Dec 26 (Reuters) – Arizona’s Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs asked a court on Monday to sanction defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake over her failed effort to overturn the state’s election results.
An Arizona judge on Saturday rejected Lake’s lawsuit that challenged the counting and certification of the November electoral contest in a bid to be declared the winner despite a lack of evidence of voter fraud.
Hobbs joined a motion by Maricopa County for sanctions on Lake and her attorneys in which the county’s deputy attorney Thomas P. Liddy wrote Lake filed a “groundless” lawsuit for a “frivolous pursuit,” court documents showed.
“Enough really is enough,” Liddy wrote in the motion filed on Monday. “It is past time to end unfounded attacks on elections and unwarranted accusations against elections officials.”
Maricopa County’s motion had “no basis in law or fact,” Lake’s lawyers wrote in a response filed Monday evening, asking the court to deny the request for sanctions.
“Trust in the election process is not furthered by punishing those who bring legitimate claims as plaintiff did here,” the court document filed by Lake’s lawyers said. “In fact, sanctioning plaintiff would have the opposite effect.”
The sanctions would be in the form of a financial penalty imposed by a judge for violation of a court rule or misconduct.
Lake’s lawsuit had targeted Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state and becomes governor next week, along with top officials in Maricopa County. Her suit claimed “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election” in Maricopa, the state’s most populous county.
In a separate court filing, Hobbs also asked the Superior Court in Maricopa County to award her over $600,000 to compensate for fees and expenses accrued in defending against Lake’s lawsuit.
Lake, a former television news anchor, was one of the most high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to embrace former Republican President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020.
She lost the governor’s race to Hobbs but refused to concede and continued making unconfirmed claims about election improprieties on her Twitter feed.
Lake was one of the most prominent of the Trump-aligned Republican candidates who lost battleground state races in the midterm elections.
Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Mary Milliken and Alistair Bell
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Nov 14 (Reuters) – Kari Lake, one of the most high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to embrace former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020, lost her bid to become the next governor of Arizona, Edison Research projected on Monday.
The closely fought governor’s race between Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs was one of the most significant in the general election because Arizona is a battleground state and will likely play a pivotal role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Lake’s loss is the latest defeat for a series of candidates endorsed by Trump, who on Tuesday is expected to announce another White House bid.
After the Arizona governor race was called, Hobbs wrote on Twitter: “Democracy is worth the wait.” Lake expressed disdain for the election calls, tweeting that “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
Lake had vowed to ban the state’s mail-in voting, which conspiracy theorists falsely claim is vulnerable to fraud, fueling distrust among voters about the safety of a voting method used by hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Her defeat capped a triumphant week for Democrats, who defied Republicans’ hopes for a “red wave” in the midterm elections.
Democrats retained their control of the U.S. Senate after keeping seats in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. The party could win outright majority control if Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock beats Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff on Dec. 6, bolstering Democratic sway over committees, bills and judicial picks.
The Democratic victories in a swath of gubernatorial, congressional and statehouse elections defied expectations that voters would punish them for record inflation, including high gas and food prices. Instead, Democrats were able to curb their losses, in part by mobilizing voters angry over the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
Still, Republicans continued to edge toward control of the House of Representatives. As of Monday, Republicans had won 214 seats and the Democrats 207, with 218 needed for a majority. Control of the House would allow Republicans to stymie President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
It could take several days before the outcome of enough House races is known to determine which party will control the 435-seat chamber.
Lake, a former television news anchor, was one of a string of Trump-aligned Republican candidates who lost battleground state races. Voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin also rejected election deniers in races for governor and other statewide election posts.
Biden narrowly beat Trump in Arizona in the 2020 election. Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state, rose to national prominence when she defended the state’s election results against Trump’s claims of voter fraud.
On Monday, she won the seat currently held by Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who could not seek re-election because of term limits.
Vote-counting in Arizona continued for nearly a week after the Nov. 8 election. Arizona requires voters’ signatures on early ballots to be verified before they are processed. The counting was delayed this year because hundreds of thousands of early ballots were cast at drop boxes on Election Day, officials said.
Lake and Trump had pointed to temporary Election Day problems with electronic vote-counting machines in Maricopa County as evidence that Republican votes were being suppressed.
A judge denied a request to extend polling place hours, saying Republicans had provided no evidence that voters were disenfranchised by the issue.
In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Lake said the lengthy counting process was “trampling” voters’ rights, and was further evidence of why election administration in Arizona needed to be reformed.
“We can’t be the laughing stock of elections any more here in Arizona, and when I’m governor, I will not allow it,” she said.
Reporting by Julia Harte and Brad Brooks; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alistair Bell and Edmund Klamann
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WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Republicans were edging closer to securing a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives early on Thursday, while control of the Senate hung in the balance, two days after Democrats staved off a Republican “red wave” in midterm elections.
Republicans had captured at least 210 House seats, Edison Research projected, eight short of the 218 needed to wrest the House away from Democrats and effectively halt President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
While Republicans remain favored, there were 33 House contests yet to be decided – including 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters – likely ensuring the final outcome will not be determined for some time.
(Live election results from around the country are here.)
The fate of the Senate was far less certain. Either party could seize control by sweeping too-close-to-call races in Nevada and Arizona, where officials are methodically tallying thousands of uncounted ballots.
A split would mean the Senate majority would come down to a runoff election in Georgia for the second time in two years. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both failed to reach 50% on Tuesday, forcing them into a one-on-one battle on Dec. 6.
Even a slim House majority would allow Republicans to shape the rest of Biden’s term, blocking priorities such as abortion rights and launching investigations into his administration and family.
Biden acknowledged that reality on Wednesday, saying he was prepared to work with Republicans. A White House official said Biden spoke by phone with Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who announced earlier in the day his intention to run for speaker of the House if Republicans control the chamber.
“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” Biden said at a White House news conference.
If McCarthy is the next House speaker, he may find it challenging to hold together his fractious caucus, with a hard-right wing that has little interest in compromise.
Republicans are expected to demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing limit next year, a showdown that could spook financial markets.
Control of the Senate, meanwhile, would give Republicans the power to block Biden’s nominees for judicial and administrative posts.
MIXED RESULTS
The party in power historically suffers heavy casualties in a president’s first midterm election, and Biden has struggled with low approval ratings. But Democrats were able to avoid the sweeping defeat that Republicans had anticipated.
Tuesday’s results suggested voters were punishing Biden for the steepest inflation in 40 years, while also lashing out against Republican efforts to ban abortion and cast doubt on the nation’s vote-counting process.
Biden had framed the election as a test of U.S. democracy at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates embraced Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
A number of election deniers won on Tuesday, but many who sought positions to oversee elections at the state level were defeated.
“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Biden said.
Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates, had mixed results.
He notched a victory in Ohio, where “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance won a Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. But several other Trump-backed candidates suffered defeats, such as retired celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz, who lost a crucial Senate race in Pennsylvania to Democrat John Fetterman.
Meanwhile, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could challenge Trump in 2024, won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points, adding to his growing national profile.
Reporting by Joseph Ax, Andy Sullivan, Makini Brice, Susan Heavey, Richard Cowan, Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Gabriella Borter in Birmingham, Michigan, Nathan Layne in Alpharetta, Georgia, Tim Reid in Phoenix and Ned Parker in Reno, Nevada; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Tom Hogue
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WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Americans on Tuesday cast the final ballots in U.S. midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats lose control of Congress, and with it the ability to push forward on President Joe Biden’s agenda in the next two years.
The party that controls the White House typically loses seats in midterm elections. Nonpartisan forecasts suggest Tuesday’s results will be no exception, as concerns about high inflation and crime outweigh the end of national abortion rights and the violent Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol in voters’ minds.
Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot. Republicans are widely favored to pick up the five seats they need to control the House, while the Senate – currently split 50-50 with Democrats holding the tie-breaking vote – could come down to a quartet of toss-up races in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona.
But even before the midterm elections were completed, the 2024 presidential election was taking shape. Former President Donald Trump on Monday night sent his strongest hint yet that he would be kicking off his third consecutive White House campaign soon, telling supporters in Ohio that he would be making a “big announcement” on Nov. 15. He did not specify what that would be, but he has been telegraphing plans to run again since shortly after losing his 2020 reelection bid to Biden.
Hundreds of supporters of Trump’s false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud are on the ballot this year, including several seeking positions that would give them direct oversight of the 2024 president elections in competitive states.
More than 42 million Americans voted ahead of Election Day, either by mail or in-person, according to data from the U.S. Election Project. State election officials caution that full results may not be known for days as they count ballots in close races – with control of the Senate perhaps not known until a potential Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia.
In the swing state of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia officials on Tuesday moved to reinstate a process that can catch possible double votes from being counted but takes more time. This could shine a national spotlight on the state’s largest city if its high-stakes U.S. Senate race is as close as expected.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced it would monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states. Officials in at least one locality — Cole County, Missouri — pushed back against the move.
There are 36 governorships and scores of other state-level races on the ballot, including hotly contested gubernatorial campaigns in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.
In Congress, a Republican-controlled House would be able to block bills addressing Democratic priorities such as abortion rights and climate change. Republicans could also initiate a showdown over the nation’s debt ceiling, which could shake financial markets, and launch potentially politically damaging investigations into Biden’s administration and family.
Republicans would look to use their leverage to make permanent the 2017 individual tax cuts passed under Trump, and protect corporate tax cuts that Democrats have unsuccessfully tried to reverse over the past two years.
A Republican Senate, meanwhile, would hold sway over Biden’s judicial nominations, including any Supreme Court vacancy. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has already hinted he might refuse to fill an open seat on the top court until after the 2024 presidential election if he returns to the majority leader’s position.
Divided government would intensify the spotlight on the increasingly conservative court, which has already issued sweeping decisions erasing a nationwide right to abortion and vastly expanding gun rights, among others.
Reuters Graphics
FINAL PUSH
Biden and former President Barack Obama, still the party’s biggest luminary, have crisscrossed the country over the past week, urging supporters to vote in hopes of stemming Democrats’ losses. Trump has done the same as he lays the groundwork for another run at the presidency.
However, some Democrats in tough races have deliberately distanced themselves from the White House as Biden’s popularity languishes. On Monday, the final day of campaigning, Biden headed to the politically safe turf of Democratic-leaning Maryland, rather than a swing state.
“It’s Election Day, America. Make your voice heard today. Vote,” Biden, who previously cast his ballot in early voting in Delaware, said in a post on Twitter Tuesday morning.
Trump is scheduled to vote in Florida later on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had established a nationwide right to abortion, had galvanized Democratic voters around the country, temporarily raising Democrats’ hopes they could defy history.
But in the closing weeks of the campaign, forecasters have grown more confident that Republicans will win a majority in the House, perhaps flipping 20 seats or more.
Despite one of the strongest job markets in memory, stubbornly rising prices have left voters dissatisfied, helped along by relentless attacks from Republicans over gas and food prices, as well as crime.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday showed more than two-thirds of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, with just 39% approving of the way Biden has done his job. Trump’s polling is similarly low, with just 41% of respondents to a separate recent Reuters/Ipsos poll saying they viewed him favorably.
The increasingly grim prognosis has left some Democrats questioning the party’s campaign message, which centered on protecting abortion rights and American democracy.
“What we’ve seen over the last month is political gravity begin to reassert itself,” said Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst at the nonpartisan forecaster Inside Elections. “Biden never substantively improved his approval ratings from where it was in the beginning of the year. Voters care a lot about the economy, and they blame Biden for inflation.”
ELECTION DENIERS
Biden and other Democrats have sounded the alarm over a raft of Republican contenders who have either echoed or refused to contradict Trump’s false claims that he lost the 2020 election due to widespread fraud.
“Democracy is literally on the ballot,” Biden said on Sunday at a rally in Yonkers, New York.
The prevalence of election deniers among Republican candidates has elevated down-ballot races that typically receive little attention, including contests for secretary of state, the top election official in most states.
In swing states such as Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, the Republican nominees to head up the states’ election apparatus have embraced Trump’s falsehoods, raising fears among Democrats that, if they prevail, they could interfere with the 2024 presidential race.
Trump’s hold on the Republican Party remains formidable. His endorsement proved a potent tool during party selection contests, and his preferred candidates prevailed in several crucial Senate primaries, despite concerns from some Republican leaders that their far-right rhetoric would be a liability in the general election.
First-time Senate candidates such as Blake Masters in Arizona, J.D. Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania have struggled at times to moderate their tone for a wider electorate, giving Democrats hope in what might otherwise have been challenging races for Biden’s party.
In Georgia, Herschel Walker, a former sports star challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, has faced a raft of scandals. They include allegations he has called lies from two women who said he urged them to have abortions during past relationships – despite his uncompromising anti-abortion stance on the campaign trail.
“Winning the Senate would have been an easy thing to accomplish had the Republican Party been wiser in its selection of qualified candidates,” said Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist. “They really handicapped themselves.”
Reporting by Joseph Ax; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone, Rosalba O’Brien and Chizu Nomiyama
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YONKERS, N.Y., Nov 6 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden warned that a Republican win in Tuesday’s midterm elections could weaken U.S. democracy, while former President Donald Trump hinted at another White House bid, two days before votes in which Republicans could gain control of both chambers of Congress.
The comments, made at dueling rallies held in New York and Florida, highlighted the grim prospects that Biden’s Democrats face, despite fulfilling his promises to boost clean-energy incentives and rebuild crumbling roads and bridges.
Republicans have hammered Biden for high inflation and increased crime in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and non-partisan forecasters favor them to win control of the House of Representatives – and possibly the Senate as well. Democrats’ early leads in Senate races in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada have evaporated.
Control of even one chamber would allow Republicans to stymie Democrat Biden’s legislative agenda and launch potentially damaging investigations.
Biden warned that many Republican candidates are threatening democratic norms by echoing Trump’s false claims about a stolen election in 2020.
“Democracy is literally on the ballot,” he told students at Sarah Lawrence College, north of New York City. “You can’t only love the country when you win.”
At a Trump rally in Miami, meanwhile, the former president recycled many of his unfounded complaints about the 2020 election and hinted that he may soon announce another presidential bid.
“I will probably have to do it again, but stay tuned,” he said, castigating the Biden administration for everything from violent crime to dirty airports.
U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama attend a campaign for Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate John Fetterman and Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Trump’s advisers say an announcement about the 2024 presidential election could come sometime this month.
Despite Biden’s warnings about democracy, many of his fellow Democrats have emphasized more practical matters, such as their work to lower prescription drug prices and defend Social Security. While many have campaigned on abortion rights, opinion polls show that has faded as a top voter concern.
Republicans have questioned Democrats’ support for law enforcement and harnessed concerns about crime, which has emerged as a major election issue after murder rates increased during the COVID pandemic.
“In two short years, do you not feel the pain?” Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker said at a rally in Georgia. “This is on their watch.”
Democrats have been saddled by Biden’s unpopularity, which has forced him to hold back from campaigning in competitive states. Only 40% of Americans approve of his job performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday.
Biden spoke in normally safe Democratic territory outside New York City, where Republicans are threatening to make gains.
New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul is facing an unexpectedly stiff challenge from Republican Lee Zeldin, while Democratic House incumbents are locked in tight battles throughout the state.
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Chicago, another Democratic stronghold, where she said Democrats could pass national abortion-rights legislation if they added to their margins in the Senate. “If we pick up two more senators, the president can sign it into law,” she said.
First Lady Jill Biden visited Texas, a Republican-dominated state that has a handful of competitive races. “Choosing who leads our community is one way we can live out our faith,” she told worshippers at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston.
Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in Georgia, Tyler Clifford in New York and Gram Slattery in Washington; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Deepa Babington and Kenneth Maxwell
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PHILADELPHIA/LATROBE, Pa., Nov 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden told voters in Pennsylvania that a Democratic loss in Tuesday’s midterm elections would have “decades” of consequences, while Republican candidates for Congress predicted a sweeping victory.
The biggest names in U.S. politics, including Democrats Biden and former President Barack Obama, as well as Republican former President Donald Trump, were in Pennsylvania on Saturday hoping to tip the balance in a pivotal midterm Senate race between Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and Republican celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.
“Folks, three days, three days until one of the most important elections in our lifetime. The outcome is going to shape our country for decades to come, and the power to shape that outcome is in your hands,” Biden said.
“It’s a choice. A choice between two vastly different visions of America.”
Trump, who sources say is preparing to launch a third consecutive run for the White House after the midterms, continues to falsely claim that his 2020 defeat by Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state agencies and members of his own administration rejected that claim as untrue.
Still, opinion polls show a significant number of Republican voters accept the claim, as do many candidates for Congress, governor and state offices overseeing election administration.
Speaking before Trump at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Representative Glenn Thompson told supporters that Republicans were headed for major gains on Tuesday.
“Who’s got a surfboard?,” he asked. “There’s gonna be a red wave.”
Speaking to supporters in downtown Pittsburgh, Obama warned the politically motivated attack last week on Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was a product of hateful rhetoric.
“This habit we have of demonizing political opponents, of saying crazy stuff, it creates a dangerous climate,” Obama said, without referencing Republicans directly.
Republicans contend that Democrats have also engaged in political violence, citing the widespread anti-racism protests that rocked the country in 2020. On Sunday, they criticized Democrats for failing to keep their focus on inflation and crime, two of voters’ principal concerns, according to most polls.
In a pair of Saturday morning Twitter posts, Oz criticized Fetterman and Biden for failing to sufficiently support the domestic energy industry and pledged to fight inflation if elected.
“As your next Senator, I will focus on issues that matter to voters in all communities including lowering prices on everything from gas to groceries,” he wrote.
TRUMP READIES ANOTHER RUN
Trump is set to gin up support for his handpicked Republican Senate nominee, Oz, and Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano at a rally in Latrobe, southeast of Pittsburgh.
He is also working to maintain his own profile as he contemplates another White House run..
That could set the stage for a Biden-Trump rematch, though some Democrats say heavy losses for Biden’s party on Tuesday could increase pressure on the president to step aside and let someone else carry the party’s mantle in 2024.
The Fetterman-Oz Senate race is one of three critical contests, along with Georgia and Nevada, that will determine whether Democrats hold onto their razor-thin majority in the Senate, and with it the power to confirm Biden’s nominees to posts ranging from his Cabinet to the Supreme Court.
Nonpartisan election forecasters and polls show Republicans are heavy favorites to win control of the House, with the Senate a toss-up. Control of even one would give Republicans the power to block Biden’s legislative agenda and launch potentially damaging investigations.
More than 39 million Americans have already cast early ballots, either in person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project. Election officials have warned that it could take days after Tuesday for final results to be clear in closely contested elections, such as the Pennsylvania and Georgia Senate races.
Both parties have lavished attention on Pennsylvania both because of the strategic importance of the race and because of its voters’ history of swinging from one party to the other in the past four presidential elections.
Fetterman held a commanding lead in the race throughout the summer, which Oz has whittled away in the last two months.
Some factors may be local: A stroke this spring forced Fetterman to scale back his campaign schedule and has affected his speech. At a debate last month, he often stumbled over his words, in a performance even allies privately described as shaky.
But Oz’s gains also reflect a nationwide momentum shift in favor of Republicans, as voters’ focus on inflation and crime has proven more durable than concerns about abortion. Democrats’ early lead in several other Senate races, including the contests in Georgia and Nevada, have also shrunk or evaporated completely in recent weeks.
Also playing against Democrats is Biden’s unpopularity. Only 40% of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday, which has led Biden to hold back from campaigning in some key states.
Reporting by Greg Savoy in Pittsburgh, Jarrett Renshaw in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Trevor Hunnicutt in Joliet, Illinois, additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Makini Brice in Washington, writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Jonathan Oatis
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SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The second round of Brazil’s presidential campaign kicked off Monday after right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro outperformed polling and robbed leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of an outright victory in the first round of voting.
The unexpectedly strong showing by Bolsonaro on Sunday dashed hopes for a quick resolution to the deeply polarized election in the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
With 99.9% of electronic votes counted, Lula had taken 48.4% of votes versus 43.2% for Bolsonaro. As neither got a majority of support, the race goes to a runoff vote on Oct. 30.
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The race has proven tighter than most surveys suggested, revitalizing Bolsonaro’s campaign after he insisted that polls could not be trusted. If he pulls off a comeback, it would break with a wave of victories for leftists across the region in recent years, including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile.
Adding to tensions in Brazil, Bolsonaro has made baseless attacks on the integrity of Brazil’s electronic voting system and suggested he may not concede if he loses. On Sunday night, he sounded confident victory was within reach and avoided criticism of the voting system.
“I plan to make the right political alliances to win this election,” he told journalists, pointing to significant advances his party made in Congress in the general election.
Bolsonaro’s right-wing allies won 19 of the 27 seats up from grabs in the Senate, and initial returns suggested a strong showing for his base in the lower house.
The strong showing for Bolsonaro and his allies, which added to pressure on Lula to tack to the center, led bankers and analysts to expect a boost for Brazilian financial markets on Monday after Sunday’s surprising result.
Lula put an optimistic spin on the result, saying he was looking forward to another month on the campaign trail and the chance to debate Bolsonaro head-to-head.
Inside his campaign, however, there was clear frustration that he had fallen short of the narrow majority forecast in some polls, along with weak results in state races outside of his party’s traditional northeastern stronghold.
“There was a clear movement of votes in the southeast, beyond what the surveys and even the campaign managed to detect,” a campaign source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Support for distant third- and fourth-place finishers also fell short of recent surveys, suggesting some of their backers may have shifted to Bolsonaro when it came time to vote.
Centrist Senator Simone Tebet, who got 4% of votes, and center-left former lawmaker Ciro Gomes, who got 3%, both said on Sunday night they would announce decisions about endorsements in the coming days.
With the momentum in Bolsonaro’s favor, Lula may need all the help he can get.
“Clearly Bolsonarismo was underestimated,” said Senator Humberto Costa, a compatriot of Lula’s Workers Party.
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Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo and Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia
Additional repoting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia
Writing by Anthony Boadle. Editing by Gerry Doyle
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A woman wears a t-shirt falsely claiming that former U.S. President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, after a presentation to the Surry County board of commissioners by several individuals that aimed to cast doubt on election integrity, urging the commission to replace existing voting machines with purely paper ballots, in Dobson, North Carolina, U.S., May 16, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
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PHILADELPHIA, May 17 (Reuters) – Voters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina will pick nominees in critical U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests on Tuesday that provide another test of former President Donald Trump’s sway with Republican voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Idaho’s incumbent Republican governor also faces a Trump-backed primary rival, while Trump ally Madison Cawthorn, a first-term Republican congressman who has generated numerous controversies, hopes to fend off a primary challenge in North Carolina. read more
President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats are fighting to retain their slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in the Nov. 8 congressional elections. Democrats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina are trying to win Senate seats currently held by Republicans.
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The Pennsylvania Republican senatorial primary has turned into an unpredictable three-way battle in its final days after conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette surged into contention against two better-funded rivals: Trump-endorsed TV wellness celebrity Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick.
Barnette’s rise has worried some establishment Republicans concerned that the right-wing activist could prove too conservative for general election voters choosing a successor to retiring Senator Pat Toomey.
A weekend opinion poll by the Trafalgar Group, a Republican firm, showed Oz leading Barnette 28.5% to 26.8%, within the margin of error, with McCormick trailing at 21.6%.
In the Democratic primary, progressive Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who is finishing his primary campaign from a hospital after suffering a stroke last week, faces centrist U.S. Representative Conor Lamb.
Final results may not be known tonight. State officials said voters had requested 908,000 absentee or mail ballots, and state law prevents them from being processed until election day.
In North Carolina, Trump-endorsed congressman Ted Budd leads former Governor Pat McCrory as they vie to succeed retiring Senator Richard Burr. Cheri Beasley, the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court, is expected to win the Democratic nomination.
More than 580,000 voters had already cast their ballots in person or by mail, nearly twice as many as four years ago, according to figures provided by the state Board of Elections. Those voters returned slightly more Democratic than Republican ballots.
Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed. His support helped author J.D. Vance win the Ohio Senate primary, but his favored candidate lost in Nebraska’s gubernatorial race last week. read more
Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to frustrate Biden’s legislative agenda. Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. read more
HEALTH SCARE
The 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) tattooed and goateed Fetterman, who has a penchant for hoodies and liberal stances, has proven to be an adept fundraiser and a social media force. On Tuesday, his campaign released a photo showing him voting an absentee ballot from the hospital. read more
His health scare has added a new wrinkle to the Pennsylvania race. Fetterman revealed on Sunday he had suffered a stroke two days earlier. He said he was recovering and had not sustained cognitive damage. read more
Polls show Fetterman leading Lamb, whose moderate politics make him a better general election candidate in the view of many party insiders.
Barnette, seeking to become Pennsylvania’s first Black U.S. senator, has called her rivals insufficiently conservative. She was photographed, according to news reports, marching toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, alongside members of the far-right Proud Boys group shortly before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Barnette’s campaign in a statement to NBC said she did not take part in or condone the destruction of property and has no connection to the Proud Boys.
Trump last week endorsed state Senator Doug Mastriano, who is leading the polls in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary and was present outside the Capitol on the day of the riot.
Mastriano has also said he would pursue a statewide abortion ban. Abortion has become a flashpoint issue in the race since a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
Some Pennsylvania Republicans view Mastriano, like Barnette, as too extreme to win a general election.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the front-runner in the Democratic primary, has vowed to protect abortion rights. Shapiro said on Tuesday that he was isolating at home after testing positive for COVID-19.
In North Carolina, Cawthorn, at 26 the House’s youngest member, faces a challenge from Republican state Senator Chuck Edwards. Cawthorn has turned some in his own party against him with a string of embarrassing episodes, including a claim that legislative leaders invited him to a cocaine-fueled orgy, two attempts to bring a gun onto a plane, and a old video that appeared to show a naked Cawthorn gyrating against someone.
In Idaho, incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little faces Trump-backed primary challenger Janice McGeachin, the state’s lieutenant governor.
Primary elections also take place in Kentucky and Oregon.
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Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Joseph Ax in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Rosalba O’Brien
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