Congressional Election Results Lead to Divided Government
November 18, 2022
The Nov. 8 midterm elections saw Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Democrats maintain the majority in the U.S. Senate. Of the 35 seats in the Senate that were up for election, only one flipped parties — Pennsylvania — in which Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, MD. In Georgia, a runoff will take place Dec. 6, for the Senate seat between Democrat incumbent Sen. Ralph Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. The runoff is required because neither candidate cleared the 50% of votes threshold needed for victory in Georgia. The result in the runoff will determine if Democrats have a two-vote majority or if the Senate will be tied 50-50 with the control going to Democrats as Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tiebreaking vote.
In the House, 218 votes are needed for a party to have the majority. At the time of this writing, Republicans (18 pickups) have 218 seats to Democrats’ 210 seats (six pickups) with seven races not yet called. Obviously, with Republicans taking the majority in the House in the next Congress, the immediate difference will be a new Speaker (likely Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California), and it also means new congressional committee chairs.
RADPAC®, the American College of Radiology Association’s® (ACRA®) political action committee, had a very visible presence during the elections. In 2022, RADPAC participated in more than 80 fundraising events in DC and throughout the country for members of Congress. In total, RADPAC supported 150 races and disbursed more than $800,000 this year.
RADPAC also engaged in Independent Expenditures for primaries for Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Senator John Boozman (R-AR), and in general election races for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Congresswoman Ashely Hinson (R-IA) and Congresswoman Angie Craig (D-MN). Independent expenditures are political communications that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate with no limits on the monetary disbursement.
Here’s the breakdown of RADPAC’s success:
Democrats Republicans Success Rate
House Primary Races: Democrats (41) Republicans (29)
Success Rate - 64/70 = 91%
Senate Primary Races: Democrats (5) Republicans (5)
Success Rate - 10/10 = 100%
House General Races: Democrats (30) Republicans (30)
Success Rate - 57/59 = 97% *
Senate General Races: Democrats (4) Republicans (6)
Success Rate - 10/10 = 100%
*One race has not been called yet
To keep up to date on RADPAC news, please visit @RADPAC on Twitter. For more information on RADPAC, please contact Ted Burnes, Senior Director of Political Affairs.
