Author: PolitCens

In-person early voting for the last U.S. Senate seat is underway statewide in Georgia’s runoff, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock working to get the jump on Republican challenger Herschel Walker who is putting less emphasis on advance balloting. 

After winning a state lawsuit to allow Saturday voting after Thanksgiving, Warnock spent the weekend urging his supporters not to wait until December 6 to vote. Trying to leverage his role as pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church and Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, Warnock concentrated his efforts Sunday among Black communities in metro Atlanta. 

“What we are doing right now is soul work,” Warnock said at Liberty International Church southwest of downtown, where he rallied supporters before leading a march to a nearby early voting site where he cast his ballot. “We are engaged in a political exercise,” Warnock continued, “but this is moral and spiritual work, and for us that has always been based on the foundation of the church.” 

Walker, in contrast, did not hold public events over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and he has not emphasized early voting in his runoff campaign appearances, even as the Republican Party and its aligned PACs attempt to drive voter turnout after Walker underperformed other Georgia Republicans in the general election. Walker finished the first round with about 200,000 fewer votes than Governor Brian Kemp, who easily won a second term. Walker resumes his campaign Monday with stops in small-town Toccoa and suburban Cumming. 

Early in-person voting continues through Friday. Runoff Election Day is December 6. 

Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of about 4 million cast in the general election but fell short of the majority required under Georgia law, triggering a four-week runoff blitz. Warnock first won the seat as part of concurrent Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021, when he and Senator Jon Ossoff prevailed over Republican incumbents to give Democrats narrow control of the Senate for the start of President Joe Biden’s tenure. Warnock won a special election and now is seeking a full six-year term. 

This time, Senate control is not in play, with Democrats already having secured 50 seats to go with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote. That puts pressure on both Warnock and Walker to convince Georgia voters that it’s worth their time to cast a second ballot, even if the national stakes aren’t as high. 

As of late Sunday, almost 200,000 ballots had been cast in the relative handful of counties that opted to have weekend voting. That total was built on long lines in several heavily Democratic counties of metro Atlanta, enough to give Democrats confidence that their core supporters remain excited to vote for Warnock. But the total remains a small fraction of the nearly 2.3 million early in-person voters ahead of the November 8 general election. 

And Democrats remain cautious given that the early voting window is much shorter than two years ago, when the second round spanned two months between the general election and runoff. Voting on Saturday was allowed only because Warnock and Democrats sued amid a dispute with the Republican secretary of state over whether Saturday voting could occur on a holiday weekend. 

The senator followed up with a parade of Black leaders for weekend rallies and a march reminiscent of voting rights demonstrations during the civil rights movement. 

“We have one vote here that can change the world,” Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and onetime aide to King, implored Black voters on Sunday. Rising from his wheelchair to speak, the 90-year-old former congressman and U.N. ambassador reminded the assembly of the congressional compromise that ended post-Civil War Reconstruction and paved the way for Jim Crow segregation across the South. 

“One vote at the end of the Civil War pulled all of the Union troops out of the South and lost us the rights we had fought for in the war and that people had fought for us,” he said, starting “a struggle that we have been in ever since.” 

Warnock was shifting to a suburban focus late Monday with an evening concert headlined by the Dave Matthews Band. 

Walker, for his part, has drawn enthusiastic crowds in the early weeks of the runoff, as well, and his campaign aides remain confident that he has no problem among core Republicans. His challenge comes with the middle of the Georgia electorate, a gap highlighted by his shortfall compared with Kemp. 

“I feel Herschel Walker benefited by having Brian Kemp in the original election on November 8, and I think Kemp not being there will hurt the Republicans a little bit,” said Alpharetta resident Marcelo Salvatierra, who voted for Republican Kemp and Democrat Warnock and still supports the senator in the runoff. 

 
…

From refugees to elected office, 14 Somali Americans have won legislative seats across the U.S. this year. Some also have been elected to city councils, school boards and the boards of parks and recreation in their respective cities. The U.S. midterm elections have proved to be historic for Somalis, with more women elected to public offices than ever before.

VOA Somali Service’s Torch Program explains how Somalis who arrived as migrants and refugees to the West have made their way into politics.

Hashi Shafi, executive director of the Somali Action Alliance, a Minneapolis-based community organization in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota, says the campaign that led Somalis to shine in U.S. politics started right after 9/11 with a community-based voter registration program.

“In the beginning, Somalis were thinking about returning back to Somalia. They had their luggage ready; the artists were singing with songs giving the community a hope of immediate returning, but after 9/11, the community activists realized that such a dream was not realistic, and the Somalis needed to find a way to melt into the pot. Then, we started registering community members to encourage them to vote,” Shafi said. “Somali Americans’ rise in political power has come with its difficulties.”

Tight-knit community

Abdirahman Sharif, the imam and the leader of the Dar-Al-Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis says another reason Somalis have risen in U.S. politics is because they are a tight-knit community.

“When Somalis came to [the] U.S., they moved to a foreign country where they could not communicate with people. So, for them, being close to people from their country meant having someone to communicate with and that helped them to unite their votes, and resources for political aspirants,” Sharif said.

The state of Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the country, mostly in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. According to U.N. estimates from 2015, there are about 150,000 Somalis, both refugees and nonrefugees, living in the U.S.

The first wave of Somalis came to Minnesota in early 1990s after civil war broke out in their country. Another wave of refugees followed, and the community thrived, thanks to the state’s welcoming social programs. It’s the biggest Somali community in North America, possibly in the world outside of East Africa.

Similarly, job opportunities and a relatively low cost of living have drawn Somali immigrants to Columbus, Ohio. Ohio has the second largest Somali population in the United States, with an estimated 45,000 immigrants.

Communities have grown significantly in both states. Somali-owned restaurants, mosques, clothing stores, coffee shops and other businesses have opened in several neighborhoods in Minneapolis, called Little Mogadishu, named after Somalia’s capital.

Large communities of Somalis are also concentrated in Lewiston and Portland, Maine, as well as Seattle in Washington state, and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Analyst Abdi-Qafar Abdi Wardere says such concentrations have helped Somalis to gather their strength as a community.

“Somalis are bound together by intimate social or cultural ties that helped them to live together and concentrate [in] certain states or neighborhoods in the diaspora. About one-third of Minnesota’s Somali residents came directly from refugee camps; others settled first in another state and then relocated to Minnesota. I can say they are somehow a tight-knit community,” Wardere said.

Canada and Europe

It’s not only in the United States but Somali immigrants have also found their place in Canadian and European politics. They have gathered in big numbers in major cities to have an impact and exert influence.

In Toronto, Canada, Somalis have made breakthroughs by winning elections and political offices. Ahmed Hussen, a lawyer and community activist born and raised in Somalia, is among the most influential Somalis in Canada. He was first elected as a member of parliament in 2015 to represent York South – Weston. He has previously served as minister of families, children and social development, and minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship. Now he is Canada’s minister of housing, diversity and inclusion.

Faisal Ahmed Hassan, who is a Somali Canadian politician, was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018 until his defeat in 2022. He thinks for Somalis in the diaspora, there are two reasons they run for political office.

“One reason is that the community wants someone to represent their new homes and second is that Somalis inspire one another to doing something. If one of them does something good, others are encouraged that they can do the same,” Hassan said.

In the Nordic region of Europe, the first Somalis arrived in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, as Somalia’s civil war became more intense, new arrivals joined.

In recent years, the first generation of Somali refugees has been making its mark in politics, from the local council level to the national stage.

In Finland, Suldaan Said Ahmed has been the first Somali-born member of the Finnish parliament since 2021 and he is also the country’s special representative on peace mediation in the Horn of Africa, the northeastern region, where Somalia is located.

In Sweden, Leila Ali Elmi, a former Somali refugee, made history in 2018 becoming the first Somali-Swedish Muslim woman elected to the Swedish parliament.

Last year, Marian Abdi Hussein became the first Somali MP in Norway’s history.

Both women also became the first Muslims to wear hijabs in their respect houses of parliament.

In Britain, Magid Magid, a Somali-British activist and politician who served as the mayor of Sheffield from May 2018 to May 2019, became the first Somali elected to the European Parliament.

Mohamed Gure, a former member of the council of the city of Borlänge, Sweden, said there are unique things that keep Somalis together and make them successful in the politics in Europe.

“The fabric of Somalis is unique compared to the other diaspora communities. They share the same ethnicity, color, language, and religion. There are many things that keep them together that divide them back home. So, their togetherness is one reason I can attribute to their successes,” Gure said.

Gure says the fear of migrants and refugees stoked by politicians has been setting a defining narrative for elections in the West.

“One other reason is the fear of a growing number of migrants and refugees in the West. As they are trying to melt into the pot, such fear created by nationalist politicians continues to set a tone for electoral victories that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,” Gure said.
…

Driven by concerns about climate change, public education and, to a lesser extent, access to abortion, 21-year-old Ava Alferez made sure to vote in the 2022 midterm elections.

“I don’t think it’s right to complain about something if you don’t get out there and vote,” says the Virginia college student, who describes herself as a liberal democrat. “I also think that every vote matters.”

Alferez is among millions of America’s youngest voters who voted in near-record numbers during the 2022 midterms, breaking heavily for Democrats, and thwarting an anticipated ‘red wave’ that many expected would hand Republicans a significant majority in Congress. The strong showing signals that Gen Z is a rising political force.

“I think Republicans don’t account for Gen Z and they don’t realize the impact that we will have, especially within the next five years,” says Eric Miller, a 20-year-old Virginia college student who identifies as a Republican and says he voted for Donald Trump in 2020. “I think the 2022 midterms are a little bit of a wake-up call for Republicans to be more in touch with young people.”

Midterm elections occur halfway through a president’s four-year term. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives — where members serve two-year terms — and 35 of 100 Senate seats were up for grabs in 2022.

Historically, the president’s political party almost always loses seats in Congress with the opposing party traditionally making significant gains. Republicans did pick up a majority in the House this election cycle, but only by a handful of seats, while Democrats narrowly held on to the Senate.

“I think the data is going to bear out that young voters were quite consequential in many of these swing states and some of these elections,” says John Wihbey, an associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University.

The early numbers from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) suggest that 27% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 cast ballots Nov. 8, the second-highest youth midterms turnout in 30 years. (The highest was in 2018.)

“It is reproductive rights, climate change, immigration, racial justice, gender justice,” says Wihbey, listing the issues that drove young people to the polls.

Young evangelicals are not that different from their more liberal peers, according to a recent survey.

“They are diversity and equity conscious, more so than older generations and, therefore, they’re going to take those things seriously and listen to people who talk about those things, like AOC [New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] or [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders,” says Kevin Singer, co-director of Neighborly Faith, a partner in the study. “They’re very, I guess you could say, cosmopolitan when it comes to their political perspectives.”

Wihbey says Gen Z doesn’t get its news from traditional sources like newspapers but rather gets secondhand or filtered news from social media, which has resulted in young voters forming opinions about politics at a much greater rate than previous generations.

“I wouldn’t say that’s surprising at all because everyone’s just on their phones all the time on social media,” says Alferez, who says she has voted in every election since reaching voting age. “It would make sense that they get all their information on TikTok or maybe if they see a political post, they’ll still look in the comments and everyone’s very opinionated and comments, and they’ll probably form opinions based on that.”

CIRCLE’s early analysis shows that young voter turnout may have delivered key wins for Democrats in some battleground states, but that doesn’t mean either political party can take the youth vote for granted.

“It’s possible that younger voters will be less tethered to a particular party and may vote on an issue basis more frequently,” Wihbey says. “I think part of what the digital world does is it creates fewer strong ties to particular parties or causes and emphasizes the new or the rising social issue.”

That appears to be true of young voters across the political spectrum, according to the results of the survey of young evangelicals.

“They’re less beholden to the Republican Party, I think, than older generations are, and we also see that they listen to Fox News and, say, CNN at about the same rate,” Singer says. “They listen to Joe Biden and listen to Elon Musk, and that’s not a huge surprise given that Generation Z is a lot more comfortable with drawing inspiration from a variety of sources than they are being held to the norms of certain institutions.”

Miller, the young Republican voter, says his generation is less interested in partisan bickering and more interested in finding common ground.

“We do a little more research. We don’t just watch, maybe, Fox News, and we listen to the other side, what they’re trying to say,” Miller says. “I think the center is where everything is key. Obviously, I don’t think the extremes will ever get along in any kind of time frame. But I think we can reach out to moderate Democrats, even liberals — but just not progressive liberals maybe — but I definitely see a way forward.”

The results of the survey of young evangelicals appears to confirm increased openness on the part of Gen Z conservatives.

“Young evangelicals are frankly just more peaceable with others than older generations are. Our study found that, for example, they’re more likely to be engaged with people of different faiths than their faith leaders encourage them to be,” Singer says. “There’s definitely more of an enthusiasm about diversity and pluralism and I think, for that reason, they’re more likely to entertain the perspectives of those with whom their parents would disagree.”

Signs of youth voter enthusiasm were evident ahead of Election Day. CIRCLE found that youth voter registration was up compared to 2018, especially in places where abortion-related issues were on the ballot, or where voters recently voted on abortion-related measures.

“My worry is that, as we see a lot of policy whiplash, whether it’s on reproductive rights or on other things, that they become cynical or disengage,” Wihbey says. “I think one of the most important things here is that they see the political system that we have in our democracy as an important lever of social change, and not as something that just is a kind of dead end.”
…

In December 2019, then-U.S. President Donald Trump was asked whether he thought it was worth it to have “all those” U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

“It could be debated. I could go either way,” Trump answered.

The comments came at the height of tense negotiations over Trump’s demand that Seoul pay much more to host approximately 28,000 U.S. troops.

Trump’s answer did not come out of the blue. Throughout his time as president — and in fact, even before and after his presidency — Trump regularly questioned the value of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

According to I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, a 2021 book by two Washington Post journalists, Trump privately told close aides that he planned to “blow up” the U.S.-South Korea alliance if he won reelection in 2020.

In part because he lost that election, no one knows how serious Trump was about upending the U.S. relationship with South Korea.

Some analysts say Trump was only being transactional, as he was with many other allies, and that he never intended to abandon Seoul.

Others are not so sure, noting Trump once went so far as to suggest South Korea should get its own nuclear weapons so that Seoul could protect itself.

Faced with an increasingly hostile and nuclear-armed neighbor, South Korea can afford little ambiguity on the matter, which helps explain why a growing number of prominent voices in Seoul would like to see if Trump’s nuke offer still stands.

Going mainstream

One of the most outspoken advocates of South Korea getting its own nuclear weapons is Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, a nonpartisan foreign policy research organization outside Seoul.

Cheong spoke to VOA several days after Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid. He said it is not just the possible return of Trump that is concerning — it’s the chance that his America First ideas will have a lasting impact on U.S. foreign policy.

“The United States has a presidential election every four years…[it] may go back to isolationism, which is why South Korea’s own nuclear armament is essential to maintain stable security and deter North Korea,” Cheong told VOA.

Fringe figures have long called for South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons, but recently the proposal has gone mainstream. This year, several well-known scholars have proposed Seoul either acquire its own nuclear arsenal or request the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that were removed in the early 1990s.

A poll published in May by the conservative Asan Institute for Policy Studies suggested that more than 70% of South Koreans support their country developing indigenous nuclear weapons — the highest level of support since the organization began asking the question in 2010.

Cheong is trying to turn that support into something more organized. In early November, he launched the ROK Forum for Nuclear Strategy, which promotes South Korea’s nuclear armament and discusses plans to make it happen. In its infancy, the group already has more than 40 members, according to Cheong.

Not just Trump

Trump is far from the only factor driving South Korea’s nuclear arms debate.

South Korean leaders are also alarmed at the rapid development of North Korea’s nuclear weapons. North Korea has conducted a record number of launches this year, including both long-range missiles that could reach the United States and shorter-range ones that threaten Seoul. U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea could conduct another nuclear test soon.

North Korea has also embraced a more aggressive nuclear posture. In October, leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a series of launches simulating a tactical nuclear strike on South Korea. The North is likely moving ahead with deploying tactical nuclear weapons to frontline positions, analysts say.

In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the risks that non-nuclear states face when confronted with an aggressive, nuclear-armed neighbor.

Although South Korea is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, some South Korean analysts believe the United States may be reluctant to respond to a North Korean attack if Pyongyang has the ability to destroy a major U.S. city — in essence, the fear is that the United States would not want to risk San Francisco to save Seoul.

“North Korea believes there’s a slight chance that they could get away with a nuclear attack without getting a reprisal from the United States,” said Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant general in the South Korean army.

Big obstacles

In Chun’s view, acquiring nuclear weapons is one way for South Korea to guarantee its security, although he acknowledges major barriers.

Among the uncertainties is the question of how China, Russia, and others in the region would respond. For instance, would Japan, another U.S. ally in Northeast Asia, feel compelled to get its own nuclear weapons?

Analysts are also unsure exactly how the United States would react if South Korea eventually did begin pursuing nuclear weapons. And many South Koreans who support acquiring nukes hint they would tread cautiously with that in mind.

“It’s not as if I’m going to risk the alliance in order to have South Korea get nuclear weapons. But what happens if the U.S. president says he’s going to pull U.S. troops from Korea? What if that becomes a reality?” asked Chun.

In some ways, the situation mirrors the 1970s, when South Korea briefly pursued a nuclear weapons program amid questions about the long-term U.S. security commitment.

Instead, South Korea ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It is now uncertain what consequences South Korea would face for abandoning its commitments under the pact.

Reassurance limits

When asked about the issue in recent months, Pentagon and State Department officials have ruled out the idea of returning tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea. Instead, they have focused on how the U.S. is prepared to use the full range of its capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend South Korea.

At a meeting earlier this month with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said Seoul is not considering the return of tactical nuclear weapons and remains committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

At that Pentagon meeting, both sides agreed to several measures meant to reinforce the U.S. security commitment. The steps included increasing the deployment of U.S. strategic assets, such as long-range bombers and aircraft carriers, to South Korea, and vowing that any North Korean nuclear strike “will result in the end of the Kim regime.”

What they didn’t discuss, at least according to the 10-page joint communique released following the meeting, was Trump or his America First ideas — perhaps the one area where U.S. officials can offer the least reassurance.

“You can’t,” said Jenny Town, a Korea specialist at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

“Democracies are democracies and policies can shift,” she said.

Much depends on how Trump and his ideas fare in the 2024 elections. But even if Trump loses again, Town said, many in South Korea will have concerns about the future.

“It isn’t business as usual anymore,” she said. “It’s recent memory, and it doesn’t fade very quickly.”
…

Republicans won control of the U.S. House on Wednesday, returning the party to power in Washington and giving conservatives leverage to blunt President Joe Biden’s agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a threadbare majority will pose immediate challenges for Republican leaders and complicate the party’s ability to govern.

More than a week after Election Day, Republicans secured the 218th seat needed to flip the House from Democratic control. The full scope of the party’s majority may not be clear for several more days — or weeks — as votes in competitive races are still being counted.

But they are on track to cobble together what could be the party’s narrowest majority of the 21st century, rivaling 2001, when Republicans had just a nine-seat majority, 221-212 with two independents. That’s far short of the sweeping victory Republicans predicted going into this year’s midterm elections, when the party hoped to reset the agenda on Capitol Hill by capitalizing on economic challenges and Biden’s lagging popularity.

Instead, Democrats showed surprising resilience, holding on to moderate, suburban districts from Virginia to Minnesota to Kansas. The results could complicate House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s plans to become speaker as some conservative members have questioned whether to back him or have imposed conditions for their support.

Despite the Republicans’ underwhelming showing, the party will still have notable power. Republicans will take control of key committees, giving them the ability to shape legislation and launch investigations of Biden, his family and his administration. There’s particular interest in investigating the overseas business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Some of the most conservative lawmakers have raised the prospect of impeaching Biden, though that will be much harder for the party to accomplish with a tight majority.

Any legislation that emerges from the House could face steep odds in the Senate, where Democrats won the barest of majorities Saturday. Both parties are looking to a December 6 Senate runoff in Georgia as a last chance to pad their ranks.

Potential for legislative chaos

With such a slim majority in the House, there’s also a potential for legislative chaos. The dynamic essentially gives an individual member enormous sway over shaping what happens in the chamber. That could lead to particularly tricky circumstances for Republican leaders as they try to win support for must-pass measures that keep the government funded or raise the debt ceiling.

The Republicans’ failure to notch more wins — they needed a net gain of five seats to take the majority — was especially surprising because the party went into the election benefiting from congressional maps that were redrawn by Republican legislatures. History was also on Republicans’ side: The party that holds the White House had lost congressional seats during virtually every new president’s first midterm of the modern era.

New leadership

The new majority will usher in a new group of leaders in Washington. If elected to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the top post, McCarthy would lead what will likely be a rowdy conference of House Republicans, most of whom are aligned with former President Donald Trump’s bare-knuckle brand of politics. Many Republicans in the incoming Congress rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, even though claims of widespread fraud were refuted by courts, elections officials and Trump’s own attorney general.

Republican candidates pledged on the campaign trail to cut taxes and tighten border security. Republican lawmakers also could withhold aid to Ukraine as it fights a war with Russia or use the threat of defaulting on the nation’s debt as leverage to extract cuts from social spending and entitlements — though all such pursuits will be tougher given how small the Republican majority may end up being.

As a senator and then vice president, Biden spent a career crafting legislative compromises with Republicans. But as president, he was clear about what he viewed as the threats posed by the current Republican Party.

Biden said the midterms showed voters want Democrats and Republicans to find ways to cooperate and govern in a bipartisan manner, but also noted that Republicans didn’t achieve the electoral surge they’d been betting on and vowed, “I’m not going to change anything in any fundamental way.”
…

Congressional Republicans mostly condemned President Joe Biden for saying that there “need not be a new Cold War” between the U.S. and China, following a three-hour summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Indonesia.

A few Republicans, however, joined members of Biden’s Democratic Party in cautiously welcoming signs that the meeting may have helped to head off misunderstandings that could lead to unnecessary conflict.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted, “Joe Biden has again failed to address or even acknowledge China’s Cold War against the United States. His naive return to a policy of appeasement will hurt the United States, endanger Taiwan, and further embolden Xi Jinping.”

Biden also said, “I don’t think there’s any imminent attempt by China to invade Taiwan,” despite escalating military moves by Beijing in the Taiwan Strait.

Before the meeting, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told VOA that “if the senior leaders or the president, the vice president of the United States are able to speak with the Chinese leaders to address the concerns about the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait or China’s violation of the status quo, I think it’s going to be very helpful to regional peace.”

Biden’s remarks drew a backlash from several Republican lawmakers.

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, also a Republican, tweeted, “Xi Jinping is focused on global domination, not working with the Biden administration on climate change.”

Meetings described as ‘candid and constructive’

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies met this week on the eve of the G-20 summit in Bali. Each of the men had scored recent political victories at home — Xi starting an unprecedented third term and Biden riding on what is seen as a win for his Democratic Party after a strong showing in the U.S. midterm elections.

The two engaged in a frank conversation about their respective priorities and intentions on a range of issues, according to minutes of the meeting released by the White House.

Biden emphasized the necessity for the U.S. and China to work together on transnational challenges, including climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security, according to the readout.

China’s Foreign Ministry said, “Both presidents viewed the meeting as in-depth, candid and constructive. They instructed their teams to promptly follow up and implement the important common understandings reached between them, and take concrete actions to put China-U.S. relations back on the track of steady development.”

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, said the Bali meeting was not a turning point in U.S.-China relations.

Rubio told VOA Mandarin during an interview on Monday that “no meeting is going to solve the deep issues between the U.S. and China … which will remain the challenge of the centuries.”

In a written statement issued on Monday before Xi and Biden met, Rubio criticized Biden for “dangerously” misunderstanding “the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], which openly pushes for conflict with the United States and its allies.”

“This meeting should have held the CCP accountable for its rampant human rights abuses, ongoing theft of American intellectual property, and its refusal to investigate the origins of COVID-19,” Rubio said. “Instead, President Biden demonstrated that he is willing to sacrifice everything — including our national security and the security of our allies — for the sake of pursuing ill-fated climate talks with our nation’s greatest adversary.”

‘It’s good that we’re talking’

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, however, thinks the long meeting indicated a positive development.

“Three hours isn’t necessarily a good sign, but I think it’s positive, because there’re so many issues, and that tells me that both went into the meeting understanding how important U.S.-China communication is at a minimum,” he told VOA Mandarin on Monday. “So I was happy to hear that.”

Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota told VOA Mandarin on Monday that it’s important to maintain good relations with China.

“The Chinese Communist Party may have different points of view about how to get there,” he said. “We want to make clear our positions, but we also want them to understand that you would much rather have peace than to have conflict.

“I am always hopeful that communications and diplomacy can win out,” he added. “Time will tell whether or not we had a successful meeting. But it’s good that we’re talking.”

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks of New York and Republican Representative Ami Bera of California said in a statement that “candid dialogue and sustained diplomacy are necessary to ensure that this competition is healthy, constructive, and does not devolve into conflict.”

But, they added, engagement with China “will continue to be based on the principle of strategic competition … as long as Beijing continues to ignore international rules and norms — whether it’s China’s aggression in the Taiwan Strait, its genocide in Xinjiang, its oppression in Hong Kong and Tibet, or its support for Russia’s and North Korea’s destabilizing actions.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
…

Senator Mitch McConnell was reelected as Republican leader Wednesday, quashing a challenge from Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP campaign chief criticized over his party’s midterm election failures. 

Retreating to the Capitol’s Old Senate Chamber for the private vote, Republicans had faced public infighting following a disappointing performance in last week’s elections that kept Senate control with Democrats. 

McConnell, of Kentucky, easily swatted back the challenge from Scott in the first-ever attempt to oust him after many years as GOP leader. The vote was 37-10, senators said, with one other senator voting present. Senators first rejected an attempt by McConnell’s detractors to delay the leadership choice until after the Senate runoff election in Georgia next month. 

The unrest is similar to the uproar among House Republicans in the aftermath of the midterm elections that left the party split over former President Donald Trump’s hold on the party. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy won the nomination from colleagues to run for House speaker, with Republicans on the cusp of seizing the House majority, but he faces stiff opposition from a core group of right-flank Republicans unconvinced of his leadership. 

On Wednesday, the senators first considered a motion by a Scott ally, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, to delay the leadership votes until after the December 6 runoff election in Georgia between Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock that will determine the final makeup of the Senate. Walker was eligible to vote in the leadership election but wasn’t expected to be present. 

Cruz said it was a “cordial discussion, but a serious discussion” about how Republicans in the minority can work effectively. 

In all, 48 GOP senators voted. Retiring Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska missed the vote to be home after his office said his wife was recovering from a nonthreatening seizure. 

The 10 Republican senators joining in the revolt against McConnell and voting for Scott included some of the most conservative figures and those aligned with Trump. 

“Why do I think he won?” said Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., among McConnell’s detractors. “Because the conference didn’t want to change course.” 

Senators were also electing others in the Republican leadership. Democrats have postponed their internal elections until after Thanksgiving. 

McConnell’s top leadership ranks are expected to remain stable, with Senator John Thune, R-S.D., as GOP whip, and Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in the No. 3 spot as chairman of the GOP conference. Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines was expected take over the campaign operation from Scott. 

The challenge by Scott, who was urged by Trump to confront McConnell, escalated a long-simmering feud between Scott, who led the Senate Republican’s campaign arm this year, and McConnell over the party’s approach to try to reclaim the Senate majority. 

“If you simply want to stick with the status quo, don’t vote for me,” Scott said in a letter to Senate Republicans offering himself as a protest vote against McConnell. 

Restive conservatives in the chamber have lashed out at McConnell’s handling of the election, as well as his iron grip over the Senate Republican caucus. 

Trump has been pushing for the party to dump McConnell ever since the Senate leader gave a scathing speech blaming then-President Trump for the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

Still, it represented an unusual direct challenge to McConnell’s authority. He would become the longest-serving Senate leader in history when the new Congress convenes next year. 

Scott and McConnell traded what colleagues said were “candid” and “lively” barbs during a lengthy private GOP senators lunch Tuesday that dragged for several hours. They sparred over the midterms, the quality of the GOP candidates who ran and their differences over fundraising. 

During the luncheon, some 20 senators made their individual cases for the two men. Some members directly challenged Scott in McConnell’s defense, including Maine Senator Susan Collins, who questioned the Florida senator’s management of the campaign arm, according to a person familiar with the meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it. 

Among the many reasons Scott listed for mounting a challenge is that Republicans had compromised too much with Democrats in the last Congress — producing bills that President Joe Biden has counted as successes and that Democrats ran on in the 2022 election. 

The feud between Scott and McConnell has been percolating for months and reached a boil as election results trickled in showing there would be no Republican Senate wave, as Scott predicted, according to senior Republican strategists who were not authorized to discuss internal issues by name and insisted on anonymity. 

The feuding started not long after Scott took over the party committee after the 2020 election. Many in the party viewed his ascension as an effort to build his national political profile and donor network ahead of a potential presidential bid in 2024. Some were irked by promotional materials from the committee that were heavy on Scott’s own biography, while focusing less on the candidates who are up for election. 

Then came Scott’s release of an 11-point plan early this year, which called for a modest tax increase for many of the lowest-paid Americans, while opening the door for cutting Social Security and Medicare, which McConnell swiftly repudiated even as he declined to offer an agenda of his own. 

The feud was driven in part by the fraying trust in Scott’s leadership, as well as poor finances of the committee, which was $20 million in debt, according to a senior Republican consultant. 

 
…

In the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday evening that he would seek the Republican Party’s nomination again in 2024, influential voices in conservative political circles expressed their opposition to the idea of handing the party’s reins back to him.

With Trump leading the party after his election in 2016, Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives in 2018. Then in 2020, despite his false claims to the contrary, Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden and watched as his party also lost control of the Senate.

Last week in elections they were expected to dominate, Republicans failed to take over the Senate, and as of Tuesday, appeared poised to win the House of Representatives by only a slim margin. One reason for the underwhelming GOP performance was that a number of Trump’s hand-picked candidates underperformed other, more mainstream Republican candidates.

Tuesday morning, Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund and a major donor to Republicans, voiced what many within the party have apparently been thinking.

“I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” Griffin said at an event sponsored by Bloomberg News in Singapore.

‘Sick and tired of losing’

Griffin is far from alone in his belief that Republicans need to distance themselves from the former president. Formerly friendly elected leaders and publications have also picked up the chorus.

Following the party’s worse-than-expected performance in the November 9 midterm elections, the conservative Wall Street Journal editorialized against Trump.

“Since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has a perfect record of electoral defeat.”

The editorial added, “Now Mr. Trump has botched the 2022 elections, and it could hand Democrats the Senate for two more years. Mr. Trump had policy successes as President, including tax cuts and deregulation, but he has led Republicans into one political fiasco after another. ‘We’re going to win so much,’ Mr. Trump once said, ‘that you’re going to get sick and tired of winning.’ Maybe by now Republicans are sick and tired of losing.”

Many in the party are turning away from Trump and looking for someone to take his place, with the most likely candidate being Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who shares many of Trump’s attributes when it comes to antagonizing the political left, and who won reelection in his state last week by a margin of nearly 20 percentage points.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said, “The question is: Who is the current leader of the Republican Party? Oh, I know who it is: Ron DeSantis. … Ron DeSantis is the leader of the Republican Party, whether he wants to be or not.”

Countering DeSantis

Some longtime observers of U.S. elections believe Trump’s decision to announce his candidacy now is aimed at clearing the field of potential competitors for the Republican nomination and blocking DeSantis, in particular.

“The conventional wisdom in politics for a long time has been that you can ward off your challengers by raising money early and moving early in the game,” Jennifer N. Victor, an associate professor of political science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told VOA. “And so, he’s clearly going for that kind of first-mover advantage.”

Further evidence of the former president’s concern about DeSantis is that he has recently attacked the governor in public remarks. Trump, who often bestows belittling nicknames on his rivals, has been referring to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

In a lengthy statement after the midterm elections, Trump tried to minimize DeSantis’ reelection victory, noting that DeSantis won with fewer votes than Trump received in Florida in the 2020 race. The difference is likely attributable to the fact that turnout for U.S. elections in presidential years is much higher than in nonpresidential years, such as 2022.

‘Trumpism still healthy’

Some have speculated that Trump’s announcement, following so closely on the heels of the midterm elections, is meant to distract attention from the results, which are being used by some of the former president’s opponents as fodder for criticism of his decision to intervene in so many races.

However, Victor warned against reading too much into the results of last week’s voting. While Trumpian candidates may have fared poorly in some races, she said it is too soon to write off the power of the former president’s movement to shape the 2024 race.

“If Republicans had been trounced — really trounced — in this election, and Democrats had gained seats in the House, then I think the talk of Trumpism getting excised out of the party would be a lot stronger,” Victor said. “But since that didn’t happen, since it was more of a mixed result, I think there’s plenty of evidence that Trumpism is still fairly healthy and probably the largest, most robust coalition within the party.”

Looking for an alternative

Other experts, however, wondered whether a well-orchestrated challenge to Trump would have the opportunity to succeed.

Chris Stirewalt, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed that the former president retains the unwavering support of a portion of the Republican Party. But he said it is not clear that Trump’s core supporters make up a large enough share of primary voters to guarantee Trump’s nomination if an opposing candidate can consolidate the remainder.

“There are a lot of Republicans who would vote for Trump in 2024 but who hope they won’t have to,” Stirewalt, the former political editor for Fox News, told VOA.

However, he said, that doesn’t guarantee that, as in the 2016 primary, Trump won’t be able to play different factions within the party against one another until he is the last man standing.

“In 2020, the Democratic candidates took the right lesson from the 2016 election and dropped out rather than allow a fringe candidate to win the nomination,” Stirewalt said.

Looking at the Republican field in 2024, Stirewalt said, the big question is whether a coalition of Republicans who would prefer not to see Trump receive the nomination again, and those who would not vote for the former president under any circumstances, can coalesce behind a single candidate early enough to allow him or her a fighting chance against the former president.
…

America has one Senate contest from the 2022 midterm elections that remains undecided, requiring a runoff election December 6 in the southern U.S. state of Georgia where turnout was heavy last week despite new balloting restrictions that some observers had feared would depress turnout of poorer and minority voters.

“It was just a very successful election day,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told a press conference the day after the November 8 midterm contests in his state. Raffensperger, a Republican, said the state’s new voting laws did not impact turnout and that major snags on election day were avoided because a record number of people took advantage of pre-election day voting, such as absentee-by-mail and early in-person voting.

“We saw processing times to vote that led to two-minute average wait times across the state,” said the secretary of state. Georgia election officials said more votes were cast in the state in 2022 than in any prior midterm election.

Runoff in Georgia

In just weeks, voter turnout in Georgia will again be put to the test as Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock faces his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. With more than 3.8 million total votes cast November 8, neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the three-way contest with a third-party candidate, triggering next month’s runoff election between the top two vote-getters.

The race between the two African American candidates has been the focus of national attention. Before the midterms, it was thought to be one of a handful of races that would decide which party controls the Senate for the next two years. Now, it will determine whether Democrats can boost their bare majority.

Getting out the vote one more time

The nation’s largest civil rights organization has launched efforts to once again mobilize Georgia’s African American and other minority voters who proved crucial in President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory in the state as well as the 2021 runoff elections of two Democratic senators. It was a historic outcome in Georgia, which has been a reliably Republican state for decades.

“We still have work to do,” said Gerald Griggs, president of the NAACP Georgia state chapter. “Our folks made sure record numbers of African Americans got out and voted. But we have a runoff election and it is time for us to get back out there and mobilize.”

Suley Usman, from Smyrna, Georgia, cast his ballot 10 days before Election Day with no problems.

“I’m absolutely motivated to vote again in the runoff election,” he told VOA. “I want a say in who is elected.”

Amid a contentious political climate in which many prominent Republicans falsely alleged voter fraud gave President Biden his 2020 victory, Georgia was one of more than 20 Republican-led states that overhauled their election laws in 2021, in what officials promoted as an attempt to boost confidence in the integrity of balloting. The measures included strengthening identification requirements for mail-in voting, reducing the number of days for early voting and restricting access to ballot drop boxes.

Critics called the new laws unfair and thinly veiled attempts to discourage voting by the poor and minorities.

“These types of tactics aim to suppress votes,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, in a statement quoted by The Associated Press on Monday. In response, the organization and other voter advocacy groups launched programs to educate voters and overcome any negative impact the new voting laws may have had on turnout.

“Georgians have shown they are ready and willing to navigate tough voting environments in order to make their voices heard,” Hailey said.

In the past, Georgia’s runoff contests were held nine weeks after Election Day, but this year the runoff campaign season has been shortened to four weeks, a time period that precludes new voter registrations.

Some voters have taken note.

“I absolutely believe there are actions being taken on the whole voting apparatus and process that don’t need to be taken,” said Usman. “I think being an educated voter is key.”

Turnout and voting

Across the country, tens of millions of American voters let their voices be heard last week — in record numbers for midterms in many states — despite predictions of possible political violence, voter intimidation and disenfranchisement. Overall, relatively few voting problems were reported.

“We in the voting rights community in Texas were fearing the worst,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of Common Cause Texas. “For the most part, it didn’t happen.”

In Arizona, isolated issues with voting machines sparked baseless claims about fraud. State officials quickly denied the accusations and declared confidence in the integrity of the election.

In other parts of the country, many voters said they experienced few, if any, difficulties casting their ballots.

“I’m glad there were no complications,” said Bill Murphy, a voter in Prince George’s County, Maryland, who expected long lines at his polling location but completed the process in 10 minutes.

“It shows the people who run the elections here were prepared this time,” he added.
…

Former President Trump on Tuesday evening formally declared he is seeking the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 election. Speaking for an hour to an invited crowd in a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump criticized the administration of his successor, Joe Biden, telling supporters it has destroyed the U.S. economy and turned America’s cities into crime-filled “cesspools of blood.”

“In order to make America great and glorious again,” Trump said, “I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

Unlike his last unsuccessful run in 2020 as the incumbent, Trump — who was impeached twice by the House of Representatives — is expected to face significant competition for his party’s nomination this time as he did in 2016. Possible contenders include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; his former vice president, Mike Pence, and his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

President Biden, who defeated Trump two years ago, has said he intends to run again but has not made an official announcement.

Only one American president has ever served nonconsecutive terms. That was Grover Cleveland, elected in 1885 and 1893.
…

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his decision to run for president in 2024, in the wake of midterm elections that did not award his Republican party as well as expected. But Trump, as the aging leader of the party, is no longer the disruptor that he was in 2016 — this time around, he’s trading on his legacy and says he has big plans for a second Trump administration. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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The results of the 2022 midterm elections are firming up. Democrats held their majority in the U.S. Senate, while Republicans are poised to take control of the U.S House of Representatives despite a poorer than expected showing. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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The U.S. midterm elections have been closely followed overseas — especially in Europe, where analysts say some of America’s closest and oldest allies are relieved that U.S. democracy held the course. But many are unsure for how long — and some are calling for a stronger and more independent Europe as a result.

In France and elsewhere in the European Union, the U.S. midterm elections have dominated the airwaves, including on Tuesday, as final results trickle in showing the Democrats retaining control of the Senate and the Republicans likely to narrowly win the House.

French analyst and historian Nicole Bacharan, who specializes in French-U.S. relations, said last week’s relatively smooth congressional vote eased fears within the European Union about the strength of America’s democracy — and their own sometimes fragile multiparty systems — that was shaken during the tumultuous aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential vote.

“The comforting thing about these midterms is obviously there is a majority of American citizens — Republicans and Democrats — who want to be heard through the vote,” said Bacharan. “They did vote — a lot. And they waited peacefully for the results.”

It may be a short-term reprieve. The next U.S. presidential election is only two years away.

“Well, 2024 is a big question mark everywhere — and in Europe especially,” said Bacharan. “Who is going to be the next president? What kind of international vision will he or she have? That’s all unknown.”

Warming relations

Frosty European Union-U.S. relations under former U.S. President Donald Trump have thawed considerably under pro-Europe President Joe Biden. Today, the two sides generally agree when it comes to key issues such as climate change and the war in Ukraine. But tensions still exist, for example, over last year’s hasty U.S. pullout in Afghanistan, or over a nuclear submarine deal with Australia that strained relations between Washington and Paris.

All of this bolsters calls for Europe to invest in its own security.

“We cannot be sure U.S. democracy sustains a medium-term, long-term commitment to underwriting European security in the [generous] way the U.S. has done over the past seven decades,” said Thorsten Benner, who heads the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based research group. He believes a Republican majority in the U.S. House, for instance, will push Europeans to invest more in Ukraine’s war against Russia. It’s a call he agrees with.

“It is primarily Europe’s problem,” said Benner. “This is a war in our neighborhood and not in Mexico or Canada. So we need to invest more.”

The call for a stronger European defense isn’t new. French President Emmanuel Macron has championed it for years. But progress has been slow.

“Europeans among themselves don’t agree on how to go about it. Just think of the French and the Germans, for instance,” said Bacharan. “And the capabilities of the United States — their military capabilities — [are] so much bigger, so much more enormous than anything going on in Europe. It’s not possible.”

Many said Europe may not have a choice. The next generation of U.S. leaders may be far less committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance than their predecessors. The earlier Europeans prepare for that possibility, they said, the better.
…

Vote counting is not yet complete in the 2022 U.S. congressional elections, and a key Senate runoff contest is three weeks away, but former President Donald Trump is looking ahead, expected Tuesday night to announce he is running again for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

It would be his third White House bid, after his upset win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and his unsuccessful reelection attempt in 2020. To this day, he contends, wrongly, that he was unfairly cheated out of another four-year term because of vote-counting irregularities in several political battleground states he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, now the country’s 46th president.

Trump is set to make the announcement, with political aides and supporters at his side, at his oceanside Mar-a-Lago retreat in the southern state of Florida, his winter-time home since he left Washington as his White House tenure ended in January of last year.

Trump is facing political headwinds, however, as he looks to rejoin the seemingly nonstop U.S. political fray, beyond his constant political commentary and disparagement of Biden’s administration over the last 22 months.

He has blamed Biden for the country’s high inflation rate, an unending stream of undocumented migrants crossing the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine last February if he were still the U.S. leader.

“As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged and if I was the president,” Trump told a conservative conclave earlier this year. 

Trump is also confronting several criminal investigations of his conduct related to his presidency that could soon override the importance of any campaigning.

Trump has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Federal and state prosecutors are investigating whether he illegally attempted to upend Biden’s victory, though, by thwarting the official congressional certification of the election.

They are trying to determine whether he criminally attempted to overturn his loss in the southern state of Georgia by asking state election officials to “find” him enough votes to overtake Biden in the state, and whether he fomented the riot by 2,000 Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year as they tried to block the final certification of the election.

In addition, Trump is facing an investigation into whether he illegally took hundreds of highly classified national security documents with him to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House instead of turning them over to the National Archives as required by law.

Prosecutors have not publicly disclosed any timetable for when the investigations might be completed and decisions made on whether to file charges against the former president, which would be a first in U.S. history.

Trump enjoys wide support among his base of Republican supporters, including millions of voters and some politicians who believe Biden was not legitimately elected. The next Congress will include more than 170 House Republicans who say they believe Trump should have been declared the victor in the 2020 election or who have questioned the legitimacy of the outcome. 

National polls show, however, that a majority of Americans believe Biden won fairly, even if they give him less than a 50% approval rate for his performance in office. The 76-year-old Trump is rated even lower than Biden on the approval-disapproval scale.

Biden turns 80 next Sunday and says he is planning to run for reelection in 2024 but won’t make a final decision until early next year. 

Most polls show Trump is the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but he remains a polarizing figure and certainly is not the automatic choice for the party.

Key Republican officials, including Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, and others who served in his administration, including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, have hinted they also could launch campaigns against Trump for the party’s presidential nomination. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, fresh off his resounding 19-percentage point reelection victory last week, has drawn a wide look from Republican partisans as a possible party standard bearer in the 2024 presidential race.

He is viewed as someone supporting many of the same conservative policies as Trump, but without the day-to-day personal drama that surrounded Trump during his presidency and since then.

DeSantis has not declared his presidential intentions, but Trump has taken notice of his popularity among Republicans, recently disparaging him as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and attacking him for not already declaring that Trump should be the Republican nominee in 2024.

Pence, promoting a memoir published this week about his four years in the White House, told ABC News, “I think we’ll have better choices in the future” than Trump. Pence said he is considering a run for the party nomination. 
…

U.S. Republicans were on the cusp Tuesday of winning control of the House of Representatives in the next session of Congress that takes office in January.

After new Republican victories Monday night, the party has won 217 seats to the Democrats’ 204 in both parties’ quest for a 218-seat majority in the 435-member chamber.

Election analysts say vote counts in the remaining 14 contests give Republicans plenty of opportunities to pick up one more seat and likely additional ones to wrest control of the chamber from the current Democratic majority.

Democratic President Joe Biden acknowledged as much on Monday, telling reporters at a G-20 news conference in Indonesia, “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

In late vote counting Monday, six days after last Tuesday’s nationwide congressional elections, Republicans picked up seats in the eastern state of New York and the western states of Arizona and California. The outcomes of more contests in California, the country’s most populous state, and elsewhere remain to be decided.

The impending Republican takeover of the lower chamber of Congress is bittersweet for the party, giving it control but with a far smaller majority than many party officials had predicted before the election. That could make it hard for the party to unify on key legislation, which in any event is likely to be opposed in the Senate, where Democrats will have a continuing narrow edge. 

Nonetheless, a Republican majority in the House is likely to give Biden opponents an entrée to launch investigations of his administration’s missteps during his first two years in the White House, such as last year’s chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the lack of control of the influx of thousands of migrants across the U.S. border with Mexico.

A House Republican majority would also let top party leaders join negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House over crucial government spending allocations, climate change policies, continued aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia and other significant issues.

Democrats retained their narrow control of the Senate this past weekend, as they captured their 50th seat in the 100-member chamber, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris, as the chamber’s presiding officer, to cast tie-breaking votes on controversial legislation.

Democrats currently hold a 50-49 edge in the next Senate session, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock facing a December 6 runoff election in Georgia against his Republican opponent, former college and professional football star Herschel Walker, to decide the final contest.

Most U.S. political analysts are predicting that when all the remaining House races are decided, Republicans will have an advantage of between three and nine seats, well below Republican leaders’ pre-election predictions of as much as a 30-seat majority.

“We beat the odds,” Biden told reporters in Cambodia, where he attended a summit of Asian nations before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for a summit of the world’s 20 largest economies. “I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple years.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, assured of remaining that chamber’s majority leader, called the results a “vindication” for Democrats and their agenda.

He said Republicans had turned off voters with extremism and “negativity,” including some candidates’ erroneous insistence that the 2020 election had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

“America showed that we believed in our democracy,” Schumer told reporters.

Trump blamed

Some Republicans are targeting Trump for his support of candidates, many of whom lost, that was based largely on whether they agreed with his false claim that he was cheated from reelection. 

Some Republicans have noted that the 45th president, as the biggest name in Republican politics, has now presided over three large party losses: in the 2018 midterm elections; his own loss seeking reelection in 2020; and a less-than-successful Republican showing in the midterm elections last week.

Nonetheless, Trump has signaled he will announce his 2024 presidential candidacy Tuesday night, his third run for the White House.

Even as he ignores calls from some Republicans to hold off on the announcement until this year’s election is definitively completed, Trump is facing federal and state criminal investigations that could complicate his new political ambitions. He was twice impeached in the House for his actions as president but acquitted in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority was required for conviction.

Now, the former president is being investigated for his role in trying to upend his 2020 loss, allegations that he fomented the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and allegations he illegally took highly classified national security documents with him when he left office 22 months ago.

No criminal charges have been brought against him, but prosecutors have not publicly disclosed any timetable for completing the various investigations.
…

Republicans appeared Monday to be edging closer to winning control of the House of Representatives in the next session of Congress that takes office in January. 

Republicans already have won 212 seats to the Democrats’ 204 in both parties’ quest for a 218-seat majority in the 435-member chamber. But election analysts say vote counts in the remaining 19 unsettled contests mostly appeared to be headed in the Republicans’ favor, which eventually could allow them to wrest control of the chamber from the current Democratic majority. 

Democratic President Joe Biden acknowledged as much, telling reporters at a G-20 news conference in Indonesia, “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.” 

With tedious vote counting of mail-in ballots, it could take days yet for Republicans to officially reach the 218-seat majority. But a Republican majority in the House is likely to give Biden opponents an entrée to launch investigations of his administration’s missteps during his first two years in the White House, such as last year’s chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing influx of thousands of migrants across the U.S. border with Mexico. 

A House Republican majority, albeit one that is much narrower than party officials had predicted before last week’s voting, would also let it join negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House over crucial government spending allocations, climate change policies, continued aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia and other significant issues.  

Democrats retained their narrow control of the Senate this past weekend, as they captured their 50th seat in the 100-member chamber, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris, as the chamber’s presiding officer, to cast the occasional tie-breaking vote for the Democratic agenda against unified Republican opposition on controversial legislation. 

Democrats currently hold a 50-49 edge in the next Senate session, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock facing a December 6 runoff election in Georgia against his Republican opponent, former college and professional football star Herschel Walker, to decide the remaining contest. 

Most U.S. political analysts are predicting that when the remaining votes are counted in the uncalled House races, Republicans could win a very narrow majority, perhaps with 219 to 222 seats to 216 to 213 for the Democrats, well below Republican leaders’ preelection predictions of as much as a 30-seat majority. 

“We beat the odds,” Biden told reporters in Cambodia, where he attended a summit of Asian nations before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for a summit of the world’s 20 largest economies. “I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple years.” 

Before last Tuesday’s election, U.S. political pollsters and analysts had widely predicted a sweeping “red wave” of Republican wins in the House and a possible takeover of the Senate, as well. 

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, assured of remaining the chamber’s majority leader, called the results a “vindication” for Democrats and their agenda. 

He said Republicans had turned off voters with extremism and “negativity,” including some candidates’ erroneous insistence that the 2020 election had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump. “America showed that we believed in our democracy,” Schumer told reporters. 

Some Republicans are targeting Trump for his support of candidates, many of whom lost, that was based largely on whether they agreed with his claim that he was cheated out of another four-year term in the 2020 election. 

Some Republicans have noted that Trump, as the biggest name in Republican politics, has now presided over large losses in 2018 congressional contests midway through his presidential term, his own loss seeking reelection in 2020 and now a less-than-successful 2022 showing. 

Nonetheless, even with last week’s vote counts continuing, Trump has signaled he plans to announce his 2024 presidential candidacy on Tuesday. 

Trump is facing federal and state criminal investigations over his role in trying to upend his 2020 loss, whether he fomented the January 6, 2021, riot of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol and whether he illegally took highly classified national security documents with him to his oceanside mansion in Florida when he left office 22 months ago. 

No criminal charges have been brought against the 45th U.S. president. 

 
…

The Democratic Party retained control of the U.S. Senate on Saturday night with the reelection of Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, giving the Democrats 50 seats to the Republicans’ 49, so far.

Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general, to win.

With the victories of Cortez Masto, which The Associated Press called Saturday night, and that of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona late Friday, Democrats now control 50 Senate seats.

One last seat has yet to be filled, Georgia’s. That race will be decided in a Dec. 6 runoff election between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, former football player Herschel Walker.

Even if Walker wins, also giving the Republicans 50 of the 100 seats in the Senate, the Democrats would control the body because Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, could cast tie-breaking votes.

The control of the House of Representatives is still being decided as final vote tallies have yet to be posted in numerous districts, mostly in Western states.

Ballots mailed on Election Day can still be counted in Nevada if received by Saturday. Officials in that state have a Thursday deadline to finish counting all the ballots.

Both Nevada and Arizona were working to count a large number of mail-in ballots, which take longer to tally because election officials need to match signatures on mail-in ballots to voter registration rolls.

Election workers in Arizona are also still counting ballots to determine the outcome of the race for governor as well as three competitive House seats.

Kari Lake, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, has accused election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, of deliberately delaying the vote counting to make it look like Democrats are doing better than they actually are.

The Republican chair of the county board of supervisors, Bill Gates, rebuffed the charge, saying staff are working 14-18 hours a day and will continue to do so through the weekend.

“This is how things work in Arizona and have for decades,” he said, adding, “We are doing what we can and still maintaining accuracy.”

In the race for control of the House of Representatives, Republicans edged closer to winning control but have not yet reached a majority of seats.

As of Friday, Republicans appeared to have won 211 House contests in their quest to attain a 218-vote majority in the 435-member chamber. Democrats have won 200 seats, leaving 24 races undecided, according to The Associated Press, as vote counting continues.

In California, results in more than a dozen competitive House districts have yet to be announced.

Republicans say they are confident they will win the House majority even as they voice dismay that the size of their political advantage over Democrats is likely to be far smaller than pre-election predictions that forecast a “red wave” of Republican winners filling the House chamber come January, when the new Congress is sworn in.

If Republicans do take control of the House, it would give them veto power over President Joe Biden’s agenda and the ability to launch investigations into his administration.

Biden on Wednesday characterized his Democratic Party as having done better than expected against the Republicans and announced he will invite leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from G-20 meetings in Indonesia to discuss how to work together on economic and national security priorities.

Whatever the eventual outcome, Biden said the election, carried out with only minor disputes across the country, was a good day for America.

“Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are,” he said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…