Americans were preparing for a very long election night on Tuesday evening, as the media released their first projections, as polling stations closed across the United States.
While some voters had not yet put their ballot in the ballot box and the counting continued in the majority of the constituencies, the main information sites risked making estimates, like the New York Times which, at 6 a.m. (Paris time), gave the Republicans a 75% chance of winning the House of Representatives, with 225 seats.
A prediction shared by the BBC : “American Republicans are increasingly optimistic about a victory” in the lower house, writes the British media, while the first results seem “lean in their favour”.
Republican hold in Florida
Among the first re-elected Republican MPs was Marjorie Taylor Greene, a great admirer of Donald Trump and accustomed to “racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”relieves The New York Times. “His growing status and influence, coupled with the likely election of similar candidates in other parts of the country, reflects a broader transformation of the Republican Party”estimates the New York daily.
Donald Trump’s party – which congratulated its proteges on Tuesday evening – also confirmed its grip on Florida, with the triumphant re-election of Ron DeSantis as governor and the re-election, for a third term, of Senator Marco Rubio. For the Miami HeraldDe Santis, who could run for the Republican nomination against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, “solidifies Florida’s status as the second most populous Republican state in the United States”.
The battle for the Federal Senate is much tighter, and the final results likely won’t be known for several days. Candidates running “two of the most contested senator seats”in Georgia and Pennsylvania, are currently “impossible to decide”underlines the American edition of The Independent.
First lesbian elected governor
A Republican victory in Congress, “even in one of the two chambers would complicate Joe Biden’s action for the next two years”warns The Washington Post. In the House of Representatives they would launch “a series of investigations into several topics, ranging from the handling of the coronavirus in the United States to the affairs of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden”. And if he took over the Senate, “the Republican Party could make it more difficult to confirm members of the government and judges”, and be very combative on the spending vote.
The Democrats also had some success, notably in the gubernatorial elections. They thus snatched Maryland and Massachusetts from the Republicans, writing a page in the political history of the United States in the process.
Wes Moore indeed becomes “the first African-American governor” of Maryland and the “third African-American governor elected in the country”according NPRwhile Maura Healey, in Massachusetts, will be “the first woman and the first openly gay person elected to the office of governor”congratulates himself The Boston Globe.