Nov. 8 (UPI) — Control of the House of Representatives was too close to call late Tuesday, as vote counting continued into the night, with some early races won by Republicans backed by former President Donald Trump while Democrats held on to some bellwether seats.
Republicans only need to gain five seats in the chamber to capture a majority from Democrats.
National talking points such as rising inflation and an economy on the verge of recession drove Republican campaigns during the midterm cycle.
The GOP picked up two new seats in Florida as a result of redistricting, winning districts 13 and 15. Anna Luna and Laurel Lee won those districts respectively. Luna is a newcomer to office while Lee served as secretary of state.
Republicans saw the midterms as an opportunity to rebuke the efforts of the Democrat-controlled house, and more largely the work of President Joe Biden in his first two years in office, particularly in response to rising inflation driving higher gas prices and grocery bills.
Some of Biden’s loudest critics — also some of the Republicans most loyal to former President Donald Trump — held onto their seats, including Gaetz of Florida and Taylor-Greene of Georgia, both of whom were endorsed by the former president.
In Colorado, however, staunch Trump supporter Lauren Boebert trailed Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by several thousands votes. According to the state’s unofficial results, Boebert had 48.17% of the vote to Frisch’s 51.6% in the tight race for District 3.
Taylor-Greene, one of the more incendiary politicians in Congress who has espoused conspiracy theories, including those of QAnon and the “big lie” that the 2020 general election was stolen from Trump, handily won re-election, with the race for Georgia’s District 14 called by NBC News, CNN and local Atlanta News First.
With nearly 73% of votes counted, Greene secured 66.2% of the vote to long-shot Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers’ 33.7%, according to unofficial state results.
Flowers, a former Army veteran, lost despite having raised $15.6 million for the contest, which trumped Greene’s nearly $12 million, according to the Federal Election Commission data.
Similarly, incumbent Gaetz handily defeated Democratic challenger Rebekah Jones for Florida’s House Seat 1. The race was called by NBC, CNN and local WFTV9.
Gaetz had been dogged by a federal sex-trafficking investigation until late September when the Justice Department signaled it wouldn’t recommend charges against him. He has denied the allegations.
He won his fourth House election Tuesday, earning nearly 68% of the vote to Jones’ 32.4% with nearly 85% of ballots counted. Gaetz had a war chest of some $6.2 million, which far outpaced Jones’ at less than $1 million, according to federal data.
On the other hand, Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger appeared poised Tuesday night to hold on to Virginia’s 7th District, fending off fierce competition from Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Yesli Vega.
The district has been widely viewed as a bellwether for how the Democratic’s may do in swing regions during an election that some predicted would see control of the House shift to the Republicans.
Spanberger, who campaign on bipartisanship, had received the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the fight against Vega, a member of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and former police officer.
Unofficial state results show Spanberger, a former CIA agent, secure nearly 52% of the vote over Vega’s 47.8%, with 212 precincts of 226 reporting. The race has been called by CNN, NBC and The Washington Post.
Before supporters late Tuesday, Spanberger declared victory.
“Tonight, as we celebrate, I ask that you reflect on how we can serve our communities, how we can bridge divides, how we can show through our actions a commitment to each other, the truth and the future that we want to create for our country, for our commonwealth, for our communities and, most importantly for our children,” she said concluding her speech.
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the history of the House, was able to hold on to her Ohio District 9 seat Tuesday night by beating Trump-backed Republican challenger J.R. Majewski, who ran on issues key to the former president including election integrity, reigning in big tech and building a border wall.
Majewski, a Air Force veteran, was one of a handful of politicians in this election cycle who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the building in an effect to prevent Biden from being certified as the 46th president of the United States. He also recently came under fire for misrepresenting his service in the military.
Kaptur had attempted to court moderate Republicans in a new district that went to Trump in 2020, and that the GOP was hoping to secure.
Unofficial state results state Kaptur had earned 56.5% of the vote to Majewski’s 43.4%.
“We left it all on the field today,” Majewski said in a video message published to Twitter conceding defeat early Wednesday. “Future is bright for all of use; I promise you that.”
For Democrats, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights and to a degree human rights were on the ballot. Some also considered the midterm elections a referendum on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the culmination of a disinformation campaign by Trump and his supporters to deny his 2020 election loss.
Trump stumped for or endorsed a number of Republican candidates across the country, including Luna, Boebert, Gaetz and Taylor-Greene.
