michael Whatley by about a three-to-one margin. The gap was down to about 19 points at 11 p.m. with 97% of polls reporting.
The Dems’ Annie Andrews was also projected to beat Republican Darlene Graham, the sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, by about four points in the South Carolina race with 97% of polls reporting.
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More trouble in Texas?
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico was projected to beat embattled Republican candidate Ken Paxton with about a 20-point lead and 67% of polls reporting, while Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was facing a resounding defeat in his race against Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who was projected to win and had a 15-point lead with 67% of polls reporting.
Republican strategist Karl Rove told Fox News during its election night coverage that Trump’s immigration policies – specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids – had hurt the GOP in Texas , citing a decline among Latino and Tejano voters.
“Everybody knows somebody who’s been touched by an ICE enforcement action,” the senior adviser to former president George W. Bush said. “Went to a Home Depot parking lot because some guy was looking for part-time work or went to a restaurant where someone who was here illegally was washing dishes and waiting on tables and this was seen as an overreach.”
Americans had also signalled that the economy – battered by the war in Iran and, in some parts, Trump’s trade war with Canada – was a major concern as they pondered their votes with about 87% of respondents in a Fox News voter poll worried about the price of gas or diesel and a similar number expressing angst over their grocery bills.
About 62% of the more than 100,000 people polled blamed Trump’s policies compared to about 38% who blamed “outside factors.” That number jumped to eight in 10 voters blaming Trump when focusing on respondents under the age of 30.
There was a similar gap in Trump’s approval rating with 62% unhappy with his leadership compared to 38% who approved.