What Red Wave? GOP Barely Wins House, but
Dems/Freedom/Democracy Prevail Elsewhere
November 2022 - If you were paying attention to what Fox, right-wing talk radio, and other conservative voices were saying for the last few weeks leading up to the 2022 mid-term elections, those elections were going to be a blowout of epic proportions in favor of the Republicans. Right-wing politicians and pundits were describing it as a red wave, a red tidal wave, and even a red tsunami. On Election Day itself, Donald Trump, Jr. said it would be a bloodbath for the Democrats!
As you might also expect, the mainstream corporate media picked up on all this talk and even began reporting as fact the questionable polls that the Republicans were releasing, which ostensibly said independents were breaking strongly for the GOP. These polls claimed this shift was due to a) the worldwide inflation that Republicans were blaming President Biden for and b) the GOP's scare tactics (our characterization) that crime is running rampant.
That conventional wisdom also tried to argue that two issues of critical importance to U.S. Citizens, abortion and democracy itself, had been relegated to secondary concerns in the minds of the American voter.
Sorry, boys and girls, not so fast.
It turned out that those latter two issues were very important to voters around the country. The five states that had referendums on the abortion issue, including the three that would enshrine a woman's right to choose into state Constitutions, all went pro-choice, just like Kansas did this past summer. Extremists on the pro-life side who ran in swing districts and swing states went down to defeat, including the gubernatorial candidates in Pennsylvania and Michigan, each of whom lost by double-digits.
 (Pro-choice voters rally in Rhode Island)
As for the issue of democracy, candidates who aligned themselves with Donald Trump's "Big Lie" of a stolen 2020 election and who threatened to use their elected offices to override the will of the people also went down to defeat. This occurred consistently in competitive races ranging from Governors to Secretaries of State to legislative districts.
In other words, maybe enough Citizens do believe in democracy, our democratic institutions, and our nation's history of leaders like Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Eisenhower, the Kennedy's, Reagan (in fact, every American that has run for President excluding Donald Trump), so that when those American institutions are threatened by false claims of rigged voting and far-right voices that even questioned the viability of democracy itself, Citizens voted down Donald Trump's hand-picked election deniers.
 (Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who stood firm against Trump pressure to steal the 2020 election, was re-elected)
And maybe America's Citizens should be given a little more credit for understanding how supply and demand in a capitalist system functions and that worldwide inflation isn't the fault of the U.S. President or the U.S. Congress. Maybe they knew that the following were the real reasons for inflation (not Joe Biden's policies) and that the GOP had no plan to address any of these causes:
Thanks to all of you who did your part this election cycle. For those of you who may still have some questions, though, feel free to contact us and let's talk.
As for the specific results of the mid-terms, we'll be updating them below with additional detail as the vote counting is finalized.
U.S. Senate
Despite predictions in the weeks leading up to the election that the Republicans would win the Senate and, in the process, would gain up to four seats, the Democrats retained control. As of this writing, the Democrats continue to hold 50 seats to the GOP's 49, with a runoff election in Georgia scheduled for December 6th.
 (Fetterman image from thenation.com)
If the Democrats hold that Georgia seat, it will be the Democrats that end up increasing their Senate numbers, having gained a seat in Pennsylvania. In that race, John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz (by almost 5%) for the open seat vacated by Republican Pat Toomey. All other Senate races were won by the party currently holding the seat.
U.S. House
At the time of this writing, many contests remain undecided, but it appears the Republicans will get control of the House, gaining ~10 seats. This is a far cry from the 40-60 seats that many pundits were predicting. We even saw a report that former Trump advisor Steve Bannon (who was indicted for grifting many of Mr. Trump's supporters before being pardoned by Mr. Trump), had predicted the GOP would gain 100 seats.
Governors
The Democrats flipped three states, winning the gubernatorial races in Arizona, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The Republicans won the Nevada governor's race, flipping that state for the GOP.
State Legislatures
Democrats not only maintained legislative chambers they were predicted to lose, they flipped both Houses in Michigan, one in Minnesota, and may very well have flipped one in Pennsylvania.
Statewide Referendums/Proposals
Abortion - As mentioned above, referendums that easily passed in Michigan, California, and Vermont added a woman's right to choose as a basic right in those states' Constitutions. Kentucky and Montana voted to keep their states' existing protections for choice.
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