Nov. 11, 2022 US election coverage

Republican Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo will defeat Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, CNN projects.

Sisolak issued a statement conceding the race.

In his concession statement, Sisolak also voiced his support for fellow Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto, who is locked in a tight race against Republican candidate Adam Laxalt.

Nevada has been a battleground state since the early 1990s, but Joe Biden narrowly clinched victory in the Silver State in 2020 despite a significant effort by Donald Trump, particularly in Nevada’s rural areas. Democrats have made gains in competitive races in recent years by relying, in part, on turning out working-class voters and Latinos, two key constituencies in a state that is heavily reliant on tourism as well as the hospitality and service industries.  

But those two voter blocs were among the hardest hit by the economic downturn during the pandemic, which sent unemployment in Nevada soaring to 30% in April of 2020 – the highest in the nation and more than twice the US unemployment rate at that time. The state’s workers then faced a double hit as inflation rose and gas prices topped $5 a gallon in a state where many people must drive long distances to work.  

That created an especially sour mood among voters as Sisolak embarked on his reelection campaign. Though the Democratic governor touted the recovery in the state’s labor market, Lombardo argued that Sisolak was painting a distorted picture of Nevadans’ economic struggles, because many Nevadans are still underemployed, he said. Lombardo also accused Sisolak of crushing businesses in the state with Covid-19 restrictions and onerous regulations. He said Sisolak was too slow to reopen schools and businesses, slowing the state’s recovery. But the Democratic governor pushed back by stating his primary focus was to “save lives.”  

Lombardo was one of the rare GOP candidates backed by both Trump and the Republican establishment. During the general election, he, at times, sought to keep his distance from Trump as he tried to win over moderate and independent voters. During a debate with Sisolak, Lombardo said he wouldn’t describe Trump as a “great” president and said he did not agree with Trump’s false assertions that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.  

But Sisolak suggested that Lombardo was giving different answers to different audiences. He also relentlessly attacked Lombardo’s shifts on abortion, which is protected in Nevada up to 24 weeks by a 1990 voter referendum. Lombardo argued that Nevada’s current law should stay in place, but Sisolak noted that he had changed his position several times during the course of the campaign. In May, for example, Lombardo told a columnist he would support sending voters a referendum moving the 24-week limit to 13 weeks. But he later said he had thought more about that potential change and no longer supported it. Still, Sisolak portrayed his Republican opponent as a threat to women’s reproductive rights.  

Sisolak did not invite Biden to campaign with him in the final stretch, but he also argued the president was being unfairly blamed for inflation, as well as problems that he inherited from Trump.  

The campaign of Blake Masters, the Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, says there is a possible path to victory within the batch of ballots that will be released at 10 p.m. ET by Maricopa County.

The campaign, trailing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, believes if there is to be a tide shift, it will be in the mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day.

The Kelly campaign, for its part, told CNN it feels increasingly confident with each passing election result from Maricopa County, believing Masters' path is becoming more challenging.

Some background: Maricopa County, Arizona's largest and home to Phoenix, is expecting to release approximately 80,000 votes around 10 p.m. ET, chairman of the Maricopa County Board Supervisors, Bill Gates, told reporters earlier on Friday. 

More than half of the votes released tonight will be absentee ballots that voters dropped off at polling places on Election Day – and this is the first report to include ballots from this large batch. 

The total will also include a decent portion of Election Day ballots that were not able to be read by tabulator machines due to technical issues that day, and the remainder of early votes the county received before Election Day. 

The majority of the ballots the county releases moving forward will be absentee ballots dropped off on Election Day. 

After tonight’s release, there will be less than 300,000 total ballots left to tabulate in the county.

CNN's Annie Grayer contributed to this report.

In the hotly contested Senate race in Nevada, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt's lead over incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto has shrunk to about 800 votes – after new tallies were released from Clark County, the largest in the state that includes Las Vegas.

Of those newly reported ballots, about 66% of them were for Cortez Masto, according to analysis from CNN’s John King. He added that most of the ballots yet to be counted are in Clark County.

CNN is yet to project which party will win the House and the Senate as several key races are too early to call — including this one in Nevada. Right now, Democrats have won 48 states and Republicans hold 49.

There are still about 68,000 votes left to be tabulated in Nevada, according to CNN’s David Chalian.

Of these remaining votes, Cortez Masto needs between 50-51% of them to win, while Laxalt needs to get between 49-50% to hold onto his slight lead, Chalian predicted.

Full breakdown: Click below for the full analysis of the Nevada data from CNN's John King.

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Watch: John King breaks down latest Nevada Senate numbers | CNN Politics

Despite the push by some conservatives to delay next week’s Senate GOP leadership elections, they are going on as scheduled.

Sen. John Barrasso, who oversees the leadership vote, shared the news in a message to the conference that was obtained by CNN.

"I welcome the questions and points made in the letter circulated by Senators Rick Scott, Lee and Johnson," Barrasso wrote, referencing a message from the three senators that called for "serious discussions" about the party's lackluster midterms showing before a vote.

"I too support a robust Conference discussion about our agenda, federal budgeting and spending, floor procedures, and the other important priorities outlined prior to elections and the beginning of the 118th Congress," Barrasso wrote.

"To help accomplish that, I propose we continue that effort immediately," he continued.

The conference will hold a policy lunch Tuesday and then on Wednesday meet for the scheduled elections, the senator said. Barrasso argued both meetings would provide ample opportunity for debate.

Democratic Rep. Susie Lee will win her bid for a third term in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, fending off a fierce challenge from Republican April Becker, CNN projects, in a race that drew millions of dollars from the super PACs tied to the House leadership.

This win would be a hold for the Democratic Party.

CNN now projects Democrats have 200 seats of the 218 seats needed to control the House.

CNN projects Republicans have 211 seats.

Democrat Tina Kotek will win an unexpectedly difficult race for governor in Oregon, CNN projects, where the independent candidacy of former state Sen. Betsy Johnson had created a rare pathway for a competitive race in a deep-blue state.

Kotek will be one of the first out lesbian governors in the nation along with Democrat Maura Healey, who clinched the Massachusetts governorship Tuesday.

Her Republican opponent Christine Drazan conceded the race, saying she'd spoken with Kotek and "hope for the best for our state as she steps into this role."

"Though the campaign for Governor of Oregon has come to an end, I am immensely grateful for all the Oregonians who joined our movement to take our state in a new direction," Drazan said in the statement.

Johnson, a former state senator who cast herself as the candidate who would govern from the center, received more than 8% of the vote, according to the most recent tally.

Listen to the CNN Political Briefing podcast to learn where the vote counts stand in key states.

Several Metro Atlanta school districts will transition to remote learning for the Dec. 6 Senate run-off between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. 

“A majority of Fulton County schools serve as polling sites, and this decision will keep students and staff safer. Since the run-off election is expected to draw high voter turnout, there will be a large number of outside visitors to our campuses. The additional traffic can also create campus congestion with packed parking lots, which can affect buses and car rider lanes," Fulton County Schools said in a statement.

Additionally, Atlanta Public Schools said that 29 facilities are active polling stations with three additional locations serving as ballot drop-off sites.

“December 6 will be a virtual, asynchronous learning day for all schools and all departments, to support quality teaching and learning while balancing the safety and security of scholars and staff,” APS said in their statement.

Cobb County Schools will also have a virtual learning day on Dec. 6, the district announced saying many of their buildings will be directly impacted by the run-off election.

Political organizations, especially Democratic-leaning unions, but also Republican organizations, that spent months urging people to vote in Nevada’s key Senate race are now turning their focus toward “curing” flawed mail-in ballots in the still-uncalled contest.

“Curing” is a process where voters correct problems with their mail ballot, ensuring that it gets counted. This can mean validating that a ballot is truly from them, by adding a missing signature, or by addressing signature-match issues. The deadline for voters to “cure” their ballots in Nevada is Nov. 14, according to state law. 

With the razor-thin margin in the contest between Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, the relatively small universe of ballots that need to be “cured” could make a difference. Laxalt currently leads Cortez Masto by about 9,000 votes, according to the latest tally.

The Clark County Registrar announced earlier on Friday that 9,659 ballots were eligible to be cured in the pivotal county, which includes Las Vegas. Officials from Washoe County, which is home to Reno, said they have 1,440 ballots that need to be cured.

The Culinary Union Local 226, which represent roughly 60,000 workers in populous Clark and Washoe County and is central in Democratic efforts in the state, tells CNN they have the “largest cure team in the state," with union spokesperson Bethany Khan saying the group has "200 canvassers doing phone bank, door knocking, and employee dining room cures." 

Other Democratic groups are also engaged in the curing effort. Somos Votantes, a political organization founded in 2019 that targeted boosting Latino turnout in Nevada, is reaching out to voters in both Spanish and English and offering to provide transportation to voters who need it.

Republicans are also engaged in the effort. Republican National Committee spokeswoman Hallie Balch said in a statement that the group had “a duty to inform voters that their ballot needs curing in order to be counted.” 

According to Clark County’s Election website, curing happens “if a question arises about your signature on the outside of your mail ballot return envelope or if you did not put your signature on the outside of that envelope, the Election Department will notify you using the contact information in your voter registration.”

Former President Donald Trump is calling up his allies in the Senate, GOP sources tell CNN, and making a suggestion on the heels of a lackluster midterms performance: Take aim at Mitch McConnell.

Trump, who is facing a round of sharp criticism from inside his own party for hurting Republican candidates in the midterms, has instead sought to gin up opposition to McConnell before leadership elections next week.

The GOP leader has already locked down enough support to win another two years, which would make him the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history. But he is facing new dissension within the ranks as a faction of Senate Republicans are grumbling internally about the timing of the leadership elections next week and are now calling for a delay —  something that several GOP sources signal is unlikely to happen.

Privately, Trump is trying to turn GOP anger toward McConnell. 

He and aides have specifically alluded to the Alaska Senate race, where the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund spent more than $5 million attacking a Trump-backed Republican challenger to incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. That candidate, Kelly Tshibaka, appears poised to advance to a ranked-choice runoff against Murkowski on Nov. 23.

Trump has been extremely critical of McConnell's decision to slash support for Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters over the summer, one aide noted. Masters currently trails incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly by more than 100,000 votes with 80% of votes counted, according to the latest CNN data.  

Sources said Trump has conveyed these frustrations to nearly everyone he has spoken to since Tuesday, hoping it will translate into an onslaught of public criticism of McConnell.  

Listen to the CNN Political Briefing podcast to learn where the vote counts stand in key states.

CNN’s Alex Rogers contributed to this report.