US mid-term election: Trickle treat for Joe Biden as Republican wave withers

Republican hopes of retaking the US congress appear to be in tatters after Democrats defeated a swath of Donald Trump’s hand-picked candidates, casting doubt on his ambitions for 2024.

Republican hopes of retaking the US congress in midterm elections and crippling the second half of Joe Biden’s presidency appeared to be in tatters after Democrats defeated a swath of Donald Trump’s hand-picked Republican candidates, casting doubt on the former president’s ambitions for 2024.

The red wave expected to catapult Republicans back into control of the House of Represen­tatives and the Senate on a platform to fight high inflation and crime ended up at best a trickle, leaving the two parties with 48 seats each in the upper house chamber with four still too close to call, Fox News reported.

Republicans were ahead in the House of Representatives as The Australian went to press late last night, projected by Fox to win 190 seats to the Democrats’ 154, with 91 seats still too close to call in the 435-seat chamber, leaving open the possibility Nancy Pelosi, who was expected to retire, could remain as Speaker.

However the seats ultimately fall in coming days, at least one of which in Georgia might require a run-off election in December if neither candidate reaches 50 per cent of the vote, the outcome will surely bolster Mr Biden’s standing in what was the first national test of his presidency, after some even in his own party had written him off as being too old or ­ineffective.

Ron DeSantis with daughter Mamie in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday (AEDT). Picture: AFP

Republican house leader Kevin McCarthy emerged at 2am local time to tells supporters that Republicans would win a majority in the House of Representatives and he would be Speaker.

“Republicans are ready to deliver,” he said.

Candidates hand-picked by Mr Trump for the Senate in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania – former football star Hershel Walker, 36-year-old venture capitalist Blake Masters and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz – either lost or were neck and neck at the time of writing.

While a red wave never eventuated nationally, in one of the few bright spots for Republicans on the day a red tsunami in Florida delivered a jubilant Ron De­Santis a second term as governor with about 60 per cent of the vote in the 22 million strong state, ­solidifying his political future as a rising Republican star and rival to Mr Trump.

“We have embraced freedom. We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents ... and we ­reject woke ideology,” Mr De­Santis told a throng of his ­supporters, who were cheering “two more years”.

“We have rewritten the political map … Thank you for honouring us with a win for the ages.’’

Donald Trump and wife Melania Trumpafter voting in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Mr Trump, who only days earlier had all but confirmed that he would be announcing a 2024 tilt for the presidency as early as next week, remained silent on ­social media until late in the ­evening, when he lashed out at the candidate he had backed for the Senate in New Hampshire, ­retired brigadier-general Don Bolduc.

“Don Bolduc was a very nice guy but he lost tonight when he disavowed his longstanding stance on election fraud … had he stayed strong and true, he would have won easily. Lessons Learned!” Mr Trump tweeted on his social media platform Truth Social.

In Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman, a stroke survivor who had been written off after a bruising debate performance against Dr Oz in October, said after he won his Senate race: “I’m not really sure what to say. I am so humbled. Thank you so much.

“It’s 1.30am and you’re still here … We held the line … we did what we needed to do.

“Healthcare is a human right … it saved my life and it should all be there for you, too.”

Democrats had centred their campaign around protecting Medicare and social security and securing US democracy from extreme “MAGA” elements in the Republican party, with Mr Biden going so far as to brand them “semi-­fascist” in a speech he made in September.

Mr Biden, who posted a picture to his Twitter account congratulating winning candidates, was yet to make a statement.

Republican Greg Abbott won a third term as governor of Texas, the second biggest state, and Brian Kemp his second in Georgia, defeating, respectively, Democrats Beto O’Rouke and Stacey Abrams, both considered possible future Democrat leaders.

The Republicans worse-than-expected performance came despite a politically advantageous backdrop of the highest inflation in 40 years, rising crime rates in some states, and an immigration crisis on the southern border.

Most major polls and betting markets ahead of Tuesday’s elections pointed to a sizeable swing to the Republican party, enough to deliver it a solid majority in the lower house and a slim majority in the Senate.

“Polling is broken,” said veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove, who predicted that the GOP would win a slim five-seat majority in the House of Representatives, far short of the 20 to 30 seat buffer that many in the party had anticipated.

Democrats celebrated the ­victory of their candidates Wes Moore, who will become the first black governor of Maryland, and the first openly gay and lesbian governors in Colorado and Massachusetts, Jared Polis and Maura Healey, respectively.

Arkansas elected its first female governor, Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of the former governor and Mike Huckabee.

The closeness of the results could invite legal challenges about the validity of votes in ­Arizona and other states where Republican candidates had earlier questioned, without any evidence, the integrity of the electoral ­process.