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Two children and a young adult died in a home fire early Saturday morning in Pittsburgh, authorities say.
A woman was taken to the hospital and is reported in serious condition, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire said. Another woman and eight children were safely evacuated.
A firefighter was taken to the hospital and treated for an arm cut.
The three-alarm blaze occurred just after 2 a.m., officials said.
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WEST PENN TOWNSHIP, Pa — Pennsylvania State Police say two firefighters died responding to a house fire where a body was found, while two people who lived in the home got out safely.
The slain firefighters were identified as members of the New Tripoli Fire Company, Assistant Fire Chief Zachary Paris, 36, and Marvin Gruber, 59, Trooper David Beohm said.
The body of another person was discovered outside the house on the property, which sits on a large plot of land in in West Penn Township near Tamaqua in Schuylkill County.
“We have a body in the back, and that’s all still part of this whole investigation,” Boem said.
West Penn Township Police Chief James Bonner said two people — “an uncle and nephew” — lived in the three-story single-family home and were able to escape the fire. He said two other firefighters were treated for injuries.
They said more than 100 firefighters and officers responded shortly before 4 p.m. Bonner called it an active crime scene, with Pennsylvania State Police and the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms assisting the investigation.
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Today in History
Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 342nd day of 2022. There are 23 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Dec. 8, 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On this date:
In 1765, Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts.
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.
In 1980, rock star and former Beatle John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
In 1991, AIDS patient Kimberly Bergalis, who had contracted the disease from her dentist, died in Fort Pierce, Florida, at age 23.
In 2001, the U.S. Capitol was reopened to tourists after a two-month security shutdown.
In 2008, in a startling about-face, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandoned their defenses.
In 2011, the 161-day NBA lockout ended when owners and players ratified the new collective bargaining agreement.
In 2014, the U.S. and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan, 13 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country to topple the Taliban-led government.
In 2016, John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died in Columbus, Ohio, at age 95.
In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground; the court refused to call into question the certification process in the state.
Ten years ago: Police charged Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent with intoxication manslaughter after he flipped his car in a pre-dawn accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown. (Brent was convicted in Jan. 2014 and sentenced to 180 days in jail; he was reinstated by the NFL in Sept. 2014.) Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy.
Five years ago: Japanese pitching and hitting star Shohei Ohtani announced that he would sign with the Los Angeles Angels.
One year ago: With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court were to give them the OK, California clinics and their allies in the state Legislature revealed a plan to make the state a “sanctuary” for those seeking reproductive care. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to make the federal government carbon-neutral by 2050, aiming for a 65% reduction in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and an all-electric fleet of car and trucks five years later. The number of Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 reached 200 million. Nearly 17 years after being sentenced to die, Scott Peterson was resentenced in California to life without parole for the Christmas Eve killing of his pregnant wife, Laci, in 2002. (The state Supreme Court found that Peterson’s jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty.) Center-left leader Olaf Scholz became Germany’s ninth post-World War II chancellor.
Today’s Birthdays: Flutist James Galway is 83. Singer Jerry Butler is 83. Pop musician Bobby Elliott (The Hollies) is 81. Actor Mary Woronov is 79. Actor John Rubinstein is 76. Actor Kim Basinger (BAY’-sing-ur) is 69. Rock musician Warren Cuccurullo is 66. Rock musician Phil Collen (Def Leppard) is 65. Country singer Marty Raybon is 63. Political commentator Ann Coulter is 61. Rock musician Marty Friedman is 60. Actor Wendell Pierce is 59. Actor Teri Hatcher is 58. Actor David Harewood is 57. Singer Sinead (shih-NAYD’) O’Connor (AKA Shuhada’ Davitt) is 56. Actor Matthew Laborteaux is 56. Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Mussina is 54. Rock musician Ryan Newell (Sister Hazel) is 50. Actor Dominic Monaghan is 46. Actor Ian Somerhalder is 44. Rock singer Ingrid Michaelson is 43. R&B singer Chrisette Michele is 40. Actor Hannah Ware is 40. Country singer Sam Hunt is 38. MLB All-Star infielder Josh Donaldson is 37. Rock singer-actor Kate Voegele (VOH’-gehl) is 36. Christian rock musician Jen Ledger (Skillet) is 33. NHL defenseman Drew Doughty is 33. Actor Wallis Currie-Wood is 31. Actor AnnaSophia Robb is 29.
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CONCORD, N.H. — Police and federal law enforcement officers are among 20 people from multiple states saying they were wounded by a popular type of Sig Sauer pistol, the latest lawsuit alleging that the gun is susceptible to going off without the trigger being pulled.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, says there have been over 100 incidents of the P320 pistol unintentionally discharging when the user believed they did not pull the trigger.
“These men and women were highly trained officers, veterans, and responsible and safety-conscious gun users who put their trust in Sig Sauer, unaware that the gun they used to serve was a danger to themselves and anyone around them,” Robert Zimmerman, an attorney representing the group of 20 and about a dozen spouses, said in a statement.
Zimmerman said it is the largest P320 lawsuit against the New Hampshire-based gunmaker on behalf of people who were injured.
The incidents covered in the lawsuit range from February 2020 to this October.
In many cases, the gun discharged while still in the user’s holster, seriously injuring them in the leg or hip and leaving them unable to perform their usual duties, according to the lawsuit. They were not touching the trigger, the lawsuit said.
One of the plaintiffs is Dionicio “DJ” Delgado of Virginia, 62, a U.S. Navy veteran who instructed servicemembers in firearms training and safety for over 20 years. He said he was hurt in the leg and calf by a bullet from his P320 in February at a private shooting range on his property after he had just holstered his gun.
“The first thing that came out of everybody’s mouth who knew me said, ‘How did that happen, you’re the safest person we know with a firearm,” said Delgado, who was out of work for six weeks, unable to climb a ladder or get on a roof for his property inspector job.
He said some people assumed he had his finger on the trigger, or manipulated it someway, or did something to it to shoot himself.
“Being looked at and told, ‘It was your fault,’ that was the embarrassing part, and it kind of angers me,” Delgado said.
Sig Sauer denies allegations that the pistol is prone to discharging without the use of the trigger.
“The P320 is designed to fire when the trigger is pulled,” Sig Sauer spokesperson Samantha Piatt said in a statement Friday. “It includes internal safeties that prevent the firearm from discharging without a trigger pull.”
The lawsuit details negligence and product liability claims against Sig Sauer, as well as deceptive marketing practices for the gun, advertising “it won’t fire unless you want it to.”
One of the allegations of negligence is that Sig Sauer equipped a U.S. Army version of the P320 with a manual safety that guarded against unintentional firing, yet left it off non-military models, co-counsel Daniel Ceisler said. Only one non-military model of the gun offered that feature as an option, the lawsuit said.
“To make a gun with a trigger this short and this light without any sort of external safety is reckless and unprecedented,” Ceisler said.
Piatt said that the trigger pull force of the P320 is “consistent with industry practice,” and that Sig Sauer offers models with a manual safety.
“Some customers, including many law enforcement agencies, believe that inclusion of a manual safety is a detriment to the safe and reliable use of a pistol given their intended use. Other customers take the opposite view given their intended use,” she said.
The gun was first introduced in 2014. Sig Sauer offered a “voluntary upgrade” in 2017 to include an alternate design that reduces the weight of the trigger, among other features. Zimmerman said the upgrade did not stop the problem of unintentional discharges.
The lawsuit calls for a trial and unspecified monetary damages. The plaintiffs are from Texas, Georgia, Connecticut, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Virginia, Louisiana, Florida, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, and New Jersey.
Sig Sauer has also denied the allegations made in similar lawsuits filed by Zimmerman and others, including ones involving a military veteran in Philadelphia and a federal agent from suburban Philadelphia. Milwaukee’s police union sued the city over officers’ use of the P320, saying the handguns inadvertently misfired three times in the last two years resulting in injuries to two officers.
Sig Sauer has prevailed in some cases. It has settled at least one federal class action lawsuit involving P320 pistols made before 2017, offering refunds or replacement guns to purchasers.
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Washington — Drawing decorating inspiration from America’s founding documents, Jill Biden chose a “We the People” theme to deck the White House halls and to remind Americans of what unites them throughout the year, especially during the holidays.
The first lady unveiled the transformational work of a small army of volunteer decorators during an event at the White House on Monday. Journalists were given a sneak peek earlier in the day.
As part of Joining Forces, her White House initiative to support military families, Biden was joined by National Guard leaders from across the country, as well as National Guard families. Her late son, Beau Biden, was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard.
“I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve gone. When our country comes together, we are stronger,” she said. “What we share is so much greater than the things that pull us apart. The soul of our nation is, and has always been, ‘we the people.’”
The decorations include more than 83,000 twinkling lights on trees, garlands, wreaths and other displays, 77 Christmas trees and 25 wreaths on the exterior of the executive mansion.
A copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display in the library, while the always-show-stopping gingerbread White House includes a sugar cookie replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed. The Constitution opens with the phrase, “We the People.”
JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
A new addition this year is a menorah, used in Jewish worship, that was built by White House carpenters from wood that was removed during a Truman-era renovation. The menorah is located on the State Floor.
Some 50,000 visitors are expected to pass through the White House during the holidays, including tourists and guests invited to various receptions. Among them will be French President Emmanuel Macron, who is scheduled to meet with President Biden on Thursday and be honored that evening at a White House state dinner, the first of the Biden administration.
More than 150 volunteers began decorating the interior and the exterior of the White House last week and continued through the Thanksgiving holiday. Planning began in the spring.
Illustrations of the family pets — dog Commander and cat Willow — can be found in the Vermeil Room, where the décor represents different ways of showing kindness and gratitude.
JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
Groupings of snowy trees fill corners of the East Room, which reflects nature and recreation. Four well-known national parks are depicted on the fireplace mantels: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah.
In the Blue Room, the official White House Christmas tree — an 18 1/2-foot Concolor fir from Auburn, Pennsylvania — is decorated to represent unity and hope with handmade renderings of the official birds from all 57 territories, states and the District of Columbia.
The State Dining Room is dedicated to the next generation — children — and trees there are decorated with ornaments that are self-portraits of the students of the 2021 Teachers of the Year, “ensuring that children see themselves” in the décor, the White House said.
Hanging from the fireplace in the State Dining Room are the Biden family Christmas stockings.
The gingerbread White House was made using 20 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 30 sheets of gingerbread dough, 100 pounds of pastillage, 30 pounds of chocolate and 40 pounds of royal icing.
“We the People” are celebrated in the Grand Foyer and Cross Hall on the State Floor, where metal ribbons also are inscribed with the names of all the states, territories and the District of Columbia.
“Mirrored ornaments and reflective surfaces ensure that visitors can see themselves in the décor, noting that the strength of our country — the Soul of our Nation — comes from ‘We the People,’” the White House said.
The White House noted that the holiday guide book visitors will receive was designed this year by Las Vegas-based Daria Peoples, who is Black. Peoples is a former elementary school teacher who has written and illustrated a series of picture books to support children of color, including those who have experienced race-based trauma.
Kristin Brown contributed reporting.
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PHILADELPHIA — Four students were injured in an apparent drive-by shooting shortly after their Philadelphia high school let out early for the day on Wednesday, a city schools spokesperson said.
“One was shot in the shoulder, one was shot in the knee and the two others have graze wounds,” the district’s deputy chief of communications, Monique Braxton, said in a phone interview.
The shooting took place about a block from Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia, where school let out early because of parent-teacher conferences, Braxton said.
Braxton said the district’s Office of School Safety told her the students were at a corner store when the shooting occurred.
“We don’t know who was targeted, if any of the four of them were targeted,” Braxton said. All four victims were taken for hospital treatment and parents were being notified early Wednesday afternoon.
“This is outrageous, that young people would be shot shortly after being dismissed from their high school,” Braxton said.
Officer Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said that the shooting occurred around 11:30 a.m. He said victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Lankenau Medical Center and all were in stable condition.
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A vent at an underground natural gas storage well in Western Pennsylvania has been spewing massive amounts of planet-warming methane into the atmosphere for more than 11 days and attempts to plug the leak have thus far failed.
Owner Equitrans Midstream said the well at its Rager Mountain storage facility, located in a rural area about 1.5 hours east of Pittsburgh, is venting about 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to initial estimates.
If accurate, that would total 1.1 billion cubic feet in emissions so far, equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from burning 1,080 rail cars of coal.
Pennsylvania environmental regulators issued the company notice of five potential violations of state law. As a precaution, the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted aircraft from within a 1-mile radius of the leaking well.
A written statement provided Friday by Equitrans spokeswoman Natalie Cox said “there are no immediate public safety concerns” and the company has been working with a specialty well services company to plug the leak, which was first reported Nov. 6.
The Rager facility is in Jackson Township, at the heart of the Marcellus Shale formation that has seen a boom in gas production since the introduction of hydraulic fracturing more than a decade ago. Residents living as far as four miles away from the leak told The Associated Press on Friday they could hear the roar of pressurized gas escaping from the well and could smell the fumes.
Tracey Ryan, who homeschools her two young children at her house about three miles away, said the air reeks of sulfur and the noise is so bad she has had trouble sleeping.
“When you’re laying in bed at night, it sounds like a jet plane taking off,” said the 39-year-old mother. ”It’s unreal, the noise that’s coming, and it’s constant. … Everybody just keeps telling us we’re safe. But it doesn’t feel safe if you can hear it and smell it.”
Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is colorless and odorless. But when the gas is processed for transport and sale, producers add a chemical called mercaptan to give it a distinctive “rotten egg” smell that helps make people aware of leaks.
Methane’s earth-warming power is some 83 times stronger over 20 years than the carbon dioxide that comes from car tailpipes and power plant smokestacks. Oil and gas companies are the top industrial emitters of methane, which, once released into the atmosphere, will be disrupting the climate for decades, contributing to more heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
The new leak comes as the Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 11 updated proposed new rules intended to cut methane and other harmful emissions from oil and gas operations.
The Rager facility has 10 storage wells with a total storage capacity of 9 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Equitrans announced Thursday the leak had been stopped when workers flooded the leaking well, but the hiss of venting gas returned early Friday morning.
Cox cautioned the estimate of 100 million cubic feet of natural gas leaking per day is preliminary and the company would be unable to provide an accurate account of the gas lost until an inventory verification study is completed.
The initial estimate would potentially put the Rager leak as smaller but comparable to the daily emissions from the worst uncontrolled gas leaks in U.S. history — a 2018 blowout at an Ohio gas well owned by a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the 2015 disaster at the Aliso Canyon storage facility in California.
The citations issued against the company by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection include failures to properly maintain and operate the gas facility, creating a public nuisance and producing a “hazard to public health a safety.” The company was also cited for failing to provide state inspectors “free and unrestricted access.”
Lauren Camarda, spokeswoman for the state environmental agency, said that when members of a state emergency response team first arrived at the site on Nov. 7 they were initially barred from entering and told “access was restricted to critical personnel only.”
Cox said that when the state team arrived, Equitrans’ contractors were still in the process of implementing a safety boundary to avoid introducing a potential ignition source that could ignite the highly flammable methane leaking into the air.
The gas is coming from a vent designed to relieve intense pressures building up in the well and prevent a blowout. Cox said the company is now withdrawing gas from four storage wells to reduce the overall pressure in the field. Efforts to plug the leak were expected to continue through the weekend, including attempts to plug the well with concrete.
Nearby residents said a resolution can’t come soon enough.
Edana Glessner, who runs a wedding venue 3.6 miles from the well site, said the smell was making her nauseous and impacted her business.
“You could hear it during the last wedding we had,” she said. “And it smelled, but everybody was OK with it. We said we’re really sorry.”
____
Biesecker reported from Washington and Rubinkam from northeastern Pennsylvania.
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Democrats saw successes in legislative chambers across several battleground states in the midterm elections Tuesday, flipping a few of them to Democratic control while stopping Republicans from winning supermajorities in others.
In Wisconsin, Republicans needed to net five seats in the Assembly and just one in the Senate to reach a two-thirds supermajority — a major development that would have expanded the power of Republicans in the Legislature to override vetoes by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who was reelected Tuesday. While Republicans flipped the seat they needed for a supermajority in the state Senate, Democrats held on in the Assembly and prevented a supermajority there. Republicans need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to be able to override Evers’ vetoes.
Evers, a lifelong educator who upset Republican Governor Scott Walker in 2018, often refers to himself as the “goalie” against the Republican-controlled Legislature. He has vetoed a record 126 bills, stopping the Legislature from expanding gun rights, limiting abortions, blocking schools from anti-racism instruction and banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
He has also blocked more than a dozen voting laws from Wisconsin Republicans: one measure would have made it more difficult to obtain mail ballots; another would have prohibited election officials from correcting information on absentee ballots; and one would have reduced the power of the state’s bipartisan elections commission.
“Key Democratic victories today in Wisconsin may have prevented the MAGA GOP from completely overriding the state’s election system,” said Jessica Post, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for Democratic state legislative candidates.
“Wisconsin’s GOP has not been coy with their intentions, and despite every advantage, Republicans were unable to muster the numbers to completely unleash their regressive agenda on Wisconsin,” she added.
In Michigan, where Democratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was reelected Tuesday, Democrats flipped both the state House and Senate giving the party a “trifecta” for the first time since 1984. The state was a huge target for the DLCC, who spent $2 million in the state to help down ballot Democrats. In total, $24.8 million was spent on advertisements for Democratic state legislative candidates in Michigan, according to AdImpact.
“These results show that millions of Michiganders trust Democrats to protect abortion, build an economy that works for everyone, and reject GOP hate,” said Post.
This is the first decade Michigan’s independent redistricting commission has been used, and Democrats in the state have credited it as one reason they’ve been able to make gains in these chambers.
Prior to that, Republican majorities were drawing the lines going back as far as 2000.
In Pennsylvania, with four races still left to call as of Thursday morning, Democrats were just two seats away from flipping the state House. If they do so, it would be the first time Democrats would control the state House since 2010. State Rep. Joanna McClinton would become the first Black woman to serve as speaker in the state.
Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party also gained full control of the Legislature by maintaining the state House and flipping the state Senate. The Republican State Leadership Committee, which oversees legislative races as well as state Supreme Court and secretary of state races, had Michigan and Minnesota on its target list, but also expanded its map earlier this year to force Democrats to play in Oregon and Wasington.
By Wednesday morning, the GOP had not flipped any state legislatures. But Republicans did win state Supreme Court races in Ohio, holding their 4-3 majority and replacing a retiring swing vote conservative judge with a more reliable one. Republicans also flipped two state Supreme Court seats in North Carolina and now hold a 5-2 majority in the state.
Their wins there could have implications for redistricting this decade.
Republicans also secured a supermajority in North Carolina’s state Senate, though they fell short of a supermajority in the state House.
In a statement, RSLC communications director Andrew Romeo pointed to the $130 million dollars of Democratic spending on ads in these legislative battlegrounds, and Republican victories in North Carolina, Iowa and South Carolina.
“With minimal gains at the federal level, the Republican power we held and gained last night in the states will be all the more important for stopping Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda. We know that last night was just the beginning of the radical left’s full-throated assault that they will mount against our GOP-majorities in the coming decade, and the fight to stop socialism in the states continues,” he added.
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CNN Opinion contributors share their thoughts on the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a clear message to every Republican voter Tuesday night: My way is the path to a national majority, and former President Donald Trump’s way is the path to future disappointments and continued suffering.
Four years ago, DeSantis won his first gubernatorial race by less than a percentage point. His nearly 20-point win against Democratic candidate Charlie Crist on Tuesday sent the message that DeSantis, not Trump, can win over the independent voters who decide elections.
DeSantis’ decisive victory offers a future where the Republican Party might actually win the popular vote in a presidential contest – something that hasn’t been done since George W. Bush in 2004.
Meanwhile, many of the candidates Trump endorsed in 2022 struggled, and it was clear from CNN exit polls that the former President – with his 37% favorability rating – would be a serious underdog in the 2024 general election should he win the Republican presidential nomination for a third time.
My friend Patrick Ruffini of Echelon Insights tweeted a key observation: DeSantis commanded huge support among Latinos in 2022 compared to Trump in 2020.
In 2020, Biden won the heavily Latino Miami-Dade County by seven points. DeSantis flipped the county on Tuesday and ran away with an 11-point win.
In 2020, Biden won Osceola County by nearly 14 points. This time, DeSantis secured the county by nearly seven points, marking a whopping 21-point swing.
DeSantis combined his strength among Latinos with his support among working class Whites, suburban white-collar voters and rural Floridians. That’s a coalition that could win nationally, unlike Trump’s limited appeal among several traditional Republican voting segments.
Last year, it was Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin of Virginia who scored an earthquake in a Biden state by keeping Trump at arm’s length and focusing on the issues. Tonight, it was DeSantis who ran as his own man (Trump rallied for Marco Rubio but not DeSantis at the end of the campaign) and showed what you can do when you combine the political instincts required to be a successful Republican these days with actual governing competence.
DeSantis made a convincing case that he, rather than Trump, gives Republicans the best chance to defeat Biden (or some other Democrat) in 2024. With Trump plotting a reelection campaign announcement soon, DeSantis has a lot to think about and a solid springboard from which to launch a challenge to the former President.
Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor and Republican campaign adviser, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a former campaign adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell. He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY.
Let it go. If election night confirmed anything for me it is this: We can all – voters, doomscrollers, pundits and election deniers included – stop believing every election revolves around former President Donald Trump. Instead, when asked in exit polls across the country, younger people, women and other voters in key demographics said their top concerns were inflation, abortion rights, crime and other quality of life issues.
What a relief. It finally feels like a majority of voters want to re-center American politics away from the toxic, conspiracy theory-driven rhetoric we’ve experienced over the past several years.
Yes, Republicans are still projected to take control of the House of Representatives, with a narrow (and narrowing) majority – but will that make much difference? Despite the advantage Democrats had in the chamber the past two years, President Joe Biden has still had to battle and compromise to get parts of his agenda passed. How the balance of power will settle in the Senate is unclear, with a few races in key states still undecided as of this afternoon. It will likely hinge, again, on Georgia, and a forthcoming runoff election between the incumbent, Democrat Raphael Warnock, and his GOP challenger, former football star Herschel Walker.
No matter what party you claim, there were positive signs coming out of the midterms. My hometown, Philadelphia, and its surrounding suburbs, came up big in another election – rejecting the Trump-backed New Jersey transplant, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and helping to send Democratic candidate John Fetterman to the US Senate. Pennsylvania voters also rejected an election denier, Doug Mastriano, in the race for state governor, and made history by electing Democrat Summer Lee as the state’s first Black woman to serve in Congress.
Maryland voters, meanwhile, elected Democrat Wes Moore as their state’s first Black governor. And in New England, Maura Healey became Massachusetts’ first female governor. She’s also the first out lesbian to win a state governorship anywhere in the US.
Democracy, freedom and equality also won out on ballot issues.
In unfinished business, voters tackled slavery, permanently abolishing “involuntary servitude” in four states – Vermont, Oregon, Alabama and Tennessee. (Louisiana held on to the slavery clause under its constitution, however.)
Despite efforts to limit voting rights across the nation, voters in Alabama approved a measure requiring that any change to state election law goes into effect at least six months before a general election. And, in Kentucky, voters narrowly beat back an amendment that would have removed constitutional protections for abortion rights – one of several instances in which voters refused to accept restrictive reproductive rights measures.
Still, the highlight of my midterms night was watching 25-year-old Maxwell Frost win a US congressional race in Florida – holding a Democratic seat in a state whose 2022 results skewed red, no less. More and more, we are seeing young people energized, voting and stepping up with fresh ideas to lead this democracy. I’m here for it.
Roxanne Jones, a founding editor of ESPN The Magazine and former vice president at ESPN, has been a producer, reporter and editor at the New York Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Jones is co-author of “Say it Loud: An Illustrated History of the Black Athlete.” She talks politics, sports and culture weekly on Philadelphia’s 900AM WURD.
Voters made Tuesday a bad night for former President Donald Trump. Despite his efforts, many of his favorites not only lost but denied the GOP the usual out-party wave of wins that come in midterm elections. This leaves a diminished Trump with the challenge of deciding what to do next.
In the short term, the man who so often returns to his well-worn playbook resumed his years-long effort to ruin Americans’ confidence in any election his team loses. “Protest, protest, protest,” he told his followers, even before all the polls closed. In a sign of his declining power, no mass protests ensued.
Nevertheless, false claims of election fraud will likely be a major theme if he follows through on his loudly voiced hints that he plans to run for the White House again in 2024.
To run or not to run is now the main question. It’s not an easy choice. Trump could end up like other one-term presidents he has mocked, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, who retreated from politics and devoted themselves to new interests. However, he has other options. He could revive his television career – Fox News? – or return to his businesses. Or, he could develop a new role as leader of an organization that can exploit his prodigious fundraising ability, and give him a platform for grabbing attention, while leaving him plenty of time for golf.
Running could forestall the various legal problems he faces, but he has lawyers who might accomplish the same goal. Fox News is unlikely to pay enough, and his businesses are now being watched by a court-appointed overseer. This leaves him with a combination of easy work – fundraising and pontificating – combined with his favorite pastimes: fame, money and fun. What’s not to like?
Michael D’Antonio is the author of the book “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success” and co-author, with Peter Eisner, of the book “High Crimes: The Corruption, Impunity, and Impeachment of Donald Trump.”
Democrat Kathy Hochul won the New York State gubernatorial race, and thank goodness. Her opponent, Lee Zeldin, is not your typical moderate Republican who usually stands a chance in a blue state. Instead, he’s an abortion opponent who wanted voters to simply trust he wouldn’t mess with New York’s abortion laws.
Zeldin was endorsed by the National Rifle Association when he was in Congress. He is a Trump acolyte who voted against certifying the 2020 election in Congress, after texting with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and reportedly planning to contest the outcome of the 2020 election before the results were even in.
New Yorkers sent a definitive message: Our values matter, even in moments of profound uncertainty.
Plus, Hochul made history as the first woman elected to the governor’s office in New York.
This race was, in its final days, predicted to be closer than it actually was. Part of that was simply the usual electoral math: The minority party typically has an advantage in the midterms, and Republicans are a minority in Washington, DC, with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress. And polling in New York state didn’t look as good for Hochul as it should have in a solidly blue state: Voters who talked to pollsters emphasized crime fears and the economy; abortion rights were galvanizing, but didn’t seem as definitive in an election for a governor vastly unlikely to have an abortion criminalization bill delivered to her desk.
The polls were imperfect. It turns out that New Yorkers are, in fact, New Yorkers: Not cowed by overblown claims of crime (while I think crime is indeed a problem Democrats should address, New York City remains one of the safest places in the country); determined to defend the racial, ethnic and sexual diversity that makes our state great; and committed to standing up against the tyranny of an anti-democratic party that would force women into pregnancy and childbirth.
However, Democrats shouldn’t take this win for granted. The issues voters raised – inflation, crime – are real concerns. And the reasons many voters turned out – abortion rights, democratic norms – remain under threat.
Hochul’s job now is to address voter concerns, while standing up for New York values: Openness, decency, freedom for all. Because that’s what New Yorkers did today: The majority of us didn’t cast our ballots from a place of fear and reaction, but from the last dregs of hope and optimism. We voted for what we want. And we now want our governor to deliver.
Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and author of the book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind.” Follow her on Twitter.
North Carolina’s Senate race received less attention than contests in some other states – possibly a result of the campaign having lesser-known candidates than states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In the waning weeks of the race, multiple polls had the candidates – Democratic former state Supreme Court chief justice Cheri Beasley and Republican US House Rep. Ted Budd – separated by a percentage point or less.
Perhaps more than in any other Senate campaign, the issue of crime loomed large in North Carolina, with Budd claiming in his speeches that it had become much more dangerous to walk the streets in the state. That talking point, along with his focus on inflation, appeared to help propel him to victory in Tuesday’s vote.
Beasley, by contrast, focused much of her attention on abortion, making it a central plank of her campaign that she would stand up not just for women’s reproductive rights, but workplace protections and equal pay.
The two candidates were vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Despite being seen as a red state – albeit that is less solidly Republican than neighboring southern states – North Carolina has elected Democrats as five of the last six governors and two of the last six senators.
Former President Barack Obama won the state in 2008 but lost it in 2012 by one of the closest margins in the nation. And while Donald Trump won the state in 2016 and 2020, he never received 50% of the vote.
Douglas Heye is the ex-deputy chief of staff to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a GOP strategist and a CNN political commentator. Follow him on Twitter @dougheye.
Many of us suspected that Democratic Florida Congresswoman and former House impeachment manager Val Demings would have an uphill battle unseating incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio, and weren’t entirely surprised when she lost the race. With 98% of the vote counted, Rubio won easily, garnering 57.8% of the vote to Demings’ 41.1%.
As it turns out, Tuesday was a tough night all around for Black women running statewide. Beyond Demings’ loss, Judge Cheri Beasley narrowly lost her Senate bid in North Carolina.
And in the big heartbreak of the night, Stacey Abrams lost the Georgia governor’s race to Gov. Brian Kemp – a repeat of her defeat to him four years ago, when the two tangled for what at the time was an open seat.
Abrams shook up the 2018 race by expanding the electoral map, enlisting more women and people of color who turned out in record numbers – but she fell short of punching her ticket to Georgia’s governor’s mansion. And on Tuesday she lost to Kemp by a much wider margin than in 2018.
Had Abrams succeeded, she would have been the first Black woman to become the governor of a US state. After her second straight electoral loss, America is still waiting for that breakthrough.
Meanwhile, an ever bigger winner of the night was Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, who handily defeated Democrat Charlie Crist.
DeSantis’ big night solidifies what some feel is a compelling claim to front-runner status for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, on what turned out to be a strong election night for Republicans in the state.
It’s hard for a Democrat to win statewide in the deep South. And as Demings, Beasley and Abrams have shown, it’s particularly tough for a Black woman to win statewide in the region: In fact, it’s never been done.
All three women were well-qualified and well-funded stars in their party. But, when we look at the final vote tallies, it tells a familiar story. Take Demings, for example, a former law enforcement officer – she was Orlando’s police chief – and yet, she did not get the big law enforcement endorsements. Rubio did, although he never wore the blue.
That was a big red flag for me, and it showed how much gender and race still play in the minds of male voters and power brokers of my generation and older. For Black women, a double burden of both race and gender at play. It is the nagging story of our lives.
As for Abrams, I think Kemp was helped by backing away from Trump and modulating his campaign message to appeal to suburban women and independents.
Abrams, meanwhile, just didn’t have the same support and enthusiasm this time around for her candidacy. And that is unfortunate, but for her to lose by such a big margin says much more.
At the end of the day however, these three women have nothing to regret. They ran great campaigns, and they created great future platforms for themselves. And they each put one more crack in the glass ceiling facing candidates for the US Senate and governors’ mansions.
Sophia A. Nelson is a journalist and author of the new book “Be the One You Need: 21 Life Lessons I Learned Taking Care of Everyone but Me.”
Reflections on the morning after Election Day can be a little fuzzy: Chalk it up to a late night, incomplete data and a still-forming narrative. Still, as a longtime Pennsylvania election-watcher, I see three clear takeaways:
1) Pennsylvanians don’t take to extreme anti-establishment candidates. The GOP candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, broke the mold of just about any statewide candidate in the last few decades.
The state that delivered wins to center-right and center-left candidates like my father Gov, Dick Thornburgh, Sen. Bob Casey and Gov, Tom Ridge gave establishment Democrat Josh Shapiro a wipeout double-digit victory.
2) “You’re not from here and I am” and “Stick it to the man” proved to be sufficiently powerful messages for alt-Democrat John Fetterman to win his Senate race, albeit by a much smaller margin.
Amplified by more than $300 million in campaign spending (making PA’s the most expensive Senate race in the country), those two simple themes spoke to the quirky, stubborn authenticity that is a longstanding strand of Pennsylvania’s political DNA.
3) In the home of Independence Hall, independent voters made a significant difference. Pretty much every poll since the beginning of both marquee races showed the two party candidates with locked in lopsided mirror-image margins among members of their own party.
Over 90% of Democrats said they’d vote for Shapiro or Fetterman and close to 90% of Republicans said the same of Mastriano or Oz. The 20 to 30% of PA voters who consider themselves independent voters may have been more decisive than most tea-leaves readers gave them credit for.
Most polls showed Shapiro and Fetterman with whopping leads among independent voters. They may not have been the same independent voters: Shapiro’s indy supporters could be former GOP voters disaffected by Trump, and Fetterman’s indy squad could be young voters mobilized by the abortion rights issue (about half of young voters are independents nationally).
The growing significance of this independent vote in close elections may increase pressure on both parties to repeal closed primaries so that indy voters can vote in those elections. Both parties will want to have more time and opportunity to court them in the future.
With Florida ripening to a deeper and deeper Red, Pennsylvania may loom larger and larger as the most contested, consequential swing state in the country: well-worth watching as we move inexorably to 2024.
David Thornburgh is a longtime Pennsylvania civic leader. The former CEO of the Committee of Seventy, he now chairs the group’s Ballot PA initiative to repeal closed primaries. He is the second son of former GOP Governor and US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh.
The line of students registering to vote on Election Day stretched across the University of Michigan campus, with students waiting for over four hours. There was a palpable sense of excitement and urgency around the election on campus. For many young people, especially young women, there was one motivating issue that drove their participation: abortion rights.
One of the most important and contentious issues on the ballot in Michigan was Proposal 3 (commonly known as Prop 3), which codifies the right to abortion and other reproductive freedoms, such as birth control, into the Michigan state constitution. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many Michiganders have feared the return of a 1931 law that bans abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and contains felony criminal penalties for abortion providers.
Though the courts have prevented that old law from taking effect, voters were eager to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, and overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 3 with over 55% of voters approving the proposal. This is a major feat given the coordinated campaign against the proposal. Both pro-life groups and the Catholic Church strongly opposed it, and many ads claimed it was “too confusing and too extreme.”
The issue of abortion was a major focal point of the gubernatorial campaign between Gov, Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican challenger, Tudor Dixon. Pro-Whitmer groups consistently highlighted Dixon’s support of a near-total abortion ban and her past comments that having a rapist’s baby could help a victim heal. Whitmer’s resounding win in the purple state of Michigan is certainly due, in part, to backlash against Dixon’s extreme positions on the issue.
After the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, so many young voters felt helpless and despondent about the future of abortion rights. However, instead of throwing in the towel, Michigan voters showed up and displayed their support for Whitmer and Prop 3, showing that Michiganders support bodily autonomy and the right to choose.
Isabelle Schindler is a senior at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. She is a field director for College Democrats on her campus and has worked as a UMICH Votes Fellow to promote voting.
From the beginning, the US Senate race in Ohio wasn’t expected to be close. In the end, it wasn’t – with author and political newcomer J.D. Vance defeating Rep. Tim Ryan by over six percentage points.
Republicans also swept every statewide office in Ohio, including the elections for justices on the Ohio Supreme Court who, for the first time, had their political party listed next to their names on the ballot. This will give the Republicans a dependable majority on state’s highest court, which is significant since there is an ongoing unresolved legal battle over the drawing of state and federal legislative districts.
It is now safe to say that Ohio, for so long the quintessential swing state, is a Republican state. What happened is simple to explain: White, working-class voters have become a solid part of the Republican coalition in the Buckeye State. In 2016, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump convinced these voters that the Democratic Party had abandoned them to progressive and internationalist interests with values they did not share. This shift was symbolized by the movement of voters in the former manufacturing hub of Northeast Ohio, once the most Democratic part of the state, to the GOP.
The question going into 2022 was whether the Republicans could keep these voters if Trump was not on the ballot. The Democrats recruited Rep. Tim Ryan to run for the Senate because he was from Northeast Ohio, having grown up just north of Youngstown. They hoped that he could win those working-class voters back, and Ryan designed his campaign around working-class economic interests, distancing himself from Washington, DC, Democrats and even opposing President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Once the votes were counted, however, Ryan performed only slightly better than Biden had in Northeast Ohio. In fact, he even lost Trumbull County, the place where he grew up and whose voters he represented in Washington for two decades.
Ohio Democrats will face another test in two years, when the Democratic Senate seat held by Sherrod Brown will be on the ballot. Brown won in 2018, but given last night’s result, the Republicans will have no problem recruiting a quality candidate to run for a seat that, right now, at least leans Republican.
Paul Sracic is a professor of politics and international relations at Youngstown State University and the coauthor of “Ohio Politics and Government” (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @pasracic.
Pennsylvanians clearly rejected the worst of right-wing extremism on Nov. 8, sending a strong message to former President Donald Trump that his endorsement doesn’t guarantee victory in the Keystone State.
Trump proved to be a two-time loser in the commonwealth this election cycle, despite stirring up his base with screaming rallies for Republican candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz, Doug Mastriano and Rep. Scott Perry.
And a lot of people are breathing a long, hard sign of relief.
Mastriano, who CNN projects will lose the race for the state’s governor to Democrat Josh Shapiro, scared many Pennsylvanians with his brash, take-no-prisoners Trump swagger. He inflamed racial tensions, embraced Christian nationalism, and once said women who violated his proposed abortion ban should be charged with murder. On top of all that, he’s an unapologetic election denier.
Dr. Oz, meanwhile, couldn’t shake his carpetbagger baggage, and Oprah’s rejection – on November 4, she endorsed his rival and now-victorious candidate in the Senate race, John Fetterman – seems to have carried more weight than Trump’s rallies, at least in the feedback I’ve received from readers and community members.
All of this should compel some serious soul-searching among Republican leadership in Pennsylvania. What could have they been thinking to place all their marbles on someone so outside of the mainstream as Mastriano? Did they think Pennsylvanians wouldn’t check Oz’s address? Will they rethink their hardline stance on abortion?
In a widely-watched House race, Harrisburg City Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels made a valiant Democratic effort to unseat GOP Rep. Scott Perry, after the party’s preferred candidate pulled out of the race. But her lack of name recognition and inexperience on the state or national stage impacted her ability to establish a base of her own. So the five-term incumbent, who played a role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, will return to Washington – though perhaps with a clipped wing.
Many Pennsylvanians may be staunch conservatives, but we proved we’re not extremists – and we won’t embrace Trump or his candidates if they threaten the very foundations of democracy.
Joyce M. Davis is outreach and opinion editor for PennLive and The Patriot-News. She is a veteran journalist and author who has lived and worked around the globe, including for National Public Radio, Knight Ridder Newspapers in Washington, DC, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague.
In the last two years, President Joe Biden, Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock, all Democrats, won in the Peach State. There has been a raging debate in Georgia political circles since then as to whether these races signal a long-term left turn toward the Democratic Party, caused by shifting demographics, or whether they were merely a negative reaction to former President Donald Trump. Tuesday’s results point strongly to the latter.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who had rebuffed Trump’s demand to overturn the 2020 presidential result, cruised to a convincing reelection on Tuesday with a pro-growth message by defeating the Democrats’ rising star Stacey Abrams by some 300,000 votes. His coattails also propelled other Republican state candidates to victory – including the Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who had also defied the former President – and helped to keep the Georgia General Assembly firmly in GOP hands.
However, before sliding Georgia from a purple political state back into the solid red state column, we still have one more contest to look forward to: a runoff for the US Senate, echoing what happened in Georgia’s last set of Senate races.
Georgia requires candidates to win over 50% of the vote and the presence of a Libertarian on the ticket has thrown the heated race between Warnock, the incumbent senator and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Georgia football great Herschel Walker into an overtime runoff campaign to be decided on December 6.
Both Walker and Warnock survived November 8 to fight another day despite different strong headwinds facing each of them. For Warnock, it has been Biden’s low favorability rating – hovering around 40% nationwide, and only 38% in Georgia, according to Marist. For Walker, it has been the steady drumbeat of personal allegations rolled out over the past few months, some admitted to and others staunchly denied.
Warnock has faced his challenge by emphasizing his willingness to work across the aisle on some issues and occasionally disagreeing with the President on others. Walker, who is backed by Trump, has pulled from the deep well of admiration many Georgians feel for the former college football star.
Both of these strategies were strong enough to get them into a runoff, but which strategy will work in that arena? The answer could be crucial to determining which party controls the US Senate, depending on the result of other races that have yet to be called. Stay tuned while Georgians enjoy having the two candidates for Thanksgiving dinner and into the holiday season.
Edward Lindsey is a former Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives and its majority whip. He is a lawyer in Atlanta focusing on public policy and political law.
In his bid to win a seat in the US Senate, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan tried to appeal to working class voters who felt abandoned by establishment Democrats. Those blue collar voters – many of them formerly members of his party – overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016 and again in 2020.
Unfortunately for Ryan, his strategy failed. He lost to J.D. Vance by a decisive margin, according to election projections.
It was, perhaps, a predictable ending for a candidate who threw away the traditional approach of rallying your base and instead courted the almost non-existent, moderate Trump voter. And it’s a shame. Had Ryan won, Ohio would have had two Democratic senators. The last time that happened was almost 30 years ago, when Howard Metzenbaum and John Glenn represented our state.
But in wooing Republicans and right-leaning moderates, Ryan abandoned many of Ohio’s left-leaning Democrats who brought him to the dance.
That approach was perhaps most evident in his ads. In a campaign spot in which he is shown tossing a football at various computer screens showing messages he disapproves of, he hurls the ball at one emblazoned with the words “Defund the Police” and dismisses what he disdainfully calls “the culture wars.”
Another ad showed Ryan, gun in hand, hitting his mark at target practice, as the words “Not too bad for a Democrat” appear on the screen. To imply you’re pro-gun rights when majority of Americans support gun control legislation – and when your party explicitly embraces a pro-gun control stance is bewildering. Ryan’s ads on the economy began to parrot the anti-China rhetoric taken up by Republicans. And when President Joe Biden announced his student debt plan in an effort to invigorate the Democratic bringing economic relief to millions of millennial voters, Ryan opposed the move.
As a Black woman living in a metropolitan area, I would have liked to see him reach out to communities of color, perhaps by making an appearance with African American members of Ohio’s congressional delegation Rep. Joyce Beatty or Rep. Shontel Brown. But I would have settled for one ad addressing the economic or social concerns of people who don’t live in the Rust Belt.
Ryan might have won if he’d gotten the kind of robust backing from his own party that Vance got from his – and if he’d courted his Democratic base.
Brianna N. Mack is an assistant professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University whose coursework is centered on American political behavior. Her research interests are the political behavior of racial and ethnic minorities. She tweets at @Mack_Musings.
Wisconsin remains as split as ever with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers surviving a challenge from businessman Tim Michels and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson barely holding off a challenge from Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
In late February, Johnson, who Democrats hoped might be a beatable incumbent, was viewed favorably by only 33% of Wisconsin’s voters, according to the Marquette University Law School poll. He was viewed unfavorably by 45% of the electorate with 21% saying they didn’t know what to think of him or hadn’t heard enough about him. He finished the election cycle still seen unfavorably by 46% with 43% of the voters holding a favorable view of him.
However, Democrats decided to run possibly the worst candidate if they wanted to win against Johnson. At one point in August, the relatively unknown Barnes actually led Johnson by 7%. But familiarity with Barnes didn’t help him. Crime was the third most concerning issue for Wisconsin voters this election cycle, according to the Marquette University Law School poll, and Johnson’s campaign successfully attacked Barnes for statements in support of decreasing or redirecting police funding and for reducing the prison population. In the end, Johnson came out victorious.
So, with Republicans winning in the Senate, what saved Evers in the gubernatorial race? Perhaps it was women voters.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade meant Wisconsin’s abortion ban from 1849 went back into effect. Michels supported the no-exceptions law but then flip-flopped and said he could support exceptions for rape and incest. Johnson, for his part, successfully deflected the issue by saying he wanted Wisconsin’s abortion law to go to referendum.
Another issue that may have soured women voters on Michels was the allegation of a culture of sexual harassment within his company. Evers’ campaign unsurprisingly jumped at the opportunity to argue that “the culture comes from the top.” (In response to the allegations against his company, Michel said: “These unproven allegations do not reflect the training and culture at Michels Corporation. Harassment in the workplace should not be condoned, nor tolerated, nor was it under Michels Corporation leadership.”) Michels’ divisive primary fight against former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch also didn’t help his appeal to women voters, especially in Kleefisch’s home county of Waukesha, formerly a key to a Republican victory in Wisconsin.
If Republicans are going to win in 2024, they need to figure out how to attract the support of suburban women.
James Wigderson is the former editor of RightWisconsin.com, a conservative-leaning news website, and the author of a twice-weekly newsletter, “Life, Under Construction.”
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Democrat John Fetterman will win the Pennsylvania Senate race, CNN projects, defeating Republican Mehmet Oz, flipping the seat and boosting Democratic hopes of keeping their majority.
Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor since 2019, and Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, ran one of the most contentious and expensive Senate contests in the country – all of it while Fetterman continued his recovery from a pre-primary stroke that often limited his ability to speak on the trail.
For Democrats trying to preserve their control of what has been a Senate split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote, Fetterman’s win could prove decisive.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s retirement in a state President Joe Biden won two years ago created Democrats’ best opportunity to pick up a seat and save their narrow majority, and the Commonwealth entered Election Day as one of at least nine states holding what were expected to be competitive Senate races.
Fetterman’s victory caps a remarkable ascent from his time as mayor of Braddock, a borough in western Pennsylvania, to the lieutenant governor’s office – which he won after unseating a fellow Democrat in a 2018 primary – to the US Senate. A longtime progressive, he is an outspoken supporter of abolishing the filibuster, raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, criminal justice reform and passing legislation to protect same-sex marriage, among other leading liberal priorities.
His success will also provide inspiration to stroke survivors and other disabled Americans, some of whom took heart from his efforts to carry on campaigning even as he exhibited the lingering effects of his May stroke. Fetterman, though he has not released his full medical records, has said he expects to be at or near full strength by the time he takes office early next year.
Though Oz himself largely steered clear of disparaging Fetterman over his stroke-related difficulties, his campaign was less cautious, leading the Republican to repeatedly distance himself from his own staffers’ remarks. Asked at one point late in the campaign whether he would speak to his own patients the way his campaign addressed Fetterman, Oz responded with one word: “No.”
The White House didn’t weigh in on individual races over the course of election night. But following Fetterman’s projected win, it sent a subtle, if pointed message: “The president had a great time with the senator-elect on Saturday,” a White House official told CNN.
While many Democrats in battleground seats sought to avoid Biden’s presence on the campaign trail, Fetterman embraced the president. Biden made several trips to Pennsylvania and each time in the closing months of the race, Fetterman would appear alongside of him, including in Philadelphia this past weekend.
Biden’s Pennsylvania roots are an integral part of his story, his win in 2020 is central to the presidency, and now, after 20 visits to the state in his first two years in office, it marks the first Democratic pickup in the critical battle for the Senate majority.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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And that continued right through Election Day, with a party platter that referenced one of Oz’s most infamous campaign flubs.
Reporters at Fetterman’s election night event spotted a “crudité” spread:
That’s a reference to an infamous video Oz made in a supermarket complaining about prices as he pretended he was buying ingredients his wife wanted for a “crudité.”
Fetterman retweeted the video with a crudité correction.
“In PA we call this a… veggie tray,” he wrote.
But on election night, Fetterman’s campaign couldn’t help but break out the jokey C-word:
That wasn’t Oz’s only screwup in the video, He also botched the names of two regional supermarket chains by claiming he was in a “Wegner’s,” apparently a mangling of Wegmans with Redner’s.
He later claimed the mixup was because he was “exhausted” by his campaign effort.
“I’ve gotten my kids’ names wrong as well,” Oz told Newsmax. “I don’t think that’s a measure of someone’s ability to lead the commonwealth.”
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Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) won Pennsylvania’s high-stakes Senate race Tuesday, defeating Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, according to the Associated Press, a significant victory as Democrats flip the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and vie to maintain control of the Senate.
Fetterman beat Oz by more than two points to flip the key Senate seat in favor of the Democrats.
With 91% of the votes counted at around 2 a.m., Fetterman led Oz 49.9% to 47.7%, a lead of 113,036 votes.
Fetterman gave a speech thanking the people of Pennsylvania after several TV networks called the race for him, and tweeted: “I won’t let you down.”
Oz has yet to publicly concede the race.
“This race is for the future of every community across Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said after the race was called by multiple media outlets.
The two candidates in one of the most closely watched toss-up races in the country could not have been further apart when it came to style and personality. Oz is a Republican TV celebrity and doctor who is worth over $100 million and didn’t even live in their state until December 2021. Fetterman, who sported a hooded sweatshirt and goatee on the campaign trail, was born and raised in West Reading, Pennsylvania, served as mayor of the struggling steel town of Braddock for 13 years before becoming lieutenant governor. He suffered a stroke days before the May primary that took him off the campaign trail for months and left him with auditory processing issues that affected his ability to communicate in interviews and during the candidates’ sole debate. Oz seized on his opponent’s health issues to cast him as unfit for office, while Fetterman described his struggles as a way to empathize with everyday Pennsylvanians. In the final days before the election, prominent players from both parties campaigned alongside the candidates in hopes of securing wins in a contest that will help determine which party controls the Senate. As former President Donald Trump rallied with Oz, on Saturday, President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama campaigned with Fetterman.
0.5. That’s the number of points Oz led the polls by heading into Election Day, according to FiveThirtyEight, representing more than a 10-point shift from Fetterman’s lead in mid-September.
Oz, Fetterman Nearly Tied In Post-Debate Poll As Senate Control Swings In GOP’s Favor (Forbes)
Fetterman Attacks Oz Over Abortion Remarks In Post-Debate Ad (Forbes)
Oprah Endorses Fetterman Despite Oz History—Why Her Support Might Sway Voters, And Why It Might Not (Forbes)
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Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
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Jae C. Hong/AP
Updated 7:49 PM EST, Tue November 8, 2022
The midterm elections on Tuesday will decide which party controls the chambers of Congress for the next two years.
Democrats are playing defense in blue-state strongholds such as New York, Washington and Oregon as they aim to hold on to the House of Representatives. Republicans only need a net gain of five seats to win back control of the House.
A handful of swing state showdowns will decide the destiny of the Senate, which is currently split 50-50. Some of the key Senate races to watch are in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
A Republican triumph in either the House or the Senate has the potential to curtail Joe Biden’s presidency and set up an acrimonious two years of political standoffs ahead of the 2024 race for the White House.
Dozens of governorships, secretaries of states and attorneys general are also on the ballot.
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Despite the stroke he suffered in May, Fetterman, 53, handily won the Democratic nomination with the support of all 67 counties. His motto on the campaign trail has been “Every County. Every Vote.”
He didn’t return to the campaign trail until August, and Fetterman continues to struggle with auditory processing. He has been using closed captioning to read the questions in interviews. But Fetterman’s doctor said in October that his recovery is progressing and that overall, he is doing well. The doctor stated he has “no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office.”
Fetterman’s health was a political target on the campaign trail, where Oz and others called on him to release his medical records. His challenges were evident during the lone Pennsylvania Senate debate on October 25, where Fetterman used closed captioning to answer questions. During the debate, he said he was running for every Pennsylvanian who had ever been knocked down but had to get back up.
On the campaign trail, Fetterman called for pro-union policies, raising the minimum wage, abolishing the filibuster, decriminalizing marijuana, protecting abortion rights and affordable health care. He accused Oz of being out-of-touch with Pennsylvanians, arguing he’s a celebrity doctor from New Jersey.
He also painted Oz as an extremist on abortion. During their only debate, Oz said the federal government should not be involved in abortion decisions but left it to “women, doctors, local political leaders.”
Fetterman was also one of the few Democrats on the trail who didn’t try to distance himself from President Biden. The two appeared together on Labor Day just outside Pittsburgh, and they were together again in late October for a fundraiser in Philadelphia.
Fetterman is a native of York, Pennsylvania, and he later moved to Braddock, an old steel town outside Pittsburgh, to start a GED program. He eventually ran for mayor, a post he held from January 2006 until he was elected lieutenant governor in 2018.
Oz, the son of Turkish immigrants, grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. If elected, he would be the country’s first Muslim senator. The 62-year-old doctor made his name appearing with Oprah Winfrey and then on “The Dr. Oz Show.” (Oprah endorsed Fetterman over Oz last week.)
Oz was a longtime resident of New Jersey but changed his voter registration in late 2020 to Pennsylvania, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In November 2021 he announced his Pennsylvania Senate bid. About a month before the May primary, he was endorsed by former President Trump. He won the primary against former hedge fund CEO David McCormick by less than 1,000 votes. Oz has put about $25 million of his own money into the campaign.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Oz focused on crime and accused Fetterman of wanting to release a third of inmates. He has also gone after Fetterman for some of his votes as chair of the state board of parsons, which is part of his responsibility as lieutenant governor. Oz also used his stump to talk about rising costs and energy independence.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Some of Pennsylvania’s largest counties scrambled Monday to help voters fix mail-in ballots that have fatal flaws such as incorrect dates or missing signatures on the envelopes used to send them in, bringing about confusion and legal challenges in the battleground state on the eve of the election.
Elections officials in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, announced measures they were taking in response to state Supreme Court rulings in recent days that said mail-in ballots may not be counted if they lack accurate handwritten dates on the exterior envelopes.
Ahead of Tuesday’s midterms, more than a million mail-in and absentee ballots have already been returned in Pennsylvania, with Democrats far more likely than Republicans to vote by mail. The numbers are large enough that they might matter in a close race, such as the contest between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz that could determine majority control of the U.S. Senate.
The Department of State said it was unclear just how many ballots are at issue across the state. The agency over the weekend asked counties to provide the numbers, broken down by political party. Officials said some counties were not letting voters fix their mistakes.
Lines formed at City Hall in downtown Philadelphia on Monday and over the weekend with voters waiting to correct their ballots. Some people on social media said the office did not get to everyone Monday.
The Pennsylvania litigation was filed by Republican groups and is among legal efforts by both political parties in multiple states to have courts sort out disputes over voting rules and procedures ahead of the midterm election.
A new federal lawsuit over the envelope dates was filed Monday in Pittsburgh federal court by the national congressional and senatorial Democratic campaign organizations, two Democratic voters and Fetterman’s U.S. Senate campaign. They sued county boards of election across the state, arguing that throwing out ballots that lack proper envelope dates would violate a provision in the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act that says people can’t be kept from voting based on what the lawsuit calls “needless technical requirements.”
A separate federal lawsuit filed Friday makes a similar argument.
In Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the state Assembly’s elections committee, along with a veterans group and other voters, filed a lawsuit Friday seeking a court order requiring the sequestering of military absentee ballots in the battleground state. The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction requiring elections officials in Wisconsin to set aside military ballots so their authenticity can be verified.
A judge Monday refused that order.
Also on Monday, in Arizona, a judge blocked Cochise County’s plan to conduct a Republican effort to count all ballots by hand. The lawsuit aimed to stop the county board of supervisors from expanding what is normally a small hand tally used to verify machines’ accuracy to include all early ballots and all Election Day ballots as well.
A challenge against voting by absentee ballot in Detroit was also thrown out Monday after a judge ruled that a Republican candidate for secretary of state “failed dramatically” to produce any evidence of violations in the majority-Black city.
Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state, Leigh Chapman, on Monday urged mail-in voters who think they may have made technical errors to contact their county elections offices. If the county won’t let them fix the problem, they should go to their local polling place on Tuesday and request a provisional ballot, she said.
In Allentown, Lehigh County officials reached out to all the voters they could locate whose ballots have problems, election director Tim Benyo said Monday. He said there are a few hundred ballots at issue.
“People have been very interested in curing their ballots,” Benyo said. “We’ve been busy.”
Allegheny County elections officials posted online the names and birth years of voters who have sent in ballots in envelopes that either lack any date or are dated outside the permissible range of Sept. 19-Nov. 8 for mail-in ballots and Aug. 30-Nov. 8 for absentee ballots. Those voters can fix their ballots in person at the elections office Monday or Tuesday, or vote provisionally at their regular polling places.
Allegheny reported that, as of Sunday, more than 600 incorrectly and nearly 400 undated ballots had arrived to be counted. Philadelphia said it has received about 2,000 undated ballots and several hundred more that appear to have been incorrectly dated.
Philadelphia Deputy Commissioner Nick Custodio said the court decision last week and the tide of ballots rolling in ahead of Election Day has made it difficult to issue direct notifications.
“So far we have only been able to put out a list on our website, but we are exploring whatever other options are available given the short time-period,” Custodio said.
Dozens of voters seeking to fix their ballots showed up at City Hall over the weekend, and Custodio said more visited city offices Monday. Volunteers from several groups are contacting those voters to see if they need help getting to the elections office.
A judge in Monroe County, a swing region in eastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, on Monday denied a Republican request to stop efforts by county election officials to notify voters about defective absentee and mail-in ballots and give them a chance to fix them.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that mail-in votes do not count if they are “contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes,” then supplemented that with a follow-up order on Saturday that specified the allowable date range for mail-in and absentee ballots.
Ballots without properly dated envelopes have been the topic of litigation since mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a state law passed in 2019.
Mail-in ballots must be received by 8 p.m. Tuesday, so at this point officials are urging people who have not done so to deliver them to elections offices or drop boxes by hand.
This story has been corrected to say mail-in ballots must be received by 8 p.m., not 8 a.m.
___ AP reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Bob Christie in Phoenix and Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this story.
Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections. And follow the AP’s election coverage of the 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.
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To better understand this year’s midterm elections, CBS News has identified key groups of voters whose motivations go beyond party labels. They include “pressured parents,” who are concerned about inflation and their children’s well-being in the post-pandemic world.
CBS News sat down with three parents in the Philadelphia suburbs to talk about the issues driving their midterm vote, as the group could be the difference in Pennsylvania’s high-stakes election and could help determine who controls Congress.
Heather Emery, a registered Republican, said crime is one of her top concerns.
“We have to do something on crime,” Emery said. “We have to change that for our children.”
Lisa Nelson-Haynes, a registered Democrat, said she’s concerned about abortion access.
“I am concerned about the lack of self-agency and governance that I have in terms of my body or that my daughter has,” Nelson-Haynes said. “And I don’t understand the conversation when, you know, you hear people say, ‘My body, my choice is baloney.’ But it wasn’t when you were talking about wearing a mask.”
Gerry Gant, a registered Libertarian, named inflation his top concern.
All three parents said they’ve had to adjust their lifestyles because of inflation. Emery said she’s only buying necessities, and that her kids have noticed. Gant said his teenage son is “eating us out of house and home.”
“I think about things more when I’m going shopping,” Nelson-Haynes said.
These are the issues at the center of the U.S. Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz. Gant said neither candidate is a good option and he’ll probably vote third party.
The group all had concerns about the pandemic’s impact on their children, but they differed on who is to blame.
“They’re incredibly behind,” Emery said. “And I don’t know if they’re going to be able to dig — like we can dig our kids out, right?”
“There were milestones that were missed and there were, with that, there has been an assumption of kind of tempering your dreams and aspirations,” Nelson-Haynes said.
“Every institution failed them over the past two, three years,” Gant said.
The parents also said they feel anxious or scared. But they each noted the importance of their votes in the election.
“Everyone that I know understands that it’s vital that they vote,” Nelson-Haynes said.
“I really think every vote is going to make a difference this year,” Emery added.
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