A few days after the results of the midterm elections for the U.S. Congress, Donald Trump applied to register as a candidate to run for president in 2024. Although there had previously been no doubt that he would try to get into the White House, the election results changed the situation. The expectation was that with the Republican Party’s resounding victory, the politician would be able to ride into the Oval Office on a white horse. In the campaign, republicans performed weaker than analysts expected due to several reasons connected with the personality of Donald Trump and his organizational policy.
According to Trump, his rivals suspended the counting of votes in important states of the country in order to get additional ballots for his opponent Joseph Biden. The head of the White House expressed the view that his supporters made up a majority in all the disputed states, including Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin (Fahrenthold et al.). At the same time, supporters of Trump’s opponents prepared a set of countercharges of fraud. The interim results of the campaign indicate that the process has turned into an exchange of mutual accusations, among which it is impossible to uncover the truth.
In his letter to evangelicals, John Pavlovitz argues that the former unfairly support Donald Trump while ignoring the virtues of President Barack Obama. This point of view is rather one-sided since the letter mentioned only the negative aspects of Trump’s performance (Schick and Vaughn 32). The paradox of the U.S. midterm elections is that the Democrats did better, which seemed to surprise not only observers but also themselves. That said, the Republicans seem to be close to meeting their minimum goal of controlling the House of Representatives. As counting continues, some conclusions can already be drawn from the November 8 vote. Kevin McCarthy, the incumbent minority leader, declared victory before all the results were tallied. Politicians have become less certain that Trump will easily get opponents out of his way (The Lancet 17). His main rival in the party, DeSantis, is getting stronger after his sure victory. Just days ago, DeSantis retreated in the face of a possible Trump comeback; now, he looks like a rising political star.
If the Republicans are not doing as well as anticipated in the run-up to the election, and the Democrats have generally done better. Numerous high-profile Republican candidates who supported Trump’s allegations of election fraud lost their races. In Pennsylvania, Mastriano, one of the most radical candidates, was defeated. In Michigan, conspiracy theorist Christine Caramo lost her race for Secretary of State (“2022 House Election Results: Fox News Midterm Congressional Elections”). But because electoral abandonment has become so commonplace in the Republican Party, it is likely to remain a powerful force.
Florida was no longer a swing state. Republican victories for Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio suggested that Florida, which used to be a classic battleground between Republicans and Democrats, is becoming more of a red state. Florida helped elect Barack Obama to the White House twice, and more Democrats than Republicans registered there in 2020 (“2022 Election Results: USA Today”). However, partly because of growing Republican support among Hispanic voters and the influx of retired, new residents – the state is increasingly shifting to the right (Morris 18).
Thus, the election campaign the election demonstrated the weakness of the candidates promoted by Trump. Many centrist candidates, nominated by Republican leaders, lost in the primaries to candidates supported by Trump, only to have them lose to their Democratic opponents. Another conclusion from the midterm elections is the confrontation within the Republican Party between Trump and the victorious governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. Donald Trump’s widely expected imminent announcement that he will run for the White House in 2024 now looks a little less certain.
Works Cited
Fahrenthold, David A., et al. “Here Are the GOP and Trump Campaign’s Allegations of Election Irregularities. So Far, None Has Been Proved.” Washington Post, Web.
Morris, Dick. Take Back America. 5 July 2022.
Schick, Theodore, and Lewis Vaughn. How to Think about Weird Things : Critical Thinking for a New Age. New York, Mcgraw-Hill Companies, 2014.
The Lancet. “Midterm Elections in the USA: A Pivotal Moment for Health.” The Lancet, vol. 400, no. 10362, 2022, p. 1487.
“2022 Election Results: USA Today.” Usatoday, Web.
‌“2022 House Election Results | Fox News Midterm Congressional Elections.” Fox News, Web.