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Republicans failed to capitalize on historic trends and President Biden’s historically low approval ratings in the 2022 midterm elections. The GOP fell short in its attempt to regain control of the Senate. And while Republicans are inching toward victory in the lower chamber, the fate of the House remains unsettled. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten says the midterms overall were a flop for the GOP, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ resounding win was a notable silver lining that should give the party reason to be hopeful.
Florida’s gain may have been New York’s loss given the exodus of Empire State voters who may have cost gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin his race, but the fact of the matter is that the GOP had a historically good night in a historically bad state, including flipping congressional seats likely to clinch the House majority for Republicans.
Other incumbents towards the top of tickets tended to hold serve. Down-ballot, Republicans prevailed in many school board races — which long-term is critical. And then there’s the pending gubernatorial and Senate races. It’s an abomination that as we record this, days after the election, we still don’t have final results in Arizona and Nevada. For virtually the entirety of our history we voted in-person, with ID, on election day and got results that night.
That we live in the most technologically advanced civilization in world history and now we won’t get results on election night invites all manner of questions about the integrity of these elections – on top of machine breakdowns and other glitches in-person voters faced on the one day errors couldn’t happen, from Maricopa County, Arizona, and everywhere in between. Florida’s population is two times the size of Arizona and Nevada, and delivered results on election night. The Sunshine State of Florida has a population two times the size of Sun Belt states Arizona and Nevada combined. Florida’s results were in on election night, yet we’re still waiting on the Southwest.
This is purely a function of the less secure, less safe processes embraced in these states, which Florida rejected. The further we get from voting in-person on Election Day, and the longer it takes to get results, the more it will sap the confidence among millions of Americans, in the process of voting, and therefore the results, and with it, our republican system.
