US Business

The US state of Massachusetts on Tuesday elected Democrat Maura Healey as America’s first openly lesbian governor, TV networks said.

Healey, 51, flipped the seat from the Republicans, comfortably defeating opponent Geoff Diehl, according to projections by NBC, Fox News and CNN.

She told cheering supporters at her election night party in Boston that she was “proud” of her historic victory.

“To every little girl and every LGBTQ person out there, you can be anything you want to be,” Healey said. 

LGBTQ+ rights group the Human Rights Campaign hailed her triumph.

“Massachusetts embraced a platform of equality and inclusion by electing a pro-equality champion,” the organization’s interim president Joni Madison, said in a statement.

Healey’s win returns the state’s governorship to Democrats after eight years of Republican leadership under Charlie Baker, who opted not to seek a third term.

She was on track to heavily beat Diehl, who had been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

The result had been widely expected, with Healey — Massachusetts’ attorney general since 2014 — comfortably ahead in the polls in the runup to the vote.

Healey will also become Massachusetts’ first ever female governor. Her victory with running mate Kim Driscoll means that women will serve as both governor and lieutenant governor of a state for the first time, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

LGBTQ candidates are running in all 50 states and the capital Washington for the first time in this year’s midterm election, as the community becomes an increasingly powerful voting constituency.

Democrat Tina Kotek, who is also lesbian, was bidding to match Healey’s win in Oregon on Tuesday in a governor’s race regarded as a toss-up.

Almost 90 percent of the LGBTQ candidates who entered this year’s primary races are Democrats.

Tesla chief Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of shares in the electric car company, SEC filings showed Tuesday, more than a week after he closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission documents show Musk, who financed much of his Twitter purchase with Tesla stock, sold more than 19 million shares worth in excess of $3.9 billion. 

Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives in late October after a drawn out back-and forth between the world’s richest person and the influential social media company.

He tried to step back from the Twitter deal soon after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April, and said in July he was canceling the contract because he was misled by Twitter over the number of fake “bot” accounts — allegations rejected by the company.

After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold the entrepreneur to the deal. But with a trial looming, he capitulated and revived his takeover plan.

Musk’s decision to pull Twitter off the stock market has allowed him to make major changes quickly, but it also took the company more heavily into debt, a risky choice for a money-losing business.

In early November, he announced an $8 per month charge to verify users’ accounts, arguing the plan would solve the platform’s issues with bots and trolls while creating a new revenue stream for the company.

US park officials have asked visitors to stop licking psychedelic toads, warning that anyone seeking a hallucinogenic high from the wart-covered amphibians is more likely to end up seriously ill.

The National Park Service posted cautionary messages on social media last week against licking Sonoran Desert toads, a practice long depicted on popular animated television shows including “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.”

“As we say with most things you come across in a national park, whether it be a banana slug, unfamiliar mushroom, or a large toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please refrain from licking,” said park officials.

The toads — among the largest in North America, at nearly seven inches (18 centimetres) long — secrete a potent toxin from their glands which “can make you sick if you handle the frog or get the poison in your mouth,” they wrote.

The messages did not indicate how many people have been seeking recreational highs by licking the slimy green creatures, also called Colorado River toads, which live in the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico.

To defend themselves from predators, the toads secrete a milky substance containing various toxins, among which is 5-MeO-DMT — a psychoactive compound that triggers hallucinogenic effects.

Smoking extracted 5-MeO-DMT induces a powerful, short psychedelic experience, and has become popular in recent years, including at expensive underground “toad ceremonies” in the US, where it is a controlled substance, and in Mexico.

Celebrities such as boxing champion Mike Tyson and podcaster Joe Rogan have discussed the use of the substance for therapeutic, recreational, and even spiritual purposes.

But the toad’s venom also contains other toxic substances which can be fatal when ingested.

Scientists have also warned that the growing demand for Sonoran Desert toads’ secretions could endanger the species.

Generation Z will soon have its voice in Washington.

Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost, all of 25 years old, on Tuesday became the first Gen Z member-elect of Congress when he won a seat in the US House of Representatives.

As a candidate in a district that leans solidly Democratic, Frost’s victory over Republican Calvin Wimbish was called by US networks shortly after polls closed.

“WE WON!!!!” tweeted an exuberant Frost. “We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.”

As a member of the generation comprising today’s teens and young adults, the African-American Frost, raised by an adoptive mother of Cuban descent, would stand out among the white faces and gray hair in the lower House, where the average age is a seasoned 58.

“We need that representation in Congress so that way we have a government that looks like the country and knows what the country is going through,” the candidate told AFP in Orlando last month on the campaign trail.

Frost, who was driving an Uber during the campaign to make ends meet, has aligned solidly with the Democratic party’s progressive wing, focusing on social justice and the fight against climate change. He has said he will use his position in Washington to seek solutions to gun violence in America.

Frost was just 15 in 2012 when, like so many fellow Americans, he was horrified by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and he decided to get involved in civic activism.

Later he became a national representative of March For Our Lives, the student-led group that launched with a massive 2018 rally against gun violence.

In New Hampshire, another Gen Z candidate, 25-year-old Karoline Leavitt, is also running for Congress, although she hails from the opposite side of the political spectrum — and is in a more competitive race.

A proud supporter of former president Donald Trump, Leavitt advocates lower taxes and stricter border controls.

Republican Madison Cawthorn is currently the youngest member of Congress, at age 27.

A sharply polarized United States on Tuesday braced for a tense night of election results and legal challenges ahead as control of Congress and the future of President Joe Biden’s agenda stood in the balance.

A Republican victory could pave the way for a White House comeback bid by Donald Trump — who returned to his playbook of airing unsubstantiated claims of fraud, after a campaign fought largely over economic issues.

Biden, whose Democrats face a steep climb to hang on to the House of Representatives and Senate, has warned that Republicans pose a dire threat to democracy with more than half their candidates repeating Trump’s debunked claims of cheating in the 2020 election.

With razor-thin margins in key races, a full picture may not be available for days or even weeks.

In Arizona, expected to be one of the closest states, Republicans filed a lawsuit to keep polls open after problems with ballot machines in the most populous county of Maricopa, although officials said no one was being prevented from voting.

“I hope it’s not malice,” said Kari Lake, the Trump-backed candidate for governor. “When we win, there’s going to be a come-to-Jesus for elections in Arizona.”

In his final pitch, Biden vowed that the Democrats would defend pensions, health care and the freedom to have an abortion, after a Supreme Court transformed by Trump rescinded the right to choose.

“It’s all on the ballot. This election is too important to sit out,” Biden tweeted in a last-minute bid to drive voters to the polls.

But the president’s party has traditionally lost seats in midterm elections and Biden’s favorability ratings are hovering in the low 40s, with Republicans hitting him hard over stubbornly high inflation as well as crime.

– Trump teases new bid –

Among early projections by US networks, rising Republican star Ron DeSantis won a second term as Florida governor. He is seen as one of few who could challenge Trump for the 2024 nomination after making a name with tough talk against Covid mitigation measures and transgender rights.

One voter in Florida is Trump himself, who went to the polls teasing an expected announcement next week of a presidential run, telling reporters that November 15 “will be a very exciting day for a lot of people.”

All eyes will be on a handful of closely fought Senate races including in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Ohio, with a single seat enough to swing control of the Senate — now evenly divided and controlled by Democrats only through the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The outcome may also determine whether Biden, who turns 80 this month and is the oldest president ever, will seek a second term in 2024.

The bitter political divide in the country was on the minds of many voters as they cast their ballots.

“Some of the candidates who have been up for office recently are into mudslinging and negative campaigns,” said Quonn Bernard, a 39-year-old software engineer in Union City, an Atlanta suburb. “I just don’t want those people representing me.”

Voting in Phoenix, Arizona, Kenneth Bellows, a 32-year-old law student, said runaway inflation is “hurting Americans who are just trying to get by.”

Biden has said he believed Democrats would hold the Senate but it would be “tough” to retain the House and his life may become “more difficult.”

If both the House and Senate flip, Biden’s legislative agenda would be paralyzed as Republicans launch aggressive investigations and oppose his spending plans.

That would raise questions over everything from climate policies, which the president will be laying out at the COP27 conference in Egypt this week, to Ukraine, where some Republicans are reluctant to maintain the current rate of US military support.

– Machine trouble in Arizona –

Despite facing criminal probes over taking top secret documents from the White House and trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump has used the midterms to cement his status as the de facto Republican leader.

The 76-year-old Trump immediately began casting doubts on the midterm vote through his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, pointing to problems with voting machines in Arizona.

“Same thing is happening with Voter Fraud as happened in 2020???”

Officials in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, said about 20 percent of the 223 polling stations there were experiencing difficulties but it would not affect the probity of the vote.

The campaign was marred by scattered violence with an intruder espousing far-right beliefs breaking into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer. 

Pelosi, who was the highest-ranking woman in US history at the time she first became speaker in 2007, said the Democrats hoped to prevail but would accept any election outcome.

Election Day is “a day where the sanctity of the vote is revered, where people vote, and we have to respect the results of that,” Pelosi told the PBS Newshour.

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For some, it was a sense of civic duty. For others, it was a chance to voice anger at inflation or high crime. Still more savored the opportunity to send a message to Washington.

Voters on Tuesday thronged to polling stations across the United States to express themselves on a wide array of divergent concerns.

Their choices will decide the control of the US Congress, as well as many governorships, state legislatures and local offices.

Here’s what some voters said drew them to the polls.

– ‘Exercise democracy’ –

“I’ve tried to come first, make sure that I do my part, and then I can get to work,” said Robin Ghirdar, coffee in hand at a voting site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“There’s so much polarization and misinformation that I’d like to make sure that my voice is heard.”

In Union City, a majority Black suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, 26-year-old attorney Kuanna Harris said history pulled her to the voting booth.

“A bunch of my ancestors, whether they were Black or women, were not able to vote, so I think God put me here at this particular time to carry on that torch for them.”

And on the opposite side of the country, in Los Angeles, Luciano Gamiz says he was thinking of authoritarian nations that “eliminate the voice of the little people.”

“As a first generation American, it’s an opportunity to just exercise my freedom and my right to vote, so I love it.”

– 2020 election denial –

At a polling site in Brooklyn, New York, retired police officer Kevin Flynn voted because of “the situation that happened on January 6th” 2021, when Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.

“Once an officer, always an officer… officers got injured” in the assault, said the 60-year-old. “It needs to be rectified.”

Voter Donald Newton, 82, told AFP in Arizona’s capital Phoenix that he believes Trump’s unfounded claims of massive election fraud are the “truth.”

He pointed to a discredited film’s conspiracy theory about people smuggling illegal votes.

“It explains it all. And if you go and watch that, you’ll be convinced this is the truth of what happened there: it was stolen, the election,” he said.

In contrast, 30-year-old lawyer Alexandra Ashley, in Pittsburgh, said that “some people are trying to undermine democracy. And it’s something that we can’t lose.”

And Susan Kwushue, a 50-year-old healthcare provider in Georgia, said having voted, she knew she “contributed in my own little way by voting to make sure that things get better.”

– Abortion rights –

Reproductive rights are a banner issue for many voters, after the US Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion.

In Brooklyn, sustainability consultant Helen Rubenstein said that her motivation for voting was “first and foremost, my female reproductive rights, which are a healthcare issue.”

Phoenix voter Mona Sablan, 56, said that for abortion, “it’s the decision for the woman.”

“I don’t think the state — I don’t think the local, (or) federal (government) should have anything to say about this.”

On the opposite side of the issue, 72-year-old Paul McMahon says he’s opposed to abortion beginning at conception.

“Life is the most important thing to me,” the retiree says outside a suburban Pittsburgh voting site.

– Toxic politics –

With growing political fissures in the United States, some voters said they are fed up with the hostility.

In Brooklyn, 39-year-old software engineer Quonn Bernard says “some candidates that have been up for office recently are into mud-slinging and negative campaigning.”

“I just don’t want those people representing me at the highest levels.”

Pennsylvania voter Kay Georgopolous says she’s opposed to Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, whom she thinks is “just a salesman.”

“Politicians, a lot of them are playing games to keep us fighting amongst ourselves, the little people,” she said.

Joshua Beron in Ohio told AFP that “I really try to not think of myself as being part of one party but try to vote for the best candidate.”

Analysts have also warned of the threat of violence around the elections.

Donna Audritsh, a voter in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, says she hopes that the country can “have a civil discourse about whatever the result is and that we can move forward instead of getting mired in fighting and arguing.”

One 64-year-old voter in McAllen, a city in Texas along the US border with Mexico, said he hopes that there will not be a repeat of 2020.

“My expectation is that everybody acts civilized, that… all the parties accept their winnings or defeats and that we all act as a country,” said Enrique Ayala.