Former President Donald Trump’s endorsements for political candidates in close high-profile races have not yet given Republicans the swift and sweeping victories they had anticipated for this election cycle, despite many GOP hopefuls banking on his support to propel their campaigns.
Many critical midterm races have yet to be called as of Wednesday morning, but so far, no Republican endorsed by Trump in a toss-up gubernatorial, US Senate or House race has won. Among those toss-up races where Trump had publicly backed a candidate, CNN projects the governor’s seats in Wisconsin and Kansas, a Senate seat in Pennsylvania and four House seats are going to Democrats.
The Trump-backed candidate with the highest profile who pulled out a win was JD Vance in Ohio, who is projected to become the next US senator from Ohio after defeating Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. CNN had rated that race as lean Republican. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is also projected to win reelection in a race that CNN rated as tilt Republican.
Trump has traveled across the country, stumping for Republicans at huge rallies that mirrored event programs of his past presidential campaign stops – implicitly framing himself as the leader of the party. Now, as Republicans begin to reckon with what the results mean, they’ll also have to address whether Trump’s agenda will help or hurt in the 2024 elections.
A Trump adviser who has been in contact with Trump’s inner circle told CNN that the former president is “livid” and “screaming at everyone” after the results. “They were all bad candidates,” the adviser said, critiquing many of Trump’s handpicked contenders in key battleground states.
Republicans expected sweeping victories Tuesday night, which they had framed as a rebuke of President Joe Biden’s political agenda, setting the stage for the 2024 races. But the fate of both chambers continues to lie in the balance as vote counts trickle in among a national electorate that is choosing to vote early and vote by mail more often.
Democrats scored a major pickup with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s win in Pennsylvania against Trump’s hand selected candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, but they still need to win two more seats to guarantee control. And Republicans need to win 12 more seats to reach the 218 needed to control the House, with CNN not yet projecting which party will take over.
There are still key toss up races that are still too early to call.
Eyes are on Arizona, where some vote counts in the state’s most populous county, Maricopa County, were delayed due to ballots that could not be successfully read at polling places. The county’s votes were reported by early Wednesday, with additional results expected to be reported by Wednesday night. Counting is also expected to continue into Wednesday in Nevada.
And in Georgia, the race to elect the state’s next US senator was neck-and-neck, with CNN projecting Wednesday afternoon that it’s going to a runoff next month.
The current occupant of the White House and his allies, meanwhile, are celebrating the ongoing rollout of the election results, expressing vindication and confidence that Biden has bucked the historical trend of a dramatic pendulum swing in power from one party to another in the midterms.
Biden followed a very different campaign strategy from Trump’s, opting to mix official presidential visits alongside Democratic candidates with small closed door political fundraisers or virtual events. He paid special attention to Pennsylvania – a nearby state where he has close ties that he visited more than a dozen times this election cycle.
While the president used the campaign trail to promote what he sees as the successes of his legislative agenda and Democrats’ efforts in Congress, he also sought to cast the midterms as a referendum on election denialism.
A week before the election, Biden delivered a speech from Washington castigating candidates up and down the ballot “who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re in,” blaming Trump for cultivating lies about the election that have evolved into conspiracies which have been adopted more broadly and have led to violence.
While the future majorities in Congress and many other key races have yet to be called, Trump’s long roster of endorsements included a long list of safe Republican seats, many of whom supported false claims about the 2020 presidential election and are all but guaranteed to win.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Tierney Sneed, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond and MJ Lee
