Inflation-Weary US Voters Reject Republican Case to Blame Biden
- Republicans fall short of achieving resounding midterm victory
- Democrats focused campaign messaging on abortion rights
Voters cast ballots in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 8.
Photographer: Michelle Gustafson/BloombergMost voters said they are feeling the pain of inflation but fewer than a third saw it as the defining issue of whether to support President Joe Biden and Democrats, while the issue of abortion rights appears to have staved off larger Republican gains, network midterm election exit polls showed.
Republicans appear likely to win the five seats they needed to regain control of the House, significant enough to stymie the remainder of Biden’s legislative agenda, but their expected margin is well short of the “red wave” that they had been banking on to catapult them to the White House in 2024. In the Senate, where the GOP needed only one seat in the Senate, Democrats have held onto their incumbent seats and flipped a previously GOP one in Pennsylvania.