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Laura Kelly has won re-election to a second term, NBC News projects, defeating Republican challenger Derek Schmidt. Kelly was the only Democratic governor running for re-election in a state won by Donald Trump in 2020. Any path to victory for Kelly was always going to rely almost entirely on her ability to appeal to Republican voters. In Kansas, registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats nearly 2 to 1 (Republicans make up 44% of registered voters, Democrats 26%, and unaffiliated voters 29%). Her ads during the race focused heavily on how she had done just that during her four years in office.

☆ Wis. Gov. Tony Evers wins re-election in a closely watched race against Republican businessman Tim Michels, NBC News projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | Adam Edelman | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Tony Evers has won re-election to a second term, NBC News projects, narrowly defeating Republican businessman Tim Michels. With 89% of precincts reporting, Evers had 50.9% of the vote, while Michels got 48%. Shortly after NBC News called the race for Evers, Michels told supporters at his election night party in Milwaukee that he had conceded the race. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels at a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump in Waukesha, Wis., on Aug. 5. Evers and Michels had been running neck and neck for the entire the race.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp wins re-election, NBC News projects, fending off a challenge from Stacey Abrams. Because Kemp, who defeated Abrams in 2018, is expected to win more than 50% of the vote, there will not be a runoff election in the race. In recent weeks, however, Kemp had pulled away in the polls, leading Abrams in most surveys by upward of 6 percentage points. “Democracy failed in Georgia,” Abrams said after the contest, which was marred by allegations of voter roll purging and suppression largely affecting Black voters.

Greg Abbott has won re-election to a third term, NBC News projects, soundly defeating a challenge from Democrat Beto O’Rourke. Polls in recent months had consistently shown Abbott leading; a recent RealClearPolitics average of surveys before the election showed him ahead by more than 8 percentage points. Greg Abbott at a campaign event in Fairview on Aug. 31. Texas hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in more than three decades, Abbott is a formidable fundraiser, and Texas Republicans have built inroads with Latino voters. After polls showed the race narrowing for a brief period over the summer, they then began showing Abbott pulling ahead.

“We cannot move on from the 2020 election,” he said at a debate in April during the GOP primary. Marchant has said he would not have certified the 2020 results in the state, which Biden won. Republican Tudor Dixon — who has said the 2020 election was stolen — is running for governor against Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer. Matthew DePerno, who is running for attorney general against Democratic incumbent Dana Nessel, has also repeatedly espoused debunked conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election results in Michigan. DePerno has also argued that any Michigan resident should have the right to demand a vote audit of the state’s election results.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, local election officials became frequent targets of supporters of former President Donald Trump who supported his false claims of election fraud. Election officials also said that the courts could inject chaos into the process if results are contested for weeks following the vote. Droves of election workers throughout Georgia quit their positions following the 2020 election. And in Pennsylvania, nearly 50 top election officials have left their post within the past two years. “Election workers and election officials leave or stop coming in, more errors can occur as a result, which in turn can fuel disinformation,” he said.

If election deniers in those races win, their ability to affect future elections could be made more robust by having cooperative election deniers in their state houses to help push legislation remaking certain election laws in those states. The group’s analysis found that election deniers were most prevalent in Arizona state legislative races, where they made up 87% of all Republican nominees in those races. In both Pennsylvania and Michigan, 62% of all Republican state legislative nominees in each state were election deniers, the group found. In Minnesota, 42% of all Republican nominees in state legislative races were election deniers, while in Nevada, 31% were. That included several incumbents and candidates in Minnesota who'd who had questioned or challenged the results of the 2020 election.

☆ Democrats struggle with message on inflation in final midterm push
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

“What is our message about why inflation is going to be worse if Republicans win?” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told NBC News in an interview. Even as President Joe Biden and some candidates sharpen their focus on inflation, many Democrats are worried it may be coming too late. “Ads for both parties discussed inflation during the early summer, but since then, pro-Democratic ads have avoided mentions of inflation while pro-Republican ads have increased their discussion of inflation,” the researchers wrote. Economic issues are hitting voters particularly hard in states where Democrats’ control of the Senate hangs in the balance, including Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. In campaign appearances and ads, she’s frequently attempted to explain to voters that the Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for voters.

Tim Michels, the Republican nominee in Wisconsin’s race for governor, can’t keep his messaging straight on abortion rights — a top issue in the state and nationally. But in recent days, he has done just that — offering support for policies less hard-line than the 1849 law, while continuing to insist his position hadn't changed. The remark stands in stark contrast to comments Michels made during the primary, too, when he called the law an “exact mirror" of his own personal position on abortion rights. While Michels’ latest comment appears to further soften his position on abortion, the governor doesn’t actually have the power to arrest or charge anyone under the 1849 or any other law. In September, just days after pledging to not soften his position, Michels said he would support an abortion ban that includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

Christine Drazan, the Republican nominee in the tight three-way race for governor in Oregon, is ratcheting up attacks on Democrat Tina Kotek on homelessness and education in a new ad that will launch later Monday. The 30-second ad, shared first with NBC News ahead of its release, will run statewide on television and on digital. It is part of a weekly ad buy for more than $1 million, Drazan campaign spokesperson John Burke said. “Leaders like Tina Kotek and Kate Brown have let us down,” Drazan says in the ad in a direct-to-camera appeal. Oregon voters have not elected a Republican governor since 1982.

While Friday night’s debate was entirely civil, the two candidates displayed the clear differences between them on major issues. Michels claimed “illegal voting did happen in the last election” despite no evidence widespread fraud occurred. Throughout the Republican primary race, Michels repeatedly said there was fraud in the 2020 election, echoing Trump’s disproven claims. Evers and Michels are locked in a tight race. The latest Marquette Law School poll, released Wednesday, showed Evers slightly leading Michels among likely voters, 47% to 46% — within the margin of error.

MILWAUKEE — Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and his Democratic challenger, Mandela Barnes, traded attacks and insults in a heated Senate debate Thursday night that focused heavily on crime, gun violence and economic issues. The hourlong debate, held at Marquette University, was the second of two showdowns ahead of the Nov. 8 election. At various points, both candidates responded to questions from the moderators by lobbing attacks at each other — sometimes wholly unrelated to the topic at hand. Barnes frequently responded to Johnson's attacks on issues like crime and policing by criticizing his record in the Senate. Thursday’s acidic debate came just days after a new poll found Johnson leading Barnes.

LAS VEGAS — Jim Marchant, the election-denying Republican nominee for secretary of state in Nevada, has so far been outspent and out campaigned by his Democratic opponent. Davis, a Republican, said he “hadn’t thought much” about whether the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and remained undecided in the secretary of state race. The dynamics in Arizona’s secretary of state race are similar. He and Marchant, as well as Kristina Karamo, the Republican secretary of state nominee in Michigan, are all members of the pro-Trump America First Secretary of State Coalition, though polling shows Karamo’s race is far less competitive. “This could be the last free and fair election in Nevada,” West said.

A top Democratic super PAC is launching a multi-million dollar campaign in seven battleground states to fight back against policies the group says disenfranchise Black and brown voters. The group, Priorities USA, will spend $5 million on digital ads that seek to directly reach minority voters in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada and help those voters navigate complicated or cumbersome election laws. Priorities USA is also spending $10 million on voter protection litigation in existing cases the group says will help defend voting rights in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan and New Hampshire. One ad directs voters to a hotline that can help them understand whether and how they can vote by mail in their state. Meanwhile, Priorities USA said the litigation it would spend money on includes cases in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Georgia, Nevada and Michigan.

Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is fighting a tough re-election battle— the issue is almost nowhere to be seen. “What Kelly is doing makes perfect sense," said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka. “I think the abortion vote is possibly very instructive nationally, and for other states, but not for Kansas,” Beatty said. Doing so also allows Kelly and her campaign to avoid wading into the violent history surrounding abortion rights activism in the state. Still, at a debate between the two candidates at the Kansas State Fair earlier this month, Schmidt accused Kelly of supporting abortion “up until the moment of birth,” which is not accurate.

Tim Michels, the Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin, said Friday he would support an abortion ban that includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, a shift from his earlier stance on the issue. In an interview on the Dan O’Donnell show, a conservative talk radio program in Wisconsin, Michels was asked if he would sign an abortion ban bill that included exceptions. Asked on Friday if his new stance on abortion was a shift, Michels sidestepped the question. “Michels has staked out the most extreme position possible on this issue, and as governor, wouldn’t hesitate to enact radical legislation that would put women’s lives at risk. Earlier this year, voters in Kansas voted to uphold abortion rights in their state.

On key issues like abortion and election denialism, Tim Michels, the Republican nominee for governor of Wisconsin, is not moving toward the political middle down the homestretch to Election Day. Michels, following a pattern of other Republican candidates in governor’s races in states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, has not done so. "A change on the abortion issue might even be counterproductive, doesn’t help him with the base and doesn’t help him with moderates or independents." It lets him speak to the base and to independents at the same time.”Michels is locked in a close race with Gov. Michels campaign adviser Chris Walker did not respond to questions about Michels’ strategy on abortion or election issues.

☆ Poll: GOP is winning on the economy, immigration; Democrats are ahead on abortion and health care
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Chuck-Todd-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Chuck Todd | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

... And Joe O’Dea pitches himself as pro-abortion rights in Colorado Senate while Democrats push back. The Republican Party holds all-time high advantages on the economy, crime and border security, while the Democrats have an all-time high on abortion and a double-digit edge on health care. Midterm roundup: Trump hits the trail in OhioFormer President Donald Trump traveled to Ohio over the weekend to boost GOP Senate hopeful J.D. Not every GOP Senate candidate is eager to campaign with Trump. It’s a position on abortion that is different from that of his fellow Republican Senate candidates, many of whom favor stricter bans with few exceptions.

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