Here's how Republicans celebrated their much-anticipated 'red wave'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a party

Republicans were ready. This was their year. They were going to sweep to control of Congress and put election deniers in at every level of government to ensure that Democrats couldn’t win—or couldn’t have their wins counted—in 2024 and beyond. Having ensured that many of the most Democratic areas would count their votes slowly, leading to the appearance of an early Republican lead, they were going to declare victory prematurely and then use that to claim election theft and fraud. 

As the hours ticked away on November 8 and turned into early November 9, that plan wasn’t going so well—and it showed in many of the victory parties Republicans were putting on. Boy did it ever show. Feast your eyes.

Supporters of Republican Lee Zeldin react to news of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s win

Scene at Kevin McCarthy’s election night event at midnight: pic.twitter.com/DlRPsKTSk8

— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) November 9, 2022

Reopening this thread to share this footage of the last few minutes of the livestream of Doug Mastriano’s party this evening. pic.twitter.com/kkwkree6dE

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 9, 2022

The VIP section at the Arizona GOP “victory” party: 11:15 pic.twitter.com/9dlwOuEJg0

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) November 9, 2022

CBS is reporting that Dr. Oz has asked reporters to leave his victory party. Where he has not spoken.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 9, 2022

It’s not over for Rep. Lauren Boebert, but she’s facing a much, much, much closer race than expected and trailed her opponent throughout  the night. However it ends, this is fun:

These before and after photos at @laurenboebert’s election party are giving me life pic.twitter.com/IqYaI9MxK9

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 9, 2022