What happened at the mid-terms yesterday?

Commentary

While it wasn’t a “Red Wave,” GOP control of the House for the next two years means a rocky road ahead. Can you say “impeachment?”

Today is November 9, 2022. It is the day after the 2022 midterm elections. No “Red Wave.” No total disaster…unless of course you believe, as I do, that attaching “Speaker” to the name Kevin McCarthy will be a total disaster. But all in all, at least for the glass half-full crowd, not a bad day.

As of this writing it appears that Republicans will have a slim majority in the House of Representatives so get ready for the end of any further Congressional investigations of the January 6 tourists visiting the Capital Building. And for the impeachment of President Biden, the ending of support for Ukraine and the potential of losing your Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Wait, why are Democrats smiling again?

Regarding the U.S. Senate, control is still up in the air. There are three key undecided races that will have to play out to determine if Congress will be completely controlled by the GOP or if the Democrats can hold on to at least the 50 seats they currently have, maintaining control with the help of Vice-President Harris. (As I was typing, Wisconsin was called for Republican incumbent Ron Johnson, perhaps the dumbest man in the Senate…that is if and when Herschel Walker joins that august body – more on that below. And, of course, let’s get real. A majority in the Senate is not control of anything when we have filibustering and 60 votes needed to pass anything. But, I digress.)

The three states still to be determined: Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.

At this point, Arizona is considered too early to call. But incumbent Mark Kelly is leading his AR-15 toting Republican opponent, Blake Masters, 51.4% to 46.4% (89,969 votes). If Kelly prevails the Dems hold the seat and nothing changes.

In Nevada, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto is about 23,000 votes behind Republican challenger Adam Laxalt (47.2% to 49.9%) in another “too early to call” election. Although Nevada sources are suggesting that most of the missing votes are from Democratic-leaning Las Vegas, whether that suggestion is correct of not, let’s give Nevada to the GOP.

So, unless both Kelly and Cortez Masto win, it will come down to Georgia and the aforementioned Herschel Walker. And, of course, his opponent, the Democratic incumbent, Senator Raphael Warnock. Although Warnock has a slight lead, 49.2% to 48.7% (17,491 votes), to avoid a runoff, Georgia law requires the winning candidate to win at least 50% of the vote. The runoff will occur on December 5. If Warnock wins, the result will be, pending Arizona and Nevada outcomes, a 50-50 split at a minimum and Democratic control So, I guess I’ll have bad ol’ Herschel to kick around (pun intended) for another month while I’m saying to anyone who’ll listen, “How can anyone in their right mind vote for Herschel Walker?”

That’s it. Yesterday was a good news/bad news day for folks on both sides of the aisle. Of course, one piece of good news was saying bye-bye to the “Charlatan of Oz” in Pennsylvania, er, New Jersey, er, Turkey. I guess he’ll have to go back to selling his cancer-curing green tea extract. And while the ultimate Senate outcome will not be known for a while, while you’re waiting, stay tuned for Around the Block later this week which will focus on, for me at least, the disaster that is the state of the Democratic party in Florida.