Democrats move closer to control of US Senate with key win in Arizona and a tight race in Nevada

CNN
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With Arizona Senator Mark Kelly’s victory on Friday night, The Democratic Party has only one seat left from retaining control of the US Senate when all eyes are on the neighboring country Nevadawhere the competitive Senate race is increasingly leaning in favor of the Democrats.

The victory of Kelly, who was elected in 2020 to fill the term of the late Republican Senator John McCain, limited a winning streak for Democrats to Friday night as the ballots continued. meticulously counted customs in the West. Kelly’s defeat of venture capitalist Blake Masters, who repeated former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, marks another voter rejection of a candidate. backed by Trump, whom Democrats describe as an extremist.

So far, Democrats will hold 49 seats in the Senate and Republicans will hold 49 – meaning Democrats need just one more seat to win a majority in the Senate (with Vice President Kamala Harris dropping out). balance sheet). They could reach that crucial 50-seat threshold if they succeed in Nevada, where Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is closing in on Republican Adam Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general – who called the election. The 2020 presidency is “fraud” and filed a lawsuit against the person acting on Trump’s behalf trying to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in Silver State.

The race for the Nevada Senate has been deadlocked for months, but it could ultimately decide the balance of power in the Senate. Democrats are also defending a seat in Georgia, where Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker are headed for a runoff on December 6, CNN predicts.

Control of the US House of Representatives remains suspended. But it is clear that even if the Republican Party wins a majority, that percentage will be much lower than what Republican leaders had hoped. That unexpected result created accusations and skepticism among Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who had hoped to emerge from these contests. with the clear mandate of becoming the next majority leader in the House.

The Democrats’ winning streak on Friday night marks an astonishing reversal of fortunes for a party that appears to be in serious trouble ahead of Tuesday’s election. Candidates like Kelly and Cortez Masto have had to work under President Joe Biden’s low credit rating and an unfavorable economic environment – with inflation and high gas prices squeezing family budgets. families across the country – and confront historical trends that tend to lead to heavy losses during the first mid-term cycle of a new president.

But it is a complex cycle with various trends affecting voter behavior, including a Supreme Court decision in June overturning abortion rights that angered many voters across the country. . Republicans are also stymied by Trump’s decision to bolster far-right candidates loyal to him, but often too extreme to appeal to wavering voters who decide elections. nominate. In the end, many independents and moderates appear to have turned down candidates they consider too radical or too close to Trump – and Democrats have gone out of their way to defend the candidates. their incumbent.

The defeat of the Masters in Arizona came after prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, arrived in the state in the final days of the election, warning that the fate of The master of the nation is on the ballot. Grand Canyon voters also rejected an attempt by GOP Representative Mark Finchem, a Trump-backed staunch election denier, to become Arizona’s top election official. They will instead elect Democrat Adrian Fontes as Arizona’s next secretary of state, CNN is expected Friday night.

One bright spot for Republicans, CNN predicts, is in Nevada, where voters have elected Republican Joe Lombardo as the state’s next governor – removing Democrat Steve Sisolak. Lombardo, the famous Clark County sheriff, reminded voters of their struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic, as unemployment in Nevada has peaked at nearly 30%. Although the economy has recovered, Lombardo considers Sisolak’s policies too restrictive and has hindered the state’s economic recovery.

In the wake of 2020, a number of Republicans, including Master, are trying to contest vote counting in Maricopa County, Arizona – suggesting that the counting there is unreliable due to the processing a certain number of votes. Both Masters and GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake say the tally is too slow.

On Friday, Masters made a similar argument with Lake, calling the vote counting process in Maricopa County — the largest county in Arizona and home to Phoenix — as “incompetent,” pointing to a problem with the machine. print resulted in some ballots not being tabulated correctly on Tuesday, although election officials said the problem was fixed within hours on Election Day.

Masters also alleges the county mixed up uncounted ballots with counted ballots. The Arizona Republican and Republican National Committee released a statement saying the election “revealed profound flaws in Maricopa County’s election administration. Arizona deserves better – transparency, certainty, efficiency – and most importantly, prompt and accurate announcement of election results that is acceptable to all voters.”

A spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Elections Office told CNN’s Kyung Lah that the district office has “redundancies that help us ensure each legitimate ballot is counted only once.”

“Because the ballots were batched, we were able to isolate the results from those specific locations and compare the total number of votes with the registrations to ensure a match. The spokesman said this was done in the presence of political party observers and was a practice that has been practiced for decades.

Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, rejected Masters’ suggestion that the county wipe out the rankings and start counting again, saying “simply not allowed under Arizona law.” Gates said the county’s vote counting rate is consistent with previous years.

When asked on CNN about specific allegations from the Republican National Committee, Gates said he wanted them to discuss those concerns with him directly. “I am a Republican. Three of my colleagues on the board are Republicans. Raise these issues with us and discuss them with us, instead of making these baseless claims,” he said.

“Let the counting go on and eventually, if they have an issue that they choose to take to court, they have every right to do that and we’ll let that process happen,” Gates added.

Kelly enters the 2022 cycle well positioned to withstand the winds facing Democrats – even in a purple state like Arizona that Joe Biden narrowly won – for his formidable fundraising ability and unique personal brand as an astronaut retired, a Navy veteran and husband of former Congressman Gabby Giffords.

Masters, a first-time contender, was able to navigate the GOP’s main gauntlet with substantial financial backing from conservative tech billionaire Peter Thiel, his former boss. He appealed to Republicans by promising to prioritize immigration issues, and in a campaign video released last year, he said he believes Trump won the presidential election this year. 2020.

Masters then appeared to adjust his tone on the 2020 election results as well as the conservative views he sought in the abortion primaries – which at first seemed like was an effort to garner wider support among Arizona voters. (Although Republicans have a majority in Arizona, independents make up about a third of the total electorate and often cause elections to come close.)

After his first win in August, Masters tested his website for language that included false claims that the election had been stolen. Questioning from moderators in an argument with Kelly, Masters admitted that he has not seen evidence of vote counting fraud or the 2020 election results in a way that could change the outcome. During that debate and on the trail, Kelly argued that the “wheels” could “unleash our democracy” if voting deniers like Masters were elected.

But Masters seems to reverse course after receiving a phone call from Trump urged him to “be stronger” against election denialism, a conversation that was captured in a Fox documentary. In the final week of the campaign, Masters told CNN’s Lah that he doesn’t believe moderates are bothered by his comments about the 2020 election, stressing that voters are more focused on their concerns about inflation, crime and borders.

Throughout the campaign, Kelly portrayed Masters as a candidate outside the mainstream who would jeopardize abortion rights, as well as Social Security and Medicare. In a state where lawmakers passed a new abortion ban at 15 weeks earlier this year – and where legal efforts are underway to ban abortion in most cases – the war Kelly’s translation is relentlessly focused on Masters’ anti-abortion stance.

The master has said that he will support a countries that ban abortion After 15 weeks, a proposal was put forward by the Republican Senator of South Carolina. Lindsey Graham. That measure includes exceptions for rape, incest, and for protecting a mother’s life.