Democrats are pushing toward a historic majority as more House races called
By Haley Britzky, Alayna Treene, Curt Merrill, Shikha Subramaniam, Stephanie Yang, Anna Cooban, Deva Lee, Fredreka Schouten, Annie Grayer, Tierney Sneed, Andrew Freedman ·
• 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Originally published by CNN