All we learned tonight is that America is bitterly divided – and that is no surprise
A red wave? Not really. How about a blue wave? Not that either.
In fact, as America voted in midterm elections that will decide the control of the houses of Congress and kick-start the 2024 presidential showdown, all we really learned was something we already knew - that America is bitterly divided.
With Joe Biden’s polls numbers so low, and with inflation and the economy playing on the minds of so many people, Republicans went nto Tuesday’s election hopeful of a major upset.
If polls were correct, and if the party that occupies the White House took a pasting in a manner that is traditional, then Republicans could have expected a very good night indeed.
They could hope to take the House, and even the Senate. They could hope to win governor’s races across the nation, and some of the most optimistic believed the red wave could reach the shores of Washington state and that Trump-backed Tiffany Smiley might oust veteran Democratic senator Patty Murray.
In the end none of that really happened. While it seems the House will be controlled by Republicans, we may not know for days.
The same is true for the Senate, where Democrats appeared poised to hold onto a slim majority, and looked to Georgia and Nevada as the states that could determine control, and where the results of which would not be made public until later in the week.
Senator Lindsey Graham admitted that Republicans had failed to see the kind of outcomes they had hoped for.
“Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure,” Graham said during an appearance on NBC News. “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”
It is very possible Democrats may hold on to the upper chamber. The party had the edge in Georgia, and bagged Pennsylvania, where Jon Fetterman overcame Dr Mehmet Oz.
In New Hampshire, the party held a crucial Senate seat as Maggie Hassan defeated Republican Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who had initially promoted Trump’s lies about the 2022 election.
All in all, what does this mean? It means that things stayed more or less the same, which for Democrats will be seen as a victory given how badly things could have ended up.
President Biden took the time to make congratulatory calls to California Governor Gavin Newsom, Representative Marcy Kaptur, Representative Mikie Sherrill, Representative Josh Gottheimer and Representative-elect Greg Landsman, among others.
To be fair, Republicans will say they had the best of the night. JD Vance won the Senate seat in Ohio, Marco Rubio was reelected in Florida and Herschel Walker was engaged in a defiant fight in Georgia.
Also in Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp easily defeated progressive Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Trump’s name was not on the ballot but he had backed many of the candidates who were successful, most tellingly Vance.
Trump also took time to make a threat to the victorious Ron DeSantis in Florida, suggesting that if the Florida governor make a run for the White House, the former president would leak incriminating material. So, nothing new from Trump either.
America feels divided and tonight’s results underscored that. For Republicans, things could have been better, while for Democrats they could have been a lot worse.
