The midterm elections could be historic, as Democrats seek to win back Congress in the first vote of the Trump era. Follow along for live updates.
Ted Cruz’s Victory: A number of news networks called the Texas Senate race for Ted Cruz, dashing hopes that that Beto O’Rourke would score an upset. O’Rourke’s campaign captivated progressives, along with a number of entertainment figures.
Republicans also will retain control of the Senate, after Democrats were defeated in North Dakota and Indiana.
Mitt Romney’s Return: Mitt Romney was elected to the Senate in Utah. It’s no surprise, but a lot of attention will be paid to the extent to which Romney is an independent voice willing to criticize President Trump. As Trump was seeking the Republican nomination in 2016, Romney gave a speech to try to stop him, calling him “a con man, a fake.” Once Trump took office, he has been less critical and even interviewed to he Trump’s Secretary of State.
Polis Elected First Openly Gay Governor: Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) was elected governor of Colorado, succeeding Democrat John Hickenlooper. Polis will be the first openly gay person elected governor.
More on the Scene at Fox News. “What do you want to talk about?” Bret Baier asks Karl Rove during a commercial break as he gets settled into his chair.
“I don’t know, what do you want to talk about?”
The decision is quickly made that the Florida and Texas senate races remain hot topics. Laura Ingraham asks Rove why returns from Michigan are taking so long. “Late-count state,” Rove replied, knowingly.
Just before 9:30 there’s a quick anchor shuffle to give Ingraham, Dana Perino, Juan Williams and Guy Benson a break. Rove is joined by Steve Hilton, Molly Hemingway and others as the crunch time hits.
Rove predicts Ted Cruz will pull it out in the end in his Senate reelection race against progressive darling Beto O’Rourke. He calls him “Robert Francis O’Rourke.” When teased by the others Rove notes that “how he appears on the ballot.” — Cynthia Littleton.
Mike Braun defeats Joe Donnelly. Republicans gained a Senate seat after Mike Braun defeated Joe Donnelly, dimming Democrats’ hopes of taking control of the chamber. Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Donnelly, but President Trump made four trips to the state, which he won overwhelmingly in 2016.
Fox News’ calls the House for Democrats. At 9:33, Bret Baier stops a discussion to call the Democrats regaining control of the House of Representatives, based on the calculations of the Fox News decision desk. There were no cheers from the crowd outside. Fox News analyst Molly Hemingway predicts it will lead to “investigation-palooza” in DC.
Brit Hume adds that those investigations will generate “adoring coverage” by mainstream media. — Cynthia Littleton.
More on the Scene at Fox News. It’s the crucial 9 p.m. hour and here comes Karl Rove to join the Fox News analysis panel. The studio is cleared of observers so the steadicam operator can pull off a big tracking shot zooming in to the studio.
Brit Hume and Chris Wallace took a brief break to make room for Maria Bartiromo. Bartiromo, the Fox Business anchor, couldn’t resist reminding people that she called Trump’s victory as a boon to the economy, and she warned viewers that Democratic control of the House would curb economic growth, amp up regulations on business and lead to “investigation after investigation after investigation.”
At 9:06, after calling a few close races, Bret Baier says that the early returns are “skewing more Republican” than some of their earlier projections. Every time a race is called for a Republican, cheers erupt from the crowd outside the studio.
Ingraham is still focused on Florida. She’s betting on Rick Scott to win the Senate race over Bill Nelson and is ready declare a win for Scott there as a win for Donald Trump. “Gillum is a charismatic guy but he’s too far left for Florida,” she says. — Cynthia Littleton.
Blackburn wins. Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has been declared the winner of an open Senate seat in Tennessee over Phil Bredesen, the state’s former governor. This was a potential pickup opportunity for Democrats, and they were someone optimistic because of Bredesen’s popularity in the state. Taylor Swift made her first foray into politics by endorsing Bredesen and even seemed to generate an uptick in voter registration. Blackburn has close ties to the entertainment business, particularly the music industry, and was the chair of a subcommittee on communications and technology.
ABC News Scene. Producers energetically huddled around dozens of screens in a crowded control room to coordinate the Disney news unit’s first hour of primetjme coverage. The network’s set – two tiered – is massive, and ABC News President James Goldston is standing among the front row of top personnel on a frenzied night. — Brian Steinberg.
Kim Davis Defeated. Kim Davis was the clerk in a Kentucky county who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a Supreme Court, and she was defeated in her bid for reelection. She was defeated by her Democratic challenger, Elwood Caudill. Davis ended up serving jail time for refusing to issue the licenses and became somewhat of a celebrity on the right.
House Control: A host of tight races signal what may be a much longer evening for Democrats who hoped to flip enough seats early in the evening to put them within reach of House control. In a Virginia House seat, Denver Riggleman, a former National Security Agency contractor, defeated Leslie Cockburn. Cockburn is a filmmaker and journalist and the mother of actress Olivia Wilde.
One of the key races being watched is the Senate race between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz. O’Rourke is leading, which is giving Democrats some hope, but it’s still early. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was reelected in New Jersey, after some polls showed him vulnerable after surviving a corruption trial.
“It’s not going to be a wave election,” James Carville says on MSNBC.
Fox News Scene: It’s a busy night outside Fox News headquarters on Sixth Avenue in New York, where a crowd gathered to watch election returns on giant screen monitors erected in the plaza of the News Corp. building.
Fox News decided to capitalize on the crowds that typically gather around big news events by erecting an interactive installation to tout its Fox Nation streaming service that launches Nov. 27. About 2,000 people streamed through the tents that offered access to Fox News personalities, book signings and copious swag — including a custom t-shirt press. Fox News viewers from around the country were invited to come for the installation. One woman waiting in line for her chance to walk through before it closed at 8 p.m. held a printed sign that declared “Nobel 4 Trump.”
Security is tight around the outside of the building, between Fox’s private security and the NYPD officers complete with dogs in tow. The cheering sounds of the crowd bled through the ground level studio where Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, and Martha MacCallum are calling the early returns. During commercial breaks, MacCallum walks up the staircase in the split level studio to confer with Bill Hemmer, who is manning the national map.
Also on camera on the ground floor studio are Laura Ingraham, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, and Guy Benson.
Ingraham is making her presence felt in her first big election night since becoming a Fox News star. She urged producers to put up a shot of the rainbow coming out of the Capitol dome that made the social media rounds earlier in the day. “It’s beautiful,” she said. She also called out the tightening numbers in the Florida governor’s race and urged producers to focus on that developing situation. — Cynthia Littleton
CREDIT: Cynthia Littleton/Variety
CREDIT: Cynthia Littleton/Variety
The First Democratic Flip: Jennifer Wexton, an attorney, defeated Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) in a suburban Virginia district. Her victory is not a surprise: Comstock, who once lobbied on behalf of the MPAA, was viewed as one of the most vulnerable of all House Republican incumbents. Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the district in 2016.
The First Calls: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) were the first to senators to be declared winners tonight by the major networks. Both victories had been expected.
What’s still unclear is whether there is anything approaching a “blue wave” forming as a rebuke to Trump.
First Polls Close: The first polls have closed in Indiana and Kentucky in this year’s midterms, as a host of anecdotal and some actual data signaled a significant turnout for a non-presidential election.
President Donald Trump all but characterized the results as a referendum on his presidency, having trekked the country to hold rally after rally, where he was front and center and the actual candidates on the ballot took second billing. He spent the day at the White House, with nothing on his public schedule, and planned to watch results with friends and family.
Social media was blanketed with messages urging people to vote, but early coverage was cautious.
After CNN unveiled the results of the first exit polling of the evening, showing poor numbers for Trump, Anderson Cooper added, “There is a lot we do not know.”
Long lines were reported at polls across the country, but there also were problems. In Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams is facing Republican Brian Kemp in the race for governor, there were reports of malfunctioning machines and voters forced to wait several hours to cast their ballots.
Kemp, who as Georgia’s secretary of state is in charge of the elections, also had problems when he went to vote.
In New York, city councilman Corey Johnson slammed the Board of Elections for being unprepared for the onslaught.
“Voting should not be this difficult,” he wrote.
Showbiz Democrats were approaching the night with a degree of anxiety. Few have plans for election night victory parties, having experienced Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss in 2016, when her supporters were gathered for a mega-celebration at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.
Producer Bruce Cohen, who is among a group of industry figures who formed the group We Stand United to campaign for candidates in 10 key states, said he was spending the evening watching the results with his husband.
“After two years ago, I am taking nothing for granted — just praying (literally) that hope and good and love will prevail over fear and darkness and hate,” he said.
As she promised, Alyssa Milano was visiting a group of districts in California, and driving voters to the polls. In the 50th congressional district, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is challenged by Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar.
As she drove, Milano asked the district’s voters riding in her car about key issues, like healthcare and gun control. “Are you nervous about today?” Milano asked as she drove. The answer: Yes, very much so.
A combination of anecdotal and some actual data is convincing many pundits that the midterms will see record turnout.
Democrats are favored to win the House, where they need to pick up 23 seats, but they have an uphill battle to take the Senate. Although the breakdown is 51-49, Democrats are defending many more seats, including 10 in states that Trump won in 2016. Here’s our story on the races that have drawn the most interest from the entertainment industry, and what could change for the industry if Democrats win a majority in either chamber.
James Woods, a supporter of Trump, tweeted out a Washington Examiner article that predicted that Democrats would move to raise taxes. “They can’t wait to get their greasy hands into your pockets. #DemocratTaxHikes,” he wrote.
The midterms have seen a host of celebrities endorse candidates across the country, and Beyonce offered one on Tuesday afternoon, just hours before polls are set to close in Texas. In an Instagram post, she revealed that she is for Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat seeking to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
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