Trump, Republicans humiliated in crucial midterm elections

However the political chips ultimately fall in the next few days, Republicans have been humiliated in the US midterm elections, doing much worse than pollsters and punters predicted, vindicating Joe Biden’s agenda and underscoring the unsustainable disarray of a GOP living in the shadow of Donald Trump.

The red wave was a ripple.

The GOP appears likely to make enough modest gains to retake control of the House of Representatives, but the opposition party could even go backwards in the Senate, the opposite of what usually happens in midterm elections, let alone taking place against a backdrop of the highest inflation in 40 years and what is objectively an immigration crisis on the southern border.

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has defeated Trump-backed Republican candidate Mehmet Oz. Picture: Getty Images

As the clock struck midnight on the east coast of America, Republican bigwigs were left desperately hoping results from Senate races in Arizona and Nevada in the west, states where Republicans were expected to unseat Democrat incumbent senators, would propel them across the line.

If both do well, Republicans could still take a majority, but the more likely outcome, at least according to punters frantically ­adjusting their bets as new information emerged, is the party will end up with 49 or 50 seats, ensuring Mitch McConnell remains Senate minority leader.

Arguably the biggest personal loser of the night was Donald Trump, whose 2024 presidential plans were expected to be announced next week with great fanfare in Mar-a-Lago.

The former president had campaigned across the country, stressing his kingmaker role in picking candidates against the wishes of the loathed “RINOS” (Republicans in name only).

His coterie of hand-picked unconventional Senate candidates, who won their primaries thanks to Trump’s powerful sway over the Republican base, bombed out.

Former footballer Hershel Walker in Georgia, and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, both battleground states the party needed to win, were on the cusp of losing as The Australian went to press.

Former president Donald Trump was perhaps the biggest loser on the evening – with his sway within the party failing to materialise in seats. Picture: Getty Images

Trump’s silence on social media was deafening, broken an hour before midnight by a bizarre series of posts that included gloating over Republican candidate Joe O’Dea’s loss in Colorado, and scolding another losing Republican candidate – retired brigadier general Don Bolduc – for claiming the former president lost the 2020 presidential election.

The winners of the night were equally clear. Biden, while no longer able to legislate after the likely loss of the house to Republicans, will nevertheless emerge with some political authority, ­potentially enough to run again.

Democrat John Fetterman, a stroke survivor in Pennsylvania who had been written off last week after an embarrassingly incoherent debate performance against Oz, had a stellar night too, and ­appeared poised to become senator for Pennsylvania.

The night wasn’t all bad news for Republicans. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a man Trump had mocked as Ron “DeSanctimonious” on the campaign trail a few nights earlier, won a thumping second-term victory with 60 per cent of the vote that almost certainly paves his way to a future presidential tilt. Florida is no longer a swing state.

Similarly, Brian Kemp, the Georgia governor who, along with DeSantis lifted all Covid restrictions in their states in early 2020, sooner than any other state, enjoyed a convincing win over Democrat Stacey Abrams, once seen as a future Democrat leader.

Some Republicans might console themselves with the fact that if Trump now decides against or at least delays his announcement of a 2024 presidential tilt, their poor performance in the 2022 midterms at least has a silver lining.

Democrats, almost always better organised than Republicans thanks to the party’s union roots, out-fundraised and out-spent the GOP, but that’s no excuse.

Republicans couldn’t have asked for a better economic backdrop to make gains.