Georgia Senate and other key races too close to call

Pelosi credits Rep. Maloney with Democrats’ success in close races after he conceded his re-election race

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., credited Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., with helping Democrats win in battleground districts after he conceded his competitive re-election race.

In a statement Wednesday, Pelosi said Maloney, the head of House Democrats’ campaign arm, has been “an outstanding leader of the DCCC.”

“It is a credit to his vision, his strategic thinking and his leadership that our Members and candidates had the mobilization, message and money to run excellent races and win in tough districts,” she said. “Republicans may have gained a Pyrrhic victory with this race because it has clearly come at the expense of other possible Republican wins.”

Maloney conceded to his GOP challenger Michael Lawler earlier this morning. NBC News, however, has not yet made a projection in the race.

“Clearly, House Democrats have exceeded expectations,” Pelosi said. “With many races continuing to be too close to call, every vote must be counted as cast to determine the final results. As we proceed, we continue to be grateful to Sean Patrick Maloney for the successful operation he led that brought us to this point.”

Rep. Jim Banks announces he’ll vie for majority whip if GOP wins House

Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana on Wednesday told his GOP colleagues that he intends to run for majority whip if Republicans take the House.

In a letter provided to NBC News by his office, Banks cited his tenure as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus with more than 150 members, and talks about his connections with the conservative Heritage Foundation and American Conservative Union. 

Reps. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, and Drew Ferguson of Georgia, the current chief deputy whip handpicked by the current GOP whip, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, are also vying for the job.

It’s a position that, assuming Republicans regain control of the lower chamber, will fall third in line behind McCarthy, from California, and Scalise, who is likely to serve as majority leader in a Republican-controlled House.

Photo: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cruises to re-election

Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey DeSantis and their three children on Tuesday night in Tampa.Ron DeSantis with his wife, Casey, and their three children on Tuesday night in Tampa.Giorgio Viera / AFP – Getty Images

Jon Ralston says results in Nevada might not come until the weekend

Longtime Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent said Wednesday that it could take until the weekend for the state’s races to be called.

“The state law says they have to count any mail ballots that come in that have been postmarked on Election Day or before by Saturday at 5:00 p.m.,” he said on MSNBC.

And because Friday is a federal holiday, Veterans Day, final results may not be in until Saturday, Ralston said.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is locked in a very tight re-election race with Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. NBC News has not yet projected a winner in the contest. (View live results here).

A slew of other races in Nevada — including for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state — all remain too early to call, according to NBC News projections.

Sen. Ron Johnson defeats Democrat Mandela Barnes to win Wisconsin re-election

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson has won re-election to a third term in Wisconsin, NBC News projects, narrowly defeating Democrat Mandela Barnes.

Democrats had initially been hopeful that they could oust Johnson, who was increasingly defined by headlines over his statements on issues like abortion, his perpetuation of dubious and unproven Covid treatments, and his ties to the Jan. 6 riot and fake elector plot to help throw the 2020 election to Donald Trump. 

But a successful rebrand, as well as unrelenting attacks against Barnes on crime and criminal justice issues, appeared to help Johnson’s standing among voters.

Barnes made an early bet to run as a progressive and largely did not move to the center. His campaign focused heavily on promises to protect abortion rights and Social Security benefits.

Read more here.

Beating back GOP crime messaging, Dems prevail in Harris County, Texas

HOUSTON — In what was seen as a test of the GOP’s national messaging on crime, Democrats have maintained control of local government in Harris County, Texas, the nation’s third most populous county.

Republican Alexandra del Moral Mealer, who’d raised a record-setting $8.6 million in her bid to unseat Democratic Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, conceded defeat on social media Wednesday morning.

With the backing of several Republican megadonors, Mealer had sought to paint Hidalgo as out-of-touch on violent crime, which has increased in Harris County at a similar rate as other major cities since 2020 but is down somewhat in 2022. Republicans had blanked Harris County — which includes Houston and surrounding suburbs — with campaign signs that read, “Tired of violent crime? Vote Republican judges.”

Despite the ad blitz, Democrats were leading by narrow margins in the vast majority of countywide elections Wednesday morning.

Democrats pick up Michigan seat held by GOP Rep. who lost primary after impeaching Trump

Democrats have won a Michigan House seat that has been held by GOP Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost his primary after voting to impeach Trump, NBC News projected.

NBC News projected Democrat Hillary Scholten as the winner in that race, defeating. Republican candidate John Gibbs. Democrats boosted Gibbs, backed by former President Donald Trump, during the primary cycle by airing ads in support of him. Gibbs beat Meijer for the GOP nomination after Meijer voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

House Democrats’ campaign fundraising arm spent $425,000 on an ad tying Gibbs to Trump and portraying him as too conservative for Western Michigan.

The race was considered a tossup. President Joe Biden carried Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020. The district includes the city of Grand Rapids and borders part of Lake Michigan.

Maloney is first DCCC chair to lose his own seat since 1980

Before New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney conceded Wednesday, it had been 42 years since a chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm — the DCCC — lost his own House seat.

California Rep. James Corman ran the committee during President Jimmy Carter’s ill-fated re-election bid in 1980 and was swept out with Carter.

Pennsylvania Democrat Deluzio wins in a suburban Pittsburgh House district with national implications

Democrat Chris Deluzio has defeated Republican Jeremy Shaffer in a hotly contested race in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, NBC News projects.

The race, which took place in the Pittsburgh suburbs, had become the only toss-up contest for an open congressional seat in the six swing states that President Joe Biden won in 2020, according to The Cook Political Report, the nonpartisan analyst of elections. It was a must-win for Democrats to have any hope of retaining control of the House.

Deluzio is set to succeed Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, who gave up his seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

Chris Deluzio, Democratic Representative candidate for PennsylvaniaChris Deluzio speaks Tuesday outside a polling location in Aspinwall, Pa. Justin Merriman / Bloomberg via Getty Images

NBC News Exit Poll: Black voters more concerned than white voters about crime and guns

While crime and gun policy trailed inflation as key concerns for many voters, those issues were relatively important to Black voters, the NBC News Exit Poll found.

Over one-third of Black voters cited either crime (20%) or gun policy (17%) as mattering most to their vote this year. Only 20% of white voters, by contrast, cited either crime or gun policy. About one-quarter of Latino voters cited either issue.

While the potential erosion of Black voters’ support was a concern for Democrats this fall, the exit poll did not find significant evidence of that. The share of Black voters identifying as Democrats this year was similar to the share in the previous midterm election in 2018.

In the vote for U.S. House candidates, however, Blacks women’s support for Democrats was slightly lower than in 2018. And there was more slippage among Black men voters, whose support for House Democrats fell to 80%, from 87% in 2018. As with many exit poll findings, this pattern could be more reflective of which Black voters abstained from voting this year, rather than Black voters changing their political views overall.

In historic House race between gay candidates, Republican defeats Democrat

Republican George Santos is the winner in the race for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, beating Democrat Robert Zimmerman and flipping the seat from blue to red, NBC News projected.

The contest marked the first time two openly gay congressional candidates had gone head to head in a general election.

Santos will succeed Democrat Tom Suozzi, who left Congress last year in an unsuccessful bid for governor.

He will also become the first openly LGBTQ non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress. All 11 current LGBTQ members of Congress — two senators and nine representatives — are Democrats.

Read more here.

George Santos campaigns in Glen Cove, N.Y. , on Nov. 5, 2022.George Santos campaigns in Glen Cove, N.Y. , on Saturday.Mary Altaffer / AP

Hillary Clinton after Dems avoid red wave: ‘Women enjoy having human rights’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested that women turned out in the 2022 general election motivated by the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Roe v. Wade ruling that protected abortion rights nationwide.

“It turns out women enjoy having human rights, and we vote,” she tweeted Wednesday morning.

In NBC News’ Exit Polls, 53% of women said they voted Democrat and 45% said they voted Republican. Abortion was a major factor that influenced all voters’ decisions.

More than a quarter of voters, 27%, said abortion was the top issue in deciding which candidates to support, and more than half of voters, 53%, said they trust the Democratic Party to handle the issue.

Fifty-nine percent said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 36% who said it should be illegal in most or all cases. Additionally, 61% said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe while 37% said they were enthusiastic or satisfied about the ruling.

NBC News Exit Poll: First-time midterms voters back Republicans in change from 2018

First-time midterms voters cast their ballot very differently this year than they did in 2018, the NBC News Exit Poll found. The group broke for Democratic candidates for the U.S. House by over 20 points in the 2018 midterms. This year, first-time midterms voters favored Republicans in the House by about 8 points.

There were also fewer first-time midterms voters in 2022 compared to 2018. According to the exit poll, the share of voters participating in their first midterms dropped from 16% in 2018 to 12% this year. 2018 saw the highest turnout for a midterm election in over 100 years (since 1914).

House Democrats’ campaign chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney concedes New York race

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., the chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, has conceded defeat in his re-election bid to Republican New York Assemblyman Mike Lawler, a spokesman for the Maloney campaign said. NBC News has not projected a winner in the race.

The race had been considered a toss-up in recent weeks. Maloney, who has served in Congress since 2013, is head of the House Democrats’ campaign fundraising arm this election cycle. It is very rare for the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to lose re-election.

The race to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District, which covers parts of Westchester and Rockland Counties, had become so competitive that Democrats had to launch an eleventh-hour rescue mission for Maloney.

The 56-year-old Democrat was running in a new district that was part of a redrawn congressional map for New York. Maloney has been representing the area north of the new district.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm led by Maloney, spent $600,000 in TV ads for its chairman, and Our Hudson, a super PAC backing Malone, spent at least $110,000 on ads for Maloney.

Michigan Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin wins re-election bid

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., won her re-election bid in Michigan’s 7th District against Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett, NBC News projects.

Slotkin, a moderate Michigan Democrat, earned the first Democratic endorsement of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy. Cheney previously said that she would work against certain Republican candidates who she views as a threat to democracy after the Republican primary to Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman.

Image: Rep. Elissa Slotkin Holds Election Night Event In East LansingRep. Elissa Slotkin addresses supporters at her election night watch party. Sarah Rice / Getty Images

Rep. Chris Pappas beats ex-Trump aide Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire race

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas has won re-election in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, defeating former Trump aide Karoline Leavitt, NBC News projects.

The contest was considered a toss-up. Leavitt, who at 25 would have been one of the first Gen Z members, has said the 2020 election was “stolen away from us.”

NBC News Exit Poll: There are key differences between Latino and white Republicans

As Latinos make up a growing share of the U.S. electorate, about 30% to 40% have historically voted for Republican candidates. These Latino Republicans have much in common with the white Republicans who make up the party’s base, but they also have different views on several key issues, the NBC News Exit Poll found.

Both Latino and white voters who supported Republican candidates for U.S. House viewed inflation as the issue that mattered most, and more than 90% of Latino and white Republican voters said they disapprove of President Biden.

But Latinos who voted Republican in House races were more likely to say that climate change was a somewhat or very serious problem, with 56% holding that view compared to 47% of white Republican voters, the exit poll found. And more than twice as many Latino Republican voters approved of Biden’s student debt cancellation plan.

On immigration, 37% of Latinos who voted Republican said that immigrants to the U.S. do more to make the country better than to hurt it, compared to 23% of white Republican voters who agreed.

And there is a gap between Latino Republican voters who said they believe abortion should be legal (44%) and white Republican voters who said the same (28%).

Gov. Abbott greets supporters in Texas Tuesday night

Gov. Greg Abbott gives a thumbs up to the crowd in McAllen, Texas on Tuesday. Gov. Greg Abbott gives a thumbs-up to the crowd in McAllen, Texas on Tuesday. David J. Phillip / AP

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly wins re-election

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has won re-election to a second term, NBC News projects, defeating Republican challenger Derek Schmidt.

Kelly was the only Democratic governor running for re-election in a state won by Donald Trump in 2020. Her win keeps a Democrat in the top job in ruby red Kansas for another four years.

Her narrow victory over Schmidt, the state’s three-term attorney general, came after she focused her campaign almost exclusively on the economy, tax cuts, education and her desire to work with Republicans.

Read more here.

Mehmet Oz concedes Pennsylvania Senate race

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Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz said Wednesday that he called John Fetterman, the state lieutenant governor, to congratulate him on winning the race.

“I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States senator,” Oz said in a statement, in which he thanked his supporters and called the campaign “the honor of a lifetime.”

“We are facing big problems as a country, and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done,” Oz said. “With bold leadership that brings people together, we can create real change. As a doctor, I always do my best to help others heal. That’s why I ran for Senate. I hope we begin the healing process as a nation soon.”

Oz expressed confidence that he would win the race on Tuesday night as he trailed Fetterman by 1.1 percentage points at midnight ET.

“When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race,” Oz told supporters at his election night party. “We have been closing the gap all night, and we have a lot more ballots to go.”

Fetterman is set to succeed Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who opted against seeking re-election.

Mehmet Oz Mehmet Oz and his wife, Lisa, at an election night rally. Matt Rourke / AP

Schumer says ‘I’m feeling good’ as Senate hangs in balance

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday morning that he’s “feeling good” after Democrats had a better-than-expected election night.

“I am feeling good. That’s all I’m saying,” he said as reporters peppered him with questions. “All I’m saying is I’m feeling good this morning.”

Schumer, who easily won re-election, said he declared victory in his race from New York on Tuesday night and then flew down to Washington to watch the votes stream in from the headquarters of Senate Democrats’ campaign fundraising arm.

Several key Senate races that will determine which party holds the majority in the next Congress have not been called yet.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin apologizes to Pelosi for comments about the attack on her husband

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has sent a handwritten note to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to apologize for comments he made about the attack on her husband last month, Pelosi’s spokesperson told NBC News.

A source close to Youngkin, a Republican, also confirmed the governor’s apology.

After Pelosi’s husband was attacked with a hammer by an intruder who broke into their San Francisco home, Youngkin alluded to the attack during a campaign event.

“They had a break-in last night in their house and he was assaulted; there is no room for violence anywhere — but we’re gonna send her back to be with him in California; that’s what we’re gonna go do,” he told the crowd.

Youngkin walked back his comments in an interview with Punchbowl News following backlash. “At the end of the day, I really wanted to express the fact that what happened to Speaker Pelosi’s husband was atrocious,” he told the outlet. “And I didn’t do a great job.”

GOP challenger Tudor Dixon concedes Michigan governor’s race

Tudor Dixon, the Republican candidate for Michigan governor, said in a statement Wednesday morning that she called Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to concede and wished her well.

“Michigan’s future success rests not in elected officials or government, but all of us. It is incumbent upon all of us to help our children read, support law enforcement, and grow our economy,” Dixon said in the statement. 

“Thank you to our volunteers and supporters for working so hard to forge a better Michigan. We came up short, but we will never stop fighting for our families,” she continued.

NBC News projected Whitmer’s win early Wednesday morning, with 71% of the vote counted. Dixon initially urged her supporters not to lose hope: “We expect counting to continue into tomorrow in our major counties,” she said. “This race has a long way to go.”

Image:Tudor Dixon at an election party Tuesday night. Paul Sancya / AP

Photo: Gretchen Whitmer speaks with supporters Tuesday night in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday night in Detroit. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who won re-election on Tuesday night, in Detroit. Carlos Osorio / AP

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel wins re-election

Michigan’s Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, won her re-election bid against Republican candidate Matthew DePerno, NBC News projects.

Nessel’s projected win comes after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defeated Republican challenger Tudor Dixon, a former conservative commentator endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

DePerno, who gained Trump’s endorsement, has espoused debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results in Michigan.

Georgia lieutenant governor: Trump ‘no doubt in the rearview mirror’ amid tight Senate race

Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, pointed fingers at former President Donald Trump in response to the close Senate race between Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Republican candidate Herschel Walker, which NBC News projects is too close to call.

Duncan, a vocal critic of Trump, previously said neither Warnock nor Walker had earned his vote. During an interview on CNN on Wednesday morning, Duncan was pressed on whether he would support either Senate candidate if the balance of power in the upper chamber depended on a possible runoff.

Duncan reiterated that Walker still hadn’t earned his vote and he did not vote for Warnock before expressing his dismay over the Georgia Senate race’s lack of a clear-cut GOP winner.

“I think a lot of Republicans like me are waking up this morning going, ‘what could have been?’” Duncan said. “What could have been if we would’ve picked a better candidate that could’ve won with a margin like Brian Kemp, that would have been able to put real leadership on display, real ideas on display, win the hearts and minds of Georgians, and get the state back to being fully red?”

Duncan blamed the predicament on Trump, who strongly endorsed Walker, and said the results signal a “pivot point” for the GOP. “This is a time that Donald Trump is no doubt in the rearview mirror, and it’s time to move on with the party, it’s time to move on with candidate quality,” Duncan said.

“We’ve seen it in Georgia, and other places around the country, where if they would’ve just woke up 12 months ago, and stopped taking his lead and took the lead of what real Republicans, real conservative policies meant, and mattered, we’d be in a different place,” he continued. He added he thinks Trump “is moving from a movement to a distraction” for the Republican Party.

Key takeaways: Democrats avoid Biden backlash and hold their own in 2022 races

An election that Republicans had hyped as a red wave is turning out to be anything but, with Democrats over-performing the expectations of many in House and Senate races.

Here are five takeaways from the 2022 election results so far, including that President Joe Biden’s low job approval ratings and the pain of inflation didn’t have the impact Republicans had hoped for.

Read the full story here.

Photo: Fetterman supporters celebrate flipping Pennsylvania

Image:John Fetterman fans wave signs during an election night party in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.Gene J. Puskar / AP

Control of Congress too close to call, but Democrats seem to dodge an expected Republican blowout

WASHINGTON — A deeply divided American electorate delivered a Congress so evenly split that partisan control remained unknown Wednesday morning — and may for some time — after Republican hopes for a major “red wave” dissipated.

Hours after polls closed, dozens of critical House and Senate races remained too close to call. It could be weeks before control of the Senate is settled if the Georgia contest between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker is forced into a runoff in December.

It’s a far cry from the decisive early victory Republicans expected to sweep them into power on Capitol Hill, based on recent polls and historical trends. In anticipation, the GOP had already drawn up plans to investigate and potentially even impeach President Joe Biden. Flawed candidates and concerns about abortion rights ended up proving major obstacles to Republicans, who were banking on riding dissatisfaction about the economy and Biden’s low approval ratings into power. 

Read the full story here.

3 states adopt abortion protections

Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont adopted ballot measures to protect access to abortion in their states Tuesday, following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Voters in Kentucky and Montana, meanwhile, voted on anti-abortion ballot measures, but NBC News has not yet projected whether those initiatives will pass.

NBC News is tracking ballot measures in multiple states on a variety of issues, including firearms, marijuana and election issues here.

Inflation and abortion topped voter concerns, edging out crime, NBC News Exit Poll finds

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Americans named inflation and abortion as the most important issues driving their votes Tuesday, edging out crime despite Republicans’ hammering the issue, according to the NBC News Exit Poll.

Democrats care most about abortion rights, while Republicans are most concerned about inflation, according to the poll. Independent voters also named inflation and abortion as the most important issues determining how they cast their ballots.

Midterm voters mostly disapprove of President Joe Biden’s performance, and a plurality said they think his policies are hurting the country, the poll found. A majority of voters also said they are dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the U.S.

Read more here.

Highlights from Election Day

Just catching up? Here’s what you missed from Tuesday:

  • Democrats won key Senate races in New Hampshire, Colorado and Pennsylvania, while Republicans carried those in Ohio and North Carolina.
  • In Georgia, two Republicans who defied former President Donald Trump won re-election. Gov. Brian Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams for a second time and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee about Trump’s attempts to pressure him to overturn the 2020 election results, was also re-elected.
  • Several House incumbents have lost their re-election bids, including Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., who built a national profile as a member of the House Jan. 6 committee; Democratic Rep. Al Lawson, who faced difficult odds after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fought to have his district redrawn to favor Republicans; and longtime GOP Rep. Steve Chabot, who lost to Democrat Greg Landsman in Ohio.
  • Democrats won key gubernatorial races in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, each defeating GOP candidates who had echoed former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020.