On Sunday, President Joe Biden praised the results of the midterm elections, noting that Democrats were expected to keep control of the U.S. Senate as a consequence of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s tight victory over Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada.
“We feel good about where we are. And I know I’m a cockeyed optimist,” Biden told reporters in Cambodia after news outlets projected that his party would keep a majority in the Senate. He added that he was “not surprised” by the turnout.
To maintain control of at least 50 seats by 2023, Democrats rejected several candidates supported by former President Donald Trump. Given the closeness of several elections, it is still unclear who will control the House.
Before Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona won his re-election race in Arizona, defeating Republican Blake Masters, NBC News forecast Friday evening. Cortez Masto’s victory gave Democrats the upper hand necessary to win a Senate majority.
Trump supported Laxalt and Masters, supporting his erroneous accusations of widespread election fraud in the 2020 cycle.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, chastised candidates who ran on Donald Trump’s election denial in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“I learned that the American people want a way forward that focuses on ideas, ideas that will make their lives better, not just their lives but that for future generations,” Cassidy said. “Those who are most closely aligned with the former president under-performed. Those who are talking about the future or who had managed their states well, overperformed. The American people want ideas. They want a future.”
Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana and the head of the Republican Study Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the election results were upsetting for his party but refrained from endorsing Trump, who has frequently hinted that he’ll launch his 2024 candidacy shortly.
Banks acknowledged that Trump was a “highly popular figure” inside the GOP and a “very effective president,” but he said he would reserve his “endorsement for another place.”
The Republican governor of Maryland Larry Hogan said he believes it’s time for the party to reassess and determine its priorities, blaming Trump for their underwhelming performance.
“It’s the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race, and it’s like, three strikes, you’re out,” Hogan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“This should have been a huge red wave. It should have been one of the biggest red waves we’ve ever had,” he added, and “commonsense conservatives” who won had focused their campaign on issues popular among voters such as the economy and crime.
Democrats, meanwhile, joined Biden in rejoicing over their electoral victories, with some blaming Trump for their superior performance against Republicans.
“So why did we win? Three reasons. First, we had great candidates. They had flawed candidates. Our candidates were talking about the issues. They cared about people. The incumbents had gotten a lot done. Their candidates were talking about lack of democracy,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters at a news conference in New York on Sunday.
“Second, we won because we had a really good agenda that we passed that helped the American people on things they cared about,” Schumer said. “And third … we won because the American people rejected the kinds of autocracy that some, the MAGA Republicans, the wing of that party were talking about.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she is “extremely proud” of Democratic candidates because they “understood their purpose” in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“They knew why they were running, to protect our democracy, save our planet, protect our values and the rest,” Pelosi said. “And they did not heed any guidance of ‘you should change your message.’ They knew their districts. They related to their constituents. And they have produced a great result.”
On “Meet the Press,” Anita Dunn, senior adviser to the president, said: “It’s very clear what President Biden and the Democratic Party are for. They are for working people, for middle-class people, for policies that change what’s happened over the last 40 years in this country, where the wealthy just got wealthier, and the people at the top did well, and everybody else lost ground.”
