2022 Midterm election updates as Democrats, GOP fight for Senate, House of Representatives
Live updates from the 2022 Midterm Election campaign trail as Republicans and Democrats battle it out with just a weeks of campaigning left before election day in November. Stay up-to-date on events and latest news surrounding the 2022 midterms from Fox News!
Coverage for this event has ended.
Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the Senate GOP's election arm, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will travel to Georgia for a Tuesday event supporting Herschel Walker, the first major campaign stop following accusations that the Republican Senate nominee paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion a decade ago.
Walker has denied that he paid $700 a woman to get an abortion or had a child with her, and further reports have alleged that he encouraged the woman to have a second abortion, which she refused to do. But as the accusations trickle in, Republicans have rallied around Walker as he runs to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a crucial midterm race that could determine whether the GOP retakes control of the Senate.
"The Democrats want to destroy this country, and they will try to destroy anyone who gets in their way," Scott, the junior senator from Florida and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"Today it's Herschel Walker, but tomorrow it's the American people. I'm on Herschel's team — and they picked the wrong Georgian to mess with. I'm proud to stand with Herschel Walker and make sure Georgians know that he will always fight to protect them from the forces trying to destroy Georgia values and Georgia's economy, led by Raphael Warnock," Scott said.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson went after his Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes' positions on crime Friday in the Wisconsin Senate debate, one of the most hotly contested races that could determine party control of the U.S. Senate.
Johnson has aimed numerous attacks at Barnes' previous statements on police funding and has accused him of adding to the anti-law enforcement riots of 2020.
In numerous ads, Johnson has painted Barnes as "dangerous" and contributing to a spike in crime, and on Friday he renewed his attacks on Barnes.
"He says it pains him to see fully funded police budgets," Johnson said at one point of the debate, and elsewhere tied Barnes to the high crime.
"Because of that 'defund the police' effort, it is very difficult to recruit. We are 1,000 officers below where we were in Wisconsin just from 2008, and people are having a very difficult time. Sheriffs are having a very difficult time recruiting new officers. Where they may have had 100 recruits, they may have had a dozen," Johnson said.
When Barnes addressed violence, he focused on the social issues that may lead to crime.
"What we need to do is make sure that communities have the resources that they need to prevent that crime from happening in the first place. That means fully funding our schools. It also means making sure that there are good-paying jobs in communities, and we also invested $100 million into law enforcement, public safety and crime-prevention initiatives through the American Rescue Plan," Barnes said.
Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker speaks during a campaign stop at Battle Lumber Co. on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Wadley, Georgia. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker's campaign fired political director Taylor Crowe on suspicion of leaking to members of the media, two Republican sources with knowledge of the events confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The decision comes a month before the 2022 midterm election, with Walker responding to a report that he urged an unnamed former girlfriend to get an abortion, and reimbursed her $700 for the procedure. Walker denies the report.
Walker's opponent, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, maintains an edge in the race, according to a Fox News poll released last week. Among Georgia registered voters, 46% would choose Warnock, while 41% would pick Walker, in the poll taken Sept. 22-26, before the abortion controversy erupted.
Crowe previously served as a director for former Sen. David Perdue when he ran for the Georgia governorship. Perdue fell in the Republican primary against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.
Read more: Herschel Walker campaign fires political director on suspicion of media leaks: sources
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks during a news conference in Washington on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
FIRST ON FOX: Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin has amended previous financial disclosures after omitting her husband's employment for the last two years with a company that has received government contracts worth millions.
Slotkin's move to amend the 2020 and 2021 financial disclosures came after Fox News Digital inquired about the missing employment information for her husband, Dave Moore.
Prior public statements made by Slotkin revealed that her husband worked as a counterterrorism planner at the Pentagon, and her previous financial disclosures from 2018 and 2019 showed that he worked for Emissary LLC, a company that provides general management consulting services.
Up until this week, Slotkin's 2020 and 2021 financial disclosures did not indicate any employment for her husband, other than his military pension.
Read more for Fox News' Kyle Morris here.
Democratic operatives are reportedly behind dozens of outlets presenting themselves as local news websites while pushing pro-Democratic Party content.
A network of approximately 51 separate U.S. news sites have disguised themselves with local names in order to push politically advantageous reports under the guise of regional journalism, according to Axios.
The individual sites are held under the umbrella of a for-profit company called Local Report Inc, which was first incorporated in Florida in 2021.
Each site boasts numerous articles and editorial contribution from The American Independent, a progressive media group started by Media Matters co-founder David Brock, Axios reports.
Read more from Fox News' Timothy H.J. Nerozzi here.
Democrat Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, D-Wis., said he will accept the results of the Wisconsin Senate race against Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., after making claims that suggested he denied the results of previous elections.
Fox News Digital reached out to Barnes, asking him if he would accept the results of this year's midterm election, after a 2016 tweet resurfaced where he insinuated the presidential election was "rigged."
"The election was, rigged?" Barnes tweeted after former President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the heated 2020 race for the presidency.
Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.
President Biden's pardon on all prior simple marijuana offenses is "timed for the election," according to strategists who consider the new move to be a distraction tactic from the Democrats as the midterms started looking grim for the party.
Biden announced Thursday that he would be pardoning thousands of marijuana convictions. "No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," he stated in a clip shared to Twitter.
"I think this is part of the electric car, student loan, marijuana strategy all timed for the election. Don’t think it overcomes particularly the growing issue of crime and drug related crime in the country," said Fox News contributor Mark Penn, a former advisor to President Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Read more here.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (Tyler Olson/Fox News)
A blogger who shared racist remarks about former President Barack Obama was paid by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez's campaign for "advertising services" on two separate occasions.
In November 2014, Juan Montoya, who operates the El Rrun Rrun blog, amplified the insensitive comments that were penned by Jerry McHale, another blogger who was revealed in July to have made numerous racist and sexist remarks through his own blog that targeted GOP Rep. Mayra Flores.
In the post shared to Montoya's blog, McHale, who was also paid by the Gonzalez campaign for "advertising services" through his own blog, made racist comments through "one of his alter personalities" known as Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully.
Describing Republican politicians who he believed the GOP should prop up in elections, McHale stated: "The voters look at the Cameron County Republicans as viable options. If the party of the rich, racists and religious right ran Terry Ray or Bud Richards or Harry McNair, the Democrats would prevail in landslides, but Tony Garza, Cascos and Garcia aren't reactionary ideologues, born-again Christians or prudes."
"They like to f--- and drink. They are reasonable individuals who aren't ranting and raving that Barack Obama is a god--mn n----- who is bringing the world to an end," he added. "They aren't wasting any rhetoric opposing gay marriage, abortion or legalizing marijuana."
As of Thursday afternoon, advertisements for Gonzalez's campaign remain active on Montoya's blog, leading those who inquire to the Texas candidate's Facebook page.
In a statement to Fox, the Gonzalez campaign insisted that it has "already cut ties with the author of this post" and that the language used in the blog post is "abhorrent."
Read more from Fox News' Brandon Gillespie here: Dem candidate paid blogger who amplified remarks using the n-word to describe Obama to promote campaign
Live Coverage begins here