By Maya King Oct. 22, 2022 With elections less than three weeks away, voter turnout in Georgia is soaring, Bernie is back on the road and the No. 1 issue for many continues to be the economy.
Our reporters are across the country following candidates.
Here are four takeaways from the campaign trail → Voter turnout in Georgia is far outperforming that of previous midterm elections , rivaling presidential-year figures.
On the first day of early voting, more than 130,000 people cast ballots , a more than 85 percent increase from the same day in 2018, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Georgia’s Republican incumbent governor, Brian Kemp, and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, met on the debate stage Monday night for the first time since 2018.
Within their back-and-forth were substantive policy points on firearms and the pandemic.
Abrams trails Kemp by more than five percentage points in most polls.
Voters’ worries about the economy are eclipsing concerns about the state of democracy , according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.
Seventy-one percent of all voters said democracy was at risk, but just 7 percent said that was the biggest problem for the country.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is mounting an eight-state tour to gin up voter enthusiasm over the final two weekends before Election Day.
He plans to host nearly 20 events geared toward young voters and progressives in battleground states like Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Catch up on more political news.
Control of Congress House: Republicans seized the majority in the House , effectively giving the party a veto on President Biden’s agenda for the next two years. “The Daily” looks at what the G.O.P. plans to do, and not do, with its newfound power .
Senate: Democrats retained at least 50-50 control of the Senate , overcoming President Biden’s weak approval ratings, high inflation and historical patterns.
They could expand their majority with a win in the Georgia runoff on Dec. 6 .
Key Senate Races Nevada: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto beat the odds with a narrow victory against Adam Laxalt, a Republican, ensuring Democratic control over the Senate .
Pennsylvania: Lt.
Gov.
John Fetterman, a Democrat whose reinvented campaign after a stroke connected with voters , defeated Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor, flipping a seat that had been in Republican hands.
Georgia: The race between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, will go to a Dec. 6 runoff .
It will be the state’s third Senate runoff in two years .
Ohio: The victory for “Hillbilly Elegy” author and Republican J.D.
Vance, who defeated Representative Tim Ryan after an unexpectedly competitive campaign , was the picture of a gambit rewarded .
Key Governors’ Races Arizona: Katie Hobbs, an election official who stood up to efforts to overturn the 2020 results in Arizona, narrowly defeated Kari Lake, a right-wing former newscaster whose campaign was built on election denialism .
Florida: Gov.
Ron DeSantis glided to re-election, cementing G.O.P. power in a state that was once a key battleground and supercharging his own political career .
New York: Gov.
Kathy Hochul, the state’s first female governor, won her first full term , beating a Trump-aligned Republican, Representative Lee Zeldin.
Now she must govern over a fractured electorate .
Georgia: Stacey Abrams, who was dogged by complaints that she was distracted by her national ambitions , lost to Gov.
Brian Kemp, the G.O.P. incumbent, in a bitter rematch of their 2018 race.