The president of the United States described this Wednesday the mid-term elections as a “good day for democracy”, in which the Democrats resisted better than expected a Republican “red wave” that is likely to be reduced to a narrow majority in a single chamber of Congress.
US President Joe Biden acknowledged voter frustration but said the “overwhelming majority” supported his economic agenda in Tuesday’s election, despite Republicans blaming it for high inflation.
“I think it was a good day for democracy. And I think it was a good day for the United States,” he told a White House news conference. “The press and experts predicted a gigantic red wave, but it didn’t happen.”
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For his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, it was disappointing. He was counting on a spectacular result that would boost a possible candidacy to reconquer the White House in 2024, after promising that on November 15 “he will make a big announcement.”
Disappointing for Trump
“Although yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing in a way, from my personal point of view it was a great victory: 219 WINS and 16 losses,” Trump summed up in reference to the candidates he personally endorsed. “Who has done better than that?” the 76-year-old former president asked on his Truth Social platform.
Trump also witnessed the tremendous victory of Ron DeSantis, the big winner of these elections, who will remain governor of Florida but could become his main rival for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
In mid-term elections, which often slap the ruling party in the face, the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate seats are renewed, along with numerous governorships and local offices.
Predictably, the duel for control of the Senate was relentless. With three seats still up for grabs, he leans Democratic but could hinge on a runoff in Georgia in December.
To sanction Biden, Republicans needed just one more seat to wrest control of the Senate. But for now the only one that changed hands was for the Democrats, with John Fetterman, a great defender of progressive economic policies.
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South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s main allies, was not beating around the bush, acknowledging that the election has not been “a Republican wave, that’s for sure.”
But the lower house is another story. Republicans appear on track to regain the majority lost in 2018; but if they counted on a red wave with a difference of 10, 25 or even 35 seats, they will have to be content with just a handful.
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who was one of the optimists and even predicted 60 more seats, put a good face on bad weather. “It’s clear we’re going to take the Chamber back,” he said.
More than 100 Republicans who propagate, without proof, that the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won, was a robbery, got some of the positions at stake.
But other candidates Trump backed clearly had a bitter night “and cost the party the opportunity to win seats they should have won,” Jon Rogowski, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told AFP.
a clear message
“Voters not only rejected many of Trump’s candidates, but also his policies,” says Rogowski, citing abortion, for example.
In referendums held in five states, voters supported abortion rights, rejecting a ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court that left it up to local authorities to decide whether or not to allow it. The case of Kentucky, very conservative, is striking.
“The voters spoke clearly about their concerns,” Biden said. “There are still a lot of people hurt.” “They sent a clear and unequivocal message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose in this country,” she opined.
Biden is pleased with the outcome even though a Republican-controlled lower house, however narrowly, could derail his agenda, opening investigations, thwarting his ambitions on climate change and calling into question the billions of US dollars to help Ukraine fight Russia.
But with the ruling party routinely losing in midterm elections and Biden’s popularity ratings hitting rock bottom, pundits had predicted a drubbing.
And a beating would have raised questions about whether the oldest president in US history, who turns 80 this month, should stand for re-election. This Wednesday he repeated that he intends to do it but will confirm it “early next year.”
In reality, Biden has fared much better than any of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, in these elections.
This Wednesday he extended his hand to the Republicans, affirming that he is “prepared to work” with them. “America’s future is too bright to get caught up in endless political warfare,” he said.
Political divisions in the United States have been a fact since before the 2020 presidential elections, but they have worsened.
Election day has not been spared from this rarefied climate.
Trump claimed that there were irregularities in Arizona. Maricopa officials acknowledged that some polling places experienced difficulties, but say no one was denied the right to vote.
(with AFP)
