This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.My colleague David Frum wrote this week that Tuesday’s midterm was the latest loss for Donald Trump and a major win for newly reelected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has a chance at the GOP crown.
In COVID terms, the middle of last autumn looked a lot like this one. After a rough summer, SARS-CoV-2 infections were down; hospitalizations and deaths were in a relative trough. Kids and workers were back in schools and offices, and another round of COVID shots was rolling out. Things weren’t great … but they weren’t the most terrible they’d ever been. There were vaccines; there were tests; there were drugs.
It’s over. Facebook is in decline, Twitter in chaos. Mark Zuckerberg’s empire has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value and laid off 11,000 people, with its ad business in peril and its metaverse fantasy in irons. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has caused advertisers to pull spending and power users to shun the platform (or at least to tweet a lot about doing so). It’s never felt more plausible that the age of social media might end—and soon.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and ultimately threatening the legal foundations of federal Indian law. ICWA was created in 1978 to address the systemic crisis of family separation in Native communities waged by the U.S. and requires the government to ensure foster children are adopted by members of their Indigenous tribes, as well as blood relatives, before being adopted by non-Indigenous parents.
We look at the wave of progressive prosecutors elected in Tuesday’s midterms and what the results mean for the movement to reform the criminal justice system. Voters have an “understanding that we can’t incarcerate our way to safety,” says law professor Lara Bazelon, who explains how progressive prosecutors won several key races in blue, purple and red states despite Republican candidates across the country campaigning with a focus on crime and public safety.
The inside story of how lobbying, threats and the desire to protect industry gutted a proposal that was meant to make vaccines widely available in poorer countries.
The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, and control of the Senate now rests on three states: Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Meanwhile, Republicans have not yet won enough House seats to regain the majority, though there are still over 30 House races not yet decided. Many analysts say if Democrats lose control of the House, it may largely be because of New York state, where Republicans have flipped four congressional seats.
The results could affect reproductive rights for millions of Americans.
Access to abortion remains legal, but in limbo, in eight states.
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
The New York Post hit the former president with a blistering front page. The Wall Street Journal declared him to be the GOP’s “biggest loser.
The progressive Minnesota attorney general faced a spirited challenge from Republican Jim Schultz that was fueled by high crime and anger at the activist left.
The MAGA world is shaken. The traditional media is shaken. The right wing-o-sphere is shaken. After believing a “red tsunami” was coming to wash away the Democratic Party and usher in a red wave of fascists on Nov. 8, centrists and conservatives everywhere are shaken. We were less shaken.
It is usually bad form to gloat over another person’s loss.
As of Wednesday morning, there’s a lot we don’t know about specific election outcomes. But one thing we do know is that the confident predictions of a huge Republican wave were flatly wrong, and there should be a lot of soul-searching among the pundits and reporters and, frankly, Democratic politicians and operatives who made those predictions.
UPDATE: Thursday, Nov 10, 2022 · 12:58:59 AM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
NEW – Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimates well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine conflict, says “probably” the same on the Ukrainian side. Speaking now.
There were those of us insisting the dominant media narrative of a “red wave” was wrong. Kerry Eleveld, Simon Rosenberg, Tom Bonier, and I kept looking at the data and wondering where this fervent belief on the massive Republican wave came from. History, for sure. But it was clear as day that this wasn’t a typical midterm.
Looking at you, Third Way, and Bernie Sanders, and well everyone else Markos talks about here. This.
THIS:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky voters reject anti-abortion constitutional amendment in conservative state with near-total ban.— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) November 9, 2022
Kentucky. The voters of Kentucky, in a 53-47 vote, told their Republican leaders to stuff it, they won’t let them put an extreme abortion ban into the state constitution.
Each election cycle, the party puts big money and high hopes into some success in Texas only to have it end like Beto O’Rourke’s campaign — in defeat.
Ask anyone what Mehmet Oz said about reproductive rights during last month’s Pennsylvania Senate debate, and they’ll probably tell you that the TV doctor believes an abortion should be between “a woman, her doctor, and local political leaders.” The truth is, that dystopian Handmaid’s Tale–esque statement did not come verbatim from the Republican’s mouth. But it may have cost him the election anyway.
Ryan Walters told a local television station his first order of business would be auditing the state’s Education Department.
With crucial races still undecided, GOP candidates could pursue a legal fight over a printing error in Maricopa County.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Some observers ridiculed Joe Biden for making a closing pitch for democracy, but as it turns out, Americans do care about more than the price of gas. Voters concerned about democracy and their rights defied predictions of a red wave and sharply limited Republican gains.
It was one of the stranger midterms of the past few decades. Democrats, facing down a rout as inflation ran stubbornly high and President Joe Biden’s approval ratings remained underwater, managed a string of decisive victories that may allow them to control the Senate and even halt a significant Republican takeover of the House.
Who will control Congress after yesterday’s midterm elections remains unclear, but two things are certain: Moderation can pay big electoral dividends, and Donald Trump has become a liability for the Republican Party.Yes, plenty of extremist candidates just won office. According to The New York Times, more than 200 Republican candidates who denied the results of the 2020 election or flirted with doing so secured victories on Tuesday.
Members of the state House refused to budge on their proposal to ban abortion starting at conception with exceptions for rape, incest and if the life of the pregnant person is in danger.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekElections alter the balance of power in a democracy while affording us new information about what voters want.
A surge in turnout among people motivated by the erosion of abortion rights carried Democrats to victory in multiple races.