The 2022 United States midterm elections took place on November 8th, 2022 although counting in some states went on for up to a week, delaying results. A runoff election was held in Georgia between the top two candidates on December 6th. Although Republicans were hoping for good results after it was apparent that Joe Biden was an unpopular president, Democrats overperformed in results, although Republicans still won the national popular vote in the House of Representatives.

House of Representatives

The Republicans, led by the highly experienced and fiercely pro-Trump House Republican Conference leader Kevin McCarthy, won 222 seats in the House of Representatives, taking back control of the House after 4 years of Democratic leadership. Although a victory, this was an underwhelming result for some Republicans who hoped for a much larger victory in the number of seats, however it was well within projections by pollsters such as FiveThirtyEight. In spite of the underperformance in the seat results, the Republicans did very well in the popular vote, winning 50.6% of the vote, beating the Democrats by over three million votes in a year of projected record high turnout.

Current Speaker of the House and Democratic floor leader Nancy Pelosi has announced that she is stepping down and House Democrats elected House Democratic Caucus chair Hakeem Jefferies to succeed her as floor leader and House Minority Leader. Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to become Speaker of the House following the Republican victory, although he has faced competition within his own party. Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) announced that he was challenging McCarthy in the official vote for speaker on January 3rd, after he failed to win the Republican nomination for the speakership by an anonymous ballot vote shortly after the midterms.

Senate

Democrats (along with Democratic-caucusing independents) gained one seat in the U.S. Senate, again despite projections suggesting that Republicans would pick up several seats in the Senate. Key races were won by Democrats, such as in Pennsylvania where John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz, the first Muslim major-party nominee for a senate seat, despite criticisms that Fetterman was incapable of being a senator after suffering from a stroke. Democratic incumbents Raphael Warnock (GA), Mark Kelly (AZ), and Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) were reelected despite strong competition from Republican challengers, such as former NFL player Hershel Walker in Georgia. However, Republican incumbent Ron Johnson of Wisconsin kept his seat despite a competitive challenge from Democrat Mandela Barnes, preventing Democrats from gaining a larger influence on the Senate.

Chuck Schumer of New York will remain as the Senate’s majority leader, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will stay Republican minority leader, stating that he will not resign, after winning a challenge from Rick Scott of Florida.

Governorships

Democrats also performed well in governorships, many incumbent Democratic governors in states like Wisconsin and Michigan kept their seats, and gained seats from retiring Republican governors in blue states such as Massachusetts and Maryland. Democratic candidates also won governorships held by retiring Democrats in states like Oregon. The only Republican seat gained was in Nevada, where Joe Lombardo beat incumbent governor Steve Sisolak. In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbes very narrowly won against Republican candidate Kari Lake, who decided to challenge the results in court. California governor Gavin Newsom won another term against Republican challenger Brian Dahle, although won by a smaller margin than in 2018 and in the 2021 recall, and won by a smaller margin than governor Ron DeSantis in Florida. 

LA Mayoral Race

In Los Angeles, congresswoman Karen Bass beat billionaire Rick Caruso, becoming the first female mayor of LA. Although a Democrat, was a former Republican and ran on a somewhat conservative platform, his opponent, Bass also ran on a platform of more police funding to fix crime and to stop homelessness. Caruso lost despite spending over 100 million dollars of his own money on ads.

What’ll Happen Next

With a majority in the House, Republicans will likely end the investigations into January 6th, and will also cut funding to Ukraine. House Republicans have also announced plans to investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop. As for local politics in California, in the city of LA, and in the South Bay suburbs, the situation will likely remain the sam