Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs in Arizona governor election

Jump to contentSign up to our newslettersSubscribeNewsSportsVoicesCultureLifestyleTravelPremiumCloseRepublicans refuse to accept possibility of Kari Lake’s midterm defeatArizona’s 2022 midterm elections are still up in the air as Republican Kari Lake trails Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs in the race for governor.As of Wednesday morning, Trump-backed Ms Lake was less than two points behind Ms Hobbs in a race still too close to call with 63 per cent of precincts reporting.Facing a much tighter margin than she would’ve wanted, Ms Lake ended election night with a speech casting doubts on the integrity of the results – as she’d done throughout her campaign.’We need honest elections and we’re going to bring them to you, Arizona, I assure you of that. The system we have right now does not work,’ she said.In her own speech, Ms Hobbs expressed optimism but stressed the importance of waiting for all of the votes to be counted.Meanwhile in the race for Senate, Democrat Mark Kelly held a six point lead over Trump-backed Republican rival Blake Masters as of 7.30am ET.’Red wave’ hopes evaporate as House and Senate remain too close to call1668000042Tim Ryan may have lost the Ohio Senate race to Trump-backed Republican JD Vance, but he ran it more closely than many hoped in a state that Mr Trump easily won twice – and as many are pointing out, high-profile candidates who raise enthusiasm among the Democratic base have a record of lifting up downballot candidates, something particularly crucial in a year where the party is working hard to minimise the GOP’s chances in the House:Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 13:201667998842The Kremlin has said that the US midterm elections will not improve the ‘bad’ relations between Moscow and Washington, as it dismissed allegations Russia was meddling in the US vote, reports say.’These elections are important, but it’s not necessary to exaggerate their importance in the short and medium-term for our relations,’ the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.’These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations still are, and will remain, bad,’ he added.’Relations still are, and will remain, bad,’ the Kremlin says Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 13:001667997642Fox News’s election results coverage has been a maudlin affair, with overnight hosts struggling to explain to viewers – and to each other – why the country they are convinced is falling apart hasn’t voted decisively to dispose of the Democrats. Take a look at a sample exchange below.The same three hosts are still grappling with what’s happened this morning, ashen-facedly picking apart exit polls from John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania to detail how it defied the entire Republican narrative of what the election was about.In an echo of the 2020 election, where the Republican-aligned network was famously the first major news outlet to call Arizona for Joe Biden, the head of Fox News’s Decision Desk insisted on air that contrary to conspiracy theories being put about by Donald Trump and some of his followers, there is nothing nefarious about vote counts coming in at a slow pace. Richard Hall reports.Arnon Mishkin drew the ire of Republicans in 2020 for correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 12:401667996031With more than 90 per cent of votes now counted, far-right Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is continuing to trail in the House race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.Elected to Congress in 2020, she has cultivated a national reputation as a hardcore culture warrior, proud gun-carrier and 2020 election denier. But it appears that her Democratic rival Adam Frisch may yet unseat her, which would count as a major upset in a year where every seat counts in the battle for the House.With 93 per cent of votes now counted in the district, Mr Frisch is leading with 50.9 per cent of the vote to the incumbent congresswoman’s 49.1 per cent.Andrew Naughtie9 November 2022 12:131667995228Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Wednesday to claim that it had been a ‘great evening’ – despite the fact that a red wave failed to unfold in the midterm elections.’174 wins and 9 losses, A GREAT EVENING, and the Fake News Media, together with their partner in crime, the Democrats, are doing everything possible to play it down,’ he wrote. ‘Amazing job by some really fantastic candidates!’The former president’s comments come as the House and Senate continue to hang in the balance, with many crucial races still too close to call.The expected red wave has failed to materialise and Democrats have so far flipped a Senate seat, with John Fetterman defeating Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.Other Republicans have admitted that the night did not go as planned for the GOP, with Senator Lindsey Graham telling NBC: ‘Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.’Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump admitted his plan to take credit if the Republicans won big but to refuse any blame if they lost.Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 12:001667994028Vermont is sending a woman to DC for the first time, ending its streak as the last state in the US to elect a female member of Congress.Democrat Becca Blint sailed to victory over Republican Liam Madden for the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, taking 62.8 per cent of the vote with 99 per cent of votes counted.For the past 234 years, Vermont has only elected men to Congress.As well as being the first woman to represent Vermont in the House, Ms Blint is also the state’s first LGBTQ House member.’Thank you, Vermonters! Thank you for your confidence in me. Thank you for giving me this incredible honor and opportunity to serve this state I love so much,’ she tweeted late on Tuesday.’Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible.’Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 11:401667992828John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, thanked his wife for ‘saving his life’ after he defeated Republican TV personality Dr Oz in this year’s midterms.The former mayor of Braddock suffered a stroke shortly after winning the Democrat primary in May.Taking to the stage after winning the Senate race, Mr Fetterman paid tribute to his family.’I really wanna thank my family… My mother, my father… Gisele, who six months ago, she saved my life,’ Mr Fetterman said.John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, thanked his wife for ‘saving his life’ after he defeated Republican TV personality Dr Oz in this year’s midterms. The former mayor of Braddock had a stroke shortly after winning the Democrat primary in May which caused him to struggle with the intensity of the campaign trail. Taking to the stage after winning the Senate race, Mr Fetterman paid tribute to his family. ‘I really wanna thank my family… My mother, my father… Gisele, who six months ago, she saved my life,’ Mr Fetterman said. Sign up to our newsletters. Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 11:201667991628President Joe Biden’s former press secretary Jen Psaki has revealed that the White House is feeling ‘giddy and gleeful’ about the results of the midterm election – after a red wave failed to materialise and Democrats performed better than expected.’I’ve been in touch with the White House,’ Ms Psaki said on MSNBC, where she now works as a contributor.’They are giddy and gleeful, as they should be, about where things are sitting right now.’She went on to say that she believes the results so far indicate that abortion was high on the ballot to Americans.’The takeaway to me is this is the right agenda,’she said.’The Democrats ran on this agenda, it was the right agenda. And I think a lot of these fights include abortion.’Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 11:001667990456Under Georgia state law, if no candidate for the US Senate wins more than 50 per cent, there is a second round of voting between the top two candidates.In this case, the runoff would take place on 6 December between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker – essentially a second bout of the same fight.This is a worrying prospect for Democrats, because there is usually a drop-off in voter turnout between first rounds and second rounds that tends to favour Republicans.Mr Warnock did win a similar runoff against his predecessor Kelly Loeffler in January 2021, but that was a fairly exceptional situation. Donald Trump’s bellicose reaction to the previous year’s George Floyd protests and his increasingly fevered attempts to overturn the election result led to a massive Black turnout in the former slave state, which Democrats managed to sustain in both rounds.Mr Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories also appeared to have backfired for some Republican voters, persuading them that there was no point turning out to participate in a rigged vote.Moreover, Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock told FiveThirtyEight that in a runoff election, GOP voters might already know that control of the Senate is at stake, focusing their minds and pushing them to hold their nose despite Mr Walker’s numerous scandals.Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 10:401667989228Five months after the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion, voters in three states were the first to enshrine an explicit right to abortion care in their state constitutions.During a historic sweep of abortion rights referendums across the US in midterm elections, voters in Michigan approved a hard-fought state constitutional amendment that affirms a ‘fundamental right to reproductive freedom,’ effectively overturning the state’s ban on abortion.The referendum also ensures that the state continues to serve as a critical point of access for midwesterners in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the half-century precedent in Roe v Wade.’This is a seismic win for abortion rights in a battleground state,’ Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said in a statement. ‘This victory is also a win for people in the neighbouring states of Indiana and Ohio, where abortion is banned.’Voters in Michigan joined Vermont and California to enshrine protections for abortion care in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky and Montana appear to have shot down anti-abortion measures in their states.The Independent’s Alex Woodward has the full story:After the Supreme Court scrapped Roe v Wade, voters in five states voted directly on the future of reproductive healthcare in midterm elections Rachel Sharp9 November 2022 10:20Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inRegistration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inElection 2022 Arizona GovernorCopyright 2022 The Associated Press. 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