2022 Midterm election news as GOP, Democrats fight to control Senate, House of Representatives
Live updates from the 2022 Midterm Election campaign trail as Republicans and Democrats begin the final weeks of campaigning before election day in November. Stay up-to-date on events and latest news surrounding the 2022 midterms from Fox News!
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Maria Esturilho is escorted by her son Tony Esturilho as they leave behind the damage from an apparent overnight tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian at the Kings Point community in Delray Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Carline Jean /South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Midterm candidates running in states located in the path of Hurricane Ian are mostly putting politics aside to react to the catastrophic storm and provide citizens with the resources they need.
"This is just the beginning," Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who is leading the charge to address the storm damage in Florida, said during a press conference Thursday.
DeSantis also joined Fox News' "America's Newsroom" to give an update on Hurricane Ian, the rescue missions that are underway, and what Floridians can expect over the next few days.
"This is a monumental effort and these next 72 hours are really about securing people's safety and stabilizing the situation," DeSantis said.
Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.
With 40 days until the highly anticipated midterm elections, absentee voting has begun in Michigan, a key midterm state where Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is fighting to keep her seat against Trump-endorsed Tudor Dixon.
"Reminder: Gretchen Whitmer did not want to debate me before today," Dixon claimed in a Tweet Thursday, "She is hiding from voters because of rising crime, her economic policies, and support for radical sex and gender theory in classrooms are unpopular."
Absentee voting, which allows voters to cast their ballots before Election Day, has already commenced in several states: Wyoming, Minnesota, Virginia, South Dakota, Illinois, Vermont, and Michigan.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., is leading the Senate race against Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes among Republican and Independent voters. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
Republicans are leading in Wisconsin's key midterm races among independent voters, according to a poll in the crucial battleground state.
A new AARP survey found that Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has a five-point edge, 51% to 46%, over Democratic opponent Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, in the Wisconsin's Senate race. Johnson also secured a 10-point lead over Barnes among likely Independent voters.
Republican nominee Tim Michels, who just contributed an additional $5 million of his own money into his race for governor, is leading against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, D-Wis., by three percentage points, 50% to 47%, with a seven-point lead among Independents.
Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the November election, questioned whether the 2016 presidential election was "rigged," called former President Trump a Russian spy, and made other questionable comments on social media.
"The election was, rigged?" Barnes wrote Nov. 9, 2016, in a tweet, right after Trump was projected to win the presidential election over Hillary Clinton — who was widely expected to win that race.
A few months later, on Feb. 17, 2021, Barnes wrote: "Donald Trump is a Russian spy. Believe me."
A review of Barnes' tweets by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found a number of posts that could be troublesome as Barnes faces incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in the Nov. 8 election.
Johnson has targeted Barnes for his position on crime and law enforcement, pointing to his policies of reducing prison populations and history of calling to reduce police budgets.
Mandela Barnes tweet (Twitter)
In a tweet after the shooting death Michael Brown by police, which sparked riots in Ferguson, Missouri, Barnes tweeted: "It has to be as hard for the people of Ferguson to act peacefully as it is for myself and others to call for peace."
Barnes' campaign suggested that the tweets were not intended to be seen as "nuanced policy discussions."
"Cherry-picking tweets out of context is just the latest desperate attempt by Ron Johnson to distract from his actual record of harming Wisconsin — pushing to cut Social Security and Medicare, writing a tax loophole that benefited himself and his biggest donors while sticking Wisconsinites with the bill, and repeatedly blocking efforts to lower health care costs for Wisconsin families," Barnes' spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said in a statement shared with Fox News.
Oz and Fetterman are running to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
A former Republican governor of Pennsylvania who supported President Biden in 2020 has endorsed Trump-backed Senate candidate Mehmet Oz in the midterm election.
"The issues facing Pennsylvania and our nation are significant. It will require smart leaders who are passionate about finding creative solutions," former Gov. Tom Ridge, who was also the first secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
"Over the course of the past year, I had the pleasure of spending time with Dr. Mehmet OZ on several occasions. We discussed those issues, and I had an opportunity to hear from him directly about why he's chosen to step into the political arena. I was most impressed by his intellect and his desire to serve our Commonwealth and nation with energy and passion," Ridge said.
Oz is running against Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, in the November midterms.
Though Ridge is a Republican, he was one of the few GOP voices to publicly back Biden's bid for president against former President Trump in 2020.
"I actually consider it a point of personal pride that I’m recognized for being among the first Republicans to reject Donald Trump," Ridge wrote in a 2020 Philadelphia Inquirer column. "With just about one month until Election Day, President Trump continues to claim the only way he can possibly be defeated is a rigged election. Can you imagine the hubris?"
"Joe Biden has the experience and empathy necessary to help us navigate not only the pandemic, but also other issues that have fractured our nation, including social injustice, income inequality and immigration reform," Ridge also said in the column.
Trump endorsed Oz in April during the GOP Senate primary.
Gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams is selling shirts for women, but refuses to define the term. (Abrams for Governor campaign store)
Several Democrats running in this year's midterm elections refuse to define the word "woman," while selling merchandise specifically designed for their women supporters.
Fox News Digital raised the question to half a dozen Democrats who all use the word "woman" on an item in their campaign merchandise collection, but received zero response. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., Cheri Beasley, and Stacey Abrams were the candidates that did not provide a definition for the term "woman."
Crist, the Democratic candidate running in the Florida gubernatorial race against Gov. Ron DeSantis', R-Fla., is selling stickers on his web store that read, "Women for Crist," but was unresponsive when asked what his definition of a woman is.
Wind gusts blow across Sarasota Bay as Hurricane Ian churns to the south on September 28, 2022 in Sarasota, Florida. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
President Biden suggested Wednesday evening that Americans weren't proud of their country while giving a divisive speech at a political fundraiser for Democrats in Washington, D.C., while Hurricane Ian pummeled Floridia with strong winds and a massive storm surge.
The speech occurred at a private residence in Washington, D.C. at a reception put on by the Democratic Governors Association that was attended by Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., Gov. John Carney, D-Del., and the city's Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had faced questions from reporters earlier in the day about Biden's attendance at the fundraiser, questioning whether he would cancel his planned and appearance and instead focus his attention towards the hurricane challenges facing Florida.
Jean-Pierre responded that the team didn't have "any changes in his schedule."
Read more from Fox News' Brandon Gillespie here.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, took time off from his Congressional duties Wednesday and attended a fundraiser in California to raise money for his Ohio Senate campaign.
Ryan, according to a report from The Wrap, traveled to the West Coast expecting to bring in over $100,000 during a Wednesday night fundraiser held at the Los Angeles home of Jay Sures, who currently serves as vice chairman and board member at United Talent Agency.
Tim Ryan, Democrat Senate candidate for Ohio, speaks during an Undecided Voter Town Hall in Lancaster, Ohio, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. (Gaelen Morse/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In an effort to boost Ryan's candidacy in the race, Sures, whose California home is located more than 2,000 miles away from the state Ryan hopes to represent in the Senate, told the outlet that the Ohio race is "certainly one of the most, if not the most important senate race where the Democrats can pick up a seat."
Prior to the Hollywood fundraiser, Ryan, who currently represents the Buckeye State's 13th Congressional District, submitted a letter Wednesday to House clerk Cheryl Johnson and informed her that he would not be voting in person "due to the ongoing public health emergency."
Read more: Democrat Tim Ryan fundraises in Hollywood after claiming J.D. Vance is 'not usually in Ohio'
Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, after voting on primary day in New Hampshire, in Newfields, N.H. on Sept. 13, 2022 (Fox News)
With less than six weeks to go until November’s midterm elections, a new public opinion poll in the key swing state of New Hampshire indicates former governor and first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan has an upper single-digit lead over her Republican challenger, former Army Gen. Don Bolduc.
Bolduc, who’s making his second straight bid for the Senate and who earlier this month narrowly won the GOP nomination in a crowded and combustible primary showdown, is challenging Hassan in a race that is one of a handful across the country that will likely determine if Republicans win back the chamber’s majority in November.
Hassan leads Bolduc 49.6% to 41.2% among likely voters in New Hampshire in a Suffolk University poll for the Boston Globe. The senator held an eight-point 49%-41% lead over Bolduc in a University of New Hampshire Survey Center Granite State Poll released a week ago.
In the race for governor, the new survey indicates Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who’s running for a fourth two-year term steering the Granite State, at 52.6% support and Democratic challenger and state senator Dr. Tom Sherman at 35.6% among likely voters. You can read the entire poll here.
Satellite image provided by NASA on Sept. 26, 2022, shows Hurricane Ian (NASA via AP)
Florida political campaigns in years past have avoided running political ads, particularly negative ones, when hurricanes battered the mainland. But that has shifted in recent campaigns and as Tropical Storm Ian batters the state, only a few campaigns actually suspended their ads, Politico reports.
“This is not the time to go off the air,” said a Florida Democratic consultant who spoke to the outlet anonymously. “Somebody needs to tell Charlie Crist it’s not 1992. It’s 2022 and the rules of the game have changed.”
Crist, a congressman who is running for his former job as Florida governor against GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, stopped running ads in many areas impacted by the storm -- but kept running them in others.
“There once was a time when there was a natural disaster that everyone would drop everything, at least for a few minutes,” Steve Vancore, a Democratic consultant and pollster, told Politico. “Those norms are out of the window.”
DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., and other candidates kept running ads as the storm hammered the state.
Former Army Gen. Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, speaks at a New Hampshire GOP unity breakfast, on Sept. 15, 2022 in Concord, N.H. (Fox News )
FIRST ON FOX: The leading super PAC supporting Democratic senators and candidates is taking aim at the Republican challenging Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan this November in New Hampshire with a major ad blitz on the combustible issue of abortion.
The TV commercial from the Senate Majority PAC, which was shared first with Fox News on Thursday, spotlights a comment by former Army Gen. Don Bolduc, the GOP nominee in the small but crucial general election battleground state, where he praised the blockbuster move by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Democrats have been targeting Republicans running in the midterm elections over the issue in the three months since the high court opinion sent the fight over legalized abortion back to the states.
The ad by the group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer uses an audio recording of Bolduc, on the day of the June 24 Supreme Court ruling, saying "why don’t we just rejoice that one right now," which elicited cheers from the conservative audience the candidate was addressing.
Senate Majority PAC tells Fox News it’s spending a massive $3.7 million to run the TV spot statewide in New Hampshire.
FIRST ON FOX: The super PAC that supports House Republican incumbents and candidates is going up with six new ads in five crucial congressional districts that may determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections.
The launch of the spots from the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which were shared first with Fox News on Thursday, come with less than six weeks to go until election day.
The ads from the group aligned with House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy take aim at the Democratic House nominees in three districts over the issue of crime.
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