By the numbers: How Trump-backed candidates fared in the midterms

The NBC News Decision Desk has called the last outstanding House race of 2022, meaning there is now a clear picture of how former President Donald Trump’s preferred candidates fared in the midterms. 

Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s victory in an automatic recount helped bring Trump’s overall win record to 199, while 34 of his preferred candidates lost their races, according to an analysis from the NBC News political unit. The Decision Desk did not project winners in 33 races featuring Trump-backed candidates. 

While Trump’s win record may appear overwhelming, his record becomes much more mixed with the context that most Trump-backed candidates were not in competitive races, in part because many were incumbents in deeply Republican areas. 

Looking just at contests deemed competitive by the NBC News political unit, based on political dynamics of those races and ad spending, 46 of Trump’s candidates won, and 33 lost. Of the 33 who lost, 32 of them echoed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 

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Trump found more success in House races than statewide contests — 164 won their races, while 11 lost. One notable defeat included Republican Joe Kent, who lost a GOP-leaning House seat in Washington after defeating GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in a primary. Herrera Beutler was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after a mob of the former president’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the battle for the Senate, eight candidates with Trump’s endorsement lost their races, while 16 won. High-profile losses included battleground states that were key to Republicans’ effort to flip the Senate, including Herschel Walker’s loss in Georgia, Blake Masters’ loss in Arizona, Adam Laxalt’s loss in Nevada and Mehmet Oz’s loss in Pennsylvania. 

Trump-backed candidates saw an even split in governor’s races, with 10 wins and 10 losses. But Trump-backed candidates also led to GOP losses and failures to win top pickup opportunities. Republicans lost control of the governor’s mansions in Massachusetts and Maryland, with former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and Del. Dan Cox losing those states respectively. Trump’s preferred candidates also failed to flip governor’s mansions in top battlegrounds such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.