US midterm elections: Republicans favored to win House

Republicans have picked up a net five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives that had previously been held by Democrats with 185 of 435 races not yet called, Edison Research projected on Tuesday.

For House races, Edison Research is tracking the net number of seats that flip from one party to another, as opposed to the net gain or loss of overall seats by either party.

People attend a rally held by former US President Donald Trump to support Republican candidates ahead of midterm elections, in Dayton, Ohio, November 7, 2022. Photo by Reuters

The number of flips does not take into account seven new seats created during congressional redistricting and two races in which an incumbent Democrat and an incumbent Republican are facing each other due to redistricting.

So far, Republicans have won 157 seats in the 435-seat House and Democrats have won 93 seats.

Maura Healey. Photo by AFP/Joseph Prezioso

The US state of Massachusetts on Tuesday elected Democrat Maura Healey as America’s first openly lesbian governor, AFP cited TV networks.

Healey, 51, flipped the seat from the Republicans, comfortably defeating opponent Geoff Diehl, according to projections by NBC, Fox News and CNN.

She told cheering supporters at her election night party in Boston that she was “proud” of her historic victory.

“To every little girl and every LGBTQ person out there, you can be anything you want to be,” Healey said.

Republicans have picked up a net four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives that had previously been held by Democrats with 204 of 435 races not yet called, Edison Research projected on Tuesday.

For House races, Edison Research is tracking the net number of seats that flip from one party to another, as opposed to the net gain or loss of overall seats by either party.

The number of flips does not take into account seven new seats created during congressional redistricting and two races in which an incumbent Democrat and an incumbent Republican are facing each other due to redistricting.

So far, Republicans have won 148 seats in the 435-seat House and Democrats have won 83 seats, Edison projected.

Patrons participate in election night trivia as early results come in at a bar in Washington, DC. Photo by AFP/Stefani Reynolds

Democrats picked up governorships in Massachusetts and Maryland with history-making candidates on Tuesday, while Republican Governor Ron DeSantis coasted to re-election in Florida, Edison Research projected.

In Massachusetts, Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey became the first woman to ascend to that state’s highest office. She also will be the country’s first openly lesbian governor.

In Maryland, a state where 31% of the population is Black, Democrat Wes Moore became the state’s first African American to win an election for governor.

DeSantis, who won office by less than half a percentage point four years ago, was ahead of Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by 19 percentage points with 92% of the expected vote counted.

In Arizona, which has one of the country’s closest gubernatorial races, Trump-backed candidate Kari Lake has repeated his assertions about voter fraud and said she would not have certified President Joe Biden’s victory in that state.

Her opponent is Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who rose to national prominence in 2020 when she defended Arizona’s election victory for Biden.

Election workers process ballots for U.S. midterm elections in Georgia, November 8, 2022. Photo by Reuters

As polls closed across the country, Democrats had largely conceded they were going to lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Republicans but hoped to retain a razor-thin majority in the Senate.

Early exit polls from Edison Research, however, showed reason for concern as Democrats appeared to be losing support from crucial voting blocs.

The exit polls showed 54% of voters with college degrees picking Democrats while 45% voted for Republicans. That nine-percentage point advantage was slightly lower than the 12-point spread that Democrat Joe Biden had over Republican Donald Trump among college-educated voters in the 2020 presidential contest.

Of perhaps even greater concern for Democrats was the continued movement of Latinos toward the Republican Party. Exit polls showed Republicans were winning 40% of the Hispanic vote, compared to 32% won by Trump in 2020.

But Democrats could take heart that their share of support from white college-educated women seemed to be holding steady. In 2020, Biden beat Trump among that cohort by about 9 points, according to Edison, and Democrats were leading on Tuesday by a similar margin in the exit polls.

Democrats made protecting abortion rights a central tenet of their midterm election pitch in the closing months – an issue likely to resonate most with college-educated women.

Overall, 52% of all suburban women nationwide were voting for Democrats compared to 47% picking Republicans. That five-percentage point spread was slightly less than the seven-point advantage Biden had over Trump in 2020.