The latest on the 2022 midterm election

Ballots are still being counted in Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert's Colorado district, where she is in a tight race against Democrat Adam Frisch.

CNN has not made a projection in the race yet, but Frisch was ahead of Boebert by just 386 as of 12: 30 p.m. ET Thursday.

The boundaries of the 3rd Congressional District shifted after Colorado added a new district because the 2020 Census showed population growth, with the state’s independent redistricting commission creating a map that added an eighth seat in the northern suburbs of Denver. 

Encompassing the western and southern portions of the state that includes Grand Junction, the majority of residents living in Boebert’s district are White and many residents have traditionally registered as Republican. 

As of Sept. 1, nearly 31% of registered voters were Republican, nearly 24% were Democrat and 44% were unaffiliated with a political party, according to the state’s independent redistricting commissions.

Boebert won the county in the 2020 election with 51.4% of the vote, defeating Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush who had 45.2%. Under the new redrawn district, former President Donald Trump would’ve won the district by nearly 8 percentage points but would’ve won by about 5.5 percentage points under the older map.

On Wednesday night, Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz told CNN that Pueblo County, another county in Boebert’s district, was expected to post more votes that night and they would pick back up tomorrow morning at 11 a.m ET (9 a.m local time)

Here is what the state's map looked like before and after redistricting:

House Democratic leadership elections have been officially announced for Nov. 30.

Speculation over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s future atop the House Democratic caucus has intensified in the aftermath of the midterm elections. CNN has not yet projected which party will control the House, but Republicans appear to be inching toward picking up the number of seats needed to win back the majority.

CNN reported in September that in interviews with more than two dozen House Democrats, a consensus began to emerge: If Democrats lose the majority, there would be overwhelming pressure for Pelosi to go, a prospect that Democratic sources said the powerful House speaker is keenly aware of.

Pelosi recently told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview that the violent attack on her husband Paul would have an impact on her decision making over her political future, though she did not say what the decision will be.

The elections will be secret ballot using a web-based application.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would not directly answer when asked by CNN if he blamed former President Donald Trump for the less-than-robust results for Republicans on Election Day. 

Remember: CNN has not yet projected which party will control the House or the Senate. Republicans appear to be slowly inching toward winning back the majority in the chamber, but many races are still too early to call, and the GOP fell short of what many expected to be a "red wave" of victories in Tuesday's midterms.

As McConnell entered his US Capitol office, he also declined to answer if he was confident he will be the majority leader in the new Congress. 

In the past, McConnell has raised concerns about “candidate quality,” in reference to some of the candidates Trump backed for the Senate who struggled to gain wide support.  

Washoe County — Nevada’s second most populous county which encompasses Reno — still has about 20,000 ballots that it still needs to process. 

The outstanding ballots include both mail-in ballots and ballots that were dropped off on Election Day. 

Like all counties in Nevada, Washoe is likely to receive more ballots by mail today, after receiving 4,000 yesterday. Ballots that arrive by Saturday will be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

The pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus is currently meeting near Capitol Hill for their new member orientation.

Heading into the meeting, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia told CNN, “we’re working on it” when asked whether he’ll support House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy for speaker. Most other members declined to comment.

Their strategy in the speaker’s race – including what demands they will try to extract and where they will draw hard lines – is expected to come into sharper focus today and tomorrow.

Later Thursday night, the group will hear from Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, who is the keynote speaker at their dinner reception.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes will win in Connecticut's 5th District, CNN projects, and defeat Republican George Logan.  

This is a Democratic hold.

Here's where things stand in the House:

Democrat John Fetterman's victory over Trump-backed Republican Mehmet Oz, the cardiothoracic surgeon turned TV doctor, was the culmination of his own political journey, from big, brash small town mayor in Western Pennsylvania to the cusp of membership in one of the country's most traditionally genteel political institutions. 

In the primary, Fetterman, without a patron or validator, delivered a resounding victory by winning all 67 counties, often by overwhelming margins what ended up being a four-candidate race. He even came away on top in Philadelphia, with nearly 37% of the vote. Fetterman also swept the collar counties around the city, which would become a key focus for him and his opponent in the fall, prevailing in each by an average of almost 25 percentage points.

But his triumph was tempered after he revealed in a statement that he had suffered a stroke. The following two months — which Fetterman spent much of at home recuperating — ended up being the most critical period of the Democrat's campaign. Unable to do in-person events, the campaign leaned into a hyperactive social media presence, all directed at defining Oz as an out-of-state elitist by using a mix of memes, pithy tweets and, at times, the help of famous celebrities.

The success of the messaging even surprised Fetterman's top aides. The stickiness of the attacks also struck Republicans.

The race grew more competitive after Labor Day, as more voters tuned in to the race and tens of millions of dollars from outside groups like the GOP's Senate Leadership Fund and others led to ads blanketing the airwaves. Questions about Fetterman's heath dominated coverage of the campaign.

In a debate with Oz, Fetterman struggled as many expected. But the Fetterman campaign moved quickly to shift the narrative, seizing on one debate line from Oz, and they announced a new ad hammering Oz over his suggestion that "local political leaders" should have a hand, along with women and doctors, in the process.

The final weeks of the campaign were a nerve-rattling, expensive whirlwind. Former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden appeared for rallies with him across Philadelphia. Aides also pointed to a late endorsement — delivered with no warning, a few days before the presidential cavalry arrived — from Oprah Winfrey, who helped launch Oz's TV career.

Just days later, Calvello watched silently as Fetterman took the stage on Election Night and immediately touted his campaign's work in typically red enclaves.

Democrat Wes Moore said becoming the first Black governor of Maryland — and only the third Black person elected governor in US history — "means a great deal" to him.

"I know the history of my state. This is a state that is a place, a birthplace and home place of Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall and Harriet Tubman. But it is also the birthplace of the red line. It is the birthplace of some of the most historically discriminatory policies, the most creative discriminatory policies that we've seen in this country," Moore told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

When asked about current GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, who has been popular in a largely blue state, Moore expressed appreciation for Hogan tackling more extreme members of his party — including Moore's Republican gubernatorial opponent Dan Cox, who has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election. 

“I appreciate the current governor for calling out these MAGA Republicans early,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash. 

Moore tied stumping throughout the state as key to his election victory.

"You go to their territories and you make your pitch. If you show up, you will see exactly what we saw here in the state of Maryland yesterday. We won, not just Democrats, not just Independents, but we took a large swath of Republicans. That is why I think we saw the numbers and the margins that we saw in the state of Maryland," he told CNN's Abby Philip.

A Republican-led Arizona county plans to appeal a court ruling that blocked its planned hand count audit of ballots cast in this year’s consequential midterm elections.

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 Wednesday to lodge the appeal. 

The decision comes as key races in Arizona – including contests for governor and a US Senate seat – remain too close to call.

And the action underscores how much distrust of electronic vote-tallying machines has taken root in parts of the country, following the 2020 presidential election and false claims that widespread fraud contributed to former President Donald Trump’s loss in the state.

Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley had blocked the county’s plan earlier this week, ruling that undertaking a broad hand count as a way to check the accuracy of those machines violates state law – which he said permits election officials to audit only a small percentage of ballots by hand.

The proponents of the hand count argued that it “would help ameliorate fears that the electronic count was incorrect,” McGinley wrote in his 12-page opinion. “However, there is no evidence before this Court that electronic tabulation is inaccurate in the first instance, or more importantly, that the audit system established by law is insufficient to detect any inaccuracy it may possess.”

It is unclear how consequential the appeal will be to the overall certification of the vote in Arizona.

A brief submitted on behalf of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for governor, argued that hand counting — if not completed quickly — could potentially delay the certification of election results.

Her brief noted the statutory deadlines that election officials face for certifying the results, which include a deadline for the county to canvass the results by 20 days after the election and a deadline for the secretary to then complete the statewide canvass by the fourth Monday after election day.

Arizona counties must certify their election results by Nov. 28. The state’s certification deadline is Dec. 5.

There are more than 80,000 registered voters in Cochise County, which lies in the southeastern corner of the state and includes the city of Bisbee.