The Week Magazine November 18, 2022

Donald Trump’s endorsement can get an extremist Republican onto the ballot, but it won’t necessarily get one elected. Trump’s support in the primaries, where only the most partisan voters bother to show up, helped propel full-MAGA election deniers—many of them political newcomers—into midterm races across the country. But a lot of them lost or underperformed, especially in swing states. In Georgia, for example, where Herschel Walker was running almost entirely on the strength of being a former football star and a current Trump golfing buddy, there’s going to be a runoff. In Pennsylvania, Trump’s pick Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor with no political experience, lost the governor’s race outright to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The former president was furious, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted, and blamed Melania for…

What happened Democrats defied both expectation and historical precedent this week, as a widely anticipated Republican “red wave” in the midterm elections failed to materialize, leaving control of both the House and Senate in question as The Week went to press. Still, as votes in dozens of key races were counted, the GOP was favored to take control of the House by a narrow margin, and a Senate win was still within reach. Democrats scored a key win in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman—hampered by a stroke that affected his ability to respond to oral questions—beat Donald Trump–endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, flipping a Republican seat. That left Senate control hinging on three races that were too close to call a day after the polls closed, with each party needing to win…

What happened State-level races gave Republicans fewer wins than expected this week, and exit polls showed that many voters were motivated by the desire to protect abortion access. Some 60 percent of voters said they wanted abortion to be legal in most cases, and half of those said the issue was the main factor in their vote. In gubernatorial contests, Democrats maintained power in Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, and Michigan and flipped the office from red to blue in Massachusetts and Maryland. But in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis romped to a second term with a victory of nearly 20 percentage points, while Georgia’s Republican incumbent, Brian Kemp, decisively defeated Stacey Abrams. In Arizona, Republican Kari Lake was trailing as The Week went to press but implied she would not recognize…

What happened Still energized by anger over the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer, voters this week approved measures enshrining the right to abortion access in three state constitutions and rejected proposals that would further curtail abortion in two conservative strongholds. California and Vermont residents overwhelmingly approved proposals to add explicit language to their constitutions protecting the right to reproductive choice. Voters in Michigan—where a court had already nullified a 1931 abortion ban that remained on the books—approved a similar constitutional change. Kentuckians rejected a constitutional amendment explicitly denying any right to abortion—a surprise result in a deeply conservative state where a trigger ban went into effect immediately after Roe’s June 24 repeal. In Montana, voters appeared to reject a “Born Alive” provision that would require health-care providers to try…

“He’s baaaack!” said the New York Daily News in an editorial. Donald Trump has told supporters to expect a “very special announcement” next week, strongly hinting he will make another run at the presidency in 2024. He made his intentions clear in a series of heavy-handed jabs at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose landslide re-election this week solidified his status as Trump’s most plausible rival for the Republican presidential nomination. At a Pennsylvania rally, Trump debuted a nickname for his rival, “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and later warned on Fox News that if DeSantis does choose to run, “I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering,” with the creepy addendum that “I know more about him than anybody, other than perhaps his wife.” These “shameful” remarks are a…

Good week for: Investors who shorted Tesla, after CEO Elon Musk sold another $3.95 billion in Tesla shares to shore up his disastrous Twitter purchase. Tesla stock is down nearly 50 percent this year, and has lost $600 billion in market capitalization since its peak. Fantasies, after a struggling scuba diver off the coast of California was rescued by a group of women divers who dress as mermaids, complete with tails. “It was something out of a fairy tale, being saved by a mermaid,” said the saved diver, Javier Claramunt. Selling handsome, with the launch of Le Domaine, a line of skin-care products from actor Brad Pitt. In a review of the serum, the New York Post’s Brian Faas said that for its $385 price tag, “Brad Pitt should come to your house…