Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday attempted to smooth over Democrats’ election night losses by claiming her party “had great wins” before listing wins in deep blue parts of the country where Republicans stood no chance.
“I will say this: We had great wins,” Harris told reporters. “We have Eric Adams in New York. In Ohio, we had Mrs. Brown, Shontel Brown, a great win and what I think will be a great addition to the United States Congress.”
As Fox News reported, Eric Adams became the next mayor of deep-blue New York City, “where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly seven-to-one.” It was never in doubt that Adams would defeat Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa. Adams is replacing Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has supported socialist governments in the past.
As for Ohio, Brown won a special election in one of Ohio’s most Democratic counties. In 2020, Biden won the state’s 11th Congressional district with 80% of the vote. Brown is replacing Marcia Fudge, who became President Joe Biden’s housing and urban development secretary.
Harris’ comments come after she campaigned for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the lead up to his staggering election loss Tuesday night.
“What happens in Virginia will, in large part, determine what happens in 2022, 2024, and on,” Harris said just days before the election that saw Republicans win all three statewide elections and come within spitting distance of winning the New Jersey governorship. It was the first time a Republican won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009. Biden won the state by 10 percentage points in 2020.
As The Daily Wire reported, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated McAuliffe, who previously served as Virginia’s governor. In addition to Youngkin, Republican Winsome Sears will be the first black woman to serve statewide in Virginia after she won the lieutenant gubernatorial election. And Republican Jason Miyares will be the state’s first Latino attorney general.
In New Jersey, Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli came close to ousting incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy (D). The race was too close to call well into Wednesday afternoon, before Murphy finally eked out a win.
The closeness of the race surprised many, as Ciattarelli didn’t appear to run as determined a campaign in New Jersey as Youngkin ran in Virginia. Murphy was projected to easily win the election by nearly double-digits heading into election day.
Republicans did pick up at least one notable win in the Garden State, with a Republican commercial truck driver who by some reports spent $153 on his primary campaign beating out New Jersey’s Democrat Senate President.
Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) has been New Jersey’s state Senate President since 2010 and has served in the state Senate since 2002. But after Tuesday’s election, Sweeney appears poised to lose to Republican Edward Durr.
Durr’s low-key campaign and potential to oust Sweeney has shocked politicos, even if the race has received a fraction of the coverage as that of the gubernatorial election. The tightness of the race was so unexpected that the New Jersey Globe was forced to retract its article calling the race for Sweeney early in the night. The Globe initially reported within minutes of the polls closing that Sweeney, as well as Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro) and Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro (D-Woolwich), won re-election.