Biden hails Democratic victories even as Congress control remains in limbo – as it happened

9 Nov 202213.39 EST

Joanna Walters

Democrat Laura Kelly has won re-election to the governorship of Kansas, in a race projected by various outlets a little earlier but just called by The Associated Press, the news agency whose election results calculations the Guardian relies on as definitive.

Kelly secured her second term in Kansas, which leans heavily Republican but where the electorate resoundingly backed abortion rights in a pivotal referendum in August, following the Trumpist US Supreme Court’s historic overturning of Roe v Wade in June.

She has narrowly defeated the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Derek Schmidt.

NBC was among the outlets to call the race a few hours ago.

Democrats appear to have stemmed losses they were expected to suffer in Tuesday’s midterm elections at the hands of voters who polls indicated were fed up with high inflation and rising crime. While the results of several key races remain to be determined, Joe Biden’s allies in the House and Senate are relishing the unexpected strength their candidates have shown. Nonetheless, the GOP still has a path to take control of both the House and Senate, but we may be looking at a wait of several days, if not weeks, for the full balance of power to be determined.

Here’s what we’ve learned today so far:

• Joe Biden will speak and take questions from reporters at 4 pm eastern time, in what may amount to something of a victory lap.

• Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney’s job was to win seats for the Democrats in the House of Representatives, but he lost his own bid for re-election instead.

• Republican senator Ron Johnson won another term in Wisconsin, dashing Democrats’ hopes of picking up the seat and padding their majority in the chamber.

• Voters in Kentucky said no to a ballot measure that would have set the stage for abortion to be criminalized.

• Georgia’s crucial Senate race may be going to a runoff election, but the Associated Press has not called it yet.

From Detroit, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on the victories Democrats won in statehouses, particularly in some of battleground states along the the Great Lakes:

Some of Democrats’ most consequential victories on Tuesday were in state legislative chambers, where they put forward an unexpectedly strong performance.

In Michigan, Democrats took control of both chambers of the legislature for the first time since 1983. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, was also re-elected to a second term, giving Democrats complete control of state government in one of America’s most politically competitive states.

Democrats also took control of both chambers of the legislature in Minnesota and held onto control in Maine. They appeared poised to flip the Pennsylvania House.

Democrats also blocked Republicans from gaining a supermajority in Wisconsin and North Carolina, ensuring that Democratic governors in both states still have a veto. In Arizona, votes were still being counted, but Republicans could lose control of the state senate.

Long overlooked in comparison to statewide and federal races, state control of state legislatures is increasingly consequential. Donald Trump tried to learn on GOP state legislative majorities in key battlegrounds like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona to try and overturn the 2020 election. State legislatures are also the bodies responsible for setting laws around consequential issues like voting and abortion access, as well as education and gun laws.

Republicans did earn a few key wins in state races, though. In North Carolina, they flipped partisan control of the state supreme court. And in Ohio, they won a seat being vacated by a retiring GOP member who has been a swing vote. Those majorities could allow Republicans in those states to pass more aggressively gerrymandered maps as well as anti-abortion laws.

Voters in Wisconsin have re-elected Republican Ron Johnson to the Senate, the Associated Press reports, beating back a challenge from Democrat Mandela Barnes.

Johnson was considered the most vulnerable GOP incumbent in the Senate to face voters this year. His victory narrows Democrats’ path to preserving their slim majority in Congress’s upper chamber.

Two major networks believe Georgia’s tight Senate race will go to a runoff.

Winning the state could prove crucial to determining which party controls the chamber. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock appears to be leading his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, but neither man has yet cleared the 50% threshold needed to avoid a run-off election. The Associated Press has not called the race.

However, CNN believes the match-up will have to go before voters again:

As does NBC News:

The Biden administration is relishing Democrats’ apparently strong performance last night.

On Twitter, White House officials are pointing out a clip filmed when Biden appeared before the New York Times’ editorial board to seek its endorsement during the primaries that preceded the 2020 presidential election.

“I ain’t dead! And I’m not going to die!” Biden, then a candidate vying against several other Democrats for the party’s nomination, declares in the video:

Joe Biden will make a speech and take questions at 4 pm eastern time today, the White House announced.

The Democratic president is expected to celebrate his House and Senate allies’ better-than-expected performance in last night’s midterms, where partial results indicate voters have given Republicans only tepid support, and rejected several of their most extreme candidates.

The Associated Press has called Republican Michael Lawler’s victory over Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney in New York City’s exurbs.

Lawler’s win not only costs Democrats a seat in the House, but also represents the jarring loss of a lawmaker who was tasked with coordinating the campaign to keep control of Congress’ lower chamber.

Nancy Pelosi - who won reelection last night but will lose her position as House speaker if Democrats fail to gain a majority in the chamber - released a statement on Maloney’s loss.

“Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney has been an outstanding leader of the DCCC. It is a credit to his vision, his strategic thinking and his leadership that our Members and candidates had the mobilization, message and money to run excellent races and win in tough districts. Republicans may have gained a Pyrrhic victory with this race because it has clearly come at the expense of other possible Republican wins,” she said.

Let the blame game begin! Republicans were hoping yesterday’s elections would generate a “red wave” that decisively put Democrats into the minority in one or both houses of Congress.

While they appear set to win the House and still have a path to controlling the Senate, the GOP’s performance thus far does not indicate they are on the cusp of hefty majorities in either. Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn offered some thoughts as to why in an interview on Fox Business:

JR Majewski was once viewed as one of the more worrying of Republican candidates standing this year.

He participated in the January 6 insurrection and was a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, but saw his campaign falter after reports emerged that he exaggerated his military service.

This morning, he announced he had conceded his race for a House seat representing northern Ohio to longtime Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur: