What we're tracking
• High-water marks: Democrats, who have won their largest majority in the House in nearly 20 years, are on the verge of exceeding the 257 seats at the start of Barack Obama’s presidency and the 258 at the start of Bill Clinton’s tenure. They’ve already flipped over 40 seats.
• Stocks tumble: Global stocks are reeling following a steep sell-off on Wall Street over anticipation that Democrats could stymie an AI investment boom that has driven global stocks to record highs.
• Mississippi race: Democratic and Republican allies are closely watching the counting of provisional ballots in the Senate race. Democratic nominee Scott Colom is confident that he’ll win against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, whose allies think there are enough GOP-leaning districts with votes still to be counted.
• Midterms report card: From JB Pritzker to JD Vance, potential candidates in the 2028 presidential race put themselves on the line in the midterms. Read how it could change the 2028 playbook.
Updates
(11)Tucker Carlson blasts Trump and praises Vance
Conservative media host Tucker Carlson, who broke with President Donald Trump over the Iran war, is weighing in on a difficult week for Republicans. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan reports.
Tucker Carlson, who broke with President Trump over the Iran war, is weighing in on a difficult week for Republicans. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan reports.
What can Democrats do with this many House votes?
Democrats have won at least 253 House seats and they’re leading in six of the outstanding House races.
That means their ultimate majority will approach and could exceed 260 House seats, depending on how things turn out.
By number of seats flipped — they’re currently at 43 and could end up around 50 — it’s not as big a shift as some other elections. In 2010, Barack Obama’s first midterm, Republicans picked up 64 House seats. And in 1994, Bill Clinton’s first midterm, Republicans picked up 54 seats. But in terms of the size of the majority, this is shaping up to be a banner year.
It would be the largest House majority since 1991, which was at the end of a decades-long era when Democrats routinely had 260 or more House seats before the 1994 “Republican Revolution.”
That’s a larger House majority than Democrats had when they passed the Affordable Care Act under Obama.
Democrats will still have to work with Republicans to pass major legislation. They will not have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate but rather will have between 54 and 56 seats when the outstanding races in Alaska and Mississippi are resolved. Plus, many of their incoming red state senators were elected with promises to intentionally work with Republicans.
It also means that soon-to-be House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have the luxury of being able to pass legislation without support from his entire caucus, meaning the most liberal or conservative members will have less power over him.
It will also still take buy-in from Republicans to get the 290 votes needed to override anticipated vetoes by President Donald Trump. In the Senate, it takes 67 votes to override a veto.
Bottom line: Democrats are looking at the kind of House majority not seen in decades in Washington — the kind of majority mandates are made of. But it’s not enough to govern on their own.
Judge’s ruling blocking triumphal arch is ill-timed for the GOP
President Donald Trump has shown repeatedly this week that he simply doesn’t care that his preoccupation with construction projects is alienating Americans and hurting his party politically.
Not only did he make a bizarre visit to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday for his last public event before the Election Day 2026, but then he did a photo op in his under-construction White House ballroom the day after the election, despite the overwhelming GOP losses.
A judge’s ruling overnight has bad news for the GOP: They now face a legal battle over Trump’s coveted triumphal arch that means the subject is sure to continue occupying plenty of Trump’s mind space.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily halted construction of the arch in a ruling around midnight.
Chutkan, notably, cast doubt on the administration’s belated argument that the arch is important for national security – a legal strategy Trump has repeatedly used, including for the ballroom. She called that assertion “recent and unsupported” and noted it appeared “nowhere in the planning documents on which the project was reviewed and approved.”
The ruling means the arch is set to be the latest Trump project that is due to be the subject of an extended legal battle, much like his ballroom, the Reflecting Pool and the Kennedy Center. And it’s particularly ill-timed, given this is a moment that many in the party would prefer Trump learned his lesson and started focusing on other things like affordability.
The White House X account posted on Friday morning calling the arch “a monumental tribute to America’s first 250 years.”
After Trump went to the ballroom on Wednesday, conservative radio host Steve Deace reflected on X that whoever was responsible “should be fired and never work in politics again, and perhaps even in prison forever like on the moon.”
Polls show these projects are broadly unpopular, and Trump’s focus on them epitomizes what voters say are his misplaced priorities. The CNN Voter Poll of the midterms showed 64% of voters said Trump does not have the right priorities.
But Trump defended focusing on things like the ballroom during his appearance there Wednesday.
“It was sort of mentioned a little bit during the campaign that – about, why does Trump spend time on the White House?” Trump said. “Well, first of all, it’s very little time. Second of all, I like it. It’s good. For me, it’s relaxing. For somebody else it’s the opposite, but for me it’s really – I love construction.”
Vance has no chance of becoming president, Trump's former deputy press secretary says
Sarah Matthews, former Trump White House deputy press secretary, said Vice President JD Vance has little chance of winning the 2028 Republican president nomination because he is tied to the Trump administration’s unpopular policies and failures. She believed that association could also hurt Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The other panelists argued Rubio and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are stronger contenders, with DeSantis appealing to both MAGA voters and traditional conservatives.
GOP shellacking shows a "brand problem," says outgoing Republican senator
The Republicans’ historic midterm losses shows “most voters don’t think that we were there to serve them,” outgoing Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy told CNN on Thursday.
Cassidy added that the election losses pointed to a “brand problem” for the Republicans.
Musk spent big money in Texas and lost. Now his business empire braces for what’s next
What does Elon Musk have to show for his nearly $500 million in campaign spending in the midterms? According to Charlie Warzel, staff writer with The Atlantic, “not a heck of a lot.”
“Six of his Senate candidates lost. Just three of the 37 Republicans that Musk backed for the House of Representatives won,” he told CNN.
In Mississippi, the fight over ballot counting for its Senate race is growing
National party operatives, lawyers, grassroots activists and content creators are descending on Mississippi to observe the vetting of thousands of provisional ballots in the coming days and to gear up for possible legal challenges over the final results.
Mississippi, a state not used to the national spotlight for close elections, now sits at the forefront of a fight that will determine the size of the Democrats’ majority in the US Senate next year.
Democrat Scott Colom has a razor-thin lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly 40 years and no Black person to the Senate since Reconstruction.
Both Colom and Hyde-Smith have assembled extensive teams ready to observe and potentially challenge ballot-counting procedures ahead of Mississippi’s December 3 deadline for certifying the results.
“We were prepared for this for months,” Colom told reporters Wednesday. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers. We have everybody involved to make sure the process is followed according to the law.”
At a press conference Thursday, the state GOP touted the 50-plus volunteer attorneys and observers it had sent across the state, and Mississippi Republican Party Chair Michael Hurst said many more are prepared to jump in to help.
“Our attorneys and observers will continue to be in different parts of Mississippi – watching as election commissioners review and process these outstanding ballots, ensuring that our elections are followed and that only ballots which have been legally cast are counted,” he said.
Global stocks slump following Wall Street sell-off
A tech-driven market selloff is rippling across global markets, sending Asian and European stocks falling amid ongoing worries that a Democrat-controlled Congress could stymie the AI investment boom.
Tech-heavy indexes in Asia were particularly hard hit Friday, following a Wall Street rout that wiped out roughly $2.5 trillion in market value. South Korea’s Kospi index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index both closed down 6%, while Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index ended 4.5% lower.
The moves reflect a retreat among investors from some of this year’s hottest trades. Asian tech companies, which play an integral role in the global electronics supply chain, have been buoyed by insatiable demand for components such as semiconductor chips needed to build massive AI data centers.
US tech giants such as Meta, Amazon and Google have become known as “hyperscalers” for their heavy spending on new data centers to power AI.
But backlash against the environmental and community impact of new data centers turned AI spending into a key issue in the US midterm elections.
Democrats’ sweeping victory has spurred concerns that representatives could now block or slow spending on new AI infrastructure, threatening a key driver of economic growth for both the US and Asia.
Pentagon staff rallies around Hegseth on social media as he faces impeachment threat
Public affairs staff and advisers to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth flooded social media on Thursday with images of Hegseth and one phrase, “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.”
The campaign appears to be part of an “aggressive defense” of Hegseth ahead of an anticipated impeachment fight. Deputy Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement to CNN that chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell “convened the team to map the most aggressive defense of Secretary Hegseth and the President’s agenda ever assembled, paired with planned offensive maneuvers that will define the next phase.”
“The full scope of that strategy is not being disclosed,” Valdez said.
Posts were made by roughly a dozen civilian public affairs staff and advisers and the Pentagon’s rapid response account, as well as accounts of others who have worked or currently work in the Pentagon for Hegseth, including at least one active duty Army lieutenant colonel. The White House social media account also posted a video of Hegseth and Trump’s praise of him.
A senior administration official told CNN that “the Pentagon and White House made their positions crystal clear tonight. They are coming out swinging in support of Hegseth and that should tell you everything you need to know.”
The social media campaign came just a couple of hours after Hegseth posted to X a defiant video on the steps of the Pentagon, criticizing the “sham” effort to impeach him by members of Congress. “At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic,” Hegseth said in the post, referencing the Department of Defense’s secondary name.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a defiant video on social media Thursday amid news that he is facing possible impeachment by Congress, comparing his situation to President Donald Trump’s two impeachments.
Some background: The House of Representatives could vote as soon as next week to impeach Hegseth.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the outgoing anti-Trump lawmaker, told CNN he plans to trigger a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns — and multiple GOP sources said they expect it to pass.
Two Senate races are yet to be called. Here's the latest
We’re learning how crucial the early vote was to Democrats in the midterms, with supporters significantly more likely to vote early this cycle.
Some Democratic candidates could have won their Senate races even if none of their voters showed up on Election Day due to early voting and absentee and/or mail voting numbers.
Ballots are still being tallied in two closely watched Senate competitions in Alaska and Mississippi. In both states, Democrats are leading by close margins.
Mississippi
CNN Sightline rates the Mississippi Senate race as neutral, with the contest too close to call. The margin remains razor-thin between Democratic candidate Scott Colom and Republican candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Mississippi Republicans raised the possibility of taking legal action, promising to “fight like hell” to make sure election officials were following the law when counting ballots. National party operatives, lawyers and grassroots activists are descending on the state to observe the vetting of thousands of provisional ballots.
CNN’s Annie Grayer gives us an inside look at how Mississippi is counting:
With Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom leading by a razor-thin margin on Thursday, CNN’s Annie Grayer went inside an election office in Jackson, Mississippi, where county commissioners sorted through ballots as Colom seeks to unseat incumbent GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Alaska
CNN Sightline favors Democrat Mary Peltola, who has a very slight edge over Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The contest is mired in controversy, with the Justice Department investigating whether the Peltola campaign aimed to confuse voters by recruiting a second Dan Sullivan to take votes away from the Republican incumbent, after a bombshell New York Times report.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that all votes for Daniel J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes should be handed to the incumbent, something he called the only “fair solution.”
Handing votes for one candidate to another would be unprecedented. And given Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, it was already possible for voters to indicate both Dan Sullivans on their ballot.
CNN’s Aaron Blake, Dianne Gallagher, Kit Maher, Tierney Sneed, Fredreka Schouten and Annie Grayer contributed reporting.
Here's a snapshot of House results
Democrats have won their largest majority in the House in nearly 20 years, and there’s a chance they could extend their gains, with the races not yet projected determining the strength of their success.
The incoming Democratic House majority is on the verge of exceeding the 257 seats at the start of Barack Obama’s presidency and the 258 at the start of Bill Clinton’s.
Democrats have already flipped more than 40 seats, with over 30 incumbent members of Congress losing their seats.
Vote counting continues, with several races too early for CNN to call. Some could be decided quickly, while others may take days.
Below are the House races where CNN has yet to project a winner, and races that were projected within the last hour. Follow along as results come in.
