SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Welcome to our live coverage of the US midterm elections, where several critical races could have major consequences for US politics and Donald Trump’s presidency.
With polls closing and vote counting under way, here’s what you need to know:
- Voting has ended in several states – polls in Texas and most Midwest states due to close at 9pm Eastern time (1pm AEDT), and in Alaska and on the West Coast at midnight Eastern (4pm AEDT).
- In early results, the Democrats have flipped their first Senate seat, North Carolina, taking the party one step closer to taking control of the Senate.
- Democrats Jon Ossoff and Josh Shapiro have won their respective Senate and governor races. Both men are tipped as possible presidential challengers in 2028.
- In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has an early lead in another key Senate race, but many votes remain to be counted.
- Exit polls suggest a bad night for Trump and the Republican Party, our correspondent Michael Koziol says, with AP and CNN polls finding some 75 per cent of voters “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way the country is going.
- Earlier polls predicted that the Democrats were likely to wrest control of the House of Representatives from Republicans, but the outcome of the battle for the Senate is less clear.
- All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and several governorships are up for grabs.
Read more on US politics:
The Senate race in Florida has played out in favour of the Republicans, with incumbent Senator Ashley Moody picking up the win.
The contest was a lot closer than expected with Moody putting up a spirited showing in the Republican stronghold.
Moody will now run out the rest of her term; she was appointed to the seat in early 2025 by state governor Ron DeSantis to fill the vacancy left by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
AP projections put the final result at Moody winning 50.67 per cent and Democrat Angie Nixon 48.2 per cent.
Moody survived a huge swing to hold her seat against a challenge by the former House state representative, and prominent progressive, Nixon.
Democrat Roy Cooper has won the Senate seat representing North Carolina, defeating Republican Michael Whatley.
Cooper’s victory gives Democrats a key pick-up in their quest to wrest Senate control from Republicans.
The seat was open because Republican senator Thom Tillis opted not to seek another term. Cooper is a former governor and state attorney-general.
Whatley is a former state and national Republican Party chairman who ran with President Donald Trump’s support. The Associated Press declared Cooper the winner.
AP
The Deep South state has a real chance of going blue.
With a third of the votes counted, Democrat Annie Andrews leads Republican Darline Graham on 51.7 per cent to 46.6 per cent in the race for a Senate seat.
Graham is the sister of late Republican senator Lindsey Graham. She replaced her brother after he died unexpectedly earlier this year.
She had the backing of President Donald Trump, but her lack of experience was widely criticised and it looks like that’s coming back to bite the Republicans. Trump held multiple rallies in South Carolina to try to shore up support.
This seat wasn’t considered in play at the start of the campaign, but it very much is now.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries popped by to rally and thank volunteers at a phone bank for battleground House candidates in Washington.
“We’re on the brink of a dramatic change in the direction in the country,” Jeffries said.
“We’re on the brink of Democrats taking back control of the House of Representatives.”
He said a Democratic win would be a victory for Americans.
“We’re going to deliver a Congress that actually puts the American people first,” he said.
AP
Vote counting on the marquee Senate race in Texas has kicked off and the early running is a sea of blue.
Democrat challenger James Talarico holds an early lead over his Republican rival Ken Paxton.
Talarico has picked up two thirds of the votes, while Paxton is sitting at 38.3 per cent.
The contest is far from over, however, because early voting and mail-in ballots typically tend to veer towards Democrats. It’s been 38 years since the Democrats tasted victory in Texas.
Democrat Josh Shapiro has been re-elected governor of Pennsylvania, defeating Republican Stacy Garrity.
Shapiro was seeking a second term, having previously served two terms as state attorney-general. He emerged as a possible running mate for Kamala Harris in 2024 and is considered a potential challenger for the White House himself in 2028.
Garrity, the state’s two-term elected treasurer, was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Atlanta: So the AP has confirmed Jon Ossoff is heading back to DC.
That won’t please Donald Trump, whom Ossoff described last month at a campaign stop in Atlanta as “the wicked president, the corrupt president, the failed president Donald Trump”.
Ossoff has been swearing to anyone who asks that he has no interest in running for president in 2028, but people are not going to stop asking now.
Ossoff, 39, was re-elected to a second term, holding a key seat for Democrats by defeating Republican Mike Collins, 59, in a race that catapulted the Senate’s youngest member to the forefront of his party’s national stars.
Holding the seat in battleground Georgia has been critical to Democratic hopes of winning the Senate.
With AP
The gubernatorial races have received less attention this election. We’ve all focused on how power might shift in Washington, DC.
One exception to that is the race between the Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and the Democratic contender Amy Acton in Ohio.
Ramaswamy is the tech entrepreneur who in the dying days of the campaign ran a vicious attack ad against Acton, quoting her estranged mother.
That ad was seen as typifying the cruelty of the politics practised by MAGA diehards, and according to an Axios report it blew up in Ramaswamy’s face.
If Acton wins she’ll be the first Democrat to hold the office since 2006, and it will be more evidence of shift in deep red states.
An early verdict on the results from a top Republican strategist is fairly pessimistic.
Alex Latcham, executive director of the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund, a key election party money outfit, says turnout will be an issue.
“We obviously face some headwinds in motivation and enthusiasm to get our base out to vote,” he says.
There are also problems for Republicans in how voters perceive the economy and petrol prices.
Well, that was quick!
Reuters has already declared Senator Jon Ossoff winner in his bid for a second term in Georgia.
Not a huge shock given the way his campaign gathered national attention with his brutal attacks on Trump. We are waiting for the official Associated Press call to confirm, though.
But it will be a huge relief for Democrats who are hoping to flip the Senate, and have long memories of the positive polls they saw before being blown up at recent elections.
