Two years after former President Donald J. Trump rejected the results of the election, many of his supporters embraced the rituals of losing amicably.
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Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate candidate who was defeated by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, speaks at the Newtown Athletic Club on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — Several bitterly contested races remain undecided, but by Wednesday it was becoming clear that the 2022 midterm campaign had spawned a modest and somewhat unexpected national political comeback — by civility.
Vanquished candidates from both parties have offered dignified concessions, two years after President Donald J. Trump refused to acknowledge the victory of Joseph R. Biden Jr., which emboldened some of his followers to question the legitimacy of elections, and eschew healing rituals in their aftermath.
This year, many defeated Republicans — including some endorsed by the former president and many who embraced his lies about the last national election — accepted their losses with magnanimity, rejecting the Trumpian example without mentioning him by name.
“This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him,” Mehmet Oz, who lost the Senate race in Pennsylvania, wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
“I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States senator,” added Dr. Oz, whose campaign had repeatedly brought up Mr. Fetterman’s halting recovery from a stroke in public statements.
Josh Chaffetz, a Georgetown law professor, noted the trend on Twitter: “I know it’s a low bar, I really do, but: I am heartened by the number of defeated Republicans who are conceding and congratulating their opponents.”
It is too early to tell if the trend will hold. Most of the outstanding races in Nevada and Arizona are too close to call, making them more likely to be the subject of fraud claims and potential outbursts of post-loss petulance.
Kari Lake, a Republican locked in a tight governor’s race in Arizona, has already questioned the legitimacy of the election and suggested she might not accept the results if she loses.
But for the most part, politicians in both parties seemed to rediscover an old political playbook that predates the current age of political disruption.
Tim Michels, the Republican businessman who supported some of Mr. Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, conceded the Wisconsin governor’s race to Gov. Tony Evers, the Democratic incumbent, ahead of The Associated Press calling the race early Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, the math doesn’t add up,” he told his supporters. “I wish the Evers family well.”
Tudor Dixon, the pro-Trump Republican who challenged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, initially refused to concede when results showed her trailing late Tuesday, but reversed course early Wednesday and called the governor to wish her well.
Even die-hard pro-Trump stalwarts like Dan Cox, the Maryland Republican trounced by his Democratic opponent, Wes Moore, in the governor’s race, offered Mr. Moore “every blessing” — before launching into a long paean to Mr. Trump, whom he described as “an American hero.”
The most emphatic embrace of the conventional concession ritual came from Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat who lost his Senate race in Ohio. He used his late-night speech to supporters to say that it was “privilege” to concede to the winner, J.D. Vance, a Republican.
“When you lose an election, you concede,” he said. “You respect the will of the people. We can’t have a system where, if you win it’s a legitimate election, and if you lose someone stole it.”
Source: nytimes.com
