Midterm elections - live: Biden says 2022 results show US ‘ready to play’ after Dems win Nevada Senate seat

The Republican party is “dead” and needs to be buried to make way for “something new” following its poor performance in the midterm elections, senator Josh Hawley has said.

Counting is still going on across the country but it has now been confirmed the Democrats will retain control of the Senate. And while the GOP is likely to take the House, it will do so with far fewer seats than predicted.

Mr Hawley made his remarks after Democrat incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto’s victory over Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada, which secured the Senate result.

He blamed the GOP leadership for their “mistake” in election strategy that failed to offer anything new to working-class voters.

With the results in Nevada now decided, Georgia is the only state where both parties are still competing for a Senate seat.

Many Republicans have criticised the party’s leadership in the past few days, with some blaming Donald Trump and others the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.

President Joe Biden has said he feels “good” about the election results and is “looking forward to the next couple of years”.

Key points

• Midterm results show US is ‘ready to play’, says Biden

• Josh Hawley says Republican party is ‘dead’

• Control of Congress: Why the AP hasn't called the House

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrates Democrats holding the Senate

• ‘When the National pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong,’ Cortez Masto says in victory speech

Midterm results show US is ‘ready to play’, says Biden

15:20 , Oliver O'Connell

US President Joe Biden on Monday said the Democratic Party’s strong showing in last week’s midterm elections is proof that the US is “ready to play” on the international stage rather than retreat from multilateral commitments under a GOP congress.

Andrew Feinberg reports on the president remarks following a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden says election results say US ‘is ready to play’ after meeting Xi Jinping

Sheriff Joe Lombardo wins Nevada governor race... but did Trump almost pull his support?

15:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Sheriff Joe Lombardo won the race to become Nevada’s next governor amid claims Donald Trump almost withdrew his endorsement after he failed to praise him as a “great” president.

The Republican narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak in the Silver State, according to a call in the race made by the Associated Press on Friday night.

Graeme Massie reports.

Sheriff Joe Lombardo wins Nevada governor race amid Trump claims

Prominent conservatives call for delay to GOP congressional leadership elections, report says

14:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Axios’ Jonathan Swan reports that, per a source, a collection of prominent conservatives have added their voices to calls for a delay in Republican leadership elections in the House and Senate.

ICYMI: Democrats seal Senate majority as Catherine Cortez Masto wins re-election in Nevada

14:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats look set to hold their Senate majority in Nevada as incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto overtook Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.

Ms Cortez Masto’s expected success comes after Democratic Senators Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire outright won her race on election night and Mark Kelly of Arizona clinched his victory on Friday night.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, DC.

Democrats seal Senate majority as Catherine Cortez Masto wins re-election in Nevada

Pelosi says she won’t comment on political future ‘until this election is finished'

14:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Louisiana GOP Senator says it’s time to offer ‘an alternative’ to Trump

13:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump announcing 2024 run would be ‘bad news for the country,’ Pelosi says

12:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Alabama congressman who boosted the big lie says Trump 2024 ‘would be a bad mistake for the Republicans'

11:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, a former staunch ally of Donald Trump who spoke at the rally preceding the insurrection on January 6, 2021, has now come out against Mr Trump being the 2024 GOP nominee.

“It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024,” Mr Brooks told AL.com. “Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans.”

“Even a candidate who campaigns from his basement can beat him,” he added in reference to Joe Biden’s virtual campaigning during the pandemic in 2020.

“I did not fight for Donald Trump after the 2020 election,” he claimed. “I fought for election integrity. Donald Trump just happened to be the beneficiary of it.”

‘I’m tired of losing. That’s all Trump’s done,’ outgoing Maryland GOP governor says

10:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Abortion rights wins in Kentucky, elsewhere stoke supporters

09:00 , The Associated Press

Lexie Overstreet logged plenty of miles on foot, knocking on doors to try to persuade Kentuckians not to take away one of the last legal paths to restoring abortion rights in the state.

Now she’s hoping her side’s win at the ballot box Tuesday will convince the state’s highest court to throw out a sweeping abortion ban passed by the Republican-led legislature.

“It was great to wake up this morning and know that Kentuckians are on the same side as me,” the 21-year-old University of Louisville student and volunteer said after the election. “And know that the thousands of doors that I knocked aren’t going to be forgotten and that all those people I talked to, they cast their vote and their vote was heard.”

Whether those voices will resonate with the Kentucky Supreme Court, which is set to hear arguments for and against the ban Tuesday, hinges on legal arguments about whether state constitutional protections extend to a right to an abortion. With a hearing set for Tuesday, the case looms as the first legal test for abortion rights after midterm elections in which voters across the country came down firmly on the side of keeping abortion legal. No timeline has been given for a ruling.

In Kentucky, abortion rights supporters think the amendment’s rejection should be a consideration as the justices hear the case.

Read more:

Abortion rights wins in Kentucky, elsewhere stoke supporters

Voters who ‘somewhat disapprove’ of Biden supported Democrats in midterms

07:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Pelosi weighs in on McCarthy’s ability to govern with small majority

06:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Republicans ‘angry’ Trump is going after DeSantis after he made Florida a ‘red state'

05:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Josh Hawley says Republican party is ‘dead’

05:21 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

The Republican party is “dead” and needs a complete overheal after its disappointing results in the midterm elections, according to GOP senator Josh Hawley, part of a growing backlash against the party’s leadership.

Mr Hawley’s remark on the state of the GOP came shortly after incumbent Democrat senator Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada, a result that meant the Democrats retained control of the Senate.

“The old party is dead,” the Missouri senator said in a tweet late on Saturday. “Time to bury it. Build something new.”

Read more here.

Josh Hawley says Republican party is ‘dead’ as midterms backlash grows

Republicans will ‘use the vote on the debt limit as leverage to cut Medicare and Social Security,’ Pelosi says

04:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Election Day saw few major problems, despite new voting laws

03:45 , The Associated Press

Heading into this year’s midterms, voting rights groups were concerned that restrictions in Republican-leaning states triggered by false claims surrounding the 2020 election might jeopardize access to the ballot box for scores of voters.

Those worries did not appear to come true. There have been no widespread reports of voters being turned away at the polls, and turnout, while down from the last midterm cycle four years ago, appeared robust in Georgia, a state with hotly competitive contests for governor and U.S. Senate.

The lack of broad disenfranchisement isn’t necessarily a sign that everyone who wanted to vote could; there’s no good way to tell why certain voters didn’t cast a ballot.

Voter advocacy groups promoted voter education campaigns and modified voting strategies as a way to reduce confusion and get as many voters to cast a ballot as possible.

“We in the voting rights community in Texas were fearing the worst,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of Common Cause Texas, on Wednesday. “For the most part, it didn’t happen.”

Election Day saw few major problems, despite new voting laws

Pelosi says Biden should run again, possibly setting up rematch against Trump

02:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Biden is ‘on track for the party’s best first term performance since JFK'

01:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Louisiana Republican Senator backs McConnell after Trump pushes Rick Scott for Senate GOP leader

00:45 , Gustaf Kilander

White House adviser says Democrats have ‘effective strategy’ to beat ‘MAGA Republicans'

00:15 , Gustaf.Kilander

GOP's Chavez-DeRemer flips Oregon 5th Congressional District

00:02 , Graeme Massie

Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer has won the open US House seat in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.

GOP's Chavez-DeRemer flips Oregon 5th Congressional District

‘Elections are about the future’: Pelosi celebrates Democratic midterm success

Sunday 13 November 2022 23:45 , Gustaf Kilander

GOP governor Larry Hogan says Trump should sit out 2024 election for good of Republicans: ‘I’m tired of losing’

Sunday 13 November 2022 23:31 , Graeme Massie

Trump-endorsed candidate to replace Republican Maryland governor lost out to Democrat Wes Moore.

GOP governor Larry Hogan says Trump should sit out 2024 election

‘This victory belongs to Joe Biden,’ Elizabeth Warren says

Sunday 13 November 2022 23:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Doug Mastriano finally concedes defeat after massive loss

Sunday 13 November 2022 23:05 , Graeme Massie

The pro-Trump Republican was soundly beaten in the Pennsylvania governor race by Josh Shapiro who won 56 per cent of the vote to his election-denying rival’s 41 per cent.

Nearly a week after voters cast ballots, control of the lower chamber of Congress remains up in the air

Sunday 13 November 2022 23:01 , Graeme Massie

Nearly a week after voters cast ballots, control of the lower chamber of Congress remains up in the air.

John Bowden has the story.

What happens to Nancy Pelosi if Democrats lose the House?

Democrat wins top Nevada elections job over election denier

Sunday 13 November 2022 22:45 , The Associated Press

Democrat Cisco Aguilar was elected as Nevada’s secretary of state, winning the elections post over Republican Jim Marchant, who pushed to scrap voting machines and claimed all Nevada winners since 2006 have been “installed by the deep-state cabal.”

Marchant’s loss marks the latest defeat for election conspiracy theorists who sought to gain control of elections in competitive states. Marchant organized a coalition of 17 such Republican candidates for the 2022 election, and all lost their races except two — Diego Morales, who was elected secretary of state in Indiana, and Kari Lake, whose contest for Arizona governor remained too close to call.

Marchant, Mark Finchem — an Arizona state lawmaker who attended the Jan. 6 protests — and Michigan’s Kristina Karamo were the most prominent secretary of state candidates because they sought the office overseeing voting in three of the six swing states that decided the winner of the 2020 presidential elections. Their bids drew millions of dollars in outside spending from Democrats and their allies on ads warning voters about them. In contrast, the Republican Party’s apparatus that normally backs secretaries of states didn’t support any election conspiracy theorists and they raised paltry sums of money.

“Their candidates showed voters who they were and the voters rejected them,” said Ellen Kurz, a Democratic strategist whose group iVote spent $15 million against the conspiracy theorists. “Voters saved democracy.”

Read more:

Democrat wins top Nevada elections job over election denier

Nancy Pelosi says ‘disgusting’ Republican reaction to attack on her husband may have influenced midterm voters

Sunday 13 November 2022 22:40 , Graeme Massie

Muted GOP response came as far-right openly mocked violent attack against Paul Pelosi.

John Bowden has the story.

Pelosi says ‘disgusting’ GOP reaction to husband’s attack may have swayed voters

Turnout among younger voters changed the game for Democrats

Sunday 13 November 2022 22:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Biden says he’s ‘not surprised’ but ‘incredibly pleased’ by turnout that ensured Democratic control of Senate

Sunday 13 November 2022 21:45 , Namita Singh

Joe Biden said on Sunday he was “not surprised” but “incredibly pleased” with the turnout in the US midterm elections after Democrats clinched control of the Senate, a major victory for the president as he looks to his next two years in office.

“It is a reflection of the quality of our candidates,” said the president while speaking to reporters in Cambodia ahead of an East Asia Summit.

The comments came as senator Catherine Cortez Masto was projected to win in Nevada beating her Republican counterpart Adam Laxalt, thereby strengthening Democrats across the election year and helping them secure 50 seats in the Senate to retain majority.

Seeking reelection in an economically challenged state that has some of the highest gas prices in the nation, Ms Cortez Masto was considered the Senate’s most vulnerable member, adding to the frustration of Republicans who were confident she could be defeated.

“We got a lot done and we’ll do a lot more for the American people,” Democratic senate leader Chuck Schumer said.

Read more:

Biden ‘incredibly pleased’ by turnout that ensured Democratic control of Senate

What issues favoured the Republicans?

Sunday 13 November 2022 21:15 , Gustaf Kilander

The ‘red wave’ came for New York. Now Democrats are sounding the alarm over the party’s future

Sunday 13 November 2022 20:45 , Alex Woodward

Leading up to Election Day, New York Governor Kathy Hochul campaigned in and around New York City joined by prominent Democratic officials from across the country in buoyant “get out the vote” rallies celebrating the historic, impending election of the state’s first-ever woman governor.

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and members of Congress all rallied around the governor, who ultimately defeated the Donald Trump-backed Republican candidate Lee Zeldin – by only five percentage points, the closest governor’s election in decades in a state that President Biden won against Trump by nearly 25 points.

Republican candidates in New York massively outperformed expectations in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans two to one. On Long Island, the homebase for New York congressman and GOP candidate for governor Lee Zeldin, Republicans gained four House seats.

Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, had muscled out a progressive congressman to represent a district that he ultimately lost – to a Republican.

Democratic officials and progressives are demanding a reckoning within the state’s party leadership, including the resignation of the state’s party chair Jay Jacobs, and to rebuild the organisation as it faces generational and political headwinds that critics have long warned that the party cannot withstand as it continues to punch left.

Read more:

How the ‘red wave’ washed over New York

It may take weeks until House control is decided

Sunday 13 November 2022 20:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Control of Congress: Why the AP hasn't called the House

Sunday 13 November 2022 19:45 , The Associated Press

Democratic control of the U.S. Senate was settled Saturday when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada won reelection, but the U.S. House majority is still in question. Let’s see where things stand.

WHY HASN’T THE AP CALLED CONTROL OF THE HOUSE YET?

It’s simple: Neither party has yet reached the 218 seats needed to control the House.

The Associated Press has declared winners in most contests, but a handful are outstanding. Heading into Sunday, Republicans had 211 seats compared with 204 for the Democrats, leaving 20 undecided.

The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. In some contested races where a party or candidate has a history of consistent and convincing wins, The AP can use results from AP VoteCast — a survey of American voters aimed at determining why they voted how they did — to confirm a candidate’s victory, even as soon as polls close. But some races, as it is again this year, can days or even weeks to call.

Read more:

Control of Congress: Why the AP hasn't called the House

These are a few of the key races left to called

Sunday 13 November 2022 19:15 , Gustaf Kilander

VIDEO: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrates Democrats holding the Senate

Sunday 13 November 2022 18:45 , The Independent

‘When the National pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong,’ Cortez Masto says in victory speech

Sunday 13 November 2022 18:25 , Gustaf Kilander

Democratic Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto made her victory speech in front of union members in Las Vegas.

“We’ve known this was going to be a tough campaign … so when the National pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong,” she told the crowd.

She noted the support of union members, saying that they are “the essential workers on the front lines”.

She said that her story is “the story of so many Latino families across the state” and that “I know my family … would be so proud to see me serving as the first Latina in the US Senate”.

Lake supporters call for military intervention amid fears she may be losing

Sunday 13 November 2022 18:15 , Gustaf Kilander

VIDEO: Biden is ‘incredibly pleased’ by turnout that ensured Democratic control of Senate

Sunday 13 November 2022 17:45 , The Independent

Democrats ‘haven’t given up’ on control of the House, Pelosi says

Sunday 13 November 2022 17:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Schumer hails Democratic retention of Senate as he condemns GOP’s violent rhetoric

Sunday 13 November 2022 16:45 , Eric Garcia

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Democrats’ retention of the Senate majority a vindication, and said that the American people rejected the violent rhetoric from the Republican Party.

Mr Schumer made the remarks shortly after Senator Catherine Cortez Masto clinched her re-election in Nevada late Saturday evening after mail-in ballots moved the race in her favour.

“Democrats will once again have a majority in the Senate and I will once again be majority leader,” he said. “This election is a victory, a victory and a vindication for Democrats, our agenda and for the American people.”

Democrats now have 50 Senate seats as incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock heads into a runoff with Republican nominee and former University of Georgia football player Herschel Walker. Neither candidate received a majority of the vote and Georgia law stipulates a runoff must take place on 6 December.

Read more:

Schumer hails Democratic retention of Senate as he condemns GOP’s violent rhetoric

VOICES: Mitch McConnell is to blame for Republicans’ flop in the Senate, but not for the reasons conservatives think

Sunday 13 November 2022 15:45 , Eric Garcia

The failure to flip the Senate has forced Republicans into a bitter intra-party feud and nobody seems to be feeling the heat more than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters cried to Tucker Carlson about the fact McConnell didn’t support him financially, despite the fact he released videos of himself shooting a campaign ad calling Roe v Wade “a genocide” while in the middle of a corn field. Newly re-elected Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah have teamed up with Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to call for a delay in the vote for leadership elections.

Of course, Scott is far from a reliable narrator, given that blaming McConnell is a way to absolve himself of guilt after a massive failure where he set money on fire for quixotic campaigns to try and flip seats in Colorado and Washington state. As Politico reported, he even has the audacity to even try to challenge McConnell for leader before the election results showed a disaster.

But faulting McConnell is absurd, especially considering that his Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) super PAC launched a $28m onslaught of ads that bailed out JD Vance in Ohio and made the difference since he was broke, as The New York Times reported.

The millions of dollars SLF spent in Wisconsin also likely saved Johnson as he only narrowly beat Mandela Barnes and he also helped hold North Carolina’s Senate seat. Put simply, McConnell did his job: He protected incumbents and held seats where they needed to be held.

Read more:

McConnell’s to blame for midterms flop – but not for the reasons conservatives think

Nancy Pelosi says ‘disgusting’ Republican reaction to attack on her husband may have influenced midterm voters

Sunday 13 November 2022 15:28 , John Bowden

Americans may have voted for Democrats to hold on to at least one chamber of Congress simply because of the growing ugliness of the conservative politcial movement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Sunday.

Reacting to a historic performance by her party in Tuesday’s elections, which saw Democrats hold the Senate and position themselves for an expanded majority, Ms Pelosi noted that the Republican Party’s reaction to the attack on her husband had been met with a muted response from GOP leaders while their own members and supporters, like Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin and Donald Trump Jr., engaged in outright mockery.

Mr Pelosi was attacked by an intruder in his home just days before the 2022 midterm elections took place; he was hospitalised for a skull fracture after the suspect allegedly grabbed a hammer from Mr Pelosi’s hands and struck him with it.

Read more:

Pelosi says ‘disgusting’ GOP reaction to husband’s attack may have swayed voters

ICYMI: Election deniers are losing critical state-level races

Sunday 13 November 2022 14:45 , Namita Singh

Donald Trump’s endless grievances and a bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him have fuelled dozens of Republican campaigns across the US, from local-level races to elections for governor and US Senate seats.

At least 145 Republicans who rejected the 2020 outcome have won their races in midterm elections for the House of Representatives, eclipsing the 139 House Republicans who objected to the counting of electoral votes in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

But among the 94 races for statewide offices this year, only 14 candidates who have amplified election lies have won their races, according to analysis from pro-democracy group States United Action.

The movement has failed to gain any significant ground, dealing a major blow to Mr Trump’s attempt to purge state officials who rejected his baseless claims of widespread fraud as the former president and GOP lawmakers lay the groundwork for an antidemocratic agenda.

Alex Woodward reports:

Election deniers are losing critical state-level races

Defeated Trump-backed Blake Masters blames McConnell for his loss accusing him of ‘malice’ or ‘gross incompetence’

Sunday 13 November 2022 13:45 , Graeme Massie

Defeated Trump-backed Blake Masters has blamed Mitch McConnell for his defeat in Arizona and accused him of “malice” or “gross incompetence.”

The Republican candidate was beaten by incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in a race called by the Associated Press on Friday night.

The win for Mr Kelly gave his party 49 Senate seats and needing just one more seat to secure a US Senate majority with Nevada and the Georgia run-off still in play.

Mr Masters was interviewed by right-wing host Tucker Carlson on Fox News and asked why Mr McConnell, the Senate minority leader, had “avoided” the Arizona race.

“I will leave it to the viewer to decide whether it is just malice or whether it is gross incompetence,” replied Mr Masters.

Read more:

Defeated Trump-backed Blake Masters blames Mitch McConnell for his Arizona loss