Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) really could lose her U.S. Senate to Democratic district attorney Scott Colom, once 100 percent of the votes come in.

Hyde-Smith blocked Colom's nomination to a federal judgeship under former President Joe Biden. Now, she risks losing her seat to him.

NBC News' Steve Kornacki deliberated over the data Wednesday as the race remained too close to call. Early Wednesday morning, Colom was 50 votes ahead, and that shrank to about 35 votes and then 43 votes.

"Listen, there's like, Lowndes County, 1,200 votes left. Colom is winning that by about 16 points, so he'll net votes from there," said Kornacki. "Jackson County, we've got about 1,600 votes. Hyde-Smith — they probably cancel each other out. I'm seeing a lot of counties that will probably cancel each other out. And the big thing that's jumping out at this is that the most remaining vote is in Hinds County. And of all the counties where there's remaining vote, where there's significant remaining vote, it's the one where a candidate has the most lopsided advantage. You know, Colom leading that by 60 points."

That's what made Kornacki think that Colom was likely to pull it out in the end. He said, "with a giant number that is left there. And then for the remaining vote there, elsewhere, to either be a wash or somewhat erode — yeah. You're looking at, really, a possibility here of Colom, the Democrat, winning this race."

"Wow. Wow. With what's left there, Colom could actually win this," he added.

Justin Slaughter, a former Democratic advisor now working at Paradigm, noted that Mississippi is the only state with no recount laws on the books. It means that if the race is close, there's no automatic trigger to recount the ballots.

The state hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1982, and its electorate remains strongly conservative, which gave Hyde-Smith a significant structural advantage. But Colom was a unique candidate. He campaigned everywhere and shook hands with anyone, including President Donald Trump's voters standing outside waiting to go into a MAGA rally.

The issue was that Mississippi still had provisional ballots to check and count, and it also had five days from Election Day to accept mail-in ballots. It's caused a hefty delay. The Decision Desk said there are likely 44,000 remaining votes to be counted.

President Donald Trump's biographer, Michael Wolff, spoke on the "Trump's Brain" podcast with Joanna Coles, walking through what is going on in Trump's mind as his party suffers a humiliating defeat.

"So, the thing that would otherwise be in Trump's head: I'm gonna fight this. I'm gonna win. Those are all in the Trump mishegoss — is not there. So he woke up this morning thinking, 'OK, what's the storyline? 'I don't have a storyline.' Which is really rare for Donald Trump," Wolff explained. "He's gonna be on the phone all day, rationalizing this and heaping blame on Republicans, most of all at this point."

He said he thinks chief of staff Susie Wiles will stay on until January and she'll be gone.

Wolff also noted that Trump also will have on his mind that he has two months of a lame-duck Congress that he still controls. "So, what will he do with that?" Wolff asked.

There's talk that Trump will try to push Justice Samuel Alito out of the U.S. Supreme Court so he can appoint another justice.

"I think that won't happen. I think even Donald Trump is going to be somewhat chastened by this. Which is a really interesting concept: Donald Trump chastened," Wolff said.

Coles said it's something we've never seen before.

"I think he's going to be somewhat careful about alienating — I mean, were he to force a Supreme Court opening at this point, it would be war with the Democrats," Wolff said. "And war with the Democrats going forward. So, if he wants to avoid impeachment, again ... An impeachment with a Senate in which there are starting to be numbers that you could imagine conviction. I think he will not force the Supreme Court. I think that would be the tripwire."

The Huffington Post reported that early Tuesday night, Trump was already blowing up phones complaining at Fox News and others.

The rage at Fox continued as Trump began texting pal Greg Gutfeld and blasting liberal Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov. He then ranted about her on Truth Social. He said he couldn't stand her voice. However, less than an hour later, he was raging about Fox's polling, calling it BS and alleging that they ask "insulting" questions that he views as "a hit job."

“I have the ultimate power — it’s called ‘veto,’” Trump reportedly told CBS News via phone as polls began to close.

When Trump called the Financial Times, he told reporter Edward Lucas that the U.S. has no immediate plans to strike Iran. It isn't what The Jerusalem Post, however, reported on Tuesday after several U.S. military cargo planes left Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas for bases in Israel, according to FlightRadar24. The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and its strike group were also tracked near the Strait of Malacca in Asia. So, the carrier will reach the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility next week. That means three U.S. aircraft carriers will be in the Middle East.

- YouTub

Georgia's outgoing Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is refusing to give the GOP what it wants: its own hand-crafted maps that would help entrench the GOP further in the state.

Georgia was once a reliably Republican state, with the GOP enjoying a clear advantage in statewide races. That has changed. It is now an unpredictable swing state known for nail-biting elections. The Peach State has a conservative Republican two-term governor, but it also has two Democratic U.S. senators. Trump's 2024 Georgia win came after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Even in Georgia, he won by only 2 percent.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that Kemp will not call a new legislative session to hand lawmakers the ability to gerrymander the congressional districts. The decision came just a few hours after victory was called for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms. Her victory ended 24 years of GOP rule in the seat.

“The voters of our state have spoken. As long as I’m governor, we will always respect the results of secure, accessible and fair elections, and also abide by the laws and constitution of our state,” Kemp said in a statement to the AJC.

“I will not be calling a special session of the Georgia General Assembly in order to curtail executive branch powers or debate redistricting changes.”

The comments are reminiscent of Kemp's words in 2020, when he refused to call a special session to help President Donald Trump overturn the Georgia election results.

Still, Kemp left open the option to call officials back to Atlanta for “budgetary issues that may need to be addressed before the convening of the regular session in January.”

The report said Democrats were fearful and bracing for another political battle after the election. Their only option would ultimately be to fight to reduce the governor's powers, which would mean pulling power away from the nation's first Black female governor before she was sworn in.

Bottoms cautioned against it, telling the GOP that trying to redraw the lines Texas and Florida, but after the election, would forever brand them as the "party of losers."

“We are a state that has gotten things done in moderation,” she said when speaking to the “Politically Georgia” podcast in early 2026. “And it would be really unfortunate for them to do that on their way out of the door.”

Bottoms will officially be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 11, 2027.

LaKesha Womack, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina's 14th Congressional District, has said she became unhoused with her young son after moving to North Carolina in 2016. She had a medical emergency related to her Type 1 diabetes and was left hospitalized in intensive care. Like many Americans, she was one major medical catastrophe away from financial devastation, and that's what happened to her.

Her campaign raised $59,000, while her opponent, Rep. Tim Moore (R), raised about $2.09 million through mid-October, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Before serving one term in Congress, Moore served five terms as speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives.

With all precincts reporting, Womack led Moore by 6,415 votes out of 288,361 cast — 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. Moore had won the same seat by about 16 points two years earlier, making his defeat one of the cycle’s biggest House upsets, said WFAE.

Womack went from being unhoused to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to local results, Womack ran a stronger-than-expected campaign, while Moore lost badly in Mecklenburg County precincts and failed to build enough of a margin in the district’s more rural western counties.

Still, he claimed he was running as if he was losing. He knocked doors talking to voters "even though I probably wouldn't have to if I didn't want to," WFAE quoted him saying.

Moore's own role in re-drawing his congressional district mid-decade also became a political vulnerability. Democrats framed the race as a rejection of gerrymandering and entrenched power.

He was easily lumped in with the "establishment Republicans" who had been in office for years and done little to help people afford their daily expenses.

Meanwhile, Womack described her candidacy as proof of resilience: “I think this is the American dream that within 10 years, you know, I can go from being virtually homeless to running for Congress," she said.

“I can’t preach about people being homeless if I’m not willing to advocate for policies that will actually solve that,” she told WFAE.

Womack was successful in positioning herself as a pragmatic problem-solver instead of a purely partisan political actor. She said she would not support a bill merely because a Democrat sponsored it or oppose one merely because a Republican did, and she emphasized that “good policy should matter more than political loyalty," Axios reported.

As Election Night wore on, Republicans discovered that the oldest political sacrament — denial — does not survive contact with a vote count. As the returns turned against them, those who gleefully embrace the religion of "owning the libs" slowly crumpled in real time as their overconfidence turned to a liturgy of coping.

As the crowd dwindled at Ken Paxton's "victory party," a group of white men huddled together, arms around each other, praying.

Finally, it appeared they simply couldn't take it anymore and turned off the Fox News feed.

In the northern U.S., Vivek Ramaswamy's crowd also emptied out like a fire drill as it became clear he would suffer the predicted humiliating loss. One video showed a young white man in a suit, as the tallies came in, screaming obscenities while Michael Jackson's "Beat It" played loudly. The young man's friend's face fell into his hands and he rubbed his eyes.

Even Fox News struggled. Just after the South Carolina Senate race was announced for Annie Andrews (D), host Sean Hannity was "on the verge of tears," one person described.

When asked to respond, he called it "brutal." He then said that Graham was "asked to serve" and did her part, but hadn't even mourned her brother and attributed that and her inexperience to the loss.

One woman at the Ken Paxton event "wailed when Talarico face came on screen," said reporter The Sun's Harry Cole.

Laura Jedeed was doing a running thread on BlueSky about what she was hearing on Real American Voices, the pro-Trump streaming news network.

As polls were closing, Steve Bannon was claiming things were "looking great" for the GOP. They were using Kalshi betting markets to support their thoughts, not actual polling, exit poll numbers or even turnout.

They claimed that since Kalshi moved from blue to red in Iowa, Alaska, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Maine and Texas all within ten minutes of each other, it was a sign. Bannon, Jedeed said, made his guest explain Kalshi several times so that his audience could "understand" that it "is a great source for predictions." Jadeed added that it is not. Bannon would find out why as the hours moved on.

"We're fully in the 'everything is fine' section of tonight's program," Jadeed said at about 7:25 p.m. EST. "Texas is fine. Virginia is fine. Kentucky is fine. Maine is fine. Ken Paxton is fine because the huge Hispanic early voting turnout all voted for Paxton."

"There are indicators that things are not, however going very well. Every time Steve Bannon calls on somebody to go over the actual statistics, they sound like they're sweating through their vocal cords. It is hilarious," she added.

Then John Ossoff's race was called. She said that they then appeared to be seeing how tight Florida races were looking, including for governor. While former Rep. David Jolly lost on Tuesday, all of the House seats that Republicans redrew to try and get rid of Democrats failed to get rid of Democrats.

They quickly began to hear word that the Latino vote abandoned the GOP and Jedeed said that they spent several moments speculating on "why that might be." The group tried to claim that the reason was gas prices.

"The Bannonite wing wants you to know that the Republicans are losing Hispanic votes and the votes of young men because they are mad about gas prices. They are definitely not mad about the deportations or anything like that. It's the economy. Once the Iran War ends, everything will be fine," said Jedeed.

At some point, RAV stopped listing any election results at all as they searched for "good news." They "still can't really find any good news to report. They just keep repeating that it's all because of the economy and the Iran war and we can get these voters back. It's OK, it's OK, it's OK."

By 9:48 p.m. Jedeed reported, "Steve Bannon sounds straight up suicidal."

As Republicans search for someone to blame for the shellacking they received on election night, the knives are out at the White House for chief of staff Susie Wiles.

According to the Daily Beast, MAGA is calling for her to be gone.

“Susie Wiles should be fired tomorrow!” demanded white nationalist podcast host Nick Fuentes, ranting late Tuesday night. “You’re going to have a 260-seat Democrat majority in the House, a 55-seat Democrat majority, and these deputies for the White House were in Bosnia while this bloodbath was going on, making money from foreign governments.”

“[Wiles] should be fired immediately,” he continued. “Vance and Rubio should never get close to the nomination in 2028. That’s the point. That’s why we’re doing this. These people should be investigated. They should go to jail. They should lose their jobs. They should have no political future.”

" Trump should fire Susie Wiles, who most Republicans have an inexplicable affection for. Her role doesn't even need Senate confirmation. Trump needed a wartime consigliere and Wiles was Tom Hagen. Nice, practical, but not suited for these midterms and definitely not good for the next two years," said host JD Rucker.

While President Trump went into Election Day saying that he was confident and ready to stand up to Democrats, he now appears to be "eager" to make deals with Democrats. While Trump bragged that he was ready to get his veto stamp out, he now appears open to working together. The MAGA faithful said that Trump doesn't want to spend the next two years "vetoing everything."

However, Trump may be in deeper trouble than having to deal. He might be forced to spend the next two years begging Democrats not to hurt him.

Other MAGA supporters agree that Wiles is the one to blame and they're eager to throw her under the bus.

The Beast said that some claim that they have been against Wiles since her Dec. 2025 Vanity Fair cover. In the article, she promised: “We’re going to win the midterms.”

A Daily Mail report said Trump spent the evening shuttered in the White House residence while a crowd of Republicans patted themselves on the back and ate catering from the Cheesecake Factory.

"Ensconced with his redoutable Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Natalie Harp, the aide who has enjoyed unusually direct access to Trump throughout this second term, the President watched as the Blue Wave swept in. His First Lady was not watching with him," the Daily Mail said.

As the numbers came through and it became clear just how bad the night would be for Republicans, those who know Trump best quickly disappeared. First were his senior staff, followed by his Cabinet officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there early in the evening, but the report said he suddenly couldn't be found.

As the clocks approached 10 p.m., everyone was almost completely gone, and the Cheesecake Factory food went uneaten.

After midnight, an angry Trump called into Fox News trying to blame them for all of the Fox polls that showed him with horrible polling. "But, tonight, actually, the results was pretty close to what the Fox polls showed," said Bret Baier.

"Well, I don't know about that," Trump said. "I can just tell ya about speaking for myself. And the results for Fox for me were wrong for 12 years. I mean, you got me wrong for 12 years. But I don't care. It doesn't matter. People... you know... people see... when you look at the pollster recently that admitted they weren't even doing polls and they gave the information to the New York Times. They weren't even a legit — it wasn't even a question of legit!"

Mississippi’s 2026 Senate race has become a nationally watched contest between Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic district attorney Scott Colom, with independent Ty Pinkins also on the ballot.

As of early Wednesday morning, Colom led by fewer than 50 votes with 96 percent reporting.

Hyde-Smith was favored to win in the deeply Republican state, but Colom has made the race unexpectedly competitive. The two candidates have a history, CNN noted. Former President Joe Biden nominated Colom to be a federal judge. Senators have the opportunity to block a federal judgeship if it's for their own state and Hyde-Smith blocked Colom. So, Colom ran against her for the U.S. Senate.

In a "wave" year, anything could happen, and unlike previous waves and midterms, the top-of-mind issues and President Donald Trump have made things difficult for the GOP.

Justin Slaughter, a former Democratic advisor now working at Paradigm, noted that Mississippi is the only state with no recount laws on the books.

In most states, a recount is triggered automatically when the margin falls below a set threshold, or a candidate can formally request one. Mississippi is the only state in the U.S. with neither mechanism. So, if the Senate race is extremely close, there is no automatic statewide recount and no candidate-initiated recount process under state law. If Hyde-Smith were to lose, she can't simply demand a recount unless she intends to challenge that in court.

"We are in a very good lead right now," Hyde-Smith told a crowd of supporters late Tuesday evening. "I assure you, I will continue to be your U.S. Senator."

On Tuesday evening, as the race tightened, NBC's Savannah Guthrie recalled Colom attending a MAGA rally to shake hands. She said Colom's 28-vote lead at 1 a.m. EST could have come from that kind of reaching across the aisle.

The state hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1982, and its electorate remains strongly conservative, giving Hyde-Smith a structural advantage. But Colom was a unique candidate.

"Democrats have been buoyed by signs they are making modest gains in the state, which has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country. The Democratic candidate lost the 2023 gubernatorial race by three points, and last year, the party picked up a handful of seats in the state legislature under new, court-ordered maps," CNN reported.

Colom's closing message featured an ad outside the home of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was shot and killed in his driveway.

"It has no front door," he says about the Evers home. "You come in through the carport where the walls give you some cover. The children slept on the floor, below the windows. Their father taught them that if they ever heard gunfire, they should crawl to the bathroom."

In the ad, Colom walks through Evers' history fighting for America in World War II at Normandy. Yet, when Evers returned home, he was a second-class citizen again. He wasn't allowed to vote. So, he fought the system in an area of the country that wasn't safe for people of color who stood up for their rights.

The district attorney explained that no one was above the law in Mississippi, and despite previous juries refusing to convict accused shooters, when a prosecutor brought the case 31 years later, a jury of both white and Black people convicted Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council in Jackson.

Colom asked Mississippi residents to honor the memory of Evers and all who died fighting for that right by voting on Nov. 3.

Hyde-Smith’s strategy has been different. She consolidated the GOP base by touting her close relationship to Trump, who is suffering from the lowest job approval ratings of his political career. Hyde-Smith has celebrated the Trump agenda, including cuts to social safety-net programs and immigration raids.

It might be why Hyde-Smith's number plummeted along with Trump's.

A late-October FiftyPlusOne poll showed Colom trailing Hyde-Smith by just 3 percentage points, which is within the survey’s margin of error.

As in other states like South Carolina and Florida, races are close, but turnout drove the results. That's what gave an entrenched Republican a run for her money.

The Michigan U.S. Senate race was always going to be a toss-up after primary voters elected Abdul El-Sayed. Longtime moderate Republican, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R) sought the seat with little opposition from other Republicans.

In the early hours of Wednesday, NBC News changed its prediction to say it's leaning toward an El-Sayed win, with 75 percent confidence. Much of the outstanding vote appears to be in heavily Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit and Dearborn. The Decision Desk HQ called it for El-Sayed a little after 1 a.m. El-Sayed declared victory before 2 a.m. and Rogers sent his supporters home. At 2:27 a.m. NBC News called it for El-Sayed.

The New York Times polling aggregator has shown El-Sayed with a slight lead throughout the past several months, but it has always been within the margin of error. Rogers was leading for a time during the late Summer and directly after the GOP primary, but even his polling was never outside of the margin of error. The race came down to turnout and which party could get their side to the polls by Nov. 3.

Rogers was heavily pressed by President Donald Trump, who eagerly campaigned in the state, denying the affordability crisis and warning that the state of communism in America today was a greater threat than terrorism from 9/11 and both world wars.

NBC’s live coverage reported that Trump used the word “communist” or “communism” more than 10 times during roughly the first 45 minutes of the speech, while broadly attacking Democrats.

Trump's tariffs dealt a heavy blow to Michigan's auto industry, making car production significantly more expensive at a time when many Americans can't afford the increase. Taxes on imports for equipment, components, parts and especially aluminum and steel have raised prices. That gave automakers the choice of either absorbing the increase and cutting costs elsewhere or passing the costs on to customers.

Still, Trump told his July 27 audience of auto workers that he had “done more for you than your parents.” He did not explain how. According to Trump, Michigan auto workers had been "sold out and betrayed by globalist politicians and corrupt special interests." He then alleged that had he not been elected in 2024, there’d be "no auto industry." He never explained why.

Rogers began heavily recruiting Jewish Democrats, terrified by the reports they were hearing about El-Sayed. They feared that his rhetoric about Israel extended beyond a general dissatisfaction with the political leadership in Israel and associated all Jews everywhere with the country and its far-right leaders. The issues dogged El-Sayed throughout the race as he desperately tried to pivot to talk about the economy and affordability.

So, Rogers had an uphill climb to overcome the mountain of half-baked policy garbage that Trump left for the GOP to overcome. But he was able to bring over some select Democrats too afraid of their own possible persecution.

El-Sayed had to overcome more than mere allegations about anti-Semitism. Rogers began outright claiming that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist religious and political movement that the U.S. formally worked with over the past 100 years, particularly after the revolution in Egypt.

It was under Trump that in Jan. 2026, extreme sects of the Muslim Brotherhood were declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. The entire movement has not been labeled a terrorist group, however. Still, Rogers used it in a way that critics felt was a racist and Islamophobic dog whistle.

A conspiracy theory developed about El-Sayed's mother, who divorced his father when El-Sayed was just three years old. While she didn't raise him, he's maintained a positive relationship with her. El-Sayed's half-sister reportedly wrote in 2012 about their mother's activism with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s, before El-Sayed was born. Critics then translated that into his mother being a member of a terrorist group. She then worked for a non-profit, the Islamic American Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department designated an association with terrorism in 2004. However, El-Sayed's mother left the job two years before that.

Rogers has said from the debate stage that her work with the group prior to the designation proves that it was not his mother a terrorist but that he was a secret terrorist.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has officially conceded the race in the race against Democrat Troy Jackson.

Collins struggled to recover from a horrific debate performance in early October that raised questions about whether she was capable of understanding the plight of Americans suffering in President Donald Trump's economy. Collins touted her chief accomplishment in the affordability fight: lowering tariffs on road salt.

Jackson shot back, "You can't eat road salt." It prompted Collins critics to note she was out of touch with those fighting for affordable food and fuel. In this economy, some Mainers are more focused on the high price of beef and the heightened trade war with neighboring Canada.

It was made worse when Collins was criticized by Jackson for being a government employee for most of her adult life and having employer-funded health care. Collins retorted that once she went a year without health insurance.

Collins has also been criticized in the past few years for voting for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite his stance against reproductive freedom. Collins has always maintained she was pro-choice, but her recent votes haven't shown that. So, while Collins has won big with female voters, there was a concern this time around that she could lose ground with those horrified by the elimination of reproductive rights.

The Cook Political Report listed the race as a toss-up, and as with many of Collins' past elections, polls had her neck and neck.

A Marist survey conducted October 1–4 put Jackson ahead with 51 percent to Collins' 47 percent among registered voters. In that poll, Independents favored Jackson 52–45.

Meanwhile, a CBS News/YouGov poll put the race at a 50–50 tie.

There was an unusual demographic division in the polls ahead of the election, showing that Collins was heavily favored by voters over 50 (53–44). While Jackson had a 25-point advantage over Collins among those under 50, the AARP poll said.

While some generations have been known to have large political participation, particularly among progressives, recent 18-29-year-old voters have increasingly favored Trump. So, the question came down to turnout.

The key part of the Maine election was that 2026 was shaping up to be an anti-incumbent year, and Collins had been in office for nearly 30 years. Unlike in other races, Republicans focused their attacks on Jackson's finances, including taxes and the cost of living. It bucks the GOP's national message, which has focused on transgender children.

As of Tuesday evening, Democrats appear to have taken back the U.S. Senate after Republicans lost in South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Iowa. It was the blue tsunami that Democrats had hoped to see on Election Night.

The Senate map was far less settled going into Election Day than it was in the House, but Democrats came in with a credible path to control. At a minimum, there was a high likelihood that Democrats could make substantial gains, even in red states. Democrats needed a net gain of four Republican-held seats because a 50-50 chamber would leave Republican Vice President JD Vance with the tie-breaking vote.

So, the most likely outcome would be a narrowing, not a clean Democratic sweep or a Republican hold.

The top states to watch are Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, with South Carolina a long shot. While Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-S.C.), was handpicked by President Donald Trump, her missteps put her at dead even with Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews in the final days of the campaign.

The Cook Political Report rated seven of those contests as toss-ups and viewed Democrats as slight favorites overall, while other forecasters put Democratic control odds in the low-to-mid 60s. Still, low-to-mid 60s likely looked good for Democrats.

Democrats appeared solid in Alaska, Kansas, Michigan, Maine and Ohio, while Iowa, Texas and South Carolina remained distant possibilities. Unless there was an outright Democratic blowout, the final balance of power could be announced Wednesday afternoon or later if Alaska's vote was close.

Democrats’ best opportunities have been in states where Republican incumbents or nominees were poor candidates, ran terrible campaigns or were simply weighed down by President Donald Trump's drag on the GOP ticket.

Going into Election Day, Sherrod Brown was leading in Ohio, Adam Hamilton was competitive and running even in Kansas, Josh Turek was within the margin of error in Iowa, and Dan Osborn has kept Nebraska closer than Republicans expected. In each case, Democrats are benefiting from voter anger over the economy, immigration enforcement and President Trump’s second-term agenda.

Still, Democrats have run their races on the defensive. They had to hold Michigan, Georgia, New Hampshire and Minnesota, where retirements and competitive races created openings for Republicans. Michigan remained especially important: if Abdul El-Sayed could hold his narrow lead over Mike Rogers, Democrats could keep a critical seat. But if he loses it, their path to 51 seats becomes dramatically harder. Georgia and Minnesota appeared to be solid.

Final polls in New Hampshire on Oct. 28, showed Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas is slightly ahead of Republican former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, 48 percent to 41 percent, while 4 percent of respondents support Constitution Party candidate Edmond LaPlante and 7 percent remained undecided.

Other Democrats like Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), Rep. James Talarico (D-Texas) and Josh Turek (D-Iowa) were slightly ahead but within the margin of error. That left those candidates down to Election Day turnout. If Democrats showed up, they could win it and make history.

A Republican has led the Iowa state house for nearly a decade, and for the first time in over 20 years, a Democrat had a strong chance to take office.

According to the Decision Desk HQ and NBC, Democrat Rob Sand has officially been declared the winner of the Iowa governor's race.

Iowa had a unique election cycle in 2026, with the governor's race and the U.S. Senate seat open after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Joni Ernst decided not to run for reelection. Those races add to the possibility that the Iowa First and Third Congressional Districts could flip from Republican to Democrat.

Sand, the state auditor, led GOP nominee Zack Lahn in polling in the Hawkeye State since the summer. But as the race grew closer, the lead widened, putting Sand at over eight points ahead of Lahn, MS NOW's polling aggregator said. However, some of the polling appeared less solid than others. For example, the Marist poll had a 6.6 percent margin of error for its likely-voter results. If that is 6.6 points below, Sand still had a lead.

While Iowa voters have largely backed Trump over the past several years, that favorability has collapsed under the weight of a struggling economy and his war in Iran.

Lahn hasn't been a traditional status quo Republican as he campaigned around the state. Lahn has challenged parts of the agricultural establishment, while Sand is trying to win voters beyond the Democratic base through his record and state-focused message and by talking about affordability and raising wages.

Lahn suffered a bruising primary that left Republican-aligned voters and organizations unsettled. "The Progressive Farmer" reported that Republican farmers supported Sand after Randy Feenstra lost the GOP primary. Neither the Iowa Farm Bureau PAC nor the Iowa Association of Business and Industry endorsed a candidate in the governor’s race

Lahn's biggest climb was overcoming Sand's statewide profile as auditor, particularly when it came to fraud and public accountability. Voters listed political corruption as one of the top three issues this election. So, Sand already had a baked-in understanding of his values and a proven track record of a top issue.

That gives voters a reason to evaluate him separately from the national Democratic Party. Cook Political Report analyst Erin Covey identified him as a candidate positioned to outperform his party’s usual showing. While the race has already been called, the final details will shake out in the coming days.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is leaving office after 11 years and notable viral missteps in her final years in office. Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek and GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson were locked in a tough race, with each swapping the lead in the polls several times in the past six months.

After Tuesday's election, however, Decision Desk HQ has called Josh Turek the winner of the Senate seat.

October polling has largely favored Hinson, with only one poll favoring Turek. Democrats had a credible opportunity to flip a Republican seat, but neither candidate has established a clear advantage. Emerson found Hinson falling from 50 percent in September to 47 percent in October, while Turek remained at 45 percent. Even among the public polling, most of the leads either candidate had were within the margin of error. The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.

The race came down to turnout. If the enthusiasm gap was large enough, it meant Turek could eke out a win. His only certainty was enough crossover support from Republican moderates and independent voters. Whereas all Hinson needed was for President Donald Trump's voters to come to the polls again in 2026 the way they did in 2024.

Locally, the state also had an open governors seat and two competitive House districts that could flip from Republican to Democrat. It meant that Democratic candidates have all stayed on the same message, hammering the airwaves about the failed war with Iran, rising gas prices and the affordability crisis caused by President Donald Trump's trade war.

Iowa farmers, in particular, have taken issue with the trade war, but fuel prices for equipment have risen sharply, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to break even. Still, Hinson remains popular for some of her policies, and the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Corn Growers Association endorsed her, while the Iowa Farmers Union endorsed Turek.

Turek said his own party has forgotten farmers in the past. It became a point he has used to build a hearing among voters who may distrust national Democrats. Despite longtime loyalties to republicans, farm distress made some Iowa agricultural voters more persuadable, and Turek aggressively courted them.

The most revealing thing about this race is that both major candidates tried to sell voters on their independence, but from opposite directions. Hinson said that she hoped voters could see her as more than a Trump ally. Turek said that he wanted voters to see him as more than a national Democrat.

Things got so bad for Republicans in Kansas that sources close to President Donald Trump told reporters Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) was to blame if he lost to his Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton.

On Tuesday, the Sunflower State's Senate seat went to Hamilton, according to NBC News.

Kansas hasn't elected a Democratic Senator in 94 years, since 1932, which came during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s national Democratic wave. However, Kansas frequently elects Democrats to lead the governor's office, leaving political analysts wondering if this was the year for Kansans to choose a pastor over a politician.

Marshall had a tough hill to climb after he was exposed for owning a large home in Florida, where he spent the majority of his time. The small home that he kept in Kansas was seen as more of a hunting lodge than a home, locals in Marshall's hometown alleged when speaking to the Kansas City Star a week before the election.

Then the New York Times published an expose on Marshall, revealing that he sued more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills during roughly two decades. The debts ranged from $101 to several thousand dollars, and about half the cases were filed in Marshall’s own name while the other half were filed by Heartland Regional OBGYN, his practice.

When President Donald Trump campaigned for Marshall, he falsely told voters that Marshall was legally obligated to take the patients to court.

The major issue became that Marshall's patients’ contracts commonly carried an 18 percent annual interest rate on unpaid balances. The new class-action lawsuit alleges that it exceeded Kansas’s 15 percent statutory cap, making the charges unlawful “usury.”

Marshall had one of his patients arrested three times for her unpaid bill.

His story became a stark contrast to Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist minister in the suburbs of Kansas City. He was simply more well liked than someone seen as a mean, wealthy doctor getting rich on the backs of people who couldn't pay their medical bills because of high costs.

In Emerson’s October poll, Hamilton had a 41 percent favorable / 30 percent unfavorable rating, while Marshall was at 41 percent favorable / 48 percent unfavorable. That means Hamilton was up 11 points, while Marshall was down 7 points.

It became clear that Marshall was in trouble over the summer when the two men appeared at the Kansas State Fair, where they took questions from the audience. The audience booed and chastised Marshall, drawing national attention.

By contrast, Hamilton has used his faith to talk about the common good, helping one's neighbor and loving the "stranger," a stark contrast to the anti-immigration language coming out of Trump and the GOP. The October Emerson poll also showed that Hamilton's message sounded more nonpartisan, capturing independent voters by a 2-to-1 margin.

Vivek Ramaswamy wasn't doing well before he began airing an infamous ad from the mother of his opponent, who protected a child abuser. After the ad, and his subsequent doubling down with $4 million, his chances were slim.

As of Tuesday night, NBC has called the Ohio governor's race for Democrat Amy Acton.

Ramaswamy's polling showed him behind over the summer, but the New York Times polling aggregator shows he was within the margin of error. As the election drew near, Marist University's poll showed Acton was seven points ahead.

Then came the infamous ad. Acton's estranged mother appeared in a commercial attacking her daughter as a liar. Behind that attack were decades of accusations that Acton's mother protected her husband over her daughter when her stepfather began molesting her at age 9. By 12, Acton and her brother, Philip Stearns, were taken away from their mother and the stepfather was charged. He quickly fled the state and was never caught, tried or jailed.

Acton's brother has spoken out about that time in their lives and how his loving sister protected him as much as she could.

"It's not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point," Stearns said in a statement the campaign provided.

"My team, everyone's been sharing documents from that time. My brother and I experienced extreme abuse and neglect over a period of many years, not just at the hands of her husband, but also at her," Acton said.

After the ad scandal broke, Ramaswamy’s odds crashed to a new low, according to prediction market Kalshi. Two weeks before the election, Acton hit a new high with a 76 percent chance of winning the race. Eleven days before the election, his odds sank to 18 percent.

Acton's strength appears to be her focus on affordability and her personal credibility.

From the start, her campaign emphasized tax relief for working families, cheaper prescriptions, medical debt relief and lower utility costs, presenting government as something that should solve everyday problems rather than manufacture political fights.

Her own biography was connected to that as a survivor of abuse and homelessness. She has spoken openly about growing up in poverty in Youngstown and working several jobs so that one day she could be a doctor. It wasn't merely an economic message for her, it was about her own survival and hardship.

Among the Democratic pick-up opportunities in 2026, Ohio's race between former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) and Sen. Jon Husted (R) was among the top two. According to NBC News, Brown is projected to be the winner.

Brown, a pro-union populist, attempted a return after losing his seat in 2024. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) appointed Husted, Ohio’s former lieutenant governor, to the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance.

Polling since August has shown Brown ahead, but mid-October polls showed the margin tightening.

Brown's campaign hinged specifically on the affordability crisis and the growing economic dissatisfaction among Ohioans, reaching beyond the Democratic base. His support among people who identify as neither Democratic nor Republican voters was 55 percent while Husted lingered at just 28 percent approval.

Husted fought an uphill battle after supporting data centers until public opinion turned against them. In some ways, he's backed off of the support. However, as lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2025, Husted promoted the projects and defended the tax incentives used to attract more data centers to the state. PolitiFact confirmed that record in a September fact-check of Sherrod Brown’s campaign attacks. His new position was that if communities don't want them, then they should have a say whether or not they're built.

When Trump came to campaign for Husted, his declaration that “we want” data centers put one of the senator’s biggest political liabilities back at center stage.

“We want them,” Trump told the Ohio audience. “Look, there’s so much money to be made for Ohio, you can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China.”

Trump also touted his "booming" economy, a message that fell flat on struggling families.

“Your state is booming. Every—I hate to say it—every state is booming,” Trump told the MAGA crowd. “They’re all booming.”

Trump's comment came just after nearly 1,400 workers were laid off at a truck factory in nearby Springfield.

Turnout and undecided voters were expected to determine the result. But as the race approached Nov. 3, the early voting in Ohio leaned heavily in Brown's favor.

"Ohio’s in-person early vote has more than doubled, and Virginia is also seeing nearly twice the turnout compared with the previous midterms," reported NewsNation on Oct. 19.

As the New York Times explained, comparing it to previous elections is a little more complicated.

"Ohio’s election system is decentralized, with elections governed by individual county boards of elections — while each county is required to produce a daily absentee report, this data was not standardized until 2023, leading to discrepancies among counties," it explained.

The country has been captivated by the Texas U.S. Senate race all year after President Donald Trump picked Attorney General Ken Paxton to be the GOP nominee to run against Rep. James Talarico (D). Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tried to warn the party that Paxton wasn't the right candidate and wouldn't focus on campaigning the way he would. The GOP feared it would be Paxton's undoing.

After a tight battle, The Hill declared James Talarico was the likely winner.

No Senate race in U.S. history has spent more than the Texas 2026 Senate race. Billionaire Elon Musk has donated roughly $200 million to help get Ken Paxton elected as of the Oct. 15 filing deadline. Trump's MAGA Inc. has spent significantly less. In September, he spent $10 million on the race and by Oct. 8 they'd spent about $22 million. As of the end of October, the AdImpact figures calculate about $36 million total from Trump's political action committee.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has spent a small fortune defending Paxton. As of Oct. 21, Republican-aligned outside groups had spent about $239 million helping Paxton or opposing Talarico, according to Reuters. Texas PAC, the group established by the Senate Leadership Fund, accounted for nearly $149 million.

With 14 days until the Nov. 3 election, the National Republican Senatorial Committee took out $20 million in loans despite boasting a large cash advantage over Democrats, Politico reported.

The problem, according to former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, was that the ads never moved the needle in the polls. He warned that fellow Republicans were "freaking out." Some evidence suggests Paxton has narrowed the gap, but it hasn't been enough to shift the race from a toss-up to leaning in Paxton's favor. It did help him stop falling behind.

Texas Senate polls showed a narrow Talarico advantage up until the end, but the race remained close. As of October 25, polling averages put Democrat James Talarico roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points ahead of Paxton, while several individual surveys show a tie.

For his part, Paxton has already assumed he lost, telling a group of donors that Washington took over his campaign and he has no say in what's happening anymore. He also complained that his campaign needed money, even begging Fox News viewers to help. According to him, Talarico's spending advantage was hurting his campaign. But Talarico was being outspent by at least 2.5 to 1.

The issues have been unusual. While Talarico focused on the affordability crisis, the Iran war, wages and housing, Paxton campaigned on the idea that his opponent wasn't manly enough and was even a vegan.

Meanwhile, right-wing activists suffered a huge humiliation when Talarico disappeared for nearly two weeks with the flu. They claimed that he couldn't handle the pressure and was held in an Ohio mental health facility. Right-wing news spread the report like wildfire with an edited recording of a woman working at the facility who said that unless he left "today" there was no one there by that name. The facility ultimately had to debunk the claim. It made Republicans look desperate and silly.

Democrats have officially won control of the U.S. House of Representatives, NBC News is reporting. It ends two years of Republicans ruling both congressional chambers, the White House and a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is the first opportunity for President Donald Trump to face a major electoral rebuke in his second term. With 218 seats needed for a majority, Democrats have crossed the threshold after flipping a series of Republican-held districts, powered by a national environment that favored anyone opposing the GOP.

There was already a narrow majority for Republicans, which led to a fractured caucus and many defectors on major issues like the release of the files for the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. So, Democrats needed a net gain of just three seats, and Republicans fought tooth and nail to stack the deck in their favor.

In an odd twist, Trump ordered red states to redraw their congressional lines using the 2024 election maps. It assumed that the broad coalition of voters that supported him in the general election would continue to support him. It was a massive miscalculation. Not only did he lost much of his coalition, but he also began losing support among his loyal MAGA base. It put GOP seats that were once seen as safe in jeopardy.

Independents and moderates broke heavily against the GOP, which has acted as a protector for the president rather than a check and balance on a rogue government.

Democrats campaigned heavily on affordability, health care and corruption. Meanwhile, Trump spent the first six to eight months of the year claiming there was no such thing as "affordability" and claimed that those he knew were making tons of money. In the final week of the race, Trump even said the oil industry was booming and making record profits, even if it meant his own supporters had to pay a little more at the pump.

The U.S. oil-and-gas industry was “making hundreds of billions of dollars," Trump told a rally crowd in Perry, Georgia on Oct. 24. "I don’t give a damn. I’m gonna say it: We’re making a freaking fortune." He later repeated a similar line in Arizona.

Trump claimed that his advisers had told him not to mention the oil profits because Americans were suffering so much at the pump. He predicted the “fake headlines” would say he was “bragging about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump," but then said, “I don’t give a damn.” He said it was "a small price to pay."

Nearly a month before the election, it became clear that Republicans would lose the majority it was unclear by how much, though.

Exit polls and pre-election surveys showed voters broadly dissatisfied with the economy, with Democrats holding an eight- to nine-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot heading into Election Day.

Early voting numbers were also astronomical. It broke records from the 2022 election, particularly among Latino voters, who have been furious with the brutality of Trump's government kidnapping immigrants who were in the U.S. legally and waiting for their asylum proceedings or citizenship hearings.

By Oct. 28, TargetSmart counted about 3.8 million Hispanic/Latino early voters nationwide, up from 2.35 million at the same point in 2022, the Washington Post reported. In 94 percent of counties, Latino voters made up a larger share of the early electorate than they had four years earlier.

The Texas Tribune revealed that more than 7.7 million Texans voted early in the 2026 election, surpassing 2018 record, which was the last time Texas saw such a huge surge. The 2022 election only saw about 31 percent turnout in early voting.

“We’re not going to hit presidential levels, but this is definitely high turnout,” said political science Professor Mark Jones, at Rice University. “The question though, that is still out there is, and this happens every time that we try to interpret early voting numbers: How many votes are actually still out there?”

As of Sunday evening, 50.7 million votes had already been cast, according to On Point Politics.

In the final weeks of the 2026 midterm election, questions arose about whether the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) sister could hold onto his seat.

By late Tuesday, it became clear that Annie Andrews would be the winner; Peter Hamby called it early, and the Decision Desk confirmed. Local WIS10 showed that 80 percent reported there was no pathway to victory left for Graham. Meanwhile, that same governors race will likely go Republican, meaning many voters split tickets to vote GOP for governor and then voted for Andrews too.

Pediatrician Annie Andrews ran against the former senator before his death, but then Darline Graham stepped in after a late primary left the younger Graham bruised.

Throughout September and into part of October, Graham led by only a few points in polls and always within the margin of error. Her best showing came from the GOP firm Trafalgar Group, where she led by just three points. Impact Research did a poll from Oct. 15-21 that put Andrews up by one point, but still within the margin of error. By Election Day they were tied.

The tough GOP battle between Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) set her up to face off serious policy issues that extend to the war in Iran, trade deals and corruption. During a debate with Norman, Graham had an embarrassing moment when she admitted she didn't know much about Taiwan or really any national security, but she supported the military.

"National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise. But I do support the military," she said in the painful debate moment.

When challenged on it, she doubled down, saying, “They’re worried about their pocketbooks more than they’re worried about the South China Sea, quite honestly.” She then began talkinga bout boys in girls' sports.

She then misstated that 50 million people lived in South Carolina, when the number is more like six million. Norman tried to capitalize on the moment by saying that she may very well be a nice person and a good sister, but it didn't mean she was qualified to be a U.S. Senator.

Still, she made it through the primary with support from President Donald Trump, rallying MAGA behind her.

By the time of her Oct. 11 debate against Annie Andrews, Graham still struggled in the debate. While she didn't make any additional gaffes, she was very slow to answer, and there were many awkward pauses. Her attack lines didn't land, and that became part of the narrative that she wasn't ready for prime time. Andrews followed Norman's message, saying the debate proved Graham simply wasn't qualified.

As the election neared, the Senate Leadership Fund sent $5 million to help a race in a reliably red district that neither party saw as competitive. A Republican briefed on the plans called it the GOP's “insurance policy” to protect the seat.

In late October, Norman's son announced in an op-ed that he'll likely vote Democrat for the first time in his life by casting a ballot for Andrews. He made it clear that he refused to support Graham.

South Carolina was never meant to be a bellwether, but the time zone meant the state was likely to be among the first east coast races called unless it was close. It was thought that if the race was very close or Andrews pulled out a win, that could be an indication for other U.S. Senate races in red states like Iowa and Kansas, where Democrats have also been within striking distance

NBC is calling the Georgia governor's race for Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms.

The race has become a genuine toss-up between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, and Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive and first-time candidate. The race has been very close as Election Day neared.

The Georgia U.S. Senate race was expected to stay Democratic, and the GOP pulled out of that race more than a month before the election. It meant that the only national funding coming in for Republicans was for a few select races, but one of them was the governor's race and it was disproportionately significant in favor of Republicans.

AdImpact data showed pro-Jackson advertising at $271.5 million, versus $32.8 million for pro-Bottoms advertising. That's a Republican advantage of roughly 8-to-1. Given Jackson's billions, he was able to dump a lot of money into his campaign.

Despite the spending gap, Jackson never pulled far ahead. Late polls showed the race essentially tied. Bottoms did score a late infusion of national Democratic money that helped her compete on the airwaves.

Bottoms has a chance to make history by becoming Georgia’s first Black woman governor and giving Democrats control of a major Southern battleground. If Jackson wins, Republicans would hold the governorship for another term and preserve a key 2028 presidential battleground for the GOP.

Late October polls had Bottoms at 50 percent and Jackson at 47 percent; another had Bottoms 49 percent, Jackson 48 percent; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/University of Georgia poll had Jackson 46 percent, Bottoms 45 percent. All of them showed it within the margin of error of the polls, making it too close to call.

The contest reflects Georgia’s significant shift in political geography. While Republicans remain strong statewide, Democrats have become increasingly competitive, especially with strong turnout in metro Atlanta.

As with all of the close races, turnout is the name of the game. Bottoms needs to maximize Black voter turnout, run up her margins in Atlanta and its suburbs, and hold enough of the voters who support Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Split-ticket voting could be decisive because Ossoff has led more clearly in his Senate race.

Georgia had about 2.8 million pre-Election Day votes, and officials expected roughly 1.3 million more ballots to be cast on Election Day.

CNN reported that Georgia Republicans were “increasingly worried” as turnout numbers came in, suggesting the early-vote coalition may have been stronger for Democrats than Republicans expected.

Republicans pulled out their funding support from North Carolina about a month before the election. They clearly saw the writing on the wall and knew the money was needed elsewhere.

So, on Tuesday night, the Associated Press and MS NOW officially called the race for former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) to be the next senator from the state.

Cooper was popular as governor and left office with high approval ratings. By early to mid October, Cooper's polling showed him ten points ahead of Republican Michael Whatley.

When Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced his retirement, President Donald Trump hoped his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, would be handed the seat. She ultimately announced she would not seek the election, citing family priorities. In a 2025 interview with TIME, she said it would be very difficult to serve as a U.S. senator with two young children at home. She said it would be difficult to uproot them and move to Washington, assuming she won the race.

She then revealed that she had previously turned down a possible appointment to the U.S. Senate seat in Florida after now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio left it vacant.

Whatley, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party, was then chosen by Trump to run. The former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole had a powerful fundraising advantage over his GOP challengers and longtime relationships with local GOP officials across the state.

Despite being an established party operator, he'd never actually run for office himself. National Republicans wanted to consolidate quickly. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorsed Whatley, urged senators to contribute and helped organize fundraising. The strategy was to put a unified, well-supported nominee against Democrats’ strongest recruit rather than spend months fighting internally.

The strategy was to put a unified, well-supported nominee against Democrats' strongest recruit rather than spend months fighting internally. The central gamble was that the GOP infrastructure and Trump’s backing could compensate for Whatley’s lack of electoral experience.

The problem with that strategy is that Cooper entered the race as a twice-elected former governor with a high statewide identity and affection. Despite Whatley being a dedicated North Carolinian, he was still forced to introduce himself to those outside of Republican Party politics, all while trying to appeal to less partisan voters with a growing dissatisfaction with Trump.

Looking back at the New York Times polling aggregator, it's unclear whether Whatley ever had much of a chance against someone as well-liked as Cooper. At his lowest point, in late July 2025, Cooper still led Whatley.

MS NOW's Rachel Maddow was shocked and excited Tuesday night, reporting the overwhelming turnout in South Carolina's midterm elections.

According to reports on the ground, voters in South Carolina set a 30-year turnout record on Tuesday. They also broke records in early voting numbers, she explained.

Amid a discussion about "strongman" candidates falling in Serbia and Brazil, Maddow explained that far-right leaders like those try to discourage voters from standing up against them either through fear or intimidation.

"One of the things that happens in democratic backsliding, and when authoritarians take over democratic countries, is that they tell you that the vote doesn't matter," Maddow said. "I mean, that's the whole thing behind claiming voter fraud and claiming that the elections are rigged. It's to tell people, don't bother voting. Your vote doesn't count your vote, whatever you intend it to mean. It won't ever mean that in this whole system is rigged against you. And it's to turn people off from voting, not only to make them disbelieve the results, but to make them disinterested in participating."

"And this is a freaking one-finger salute to that idea from the American people. So good night. So good. I mean, the turnout numbers again, those record turnout numbers, I was just — I was just conveying to you, those are out of South Carolina. I don't know what's gonna happen," Maddow conceded. "But this is the American people saying, we are out here."

Lawrence O'Donnell said he has a lot of family in South Carolina and has heard all season long that people were furious. O'Donnell said his cousin Jim told him this would happen, that this kind of turnout would unfold.

Polls just closed in South Carolina, and the U.S. Senate race is likely to be close despite the seat being solidly red.

By the time of her Oct. 11 debate against Annie Andrews, Darline Graham still struggled. While she didn't make any additional gaffes as she did in the GOP debate, she was very slow to answer, and there were many awkward pauses. Her attack lines didn't land, and that became part of the narrative that she wasn't ready for prime time. Andrews followed Norman's message, saying the debate proved Graham simply wasn't qualified.

Throughout September and into part of October, Graham led by only a few points in polls and always within the margin of error. Her best showing came from the GOP firm Trafalgar Group, where she led by just three points. Impact Research did a poll from Oct. 15-21 that put Andrews up by one point, but still within the margin of error. By Election Day they were tied.

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President Donald Trump made a bizarre comment that the U.S. may stop giving money to Israel, which was a bombshell for both countries. Since then, the story has gotten even weirder.

“Now, as far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping… We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel. Now we’ll help Israel if they need it," Trump said speaking to "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday morning. Trump said it would end at the end of 2026, when the agreement with the U.S. doesn't have the funding set to stop until 2028.

Trump has tried to clean it up, saying the U.S. would still sell weapons to Israel and could provide help if Israel needed it, but that came from Trump—not a separate White House correction.

Fox host Brian Kilmeade was quick to ask what Trump meant, and the president never fully answered the question. Instead, Trump changed the subject and repeated that Israel “doesn’t need it," meaning the money.

The Jerusalem Post reported several hours later that the White House said Trump "misspoke."

The report included an odd detail: "Also, Trump did not make this announcement of his own initiative, with advisers nearby shepherding him through."

"And the most stunning part of all of this was that Trump said ending the aid in 2026, as opposed to 2028, was all Netanyahu's idea," said JPost.

Where it got stranger, however, is that the report claimed Trump just popped off; there was some big policy announcement.

"Also, Trump did not make this announcement of his own initiative, with advisers nearby shepherding him through," wrote the JPost. It raises questions about why Trump would need "advisers nearby shepherding him through" a Fox News interview. "Rather, he tossed it out in response to a question in an interview on Fox News."

As questions about Trump's health and mental wellness persist. Dr. Henry David Abraham, a Tufts psychiatry professor emeritus, told AlterNet last month that Trump’s “grandiosity,” angry outbursts, rambling speech and word-finding problems were “consistent with evolving dementia,” while also raising the possibility of a mood disorder. He emphasized that these were his assessments, not a diagnosis.

Dr. John Paul Garrison, a clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in body language, made the observations. He watched Trump's speech at the Reflecting Pool on Monday. and suggested that the president is suffering a severe decline, possibly even accelerated by a stroke.

It also fits Trump’s account that Netanyahu raised the idea, rather than Trump deciding independently to end the aid. Trump said Netanyahu “brought it up” and that they had discussed it for a couple of years.

As Media Matters for America fellow Matthew Gertz pointed out, the comment from Trump "wasn’t a one-off. Trump repeated it several times during the interview, answered multiple questions, gave his reasoning, and even said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for it!"

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear President Donald Trump's case, which demanded that California withhold 20,000 ballots from being counted because voters were likely ineligible.

Trump has spent the past several days claiming a Department of Homeland Security list revealed voters who should not and could not be counted. What unfolded was someone spot-checking and finding that the list included many American citizens. That's when California said it wouldn't cooperate in removing people. The Justice Department took California to court, and it lost over and over.

The case finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Elena Kagan wrote the decision and the full court said "no."

According to Fox News, though, only Kagan's opinion reached the full court. "Justice Kagan denies emergency request on the eve of midterm elections," the subheadline reads.

"Justice Elena Kagan denied the appeal on the eve of the midterm elections without comment, and did not refer it to the other justices," the article falsely claims.

The posting remains live on Fox's website, and no correction has been issued.

The California Globe's editor and chief similarly parroted the Fox report, saying Kagan, not the full court, was behind the ruling. "Justice Elena Kagan denied the appeal on the eve of the midterm elections without comment, and did not refer it to the other justices," said Katy Grimes.

She quoted from the Justice Department filing: "Once illegally cast ballots are counted and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy."

The order makes it clear that the case was "presented to Justice Kagan and, by her, referred to the Court, is denied."

She drew swift backlash, along with Fox, for missing that key piece of the ruling.

"This is false, although from the replies, the claim is apparently based on false reporting by Fox News. Kagan referred the application to the full Court, and it was the Court that denied it, not Kagan alone," said Damin Toell on X in response to Grimes.

"Why would you say something so bold yet so easily debunked?" asked one lawyer.

Congressman Kevin Mullin (D-Calf.) even commented to correct the record, "The Supreme Court rightfully and swiftly rejected Trump’s desperate, sloppy, last-minute attempt to interfere in California’s elections and throw out ballots. Numerous lower court judges have also ruled against him – with a federal judge even saying Trump has likely violated the U.S. Constitution in his attacks against California elections workers. Trump’s ongoing voter suppression efforts are un-American, and his weaponization of the DOJ should concern everyone regardless of political party. Voting in the Golden State – and around the country – has been proven to be safe and secure, but Trump continues to spread lies because he’s desperate to hold onto power."

MAGA is still claiming it was Kagan and Kagan alone and called for her to be removed.

In another court hearing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kao admitted the list they generated wasn't entirely accurate. The judge questioned whether it was "fair" to say that the federal government's list had a "high" error rate. He agreed, said "Law Dork" Chris Geidner.

AlterNet has reached out to Fox News Digital for comment.

"Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire wondered whether President Donald Trump gave his closing message at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool because he's trying to lose.

On an Election Day panel with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Lemire quipped that Trump may have a financial interest in a huge election loss for Republicans.

Scarborough began the segment reading aloud a key piece of Trump's closing argument to Americans on Monday afternoon.

"The pipes have been removed. The pipes have been fitted. Pipes are very important to drainage," Trump said.

Scarborough conceded that indeed, pipes are important. He joked, "If you look into your cross tabs," which is the term used for political polling details.

"He's not wrong! And that's the thing. That's a problem with the libs on TV," Scarborough joked. "He's not wrong. Pipes are important. Pipes are important."

"I love pipes," conceded Lemire. But he had another question.

"I want to know if, perhaps, we should look to see if there's a suspicious Polymarket bet today on Democrats winning. Maybe that came from President Trump because of this closing argument, as one Republican told me yesterday. At least it wasn't about John Husted."

Over the past two years, large and suspicious transactions on prediction markets have left conspiracy theorists wondering whether someone in Trump's family placed bets based on insider knowledge.

Former Republican political strategist Mark McKinnon, the producer of the Showtime show "The Circus," said that if he were to cut an ad for Democrats, he would say that there should be an AI video of Trump rambling incoherently about pipes at the Reflecting Pool.

"And Republicans will say this. My sourcing is from Republicans, because Democrats are like, what? We could win this big?" said Scarborough. "The Republicans just are beyond themselves. It's not just been this week, it's not just been this month. It's not just been the past three months. What's he been doing? Everything he has done has been to hurt Republicans. He's on the wrong side of every 90/10 issue."

He cited the war, artificial intelligence, tariffs and slashing healthcare benefits, said the host's namesake.

"This proves that there's nobody in the White House — not that we needed proof — that can stand up to Donald Trump, because no one other than Donald Trump thinks it was a good idea to talk about the Reflecting Pool," McKinnon said. "And by the way, on the AI stuff and the data centers, Joe, this is so contrary to his fundamental message of Making America Great Again."

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Twenty-year practicing psychotherapist Elliott Connie, who offers short, easy-to-understand analyses of the brain and how people think, did an analysis of President Donald Trump's unusual closing election speech about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He also issued a stark warning about what the coming months and years will likely bring. According to Connie, Trump's narcissistic personality disorder is about to rear its ugly head.

First, he noted that the unusual thing is that Trump didn't deliver a "galvanizing message about the policies he's going to be putting forward, about the changes he's going to be leading towards, about the conditions of America improving should people vote for the Republicans in these midterms," remarked Connie. Instead, the speech was about pool maintenance.

"And I want to talk about exactly why people who struggle with narcissistic personality disorder as Donald Trump very well might — I can't officially say that because I haven't done the kind of assessment that I would need to do to confirm such a diagnosis," Connie clarified. "But I will tell you if I were to sit down with Donald Trump and do that kind of assessment. Narcissistic personality disorder would be on a short list of things I'd be thinking about."

But for those who suffer with the disorder, Connie said that they tend to be "very superficial" and promote their name and their image, assuming that it will be referred to with the grandiosity which it deserves. That's why he thinks Trump is so focused on the massive scale of the Reflecting Pool, which he joked he wants to rename the Trump Reflecting Pool. Wanting to name it after himself is in line with what Connie sees in those with narcissistic personality disorder. Trump isn't thinking about America or the common good.

"He's only thinking about what would be in his best interest, what would be right for him," Connie explained. "So, he's able to think about something in a very superficial way about this beautiful reflecting pool and saying things that are super weird like, 'See that green? That's algae. It's not grass. The bubbles are perfect for the algae growth.' None of this makes any sense."

But viewed within the context of a person with a narcissistic personality disorder, it makes perfect sense, because Trump "doesn't think about other people. He doesn't have compassion for other people's struggles," said Connie. "He's not worrying about the high gas prices, high grocery prices, high levels of inflation. He's not thinking about all the things that Americans are struggling with that they want to be the outcome of this election. He's only thinking about what he values, and what he values is appearance. He only wants things to appear well."

That's why Trump spends so much time renovating the White House and Washington D.C. He wants credit for it, so he wants his name on it.

In another video, Connie highlighted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who spoke to "The View" on Monday and shared what she thinks the next two years will hold. She believes that Trump will be "cornered" and will be lashing out.

Clinton told the co-hosts that she expects he'll be "angry" and "lashing out," but with power in the House and/or Senate, "there will be some leverage to hold him to account."

"When Hillary Clinton says that Donald Trump will get even more out of control, she is absolutely right," Connie explained. "Now the reason for this is because people who struggle with narcissistic personality disorder, which I cannot officially say Donald Trump [has] because I have not done a thorough assessment of him, but if I were to, narcissistic personality disorder would be on a short list of things I'd be looking at."

Those who struggle with the disorder respond two ways at the same time when they lose something, Connie continued.

"The first one is — because that mentality, because that way of thinking cannot handle losses — they will say it was rigged, fraud, or wasn't fair in some sort of a way. So, expect Donald Trump to say all of the things that Hillary Clinton said. They're going to have lawsuits, they're gonna have recounts, they're gonna try to invalidate elections in different states, in different cities," said Connie.

He recalled how Trump was after the 2020 election and expects it to be even worse. It wasn't a real win, but it led to the Jan. 6 attack. "Those with a narcissistic personality disorder can't concede a loss."

"He's going to be incredibly upset and he's going to feel like it's unfair and he's going to try everything he can to invalidate those election results," Connie explained.

He also agreed with Clinton's assessment that Trump will feel cornered and as someone with a narcissistic personality disorder, he expects Trump "will attack and lash out."

"So, he will not know how to work collaboratively with the Democrats and work in unison with them. He's going to feel like everything they say is an attack," Connie said. "It's going to be an absolute mess for a while. It's going to be really, really hard to watch."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The Justice Department was in court on Monday after the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) asked the federal government for a temporary restraining order against threats to election workers.

SEIU along with AFSCME, the NAACP, LULAC and other allied groups are trying to stop the Department of Homeland Security (and DOJ) from pressuring California election workers to set aside ballots based on unproven claims that voters are noncitizens.

DHS claims one of its databases showed 20,000 illegal voters, but a small spot check revealed a very high error rate. Though this version of the case isn't about the list itself, it's about the workers, it did raise questions about the list.

Before the judge on Monday, "Law Dork" Chris Geidner heard Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kao admit the generated list wasn't entirely accurate. The judge questioned whether it was "fair" to say that the federal government's list had a "high" error rate. He agreed.

At one point, Judge Trina Thompson even asked whether the list was generated by artificial intelligence, and Kao said he had no idea how the federal government generated the list or what it did to ensure the list was accurate.

A federal judge has already issued a temporary restraining order blocking the list from being used to stop ballots from being counted, but the groups brought the DOJ to court to stop it from acting on its threats to arrest election workers who count the ballots from those individuals on the list.

Geidner posted a screen capture of the court filing, highlighting one sentence in particular.

"In this case, this Office has been informed that the United States has identified more than 20,000 individuals who appear to be registered to vote in California based on publicly available information at the time that information was received, but who, in the United States' view, are likely not U.S. citizens," the filing said.

"I think it might be physically impossible to wedge more hedge words in a single sentence," he said. "This is honestly one of the funniest, saddest legal sentences I've ever read."

Kao also requested that the ruling from the judge be limited to only the northern district of California and not the southern, but the petitioners' lawyers called that inappropriate.

The judge didn't rule from the bench as the hearing concluded. For now, California election workers can continue processing and counting ballots under state and federal law without facing federal prosecution threats tied to the administration’s voter-eligibility claims.

The California case is quickly becoming a major test of whether federal officials can pressure state and local election administrators during an active election.

While the DOJ hasn't said one way or another, the administration is likely to appeal whatever the lower court rules.

Biographer Michael Wolff wrote Monday that President Donald Trump’s political career has always rested more on performance than on his actual accomplishments. That ends Tuesday, he predicted.

The long-time researcher wrote on his Substack that Trump’s only real talent has been in dominating attention while making himself the central character in every political story. With that, he can obscure weak results, including his 2020 loss, Wolff said.

He described Trump's first year through the lens of a book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, which paints Trump's return to power as redefining and expanding presidential power in a significant way.

Wolff explained that the nail in the coffin of Trump's power was that he began believing his own spin.

"But, in fact, this performance came to rely so much on illusory accomplishments that Trump seemed to actually believe he had accomplished something," wrote Wolff. "Or, in that always fatal mistake, he came to believe his own bulls——. So much so that, by the second year, the accomplishments, or lack of, came to overshadow the performance. His power grab made him believe he was all powerful — but his performance kept highlighting what he had done, or failed to do, with his power."

When the lack of results overshadows the showmanship, an increase in showmanship won't help save Trump from disaster.

The midterm elections are a referendum on Trump’s record rather than merely his persona, whether or not he sees it that way. Wolff listed policy failures, issues like economic pressures worsened by tariffs and war, an Iran conflict that has lasted far longer than Trump promised, and a border policy that he said shifted into fear and intimidation of immigrants and Hispanic Americans as part of this referendum.

Meanwhile, he and his family are growing increasingly wealthy using his power and control over government contracts and putting his name and financial interests behind digital tokens, while offering access or perks to people who buy and hold them. It has become a significant enough issue that "government corruption" is among the top three issues in the 2026 election cycle. Ethics experts have said that Trump's ploy created a channel in which wealthy supporters and foreign investors can financially support Trump while seeking proximity to him.

Wolff goes on to criticize Trump for using the Justice Department to pursue his own personal grievances. While some of those efforts failed, Wolff said, Trump’s repeated attempts only exposed his bitterness, and it ultimately drew even more attention to his failures.

Wolff’s broader warning is that Republicans tied their political future so close to Trump that all of his failures have become their failures too. Trump's demand for the party’s obedience has forced the GOP to shoulder the burden of Trump’s incompetence, grudges, financial self-dealing and erratic behavior.

He closed by explaining that history might be fascinated with Trump's ability to draw attention, but attention will also be drawn when those voters are booing "him off the stage" on Election Day.

President Donald Trump will "return to the scene of the crime," said one of his top legal foes, Norm Eisen, when speaking to former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane.

After a chat about Eisen's preparation to file lawsuits the second Republicans or the administration attempts to seize ballots, they pivoted to Trump's 2 p.m. speech he intends to deliver at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

When Trump announced he would speak at the pool, political analysts wondered why the president's closing message would be at a place that became a symbol of failure.

"It's a return to the scene of the crime. I mean, they talk about this compulsion. And in this case[,] The wrongdoing was the shocking corruption," Eisen said. "Think of it, Scott. Donald Trump was responsible for pushing a rushed, botched installation of the reflecting pool, wasting your and my money and all the taxpayers' money, as he does with all these D.C. projects. And then? He blames an innocent man, Davey Hearn, and we battered the government with more than seven motions, starting as soon as he was arraigned, proving his indictment, using their own evidence. Finally, we forced them to dismiss."

Trump alleged that Hearn or someone took a knife and sliced a huge gash into the liner of the pool. As it turns out, the installation left a large crack. There was never a gash.

It's unknown just how much Trump's administration spent to renovate the Reflecting Pool, but it is many times more than what was first cited. The first quote, on April 23, was that it would only cost $1.5 million. He said that it'll likely come in "under budget and ahead of schedule."

The pool was finally filled last week when it was slated to be finished for the July 4 weekend. In June, before the second round of fixes, the costs reached over $16 million, ABC News reported.

Eisen then celebrated that they "argued and won before a judge dismissed with prejudice because it was a junk case."

He compared it to Trump's "junk lists" that he gave to California claiming that there were 20,000 illegal voters.

"So you're seeing a compulsion. If I were giving the president advice, the last place I would tell him to go is the Reflecting Pool, which symbolizes the corruption to the American people," said Eisen.

"But fortunately, we have a dictator dunce," he quipped. "I don't know the trouble we'd be in if he were more competent. That's the crisis. It's a corruption crisis and a competence crisis that has caused a cost crisis. And that is how the American people understand democracy. It's a government that should work for them, not against them on cost, corruption and incompetence. And I think they're going to make this MAGA movement pay a very serious price for that. On election day, tomorrow."

Legal analysts are scratching their heads over the Justice Department's filing of its notice of intent to appeal in the Alaska Senate race case. Some experts said the DOJ may have messed up its case if it doesn't act quickly to fix it.

President Donald Trump's administration tried to interfere in the Alaska Senate race, arguing that if the candidates were close, the race shouldn't be certified because two Dan Sullivans were on the ballot. The case was dismissed, with the court saying the administration had no standing. The issue had already been litigated over the summer and decided by the Alaska Supreme Court with requirements for how the names would appear on the ballot to distinguish them.

Still, the administration appealed the case, or rather, it tried to tell the court it intended to appeal.

But the DOJ's filing Sunday left analysts confused because it identified itself as a "notice of appeal," but the body of the document didn't say what such a notice would say. So, the larger question is how the court would treat such a document. Does it start the clock on the appeals process? Experts don't think so.

"DOJ's notice of appeal, filed a few hours ago, in US v. Alaska is not worded as a Notice of Appeal is normally worded. It does not say the court to which the ruling is being appealed (the Ninth Circuit)," said Geidner, who runs the "Law Dork" Substack.

He explained that it isn't worded like a typical notice of appeal because it omits the court to which the case is being appealed. It should be the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

He then flagged it as violating "Form 1 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure," offering, "If you need help, DOJ..."

The DOJ skipped the specific language it must use.

"Another thing: It only says they're intending to appeal. What are you doing?" he asked, as he kept reading through the filing.

University of Minnesota Law School Professor Charlotte Garden cited Appellate Procedure Rule 3(c)(1). She added that she doesn't think a filing missing that requirement can actually "count as a 'notice of appeal.'"

It means that the clock isn't ticking on the appeals process. The DOJ would file a "notice of appeal" and then submit the full appeal. This DOJ filing doesn't appear to do either.

As Garden explained, "There are only 3 things the notice has to contain, and they missed one of them."

She recalled a major case Steve Goldblatt argued that set the case law on such filings. She commented it's "incredible that we're now talking about" the Justice Department filing such a notice that bungled the rules.

"Steve had collected various horror stories about people who messed up the notice of appeal — mostly by miscounting the days, or appealing from the wrong order. The lesson was always: if you mess this up and you don't fix it before the time to appeal runs, you're screwed," she added.

So, the DOJ can label it a "notice of appeal," but it isn't, and the filing doesn't do anything.

Semi-retired litigator John Allen commented, "Hopefully, the Ninth Circuit will sit on this case until it has grown an Alaskan beard, just the way the 11th Circuit Court has been sitting on the appeal of Judge Cannon's permanent sealing of Jack Smith's report on the stolen classified documents case."