2022 midterm election results

Republican J.D. Vance, the projected winner of Ohio’s open Senate seat, said he was “overwhelmed with gratitude” during his victory speech to supporters in Columbus Tuesday.

He thanked his family and campaign team as well as the Republican Party and officials who joined him on the campaign trail.

Some background: Vance’s win is a boon for Republicans and a victory for former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement in the Republican primary helped Vance emerge from the contentious intraparty fight.

Vance continues a long line of Republican victories in a state that has tilted toward the party in recent years. Other than Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, no Democrat has won nonjudicial statewide office in the state since 2008 and former President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in 2012.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has won reelection, CNN projects. McCarthy defeated longshot Democratic challenger Marisa Wood in the midterm race for California’s 20th Congressional District.  

If Republicans win back the House majority, McCarthy is widely expected to be elected as the next House Speaker at the start of the new session of Congress, which would further elevate his position as a prominent leader in the national Republican Party and usher in a new era in Washington with Republicans set to pursue aggressive oversight of President Joe Biden’s administration.  

As the top House Republican, McCarthy faces the challenge of having to balance the interests and priorities of different ideological factions within the House GOP conference, ranging from the far-right to more moderate members representing swing districts. 

Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley wins reelection in Massachusetts 7th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Republican Katie Britt will be the first female senator elected in Alabama, CNN projects, winning an open-seat race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby.

Two women have previously represented Alabama in the Senate, but both were appointed to fill vacancies.  

Britt is just one of the projected winners who made history on Tuesday night. Here are a few others:

Rep. Elise Stefanik — the third-ranking House Republican — will win her reelection in New York’s 21st District, CNN projects.

As polls in more western states start to close, Republicans have two more Senate seats than Democrats — needing to win four more to win control of the chamber.

Republicans are projected to win 46 seats and Democrats are projected to win 44, with many more states still counting ballots, but the window of opportunity could be getting smaller for Democrats, CNN’s John King said in analysis.

“We are in a very narrow chess game for control of the Senate right now, and we have fewer pieces in place,” he said Tuesday.

There are a handful of key states with results will coming that could determine who controls the chamber — Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, King said.

Watch:

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray will win reelection in Washington state, CNN projects, and will defeat Republican Tiffany Smiley.

Four-term Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden will win reelection in Oregon, CNN projects, and will defeat Republican Jo Rae Perkins.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won reelection in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, CNN projects, holding onto a seat she has represented since 1983.

Headed into the 2022 midterms, Kaptur was widely seen as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country, with both Ohio and her district, in part because of redistricting, moving away from her party politically. 

But after Republican J.R. Majewski unexpectedly defeated better-funded and more establishment-aligned Republicans in the primary, the race began to tilt toward Kaptur given Majewski’s unflinching loyalty to former President Donald Trump, the fact he was a January 6, 2021, rally participant and has repeatedly shared pro-QAnon material, despite denying he followed the conspiracy theory movement. 

Kaptur effectively won the race in September after the National Republican Congressional Committee cancelled all their ad reservations in the district. The decision came just days after The Associated Press reported Majewski had misrepresented his military service. 

Kaptur’s win is a boon for Democrats. Kaptur’s district shifted dramatically during Ohio’s controversial redistricting process, moving from a solidly Democratic seat to one that leans toward Republicans. 

Kaptur ran on her ties to Ohio, arguing that being a Midwestern Democrat in a party increasingly run with big-city sensibilities on both coasts is a growing challenge for her. 

“What coastal people, God bless them, don’t understand, is that we lost our middle class,” Kaptur told CNN. “We lost so many people who’ve worked hard all their lives, including in many of these small towns. I understand that. We feel their pain. We went through it together.”