US midterm polls: Republicans win key states

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was elected the governor of Arkansas on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to lead the state and the highest profile Trump administration official in elected office.

Early trends of the mid-term election showed the Republicans ready to come back to power in Congress, putting the future of the Joe Biden government at stake, even though the full results may take weeks to be published.

Four years ago, Ron DeSantis narrowly won the Florida governor’s office in a squeaker. But he’s consolidated his grip on the state since then, and on Tuesday the Republican easily won a second term. The victory could embolden DeSantis to seek the White House in the next election as many have expected.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian-leaning conservative and former presidential candidate, won a third term on Tuesday by defeating a rival from the other end of the political spectrum, progressive Democrat Charles Booker.

First elected in the tea party-driven wave of 2010, Paul’s victory extended a long GOP winning streak in Kentucky Senate races. The Bluegrass State hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

Booker was the first Black Kentuckian to run as the state’s Democratic nominee for the Senate, but his trailblazing campaign came up short against Paul. It was Booker’s second bid for the Senate. In 2020, he barely lost the Democratic Senate primary to an establishment-backed rival routed that year by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the general election.

In Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore became the state’s first Black governor. And in Massachusetts, Democrat Maura Healey’s win made her the state’s first woman and openly gay governor. Moore is a bestselling author in his first run for public office. Healey is currently Massachusetts attorney general and has broken a peculiar jinx in the state.

Since 1958, six former Massachusetts attorneys general sought the governor’s office and all failed. There will be at least two new faces in the Senate Republican caucus. Republican Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has won a special election to serve the final four years of longtime Republican Senator Jim Inhofes fifth-term in the Senate. Inhofe announced in February that he would resign before completing the six-year term. Katie Britt, a former chief of staff for the retiring Senator Richard Shelby, has won her bid to succeed her old boss. Shelby, who is retiring, first took office in 1987.

Former President Donald Trump predicted Republicans would have a great night as he voted in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday morning. He told reporters outside the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center that he had voted to re-elect Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, even as the two could soon become rivals if as many expect they both run for president in 2024.

Trump is planning an announcement in Florida next Tuesday. He said November 15 would be a very exciting day for a lot of people.

(With inputs from agencies)