Banking on the ballot: The midterm races to watch

Senate Banking Committee member Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is embroiled in one of the most headline-snatching races in the 2022 midterm elections, facing off against the scandal-ridden Herschel Walker. 

Georgia is essential to Republicans' hopes of gaining a Senate majority, but the chances of Republicans grabbing a new seat in the state has diminished with allegations that Walker, a former football star who's running on a pro-life platform, paid for his girlfriend's abortion in 2009. 

Recent polling out of Georgia shows Warnock ahead with a double-digit lead. Warnock also has more funding than Walker, raising about $90 million since winning one of the two 2021 runoffs and cinching the Senate for Democrats. Walker has raised nearly $33 million since he began his campaign. 

Still, Walker has the backing of President Donald Trump, will likely garner most Republican votes, and other polls have shown a much tighter race. The race could still be a runoff once the initial dip in popularity for Walker's scandals wears off. 

In the Senate Banking Committee, Warnock has concentrated largely on consumer protection issues, and has chaired the subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer protection. He signed on to the Fair Access to Financial Services Act, a bill led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, that would prohibit banks and other financial institutions from discriminating on the base of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. He was also part of the group that pushed the head of the largest banks in the country to lower or eliminate overdraft fees.

Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., is leaving his seat, and his spot on the House Financial Services Committee, to run for Senate in North Carolina, replacing the retiring Sen. Richard Burr. He's up against former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley. 

Budd is currently in a tight race, leading Beasley by 1 percentage point. North Carolina Senate races are typically close — Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., beat challenger Cal Cunningham, after news broke of him having an affair, by less than 2 percentage points in 2020 in what was the most expensive Senate race in history before the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff elections. Nonetheless, Democrats haven't managed a Senate victory in the state since 2008 with the election of Sen. Kay Hagan. 

The Budd-Beasley race, like many in battleground states around the country, will likely be decided by suburban women's opinions on abortion rights, as well as the extent to which Democrats can get Black voters to turn out in gerrymandered areas. Budd is strongly backed by former President Donald Trump, and is a staunch conservative, but Beasley has outraised him and has shown no signs of the kind of scandal that tanked Cunningham's election in 2020. 

And the growing reality in North Carolina for state-wide races is that tallying up all the votes in growing urban (and financial) centers like Charlotte, Winston-Salem/Greensboro and the Research Triangle typically outweighs those in more conservative, more rural areas. 

Given his place on the House Financial Services Committee, it's likely Senate Republican leadership will consider Budd for the Senate Banking or Financial Services committee if he wins. A gun store owner in Rural Hall, North Carolina, he's expressed interest in the past in the kinds of arguments that Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., has made about regulators discouraging banks from lending to politically disfavored industries. 

Another Senate Banking Committee Democrat facing down a Trump-backed Republican is Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. The first Latina elected to the Senate, Cortez Masto won former majority leader Harry Reid's seat in 2016. She's running against Republican Adam Laxalt, a conservative former attorney general for the state. 

Like many close races throughout the country, the Nevada contest is largely between concerns about women's reproductive rights, compared with President Biden's low ratings on inflation and the economy. 

On the campaign trail, Cortez Masto has sought to highlight her role in pandemic-era spending that she said has helped support Nevada's tourism industry throughout the economic shutdowns. She also pointed to the role she played as attorney general of the state when it received $1.9 billion from the National Mortgage Settlement following the 2008 financial crisis. She characterizes this on her website as having "held the Big Banks accountable." 

Cortez Masto is currently polling behind the challenger Laxalt, although the margins remain narrow. 

Last month, Cortez Masto joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., in introducing a bill that would require the country's largest private companies to file public reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She's also introduced a bill that would require the 11 government-sponsored Federal Home Loan banks to boost their investments in affordable housing and community development, and another to incentivize whistleblowers to report consumer fraud to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.