Hakeem Jeffries: Nancy Pelosi’s likely successor formally declares Democratic leadership bid

Addressing a victory rally the morning after her projected victory, Arizona’s governor-elect Katie Hobbs said Arizona voters “chose solving our problems over conspiracy theories,” after she defeated prominent election denier and Trump loyalist Kari Lake.

“We chose sanity over chaos, and we chose unity over division,” she said on Tuesday. “We chose a better Arizona, and we chose democracy.”

Ms Lake’s loss is the latest in a sweep of defeats to a conspiracy theory-fuelled, antidemocratic movement to upend the electoral process to ensure GOP victories across the US.

“The attacks on democracy won’t end today with this victory. It is on all of us to continue to defend it,” Ms Hobbs said. “Most of all we must reject the false choice between democracy and standing up for an economy that works for everyone.”

Voters rejected Republicans in critical state-level races running on bogus election narratives and endless grievances.

After beating them, newly elected officials warn that the GOP movement of Trump loyalists and conspiracy theorists isn’t over yet.

Among the 94 races for statewide offices this year, only five new candidates who amplified election lies won their races, according to analysis from pro-democracy group States United Action.

“Trying to delegitimise democracy is not a winning strategy,” said Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, who defeated Trump-backed conspiracy theorist Kristina Karamo. “But we still have a presidential election [in 2024] in which we anticipate a lot of the same challenges.”

Exit polls found that younger voters aged 18-29 were the only group by age to overwhelmingly support Democrats in midterms elections.

Sixty-three per cent of voters in that age group voted for Democratic House candidates, according to the poll, while 35 per cent voted for Republicans.

US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, herself a millennial lawmaker, predicted that the youth vote numbers were the harbinger of a “generational shift” in politics.

The Independent’s John Bowden reports:

In a statement honouring Nancy Pelosi’s historic tenure, House Majority Whip James Clyburn said he looks “forward to her continued service” and “doing whatever I can to assist our new generation of Democratic Leaders which I hope to be Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar.”

Congressman Jeffries is current chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Mr Aguilar is vice chair of the Democratic Caucus.

Congresswoman Clark is the fourth-ranking Democrat, serving as assistant Democratic leader.

The US Senate has voted 62-37 to advance a bill that would enshrine federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.

The crucial procedural vote on 16 November follows the US Supreme Court’s reversal of constitutional protections for the right to an abortion, raising fears among civil rights groups and LGBT+ advocates that conservative justices would invite challenge to marriage equality and other rights previously defended by the court.

A final vote on the bill could come as early as Thursday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence tells CBS News that he will not testify to the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol.

“Congress has no right to my testimony,” he said. “We have a separation of powers ... I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”

With Republicans now projected to take control of the House, the next crucial step in Democrats’ calculations is establishing whether Nancy Pelosi will remain their leader. And today, it seems, is the day when they will find out her decision, as per her deputy chief of staff:

New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for rewarding “some of the most racist” Republicans in Congress as the GOP prepares to retake the majority.

The House stripped far-right Representatives Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia of their committees in the current Congress.

Specifically, the House also censured Mr Gosar after he posted an anime video that depicted a character with Mr Gosar’s face killing a character with Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s face.

Ms Greene appeared to back Mr McCarthy, who has indicated that he would reinstate the members if Republicans regain the House majority after midterm elections.

“I mean beyond unpunished, Kevin McCarthy has made a very clear statement – has stated that he intends to reward some of the most racist members of Congress that we have served in recent years,” she told The Independent.

Senate Republicans have once again chosen Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell to lead their conference when the 118th Congress convenes in January.

Of the 48 Republicans who will serve in the upper chamber starting next year, 37 voted to keep the Bluegrass State’s senior senator as their leader, while ten of them voted for Florida senator Rick Scott, who headed the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2022 election cycle. One senator voted to abstain.

Andrew Feinberg reports:

Nevada’s reelected Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto told CBS News that voters were motivated to vote against her Republican opponent because of the bogus election fraud narrative he amplified and that fuelled the attack on the US Capitol.

Voters were voting not only for “kitchen-table issues” and abortion rights but also after seeing images and being reminded of the violence on 6 January 2021.

“We can’t forget the many people who were in their homes, watching it. ... And the emotional impact it had for so many people acrtoss this country,” she said. “The attack on January 6, what the intent was, that violent mob to undermine our democracy.”

Her opponent Adam Laxalt, who co-chaired Trump’s re-election campaign, amplified the same baseless election fraud narrative that fuelled the attack.

“[Voters] were talking to me about this, and how important it also was to guard our democracy and our democratic instutitions,” she said. “This crossed party lines ... You couldn’t discount it.”