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(163)What we covered today
• Blaming the war: As more House races are projected for Democratic candidates, President Donald Trump said today it was “largely true” the Iran war contributed to the GOP shellacking, echoing remarks from Vice President JD Vance.
• Possible target: Many Republican lawmakers and allies are moving swiftly to pin blame for the historic losses on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach the Pentagon’s top leader.
• New oversight: Senate Democrats have issued document preservation letters ahead of expected investigations. The Department of Homeland Security is already bracing for an onslaught of congressional oversight efforts, according to current and former officials.
• What we’re still watching: CNN projects that Democrats will win at least 245 House seats. In the Senate, two contests have not yet been called. CNN Sightline rates the Mississippi race as neutral and Alaska as favoring the Democrat.
Democrats are still flipping House seats as America waits for the last Senate results
As the day after Election Day starts to wind down, many Americans understand Democrats will hold power in Congress, but are now waiting to see how sizable that control will be.
Results continue to trickle in, with several Democrats flipping House seats across the country and a flip for the GOP. And while there are no final results yet in Mississippi’s Senate race, Democratic candidate Scott Colom told CNN he was feeling “confident.” The emerging majorities are already reshaping Washington’s agenda: Democrats are outlining investigations and promising action on affordability, while Republicans confront divisions over the Iran war and responsibility for their losses.
Here’s what else is going on in the elections space:
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces mounting pressure as Republican lawmakers and allies are moving to blame him for the party’s historic losses, and the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach him. Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds, currently a member of the House, said Wednesday Hegseth is doing his job and he won’t vote to impeach him.
- Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming House Oversight chairman, said Trump investigations won’t distract Democrats from lowering costs, naming four targets: the Trump family’s businesses, immigration enforcement, corporate donations to the White House ballroom, and the Epstein files.
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was critical of many Republican races, telling CNN that voters were “disappointed in the productivity” of Congress and playing the blame game on gas prices.
- Across the party aisle, Democratic Senator-elect Annie Andrews also said the Republican party is “fractured,” with the GOP primary between Rep. Ralph Norman and Sen. Darline Graham being a symbol of that rift.
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attributed Democrats win to focusing on working-class Americans and the issues that matter most to them, including cutting costs and building trust with voters.
- Maryland’s Wes Moore used to hold the title of the only Black governor in the US, but soon he will be joined by four others. He emphasized to CNN the historic election of Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is the first Black woman to hold the office.
- Looking ahead, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich put doubt on Vice President JD Vance leading the party as the presidential nominee in 2028, saying the GOP loss in the midterms, along with several strategies Vance has taken, has made “a good bit of the luster has come off the bloom.”
CNN’s Tori B. Powell, Elise Hammond, Katherine Koretski, Arpita Dasika and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.
How Jeffries and Schumer are teaming up to take on Trump
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are planning an aggressive legislative and investigative agenda to take on President Donald Trump’s policies. CNN’s Manu Raju reports.
After Democrats won the House and Senate, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are planning an aggressive legislative and investigative agenda to take on President Donald Trump. CNN's Manu Raju reports.
Ford vows to be Nevada’s “most pro-worker” governor after historic win
Democrat Aaron Ford, who claimed victory in his bid to become Nevada’s first Black governor, cast his win as a triumph for working Nevadans over money and power during a victory speech in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Ford, the state’s attorney general, said Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo had “graciously conceded” in a phone call earlier that morning. He thanked Lombardo for his willingness to work across partisan divides and pledged to represent Nevadans who voted against him.
Vowing to tackle affordability “on day one,” he promised to lower the cost of housing, healthcare and energy, guarantee school meals for every child and protect the state’s water. He also pledged to repeal Nevada’s right-to-work law, which prohibits requiring workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
Recounting his own path from food stamps, Medicaid and Section 8 housing to statewide office, he framed the win as evidence of upward mobility.
Benitez-Thompson says she has "golden opportunity" to represent rural Nevadans in DC
Teresa Benitez-Thompson, Congresswoman-elect for Nevada’s 2nd District, said “frustration across the board” was what drove voters to elect a Democrat to represent her district for the first time.
The cost of gas was a major pressure point for voters in her largely rural district where many people must drive long distances to access services like health care, Benitez-Thompson told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Benitez-Thompson said representing these rural communities in the House is “what’s most important to me,” adding that “taking our rural voices and our community voices to Washington, DC, is going to be very important.”
Benitez-Thompson, who is set to become the first female Hispanic member of the House from her state, said Democrats will do a better job than Republicans at meeting the needs of Latinos.
Newly elected Democrat says his election is a message of hope by voters
Democrat Sam Forstag said that voters delivered a message of hope by electing him to Montana’s 1st District, a place President Donald Trump was elected by more than 11 points in 2024.
Forstag previously worked as a smokejumper, a type of firefighter that jumps into remote areas. That job experience, he said, has prepared him in some ways for his new role.
"I’m a border security Democrat" ready to work with Trump, Talarico tells CNN
James Talarico told CNN he is ready to cross the aisle and work directly with President Donald Trump to fix border issues.
Self-described "border security Democrat" James Talarico is ready to cross the aisle and work directly with Donald Trump to fix the border. Speaking with Erin Burnett, the newly elected Texas Senator emphasized that community protection beats partisan gridlock: "I think there's an opportunity here to finally pass comprehensive immigration reform to secure our border... I will work with anyone to get it done."
Hegseth "needs to go," Sen. Mark Kelly says
Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth needs to “go as soon as possible,” as Republican lawmakers move to blame Hegseth for the Republican Party’s stunning defeat Tuesday.
“Donald Trump should fire him,” Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “If he doesn’t fire him, we’ll see what Republicans in the House want to do. It sounds like they want to impeach him. We’ll see what happens with that effort. I would like to see him go as soon as possible because he is just unable to do this job and he’s doing significant damage to the US military.”
The House could vote as soon as next week to impeach Hegseth, the Pentagon’s top leader.
Kelly, a retired Navy captain, said once Democrats take control of Congress, they will “put pressure on this president” to end the war in Iran, adding “we’ve got tools.”
Asked about whether he plans to run for president in 2028, Kelly, who has publicly weighed a White House bid, told Tapper he has not yet made his decision.
“Right now, I am making a lot of phone calls, congratulating people who won last night,” he said. “I’ll figure the rest of that out later with my family.”
Garcia insists that future congressional investigations won’t distract from affordability
The incoming head of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia, touted the four main investigations the panel will pursue now that Democrats are projected to flip the House, insisting on Wednesday that probes on the “corruption of Donald Trump and this administration” won’t sidetrack efforts to bring down costs.
“It’s because the oil companies are enriching themselves,” he continued. “That all goes back to the price of gas. It goes back to the price of groceries because Trump won’t take on the donors and those that are involved in these pricing schemes at the grocery store.”
Garcia reiterated Democrats will focus on the Trump family’s business dealings, the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement activities, corporate corruption and donations to the White House ballroom and other monuments in Washington, as well as the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
CNN previously reported in September that Democrats had already begun to lay the groundwork for investigations if they won control of the House.
CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
Republicans need to focus on costs and elections will fall into place, new Florida governor says
While Republicans saw losses in the midterm elections, if the party focuses on affordability and prices, the “elections will take care of themselves,” Florida Governor-elect Byron Donalds said.
When asked if President Donald Trump did enough in that area, Donalds said “Well, I mean, look, let’s just be very clear. I think $4 gas is $4 gas.”
He said that was on voters’ minds, and that now the party has the “responsibility now to go back to the drawing board, look at the idea sets, make sure we’re pushing the policies that are going to help people’s lives better.”
Donalds, currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, also weighed in on the possibility of impeaching Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — a vote that could happen as soon as next week.
Gingrich says Vance is damaged goods in 2028
At least one prominent Republican seems to think Tuesday’s election results have damaged Vice President JD Vance’s status in the 2028 presidential primaries.
In an X post, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says a GOP win would have given Vance “an enormous argument to be the inevitable nominee.”
But he suggested Vance might have influenced some of the administration’s faulty strategies, including in Iran.
Gingrich hyped Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while also mentioning Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Vance is an attractive foil for many in the GOP who don’t seem to have much regard for his policies in the first place — including his non-interventionism and his skepticism of the alliance with Israel. It’s also attractive to blame him rather than President Donald Trump, which Republicans are much more loath to do.
But there is certainly truth in Gingrich’s comments — that the results hurt Vance’s prospects — which is probably why Vance felt compelled to issue a lengthy explanation of the election results and distanced himself somewhat from Trump’s decisions, again.
South Carolina result shows Republicans rejected a Washington-picked candidate, Andrews says
Democratic Senator-elect Annie Andrews told CNN that a rift between Republicans in her state — and in the country — was a factor in her election.
She said the GOP primary between Rep. Ralph Norman and Sen. Darline Graham was “a symbol of how fractured the Republican Party is here.”
Graham defeated Norman in a close runoff this year. Afterwards, Norman revealed to CNN his entire family was not voting for his former opponent, who was hand-picked by President Donald Trump.
“I also think it’s just a rejection by some Republicans in South Carolina about the idea that Washington would pick our next senator,” she told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday night.
Andrews went on to say that voters in her state have rejected “dirty politics” and that “they wanted something different.”
“So they took a chance on a mom of three and a pediatrician,” she said.
Jace Yarbrough will flip Texas' redrawn 32nd District for the GOP, CNN projects
Republican Jace Yarbrough, an Air Force veteran and conservative constitutional attorney, will win in Texas’ redrawn 32nd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, flipping a Democrat-held House seat.
The district had been centered around the Dallas suburbs and solidly Democratic. But the 32nd was changed in Republican-led redistricting last year, with its boundaries now stretching east and taking in typically Republican-voting areas.
Voters wanted to get back to the core values of the country's foundation, documentarian says
The Democratic wave in the midterm elections show that people were ready to “get back to what the values were that created the country,” documentarian Ken Burns told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
"This is a pretty remarkable time," Moore says of historic governor election results
Before last night, Wes Moore was the country’s only Black governor. But soon, a record five Black governors will assume office after voters reelected Moore, and chose Keisha Lance Bottoms, Aaron Ford, David Crowley and Byron Donalds for the job.
Moore told CNN’s Jake Tapper he campaigned so much for other candidates this midterm season “to make sure that no one ever has to hold that title ever again.”
One of the candidates Moore campaigned for was Bottoms, who last night became the first Black woman to hold the title in US history.
Voters showed they were "disappointed in the productivity" of Congress, DeSantis says
The Democratic wave that led the party to take over both chambers of Congress was a result of voters being “disappointed in the productivity” of Congress members, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, adding they “really didn’t have much to run on.”
“This was across the country, voters coming out — obviously on the Democrat side, independents and even some crossover Republicans — to express their displeasure about what’s going on in Washington and both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The “open-ended” war in Iran had an impact on voters as well, specifically a “direct effect on people’s pocketbooks.”
“Every time they went to the gas pump, they saw the gas higher,” DeSantis said. “And I’ve criticized some of our Republican congressmen and Senate candidates running around the country trying to blame the high gas prices on Biden. Gas was $3 a gallon a year and a half ago, and now it’s four, and it’s four because of the (Iran) war. So when you gaslight people, they don’t trust you on anything else.”
The issue of inflation was a problem for Republicans as well, he said, because “when they go to the grocery store, they’re reminded of that and their wages are not keeping up with the costs of living.”
Looking toward the future of the Republican party, DeSantis advocated for more ideas in the party about what to accomplish and stand for. He added that while Trump’s personality has been a big part of the MAGA movement, “I don’t think there’s anybody that would be able to take up all the oxygen in the room the way the president can.”
Democrat Cait Conley will oust Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in New York, CNN projects
Combat veteran and Biden administration alum Cait Conley will defeat incumbent Republican Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, flipping the battleground seat for Democrats.
Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine controversially broke with his party to back Lawler’s reelection bid in the New York City suburbs.
Democrat Marni von Wilpert will flip California’s 48th District, CNN projects
Democrat Marni von Wilpert will win the race for California’s 48th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, flipping the redrawn seat.
The district was redrawn from deep red to one that narrowly favored Democrats after California voters approved new maps in 2025.
Incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican, decided to retire rather than seek reelection under the new lines.
Democratic wins show candidates' platforms speak to working Americans, Mamdani says
The wins Democratic candidates have been achieving show their platforms “speak to the crises in working class Americans’ lives,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Those wins now show “a mandate to drive down costs, a mandate to deliver change working-class Americans can feel in their wallet, and a mandate to fulfill the trust that those same Americans have put into Democrats.”
Mentioning the friendly relationship the mayor has with President Donald Trump, Tapper asked if Mamdani thinks potential House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries should try and get along with the president or be more aggressive.
“What we’ve focused on in the meetings and conversations we’ve had is finding those few areas of commonality,” he said. “I think that in many ways, it’s indicative of what our responsibility is as politicians — work with anyone and everyone, so long as the focus is for the benefit of the people we represent.”
Democrat Scott Colom to CNN: "I'm confident"
With a narrow lead in the Mississippi Senate race, Democrat Scott Colom expressed optimism in an interview with CNN, saying, “It’s very clear where it’s going.”
Listen to what Colom told CNN’s Annie Grayer.
