- Disgraced former president Trump giving us an all-time Trump sound bite

Hahaha, what???
 

• Okay so, remember yesterday when I wrote an entire digest about how we shouldn’t panic and we wouldn’t know the results right away, implicitly bracing ourselves for the “red tsunami” we were assured was coming? It just…didn’t happen. Republicans certainly had a good night in Florida and a few House pickups here and there, but apart from that, they underperformed. Dems overperformed all expectations, including in some key Senate races, and Republicans are losing their minds about it. One of the biggest victories for Democrats was in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman defeated Trump-endorsed TV doctor and New Jersey resident Mehmet Oz in the state’s Senate race. Fetterman even outperformed Joe Biden’s numbers in the 2020 presidential election. Josh Shapiro won an even more decisive (but more expected) victory, in the governor’s race after defeating far-right lunatic Doug Mastriano, whose participation in the January 6 insurrection and myriad personal connections to antisemites led many Pennsylvania Republicans to endorse Shapiro. 
   

• As of this writing, we’re locked in a 48-48 dead heat for control of the Senate, with four races still outstanding. Pennsylvania was a big help, but Democrats missed a pickup opportunity in Ohio, where Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) lost to prodigious charlatan and anti-abortion hardliner JD Vance. In Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) currently trails her opponent Adam Laxalt, but the race hasn’t yet been called. In Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) appears to be holding on to his seat on a wing and a prayer, but that state remains too close to call as well. Incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) somewhat unexpectedly defeated her Trump-backed election-denying challenger Don Bolduc, who performed worse than Trump did in 2020 in many counties. 
   

• Dems outperformed expectations in the Senate, bolstered by the uptick in concern over abortion, but still probably not enough to save Roe. Republicans remain favored to win the House, though with a much narrower margin than previously projected. How a Republican-controlled House will fare with presumptive Speaker Kevin McCarthy (yuck) presiding over a small, divided caucus that includes a belligerent wing of QAnon crazies like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will be interesting to watch! But it won’t entail a vote on a national right to choose.

Let’s talk about Donald Trump. 
 

• On the whole, this was not a good night for the disgraced former president, who still controls the GOP base, but remains politically toxic among independent voters. One of Trump’s expected rivals in the 2024 GOP primary, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), won his reelection bid by a staggering 20 points. Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA)—who’s been on Trump’s enemies list for refusing to help Trump steal the 2020 election—sailed to a somewhat narrower victory against Democrat Stacey Abrams, after defeating his Trump-backed GOP primary challenger back in May. 
   

• Despite his drag on the party, the big open question is what, if anything, Republicans will do about it. History would suggest “nothing.” But if that’s the case, we’re in for some turbulence. Even with their red-wave dreams dashed, Republicans will still likely have the power to hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, and may plunge the country into a depression if Trump orders them to. If Democrats lose the Senate, Trump would try to see to it that no more Biden judicial nominees get confirmed. And that’s to say nothing of what he’ll ask Republicans in Congress to do if he ends up under criminal indictment. 

We don’t want to overstate the positives of a midterm election cycle that still may end with Republicans on top, but from unexpected victories to the passage of progressive ballot measures across the country, even in red states, there are many reasons to feel hopeful—even if we have to remain vigilant. I covered more results below.

Voters across the country, even in red states, delivered a series of decisive victories for abortion rights in ballot initiatives Tuesday night. In Michigan, where a 1931 abortion ban trigger law was set to take effect, a ballot measure passed enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution. In heavily Republican Kentucky, an anti-abortion amendment was defeated. In North Carolina, Republicans failed to win a veto-proof supermajority in their state legislature, ensuring that Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) can continue to block abortion restrictions in the state, which has become a haven for abortion access in the south. Even as GOP lawmakers have passed bans or heavy restrictions on abortions wherever they can, many of last night’s results show that the voting public continues to be pro-choice, and mad as hell about the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe. Tamarra Wieder, state director for Kentucky Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, said a “unifying message” had emerged from the 2022 midterms: “Abortion transcends party lines.”

The Georgia Senate race will go to a runoff, as neither incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) nor his Republican challenger Herschel Walker reached the fifty percent threshold needed to clinch victory. 

WNBA star Brittney Griner will be moved to a Russian penal colony according to her lawyers, but it is unknown where. 

Facebook parent company Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees, about 13 percent of its total workforce. Mark Zuckerberg is somewhere desperately hoping he will be able to replace all of the friends he lost in the metaverse. 

Twitter filed paperwork to begin processing payments for its subscription services as the company continues to hemorrhage corporate advertisers. The subscription services, as it were, are also wildly unpopular so far. 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was ordered to testify before the Fulton County, GA, special grand jury investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. 

Voters in Illinois approved a ballot measure creating a constitutional right to join a union, while voters in Tennessee amended their own constitution enshrining a right not to join a union. 

Incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes. 

Ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana passed in Missouri and Maryland, but failed in more hard-line conservative states like Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota. 

President Biden said the midterm results show that voters want Republicans to work with him, and that he plans to run for re-election in 2024. 

Eighty-nine year old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) won his eighth Senate election, his most notable victory since fighting in World War I. Grassley is said to be celebrating with a bowl of Werther's Originals and naked contempt for “those meddling kids.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the nation’s troops to withdraw from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. This could be a potential turning point in the war, and marks a significant setback for Moscow. Ukraine reacted cautiously, saying some Russian forces still remained, and noted that additional Russian manpower was being sent to the region. As has happened in other areas of the country, Russian forces destroyed bridges and other infrastructure as they left. The Kherson region is one of four Ukrainian territories Russian President Vladimir Putin unlawfully annexed in September, and which the Kremlin said had been placed under its nuclear umbrella. But even Russia’s leading war hawks voiced support for the decision to abandon the city today.

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The world’s first sand battery is providing clean, renewable energy in Norway.

Massachusetts voters approved a ballot measure fund education in the state, financed with a four percent tax on annual income over $1 million. 

Democrats won at practically every level in Michigan, one of the country’s most important swing states. Despite fierce challenges from Republicans, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) won their reelection bids, and ballot proposals enshrining voting and abortion rights passed.