| | | | 26 days and counting... |  | | The 2018 midterm election goes on and on ...
We are STILL waiting on results out of California's 21st district congressional race between GOP Rep. David Valadao and Democratic challenger TJ Cox -- CNN's Eric Bradner has more on why this thing is taking so long (spoiler alert, it's supposed to take this long).
As of now, Cox is leading by a few hundred votes.
If this race wasn't on your radar -- or you thought you already knew the outcome -- we get it. Multiple outlets, including CNN, actually had called the race for Valadao, but then had to retract their projections when more votes came in.
Goes to show that things aren't truly over until the election is certified by local officials.
Take North Carolina, for example. The NC-9 House race has been called for Republican Mark Harris, but concerns over "possible irregularities" with absentee ballots have stopped election officials from certifying the results, even though Democrat Dan McCready conceded the day after the election (more on this below).
BUT everywhere else (finally!) we've got results.
Mississippi Senate: Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith survived the more-formidable-than-anticipated challenge by Democrat Mike Espy in the runoff election earlier this week. Hyde-Smith won with 53.9% to Espy's 46.1%. But keep an eye on this same race in two years. As he indicated in his concession speech, Espy doesn't plan to go quietly into the night ... especially since Hyde-Smith is up for re-election in 2020.
Utah House: In the Salt Lake City suburbs, Rep. Mia Love fell to Democrat Ben McAdams -- another Democratic flip in a previously Republican-held suburban House district. McAdams captured 50.1% to Love's 49.9%.
Florida Senate and governor: Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis netted both seats for Republicans, despite fraught and contentious recounts. Scott beat Democrat Rep. Bill Nelson 50.1% to 49.9% in an absolute squeaker -- a difference of 10,000 votes. DeSantis' margin was slightly bigger: 49.6% to Democrat Andrew Gillum's 49.2% -- a difference of 32,000 votes.
California: The other undecided House races (CA-39, CA-48 and CA-49), all went to the Democrats, as expected. In the 39th: Democrat Gil Cisneros beat Republican Young Kim 51.5% to 48.5%. In the 48th: Democrat Harley Rouda unseated incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher 53.5% to 46.5%. And in the 49th district, Democrat Mike Levin beat Republican Diane Harkey with 56.1% to 43.9%. Each of these districts was flipped from red to blue. | | Programming note: This is a special campaign edition of The Point newsletter, wrapping up the midterms. Do you have election fatigue, or are you ready for 2020?
Drop us a line at cillizza@cnn.com and dezenski@cnn.com. Thanks for reading! | | | This week, Lauren caught up with Chris on his midterm post-mortem, a look at the South and his top five words that describe the midterms.
Lauren Dezenski: So! The midterms are over … almost. Republicans held their grip of the Senate and won key high-profile governor's races, but Democrats scooped up House seats across the country. Is that enough to call the midterms a blue wave?
Chris Cillizza: No question that this was a Democratic wave election. Democrats netted 39 (or 40) House seats. They picked up seven governorships. Hundreds of state legislative seats. They are going to win the popular vote for House by more than 9 million, which is near a record margin.
The pushback on this wave is that Republicans gained two seats in the Senate. (It's actually one seat, since Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones picked up a Republican seat in a special election). Remember, though, that this was a Senate dream map for Republicans. There were 26 Democratic seats up in 2018 – including 10 in states where Trump won. By contrast, there were only nine Republican seats up.
All in all, it seems to me beyond debate: This was a wave for Democrats, a wave fueled by liberal anger toward President Donald Trump and suburban distaste toward the President.
LD: I want to get your thoughts on contests in the South, specifically the Florida governor and Senate races, plus the Mississippi Senate and Georgia governor races. Republicans won them all, but Democrats in some cases (especially Mississippi and Georgia) exceeded expectations. Is there a rising Democratic tide in the South?
CC: The South's electoral calculus is fascinating. Southern states have the largest population of black voters -- in most cases -- of any states in the country. They are also increasingly Hispanic as well. (South Carolina's Hispanic population, for one, has soared over the past 15 years). Trump's election has further driven minority voters away from the GOP but, at the same time, it has solidified white Southern voters behind Republicans.
The challenge for Democrats in the South is to win 20-30% of the white vote, depending on how much of the minority vote they win. That math didn't add up for Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Andrew Gillum in Florida or Mike Espy in Mississippi.
LD: Let's keep this last one short and sweet: What five-word sentence best describes the 2018 midterms?
CC: "Anti-Trump Democratic wave sweeps suburbs."
I am counting "Anti-Trump" as one word!
Have your own five-word review for the midterms? Email them to us at lauren.dezenski@cnn.com and cillizza@cnn.com. | |  | Election officials are re-examining the result in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District race, following concerns with the way absentee ballots were handled.
Democrat Dan McCready had already conceded to Republican Mark Harris, but the North Carolina State Board of Elections made a surprise announcement Tuesday it was going to investigate the election over the absentee ballot concerns.
Reports of irregularities with the way absentee ballots were handled swirled in Bladen County, specifically -- including stories of people going door-to-door to collect absentee ballots that would otherwise be mailed in.
Then, North Carolina's election board voted again Friday to delay certification of the election results -- a move that could potentially lead to a call for a new election, if evidence of voter fraud that could change the outcome of the race is found.
Currently, Harris has a roughly 905-vote lead -- a 0.4% vote margin -- over McCready.
Chris' take: "There certainly seems to be something fishy happening -- both with the doubling of requested absentee ballots in a single county and the anecdotal evidence of people going door to door to 'collect' them.
"The real question is what happens to the 9th District seat if this investigation goes on for several months as it certainly could. Does Mark Harris get seated? No? And if the seat is left vacant how does it get filled if there is found to be wrongdoing in the election?" | |
2020 UPDATE: ARE YOU RUNNING OR NOT? | | Julian Castro: "I'm going to decide before the end of the year. So I'm going to decide in December." WAITING 'TILL DECEMBER
Amy Klobuchar: "Many people have approached Amy about running for president but right now she is still thanking people who helped her lead a major winning ticket in Minnesota." STILL THANKING
Bernie Sanders: "If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her. If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run." MAYBE PROBABLY
Eric Garcetti: "Thinking hard about" running for president in 2020 and will decide in the first quarter of next year. THINKING HARD
Beto O'Rourke: He and his wife had "made a decision not to rule anything out." NOT RULING IT OUT ANYMORE
Larry Hogan: "Well, you can never say never. I've no idea whether the President is even running for re-election or what's going to happen two years from now. I'll say never say never but my focus right now is on Maryland." NEVER SAYING NEVER | | | 📍Declared 2020 presidential candidate (For the record: He was the first!) Maryland Rep. John Delaney heads to Iowa this weekend. This is his 20th trip there -- and he plans to have 30 staffers on the ground in Iowa by January, according to his campaign.
📍Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be in Des Moines on December 4.
📍Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is in New Hampshire today for a speech -- and meet-and-greets with local Democrats. | |
TIME FLIES WHEN YOU'RE STILL COUNTING VOTES | | | | | | |
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