Grace and Sarah, two academics in their mid-20s, arrived early to cast their ballots Tuesday morning at the polling station in Philadelphia’s stately City Hall. “To protect our rights,” said one. “For democracy,” added the other. And then Grace grimaced, thinking about the possibility of a “red wave”, of the color of the Republicans, during these midterm elections held across the country, a wave that the polls have been suggesting for several days. “If that happens, we will find ourselves in turmoil again. Especially us women. I can’t believe we’re going to go back any further, ”she added.
In the middle of the night, the worst in Grace’s eyes was becoming less and less certain, as Republicans moved slowly toward regaining control of the House of Representatives, but far from the anticipated tidal wave. The majority in the Senate, she still held in races, those of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where the count could still continue during the day on Wednesday – and perhaps even later – to be able to deliver a definitive picture.
Trumpism has confirmed its power of attraction in Ohio, with the victory of the venture capitalist and novelist, JD Vance, ex-critic of Donald Trump who is now its spokesperson. The author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a novel about the working class, defeated Democrat Tim Ryan.
However, the scenario seemed different in Arizona, where Democrat Mark Kelly offered stronger resistance, from the first unveiling of the results, to the conspiracy carried by his Republican opponent Blake Masters, promoter of Trump’s fallacious thesis that the 2020 ballot was rigged.
As governor of this southern state, Katie Hobbs, secretary of state who found herself in the crosshairs of populist supporters after certifying the vote for Joe Biden in 2020, was also ahead of Kari Lake, a former figure in local journalism who posed during this campaign as a carbon copy, but feminine, of Donald Trump. On Monday, she promised her ex-colleagues that she would also become “their worst nightmare” for four years after her victory. The candidate has refused to say in recent weeks whether she would accept the results of the vote, in the event of defeat.
A blue dam
In a generally unfavorable midterm vote for the party in the White House, however, Democrats managed to stave off Trumpism in the gubernatorial race in three liberal-leaning states that did not never been afraid to vote for moderate Republicans. However, the candidates chosen by Donald Trump in Massachusetts (Geoff Diehl) and Maryland (Dan Cox) were defeated by Democrats Maura Healey and Wes Moore, who have thus just returned the leadership of these states to Joe Biden’s party. In Illinois, JB Pritzker pushed back Darren Bailey, supported by the ex-president, in his attempt to give the state to the Republicans.
In a closely watched race, Democrat Josh Shapiro, Attorney General of Pennsylvania, for his part defeated his Republican opponent Doug Mastriano for governor of the state, the cradle of American democracy. Mastriano campaigned controversially as a certified Trumpist, advocating tough anti-abortion legislation and repeating the ex-president’s “big lie” about stolen elections. He took part on January 6, 2021 in the insurrection against the Capitol.
Overall, Tuesday’s poll went off without a hitch across the country. Anecdotally, 20 vote-tabulating machines failed at the opening of a single office in Arizona. However, even if the problem was quickly resolved, it was enough to fuel new online attacks by Republicans against the country’s voting system.
On his social network, Truth Social, Donald Trump spoke of “20% of so-called voting machines” not working. The proportion is grossly wrong. “Kari Lake, Blake Masters and all the others are going to be greatly affected by this disaster,” he added, laying the groundwork for future challenges in this race, as in several others in the United States, in the coming years. days.
“Election fraud and the grand narrative of this lie being based on nothing real, it is unlikely to dissipate after this election,” commented Tuesday in an interview with the To have to Cornell University sociologist Mabel Brezin. “The damage has been done and will not disappear overnight. »
The US electoral system, however, managed to re-elect Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who defeated Democrat Charlie Crist, for another term in a state where abortion rights advocates ultimately failed. failed to block this Republican seeking to radicalize local politics on this issue. But DeSantis also aspires to the presidency of the United States and could thus compete strongly with Donald Trump during a possible primary for the election of 2024.
Conversely, voters in Vermont voted overwhelmingly in a referendum on Tuesday to enshrine the protection of the right to abortion in the state constitution.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.