All we learned from this election is that America is bitterly divided – and that is no surprise

Things could have been better for Republicans, but they could have been a lot worse for Democrats, writes Andrew Buncombe

People take a selfie during an election night watch party for the Republican House representative Kevin McCarthy (AFP via Getty Images)

A red wave? Not really. How about a blue wave? Not that either.

In fact, as America voted in midterm elections that will decide the control of the houses of Congress and kickstart the 2024 presidential showdown, all we really learned was something we already knew – that America is bitterly and deeply divided.

With Joe Biden’s polls numbers so low, and with inflation and the economy playing on the minds of so many people, Republicans went into this week’s election hopeful of a major upset.

If polls were correct, and if the party that occupies the White House took a pasting in a manner that is traditional, then Republicans could have expected a very good night indeed.

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It looks as if they will still take the House of Representatives, with Kevin McCarthy replacing Nancy Pelosi as the speaker, albeit with a majority of just a half-dozen, rather than the two dozen the likes of Karl Rove had been predicting going into the race.

Republicans had dreamed of flipping Senate seats across the country, and governor’s races as well. Some of the most optimistic believed the red wave could reach the shores of Washington state and that Trump-backed Tiffany Smiley might oust veteran Democratic senator Patty Murray.

While it seems the House will be controlled by Republicans, we may not know for days.

The same is true for the Senate, where Democrats appeared poised to hold onto a slim majority, and looked to Georgia and Nevada as the states that could determine control, and where the results of which would not be made public until later in the week.

Ron DeSantis won by 20 points in Florida (AP)

Indeed, we learned on Wednesday that in Georgia neither of the two main candidates, the Democrat candidate Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, managed to win 50 per cent of the vote, meaning under state laws it has to go another run off on 6 December.

Senator Lindsey Graham admitted that the Republicans had failed to see the kind of outcomes they had hoped for.

“Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure,” Mr Graham said during an appearance on NBC News. “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”

And if Democrats do hold on to the upper chamber, much credit must go to John Fetterman who overcame Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania to flip a race for his party.

That he did so having suffered a stroke just a few months ago, says lot about his courage and tenacity, as well as the TV-slick Dr Oz’s failure to gain sufficient traction.

“I am so humbled,” Mr Fetterman told supporters after the race was called. “We held the line. I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we had to do.”

Along with Mr Fetterman, another major winner was Florida governor Ron DeSantis, scorching to a 20-point victory over the Democrat candidate Charlie Crist. Florida – as with Ohio – has in recent years become increasingly red, but few expected such a margin of victory.

Republicans will say they had the best of the night. JD Vance won the Senate seat in Ohio, Marco Rubio was reelected in Florida and Mr Walker was engaged in a defiant fight in Georgia.

Also in Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp easily defeated the progressive Democrat Stacey Abrams.

And if Mr DeSantis was a winner then Donald Trump was perceived by many to have been one of the night’s biggest losers, though it is possible to argue the opposite.

While some of the candidates he backed, such as Mr Vance won with some room to spare in Ohio over Tim Ryan, many of his other picks – including Dr Oz, and Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who had spouted election lies, and was beaten in New Hampshire by Maggie Hassan, performed less well. Many GOP strategists are already blaming the former president.

“Clearly, we lost races we should have won because Trump picked flawed candidates,” said the Republican strategist Alex Conant. “Trump’s challenge is that with every loss, his opposition grows stronger.”

But he remains a powerful figure in the Republican party, which is waiting until Tuesday when he has promised a “major” announcement that could be a second tilt at the White House.

He had endorsed more than 300 candidates across the country, hoping the much-predicted red wave would help him to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

However, there was no triumphant speech at his election night party at Mar-a-Lago.

President Biden took the time to make congratulatory calls to the California governor Gavin Newsom, Representative Marcy Kaptur, Representative Mikie Sherrill, Representative Josh Gottheimer and Representative-elect Greg Landsman, among others.

All in all, what does this mean? It means that things stayed more or less the same, which for Democrats will be seen as a victory given how badly things could have ended up, and how they have tended to do so in previous midterm races.

America feels divided and tonight’s results underscored that.

For Republicans, things could have been better, while for Democrats they could have been a lot worse.

And for Donald Trump – it was, as it always is – business as usual.