Washington Correspondent
There was no Republican wave.
The first results of the midterm elections which took place on Tuesday in the United States once again defied forecasts.
Projections and polls that announced a triumph for the Republican Party and a defeat for the Democrats were wrong.
The poor economic situation and high inflation, the unpopularity of Joe Biden and the traditional sanction imposed on the president in place during this election were not enough to ensure the Republicans the expected victory.
The country again appears to be divided more or less equally between the two parties.
The results are so tight that it will be necessary to wait until all the ballots are counted to know the majority in Congress.
An uncertain control
The advance of a few seats won by the Republicans may give them hope of obtaining a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
But the Democrats held up better than expected, even retaining constituencies in elections that were shaping up to be tough.
In Virginia, Representative Elaine Luria, who sits on the House Committee to Investigate the January 6 Uprising, was defeated, but another Democrat, Abigail Spanberger, managed to retain her seat in another constituency. disputed.
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On the other hand, the control of the Senate remains uncertain.
Here too, the Democrats have avoided the disaster scenarios evoked in recent weeks, which predicted defeats in states where they are traditionally in the majority.
In New Hampshire, Senator Maggie Hassan retained her seat against former general Don Bolduc, one of the candidates supported by Trump.
The victory of Republican J. D. Vance in Ohio, a bestselling author long opposed to Trump before joining him, only keeps a seat already acquired in the party.
The Republicans, on the other hand, lost a seat in Pennsylvania, where the Republican candidate Mehmet Oz was defeated by his Democratic rival, John Fetterman, who overcame the handicap of a stroke which occurred at the start of the campaign.
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The majority in the Senate is now being played out in three states where the results were not yet known on Tuesday afternoon: in Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, currently divided equally between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, it is enough to either party to win an additional seat to take control of the Upper House.
In the event of a tie, the Democrats will retain, thanks to the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, a narrow majority.
Significant victories
The final result could be another month away.
In Georgia, the state which in 2021 had allowed the Democrats to snatch the majority in the Senate in extremis, neither of the two adversaries, the former American football champion Herschel Walker and the Democratic pastor Raphael Warnock, took a lead. decisive on the other.
According to a rule specific to this State, if no candidate obtains 50% of the votes, a new election will take place, and this on December 6th.
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The gubernatorial elections also gave significant victories to the Republicans, without turning into a Democratic debacle.
In Florida, the very public Republican Ron DeSantis was largely re-elected, despite only obtaining a very narrow majority in 2018. In Texas, Greg Abbott triumphed without much surprise over his opponent Beto O'Rourke.
But Republican hopes of taking over Democratic states have been dashed.
In New York State, the Democratic candidate won, as well as in states held by Republicans, such as Massachusetts or Maryland.
Several of the most extreme Republican candidates, who had taken up Trump's thesis of the stolen 2020 election, and imposed by the former president in the Republican primaries, failed to convince.
In Pennsylvania, Republican Doug Mastriano, who demonstrated around the Capitol on the day of the January 6, 2021 uprising, lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro.
In Arizona, former presenter Kari Lake, who refused to announce whether she would admit defeat, may well have to deal with that eventuality.
Another disappointment for Trump: Some of the Republicans who opposed his attempt to change the 2020 results won their elections by a wide margin.
Brian Kemp, the outgoing governor of Georgia, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger were thus re-elected.
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The general atmosphere of defiance created by Trump since the 2020 ballot also seemed to have dissipated somewhat.
Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate, publicly admitted defeat in Pennsylvania.
Stacey Abrams, Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, who refused to concede in 2018, this time admitted her failure.
The Democrats are relieved to have avoided the announced debacle.
Joe Biden is doing better than his predecessors, Obama in 2010 or Trump in 2018, who suffered greater losses.
On the Republican side, this half-hearted victory could lead the party to reassess the role of Donald Trump, who plans to announce his candidacy for the next presidential election on November 15.
The recent campaign, parasitized by his recriminations on the 2020 ballot, is not a success for the former president.
The eccentric candidates, chosen on the basis of their allegiance to Trump rather than their skill or abilities as politicians, cost the party some seats.
Having avoided a catastrophe is not, however, a real victory for Joe Biden.
The president remains largely unpopular.
And the control of the House and the Senate will be decisive for its room for maneuver during the two years of mandate which remain to him.
A Republican majority in the House will likely lead to the dissolution of the Jan. 6 inquiry, and likely the opening of new hearings on his administration's policy.
But, above all, the United States, divided into two more or less equal camps, has just fallen back into the status quo.
