USA: Only one mandate for the majority

Last week, the opposition party ran worse-than-expected mid-term elections. To the surprise of many, they did not capture the upper house of Congress, the Senate, where Democrats hold power.

In the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, more than ten of the 435 MPs are still to be counted. So the battle is not entirely decided, but the Democrats will need a miracle for a change of power not to be a reality – the Republicans are now on 217 seats, and therefore only need one seat to reach a majority. The party also leads in many of the remaining vote counts.

Regardless of the potential victory in the House of Representatives, Republicans are believed to be finding it difficult to fully push their policies. A narrow majority would pose challenges and complicate the party’s ability to govern, according to observers.

The Democratic Governor of Arizona

According to the Associated Press, the majority could be the smallest in the entire 21st century and lead to “legislative chaos.” Any bill introduced by the House of Representatives is expected to face fierce battles in the Senate, where it is believed that a narrow Democratic majority is enough to block Republican proposals.

During the night there was another setback for the Republicans. According to the Associated Press projections, Democrat Katie Hobbs is regaining victory in the Arizona gubernatorial election.

Hobbs was up against pro-Trump Carrie Lake, the former news anchor who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged. The victory means the state now has a Democratic governor, after incumbent Republican Doug Ducey was barred from running for re-election.

Problem in the lower room

Lake is a controversial figure, who has been vocal about the slow counting of votes in the state and has promised to “fix” the election system as governor. After the results were announced, she called Hobbs’ victory “nonsense”. on Twitter.

Two more Arizona voters lost their elections for governor and U.S. Senate, respectively.

If, as predicted, Kevin McCarthy takes over as Speaker of the House after Democrat Nancy Pelosi, he will lead a “loud” group, the Associated Press assesses. Many Republicans in the new Congress are Trump loyalists and have opposed the results of the 2020 presidential election.