Midterm Election Watch 2022
The Root’s staff is following key races and issues in the 2022 midterm elections and will give updates and brief analysis throughout the evening. Check back here as returns come in.
8:31 p.m. EST: With voting ended in several states, there are projected winners in three key races we’ve been following. Democrat Wes Moore, an Army veteran and bestselling author who parlayed his inspirational story into political aspirations, will be Maryland’s next governor, several outlets projected. Although Maryland, in particular the corridor between Baltimore and the Washington, D.C., suburbs, has long been known as a center for Black wealth and political ascendancy, Moore will be the state’s first Black governor. It also flips the seat back into Democratic control from term-limited Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who famously clashed with Donald Trump over the Jan. 6th insurrection and other issues.
In Florida, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old Democrat, is projected to take over the 10th Congressional District seat being vacated by Democrat Val Demings. Frost, who is of Afro-Cuban descent (The Hill describes his background as having been born to a Haitian man and Lebanese Puerto Rican woman but adopted at birth by a Cuban-American woman and a white man) is being called the first member of Gen-Z to win a seat in Congress.
Meanwhile, Demings’ gamble on leaving her seat in the House to challenge incumbent Republican Marco Rubio didn’t work out. Multiple news outlets called the race based on early returns shortly after 8 p.m.
9:59 p.m. EDT: Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), the incumbent who ran a campaign ad telling people who criticized police for brutality and misconduct to “call a crackhead” instead of law enforcement when they needed help has defeated Democratic challenger Gary Chambers, who created a series of viral campaign ads of his own.
10: 23 p.m. EDT: In New York, Attorney General Letitia James easily won re-election to her seat. Her victory means the civil fraud lawsuit her office is pursuing against former president Donald Trump and his children.