Key takeaways from today
• Midterm analysis: President Donald Trump said he is “disappointed” in people who voted against the GOP over the Iran war, asserting that higher costs have been a small price to pay to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.
• Dem governor pickups: Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins will win the race for Alaska governor, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, becoming the first Democrat elected to lead the state in two decades. CNN also projects that Democrat Cindy Holscher will defeat Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race. As soon as this year’s winners are sworn in, roughly 75% of all Americans will have Democratic governors.
• Democratic battle ahead: Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced he would challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, launching an uphill battle to lead the chamber’s Democrats after their sweeping victory.
Updates
(33)Our live coverage has ended. Get the latest on the midterm elections here.
Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins will become Alaska’s next governor, CNN projects
Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins will win Alaska’s governor race, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, becoming the first Democrat elected to lead the state in two decades.
Facing three Republicans in the general election, Kreiss-Tompkins benefited from a split vote and national headwinds against the party in power. Another Democrat had initially advanced with Kreiss-Tompkins from this summer’s top-four all-party primary but stepped aside to better Kreiss-Tompkins’ chances.
Born and raised in Sitka, the Democrat ran a campaign focused on affordability, expanding healthcare access and protecting the rural state’s fisheries.
Kreiss-Tomkins secured a key cross-party endorsement from Alaska’s senior Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, in the final stretch of the campaign.
After a blue wave swept the midterms, roughly 75% of Americans living in the 50 states will have a Democratic governor after the winners are sworn in.
Democrats will control 30 governorships to Republicans’ 20.
Some senators begin taking sides in their pick for Senate majority leader
Minutes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s announcement that he’s launching an underdog bid for Senate majority leader against the heavily favored Sen. Chuck Schumer, some Democratic senators began indicating their pick to lead the caucus.
Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, threw his weight behind the current leader, crediting the New York Senator with Democrats’ sweeping midterm wins.
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto echoed King and applauded Schumer’s leadership following Van Hollen’s announcement: “Leader Schumer was instrumental in Democrats flipping 8 - soon to be 9 - Senate seats and securing a historic majority. I will be supporting him as our Democratic leader.”
Meanwhile, in the party’s progressive flank, incoming Sen. Abdul El-Sayed reiterated his support for Van Hollen, who was notably the first Democratic senator to endorse El-Sayed in the Michigan primary.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, also said he would support Van Hollen as leader.
“The American people voted for change. They want a Democratic Party that will stand up to powerful special interests, take on the billionaire class and fight for working families. That is why I am supporting Senator Chris Van Hollen to lead Senate Democrats,” Sanders wrote on X.
The closed-door vote is set for December 1.
Trump says GOP losses tied to affordability driven by war and poor candidates. Catch up
President Donald Trump today acknowledged that Republicans’ heavy losses in the midterm elections were driven by both poor candidates and voters’ worries about affordability – acknowledging that the Iran war created conditions that turned people against the GOP.
But the president added that he is “disappointed” in people who voted against the party over the war, insisting the higher costs they have had to endure are a small price to pay to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Catch up on what the president said today:
- More from Trump interview: In an interview with Stephen A. Smith, Trump claimed he would beat former President Barack Obama “easily” if they both ran for president. He also said that losing GOP Texas senatorial candidate Ken Paxton should have debated his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
- On Iran: The president suggested that the US could subdue Iran in mere days by attacking the country’s energy infrastructure and manufacturing capacity – which commentators have said could amount to a war crime if the targets were being used solely for civilian purposes. He said he would “absolutely” consider it a defeat if the “Iran crazies” are still in power when his term ends. In a social media post, he shifted gears once again on the war, writing that the US doesn’t “need a deal” with Tehran and ordering his vice president to turn his focus elsewhere.
- Trump on oversight: Earlier, the president said Democrats are “illegally threatening Republicans,” as his administration escalates its threats against lawmakers who have vowed to investigate the president and his administration when they take over Congress.
And in other political news:
Chris Van Hollen announced he’s taking on fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer for the role of Senate majority leader and has voiced interest in a 2028 presidential run. CNN explains where Senator Van Hollen stands on international affairs.
- Senate battle: Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced he would challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, launching an uphill battle to lead the chamber’s Democrats after their sweeping victory.
- CNN projection: Democrat Cindy Holscher will defeat Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race. Her victory means that more than 75% of Americans living in the 50 states will have a Democratic governor.
- New office holders: Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand urged Democrats to stop being afraid of facing hostile questions and engaging with Republican voters. Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico told Democrats they “must work with President Trump.”
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Eric Bradner, Alejandra Jaramillo, Aileen Graef, Logan Schiciano, Ethan Cohen, Kit Maher and Alayna Treene contributed reporting.
Trump says he would beat Obama "easily" if they ran against each other for president
President Donald Trump said today that he would beat former President Barack Obama “easily” if they both ran for president.
“I think I’d beat him easily,” he said when Stephen A. Smith asked who would win in a hypothetical election, as both men are prohibited by the 22nd Amendment from seeking a third term.
“I think he’s highly overrated,” Trump added.
“I didn’t think he was a good president. I thought he was a divider,” he said when Smith pressed him further on his feelings about Obama.
“And what would you classify yourself as being?” Smith asked.
“As a person that brings people together,” Trump replied.
Obama had campaigned on bringing people together. Trump has made little secret of disdaining Democrats, recently telling CBS’s 60 Minutes he would not cease hating political enemies, even if it jeopardized his ability to enter heaven.
Former New Orleans mayor says midterm wins show Democrats must "compete everywhere"
Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told a major gathering of Democrats on Thursday that the party has “to compete everywhere” and prove that it will “clean up Washington.”
“Do the simple things first: End the war. End the tariffs. And ban Congress and the president from stock trading,” he said. “But we can’t ask the people to trust the government until the government is worth trusting.”
Landrieu, the scion of a major Louisiana political family, has said he is considering a run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination — and if he does, encouraging Democrats to compete in the South would be at the core of his message.
In Denver on Thursday, Landrieu said that there is a supermajority of Americans that is ready to end “endless wars,” take on the pharmaceutical industry, get money out of politics and improve Americans’ financial standing. He pointed to the Democratic win in Mississippi’s Senate race as evidence the party can win on traditionally red turf.
“We are the ones who have to restore the promise of America,” he said.
Trump says he's "disappointed" in voters who turned on GOP over the Iran war
President Donald Trump said today that he is “disappointed” in people who voted against the GOP over the Iran war, asserting that the higher costs they have had to endure because of the conflict are a small price to pay to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
“I’m disappointed in people because I really think it’s a very small, it’s really a very small thing to pay to get rid of a country that would absolutely, in my opinion, use nuclear weapons on us, on others, but also on us,” Trump said in an interview with Stephen A. Smith.
The president pointedly conceded that the war may have played a role in the GOP’s massive losses. But he suggested voters were reacting not to the war itself, but to the economic fallout it caused.
“I don’t think it was the war as much as what the war did,” Trump said.
The president also argued that Republicans lost because he wasn’t personally on the ballot, even as Smith pushed back several times, noting that Trump had urged voters across the country to act as if he were on the ballot.
“If I didn’t campaign, they would’ve done worse,” Trump said.
Trump suggests he could defeat Iran in three days by taking out its infrastructure
President Donald Trump suggested that the United States could subdue Iran in mere days by attacking the country’s energy infrastructure and manufacturing capacity – which commentators have said could amount to a war crime if the targets were being used solely for civilian purposes.
“We haven’t attacked their energy. If I want to take them out, I hit their – in one day, their energy’s gone. In one day, their bridges are gone, and in one day, their manufacturing capability is gone. It would only take me three days, one day each,” he told Stephen A. Smith in an interview.
Trump’s comments come days after he told CNN that is “highly unlikely” he will need to order the US back to war with Iran as long as there is progress in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
CNN previously reported that leaders in US Central Command and the Pentagon have been developing a wide-ranging target list, which includes Iranian energy infrastructure, military sites and nuclear facilities.
Trump says Paxton should have agreed to debates
President Donald Trump said today that losing GOP Texas senatorial candidate Ken Paxton should have participated in debates with his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, after commentator Stephen A. Smith said he felt avoiding the public forums was a “punk move.”
“Yes. Absolutely. So, he should have done the debates. I thought. I thought he should have done the debates. I thought it was a mistake. I thought it was close enough that the debates were very important,” Trump told Smith in an interview.
Trump acknowledged that his endorsement of Paxton in the primary against incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn may have convinced him he could secure the seat in the general election without a debate.
“A lot of them thought if they get my endorsement, they don’t have to debate. I think getting the endorsement with some hurt them because – it didn’t hurt them, but they didn’t work as hard as they should have worked,” he said.
Governor-elect urges Democrats to answer hard questions from GOP voters after red-state wins
Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand on Thursday urged Democrats to stop being afraid of facing hostile questions and engaging with Republican voters as the party seeks to hold onto the gains it made in the 2026 midterm elections.
That, he said at a major gathering of Democrats in Denver, was a critical part of how he won the governor’s office of a state that was deep-red for the last decade.
“There is nothing that felt better to me, as a human being, as a Christian, than to hand the microphone to someone that the whole world is telling me is my enemy, and just let them ask me whatever they want,” Sand said.
“A reporter asked me one time, ‘Does this ever backfire?’ The answer to that question is simple: you’re missing the point. It can’t,” he said. “There’s literally no question that I can be asked, no answer that I could give, no matter how bad, that would speak more loudly than me handing the microphone to someone at my event who says they’re a Republican.”
Sand recalled opening all of his campaign events by having groups — Democrats, Republicans and independents — applaud each other, one at a time, and then leading the crowd in singing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.”
He also admonished Democrats that voters can tell when they are dodging tough questions.
“Every human being alive has spent their entire life asking and answering questions. If you think you’re being clever when you don’t answer a question, they know, because they’ve been doing this since they were a child. You can’t fool them,” he said. “If you didn’t answer the question, they might hear your words, and your words might be pretty, but they also know you didn’t answer the question.”
Sand added: “The question is: Do you want to be a human being that answers questions, or do you want to be a politician? You give them their answer every single time you don’t answer a question. Answer the question.”
Talarico tells Democrats they "must work" with Trump
Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico told Democrats they “must work with President Trump” on Thursday at a major gathering of Democrats in Denver Thursday.
“If President Trump wants the same plaques and portraits and busts as LBJ, we can help make that a reality,” he said. “We should make the final two years of his presidency the most productive of any presidency in American history. Because this moment is so much bigger and so much more important than the red team or the blue team. It’s so much bigger than party.”
Talarico said Americans are desperate for a break from a decade of “politics as bloodsport” and “politics as professional wrestling.”
“It leaves us all feeling terrible, all of the time,” he said. “Across the political spectrum, there is a deep hunger for a different kind of politics.”
Talarico said the election in which Texas, for the first time in a generation, elected him along with a slate of statewide Democratic candidates, showed the American public was demanding change.
“We can’t let them down. We can’t play it safe. We can’t get bogged down in the same petty fights. We can’t settle for nibbling around the edges or results people will only feel a decade from now,” he said. “We have to be brave. We have to be bold. We have to be big. We need a Democratic Party that is a little less Washington and a little more Texas.”
Trump says poor candidates and voters' affordability concerns drove midterm losses
President Donald Trump today acknowledged that Republicans’ heavy losses in the midterm elections were driven by both poor candidates and voters’ worries about affordability – acknowledging that the war in Iran created conditions that turned people against the GOP.
In an interview with Stephen A. Smith, Trump was asked whether voters rejected the candidates he endorsed, or whether the cost of living became an issue Americans felt he ignored because he was preoccupied with war.
“No, I think it’s both,” Trump told Smith. “I feel I had to do what I did in Iran. I think historically that’s going to be a great decision – I hope, but short term, I guess it it is tougher politically.”
Trump also offered a lukewarm assessment of GOP candidates – as Smith pressed him on his hand-selecting some who ultimately lost.
“Some of them I liked, some of them I liked less, but I thought every one of them was better than the Democrats in terms of policy,” he said.
Three-quarters of Americans to have Dem governor as CNN projects Holscher to win in Kansas
Democrat Cindy Holscher will defeat Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.
Holscher will succeed term-limited Gov. Laura Kelly, who made national headlines when she was first elected to the governor’s office in the traditionally red state in 2018.
While Holscher flipped two Republican-held seats during her time in the Kansas Legislature, Kelly initially cast her as too progressive to win statewide and backed a more moderate candidate. The governor eventually endorsed Holscher after her primary victory.
On the campaign trail, Holscher called for raising the minimum wage, lowering healthcare and housing costs, and placing a statewide moratorium on new AI data centers.
Trump won Kansas by 16 points in 2024, and Republicans had been optimistic about flipping the governorship with Masterson, the state Senate president.
Democrats will control 29 governorships to Republicans’ 20, with the race in Alaska still uncalled.
Trump says it would be "a defeat" if Iran’s leaders are still in power when his term ends
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would “absolutely” consider it a defeat if the “Iran crazies” are still in power when his term ends.
“Yes, that would be a defeat,” Trump told Salem News Channel host Hugh Hewitt in a phone interview.
“Yep, I would say that would be a defeat. Absolutely.”
When asked what would happen if Iran killed a US official, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump replied: “They will not exist any longer.”
Earlier this week, Bessent moved from his Washington, DC, home to a US military base after alleged Iranian threats to his life.
Trump says it’s "too early to say" whether he’ll endorse a 2028 successor: “It’s a feel”
President Donald Trump said today it is “too early to say” whether he will endorse one of the Republicans who might ultimately run to succeed him – either before or during the 2028 primaries.
“I don’t know. You know, it depends on how – what the feeling is,” Trump told Salem News Channel host Hugh Hewitt.
“It’s a feel. It’s a touch. It’s too early to say. I like a lot of people,” he added.
The president also said his backing usually makes the difference.
“Almost everybody that I endorse wins,” Trump said.
Earlier in the interview, Trump said Republican presidential debates over who will succeed him should start in a year, calling it “a year process.”
“I would say in a year. I think a year is a lot of time,” Trump said when Hewitt asked when the 2028 GOP primary debates should begin.
“I mean, you go to some countries, they have like a period of two weeks, which is probably too short. But I think a year process,” the president continued.
“I don’t know about on the other side, we have some very good people on the bench. We really do. We have some very good candidates,” he said.
Trump has sent mixed signals about the 2028 race, sometimes suggesting he might not endorse a successor, and at other times hinting he could back Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio if they run.
Blanche: No ongoing criminal investigations into incoming lawmakers over talk of probes
Amid a flurry of comments made by incoming Democratic lawmakers around the investigations they want to pursue into the administration, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that while “free speech is allowed” their rhetoric “should worry Americans.”
Democratic lawmakers have said they will launch investigations into the conduct of the administration now that they will have control of the House and Senate.
Blanche, during a press conference Thursday, said there were no ongoing criminal investigations “into words that that incoming senators or congressmen have said.”
He added: “You can be critical of this administration. You can certainly be critical of me and critical of President Trump. But there can come a point when when a criticism becomes a threat, and then when a threat becomes something criminal.”
Blanche told reporters that he’s not saying that line has been crossed yet.
“I’m not trying to say anything sensational,” Blanche added.
“The issue is when it becomes actually criminal,” he said, noting that if someone can’t do their job because of investigative threats “there could be a problem there.”
“I am optimistic, as the president is, that we will have a Relationship with congress that is productive,” he said. “I certainly am optimistic that there will be cooperation, but we will see.”
Trump downplays prospect of Jimmy Lai's release ahead of China visit
President Donald Trump acknowledged today that efforts to free former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai from a Chinese prison face an uphill battle, saying that while he’d discussed Lai’s case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, there remains “great animosity there.”
“As you know, I’ve gotten others out, and recently, I’ve gotten others out. Jimmy Lai is a little bit of a different story,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “And I spoke at length with President Xi about Jimmy Lai. I don’t know Jimmy Lai, but I know the whole story, and there’s a great level of hatred there. I’m using a nice word.”
Trump’s comments come just four days ahead of a scheduled trip to Asia, where he’s scheduled to stop in the Philippines and Shenzhen, China, where he’s expected to meet with Xi.
Trump has previously said he’s raised the issue of detained political prisoners during meetings with the Chinese leader. In July, Pastor Ezra Jin was released shortly after Trump raised his case during an earlier visit to Beijing.
But the Hong Kong media tycoon, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison earlier this year, remains in custody despite calls from the administration for his release. The 78-year-old self-made billionaire was among the highest-profile government critics charged since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020.
Speaking today, the US president said he discussed Lai’s case with Xi “in great detail, and he agreed to other people,” but added “he has not agreed to Jimmy Lai.”
Incoming Senate Democrat won’t say if he’ll back Schumer for leader
Democratic Sen.-elect Chris Pappas refused to say if he’ll back Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for another term in charge of the caucus.
“I look forward to continuing to talk with him about what I need to be successful for the people of New Hampshire, and I think senators individually are going to have those conversations. I’ve always said we’ll see who’s running and throws their hat into the ring,” he told reporters.
“I think what we’re interested in is making sure that we have a new way of doing business, that the voices of American voters are going to be heard in these halls, and I think it’s incumbent on all of us who just won tough elections to bring those voices with us to the table.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who has said he would back Schumer, dismissed concerns that a possible challenge from Sen. Chris Van Hollen could divide the caucus.
“Chris Van Hollen is a great colleague, he’s a good friend, and I have not heard that he’s actually running for majority leader, but I’m supporting Chuck Schumer,” said Blumenthal, adding he’s “excited by the new ideas and energy that my colleagues, new colleagues, will bring to the Senate, and most importantly, need to have a conversation about how to make the Senate work better. That’s one of the main goals here, and it’s a priority for me to make sure that the Senate rules and the procedures and the way we operate produce more results.”
GOP senator frustrated Trump has not said how $350B defense funding request would be used
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds is frustrated that President Donald Trump is demanding the Senate pass $350 billion for defense funding but his administration has not provided Capitol Hill with the critical and necessary details of how the funding would be used.
The member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is also angry that the administration has cut Democrats out of crucial classified briefings on the war that he believes could build Democratic support for the funding Trump is demanding.
Rounds said it’s not clear if the party-line reconciliation bill Trump wants can even get 51 votes among GOP senators.
“But just the fact that we haven’t seen from them the actual things that they would fund it with and so forth makes it extremely difficult in the time period to actually get it done,” he said, noting they may need to pursue another way to pass it, like a supplemental that could be attached to a must-pass government funding bill.
Democrats are wary of providing more money for the war when voters have said they want it over.
“I think they need to have and invite in our Democrat colleagues to some of the classifieds that the Democrats have not been privy to yet, and once they get that, I think there’s a better shot maybe at even getting 60 votes than what there would be to get 50,” Republican votes, he said.
Asked to explain why Democrats are being excluded from classified briefings, Rounds said sternly, “I don’t know, and I have expressed my frustration with the administration directly to the people that have not been providing (it).”
He said those people have said their “hands are tied” on the matter. He did not answer directly when asked by CNN if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was blocking Democrats from these briefings.
Rounds described Democrats as “partners” who over the years have helped pass critical national security laws and funding and said it is “wrong” that they are not invited to the same classified briefings he is invited to.
“And that is part of the problem we have up here right now. And I have expressed it specifically to members of the administration on multiple occasions. Multiple occasions. It has to be resolved,” he said.
Van Hollen says there's a demand for “bold leadership” as he considers Schumer challenge
Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he’s still undecided on launching a bid for Senate majority leader, but he has talked to current Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer as calls within the caucus grow for change at the top.
“I’m still actively listening to members,” Van Hollen told CNN on Thursday.
Pressed on an argument from Schumer’s allies that he helped lead Democrats to commanding victories in the midterm elections, Van Hollen said it is not about individuals, but “this is about a demand in the country for change and bold leadership.”
“But we need to talk to my colleagues about what they think the best path forward would be,” he added.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elissa Slotkin held a press conference this week announcing they will not back Schumer in closed-ballot elections later this month. Several incoming Democratic senators have also expressed a desire for new leadership.
Asked if he had spoken to Schumer, Van Hollen responded, “He and I have had a conversation.”
