Kari Lake defeat: Did democracy win in US midterms?

Supporters of the president hold a post-election ‘Stop The Steal’ protest in Atlanta

Almost every Republican candidate who was standing for a position that would have given them oversight of the 2024 elections and who were also “election deniers” – people who repeat the lie that the 2020 election was corrupt or stolen – have lost their races.

These include candidates who were running for secretary of state and governor positions in battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Kari Lake, who was running for governor of Arizona, was the last one to fall as her election was called for her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs.

Some election deniers have been elected, especially to Congress – like Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House Of Representatives and JD Vance in the Senate. A BBC analysis found that out of 178 candidates for Congress or governor who “fully and publicly” denied that the 2020 election was legitimate, a majority – 126 have won – while 48 have lost. A few are still too close to call.

But overall these elections produced a resounding repudiation of Trump-backed candidates who deny the legitimacy of the last presidential election.

It appears voters specifically rejected these candidates rather than their party. Plenty of Republican candidates who accept the 2020 result were elected. In Georgia, Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger – who resisted pressure from Donald Trump to overturn the result in their state – were easily re-elected as governor and secretary of state.

They got hundreds of thousands more votes than the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, the election denier Herschel Walker, who faces a run-off election next month after failing to secure over 50% of the votes.

President Biden was criticised from within his party for making democracy a central issue in this campaign. Pundits reckoned that, faced with the rising cost of living voters, would not prioritise their democratic freedoms. But it seems President Biden was right.

That makes it much easier for him to advance his foreign policy abroad. Meeting President Xi for three hours in Indonesia yesterday he could maintain his criticism (even contempt) for authoritarian rule knowing that he represents a nation that believes in the democratic system.

Story continues

President Biden has also framed the war in Ukraine – and America’s support for Ukrainian forces – as an existential battle for rights of a sovereign democracy.

That argument was looking weaker when as many as four in 10 Americans were telling pollsters that they didn’t believe he was legitimately elected president.

So far none of the defeated candidates has cried foul and said they don’t believe these election results.

But Kari Lake has said on Twitter that “Arizonans know BS when they see it”. Will she try to challenge the legitimacy of her opponent’s victory? Or have the lies about stolen elections been defeated at the ballot box?

Donald Trump is due to give his “very big announcement” at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday evening.

We expect he will announce his third tilt at the White House. Will he continue to campaign on the basis of his election lies or will he have to find a new song to sing?

Top of midterms links box

Bottom of midterms links box