2022 midterm election results

Our live coverage of the 2022 midterms elections has moved here.

Voters around the country weighed in on key ballot measures on Tuesday, including initiatives that require IDs to vote and others that would legalize recreational marijuana.

Here’s what we know so far:

Marijuana

Arkansas voters reject recreational marijuana ballot initiative: Arkansas voters on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed cannabis possession and recreational consumption by adults as well as the sale by licensed facilities, CNN projects. Had it passed, cannabis possession of up to an ounce would have been legal and some tax revenue from marijuana sales would have contributed to funding law enforcement.

Maryland legalizes recreational marijuana with ballot measure: Maryland voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that legalizes recreational marijuana for people 21 and older. It will go into effect on July 1, 2023, and allow possession of 1.5 ounces or two plants. Possession of small amounts of marijuana was already decriminalized in Maryland. Under the amendment, those previously convicted of cannabis possession and intent to distribute will be able to apply for record expungement. 

Voters end prohibitions on marijuana in Missouri: Missouri voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that ends prohibitions on marijuana in the state and allows personal use for those or those over the age of 21, CNN projects. It will allow personal possession up to 3 ounces. Additionally, the amendment allows individuals with marijuana-related non-violent offenses to petition for release from prison or parole and probation and have their records expunged. The amendment, which will be enacted 30 days after the election, prohibits marijuana facilities from selling cannabis-infused products shaped or packaged as candy that may be attractive to children. 

North Dakota voters reject ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana: A citizen-initiated ballot measure that aimed to allow the use of marijuana in “various forms” for those who are at least 21 years-old was rejected by North Dakota voters, CNN projects. It would have allowed marijuana possession of up to an ounce and all marijuana is to be tested in a facility “for the potency of products and the presence of pesticides” and subject to random inspection. Legalization was on the ballot in four other states this November. 

South Dakota voters reject proposal to legalize recreational marijuana: Voters in South Dakota rejected a ballot measure that aimed to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the state, CNN projects. Marijuana legalization previously passed in 2020, but South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s office championed efforts to nullify the legalization saying that it violated the state’s constitution. The Republican governor’s office previously indicated to CNN that the 2022 measure appears to be written constitutionally and she would have implemented it if it passed. 

Voting

Nebraska voters approve measure to require ID to cast ballot: Nebraska voters have approved an initiative that would amend the state constitution to require that voters present a valid photo identification in a way that is specified by the legislature, CNN projects. To pass, “yes” needed to win a majority and votes equal to at least 35% of total votes cast in the election. 

Connecticut passes ballot measure to allow early voting: Connecticut voters have approved a measure that would amend the state constitution to permit the legislature to enact early voting, CNN projects. 

The battle for control of Congress – both the House and the Senate – is coming down to a dwindling number of key races, with Democrats dashing Republicans’ hopes for a red wave and both parties hanging onto hopes of winning narrow majorities.

Republicans began the night with a rout in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis won heavily Latino, historically Democratic regions on his way to a blowout victory that could serve as a launch pad for a 2024 presidential run.

But in the hours that have followed, Democrats have fought back. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeated Republican Mehmet Oz for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Meanwhile, the battle for the House majority – one that favored Republicans, who expected to benefit from high inflation, historical trends and friendly new district lines after 2021’s redistricting – remains unsettled.

Here are some key takeaways as votes continue to be counted in key races:

Democrats go a long way to protecting their Senate majority: Republicans were not shy about the importance of Pennsylvania’s Senate race: “This is a must-win race. We believe if we win Pennsylvania, we win the majority,” said Steven Law, president of the preeminent Republican Senate super PAC. Early on Wednesday morning, CNN projected that Fetterman would be the next senator from Pennsylvania, defeating Oz in the most expensive and high stakes Senate campaign in the country. Fetterman’s win was a thunderclap for Democrats.

Democrats and the suburbs: Suburban areas across the country went a long way to helping Democrats avoid a significant red wave. Republicans may still win the House, but if the 2022 election was going to be a red wave, it was likely to come through suburban victories that have not materialized yet. Republicans did score some suburban victories – CNN projected Brandon Ogles the winner in a district around Nashville, Tom Kean Jr. winning in a suburban New Jersey district and Rich McCormick the victor in a district that included Atlanta’s northern suburbs – but it was their defeats that spoke volumes about the size of the GOP wave.

Virginia’s split decision offers early signals: Three Democratic-controlled House races in Virginia were widely viewed as an early warning signal of the night’s results. Democrats held seats in two Virginia districts Biden won in 2020. CNN projected that Democratic Jennifer Wexton won her reelection bid in Virginia’s 10th District. In an even more competitive race, CNN projected Rep. Abigail Spanberger also won reelection in Virginia’s 7th District. But Democrats lost in southeastern Virginia, with CNN projecting that Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans defeated Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria.

Another Jan. 6 committee member loses: Luria, a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, lost her Virginia Beach-based House seat, CNN projected. She had defeated former GOP Rep. Scott Taylor in 2018 and 2020. But the district had become slightly more favorable ground for Republicans in redistricting: Biden carried the previous version by 5 points, and would have lost the new district by 2 points.

DeSantis and 2024: Gov. Ron DeSantis led a dominant Republican ticket in Florida – delivering historic margins in Democratic territory in his victory over Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist on a night that provides him a powerful argument if he seeks the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. The easy wins by DeSantis, who led by nearly 20 percentage points with 92% of the estimated vote counted, and Sen. Marco Rubio, who was 17 points up, were enough to cast doubt on Florida’s status as a national bellwether.

GOP makes gains with Latinos in Florida: Republicans hoped to build on Trump’s inroads among Latino voters in 2020, a trend that could reshape the political landscapes in several swing states if it continues. The strongest early signal that the GOP had continued to make gains came in Miami-Dade County, home to a large Cuban population. But it’ll take a while to fully gauge whether those GOP gains take place outside of Florida.

Win for abortion rights: In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – who staked her reelection campaign on her successful efforts to block the enforcement of the state’s 1931 law banning abortion in almost all instances – defeated Republican challenger Tudor Dixon, who had waged a campaign focused on cultural battles. Michigan voters also approved a Whitmer-backed amendment to the state’s constitution that will scrap that 1931 law and guarantee abortion rights. Voters in California and Vermont also green-lit constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights.

A night of firsts: Up and down the ballot, in red states and blue, candidates from both parties are celebrating pathbreaking victories. Read about some of them here.

Election Day ballots from all 223 sites in Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona, have been reported as of 1:55 a.m local time, according to a tweet from the county’s elections department.

Additional results are expected to be posted Wednesday night, the county said.

As of 1:59 a.m. local time, with 90% of statewide precincts reporting, the Democratic candidates for the senate, governor and secretary of state were in the lead.

Earlier in the day, Maricopa County experienced technical problems with tabulation devices at about 20% of its voting locations, county officials said Tuesday morning, but there was no indication of intentional malfeasance despite claims to the contrary.

Some of the most aggressive deniers of the 2020 election results will lose their 2022 gubernatorial races, CNN projects.

CNN found that at least 22 of the 36 Republican candidates for governor have rejected, declined to affirm, raised doubts about, or tried to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.

Here are some of the candidates CNN projects will lose:

Some incumbents who denied or questioned the election results will win, CNN projects. They include:

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas will win reelection in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, CNN projects, keeping the swing seat in Democratic hands by defeating Karoline Leavitt, who worked as a press aide to former President Donald Trump. 

Republican Derrick Van Orden will win in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, CNN projects. 

Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster will win reelection in New Hampshire’s 2nd District, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Robert Burns.  

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will win in Iowa’s 1st District, CNN projects.  

Michigan Secretary of State Joycelyn Benson – who emerged as a leading national voice countering election denial following the 2020 election – will win a second term, CNN projects. 

Benson defeated a challenge from Republican Kristina Karamo, who made false claims about the 2020 election and had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. 

Democrat Josh Green will win the Hawaii governor’s race, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Duke Aiona. 

Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin will win in Michigan’s 7th District, CNN projects.  

As results continue to come in tonight, CNN will make projections on key races that will define which party will control each chamber Congress.  

Here’s what you need to know about how CNN makes projections: 

What is a CNN “key race”? Who decides that? “Key race” is a subjective term. Most politics watchers generally agree that only a subset of races is truly competitive in November, and these are generally considered the key races. Political parties spend more money on these races. Reporters spend more time covering them.  

Of the 35 Senate races on the ballot in 2022, the election forecasters at Inside Elections considered three to be true toss-ups and another four to tilt toward either Republicans or Democrats.  

Nineteen House races are true toss-ups, although many more could wind up being closely contested. Five governor races are toss-ups.  See the Inside Elections ratings for Senate, House and governor.  

Key races can also be races that might be less competitive but have broader implications or feature especially notable candidates.  

What factors help CNN make projections? Using a mix of many factors, including current and previous election results, real-time exit polling, recent opinion polls, voter registration data and more, CNN’s decision desk is frequently able to reliably project that a candidate has received enough support to win. It is a projection, however, and not the final word. State officials and courts have the official say.  

Can CNN project a race without any votes in? This is a task CNN takes very seriously. Based on previous election results, exit polling, recent opinion polls, early voter turnout and other factors, it is sometimes possible to see that one particular candidate will win a race. If there is any chance of an upset, CNN will refrain from projecting a race. 

Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, an incumbent House lawmaker, defeated Republican challenger Tyler Kistner in Minnesota’s competitive 2nd Congressional District.  

Democrat Wiley Nickel has defeated Republican Bo Hines in a competitive North Carolina House race for the 13th Congressional District, CNN projects.  

Nickel is a Democratic state senator. Hines is a 27-year-old political newcomer and former college football player who won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement ahead of the primary. As a result of Trump’s endorsement, the race has been viewed as a test of the former president’s influence. 

Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright will hold on to his seat in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, CNN projects, defeating Republican Jim Bognet in a second consecutive general election. 

Cartwright beat Bognet, a former political consultant, by only about three and a half percentage points in 2020 and was considered an underdog to defend the seat again this year. But his winning streak on increasingly red turf remains intact, even as his vote-share has trended down over the years. 

With the balance of the House and Senate coming down to a handful of key states, the race for control is getting tighter.

Here are some of the key headlines from the midterms as results continue to come in:

Brad Raffensperger will stay Georgia’s election chief

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused former President Donald Trump’s request to “find” the votes needed to overturn his 2020 loss in the Peach State, will win reelection, CNN projects. 

John Fetterman beats Mehmet Oz

Fetterman, the Democratic nominee, thanked supporters and those who voted for him after CNN projected he would win, saying, “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue. But we did what we needed to do.”

J.D. Vance takes Ohio Senate seat

Voters from union households in Ohio favored GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance over his Democratic rival, Rep. Tim Ryan, which helped the Republican clinch the open seat, according to the early results of the Ohio exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won reelection

Whitmer defeated Republican challenger Tudor Dixon in one of the nation’s most important political battleground states, CNN projects. Whitmer won a second term after a campaign that focused largely on her support for abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion on the ballot

Here’s a look at how Michigan’s voter turnout for the measure stacks up:

Pennsylvania voters who most valued “honesty and integrity” in their Senate candidate favored Democrat John Fetterman over Republican Mehmet Oz, according to the early results of the Pennsylvania exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Fetterman also won among voters who said they wanted a candidate who cared about people like them, while Oz won among the smaller bloc of voters who prioritized a candidate sharing their values.

CNN projects that Fetterman will defeat Oz to win the open Pennsylvania Senate race, flipping a Republican-held seat.

A majority of female voters, White college-educated voters, voters of color and political independents supported Fetterman, the exit poll finds, while most male voters and White voters without college degrees supported Oz.

Most voters, about 53%, said they disapproved of President Joe Biden’s job performance. But roughly 14% of those who disapproved of Biden cast their ballots for Fetterman, as did nearly all of those who approved of the president. A slim majority of voters in the state said that Biden was not a factor in their vote, with most also saying former President Donald Trump did not play a role.

Voters were close to evenly split on whether or not Oz’s views were too extreme, while about 53% said Fetterman’s views were not.

Voters in Pennsylvania were closely split over whether Fetterman’s health was good enough to represent the state effectively. Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, suffered a near-fatal stroke days before the May Democratic primary.

But a majority of voters said that Oz has not lived in the commonwealth long enough to represent it effectively. Oz has said he moved to Pennsylvania in late 2020 after living in New Jersey for decades.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson will win in Iowa’s 2nd District, CNN projects.

Georgia’s incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock addressed supporters in Atlanta just before 2 a.m. ET with results still trickling in and acknowledged that the race wouldn’t be called tonight as it still is too close to call.

“We’re not sure if this journey is over today, or if there’s still a little work yet to do, but here’s what we do know. We know that when they’re finished counting the votes from today’s election, that we’re going to have received more votes than my opponent,” Warnock said. 

Neither candidate has cleared the 50% benchmark to win the race outright. 

During his brief remarks, Warnock urged supporters to “keep the faith.” 

John Fetterman will defeat Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, CNN projects, picking up a seat for Democrats after the retirement of Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor since 2019, is still recovering from a stroke he suffered before the primary. At his election night party, he thanked his supporters and said he felt “so humbled.”

See more photos from Fetterman’s watch party:

Democrat Chris Deluzio will win the open House seat in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, CNN projects, defeating Republican Jeremy Schaffer in their contest to replace departing Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb.

Lamb, who won the Western Pennsylvania seat twice, retired from the House to run in the Democratic Senate primary, which he lost to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

Deluzio, a voting rights attorney and Iraq War veteran, ran neck-and-neck with Schaffer in most pre-election polling, and many in both parties viewed their race as a national bellwether.

Republican Monica De La Cruz will win the contest in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, CNN projects, signaling that her party has deepened its inroads with Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley.

De La Cruz will defeat Democrat Michelle Vallejo in a contest that national Democrats had effectively given up on weeks before Election Day by directing their spending to other races.

De La Cruz campaigned on a return to former President Donald Trump’s border policies, and she embraced Trump’s falsehoods about election fraud, questioning her own loss in a 2020 congressional race.

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan held onto her seat in New Hampshire Tuesday night. She took the stage at her Manchester Election Night headquarters around 11:15 p.m. ET to supporters chanting, “six more years!”

Hassan thanked supporters before acknowledging her opponent, Republican Don Bolduc. She shushed the crowd when they began to jeer at the mention of Bolduc’s name. 

“I want to take a minute to thank Don Bolduc for a hard-fought campaign and I want to thank Don Bolduc for his service to this country. We have differences, but we share a love for this country,” said Hassan, before turning her message of unity to Granite State voters. “I promise you, Democrats, Independents and Republicans — the people who voted for me and those who did not — that I will keep working every day to serve you faithfully, to listen to you and to work with you to address the challenges facing your families, our state and the country.”

Hassan’s victory speech focused on bipartisanship, with a commitment to work across the aisle on the economy and a nod to issues championed by her opponent on the trail. 

“I will keep reaching out to colleagues from both sides of the aisle defined shared goals and the common ground and compromise necessary to help families and small businesses with the challenges that they face, like the high cost of housing and childcare,” said Hassan. “Of course, in order to have an economy that works, we have to be safe. The safety of our citizens and our nation is always government’s first responsibility. And I will keep working to support our brave men and women of law enforcement and to keep our country safe.”

Meanwhile, Bolduc whose campaign had been bolstered by a polling surge in the final few weeks, addressed his supporters just before 11 p.m. ET, acknowledging Hassan’s win to the crowd but noting he’d not yet called the Democrat to concede at that time. 

“Maggie Hassan has won,” said Bolduc to a thinned-out crowd at his Manchester Election Night headquarters, “I was told the protocol was to call her first, but I’m not one for protocol. I wanted to tell my supporters first.” 

The Republican added, “This is not a loss. We woke a lot of people up. Hopefully, we put her on notice. And hopefully, she’ll do the right thing for New Hampshire.”

Bolduc read from Rudyard Kipling’s “If” to the crowd of supporters before telling them, “Right now, in this nation, there are a lot of “ifs.”  We have done something here in NH. We have created a rumble.”

“We didn’t win today, but imagine ‘if’ we continue to come together, if we join hands, if we decided that they work for us and we don’t work for them,” the retired US Army General continued, “We demand that they do the right thing for us, our children and our great grandchildren […] if we can do this, even in losing we will win.”

Bolduc, who earlier sang “Country Roads” on stage with the band performing Tuesday night, closed by telling the room to “live free or die, baby”— a reference to the Granite State’s motto. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on tonight’s results, saying that while there are several races that remain too close to call “it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.” 

She continued: “As states continue to tabulate the final results, every vote must be counted as cast. Many thanks to our grassroots volunteers for enabling every voter to have their say in our Democracy.”

The House and Senate, where Democrats currently hold narrow majorities, are up for grabs. Republicans need net gains of five seats to win the House.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz will win reelection in Hawaii, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Bob McDermott. 

Californians have voted to explicitly and more clearly protect abortion rights in the state.

A “yes” vote amended the California Constitution to say that the “state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.”

Currently, the state constitution guarantees a right to privacy, which the California Supreme Court has ruled includes the right to have an abortion. 

In May, following the leak of the US Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, California Democratic leaders Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a statement that they would propose an amendment “so that there is no doubt as to the right to abortion in this state.”

The Democratic-controlled state legislature in June approved putting the amendment on the November ballot.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won reelection, CNN projects, defeating Republican challenger Tudor Dixon in one of the nation’s most important political battleground states.  

Whitmer won a second term after a campaign that focused largely on her support for abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

She successfully sued to block the enforcement of Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, and also championed a citizens’ initiative on this fall’s ballot that would amend the state’s constitution to guarantee abortion rights.  

Her victory cements Whitmer’s place – two years after she was a finalist for President Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick – as a leading figure within the Democratic Party moving forward.  

And it demonstrates the limits of voters’ willingness to punish officials in competitive states who took strict measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, including school and business closures.  

Michigan on Tuesday voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution, a move that will block a decades-old abortion ban from taking effect, CNN projects.

The passage of ballot Proposal 3 amends the Michigan constitution to establish an “individual right to reproductive freedom, including right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy.”

Backers of the amendment have said it will block Michigan’s 1931 abortion law, which bans all abortions except to save the mother’s life.

The amendment allows the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, except if needed to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health. It also bars the state from prosecuting an individual for having an abortion or miscarriage or from prosecuting someone who assists a pregnant person in “exercising rights established by this amendment.”

The proposal had to overcome legal challenges to be included on the ballot, with the Michigan Supreme Court ordering officials in September to include the question on ballots in a 5-2 ruling.

Voters in Vermont approved an amendment to the state’s constitution to further protect abortion rights, CNN projects.  

The amendment, supporters say, will protect “every person’s right to make their own reproductive decisions,” including about pregnancies, abortion and birth control.  

The Vermont Constitution will now be amended to read: “That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

About half of New Hampshire voters called Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc’s views “too extreme,” according to the early results of the New Hampshire exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Only about 43% said the same of his Democratic rival, incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan.

CNN projects that Hassan will win a second Senate term in New Hampshire, defeating the Trump-backed Bolduc.

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating in the state is negative, per the exit poll, with only about 42% of voters approving. But roughly 1 in 5 Biden disapprovers, nevertheless, cast their vote for Hassan.

Roughly three-quarters of voters in the state – including similar shares of both candidates’ supporters – said that party control of the Senate was very important to their vote.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee will win reelection in Utah, CNN projects, staving off a challenge by independent Evan McMullin. 

Lee’s win does little to shift the balance of power in the Senate – Utah was seen as a reliable Republican win and Lee has held the seat since 2011. But McMullin, who said during the race that he would not caucus with either Democrats or Republicans if he were to win the seat, gave Lee a tougher-than-expected race by making it a referendum on former President Donald Trump’s dominance of the Republican Party and the Lee’s shift from a Trump critic to a Trump devotee. 

Utah Democrats opted not to put up their own nominee to challenge Lee, viewing McMullin as the best chance in decades for a non-Republican to win a Senate seat in the state. 

McMullin’s attacks focused on Lee’s tightness with Trump and his actions around the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol, most notably texts he sent to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/mark-meadows-texts-2319  

“We talk about 9/11, but I have to say, it shook me in the same way,” McMullin said during the campaign. “Different type of event. But just as dark, just as evil.” 

Lee pushed back against those attacks during a debate between the two candidates, claiming he was “one of the people trying to dismantle this situation, trying to stop it from happening.” 

Utah is home to one of the largest voting blocs of anti-Trump Republicans: In 2016, McMullin won over 21% of the vote in a longshot presidential bid; while in 2020, Trump only won 58% of the vote in the state, far lower than many recent Republican nominees. 

There was an awkwardness to the race, too. In 2016, Lee publicly said he voted for McMullin over Trump, something the independent candidate tried to use against Lee. 

Democrat John Fetterman, who CNN projects will defeat Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, said he is humbled to serve as the state’s next senator.

“I’m so humbled, thank you so much,” he told his supporters.

He pointed to his campaign’s slogan of “every county, every vote.” Fetterman added, “We jammed them up.”

“I’m proud of what we ran on — protecting a woman’s right to choose, raising the minimum wage, fighting the union way of life,” he said. “Healthcare is a fundamental human right. It saved my life and it should all be there for you if you should ever need it,” he said, referring to the stroke he had earlier this year.

He thanked supporters and those who voted for him, saying, “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue. But we did what we needed to do.”

“We bet on the people of Pennsylvania and you didn’t let us down. And my promise to all of you is I will never let all of you down,” Fetterman added.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has won reelection, CNN projects, defeating Republican challenger Tim Michels and preserving Democrats’ veto power in a state where the GOP-led legislature is seeking veto-proof supermajorities.

Evers overcame weeks of attacks from Michels, a construction executive backed by former President Donald Trump, and other Republicans who portrayed him as soft on crime. 

He campaigned on his support for abortion rights in a state where an 1849 law banning abortions in almost all instances, including rape and incest, took effect after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June. Republicans in the legislature have so far declined to change that law.  

Evers’ victory could stymie Republican efforts to implement new restrictions on mail-in voting, defang the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and more ahead of a 2024 presidential race in which Wisconsin is set to once again play a crucial role.  

Voters from union households in Ohio favored GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance over his Democratic rival, Rep. Tim Ryan, which helped the Republican clinch the open seat, according to the early results of the Ohio exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters from union households cast ballots for Vance, who also garnered about the same level of support from men who voted and White voters. More than half of Buckeye State voters age 45 and older, voters without college degrees and those living in suburban and rural parts of the state opted for Vance, as well.

Ryan was the preferred candidate of just more than half of women who voted, independent voters, college-educated voters and younger voters. Roughly 6 in 10 voters who live in Ohio cities went for Ryan, as did more than three-quarters of voters of color in the state.

Voters who said they were most concerned about crime, inflation and immigration broke for Vance, while those who thought abortion and gun policy were top issues selected Ryan.

Vance was the choice of voters who wanted a candidate who shared their values, but Ryan was supported by those looking for a candidate who cares about people like them and a candidate who has honesty and integrity.

To read more on exit polling, click here

Democrats picked up a key Senate seat in Pennsylvania, with John Fetterman defeating Trump-backed GOP candidate Mehmet Oz.

Democrats now have secured 47 Senate seats to Republicans’ 46, so far.

It’s still too early to call who will control the chamber with seven seats yet to be projected including in Georgia and Arizona.

More than two-thirds of voters for House candidates don’t want President Joe Biden to run for reelection in 2024, according to the early results of the national exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

More than 7 in 10 independent voters and roughly 9 in 10 Republican voters said they don’t want Biden to be in the 2024 presidential campaign. Fewer than 6 in 10 Democratic voters thought he should run.

Just under 6 in 10 independent voters have an unfavorable view of Biden, and about the same share disapprove of the job he’s doing as president.

Only 1 in 10 Democratic voters have an unfavorable view of the president and slightly more disapprove of his job performance.

More than 9 in 10 GOP voters have an unfavorable view of Biden and disapprove of the job he’s doing.

When it comes to former President Donald Trump, two-thirds of independent voters and more than 9 in 10 Democratic voters have an unfavorable view of him. Just over three-quarters of GOP voters have a favorable view.

Independent voters comprise about a quarter of the electorate, while Democratic voters are roughly one-third and Republican voters are just over one-third of the electorate.

Democrat John Fetterman will win the Pennsylvania Senate race, CNN projects, defeating Republican Mehmet Oz and helping Democrats pick up the seat following the retirement of GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.

Fetterman, the lieutenant governor since 2019, and Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, ran one of the most contentious and expensive Senate contests in the country – all of it while Fetterman continued his recovery from a pre-primary stroke that often limited his ability to speak on the trail.  

For Democrats trying to preserve their control of what has been a Senate split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote, Fetterman’s win could prove decisive. The commonwealth entered Election Day as one of at least nine states holding what were expected to be competitive Senate races.  

Fetterman’s victory caps a remarkable ascent from his time as mayor of small Braddock, a borough in western Pennsylvania, to the lieutenant governor’s office – which he won after unseating a fellow Democrat in a 2018 primary – and now, the US Senate. A longtime progressive, he is an outspoken supporter of abolishing the filibuster, raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, criminal justice reform and passing legislation to protect same-sex marriage, among other leading liberal priorities. 

His success will also provide inspiration to stroke survivors and other disabled Americans, some of whom took heart from his efforts to carry on campaigning even as he exhibited the lingering effects of his May stroke. Fetterman, though he has not released his full medical records, has said he expects to be at or near full strength by the time he takes office early next year.   

Though Oz himself largely steered clear of disparaging Fetterman over his stroke-related difficulties, his campaign was less cautious, leading the Republican to repeatedly distance himself from his own staffers’ remarks. Asked at one point late in the campaign whether he would speak to his own patients the way his campaign addressed Fetterman, Oz responded with one word: “No.” 

CNN hosts react:

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Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke moments ago as polls show her leading her race. She didn’t declare victory, but Whitmer said “we are feeling damn good about where we are heading.”

CNN is yet to make a projection in the race.

Whitmer thanked the crowd and said that Michigan voters’ “voices were heard” and they “set our state on the course that is focused on the future.”

“We have come a long way, Michigan,” Whitmer said, adding that her campaign is “thrilled at the unexpected high turnout.”

She invited those in attendance to “come back in the morning.”

“We will be ready to talk about what the future of this state is for the next four years,” Whitmer said.

Twenty-one candidates in these 14 states made history, so far, on Election night:

Alabama Arkansas California Connecticut Florida Illinois Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New York Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Vermont

Some Republican candidates who have denied or refused to affirm the results of the 2020 election will be elected as state elections chief, CNN projects — though others will be defeated.

Here are three Republican secretary of state winners CNN has projected so far: 

In addition, Republican candidate Chuck Gray of Wyoming ran unopposed for secretary of state in the general election after winning the Republican primary.  

Here are five election deniers CNN projects will lose their 2022 races:

CNN found that at least 12 Republican candidates for secretary of state have questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. CNN had not yet projected the other races as of midnight ET on Wednesday morning.

It’s 1 a.m. ET, and polls are now closing across Alaska.  

These are the key races in the state: GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has survived tough elections before – she won her 2010 Senate race as a write-in candidate – but now she is facing Trump-endorsed opponent Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska’s first ranked-choice Senate election.  

The independent-minded Murkowski has frequently been a target of Trump and his supporters, especially since she voted to convict in Trump’s second impeachment. Murkowski won 45% in the top-four primary while Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration got 39%.  

If no candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, the election will be decided by ranked choice voting and the second choices of supporters of Democrat Patricia Chesbro could be key.  

In the House race, Rep. Mary Peltola won a special election in August to replace long-time Republican Don Young, who died in March, and she’s hoping to repeat the feat.  

Peltola will face the same two Republicans in Alaska’s ranked-choice system. Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, is backed by Trump and finished second to Peltola in August.  

Nick Begich, who has a name well known in Alaska politics, argues that he can beat Peltola in the ranked-choice tabulation, after many of his voters spurned Palin on their special election ballots. Peltola led the top-four primary with nearly 37% of the vote. 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused former President Donald Trump’s request to “find” the votes needed to overturn his 2020 loss in the Peach State, will win reelection, CNN projects. 

Raffensperger’s rebuff – and role as a witness before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol – has made him one of the country’s best-known election chiefs.  

“I’ve had to stand up to incredible pressure,” the Republican said, during a recent candidate debate. “Many people buckled and folded. I didn’t, and I won’t.” 

He defeated the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Bee Nguyen, a rising political star in her party. She had put expanding access to the ballot at the center of her candidacy and sought to make history by becoming the first Asian-American elected to a statewide political office in Georgia. 

The two have clashed over Raffensperger’s support of SB202, an elections bill approved by the Georgia General Assembly last year that imposed a range of new voting restrictions, including adding new identification requirements to vote by mail and making it a crime for third parties to give food or water to voters waiting in line. 

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez will defeat Republican Rep. Mayra Flores in a rare member-against-member House race in the Texas 34th District, CNN projects.

His win offers evidence that Democrats have had some success stemming their losses among Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley, who shifted in the GOP’s favor in 2020.

Democrat Nikki Budzinski will win in Illinois’ 13th District, CNN projects.  

Republican Thomas Kean Jr. will win in New Jersey’s 7th District, CNN projects, and defeat Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont will win reelection in Connecticut, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Bob Stefanowski. 

Lamont defeated Stefanowski in 2018 by just about 3 percentage points.  

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will win reelection in New Mexico, CNN projects, overcoming a stronger-than-expected challenge from Republican Mark Ronchetti.

Lujan Grisham’s win makes her the fourth straight New Mexico governor to win reelection and will likely grow her national profile – the Democrat received some vice-presidential consideration by President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential general election. 

Lujan Grisham centered her campaign on abortion, casting her opponent as extreme on the issue that motivated Democratic campaigns across the country. She also nationalized the race – both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the state in the final weeks of the campaign. 

The reason for that: The last four Democratic presidential nominees carried the state, including Biden by 11 percentage points two years ago. 

Ronchetti, a former TV weatherman, tried to turn Lujan Grisham into an avatar for Democratic control in Washington and attacked her as a career politician.  

“We can be a state that looks out for you before it looks out for government, but you have to give us a chance at change,” he said at the final debate between the two candidates. 

But Lujan Grisham successfully convinced voters that Ronchetti was not the person to be the change. 

“Bad for New Mexicans, bad for New Mexico,” she said of Ronchetti during the debate. 

Rep. Henry Cuellar, the lone House Democrat who has voted against abortion rights, will win reelection in Texas’ 28th Congressional District, CNN projects. 

Cuellar will defeat Republican challenger Cassy Garcia, halting the GOP’s efforts to sweep a trio of Rio Grande Valley districts as the party makes gains among Latino voters.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has won reelection, CNN projects, defeating her GOP opponent in the midterm race.

Pelosi, a towering figure in Democratic politics, won out against longshot Republican challenger John Dennis in the race for California’s 11th Congressional District.

Over the years, Pelosi, 82, has become one of the most prominent faces of the Democratic Party. As speaker, she has earned a reputation as a powerful and formidable leader to House Democrats who exerts significant influence and a tight grip over members of her caucus.  

Pelosi has also been a fierce adversary to Republicans and has become a highly polarizing figure in Washington as a result.  

Speculation over Pelosi’s future atop the House Democratic caucus has intensified as the midterms approached and Republicans fought to regain the House majority.  

CNN reported in September that in interviews with more than two dozen House Democrats, a consensus began to emerge: If they 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. 

At the same time, multiple members said they were also starting to see how, if Democrats do hold control, it could lead to Pelosi extending her time in power. Yet Democrats are split about that possibility, with a sizable contingent eager for new leadership regardless of the outcome, even if she’d be the heavy favorite to hold onto the gavel. 

Democrat Sharice Davids will win in Kansas’ 3rd District, CNN projects. 

Republican Andy Ogles will win the House seat in Tennessee’s 5th District, CNN projects.  

Democrat Seth Magaziner will win in Rhode Island’s 2nd District, CNN projects.  

Democratic state Rep. Emilia Sykes has defeated Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in a closely watched open race for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, CNN projects. 

Democrat Greg Landsman defeated Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, CNN projects, ousting the Cincinnati-area congressman after redistricting made Ohio’s 1st Congressional District stronger terrain for Democrats.

Landsman, a Cincinnati city councilmember, was a rare example of a Democratic candidate on offense in a midterm election cycle during which the party was largely focused on defending its House seats.

It’s midnight on the East Coast and we are down to eight Senate seats still to be decided — and it is dead even between Democrats and Republicans. The race to control the Senate currently stands at — 46 seats for Democrats, 46 for Republicans.

Here are more of the latest Election night headlines:

Here’s what the House and Senate look like at 11:30 p.m. ET, according to CNN’s projections:

House:

Senate:

It’s midnight ET, and the polls are closing in Hawaii.  

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz is running for his second full term — he was appointed to the Senate in 2012 and won a special election in 2014 before winning a full term in 2016. Hawaii is one of the bluest states in the country, giving Schatz a huge boost in his bid against GOP state Rep. Bob McDermott.  

Hawaii has only elected two Republican governors in its history (Linda Lingle and William Francis Quinn), and it’s unlikely that will change this year. Hawaii voters will choose between Democratic Lt. Gov. Josh Green and Republican former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona.  

Green became a household name to Hawaii voters during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to being a doctor who worked as a physician during his time in the state legislature and as lieutenant governor, Green served as the administration’s health liaison between the state and the health care community during the pandemic.  

Democrat Becca Balint will make history as the first woman elected to Congress from Vermont, with CNN projecting she will defeat GOP nominee Liam Madden for the state’s at-large House seat.  

Vermont had been the last remaining state in the country not to have elected a woman to Congress. 

With her win, Balint will also become the first out LGBTQ person elected to Congress from the Green Mountain State. She previously made history in the Vermont Senate, where she was the first woman to serve as president pro tempore. 

The state’s lone House seat opened up after Welch, who was first elected to the House in 2007, announced a bid late last year for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. The retiring senator was first elected in 1974 and is the longest-serving senator still in office and the third-longest-serving senator in Senate history. 

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz will win reelection in Minnesota, CNN projects, and defeat physician and former state Sen. Scott Jensen. 

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul will win a first full term in office, CNN projects, defeating Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in what developed into a surprisingly tense race in its final weeks.

Hochul’s victory keeps New York Democrats on track to maintain their now nearly two-decade-old winning streak in statewide elections. A Buffalo native, Hochul took over the top job in August 2021 following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo, the three-term governor who faced impeachment amid a sexual harassment scandal. Despite being his lieutenant governor, Hochul and Cuomo were never closely aligned and she moved quickly upon taking office to clear it of his allies. 

Already the first woman to hold the governor’s office in New York, Hochul will now become the first to win it in an election. Zeldin, a conservative acolyte of former President Donald Trump, ran a “law and order” campaign almost entirely focused on fears over rising crime and a 2019 criminal justice reform law that made it more difficult for judges to hold suspects in pre-trial detention. But he also tapped into frustration over the state of the economy, which has been slow to recover in and around New York City following the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and working class concerns over environmental initiatives like a plan to hike fees for automobiles entering heavily trafficked parts of the city. 

Hochul, who in the latter part of the campaign dialed up her political outreach in New York City, where Democrats typically need about 70% of the vote to assure statewide victory, hammered Zeldin throughout the race over his anti-abortion positions and vote in Congress against certifying President Joe Biden’s election. 

Like other blue state Republicans, Zeldin repeatedly insisted he had no plans to change abortion law in New York, where Democrats – both before and after the leak of the Supreme Court opinion striking down Roe was published – have passed a suite of comprehensive protections for patients and abortion providers. 

But Zeldin undermined his promise with comments to an anti-abortion group suggesting he would appoint a like-minded state health commissioner, who would have significant power to shape policy. He walked those back, but in his lone debate with Hochul also hedged on whether he would back funding Planned Parenthood.  

Incumbent Republican Ken Paxton will will reelection as Texas attorney general, CNN projects.

Incumbent Democrat Letitia James will win her reelection bid in New York’s attorney general race, CNN projects.  

In her concession speech, Democrat Stacey Abrams began her remarks by thanking Georgia and congratulating incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp on winning the race.

“It is good to be here in this moment surrounded by your love and support. And let me begin by offering congratulations to Gov. Brian Kemp,” Abrams said.

She added, “Look, I got into this race for one reason and one reason only, to fight. And not just any fight, a fight to save Georgia. A fight on behalf of our children and generations to come. A fight on behalf of our people, whether they know it or not. A fight for basic human rights that we should take for granted, but we have to struggle to hold onto. And a fight for the values that we hold dear and we may never sacrifice. I got into this for a fight that we know to be true deep down in our bones, that the state of Georgia, that the people of Georgia deserve more.”

Abrams thanked her supporters including those who have been with her since she first ran for office in 2006 and said that her obligation to continue to fight for Georgia remains resolute.

“I see in this crowd women and men who have been a part of this journey since I put my name on a ballot in 2006 and while I may not have crossed the finish line that does not mean we will ever stop running for a better Georgia. We will never stop running for the truth that we know to be true. For the people we know need to see us. For the ones who don’t know they deserve to stand let alone run. And tonight, we must be honest even though my fight, our fight for the governor’s mansion might’ve come up short, I’m pretty tall,” she said.

Abrams continued, ” And I — I am here because a moment where despite every obstacle we are still standing strong and standing tall and standing resolute and standing in our values. And we know Georgia deserves more, and whether we do it from the governor’s mansion, or from the streets, whether we do it from the capitol or from our communities, we’re going to fight for more for the state of Georgia.”

Republican J.D. Vance, the projected winner of Ohio’s open Senate seat, said he was “overwhelmed with gratitude” during his victory speech to supporters in Columbus Tuesday.

He thanked his family and campaign team as well as the Republican Party and officials who joined him on the campaign trail.

“We just got a great chance to govern and we need to use it,” Vance said. “We need better leadership in Washington, DC, and that’s exactly what I promise to fight for every single day,” he added.

Some background: Vance’s win is a boon for Republicans and a victory for former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement in the Republican primary helped Vance emerge from the contentious intraparty fight.

Vance continues a long line of Republican victories in a state that has tilted toward the party in recent years. Other than Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, no Democrat has won nonjudicial statewide office in the state since 2008 and former President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in 2012.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has won reelection, CNN projects. McCarthy defeated longshot Democratic challenger Marisa Wood in the midterm race for California’s 20th Congressional District.  

If Republicans win back the House majority, McCarthy is widely expected to be elected as the next House Speaker at the start of the new session of Congress, which would further elevate his position as a prominent leader in the national Republican Party and usher in a new era in Washington with Republicans set to pursue aggressive oversight of President Joe Biden’s administration.  

As the top House Republican, McCarthy faces the challenge of having to balance the interests and priorities of different ideological factions within the House GOP conference, ranging from the far-right to more moderate members representing swing districts. 

Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley wins reelection in Massachusetts 7th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Republican Katie Britt will be the first female senator elected in Alabama, CNN projects, winning an open-seat race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby.

Two women have previously represented Alabama in the Senate, but both were appointed to fill vacancies.  

Britt is just one of the projected winners who made history on Tuesday night. Here are a few others:

Rep. Elise Stefanik — the third-ranking House Republican — will win her reelection in New York’s 21st District, CNN projects.

As polls in more western states start to close, Republicans have two more Senate seats than Democrats — needing to win four more to win control of the chamber.

Republicans are projected to win 46 seats and Democrats are projected to win 44, with many more states still counting ballots, but the window of opportunity could be getting smaller for Democrats, CNN’s John King said in analysis.

“We are in a very narrow chess game for control of the Senate right now, and we have fewer pieces in place,” he said Tuesday.

There are a handful of key states with results will coming that could determine who controls the chamber — Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, King said.

Watch:

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Democratic Sen. Patty Murray will win reelection in Washington state, CNN projects, and will defeat Republican Tiffany Smiley.

Four-term Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden will win reelection in Oregon, CNN projects, and will defeat Republican Jo Rae Perkins.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won reelection in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, CNN projects, holding onto a seat she has represented since 1983.

Headed into the 2022 midterms, Kaptur was widely seen as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country, with both Ohio and her district, in part because of redistricting, moving away from her party politically. 

But after Republican J.R. Majewski unexpectedly defeated better-funded and more establishment-aligned Republicans in the primary, the race began to tilt toward Kaptur given Majewski’s unflinching loyalty to former President Donald Trump, the fact he was a January 6, 2021, rally participant and has repeatedly shared pro-QAnon material, despite denying he followed the conspiracy theory movement. 

Kaptur effectively won the race in September after the National Republican Congressional Committee cancelled all their ad reservations in the district. The decision came just days after The Associated Press reported Majewski had misrepresented his military service. 

Kaptur’s win is a boon for Democrats. Kaptur’s district shifted dramatically during Ohio’s controversial redistricting process, moving from a solidly Democratic seat to one that leans toward Republicans. 

Kaptur ran on her ties to Ohio, arguing that being a Midwestern Democrat in a party increasingly run with big-city sensibilities on both coasts is a growing challenge for her. 

“What coastal people, God bless them, don’t understand, is that we lost our middle class,” Kaptur told CNN. “We lost so many people who’ve worked hard all their lives, including in many of these small towns. I understand that. We feel their pain. We went through it together.” 

Two-term Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal will win reelection in Connecticut, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Leora Levy, a Trump-endorsed candidate who won her primary against a moderate Republican backed by the state’s Republican Party.  

Republican Rep. Ted Budd will be the next senator from North Carolina, CNN projects, defeating former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley in a race that had tilted toward the GOP for months.

Budd’s win keeps the seat in Republican hands after Sen. Richard Burr announced he would not seek reelection and – with an evenly divided Senate – helps Republicans on their mission to take back the legislative chamber in January. 

Democrats long viewed the North Carolina Senate race as a reach for the party. They would have liked to have won it of course, but the race attracted far less outside spending than contests in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – the states widely seen as the top two chances for Democrats to flip a Senate seat in 2022. 

Budd, aided by an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, won the GOP nomination in May. Unlike Beasley, the three-term congressman trod a familiar political path – going from owning a family business to winning a seat in the US House of Representatives to seeking statewide office. 

Headed into Election Day, Republican and Democratic operatives saw the race as tight, with increased polarization leading to an ever-shrinking sliver of persuadable voters across the state. 

In the end, however, North Carolina’s recent political tilt aided Budd. Trump won the state twice and Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in the state since 2008. 

Budd, like Republicans across the country, hammered Beasley on inflation, crime and ties to President Joe Biden’s administration. 

“We talked a lot about tonight about Joe Biden,” Budd said in his closing statement of a debate in October. “Why am I doing that? Because Joe Biden is on the ballot on November 8, and he goes by the name this year of Cheri Beasley.” 

Republican J.D. Vance will win the Ohio Senate race, CNN projects, outlasting a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democrat Tim Ryan and keeping the seat under GOP control. 

Vance’s win is a boon for Republicans and a victory for former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement in the Republican primary helped Vance emerge from the contentious intraparty fight. 

Vance continues a long line of Republican victories in a state that has tilted towards the party in recent years. Other than Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, no Democrat has won nonjudicial statewide office in the state since 2008 and former President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in 2012. 

The race between Vance and Ryan was a contentious and, at times, personal affair, with both candidates holding a clear animosity towards the other.  

Ryan’s stout challenge to Vance worried Republicans in Ohio and Washington, D.C. That contributed to the acrimony, a feeling that played out on the campaign trail and during their two debates, both of which devolved into Vance and Ryan trading personal barbs. 

“These leaders in DC will eat you up like a chew toy,” Ryan said of Vance’s support for Trump, even after the former president publicly accused him of “kissing my ass” to get him to campaign for him. “I am just telling you, like, I have been in this business, it is tough business. If you think you are going to help Ohio, you are not. If you can’t even stand up for yourself, how are you going to stand up for the people of this state?” 

And Vance repeatedly questioned Ryan’s character. “Tim Ryan has put on a costume where he pretends to be reasonable moderate,” the Republican said during their first debate. 

Money loomed large in the race, with Ryan consistently enjoying a significant fundraising advantage over Vance. 

In the third quarter of 2022, Ryan raised a sizable $17.2 million, compared to Vance’s $6.9 million. In the second quarter, the gap was even more dramatic: Ryan raised $9.1 million to Vance’s roughly $1 million. 

Still, because of Democratic skepticism about their chances in Ohio, Ryan had to largely go it alone in the state, pouring all the money he raised into a slate of television ads. Vance, by contrast, received considerable outside help – including from the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, which announced in August it planned to spend at least $28 million in the state. 

Election results are still coming in, and many races won’t be called for days, if not weeks. But for now, here’s a look at the candidates who CNN projects will make history in the 2022 midterms.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to do more to secure the border and congratulated other Republicans who are projected to win Tuesday.

“I ran for the farmers and ranchers down here on the border who pleaded for a more secure border in the state of Texas,” he said, adding that he will also continue to fight crime and “keep Texas number 1 in oil and gas” production in the US.

Abbott, who CNN projects will win reelection, said he will urge lawmakers to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy and re-start building the border wall.

He thanked Texans who voted for him, assuring the crowd, “we will go to work every single day to earn that trust.”

“All of you inspired me and all of your propelled me” to reelection, the governor added, saying he heard from voters that they just want to “keep Texas, Texas.”

He touted other successes, including the quality of education, and funding law enforcement. The governor also congratulated “the next generation of Republicans” who were elected tonight.

Harriet Hageman, a Donald Trump ally who ousted Rep. Liz Cheney in August’s Republican primary, will win Wyoming’s at-large House seat, CNN projects.

Hageman defeated Democrat Lynnette Grey Bull, as well as contenders from the Libertarian and Constitution parties.

Her victory in the deep red state — Trump won Wyoming by 43 percentage points in 2020 — was all but guaranteed after she defeated Cheney in one of the nation’s most closely watched primaries.

Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro will be the next governor of Pennsylvania, CNN projects, defeating far-right Republican state lawmaker Doug Mastriano. 

Shapiro’s ascent means Democrats will keep control of the state’s top job, providing a powerful check on its GOP-held state legislature, as Gov. Tom Wolf leaves office due to term limits. Shapiro is also now poised to become a leading national Democratic figure short-listed for the party’s next open presidential primary. 

Most polling of the race before Election Day showed Shapiro with a comfortable lead over Mastriano, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump shortly before the primary and chartered buses to Washington ahead of the former President’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021. (Mastriano says he never entered the US Capitol and has not been charged with any crimes.) 

But the Republican nominee’s support for expanded gun rights, strict anti-abortion laws and outspoken opposition to Covid-19 safety measures appeared to alienate voters in Pennsylvania’s decisive swing counties.  

Mastriano, a retired army colonel, was outpaced by Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz in polling throughout the general election season and Oz often made pains to distance himself from his fellow GOP nominee. 

Entering this campaign, Shapiro, who also outraised Mastriano by tens of millions of dollars, held the record for most votes won by a candidate in state history. In 2020, his 3.46 million ballots outpaced even Joe Biden, who ended up with roughly 3,000 fewer votes. 

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will be reelected in Georgia, CNN projects, defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams for a second time. 

Abrams has called Kemp to concede, according to a Kemp campaign source.

Kemp had been seen as the favorite in the race for months, with Abrams unable to capture the momentum she experienced in 2018 and hampered by broader voter discontent with Democratic control of Washington. 

The victory reasserts Republican control of the executive office in Georgia just two years removed from Democrats winning both of the state’s US Senate seats and President Joe Biden becoming the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. 

Abrams’ defeat is a tough blow for Democrats who have long sought to elevate her in a state that, until recently, had been dominated by Republicans. After losing to Kemp by less than two percentage points in 2018, Abrams was among the women considered to run alongside Biden. She is often touted as one of the most influential Democrats in the country, despite currently holding no public office.  

Kemp’s victory is a clear sign that economic arguments made by Republicans were more powerful in 2022 than Democrats’ focus on abortion. Abrams centered her campaign on the issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade over the summer. She told CNN in September that the issue was going to be “front and center in the conversation” – specifically Kemp’s signing of a bill that bans most abortions when early cardiac activity is detected, when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant. 

Kemp said on the campaign trail that he stood by that law, noting that it provided some exceptions. He instead spent much of his time focused on inflation, crime, and antipathy for Biden’s administration. 

“Georgians should know that my desire is to continue to help them fight through 40-year high inflation and high gas prices and other things that our Georgia families are facing right now, quite honestly, because of bad policies in Washington, DC, from President Biden and the Democrats that have complete control,” Kemp said at his first debate against Abrams. 

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan will win her bid for reelection, CNN projects, defeating Republican Don Bolduc and delivering her party a key win in its bid to keep the Senate in Democratic control.

Hassan was widely seen as one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in the country at the start of the year, saddled with lagging economic indicators and President Joe Biden’s sluggish approval rating.  

But the Democratic senator – aided by Bolduc being viewed by top Republicans in Washington and New Hampshire as out of step with the Granite State – was successful in her bid for six more years in office after winning her first term by roughly a thousand votes out of more than 700,000 cast. 

Bolduc was widely written off by local and national Republicans, many of whom viewed him with skepticism as he rose during the primary and had grave concerns about his inability to raise money. After staking far-right positions on a range of topics to defeat a series of better funded Republican candidates, Bolduc attempted to walk back those positions almost as soon as he won the primary, including repeatedly pushing falsehoods around the validity of the 2020 election.  

Even with their doubts, though, Republicans spent more than $34 million on ads between Labor Day and Election Day pushing Bolduc, a sign of how vulnerable the party saw Hassan. 

Hassan’s successful attacks on Bolduc – and the Republican’s less than clear pushback – did little to assuage Republican concerns, leading the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Senate Leadership Fund to cut their planned spending in the state weeks before Election Day. The National Republican Senatorial Committee returned two weeks out with a small $1 million buy. 

Like many Democrats across the country, Hassan was powered by energy around the abortion debate and used former President Donald Trump and the unfounded denial rhetoric around the 2020 election to cast Bolduc as an extremist. 

“Let’s be very clear here: Don Bolduc is an election denier,” she said at a debate. “His refusal to accept election results means he doesn’t listen to you. This allows him to support an agenda that will raise your costs and eviscerate your rights, because at the end of the day, he doesn’t think he needs to listen, or isn’t accountable to you.” 

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar wins reelection bid in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District race, CNN projects.  

Sen. Tammy Duckworth will win reelection in Illinois, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Kathy Salvi.

When she was elected in 2016, Duckworth became the first disabled female senator. She was flying a helicopter in Iraq in 2004 when it was attacked and she lost both of her legs, and in 2018 she became the first senator to give birth while in office.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker will win reelection in Illinois, CNN projects.  

Republican Gov. Brad Little will win reelection in Idaho, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Stephen Heidt. 

Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom will win another term as California’s governor, CNN projects, a year after he faced a recall election. He defeated Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle. 

The recall effort against Newsom gained momentum over the governor’s strict Covid-19 restrictions, especially when he was seen as not following them himself. In California, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one, giving Democratic candidates a huge advantage in statewide races. 

The last Republican governor of the Golden State was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served from 2003 to 2011. 

Longtime GOP Sen. Mike Crapo will win reelection in Idaho, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat David Roth.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills won a second term in office, CNN projected, defeating her predecessor, former Gov. Paul LePage, a right-wing Republican seeking to win back his old job after being forced out in 2019 due to state term limits. 

Mills became the state’s first female governor when she defeated Republican Shawn Moody in 2018, setting a record for the most votes received by any gubernatorial candidate in state history.  

Her defeat of LePage, an outspoken conservative who has described himself as “Trump before there was Trump,” is a rebuke to the former President’s political movement and a boon for Democrats, who entered the night defending 20 of the 36 contested governor’s offices nationwide. 

LePage not only made false claims about voter fraud in 2020, but has a history of alleging stolen elections, something he denied in a debate despite publicly available evidence to the contrary. The Republican’s campaign also attacked Mills over Covid-19 restrictions and the struggles of the state’s seafood industry, but Mills pushed back, touting her efforts to backstop it by, among other measures, sending federal relief cash to reimburse licensing fees paid up and down the supply chain. 

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla will win election in California, CNN projects, becoming the first elected Latino senator in state history.  

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla , the son of Mexican immigrant parents, to the seat that Kamala Harris vacated to become vice president in January 2021.  

Padilla will defeat Republican Mark Meuser in both a regular election for a six-year term as well as a special election for the remainder of Harris’ term that ends in January.  

Padilla and Meuser advanced to the general election after finishing in the top two in June in the state’s open primary, which sees candidates of all parties running on the same ballot with the top two moving on to November.  

Prior to his appointment to the Senate, Padilla was elected to two terms as California secretary of state. He entered politics as an aide to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, now his fellow Democratic colleague in the Senate.  

He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council at 26 in 1999, later becoming the council’s youngest president in its history. In 2006, he was elected to the state Senate, representing the San Fernando Valley. 

In Congress, Padilla has been vocal on transportation and immigration policies. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety. 

It’s 11 p.m. and polls are closing in four states:  

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here. 

CNN projects that Wes Moore will become the first Black governor in Maryland’s history, defeating Republican state Delegate Dan Cox.

Moore will be just the third Black American to be elected governor of a US state. Virginia’s Douglas Wilder was the first in 1989, and Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick was the second in 2006.

Here’s a look at how Moore spent his Election Day:

Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt will win an open Senate seat against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, CNN projects, ending one of the strangest races this election cycle, even if the final result was unsurprising.  

For months, Republicans from Washington to Missouri were concerned that former Gov. Eric Greitens would win the Senate Republican primary race, even though he resigned in disgrace in 2018, worrying that he would emerge from a large field of candidates desperately trying to win former President Donald Trump’s endorsement.  

In February, Schmitt declined to answer CNN’s question on whether the 2020. election was stolen, while standing by his decision to sign onto a 2020 Texas lawsuit to invalidate the results of swing states Trump lost, which was rejected by the Supreme Court. Other candidates, including Greitens, overtly sided with Trump.  

In June, John Wood, a former senior investigator for the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, launched an independent campaign with the backing of former Missouri GOP Sen. John Danforth. Then, a day before the August primary, Trump endorsed “ERIC,” urging voters to choose either Schmitt or Greitens. 

After getting pummeled on the air by the Senate Leadership Fund, the Mitch McConnell-aligned Super PAC, Greitens took third place, behind Rep. Vicky Hartzler and Schmitt.  

The general election without the scandal-ridden Greitens was comparatively conventional. After Schmitt won, Wood dropped out, removing the chance of a spoiler in a state that had not sent a Missouri Democrat to the Senate in a decade.  

Like Republicans across the country, Schmitt ran against the Biden administration, rising costs and crime. Valentine, an Anheuser-Busch heir who loaned over $10 million to her campaign, attacked him for banning abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

The race also turned personal. Valentine’s campaign essentially said that Schmitt sold out Missouri farmers to China. And Schmitt attacked Valentine’s pedigree, as she portrayed herself as a mother of six and former nurse, whose husband died of cancer and whose oldest son died after battling opioid addiction. 

In one ad, Schmitt said he learned the value of hard work from his blue-collar grandfather and father. He said in college, he gave tours and took out the trash “at the estate Trudy Busch Valentine grew up on.” In another, Schmitt said Valentine “comes from billions and doesn’t care about what inflation is doing to your wallet.” 

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley will win reelection in Iowa, CNN projects, fending off his toughest challenge since he first won the seat in 1980.  

Grassley defeated Mike Franken, a retired Navy admiral who campaigned with low expectations and little national Democratic support in the increasingly red state.  

Grassley, 89, is set to become the longest-serving current senator in January, replacing Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who is retiring. He would be 95 at the end of the eighth six-year term he won Tuesday.  

Republican Sen. John Kennedy will win reelection in Louisiana, CNN projects.  

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who CNN projects will win reelection, thanked voters and said he feels he won this race by listening to the “struggles of the working people in this economy.”

“We won this campaign because we told the truth from the beginning to the end of this election. We said the same things in red parts of the state and blue parts of the state and our primary and our general election, we told the truth,” Bennet said, addressing a crowd at his watch party Tuesday.

He said he will continue to focus on the economy in Washington, DC, saying that it has worked for the top percentage of earners, but “hasn’t worked for anybody else.”

He said it is a result of policies made on Capitol Hill for the last 40 years that prioritizes people who “want to make stuff as cheaply as possible,” namely in China, instead of investing in US supply chains or trying to fix wages and income inequality.

Bennet touted bills that he has supported during his time in Congress, such as capping drug prices and passing a climate and energy bill to reduce costs — but said there is still more to do. 

Bennet said his Republican challenger Joe O’Dea called him to concede and congratulate him on his victory, adding that his opponent said during the call, “‘I hope you do what’s right for the state of Colorado’ and I said, ‘that’s all I want to do’ and we agreed to stay in touch.”

“I appreciate the fact that he stepped up and ran for office, it’s not an easy thing to do,” Bennet said of O’Dea.

Republican Gov. Mark Gordon will win reelection in Wyoming, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Theresa Livingston.

Republican Jim Pillen will win Nebraska’s gubernatorial race, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Carol Blood.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds will win reelection in Iowa, CNN projects. 

Reynolds became Iowa’s first female governor in 2017 when former GOP Gov. Terry Branstad became the US ambassador to China in former President Donald Trump’s administration. She won her first full term in 2018 by less than 37,000 votes.  

While the Hawkeye State has traditionally been a highly competitive state, it has drifted toward Republicans in recent years. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has won a third term, CNN projects, fending off former Rep. Beto O’Rourke in a match-up in which Democrats had hoped to challenge Republicans’ decades of dominance in Austin.  

Abbott, who is viewed by some within the GOP as a potential 2024 presidential contender, survived O’Rourke’s criticism of his management of the state’s power grid, his response to mass shootings, including the one at an elementary school in Uvalde, and his opposition to abortion rights.  

The victory by Abbott underscores the extent to which Republicans remain dominant in Texas — buoyed in part by improved performances with Latino voters.  

Democrats have long hoped that the growing and increasingly diverse urban centers and suburbs of Texas would provide the party a path to competitiveness in the largest red state on America’s political map.  

O’Rourke got close in his 2018 Senate race against Republican Ted Cruz to becoming the first Democrat elected statewide in Texas since 1994. But polls this year showed him lagging farther behind Abbott as Republicans hammered Democrats across the nation over rising inflation and gas prices.  

President Joe Biden’s advisers are closely monitoring the election returns as they continue to come in — and as of 10 p.m. on election night, they believe they are seeing a highly competitive landscape across the board. 

For the time being — with the important caveat that it’s still early and many races haven’t been called — Biden advisers feel that things are likely not headed towards a blowout that some had predicted heading into this week, particularly as they take stock of competitive House and gubernatorial that have already been called in their favor.

Biden has been making calls from the dining room off the Oval Office, according to a source familiar, and has called a number of Democrats tonight. He was also watching returns from his residence and stopped by to visit some of his staff watching from the Roosevelt Room.

Wes Moore, the projected winner in Maryland’s governor race, told supporters “our time is now” during his victory speech.

Moore will be the first Black governor of the state and just the third Black American to be elected governor in US history.

Moore touted the diversity of his supporters and thanked them for their votes.

“It was your support, it was your sense of purpose that carried us across this state. All 24 jurisdictions from the western mountains to the eastern shore. From my birth place of Montgomery County to the adopted, to my adopted home of Baltimore City — Hey Baltimore. And everywhere in between,” he said.

He continued, “And the thing is, when I look across this room tonight, what we see right here is we see Maryland, right? We see people from all backgrounds, from all walks of life, from all income levels. We see teachers, we see small business owners, we see nurses, we see union members. All of you who’ve leant your voices and also gave your votes to this campaign and you said the same thing. Who all said with a collective voice that, “Our time is now.”

Moore also thanked his running mate Aruna Miller for her support. Miller immigrated with her family from India as a child and made history tonight becoming Maryland’s first Asian American lieutenant governor-elect. “It has been an absolute honor to go on this journey with you my friend,” he said.

Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman will win reelection in New York’s 16th Congressional District, CNN projects.  

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib will win reelection in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, CNN projects.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who CNN projects will win a second term in office, appeared at his election night party in Tampa and thanked his supporters for “honoring us with a win for the ages.” 

DeSantis, a Republican, was joined on stage by his wife, Casey, and their three children.

Here’s what the scene looked like at the Tampa Convention Center:

US stocks were up in after-hours trading as results from Tuesday’s midterm elections started rolling in.

Investors have been betting on a big Republican wave in the elections. If Republicans take at least one chamber of Congress, that will likely result in more gridlock, which the market usually loves. Investors are more than happy when politicians bicker but don’t actually enact any new laws that may hurt corporate profits.

Dow futures were up 16 points, or about 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%.

Early results on election night can be very different from the final outcome once all the votes are tallied. That process can take days.

“If Republicans do well and take back control of one or both chambers of Congress, we see the event as a positive for the stock market into year-end,” Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients on Monday. “But if Republicans only take back control of the House, and not the Senate, we suspect the gains in the S&P 500 may be modest.”

Since 1948, the S&P 500 has had an annualized return of 16.9% during the nine years when a Democrat was in the White House and Republicans had a majority in both chambers of Congress, according to Edelman Financial Engines. That compares to 15.1% during periods of full Democratic control and 15.9% in years when there was a unified GOP government.

But at the end of the day, political headlines are often just noise for the markets. Ameriprise chief market strategist Anthony Saglimbene said on a conference call last week about the midterms that stocks have historically gone up after elections, no matter which party controls the White House and Congress.

Saglimbene noted that “growth, profits, inflation and interest rates” matter more to investors over the long haul.

Democrat Summer Lee will be the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania, CNN projects, winning election to the state’s 12th Congressional District.

Lee, a Pittsburgh-area state representative, will succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle.

Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans will defeat Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects, a big win for Republicans as they vie to take back control of the House. 

Luria is a member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.

Kiggans was a top Republican recruit this cycle, taking advantage of Virginia’s redistricting process which shifted Luria’s district from a tough, but competitive, area for Democrats to an even steeper climb. That shift, and the prospect of Democrats losing a seat, turned the race between Luria and Kiggans into one of the closely watched contests in the nation. 

Luria ran on her role on the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, hammering Kiggans for aligning herself with top Republicans who have diminished the attack on the Capitol, claiming it made her “not fit to serve in the United States Congress.” 

Kiggans, like many Republicans across the country, used rising prices and economic woes against Luria, arguing that “hard-working Americans are hurting from Joe Biden’s disastrous, failed economic policies. And in the 2nd Congressional District, these policies go by the name of Elaine Luria.” 

Republican confidence in winning the seat grew after the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin carried the area during the race, boosting Republican hopes of ousting the Democrat who won her first term in office in 2018. 

The Georgia Senate race remains something of a seesaw tonight, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker seeing their advantages expand and contract throughout the evening. 

But at Walker’s campaign headquarters now, supporters are cheering as he narrowly took an edge over Warnock and inched closer to 50% – even as it remains entirely unclear whether the race will move to a Dec. 6 runoff.

Walker aides still see plenty of reasons to be optimistic tonight, with several counties in north Georgia – deep and reliably red – among those with a share of the outstanding vote. They believe the heavy Election Day vote benefits Walker.

Ralph Reed took the stage a few minutes ago and told supporters to settle in for a while longer, saying: “Get ready to party but it’s going to be a long night.”

So far tonight, only one thing is clear and constant: Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is outperforming Walker.

Kemp and Walker may share a political party, but tonight they are holding separate campaign parties – about two blocks apart in north Atlanta. 

Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state, Leigh M. Chapman, said it will take “a few days” for the state’s unofficial election results to be complete, and called on “voters, candidates and the media” to be patient.

“Election officials in all 67 counties are well aware that the eyes of the nation are on the Keystone State tonight,” Chapman said at a news conference in the state capital, Harrisburg. “And they are counting as fast as they can. But they are also prioritizing accuracy over speed, as they should.”

Chapman, a Democrat, cited “a handful of typical election day incidents,” including a few polling places opening late, power outages and a gas leak. But she said that “all were quickly handled.”

“In a very dynamic environment, Pennsylvania once again executed a free, fair and secure election,” Chapman said.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise will win reelection in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, CNN projects.

Republican Rich McCormick will defeat Democrat Bob Christian in the House race for Georgia’s 6th District, CNN projects.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger will win reelection in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, CNN projects, a significant win in the Democratic Party’s bid to stem their losses in the 2022 midterms.

Spanberger will defeat Republican Yesli Vega, a Prince William County supervisor who Democrats spent millions to define as too extreme on abortion. The strategy, which seized on the momentum felt in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June and Vega’s conservative views on the issue, worked for Democrats, who banked on the issue being critical to swing suburban voters in the district.

Spanberger, who was first elected to the House in 2018, was seen as a top target for Republicans, who got a boost when Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia. Youngkin carried the area that made up Virginia’s 7th District, increasing Republican hopes of ousting the Democrat. 

Spanberger has now proven her ability to hold onto the once solidly red congressional seat after winning it in what was a good year for Democrats in 2018. By holding onto the seat in 2020 and 2022, Spanberger continues to be the only Democrat since 1971 to represent the district in Congress. 

As results roll in, the balance of the Senate is currently tied — both Republicans and Democrats are projected to now hold 40 seats each, with many more still with results coming in.

In the races that have been called since polls have been closing, CNN projected Democrats have won in four states and Republicans have won in 10 states, including an additional special election in Oklahoma.

Either party needs 50 seats to win the majority.

Most voters in this year’s election view one party positively, and the other negatively – nationally, about 4 in 10 have a favorable view of only the Democratic Party, and a similar share have a favorable view of only the Republican Party, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Unsurprisingly, these voters almost unanimously supported their favored party in their district’s congressional election.

But there’s also a smaller bloc of voters – about 11% of the electorate, nationwide – who dislike both parties. This group broke in favor of the Republicans, with nearly 6 in 10 favoring a GOP House candidate this year. That’s a shift from 2018, when voters who disliked both parties were about evenly split in their vote.

Voters who were most upset with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade differed from those who felt less profoundly unhappy with the decision, the exit polls show. Those who were angry about the overturning of Roe (about 39% of the electorate) overwhelmingly voted Democratic for the House (about 85% picked the Democratic candidate). Those who were dissatisfied but not angry (about 21% of the electorate) narrowly favored the GOP.

There was also a difference between voters who were most pessimistic about the economy, and those who felt less strongly negative. While nearly 9 in 10 voters who said the economy was poor voted for a GOP House candidate, about 6 in 10 who described the economy as “not so good” backed a Democratic candidate.

To some extent, these divides reflect the partisan differences already baked into views on abortion and the economy. Voters who considered themselves Democrats were roughly 59 points more than voters who considered themselves Republican to say they were angry about Roe v. Wade being overturned. Republicans, meanwhile, were about 28 points likelier than Democrats to call the economy poor.

Election officials for four of Wisconsin’s largest cities told CNN that they’re all likely to finish vote-counting within the next two hours. 

Milwaukee, the state’s most populous city, expects to finish its tally of absentee ballots before 10 p.m. CT, Claire Woodall-Vogg, the Milwaukee Election Commission executive director, said at a news conference. 

That’s hours earlier than during the 2020 election, when the city took until after 3 a.m. to finish counting and transmitting results to county officials. The speedier process is in part because there are only about a third as many absentee ballots for the city to count this year, as compared to 2020, Woodall-Vogg said. 

In Madison, the state’s capital, results will be transmitted to the county within the next hour, City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl told CNN. Madison does not have a “central count” of absentee ballots, so both in-person and absentee ballots are counted at local polling places. 

Green Bay will likely be “wrapping up” its count “in the next hour or two,” City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys told CNN. 

“We have a lot of workers, definitely fewer absentee ballots, and we also have speeded up our process,” Jeffreys said. 

And in Racine, City Clerk Tara McMenamin said in a text message that she anticipated counting will be finished close to 10 p.m. CT. 

More background: In Wisconsin’s decentralized election system, municipalities tally votes and then report their results to counties, which then post the results online. So it could take additional time for counties to publicly report the results they receive. 

What do Florida voters think about the possibility two Florida men could run for president in 2024? Exit polls from the Sunshine State offer some clues.

With Donald Trump signaling a potential announcement next week, 33% of Florida voters said they want to see the former president run in 2024, according to the preliminary results of the Florida Exit Poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

There appears to be more of an appetite for a bid by Ron DeSantis, with 45% of Florida voters saying they want the state’s governor – who CNN projects will win reelection – to seek the presidency in 2024.

DeSantis’ strength is reflected in the Florida exit polls, which show the governor winning Latinos in the state by 13 points. In 2020, Trump trailed Biden among Latino voters in Florida by 7 points. DeSantis also held a slight edge among independents, whom Biden carried in the state by 11 points. Those could be selling points if DeSantis and Trump collide in a 2024 GOP primary.

President Joe Biden made “congratulatory calls” to some Democratic candidates who have won their elections Tuesday evening, the White House said. 

“This evening, the President has made congratulatory calls to Massachusetts Governor-elect Maura Healey, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, Senator-elect Peter Welch, Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, Representative Abigail Spanberger, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,” the White House said in a statement to the press pool. 

CNN is at Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s HQ and each time the Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker key race alert appears on the screen, loud cheers emerge from the crowd

Warnock’s close aides are cautiously optimistic, staying largely mum and only offering the occasional update that they are “feeling good.” 

But a Democratic strategist working with the campaign offered a little more from Warnock HQ, telling CNN: “Look at DeKalb. Look at Fulton. Look at all of the majors around Atlanta. That’s a huge piece.”

“A lot of those folks who voted for Biden in 2020, are they going to stay with us,” the strategist added, when asked what he’s watching. “But we’re seeing some of that split ticket trend I’m sure you’re seeing.” 

The optimism was couched with the recognition that it is still early, and they are waiting for information from major counties. 

Watch CNN’s John King and Jake Tapper at the Magic Wall:

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Republican Gov. Kristi Noem will win reelection in South Dakota, CNN projects.  

It’s 10 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in these states.  

Polls are also closing in Idaho’s 2nd House district.  

These are some of the key races in Nevada: As Nevada tries to recover from a pandemic downturn that hit the tourism industry especially hard, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Gov. Steve Sisolak are among the Democratic party’s most vulnerable incumbents. 

Cortez Masto faces a challenge from former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who despite losing a bid for governor in 2018, won statewide in 2014. Sisolak is running against Joe Lombardo, the sheriff of the state’s largest county. 

Democracy is also on the ballot, as Republican Jim Marchant, who has cast doubt on the 2020 election, seeks to run Nevada’s elections as secretary of state. 

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here. 

CNN’s Priya Krishnakumar and Will Mullery contributed reporting to this post. 

Republican Gov. Phil Scott will win reelection in Vermont, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Brenda Siegel.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma will hold off a surprisingly tough challenge from Democrat Joy Hofmeister, winning reelection in the deep-red state, CNN projects.

The race was surprisingly hard-fought in a state no Democratic presidential nominee has won since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and where Republicans have held the governor’s office since 2011, when Democrat Brad Henry left office.

Hofmeister is a two-term state superintendent of public instruction who won both of her races, in 2014 and 2018, as a Republican, before changing parties in 2021 to run for governor this year.

The party switch came after Hofmeister and Stitt had feuded over education funding, private school vouchers and Covid-related health policies – most prominently over mask requirements in schools, which Stitt sought to make optional.

Hofmeister supports abortion rights, an issue that became a flashpoint in the race after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June and abortion rights supporters in neighboring  Kansas won an August referendum over whether to retain the state’s constitutional protections for the procedure. Stitt opposes abortion but said he would sign into law an exemption to the state’s current ban for cases of rape and incest.  

Hofmeister sought to portray herself as a moderate voice who would temper both parties’ extremes. Stitt, meanwhile, tried to latch her to President Joe Biden – who lost Oklahoma to then-President Donald Trump in 2020 by 33 points.  

“My opponent, she couldn’t see a path forward for herself as a Republican, so she joined Biden’s party,” Stitt said in a debate.  

The late-October debate provided a viral moment when Hofmeister blamed Stitt for the state’s violent crime problem.  

“The fact is, the rates of violent crime are higher in Oklahoma under your watch than in New York or California,” Hofmeister said.  

A seemingly incredulous Stitt shot back: “Hang on, Oklahomans, do you believe we have higher crime than New York or California? That’s what she just said.”  

Hofmeister was right: Oklahoma’s homicide rate of 9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is higher than New York’s 4.7 deaths and California’s 6.1 deaths. 

US stocks were up in after-hours trading as results from Tuesday’s midterm elections started rolling in. 

Investors have been betting on a big Republican wave in the elections. If Republicans take at least one chamber of Congress, that will likely result in more gridlock, which the market usually loves. Investors are more than happy when politicians bicker but don’t actually enact any new laws that may hurt corporate profits.

Dow futures were up 16 points, or about 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%.

Early results on election night can be very different from the final outcome once all the votes are tallied. That process can take days.

“If Republicans do well and take back control of one or both chambers of Congress, we see the event as a positive for the stock market into year-end,” Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients on Monday. “But if Republicans only take back control of the House, and not the Senate, we suspect the gains in the S&P 500 may be modest.”

To read more on the markets, click here

Anthony Brown will be the first Black person elected attorney general of Maryland, CNN projects.

Brown, who currently represents Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, has a been a longtime fixture in state politics, having also served as state lieutenant governor and in the state House and run for governor in 2014. 

Democrat Wes Moore will be elected governor of Maryland, CNN projects, becoming the first Black person to lead the state. 

He will defeat Republican state Delegate Dan Cox, an election denier backed by former President Donald Trump who ran on a hardline conservative platform. Retiring GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate, did not endorse Cox, who had defeated Hogan’s chosen successor in the Republican primary in July. 

Moore will be just the third Black American to be elected governor in US history, after Virginia’s Douglas Wilder, who was elected to a term in 1989, and Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick, who was first elected in 2006 and served two terms. Two others, New York’s David Paterson, who served from 2008 to 2010, and Louisiana’s Pinckney Pinchback, who served for a little over a year between 1872 and 1873, were elevated to the governorship after their predecessors resigned or were driven out. Pinchback was a Republican, but the other three Black governors were Democrats. 

Moore, a Rhodes scholar and former White House fellow, is also the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, New York City’s largest anti-poverty nonprofit. He gained national recognition after authoring the 2010 book “The Other Wes Moore,” an inspirational story of two boys with the same name and ties to Baltimore.  

The first-time candidate is also a veteran, having served as a captain and paratrooper with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, where he led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan.   

Moore had the backing of establishment Democrats, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and the support of Oprah Winfrey before winning the crowded Democratic primary in July.   

Moore, who was considered an overwhelming favorite to win in the deep-blue state, participated in only one debate with Cox, hosted by Maryland Public Television on October 12, in which the two sparred over policies and took jabs at one another.   

Moore called Cox an “extremist election denier,” citing a tweet from the Republican nominee in which he touted sponsoring buses for Trump’s January 6, 2021, rally following his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Cox tweeted that he was doing so to “#StoptheSteal.” 

Cox accused Moore of wanting to “defund the police,” to which the Democratic nominee responded, “That’s not true.”  

Moore’s running mate, former state Del. Aruna Miller, who immigrated with her family from India as a child, will also make history with her election as Maryland’s first Asian American lieutenant governor. Governor and lieutenant governor nominees are elected on the same ticket in the Old Line State.   

CNN’s Melissa Holzberg DePalo, Eric Bradner and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report. 

Republican Sen. John Hoeven will win a third term in North Dakota, CNN projects.

Democrat Gov. Jared Polis will win reelection in Colorado, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Heidi Ganahl.  

Polis campaigned on his record, including enacting all-day kindergarten and efforts to decrease health care costs. 

Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet will win reelection in Colorado, CNN projects, staving off a strong challenge from Republican Joe O’Dea. 

Bennet, who was first elected in 2010, was the favorite in the race, but O’Dea, the CEO of a construction company, found some success in Colorado by breaking with his own party at times, pitching a more moderate position in a state that has leaned toward Democrats for years. 

Bennet, aided by the state’s Democratic lean, ran a strong campaign focused on local issues like public land advocacy and broader issues like changing political culture by stopping corporate influence in politics.

The Democrat also successfully pushed back on O’Dea’s attempt to portray a more moderate image. 

“I think he’s painting himself that way. I mean, it’s incredible. He has said that he would have voted for all three of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees notwithstanding the fact that he knows that they overturned Roe v. Wade. He opposes, as you just heard, Colorado’s law codifying a woman’s right to choose,” Bennet told CNN in October. “He says that Donald Trump, even though he probably knows better, bears no responsibility for what happened on January 6.” 

Headed into the election, Democrats said they were confident Bennet would win. But the party’s top Senate outside organization, Senate Majority PAC, spent millions to unsuccessfully boost O’Dea’s more conservative primary opponent earlier in the year. 

Bennet also may have been aided by former President Donald Trump’s late, anti-O’Dea foray into the race. 

After O’Dea told CNN he would “actively” campaign against former President Donald Trump and for other GOP candidates if the former President runs again, Trump slammed him as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) and suggested Trump’s supporters wouldn’t vote for a “stupid” person like O’Dea. 

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen will win reelection in Maryland, CNN projects, defeating Republican Chris Chaffee.

Prior to winning his Senate seat in 2016, Van Hollen was a member of the House from 2003 to 2017.

Maryland has a Republican governor in Larry Hogan, but the state typically favors Democrats in federal elections.

As polls close in Wisconsin, a “cautiously optimistic” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson took the stage briefly at his election night party in Neenah, Wisconsin – but only to lead the audience in a rendition of happy birthday for his granddaughter.

His opponent, Democratic Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, has been feeling good throughout the night, optimistic that “we’ve done all that we could,” but also urging those who were still in line as polls closed to stay in line.

Neither President Biden nor former President Donald Trump visited the state once in the final two months leading up to the election, notable considering between the two they’ve stopped in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Florida, and more in the final run-up. 

Sen. Johnson has touched on the wider implications of what a win for him would mean, aside from “send a very strong signal to our Democrat colleagues that their policies aren’t working.”

It could be a major contributor to Republicans winning the Senate, setting the stage for him to become chair of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs’ permanent subcommittee on investigations. 

“I would be like a mosquito in a nudist colony. It would be a target-rich environment,” Johnson told supporters on the eve of Election Day. 

Both he and Barnes have campaigned not just on Wisconsin’s Senate seat, but on the future of the country being on the line. 

If Barnes wins, he would be the state’s first Black Senator and among the youngest, unseating the two-term Republican. 

“I can guarantee you we have not been outworked,” Barnes told CNN Monday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will be reelected to serve his 21st full term for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, CNN projects.

As the results start to trickle to in, with Democrat Tim Ryan currently in the lead in Ohio’s Senate race, supporters at GOP candidate J.D. Vance’s headquarters told CNN they’re expecting that lead to narrow as more votes get tallied up.

Supporters are betting it will be a big night for Republicans here in the Buckeye State.

One supporter told CNN they’ll be watching to see how Republican congressional candidates in more competitive districts, like J.R. Majewski, perform in order to get a sense of just how big of night it will be for Ohio Republicans.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s camp said; while Vance has started to close the gap, they’re remaining optimistic and pointing to the fact Ryan has overperformed in the early vote in Warren, Franklin and Stark counties. 

After the polls closed, Ryan tweeted a picture of himself with son with the caption: “We left it all on the field.”

View Ryan’s tweet:

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, has been elected as the Bay State’s governor, CNN projects, defeating GOP nominee Geoff Diehl, a state lawmaker who had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Healey will become Massachusetts’ first elected female governor and the first out lesbian state executive in the US.

Her victory reclaims the office for Democrats, who have been shut out of the corner office for all but eight of the past 30 years, in the otherwise blue state. It also marks a pick-up for national Democrats who entered the night defending 20 of the 36 contested governor’s offices. 

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker decided not to seek a third term, despite his high approval ratings, after it became apparent that the Trump wing of the GOP was coalescing behind a primary challenge. 

Healey’s historic victory comes on the heels of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s own pathbreaking win a year earlier, when Wu became the first woman elected to lead the city. Unlike Diehl, who defeated a moderate Republican opponent in the primary, Healey ran effectively unopposed, with her January 2022 decision to enter the contest clearing the Democratic field.

Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries will win reelection in New York’s 8th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Five history-makers are projected to win races in four states so far: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Florida.

Watch parties are taking place across the country Tuesday night as election results continue to pour in.

Here are some of the scenes from those parties so far:

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch will be the next US senator from Vermont, CNN projects, defeating Republican nominee Gerald Malloy to keep the seat held for decades by retiring Sen. Pat Leahy in Democratic hands. 

Welch will join Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, in representing Vermont in the upper chamber. He announced his plans to leave the House and run for the Senate shortly after Leahy announced in November 2021 that he would not seek re-election after spending nearly 50 years in Congress.  

Republican Sen. John Boozman will win reelection in Arkansas, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Natalie James.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won reelection according to CNN projections, thanked voters for supporting him and his policies, touting “we have not only won an election, we have rewritten the political map.”

“Thank you for honoring us with a win for the ages,” DeSantis said.

The governor also thanked voters who didn’t vote for him in the last election, saying that he is “honored to have earned your trust and your support over these four years” for reelection now. 

DeSantis said that while Tuesday’s results were explicitly for the midterm elections, “but in reality Americans have been voting for many years now, they have been voting with their feet,” meaning that people who are not happy with policies in other states have been moving to Florida, according to DeSantis, pointing to things like crime and the economy.

“People come here because our policies work, leadership matters,” he added.

Democrat Jonathan Jackson — the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson and brother of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. — will win the Illinois 1st Congressional District race, CNN projects.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs of the House Jan. 6 select committee, will win reelection in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects.  

A judge in Maricopa County, Arizona, denied a bid by Republicans to extend polling by three hours, saying there was no evidence that any voters were precluded from exercising their right to vote.

In a hearing that concluded two minutes before polls closed, the judge said while some voters may have been confused or faced difficulties, he didn’t see any evidence of voters who wanted to vote but were unable to do so.

Republicans had asked the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to keep polling centers in Maricopa County open until 10 p.m. local time for provisional ballots to be cast by voters who ran into issues with tabulation machines.

Democratic Jennifer Wexton will win her reelection bid in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District race, CNN projects.

Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar will win in Florida’s 27th District, CNN projects.  

Georgia’s acting Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling says that they have not seen any “real issues” on election night reporting data being submitted to their office yet.   

“It’s been smooth, we haven’t had election night reporting issues at this point,” Sterling said at a news conference Tuesday evening.    

All of Georgia’s major metropolitan counties have uploaded some votes, according to Sterling, with the exception of DeKalb County, which includes parts of Atlanta and the surrounding areas.   

“The biggest bucket of votes we think that are still out there right now from a single county are the early votes from DeKalb. They are still working to get the upload completed. They internally have done it is my understanding, but they haven’t published it to us yet,” Sterling told the media.  

Sterling said the majority of results already posted to the Georgia Secretary of State website at this point are mainly early in-person votes. He plans to update the media again tonight when he has additional information. 

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wins reelection in New York’s 14th Congressional District, CNN projects.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been watching returns at the National Republican Congressional Committee headquarters in Washington, DC, and has stopped by the main offices of his super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, according to aides.

He has been receiving reports from the ground, speaking to candidates who have won and his advisers say the early reports point to a Republican takeover of the House.

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush wins reelection bid in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District race, CNN projects. 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the one-time press secretary and communications director for former President Donald Trump, will win Arkansas’ gubernatorial race, CNN projects. 

She will be the first woman elected governor of Arkansas.  

Huckabee Sanders defeated Democrat Chris Jones, who is a minister and former non-profit leader who got a degree in nuclear engineering from MIT. 

Arkansas last elected a Democratic governor in 2010 and it’s now a solidly red state. 

Sanders, while a first-time candidate, is no stranger to politics. Her father, Republican Mike Huckabee, was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. And by defeating Democrat Chris Jones, Sanders will also become the first daughter in US history to serve as governor of the same state her father once led.  

Sanders previously worked for two years in the George W. Bush administration and later ran her father’s 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and then was campaign manager for his 2016 bid.  

She gained national prominence in her role as former President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, serving as a staunch defender of the then-President and his policies for more than two years. On many occasions, she clashed with national reporters and eventually scaled back televised briefings. She defended the move, saying that journalists could hear from Trump directly.   

Sanders earned an early endorsement from Trump after joining the race for Arkansas governor, and prominent rivals later dropped out of the race, clearing her path to the GOP nomination.   

Sanders’ path to victory in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Asa Hutchison was relatively smooth – unsurprising in a state that has taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years. But the campaign was not without personal challenges. In September, Sanders announced she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and “underwent a successful surgery to remove my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes.”   

In her race for governor, Sanders defended her decision to grant only a handful of interviews with local media, saying she’s been speaking to voters directly.  

“Freedom of the press is incredibly important, but with freedom of the press also comes a great deal of responsibility, and when they don’t live up to their end of the bargain, it forces some of us to go outside of the box, which I have done every single day for the last two years,” Sanders said at an October 21 debate hosted by the Arkansas PBS station.  

In the debate, Sanders highlighted key issues of her campaign, including her education plan,  Arkansas LEARNS, to increase literacy rates, and her support for phasing out the state income tax, though she has not explicitly stated a timeline for doing so.

CNN’s Andrew Menezes contributed reporting to this post.

Democratic Gov. Dan McKee will win in Rhode Island, CNN projects.

Republican Sen. Jerry Moran will win reelection in Kansas, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Mark Holland.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune will win reelection in South Dakota, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Brian Bengs.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will win reelection in New York, CNN projects, and defeat Republican Joe Pinion.  

Pinion briefly hosted a show on Newsmax and has worked as the director of a youth development at Morris Height Health Center in the Bronx. 

Schumer’s victory will make him the longest-serving senator from New York after he’s sworn in next year.  

Over 48 years, Schumer has never lost a race, rising from the state Assembly to the House of Representatives to the pinnacle of power in the Senate.  

While seeking to keep Democratic control of the 50-50 Senate this year, Schumer continued his tradition of visiting the Empire State’s 62 counties, and his campaign built an overwhelming financial advantage over his Republican opponent, Joe Pinion, a former host and conservative commentator on Newsmax.  

Pinion tried to turn Schumer’s longevity into a weakness, blaming him for a poor economy and charging that it’s time to turn the page. 

“He is, in fact, an exceptional politician, one of the best that has ever lived,” said Pinion at a recent debate hosted by Spectrum News. “But he’s a failed senator. He has failed the people of this state on multiple occasions.” 

At the debate, Schumer touted the Senate’s past two years and boasted that “for the first time,” New York received more money from Washington than it sent. He then ticked off the major legislation passed by this Congress: granting Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for some drugs, what he called “the most important climate change bill ever” and bipartisan gun safety and infrastructure bills. He also pledged to protect abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

“In the last two years, under my leadership, the Senate has had the most productive session in decades,” said Schumer. 

The Brooklyn-bred New Yorker, the son of an exterminator and housewife, leaned into his Jewish background in one ad by teaching various Yiddish words – calling Republican political leaders “schmos” and describing the “naches” he felt in passing the Inflation Reduction Act. 

“Fighting for New York is no shtick for me,” he added. 

It’s 9 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in these states: 

Here’s what to know about the key races in Arizona: Republicans hope to take Arizona back after Democrats made inroads in the swing state in 2020 when President Biden won the state and Mark Kelly flipped a Senate seat for Democrats. 

However, the GOP isn’t putting up moderate Republicans to help that cause. Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters were both endorsed by Trump and have expressed skepticism that Biden legitimately won the state.  

These are the key races in Michigan: All eyes in Michigan will be on the state’s gubernatorial race as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faces conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, who’s hoping her Trump endorsement will help turn the state back towards Republicans. 

The right to abortion will also be on the ballot. Democrats hope the issue will help boost turnout among their base voters. 

Voting and elections will also be key issues, as Michigan voters will decide on a ballot measure to expand access to the ballot, and elect a new secretary of state. Incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson faces Republican Kristina Karamo, who has backed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. 

And these are the races playing out in Wisconsin: Wisconsin is one of the most closely divided states in the nation, and GOP Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers both face highly competitive reelection campaigns. 

Johnson, who has a history of controversial statements about the pandemic and the Jan. 6 attack, is facing Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who at one point signaled support for removing police funding. 

Evers faces Republican businessman Tim Michels, who won Trump’s support in the primary by aggressively amplifying the former president’s 2020 election lies. 

CNN’s Priya Krishnakumar and Will Mullery contributed reporting to this post. 

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here.  

Voters in Pennsylvania are split over whether Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman’s health is good enough to represent the state effectively, according to the preliminary results of the Pennsylvania exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, suffered a near-fatal stroke days before he won the May Democratic primary.

But a majority of voters said that Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for Senate, has not lived in the commonwealth long enough to represent it effectively. More than 4 in 10 said he had.

Oz has said he moved to Pennsylvania in late 2020 after living in New Jersey for decades.

Voters also split over which candidate’s views are too extreme with more than 4 in 10 picking Fetterman and the same share selecting Oz.

More than one-third of Pennsylvania voters said that they care most about whether a candidate shares their values and whether a candidate has honesty and integrity. About 2 in 10 said the most important quality is that a candidate cares about people like them. Fewer than one in 10 said having the right experience matters most.

Men and women who cast ballots split their support, with more than half of men voting for Oz and more than half of women voting for Fetterman. Among independent voters, who made up about a quarter of the electorate, more than half voted for Fetterman.

For voters who thought that abortion was the most important issue, more than three quarters supported Fetterman. They made up just over one-third of the electorate.

But among those who said inflation was the most pressing issue, more than three-quarters cast ballots for Oz. They made up more than a quarter of the electorate.

To read more about the exit polling data, click here.

At the Allegheny County Elections warehouse in Pennsylvania, they’re about to get the final mail-in and absentee ballots that were dropped off personally by voters. 

The last ones which were sent by mail were just dropped off here. There were 3,058 of those, the county spokesperson told CNN. 

A total of 156,000 mail-ins/absentee votes — which had already been sent in — were processed at the warehouse earlier today. 

Now that polls have closed, they will assign all those votes to candidates. 

Rich Fitzgerald, executive of Allegheny County, said that Democrats Josh Shapiro, candidate for governor, and John Fetterman, candidate for Senate, have out-performed Joe Biden in the mail-in and absentee voting in Allegheny County. 

In 2010 Biden got about 80% of the mail-in and absentee voting in Allegheny, Fitzgerald said.

Shapiro won 89% of that vote tonight and Fetterman won about 85% of it in the Senate race, he said.

Fitzgerald said he expects the Allegheny vote count, overall, to be done quickly tonight. 

Democrat Robert Menendez Jr. — the son of Sen. Bob Menendez — will win New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District race, CNN projects. 

Menendez defeated Republican Marcos Arroyo, who was running uncontested in the GOP primary.

Correction: An earlier version of this post gave the wrong name for the Republican challenger. Robert Menendez Jr. defeated Marcos Arroyo.

In North Carolina’s Senate race, Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley is leading her opponent, Republican Ted Budd — but most of those results are coming from early voting.

The polls closed at 7:30 p.m. ET and these early voting numbers show about 53% of the estimated vote being reported, CNN’s David Chalian said in analysis. Of the current votes that are in, 96% are coming from early voting.

“At the end of the day we think in North Carolina, only 55% is going to be pre-election vote,” Chalian explained, adding that generally, early voting tends to favor Democrats. “So right now most of what you are seeing there is pre-election vote.”

Here’s how the results break down even further:

CNN’s David Chalian breaks it down:

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03:06 - Source: cnn

Here’s what the maps for Senate and House races looks like as of 8:30 p.m. ET.

Control of both chambers of Congress is on the line in Tuesday’s election, with the GOP needing net gains of just one seat to win the Senate and five seats to win the House. 

Senate:

House:

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson will a reelection bid in Texas’ 13th Congressional District, CNN projects. Jackson was backed by former President Donald Trump — having served as White House physician during his term.

Ukrainian GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz will win reelection in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, CNN projects.  

Spartz is the first Ukrainian-born member of the US Congress and is an outspoken advocate for her home country amid the ongoing war.  

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu will win reelection in New Hampshire, CNN projects.

Roughly 8 in 10 North Carolina voters said the economy is “poor” or “not good,” according to the preliminary results of the North Carolina Exit Poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

More than three-quarters of voters in the state said inflation has caused them and their family severe or moderate hardship.

About half of those who cast ballots said that President Joe Biden’s policies are hurting the country, while only 35% think they are helping.

About 4 in 10 North Carolina voters approve of Biden, while more than half disapprove.

The race for control of Congress, as well as governorships and key statewide positions, has defined the 2022 midterms.

Heading into Election Day, in addition to taking control of chambers of Congress, both parties were also looking to diversify their ranks of elected officials, both at the Capitol and beyond. Republicans were excited about growing their roster of female governors and electing more Latino members to the US House. Democrats eyed expanding the number of Black US senators and making a breakthrough for LGBTQ representation in governor’s offices. Both parties also sought to welcome their first members of Congress from Generation Z — those born after 1996.  

Election results are still coming in, and many races won’t be called for days, if not weeks. But for now, here’s a look at the candidates who CNN projects will make history in the 2022 midterms.  

Alabama Republican Katie Britt will be the first elected female senator from Alabama, CNN projects, winning an open-seat race to succeed her onetime boss, retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby. Britt is a former CEO of the Business Council of Alabama and was the heavy favorite in the general election in the deep-red state. Two women have previously represented Alabama in the Senate, but both were appointed to fill vacancies.  

Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost will be the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress, CNN projects, winning the open seat for Florida’s 10th Congressional District. Generation Z refers to those born after 1996. Frost will succeed Democrat Val Demings, who vacated the seat to run for Senate.  

Oklahoma Republican Markwayne Mullin will be the first Native American senator from Oklahoma in almost 100 years, CNN projects, winning the special election to succeed GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is resigning in January. Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, currently represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Democrat Robert Owen, also a member of the Cherokee Nation, represented Oklahoma in the Senate from 1907 to 1925. 

Republican Gov. Bill Lee will win reelection in Tennessee, CNN projects.

GOP Gov. Henry McMaster will win reelection in South Carolina, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Joe Cunningham.  

First-term Republican Sen. Todd Young will hold his Indiana Senate seat, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Thomas McDermott, the mayor of Hammond. 

It’s 8:30 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in Arkansas. 

Here are some of the races playing out in the state:  

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here.  

Vice President Kamala Harris’s office said Harris made calls to several politicians on Election Day. 

Harris called Reps. Jahana Hayes and Lauren Underwood, two races where the vice president campaigned and led abortion conversations.

In South Carolina, Harris called Biden ally Rep. James Clyburn.

The vice president also called state legislators including Nevada State Rep. Sandra Jauregui, Pennsylvania State Rep. Joanna McClinton, Florida State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, and Michigan State Rep. Keith Williams. Harris also held abortion roundtables in all states where the state legislators govern.

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz will win reelection in Florida’s 1st District, CNN projects.

Incumbent GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will win her reelection bid in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, CNN projects.  

Ohio voters have approved an amendment to the state constitution to require that only a citizen of the United States can vote at any state or local election, CNN projects, assuming they meet other requirements.

The new measure would prohibit local governments from allowing a person to vote in local elections if they are not legally qualified to vote in state elections.

The vote is a win for Ohio Republicans, who had sought to cast noncitizen voting as a threat to democracy and a logistical headache. 

GOP state Rep. Bill Seitz declared in a Dayton Daily News op-ed this month: “If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country.” 

“If non-citizens could vote just the same as citizens, you won’t have a country for long. That’s why both candidates for Ohio Governor and a unanimous Ohio Senate support Issue 2, and why a large bipartisan majority of the Ohio House did too,” Seitz said. 

Democrats and voting rights organizations fell short in their effort to cast the measure as too broad, given that it will also eliminate the voting rights of 17-year-olds – something the state permits in certain circumstances – and bar people from registering to vote within 30 days of an election.  

“Incorporating perspectives of non-US citizen residents by allowing them to vote on local issues adds value. These active community members pay taxes, own businesses and have children attending our schools; they are part of the fabric of communities and are affected by local government decisions,” Brian Housh, council president of the Village of Yellow Springs, wrote in a dueling op-ed. 

Incumbent Republican Greg Pence will win his reelection bid in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District race, CNN projects. He is brother of former Vice President Mike Pence.  

John Fetterman’s campaign knows it will take a while to get the vote count out of Philadelphia, where they will need to run up the score against Republican Mehmet Oz. 

While they wait, the campaign has its eyes on a handful of bellwether counties including Erie, Northampton, Bucks and Centre counties, according to a senior campaign source.  

Additionally, the source said the campaign will be watching to see if Fetterman outperforms Joe Biden in places like York County, where he lost by 25 points in 2020.

Republican Laurel Lee will win in Florida’s 15th District, CNN projects.

Republican Anna Paulina Luna will win in Florida’s 13th District, CNN projects.  

Republican Cory Mills will win in Florida’s 7th District, CNN projects, defeating Democrat Karen Green.  

A judge in Houston has ordered voting locations in Harris County to stay open for one additional hour following a lawsuit filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas ACLU stating several polling locations were not open on time.

“A judge has issued a Temporary Restraining Order in this suit, which will keep the polls in Harris County open until 8pm CT,” the Texas Civil Rights Project said in a press release. 

According to the Texas Civil Rights Project, all 782 Harris County polling locations are affected by the change and voters who get in line from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. CT will have to cast a provisional ballot.

Several polling places in Harris County experienced long lines of up to two hours at a large voting center in Houston, CNN affiliate KHOU reported, due to technical issues with voting machines. 

“We are grateful to the court order that polling locations in Harris County will stay open until 8 p.m. CT,” said Ashley Harris, an attorney for ACLU of Texas. “Nobody should be denied their fundamental right to vote simply because their polling location did not open on time. We encourage everyone who hasn’t cast a ballot to go to their nearest voting precinct,” she said.

The groups sued on behalf of the Texas Organizing Project, a nonprofit advocacy group for Black and Latino communities.

Democrat Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old community organizer, will win Florida’s 10th Congressional District, CNN projects, becoming the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress. 

Frost will defeat Republican Calvin Wimbish in the race for the Orlando-area seat to succeed Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who vacated the seat for a Senate run. 

Members of Generation Z — those born after 1996 — are eligible to be elected to the US House of Representatives for the first time in this election. (House members must be at least 25 years old.) 

Frost has leaned into his youth throughout his campaign and has generated buzz through social media and public interviews. 

Frost had the endorsements of notable progressives such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, on his way to winning a crowded primary in August that included a state senator and two former members of Congress. He was the heavy favorite in the general election in a deep-blue seat that now-President Joe Biden would have carried by 32 points in 2020. 

Multiple states have reported attempted cyberattacks on their websites on Election Day, but none of the hacks have prevented anyone from voting, federal officials told reporters Tuesday night.

Mississippi is the only state that has reported a “sustained outage” of a website from the hacks, said a senior official from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 

Officials did not name the other states that had reported the low-level hacking activity. 

The clerk of Champaign County, Illinois, told CNN earlier Tuesday that his office had been fending off a suspected cyberattack. 

“We have not seen any evidence to suggest that these are part of a widespread coordinated campaign,” the CISA official said.  

The website of Mississippi’s secretary of state has been down for multiple hours Tuesday after a Russian-speaking hacking group listed it as a target. CNN has reached out to the Mississippi secretary of state’s office for comment.

How this impacts voters: Such websites are not involved in the casting or counting of votes, but they often provide voters with information on how and where to vote. Hackers try to take them down to sow panic or make exaggerated claims about their impact.

The CISA official also sought to tamp down conspiracy theories that seize on the fact that it takes time to tabulate and certify election results. 

“This may take days to weeks depending on state law — and that is completely normal,” the official said. 

Republican Rudy Yakym will win the election for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects, succeeding the late GOP Rep. Jackie Walorski, who died in a car accident this year with two of her staffers.

Yakym, a former Walorski campaign finance director, will defeat Democrat Paul Steury, a high school science teacher, in the reliably red South Bend-based district.

He is also projected to win the special election on serving out the remainder of 2022.

Yakym won his party’s nomination in October after earning the endorsement of Dean Swihart, the husband of the late congresswoman, who introduced the candidate before the state GOP voting caucus in August as a “pro-Trump, pro-life and Christian family man,” according to the South Bend Tribune.

Yakym, a married father of three, has worked at a logistics company and is the head usher at his Baptist church, according to his biography on the National Republican Congressional Committee website.

There is no sense of alarm among Georgia Republicans tonight — despite Democrats jumping to an early advantage as the first batch of votes is counted in the first hour after polls close.

Why? The ballots counted so far come largely from the record-setting early ballots cast in Georgia — more than 2 million in all.

A strategist inside the GOP war room — pouring over data for Gov. Brian Kemp and GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker — say the votes from Election Day will overwhelmingly benefit Republicans. CNN has not yet made projections on these races.

“We like what we see from our turnout today,” the GOP strategist said. “That will become apparent soon enough.”

Yet one question looms large: Will there be a significant fall-off from Kemp to Walker? And did those voters back Warnock or not vote in the Senate race at all?

Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, tells CNN “we are getting ready for a big red mirage and blue shift,” citing an “explosion in early voting and absentee voting” in locations with large central count facilities like Milwaukee, Green Bay and Kenosha. 

The effect “could be magnified compared to 2018,” Wikler added. 

According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, historically jurisdictions that count ballots at central count facilities “have been some of the last to complete unofficial results reporting.”

Wikler said, “Kenosha’s really the biggest question mark on the map.”

Chad Doran, director of communications for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, tells CNN they’re “watching” for any red mirage-type scenarios.

“Day-of voting appears to be beating expectations, which is generally a good sign for Republicans,” Doran said.

Polls in Wisconsin close at 9 p.m. ET.

A Georgia state election official says America needs candidates to be “gracious” in both defeat and victory.

Acting Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling stressed that the US needs political candidates to be “gracious” and publicly trust election results regardless of whether they win or lose.        

“We have reached a point in our nation’s history where we need leaders and candidates for both parties to step up and say, ‘I accept the results of this election’ regardless of the outcome,” Sterling said during a news conference Tuesday night in Atlanta.    

“It sucks to lose, but here’s the math – there is always going to be somebody who wins and somebody who comes up short. For the stability of the nation as a whole, and for the defense for the institutions as they stand, candidates should gracefully accept defeat when the voters have said that to them and they should gracefully accept victory and not rub it in and spike the football,” he said.   

Sterling said that both Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, himself, and other state election officials have been “stewing” on this in the aftermath of the 2020 election when former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the election was rigged and tried to overturn the results. But Sterling said that he is bringing this up tonight due to the fact that “we already have candidates out there saying if I lose it’s because it’s rigged. That’s a pile of crap. They know it is when they say it,” an emotional Sterling said.

“The system cannot take another two or four years of election denial, be it by voter suppression or voter fraud. Both of them are false claims, that have been proven false again and again and again,” Sterling pleaded.    

“We have to stop weaponizing election administration, we have to stop weaponizing the end results of this election.” 

Republican Sen. Rand Paul will win the Kentucky Senate race, CNN projects, and defeat progressive Democrat Charles Booker.  

Republican Katie Britt will win Alabama’s Senate race, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Will Boyd, the pastor of the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church.

It’s the first time the state has elected a woman to the office. 

Britt is the former chief of staff for retired Sen. Richard Shelby. The drama in this race came in the Republican primary when Britt took on Rep. Mo Brooks. Trump initially endorsed Brooks, but he rescinded the endorsement as Brooks’ campaign struggled.

Democrats last won a Senate seat in Alabama in 2017 when Doug Jones won a special election against Republican Roy Moore.

Britt’s chances in crimson red Alabama were never in doubt – the competitive race was for the Republican nomination to succeed the retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby. 

Britt jumped into the primary race even though Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks had already earned former President Donald Trump’s endorsement.  

But Brooks – who led the charge in Congress to overturn the 2020 election results – was viewed as an unreliable ally to the business community, especially compared to Shelby, who delivered federal funding for the state for decades. And Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff and the Business Council of Alabama’s former CEO, had deep ties to that wing of the party.  

Meanwhile, a self-funded Republican candidate, Lynda Blanchard, the former Trump ambassador to Slovenia, never took off and dropped out of the race. Army veteran pilot Mike Durant – of “Black Hawk Down” fame – was weighed down by his sister’s public claims that he was in denial about her allegations of sexual abuse involving their father, which Durant strongly denied.  

And Britt was able to flip Trump. At a Super Bowl party, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick praised Britt—and her husband Wesley, a former Patriot—to Trump. That sparked an invitation to Trump’s Palm Beach estate.  

Britt had already cast herself as a Trump-aligned conservative, arguing that Brooks was a career politician, who had heavily criticized Trump during the 2016 GOP presidential primary. In March, after Brooks publicly accused Trump of asking him to break the law by exploring ways to reinstall him as commander in chief, Trump dropped the congressman.  

In the May primary, Britt received 45% of the vote, but since no candidate received over 50%, the race turned to a June runoff election. Trump then endorsed Britt, who beat Brooks with 63% of the vote. 

Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma will win a special election for US Senate, CNN projects, making him the first Native American to represent Oklahoma in the chamber in nearly a century.  

Mullin, who currently represents the deeply conservative 2nd Congressional District, will defeat Democratic nominee Kendra Horn, a former congresswoman, in the race for the seat of GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is resigning in January.  

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin was first elected to his House seat in eastern Oklahoma in 2012 and went on to closely align himself with former President Donald Trump. 

He voted in 2021 to object to the congressional certification of now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College wins in Pennsylvania and Arizona. Mullin tweeted at the time that he was objecting “due to all the fraud and uncertainty,” though there has been no evidence of fraud even close to widespread enough to have changed the outcome. Two days prior to the vote, he told constituents that he “absolutely” did not think the election was honest. 

But Mullin sought to anchor his Senate campaign in more broad Republican positions, listing “RESTORE Law and Order” and “FIGHT the Liberal Biden Agenda” as priorities on his campaign website.  

“I’m running to keep this seat RED, fight for our conservative values in the Senate, and Save America from Biden’s far left insanity,” his website reads.  

Less prominent in Mullin’s campaign messaging was that fact he was running to be the first Native American senator from Oklahoma since Robert Owen left Congress in 1925, though he did acknowledge the historic nature of his Senate bid during a speech in September.  

“I’m going to be the only true Native American in the Senate when I get elected,” Mullin told the National Tribal Health Conference in Washington, DC. “That’s crazy.” 

“How crazy that we’re true Native Americans, the first Americans,” he added, “and we’re so underrepresented in the halls of Congress.” 

Republican Sen. James Lankford will win reelection in Oklahoma, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Madison Horn. 

Lankford was first elected in 2014, when he won a special election to fill the remainder of former GOP Sen. Tom Coburn’s term. Horn is a Cherokee Nation tribal citizen and cybersecurity professional.  

Florida voters will reelect Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to a third term over Democratic Rep. Val Demings, CNN projects, an outcome that is sure to harden arguments that the Sunshine State is no longer the purple battleground of yesteryear.

Rubio trailed in fundraising throughout the race and operated a low-key campaign with few public events and just one debate. But it was enough to defeat Demings in a state that has been trending red since the last midterm cycle, when another Senate contest was decided in a recount.

The race in Florida entered the election cycle as one to watch. The decision by Demings to challenge Rubio provided a much-needed shot in the arm to a Florida Democratic Party that has struggled to nominate strong candidates. As a Black woman and former Orlando police chief, Demings offered a counter to Republican narratives that Democrats were soft on crime. Demings also proved to be a formidable fundraiser, pulling in more money than Rubio every quarter she was in the race. 

But Demings’ background in law enforcement did not deter Rubio from running ads tying her to anti-law enforcement sentiments in her party, and he often touted the endorsement of most of the state’s elected sheriffs and its police unions.  

Republican voters now outnumber Democrats by more than 300,000 in Florida, a complete reversal from the last time Rubio appeared on the ballot. Under the state’s rightward lurch, Rubio embraced former President Donald Trump, his one-time rival, and he became an original cosponsor to a national 15-week abortion ban introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, even as Demings and Democrats tried to make the election a referendum on abortion access. 

Rubio’s victory comes six years after he nearly bowed out of politics following his failed presidential campaign. As Florida’s senior senator, he will resume his post as one of the Republican Party’s most influential voices on foreign policy at a time of growing tension around the globe over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s rise as a world power and widespread economic unrest over inflation. 

The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio was first elected to the US Senate in 2010 in a three-way race against Democrat Kendrick Meek and then-Gov. Charlie Crist, who ran as an independent. Rubio won reelection in 2016 over Democrat Patrick Murphy. Rubio previously served as a state lawmaker in Florida, where he rose to speaker of the state House.  

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey will win reelection, CNN projects, defeating Democrat Yolanda Flowers. 

Ivey first became governor in 2017 when former GOP Gov. Robert Bentley resigned.  

The Alabama governor did have to fend off a primary challenge from Lindy Blanchard, the former ambassador to Slovenia in the Trump administration, who criticized Ivey for issuing mask mandates to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s hard-charging Republican leader who became a household name during the pandemic, will win a second term leading the Sunshine State, CNN projects, thwarting Democrat Charlie Crist’s attempt to take back his old job. 

With the campaign for reelection behind him, the focus of DeSantis’ political future will now turn to 2024. A decision is looming on whether he rides his political success in Florida into a national campaign for the White House, where he may find himself on a collision course with former President Donald Trump. 

On the campaign trail, DeSantis spent little time on Crist, instead focusing on President Joe Biden and his nationalized political battles. His campaign released a series of compelling, sharply produced videos and ads geared as much toward his growing national following on social media and email as Florida voters. In one labeled “Top Gov,” DeSantis, who served as a Navy lawyer, cosplayed as a fighter pilot as he shared his “rules of engagement” for “dogfighting” with the “corporate media.” In another, his wife Casey DeSantis delivered an emotional account of her battle with breast cancer. His final ad suggested God created DeSantis to be a fighter.  

En route to his victory, DeSantis built an unprecedented cash advantage over Crist and his $31 million campaign. Half of the $200 million DeSantis raised came from donations of $50,000 or more, though he also received tens of thousands of small contributions from across the country. As of November 3, DeSantis had $66 million unused between his two political committees. Sources close to the governor’s team previously told CNN that DeSantis’ political operation had explored how to leverage leftover campaign money for a federal race. 

Crist struggled to gain traction after winning the primary against state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in late August. His campaign was further hampered by the September arrival of Hurricane Ian, which brought the race to a screeching halt and postponed a planned rally and fundraiser with Biden and the race’s only scheduled debate. Biden did Crist no favors when he complimented DeSantis’ handling of Ian during a joint appearance in Fort Myers Beach.  

Crist attempted to make DeSantis’ known political aspirations into an issue in the race. During their only debate, Crist challenged DeSantis to vow to serve a full four-year term if reelected as governor. DeSantis declined. In a canned line he appeared to read off a paper, DeSantis said of his future political ambitions: “The only worn-out, old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”  

In a second term, DeSantis has promised to eliminate permits to carry firearms and further “expand pro-life protections,” though he has not outlined what those might be.  

DeSantis was first elected to the US House in 2012. He was reelected twice, though he resigned his third term early after securing the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. DeSantis defeated a more establishment-backed candidate in that primary on the back of an endorsement from Trump. 

It’s 8 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in the following states:  

Polls are also closing in some House districts in Kansas, Michigan and Texas.  

One thing to note: Polls in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will stay open until 10 p.m. ET, according to an order from Judge Lesa S. Gelb. Attorneys petitioning for the extension of time cited a paper shortage at polling locations that ultimately resulted in the inability to print paper ballots and necessitated the use of emergency and provisional ballots, resulting in delays for voters. 

Here’s what to know about the key races happening in Pennsylvania: The state that put President Biden over the top in 2020 is home to some of the most important Senate and gubernatorial races in the country.  

Republicans are hoping to hold on to an open Senate seat with former TV personality Mehmet Oz, while Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is hoping his nontraditional appeal can help him move the seat into the Democrats’ column. 

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro is trying to maintain Democratic control of Pennsylvania’s governorship in a race that has taken on added importance because the governor appoints the official responsible for elections. Shapiro’s opponent is Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who was a central figure supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here. 

CNN’s Priya Krishnakumar and Will Mullery contributed reporting to this post.  

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia who is locked in tight reelection race with Republican Herschel Walker, lost some support among Black and Hispanic voters in Tuesday’s closely watched election, compared with the special runoff election the Democrat won in 2021, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

The votes in Georgia continue to be counted, but the race is widely expected to be close.

Roughly 9 in 10 Black voters and nearly 6 in 10 Hispanic voters in Georgia supported Warnock, but he lost several percentage points among each group, the preliminary exit polls found.

Warnock also shed a few percentage points of support among men who cast ballots and among voters age 64 and younger. However, the senator gained a small amount of support among White voters, who make up nearly two-thirds of the electorate, and among senior citizens.

Still, Walker was the candidate of choice among more than two-thirds of White voters, as well as among a majority of men who cast ballots.

A majority of women who voted and around 8 in 10 non-White voters opted for Warnock.

More than half of voters age 45 and older cast ballots for Walker, while nearly 6 in 10 younger voters selected Warnock.

More than three-quarters of Ohio voters said the nation’s economy was “poor” or “not so good,” according to the preliminary results of the Ohio Exit Poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

And nearly three-quarters of Buckeye State voters said inflation has caused their family severe or moderate hardship, with nearly 2 in 10 saying their difficulties were severe.

More than half of those who cast ballots said that President Joe Biden’s policies are hurting, while about one-third said they are helping.

The president is not that popular among Ohio voters – more than half disapprove of him, with more than 4 in 10 approving.

The top election official for the city of Milwaukee told reporters Tuesday evening that she expects an overall turnout of 70-75% of registered voters from that area of the state. 

Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, told reporters that this is close to the same level of turnout as what was seen in 2018 and the number of absentee ballots will likely be lower than what was initially expected. 

Milwaukee is one of 38 municipalities in Wisconsin that processes its absentee ballots at a “central count,” or a single location, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

In Milwaukee and other central count cities, absentee votes are reported only after they are all counted, while elsewhere in the state, absentee and in-person votes are generally counted and reported at the same time. 

As of Tuesday morning, more than 60,000 voters in Milwaukee had returned absentee ballots, more than in any other municipality in the state. 

Woodall-Vogg said election workers at the Milwaukee central count are still on track to finish tallying the city’s absentee ballots by 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. CT on Tuesday night.

Based on early voting tallies coming in on two key races in Georgia, some voters are voting for one party’s candidate in the Senate race, but then choosing another party’s candidate in the gubernatorial race.

For example, Democratic nominee and Sen. Raphael Warnock has more actual votes than Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams on the same ticket.

Early results show Warnock with about 80,000 more votes than Abrams, “meaning people are voting for Raphael Warnock, and then not voting for Abrams,” CNN’s John King explained, adding that some of those votes are going to Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.

This is visible specifically in Democratic-leaning Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, where GOP nominee Herschel Walker has fewer than 65,000 votes while Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp has received about 79,000 votes so far.

The early numbers show “Herschel Walker underperforming the governor,” King said in his analysis.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson spent Election Day in Oshkosh with his family after casting his ballot at the Oshkosh Town Hall with his wife, his campaign told CNN.

The Republican also spent time with his grandchildren and dialed into some GOTV radio hits and teletown halls with supporters. 

For his part, Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes spent the day in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee, hopping from college campus to college campus to greet students at Milwaukee Area Technical College, UW-Milwaukee, and Marquette University.

He tweeted: “students at Marquette are fired up and ready to send Ron Johnson packing. So inspired by all of y’all and your determination to be the change you seek.”

If elected, Barnes would be the nation’s second-youngest senator — older only than Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff.

View Barnes’ tweet:

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine will win reelection in Ohio, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Nan Whaley.

It’s 7:30 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in the following states:  

See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here.

Republicans are asking a judge in Maricopa County to keep the polls open until 10 p.m. local time and to suspend the public release of any early ballot returns until 11 p.m. local time. 

The lawsuit against Maricopa County officials alleges that 36% of the county’s voting centers have seen excessive delays and long lines because of continuing malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers. 

Maricopa County has debunked the claims of excessive delays, CNN’s Daniel Dale has reported.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that voters in some polling places were instructed by poll workers to discard their ballots when the tabulation device could not read their ballot and to go to another polling place where they were not necessarily registered. 

The lawsuit alleges that these voters were subsequently turned away at these polling places. CNN’s Ella Nilsen reported earlier today that Maricopa County elections officials insisted that every vote would be counted, despite earlier tabulation issues that arose from a printer issue at about 60 vote centers. 

“There was no one who came today with a valid ID who was turned away from the polls,” Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Even when we had this [issue] and we hadn’t figured out the solution, people were still able to vote. It was just a matter of maybe not voting in the way they wanted to.”

The lawsuit is asking the court to instruct all inspectors at polling locations to allow voters who may be recorded as previously voting, which could be in error because of earlier delays, to complete a provisional ballot for later potential processing.

The campaign team for J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate vying for the open Ohio Senate seat, is buzzing with excitement as the polls are on the verge of coming to a close.

A campaign source said they’re seeing low turnout in Cuyahoga County — a strongly Democratic county that includes Cleveland and went for Joe Biden in 2020. 

“We like what we’re seeing,” the Vance campaign source said.

Vance — who is watching the results from the Ohio GOP watch party tonight — has been popping in and out of the war room that his team has set up here at the hotel as they crunch numbers.

As he arrived on site at the hotel, Vance was all smiles and told CNN when asked how he is feeling, “We’re good, we’re good.”

His campaign said they’ll start to get a better sense about 30 minutes after the polls close, but in Ohio, it’s all about three key cities: Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus.

Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Tim Ryan’s team said the Cuyahoga suburbs look good, and they believe there is a potential data lag in Cleveland proper, where precincts are less staffed. 

Michigan Department of State spokesperson Jake Rollow said “things are going smoothly” with elections in the state.

Asked about recent statements from former President Donald Trump calling for protests in Detroit, Rollow said “we have prepared for this long before the former president issued his statements.” (Trump called for protests after a mishap at the polls on Tuesday morning in Detroit, which election officials called a “harmless data error.”)

When asked about an Ann Arbor poll watcher who was repeatedly issuing impermissible challenges, Rollow explained that the poll watcher was challenging voters who had brought in their blank absentee ballots to surrender before voting in-person, which is the appropriate process. Rollow was unsure if the poll watcher was “removed or simply asked to stop and they stopped,” but those challenges were stopped. 

“We haven’t gotten reports of many challenges at all,” Rollow told reporters. “If we had an appropriate challenges or numerous challenges taking place in the county boards, I believe the clerks would have communicated that to the bureau and we’re not hearing that.” 

For months, GOP activists have clamored about sending a barrage of poll-watchers to challenge ballots in battleground states. 

Separately, Detroit Election Administrator Daniel Baxton just announced to poll workers that the absentee counting board in Detroit has tabulated approximately 63,000 absentee ballots at this point.

Baxter said he is waiting for 2 more deliveries of absentee ballots to come in to this location later tonight. 

More than 4 in 10 of Pennsylvania voters approve of the way Joe Biden is handling his job, but a majority disapprove of the president, who was born and raised in Scranton, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Voters in the commonwealth did not have a high opinion of former President Donald Trump either. Just 4 in 10 had a favorable opinion, while nearly 6 in 10 had an unfavorable opinion.

Meanwhile, just over half of Pennsylvania voters said Biden was not a factor in their vote. For those who said the president was a factor, more than 1 in 10 said they support him, while nearly a third said they oppose him.

More than half of Pennsylvania voters also said that Trump was not a factor in their vote. For those who said the former president was a factor, close to 1 in 5 said they support him, while about a quarter opposes him.

To read more on the exit polls, click here.

Georgia voters were more likely to say that Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has good judgment than they were to say the same of his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, according to the preliminary results of the Georgia exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

But more said Warnock holds views that are too extreme than said the same about Walker.

Just shy of half, about 46%, said only Warnock shows good judgment, with about 28% saying only Walker does, and nearly a fifth that neither candidate does.

Voters in Georgia were close to evenly split on whether or not Warnock’s views were too extreme. Slightly more than 4 in 10 said Walker’s views were too extreme, with just over half saying they were not.

Asked which candidate quality mattered most to their Senate vote, 36% of Georgia voters said they wanted a candidate who shared their values, 32% a candidate who had honesty and integrity, 19% a candidate who cared about people like them, and 8% someone who had the right experience.

Watch CNN’s John King and Jake Tapper at the Magic Wall:

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02:02 - Source: cnn

Officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, intend to keep their main elections office open “as long as we possibly can” to count ballots and deliver midterm election results, the county’s Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said Tuesday.

Parts of the county are under evacuation orders starting early Wednesday morning, as Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to make landfall in the state late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. The storm is currently expected to reach Florida as a hurricane. 

“At this point, we’re thinking we can make it through without a big effect on the election,” Link said in a telephone interview with CNN.

Worsening road conditions Tuesday night could cause some delays as officials retrieve ballot drop boxes, but Link said workers “will stay here until we’re done.”

She anticipates that the county will process mail-in and Election Day ballots Tuesday night and could post the lion’s share of initial, unofficial results on the county’s website by 9 p.m.

Link said workers plan to return Wednesday to answer voters’ questions and continue processing the remaining classes of ballots, including those cast provisionally at polling places and mail-in ballots that need to be corrected in some way. Voters have until 5 p.m. Thursday to fix, or “cure” flaws on mail ballots.

Link did not know early Tuesday evening how many of those kinds of ballots still were outstanding. A little more than 1 million registered voters live in Palm Beach County.

Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the chamber, will win reelection, CNN projects, and defeat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews. 

It’s 7 p.m. ET, and polls are closing statewide in these six states:  

Polls are also closing in some House districts in Florida. 

Here’s what to know about the races happening in the key state of Georgia: Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won Senate seats to flip control of the chamber to Democrats. Warnock is now competing for a full term against Trump-backed football star Herschel Walker, who has maintained GOP support despite several scandals. 

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp survived a Trump-endorsed primary challenger this cycle after rejecting Trump’s election lies in 2020. He won his first term in office in 2018, beating Democrat Stacey Abrams by just 55,000 votes. Abrams never conceded, and the two are facing each other again in in the 2022 midterms, but this time Kemp is coming into the race as a Republican who stood up to Trump. If Abrams wins, she would be the first female Black governor in US history.