JD Vance attributed Republican losses in the US midterm elections to the war with Iran, according to the newsblog. The conflict and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz were also cited by AfD lawmaker Bernd Baumann as factors pushing up energy prices and contributing to inflation, alongside US import tariffs.
Baumann told Handelsblatt that the economic pressures had affected and disappointed many voters. He also said he hoped a capable Republican successor to Donald Trump would better represent voters opposed to what he called the “woke establishment.”
The results gave Democrats a majority of governorships for the first time since 2018, according to the newsblog. Democrats also won Senate seats in several states, including Texas and Ohio, while Republicans held seats in Montana and Idaho. The Senate result in Mississippi remained unresolved, with a reported margin of just 43 votes.
In New Jersey, Democrat Rebecca Bennett defeated Republican Representative Tom Kean, according to Associated Press data cited by the newsblog. The district had switched parties in each of the previous two midterm elections. Kean had missed four months of congressional votes while receiving treatment for depression, a diagnosis he disclosed after returning.
Sources: Handelsblatt.