As the battle for power in Congress continues after Election Day, the clear winners are gloating in victory speeches and social media posts, presenting their vision for America’s future.
The 2022 midterm races are still being called, with undecided seats in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Georgia, where the Senate race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock will head to a runoff election after neither candidate received over 50 percent of the vote.
But significant victories were decided on Tuesday night. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis crushed Democrat Charlie Crist and consolidated support from Latinos, winning the state’s populous Miami-Dade County.
In his victory speech, DeSantis crowed that his state rejected “woke ideology.”
“We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob,” he said. “Florida is where woke goes to die!”
A raucous crowd of supporters chanted “two more years.” Governors serve four-year terms—the cheer was a nod to DeSantis’s potential presidential ambitions in 2024, a possibility strengthened by his landslide victory and the disappointing performance of Trump-backed candidates.
GIORGIO VIERA / Contributor/AFP
In a major victory for the Democrats, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Senate race. Fetterman reveled in the win that gave his party hope of retaining Senate control, affirming his “every county, every vote” slogan on Tuesday night.
In celebration, his campaign took aim at one of Oz’s highest-profile gaffes during the race. The celebrity doctor infamously complained about inflated supermarket prices while pretending to buy ingredients for his wife’s “crudité” platter, a remark that Fetterman seized on as out-of-touch with Pennsylvania voters—many of whom call the same snack a veggie tray.
Multiple attendees of Fetterman’s victory party snapped photos of crudité at the event.
“Breaking – crudités at the Fetterman party,” tweeted Julia Terruso, a local reporter with The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Making History
Meanwhile, other winners celebrated making history on Tuesday.
Maura Healey, elected the first female governor in Massachusetts and the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history, beamed during her victory speech.
“To every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there, I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be,” she said.
Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost, 25, became the first member of Generation Z to join Congress. Frost said he would be celebrating his election to the House of Representatives by seeing English pop/rock band The 1975 this week.
I’VE BEEN CAMPAIGNING FOR OVER A YEAR THIS IS WILD!! I’M GONNA SEE @the1975 ON THURSDAY TO CELEBRATE!!!
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) November 9, 2022
“I’VE BEEN CAMPAIGNING FOR OVER A YEAR THIS IS WILD!! I’M GONNA SEE @the1975 ON THURSDAY TO CELEBRATE!!!” he tweeted.
In Arkansas, Republican Governor-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was the “honor of a lifetime” to serve as the state’s first female governor.
“I’d also like to say that it will the first, to my knowledge, father and daughter governor, anywhere in the country,” she added. Sanders is the daughter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
