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2022 Midterm Elections

Jill Biden campaigns for Jennifer Wexton in Va.

Democratic congresswoman facing challenge from Republican Hung Cao

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First lady Jill Biden and U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) in Ashburn, Va., on Nov. 7, 2022. (Screen capture via C-SPAN)

First lady Jill Biden addressed a crowd of supporters in Ashburn on Monday for U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.)ā€™s ā€œget out the vote rally and canvass kickoffā€ event. 

Urging Virginians to reelect Wexton ā€œto continue the progress weā€™ve made,ā€ Biden framed the decision facing voters during tomorrowā€™s midterm elections as ā€œa choice to make between two drastically different visions of the future.ā€

Hung Cao, Wextonā€™s Republican challenger in the close race for Virginiaā€™s 10th Congressional District, would put ā€œSocial Security and Medicare on the chopping block,ā€ Biden said. ā€œA Republican majority will attack womenā€™s rights and affordable healthcareā€ while cutting taxes for major corporations and the wealthiest Americans.Ā 

Taking the stage before the first lady, Wexton hailed the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress. She cited the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, particularly its provision capping insulin costs for Medicare patients. 

Voters ā€œrestored the soul of America by electing Joe Biden in 2020,ā€ Wexton said. ā€œIt is thanks to you that weā€™ll hold our seat and retain our majority in Congress to defend against discrimination and efforts to strip away our fundamental rights.ā€ 

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also headlined Mondayā€™s event, delivering remarks in praise of Wextonā€™s record, which includes LGBTQ rights, before and during her tenure in Congress. 

Wextonā€™s race is among the most anticipated of this election cycle, with strategists looking to Virginiaā€™s three close House races as a possible harbinger for how Democrats will fare more broadly. 

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will join Cao for a rally later this afternoon in Purcellville before heading to campaign events for Yesli Vega and Jen Kiggans ā€” who are, respectively, locked in high-stakes races to unseat Democratic Virginia Congresswomen Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria.

Meanwhile, in Maryland, Jill Biden and President Joe Biden are slated to take the stage today at Bowie State University in Prince Georgeā€™s County with House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to support the stateā€™s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and Congressman Anthony Brownā€™s bid for Maryland attorney general.Ā 

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2022 Midterm Elections

Republicans gain control of the U.S. House

Narrow GOP majority could bode well for blocking anti-LGBTQ bills.

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U.S. Capitol
(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Certainty over Republicansā€™ control of the U.S. House of Representatives crystalized on Tuesday, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fended off a bid for his position by fellow GOP Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.).

As the final votes from last weekā€™s midterm elections continue to trickle in, by Wednesday evening it became clear that when the 118th Congress is seated in January, the legislature will be divided between the House and the U.S. Senate, where Democrats will either retain their 50-vote majority or win an extra seat, pending the results of Georgiaā€™s runoff election in December.

It is the House, too, that will be divided, as the majorityā€™s shift from blue to red was narrowly won, with only seven races whose results have not yet been tallied. Republicans’ control of the chamber comes with 218 seats, a feat they accomplished today. By 7:40 p.m. ET, Democrats had won 210 seats.

Leadership in both chambers has also been decided. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is poised to take over as House Speaker in January when the new Congress meets. McConnell, meanwhile, prevailed over a challenge for his Senate leadership by Scott, his Republican colleague.

ā€œWith a small Republican majority, we think thereā€™s a greater chance of blocking anti-gay and anti-trans bills, which may now not even be brought up for a vote,ā€ Geoff Wetrosky, campaign director for the Human Rights Campaign, told the Washington Blade by phone on Tuesday.

ā€œNot only because of the composition of Congress, but also because last weekā€™s election made clear that voters do not support this kind of extremism,ā€ Wetrosky said.

Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, told the Blade by phone on Tuesday that ā€œthe first six months will be spent in internal warfare, but itā€™s clear that there wonā€™t be anything positive coming out of the House for our community.ā€

There ā€œvery well may be negative bills,ā€ Parker added, noting that with a slim majority in the lower chamber, there is unlikely to be much legislation, period.

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2022 Midterm Elections

Democrats retain control of the U.S. Senate

Catherine Cortez Masto won reelection in Nev.

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U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) (Photo courtesy of Twitter)

Control of the U.S. Senate will remain in the hands of Democrats after U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) defeated Republican Adam Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general, in a hotly contested race.

The 58-year-old Cortez Masto has been serving as the senior U.S. senator from Nevada since 2017. Previously she was the state’s 32nd attorney general from 2007-2015.

Her reelection means that President Joe Biden maintains his ability to confirm judicial nominees and Cabinet secretaries. All eyes are now on the U.S. House of Representatives where the balance of power is at stake.

David Wasserman, a House campaign analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told the Los Angeles Times Saturday that “it will absolutely come down to California,” which the Golden State’s 10 Congressional races are deemed most at risk of flipping and still too close to call.

Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, endured a tough reelection campaign made more protracted after the mail-in ballot counting with the results resting largely with the stateā€™s most populous county, Clark County, home to Las Vegas, which posted updates once a day since Tuesday. 

NBC News reported that in the campaign’s closing days, Laxalt, a MAGA Trump loyalist who drew the former president as well as Donald Trump, Jr., to the state to stump for him, hammered a strict partisan message, vowing not to work with the left and promising to hold Senate hearings examining Biden’s top medical adviser Anthony Fauci and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

Laxalt had also questioned the results of the 2020 election, even saying the results were ā€œrigged.ā€

ā€œThere should be consequences for people who undermine our democracy, who peddle the ā€˜big lieā€™ and conspiracy theories,ā€ Cortez Masto said at an event in Reno, the state’s second largest city, in October.

Laxalt handily won the stateā€™s 15 rural counties, in some counties winning 80 percent of the vote, while Cortez Masto steadily led the reliably blue Clark County.

Speaking in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh, where he is attending the East Asia Summit, Joe Biden finished his remarks and then took a couple questions from reporters. When asked about the news of the Democrats retaining the Senate after Cortez Masto’s reelection victory the president said: ā€œI feel good and Iā€™m looking forward to the next couple years.ā€

In the press pool traveling with Biden, The Washington Post’s White House reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb, reported that the president made congratulatory calls to Cortez Masto at 10:08 a.m. local time and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at 10:28 a.m. local time, (Cambodia.)

The president added that as he congratulated Schumer he noted their [Democrats] focus now is on Georgia.

“I’m not surprised by this … I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates,” Biden said.

ā€œItā€™s always better at 51,ā€ he added and mentioned that with 51, Democrats donā€™t need to have an even makeup of committees. ā€œItā€™s just simply better.ā€

ā€œRepublicans are going to have to decide who they are,ā€  the president reflected.

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2022 Midterm Elections

Trone wins reelection in Md. 6th Congressional District

Incumbent Democrat beat state Rep. Neil Parrott (R-Frederick County)

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Maryland Congressman David Trone (Photo public domain)

Maryland Congressman David Trone has defeated his Republican challenger in the state’s 6th Congressional District.

Trone defeated state Del. Neil Parrott (R-Frederick County) by a 50.38-49.5 percent margin.

The Frederick County Republican had been ahead of the incumbent Democratic, in part, because the boundaries of the district, which includes all of western Maryland, had been redrawn during the last redistricting. Mail-in ballots had yet to be counted when Parrott was ahead of Trone immediately after Election Day. 

“I want to thank Del. Parrott for his phone call this afternoon conceding the race,” said Trone in a tweet. “My promise to him, and to all of the people of the 6th District, is this: Iā€™ll continue to work across the aisle to deliver results and get things done. Thank you, Maryland! Letā€™s get back to work.”

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