The crushing red wave Republicans had predicted for the mid-term elections is looking more like a ripple, and it’s still too soon to call the winner in dozens of races in both the House and the Senate.
There are 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and every one of them was voted on Tuesday in the midterm elections. Before Election Day, Democrats held a slim majority by eight seats. They held 220 seats in the chamber while Republicans had 212 seats with three seats vacant.
So far, Republicans have taken away at least half a dozen seats from Democrats. In races already decided, the GOP leads 200 to 174, but more than 60 seats are yet to be called.
GOP Takeaways So Far
Here are a few examples of the tide turning in the GOP’s favor.
A big Democrat incumbent was defeated in the New York District 19, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which means he was in charge of the Democrats’ entire congressional election campaign.
With 95% of precincts reporting, Republican challenger Mike Lawler has defeated Maloney. The Associated Press declared Lawler, who has 50.6% of the vote, the winner on Wednesday afternoon. Maloney conceded the race earlier Wednesday morning in a phone call to Lawler, according to his campaign.
In northern Florida, Rep. Neal Dunn has defeated Democratic Rep. Al Lawson for a congressional seat in a redrawn district that pitted the two incumbents against each other.
Also, in Florida’s 13th District, Republican Anna Paulina Luna scored another takeaway from Democrats by defeating Eric Lynn. Luna is an Air Force veteran who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
In Virginia’s 2nd District race, Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans defeated Incumbent Democrat Rep. Elaine Luria, a member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the Capitol building. The Associated Press called the race for Kiggans at 11:03 pm Eastern with 97% of the vote counted. She has declared victory and Luria has conceded.
DEVELOPING…. Could the US Senate Be Headed for Another Tie? Here Are the Key Remaining Races
In New York’s 3rd congressional district, Republican George Santos flipped the seat for the GOP, defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman.
Tom Kean, Jr., son of a former New Jersey governor, has won the 7th district race there, flipping another seat for Republicans.
Down in South Texas, as CBN News reported last month, most residents have long voted reliably blue. But this election cycle, there were three conservative Latina candidates vying to transform the politics there and turn the region red. In the end, one of them was victorious.
Republican Monica De La Cruz won her effort to represent Texas’ 15th District against Democrat Michelle Vallejo. De La Cruz was declared the winner with 73% of the votes counted.
INTERACTIVE ELECTION MAP: Follow Updates on Key Races HERE at our CBNNews.com ELECTION CENTER.
Democrat Victories
Rep. Mayra Flores, who was the first Republican to win Texas’ 34th district in more than a century, lost to Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who had represented Texas’ 15th District but ran for Flores’ seat after redistricting.
And in Texas’s 28th District, Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar, the incumbent, defeated Republican challenger Cassy Garcia.
In Indiana’s 1st congressional district, incumbent Democrat Rep. Frank Mrvan held on to his seat by under 5 percentage points, defeating Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green, who had hopes of turning the district red.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin apparently couldn’t translate support from President Trump into a victory for Alaska’s House seat. She is losing again to Democrat incumbent Mary Petola, who also finished first in the state’s open primary in August.
In another important race that doesn’t really affect the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans, GOP candidate Harriet Hageman will replace current GOP Rep. Liz Cheney to represent Wyoming. After beating Cheney in the primary, largely due to voter anger against Cheney for supporting impeachment efforts against fellow Republican Donald Trump, Hageman was declared the winner against her Democratic opponent, Lynette GreyBull, racking up nearly 70 percent of the vote.
A Red Ripple, Giant Wave, or Tsunami?
Before Election Day, CBN’s Chief Political Analyst David Brody explained a potential “red wave” would involve more than a dozen GOP takeaways.
When CBN CEO Gordon Robertson asked on Monday’s The 700 Club if predictions of a “giant red wave” in the House were going to come true, Brody replied, “Anywhere from 0 to 20 seats in the House would be a ripple. In other words, under 20 would be kind of a ripple. That 20 to 35, that’s the sweet spot. That’s the wave everybody’s talking about.”
Brody also said the Democrats’ claim of “you have to vote Democrat to preserve democracy” only resonated with certain folks in the country.
“What I think I’m going to be looking for on Tuesday night are those exit polls. Where does ‘threats to democracy’ play exactly? The Democrats will say it’s right up there at the top. I think what we’re going to end up finding out, it’s going to be inflation. It’s going to be crime,” Brody said. “Threats to Democracy will be there somewhere. But it will probably be in that 4 or 5 slots, and that won’t be good for Democrats. That’s going to be a storyline I will be looking at.”
“Here’s the thing. Inflation is a bi-partisan issue. In essence, it is galvanizing Independents, Republicans, and even some Democrats as it relates to the economy being bad as we know it is,” Brody said. “On top of inflation, you’ve got crime, Gordon. And I think that’s been the double problem here for Democrats. It’s one thing if the economy is going south. It’s quite another if you’ve got the economy and now you also have to deal with the crime factor. So it’s really kind of a double hit for Democrats.”
Follow updates on key races HERE at our CBNNews.com ELECTION CENTER. Remember, due to the recent trend toward mail-in ballots, some races could shift and could take longer to tabulate depending on the volume of those mail-in votes.
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