You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Fetterman Beats Oz in PA Sen. Race; Warnock and Walker Likely Headed to Runoff in GA

HeadlineNov 09, 2022

The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air after Democratic candidates outperformed expectations in much of the country in Tuesday’s midterm election. With ballots still being counted in many key races, it remains unclear which party will control the Senate or the House. In one of the most closely watched Senate races, Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman has declared victory over his Trump-backed challenger, Dr. Mehmet Oz, to fill the Senate seat held by Republican Pat Toomey. Fetterman’s election victory came six months after suffering a stroke just before the Democratic primary. He addressed supporters early this morning.

Sen.-elect John Fetterman: “I’m proud of what we ran on: protecting a woman’s right to choose, raising our minimum wage, fighting the union way of life, healthcare as a fundamental human right. It saved my life, and it should all be there for you, would you ever should need it.”

Control of the Senate now rests on four states: Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. In Georgia, it appears increasingly likely the race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will go to a runoff. With 95% of the vote counted, Warnock is leading with 49.4% of the vote — just shy of the 50% needed in Georgia to win the election outright. Walker has 48.5% of the vote. Warnock spoke to supporters early this morning.

Sen. Raphael Warnock: “Well, good evening, Georgia. Or maybe I should say ‘good morning.’ Here’s where we are: We are not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there’s still a little work yet to do. But here’s what we do know: We know that when they’re finished counting the votes from today’s election, that we are going to have received more votes than my opponent. We know that.”

In Wisconsin, Republican Senator Ron Johnson is in the lead over Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, but the race is still too close to call. In Nevada’s Senate race, Republican Adam Laxalt is leading Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto with 75% of the vote counted. In Arizona, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly has a six-point lead over his Trump-backed challenger, Blake Masters, with two-thirds of the vote counted.

In other key Senate races, in Ohio Republican J.D. Vance defeated Democrat Tim Ryan, while in New Hampshire Maggie Hassan beat her far-right challenger, General Don Bolduc.

As for the House, more than 70 races have yet to be called, but many analysts are predicting Republicans will flip the House, but just by a small margin. One prominent Republican incumbent who might lose her seat is Lauren Boebert in Colorado. Early this morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said House Democratic candidates are “outperforming expectations.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top