2022 Midterm Election updates while GOP, Democrats fight to win 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!
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Alexis Martinez Johnson, a Hispanic Republican running to represent New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District in the House, is accusing her Democratic opponent of "whitewashing" her name in a recent campaign ad.
The ad from Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez's campaign fails to use Johnson's full name and only refers to her as "Alexis Johnson" as it accuses the Republican of "lying about" Fernandez in one of the tightest House races this midterm cycle.
"Alexis Johnson already got caught lying about Teresa Leger Fernandez, so it's no surprise she's doing it again," the ad's narrator claimed. "New Mexico can't trust Alexis Johnson in Congress."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Johnson said the "whitewashing" of her name in the ad is "offensive and disgusting" and pointed to it as being one of the reasons why the GOP "will win back the House this year."
"When Hispanic women decide they are not willing to vote Democratic anymore, the radical left becomes unhinged," Johnson said. "They call us breakfast tacos, 'Miss Frijoles,' and now they've stooped to whitewashing my proud Hispanic heritage out of desperation. It's offensive and disgusting, and this is why Republicans will win back the House this year. The Hispanic community is sick and tired of being used and sold out year after year."
Read more: Democrat candidate accused of 'whitewashing' Hispanic GOP opponent in new ad
Past and present support for certain policies related to crime from left-wing Senate candidates could be a hindrance for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections as they seek to maintain control in Congress.
From left to right: Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Cheri Beasley, Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan, Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (Sean Rayford, Alex Wong, Andrew Spear, Sara Stathas for the Washington Post, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
At least five Democrats running for Senate positions around the country — John Fetterman, Rep. Tim Ryan, Mandela Barnes, Cheri Beasley, and Sen. Raphael Warnock — have voiced support for an end to cash bail in America.
Crime, which has skyrocketed across several major American cities, has become an important concern for voters ahead of the November elections, with a poll last month indicating that a majority view Republicans as more equipped to handle the issue that has become more important to them than abortion.
Read more: Meet the five Democrats in key Senate races who have expressed support for eliminating cash bail
President Biden gives a speech before designating Camp Hale as a national monument in Red Cliff, Colorado on Oct. 12, 2022. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
President Biden will attend a big-ticket fundraiser for House Democrats Thursday evening alongside Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in Los Angeles.
Tickets for the high-profile Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee event start at $5,000, with the top-spending attendees shelling out a whopping $50,000 per head, according to a Deadline report.
Though the hosts of the event remain unknown, the fundraiser will be held in Brentwood, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Los Angeles and home to some of Hollywood’s biggest names including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lebron James and Tom Brady.
The fundraiser is part of Biden’s four-day-long western U.S. campaign tour that includes Colorado, Southern California, and Oregon. Absent from the president’s campaign schedule are stops in states that have two of the highest profile midterm Senate races this cycle, Nevada and Arizona.
Read more from Fox News' Sophia Slacik here: Biden heads to Los Angeles for big-ticket Democratic fundraiser with Nancy Pelosi as inflation runs hot
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will face Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz in a televised debate on Oct. 25, 2022.
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board, addressed and defended the now-infamous 2013 incident in which he chased a Black jogger with a shotgun while he was mayor of the city of Braddock.
Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, had gone after the man believing he had been involved in a shooting. It turned out that he had not been, but Fetterman maintains that he had not engaged in racial profiling.
"I understand there’s history in Black and brown communities of profiling, but this ... was simply an individual that had a mask, and I wasn’t aware of anything about it other than he was the only individual running from the gunfire," he said.
At the time, Fetterman told local television station WTAE that he had heard what sounded like "assault rifle gunshots" and had seen a man running. Fetterman said he had taken a shotgun out of the vehicle and merely used it to detain the man until police showed up. He claimed he had not pointed it at the man, later identified as Christopher Miyares, but Miyares said otherwise.
Read more from Fox News' Ronn Blitzer here: Fetterman defends pulling shotgun on Black jogger in 2013, but explains why he would would not do it now
Incumbent Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin (Getty Images)
Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul is ahead in the New York governor's race, but independent voters are aligning with the GOP in critical issues like rising crime and inflation, according to a recent poll.
A Marist Poll released Thursday found that Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has a 10-point advantage over GOP challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin among all registered voters in the Empire State's gubernatorial race. However, 49% of independent voters plan on voting for Zeldin while 35% support Hochul as she seeks a full term in the governor's mansion, according to the poll.
The race narrows slightly among those who said they are definitely voting in November, with Hochul being the choice of 52% and 44% supporting Zeldin.
Former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who has been taking plenty of hits from Republicans claiming the Democratic Senate nominee is soft on crime, pivoted on a question on her support for cashless bail to go after her opponent for not supporting law enforcement.
Beasley argues that conservative Rep. Ted Budd – whom she’s facing in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr in a contest that’s one of a handful across the country in November’s midterm elections that will likely determine if Republicans win back the Senate majority – "has been all talk and no action" when it comes to support for law enforcement.
In ads and on the campaign trail, Budd and his GOP allies have targeted Beasley over her judicial record, attacked her over support for cashless bail for nonviolent offenders, and have claimed that she supports defunding the police. But pushing back, Beasley highlights her endorsements by law enforcement and has distanced herself from those on the far left who’ve called for reductions in police funding.
And in an exclusive interview with Fox News after touring Jim Edwards’ family farm in Burnsville, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge mountains north of Asheville, Beasley argued that during his tenure in the House, Budd has "had four opportunities to vote in favor of funding for law enforcement, to make sure that they have opportunities for recruitment and retaining their officers, to fight the opioid crisis, and Congressman Budd has voted no each of those four times. He’s the last one to give a lecture on public safety."
Read more from Fox News' Paul Steinhauser: Democrat Senate candidate calls Obama for help after slipping in polls: Report
Mandela Barnes
Democratic Senate Candidate Mandela Barnes called on President Barack Obama for help after he began slipping in the polls for his Wisconsin Senate race against incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, Politico reported Thursday.
Members of Barnes' political campaign reached out to Obama's team in recent days in hopes of getting the popular former president to make an appearance in the final days before election day, the outlet reported. Obama isn't the only high-level Democrat who may appear in Wisconsin soon, however, as Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, are reportedly likely to make the trip.
Recent polling shows Johnson having a 6-point lead over Mandela in the final weeks before Election Day. The Wednesday poll from Marquette Law School found that Johnson was entering the final stretch with 52% support from likely voters, while Mandela had 46%.
Multnomah County, Oregon, which contains the city of Portland and is responsible for prosecuting criminal activity in the city, is looking to remove gender-related language from its charter.
Voters in the county are set to vote on a local ballot measure that would remove language in the 1966 charter that includes "gender binary pronouns," such as "he, she, his and her," and instead use gender-neutral terms.
Measure 26-230, also known as the Gender Neutral Charter Amendment, if approved, would adopt terms like "the sheriff" to refer to a particular position within the county, rather than one that associates the office with a particular gender.
Portland and Multnomah County residents are experiencing a massive rise in crime, as well as a pervasive homelessness problem on the city's streets.
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