2022 midterm election results

Some Republican candidates who have denied or refused to affirm the results of the 2020 election will be elected as state elections chief, CNN projects — though others will be defeated.

Here are three Republican secretary of state winners CNN has projected so far: 

In addition, Republican candidate Chuck Gray of Wyoming ran unopposed for secretary of state in the general election after winning the Republican primary.  

Here are five election deniers CNN projects will lose their 2022 races:

CNN found that at least 12 Republican candidates for secretary of state have questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. CNN had not yet projected the other races as of midnight ET on Wednesday morning.

It’s 1 a.m. ET, and polls are now closing across Alaska.  

These are the key races in the state: GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has survived tough elections before – she won her 2010 Senate race as a write-in candidate – but now she is facing Trump-endorsed opponent Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska’s first ranked-choice Senate election.  

The independent-minded Murkowski has frequently been a target of Trump and his supporters, especially since she voted to convict in Trump’s second impeachment. Murkowski won 45% in the top-four primary while Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration got 39%.  

If no candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, the election will be decided by ranked choice voting and the second choices of supporters of Democrat Patricia Chesbro could be key.  

In the House race, Rep. Mary Peltola won a special election in August to replace long-time Republican Don Young, who died in March, and she’s hoping to repeat the feat.  

Peltola will face the same two Republicans in Alaska’s ranked-choice system. Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, is backed by Trump and finished second to Peltola in August.  

Nick Begich, who has a name well known in Alaska politics, argues that he can beat Peltola in the ranked-choice tabulation, after many of his voters spurned Palin on their special election ballots. Peltola led the top-four primary with nearly 37% of the vote. 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused former President Donald Trump's request to "find" the votes needed to overturn his 2020 loss in the Peach State, will win reelection, CNN projects. 

Raffensperger's rebuff – and role as a witness before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol – has made him one of the country’s best-known election chiefs.  

"I've had to stand up to incredible pressure," the Republican said, during a recent candidate debate. "Many people buckled and folded. I didn't, and I won't." 

He defeated the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Bee Nguyen, a rising political star in her party. She had put expanding access to the ballot at the center of her candidacy and sought to make history by becoming the first Asian-American elected to a statewide political office in Georgia. 

The two have clashed over Raffensperger’s support of SB202, an elections bill approved by the Georgia General Assembly last year that imposed a range of new voting restrictions, including adding new identification requirements to vote by mail and making it a crime for third parties to give food or water to voters waiting in line. 

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez will defeat Republican Rep. Mayra Flores in a rare member-against-member House race in the Texas 34th District, CNN projects.

His win offers evidence that Democrats have had some success stemming their losses among Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley, who shifted in the GOP’s favor in 2020.

Democrat Nikki Budzinski will win in Illinois’ 13th District, CNN projects.  

Republican Thomas Kean Jr. will win in New Jersey’s 7th District, CNN projects, and defeat Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont will win reelection in Connecticut, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Bob Stefanowski. 

Lamont defeated Stefanowski in 2018 by just about 3 percentage points.  

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will win reelection in New Mexico, CNN projects, overcoming a stronger-than-expected challenge from Republican Mark Ronchetti.

Lujan Grisham’s win makes her the fourth straight New Mexico governor to win reelection and will likely grow her national profile -- the Democrat received some vice-presidential consideration by President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential general election. 

Lujan Grisham centered her campaign on abortion, casting her opponent as extreme on the issue that motivated Democratic campaigns across the country. She also nationalized the race -- both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the state in the final weeks of the campaign. 

The reason for that: The last four Democratic presidential nominees carried the state, including Biden by 11 percentage points two years ago. 

Ronchetti, a former TV weatherman, tried to turn Lujan Grisham into an avatar for Democratic control in Washington and attacked her as a career politician.  

“We can be a state that looks out for you before it looks out for government, but you have to give us a chance at change,” he said at the final debate between the two candidates. 

But Lujan Grisham successfully convinced voters that Ronchetti was not the person to be the change. 

“Bad for New Mexicans, bad for New Mexico,” she said of Ronchetti during the debate. 

Rep. Henry Cuellar, the lone House Democrat who has voted against abortion rights, will win reelection in Texas’ 28th Congressional District, CNN projects. 

Cuellar will defeat Republican challenger Cassy Garcia, halting the GOP’s efforts to sweep a trio of Rio Grande Valley districts as the party makes gains among Latino voters.