Midterm Gains Put Blue Statehouses and the South in Play for 2028

WHO:

CNN - Josh Shapiro said he had brushed off questions about running for president; Gavin Newsom was nearing his exit from the California governor’s office.

CNN - Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made strategic campaign investments, including funding Gina Hinojosa’s Texas gubernatorial campaign.

CNN - Pete Buttigieg campaigned for candidates in 38 states.

CNN - Kamala Harris campaigned for Scott Colom in Mississippi and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

CNN - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rallied with candidates including El-Sayed; the article said she had moderated some of her positions.

CNN - JD Vance said the Iran war was above all responsible for Republicans’ midterm losses and would need to be ended without alienating Trump.

CNN - Marco Rubio appeared at campaign rallies with Trump; the article said he would need to leave the administration to run for president.

CNN - Sarah Huckabee Sanders was reelected governor of Arkansas.

CNN - Tucker Carlson had floated the possibility of a third-party presidential campaign.

CNN - Texas Democrats won a majority of state House seats; Democratic victories also ended Republican House supermajorities in Florida and South Carolina, NPR reported.

CNN - Maine state Auditor Matt Dunlap, endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, lost in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District after defeating a more moderate candidate in the primary.

CNN - Democratic Senate candidates identified as aligned with the party’s left flank included Maine’s Troy Jackson, Minnesota’s Peggy Flanagan, Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Florida’s Angie Nixon.

CNN - William Lawrence, a Democratic Socialists of America member when he won his primary, left the group during the general election and won Michigan’s 7th District.

Democracy Now! - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Texas Republicans lost four seats on the Texas Supreme Court.

The Guardian - Democratic governors elected in Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio joined those in Texas and Georgia; Trump had carried all five states in 2024.

CNN - Potential 2028 presidential contenders discussed included Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rahm Emanuel, Pete Hegseth, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Tucker Carlson.

NPR - South Carolina recorded record voting for a gubernatorial election year, driven in part by elevated Black voter turnout.

CBS News - Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson introduced legislation requiring Supreme Court ethics and complaint procedures, including disclosure rules for gifts, income and reimbursements.

CBS News - Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Daniel Goldman proposed an Office of Ethics Counsel and an Office of Investigative Counsel for the Supreme Court.

CBS News - Rep. Johnny Olszewski proposed a constitutional amendment requiring justices who have served more than 18 years to retire.

CBS News - U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross received a private reprimand after an investigation found she had sex with a police officer in her chambers; Rep. Andrew Clyde filed articles of impeachment against her.

CBS News - U.S. District Judge Ada Brown faces judicial conduct proceedings over alleged racial insults and unexplained or unusual recusals.

Democracy Now! - Texas elected its first LGBTQ statewide official: a woman who won a seat on the Texas Supreme Court, according to Bolts editor-in-chief Daniel Nichanian.

Democracy Now! - Daniel Nichanian said Democrats flipped the district attorney’s office, county executive’s office and county board in a large Texas county that is home to Fort Worth.

CBS News - House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Supreme Court was among his priorities in a letter announcing his bid for speaker; he is expected to be elected speaker in January.

CBS News - Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.

CBS News - Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican who proposed 20-year term limits for members of the Supreme Court and lower courts, lost his reelection bid.

CNN - Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro won reelection by more than 20 percentage points; Democrats flipped four House seats in his state.

CNN - California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would commute the death sentences of all 548 people on California’s death row.

CNN - Georgia Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the nation’s first Black woman governor.

CNN - Pete Buttigieg traveled to 38 states during the campaigns.

CNN - Vice President JD Vance attributed Republicans’ midterm losses above all to the Iran war in a social media post.

CNN - Nineteen-year-old Sebastian Matta, an Arizona State University student, led former state lawmaker Jeff Dial by more than 85,000 votes in the race for Maricopa County Superior Court clerk, according to unofficial county results. Dial said he called Matta to concede.

CNN - Twenty-two-year-old Benjamin Culberson, a Georgia Gwinnett College student, defeated his Republican opponent by more than 10 percentage points for a seat on the Gwinnett County Commission.

CNN - Nineteen-year-old University of Massachusetts Lowell student Daniel Darris-O’Connor defeated longtime Republican incumbent Marc Lombardo for a Massachusetts House seat.

CNN - Eric Armstrong, who had suspended his Iowa state House campaign for health reasons, was leading Republican Keith Jones by around 10 percentage points and said he would take office at the beginning of next year.

CNN - Marcus Henderson won Kaufman County Justice of the Peace, and Sheree Henderson won a seat on the county commissioners court; a local outlet reported they were the first Democrats elected in the county this century.

CNN - Christopher Russo won a Morris County, New Jersey, county commissioner race by more than 20,000 votes, becoming the first Democrat elected to a countywide office there since 1973.

Democracy Now! - Texas elected Gina Hinojosa as its first Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990.

Democracy Now! - Daniel Nichanian said Democrats flipped the district attorney’s office, county executive’s office and county board in a large county that includes Fort Worth.

NPR - Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson was within a few thousand votes of winning after Tennessee’s redistricting split Memphis into three districts.

NPR - Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s governor’s race; Democrat Jamie Davis narrowly lost Louisiana’s Senate race to Sen.-elect Julia Letlow.

Democracy Now! - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described Republican losses as “close to an extinction-level event.”

Democracy Now! - New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said working people expect more from government and called on Democrats to deliver on affordability.

Democracy Now! - Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts, discussed state and local election results.

NPR - Democratic candidates who won or were leading in Southern races included Jon Ossoff, Roy Cooper, Annie Andrews, Jamie Davis and Scott Colom; Republicans included Julia Letlow and Cindy Hyde-Smith.

NPR - Potential presidential contenders who campaigned or provided financial support included Pete Buttigieg, Raphael Warnock, Andy Beshear, Ted Cruz and JD Vance.

WHAT:

NPR - Republican candidates won one of nine targeted House seats in Texas and Florida, according to an Associated Press race call.

CNN - Republican margins in Florida were close, and the state’s redistricting effort did not backfire, unlike efforts in other states.

NPR - Georgia Democrats won every statewide elected office, gained control of the state utility regulator and were set to win a state House majority.

NPR - Democrats made dozens of additional gains in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Truthout - Democrats won seats in at least 12 districts Republicans had redrawn in large-scale gerrymandering efforts.

CNN - In key Senate races, Roy Cooper overperformed Kamala Harris’s 2024 result by 23.2 percentage points; Scott Colom by 23.1 points; James Talarico by 25.7 points; Annie Andrews by 21.9 points; Adam Hamilton by 21.1 points; Jon Ossoff by 20.2 points; and Josh Turek by 17.2 points.

CNN - The four left-aligned Senate candidates’ margins versus Harris’s 2024 results were reported as Troy Jackson, 0.5 points worse; Peggy Flanagan, 5.9 points better; Abdul El-Sayed, 8.4 points better; and Angie Nixon, 10.2 points better. The average Democratic Senate candidate in key races ran 16 points better than Harris.

CNN - Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon lost by about 3 points. In the House, Democratic progressives and Congressional Progressive Caucus members overperformed Harris by an average of 12.2 points, versus 14.1 for New Democrat Coalition members and 15.4 for Blue Dog Democrats.

CNN - DSA candidates overperformed Harris by an average of 16.5 points across a sample of seven candidates; William Lawrence won Michigan’s 7th District by a narrow margin and overperformed Harris by 4.3 points.

CNN - Matt Dunlap overperformed Harris by 8.1 points but lost Maine’s 2nd District. Democrat Justin J. Pearson lost his Tennessee race by one point in a district Trump had carried by 21 points.

CNN - Republican-held Florida elected a Republican senator and governor; the article reported tight margins in statewide and House races.

NPR - Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom led incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith by fewer than 1,200 votes in the Senate race.

NPR - The AP called Republicans the winners of one of the targeted Southern House seats; the article said the redistricting effort had targeted nine seats in Texas and Florida.

NPR - Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson was within a few thousand votes of winning in Tennessee’s Memphis-area district after redistricting split Memphis into three districts.

CBS News - Democrats were expected to hold at least 54 Senate seats; the article said they would control between 54 and 56 seats, short of the 60 votes usually required to advance most legislation.

CBS News - A proposed constitutional amendment would require Supreme Court justices with more than 18 years of service to retire; Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas had each served longer than 18 years.

CBS News - A bill introduced by Rep. Al Green would expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 seats.

CNN - Democrats could surpass the 257 House seats they held after the 2008 election once the remaining 27 races are called, according to the New York Post.

CNN - Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said before the midterms he would run for “high office” in 2028 but did not specify whether he meant reelection or president.

CNN - Newsom’s announced commutations cover all 548 people on California’s death row.

CNN - Pete Hegseth could face an impeachment push, with some Republicans potentially supporting it, the article reported.

AllHipHop - The AP Voter Poll found young and Black voters moved sharply toward Democrats in the midterms, reversing Republican gains.

Rolling Stone Politics - Democrats gained governing “trifectas” in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona and have plans for climate action in those states.

NPR - Republican redistricting efforts in Alabama, North Carolina, Texas and Florida backfired, with Democrats poised to gain several Southern seats.

CBS News - The Supreme Court adopted its own code of conduct in November 2023, but it has no enforcement mechanism.

CBS News - The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Whitehouse’s Supreme Court ethics proposal, but it did not receive a full Senate vote.

CBS News - The Supreme Court’s membership has changed six times historically, ranging from six to 10 justices; it has had nine justices since 1869.

NPR - Republicans won only one of the targeted Southern House seats they sought to gain through redistricting, according to an Associated Press race call cited by NPR.

NPR - Democrat Shomari Figures won Alabama’s redrawn House district by nearly 8 percentage points, despite the district being rated Trump +14.

NPR - Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina together represent more than a third of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

NPR - Democrats won the U.S. Senate seats in South Carolina and North Carolina; the South Carolina victory was Annie Andrews’s.

NPR - Democrat Jon Ossoff won Georgia’s Senate race by 18 points, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s governorship.

NPR - Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper won his race by 20 points.

NPR - Democrats’ wins in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina helped build majorities in both chambers of Congress.

CNN - Democrats won at least 250 House seats and regained control of the Senate.

CBS News - Democratic proposals for Supreme Court reform include ethics rules and complaint procedures, an internal ethics and investigative counsel, an $50 cap on gifts to federal judges and justices, stock-trading restrictions, and 18-year terms for Supreme Court justices. One proposal would expand the Court from nine to 13 justices.

CBS News - A constitutional amendment requires approval by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by 38 states.

Fox News - Texas flipped statewide to Democrats for the first time since 1992; Kansas elected a Democratic senator for the first time in 94 years.

NPR - Black voter turnout surged in Louisiana and Georgia; South Carolina recorded record voting for a gubernatorial election year, driven in part by elevated Black turnout.

CNN - Newsom’s California redistricting, adopted through a statewide ballot initiative in response to Texas redistricting, helped Democrats gain five House seats.

CNN - Democrat Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old attorney and Ethiopian immigrant, defeated Rep. DeGette in the Democratic primary and will represent Denver, Colorado, in Congress.

NY Post - Democrats held 257 House seats after the 2008 election; Democrats could surpass that number when the remaining 27 races are called.

CNN - Sebastian Matta said he would work to make the court more accessible, particularly to people who speak languages other than English.

CNN - The Gwinnett County Commission will be made up entirely of Democrats following Benjamin Culberson’s victory.

CNN - The 2026 midterms saw the GOP win small towns and rural areas by 16 points, half its 32-point margin in 2024, according to exit polling cited by Newsweek.

Democracy Now! - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that in January, only Florida among the 10 largest states would have Republican control.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said Texas Democrats flipped the attorney general, railroad commissioner and land commissioner offices, in addition to other statewide offices.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said Democrats in Pennsylvania signaled they wanted to codify abortion rights in the state constitution; Wisconsin Democrats signaled they wanted to repeal the state’s anti-union law.

NPR - Democrats gained dozens of seats in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee; Republican House supermajorities also ended in Florida and South Carolina.

NPR - Georgia Democrats swept statewide elected offices and gained control of the state utility regulator. North Carolina Democrat Roy Cooper’s victory potentially helped flip multiple congressional seats and gave Democrats control of the state House.

NPR - Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina together represent more than one-third of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

The Guardian - Democrats elected governors in Iowa and Ohio, states Trump won in 2024.

NPR - Louisiana Democrat Jamie Davis lost to Julia Letlow by less than 2%; Trump had won the state by more than 15 points in 2024.

Democracy Now! - Zohran Mamdani said voters were tired of being told to sacrifice land and water for data centers and called on Democrats to turn electoral gains into action.

Democracy Now! - Democrats took control of the U.S. House and Senate and flipped 12 state legislative chambers, according to the article.

Democracy Now! - Democrats were set to control Arizona’s Legislature for the first time in 60 years and flipped Pennsylvania’s state Senate for the first time since 1994. Democrats were also reported to hold a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years.

Democracy Now! - In Texas, Democrats flipped the governor’s office, state Senate and state House, as well as four seats on the state Supreme Court and several statewide and county offices. Nichanian said they may also have flipped the State Board of Education.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said Democrats took control of six state governments—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada—and possibly Alaska, where the governor’s race remained undecided.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said Democrats won every North Carolina legislative seat that Trump had carried by up to 10 points but remained one seat short of full state-government control.

Democracy Now! - Nine Democratic-run states had enacted laws since 2025 barring local police and sheriffs from contracting with ICE, Nichanian said.

Democracy Now! - Vermont voters approved a constitutional right to join a union.

NPR - Democrats flipped U.S. Senate seats in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Mississippi’s Senate race remained too close to call, with Scott Colom leading Cindy Hyde-Smith by fewer than 1,200 votes.

NPR - Republican redistricting efforts in Southern states produced one Republican win among the targeted seats, according to an Associated Press race call cited by NPR. Democrats won Shomari Figures’s Alabama race by nearly 8 points in a district described as Trump +14.

NPR - Georgia Democrats swept statewide elected offices, gained control of the state utility regulator and were set to win a state House majority. Texas Democrats won a majority of state House seats; Republican House supermajorities ended in Florida and South Carolina.

Truthout - Democrats won seats in at least 12 districts Republicans had redrawn in large-scale gerrymandering efforts.

WHERE:

Democracy Now! - The reported state-government gains included Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and potentially Alaska; the article also discussed Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.

NPR - The Southern races and redistricting efforts covered Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and Florida.

WHY:

CNN - The article said moderate candidates’ strong results could strengthen Andy Beshear’s argument that moderate Democrats can win; Beshear said, “You can’t see everything as red versus blue, us versus them.”

NPR - Louisiana activist Ashley Kennedy Shelton said politics was personally affecting voters through electricity, gas and food bills: “I think they realize that politics is absolutely doing them, and they have to get involved.”

NPR - NPR reported that the Supreme Court ruling affecting part of the Voting Rights Act, the Iran war, rising costs and concerns about corruption in the Trump administration were among issues motivating Black voter turnout.

Democracy Now! - Zohran Mamdani said voters were tired of being told that their needs were unrealistic while Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, and of being asked to sacrifice land and water for data centers.

NPR - Louisiana activist Ashley Kennedy Shelton said the Supreme Court ruling affecting the Voting Rights Act was “personal” for Black voters and cited rising electricity, gas and food bills as factors affecting them.

NPR - In the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling that gutted part of the Voting Rights Act, Republican-led Southern states redrew House maps to create additional seats they expected would withstand a midterm environment in which voters punished the party in power.

NPR - Louisiana activist Ashley Kennedy Shelton said the Supreme Court decision affecting the Voting Rights Act was “personal” for Black voters; she said rising electricity, gas and food bills were personally affecting voters.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said cost of living, data centers and immigration enforcement were prominent voter concerns. He said opposition to President Trump’s immigration policies and ICE had helped drive voters.

NPR - The article cited rising costs, concerns about corruption in the Trump administration, the war in Iran and a Supreme Court ruling affecting part of the Voting Rights Act as factors motivating turnout, including among Black voters.

HOW:

CNN - Pollster G. Elliott Morris of Strength In Numbers calculated House-candidate performance relative to Harris’s 2024 results.

CNN - Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker directed strategic campaign investments, including funding for Gina Hinojosa’s Texas governor’s race.

Democracy Now! - Nichanian said Republican gerrymandering helped preserve legislative power in Georgia and North Carolina despite large Democratic statewide gains.

NPR - NPR reported that Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina together account for more than a third of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 19:59 UTC)

Democrats made major gains in state races, winning governorships in five states carried by Trump. Texas Democrats captured a House majority, while Republicans blamed midterm losses partly on the Iran war. Josh Shapiro won reelection decisively, and Gavin Newsom announced commutations for California’s death row.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 19:00 UTC)

Democrats flipped governorships in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio, states Trump carried in 2024. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the nation’s first Black woman governor. Democratic Senate candidates surged, but Maine’s Matt Dunlap and Tennessee’s Justin Pearson lost.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 17:59 UTC)

Democrats scored major state-level victories, winning governorships in five states Trump had carried previously. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the nation’s first Black woman governor. Gavin Newsom announced commutations for all 548 people on California’s death row.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 17:00 UTC)

Democrats captured governorships in several states Trump previously carried, marking major political shifts. They also made gains across the South, as young and Black voters moved toward Democrats. California’s governor announced death sentence commutations for everyone on the state’s death row.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 15:01 UTC)

Democrats regained the Senate and won at least 250 House seats. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the nation’s first Black woman governor. South Carolina saw record election-year voting, driven partly by increased Black voter turnout.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 13:01 UTC)

Democrats retook the Senate, won at least 250 House seats, and flipped Texas statewide. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the nation’s first Black woman governor. Texas elected its first LGBTQ statewide official, a woman winning a Supreme Court seat.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 12:04 UTC)

Democrats reclaimed the Senate, won at least 250 House seats, and flipped Texas statewide. Georgia elected Jon Ossoff senator and Keisha Lance Bottoms governor, its first Black woman governor. Democrats also gained ground across Southern states.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 10:58 UTC)

Democrats made sweeping gains, capturing Congress and flipping state governments across the country. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the nation’s first Black woman governor. California’s Gavin Newsom will commute death sentences for all 548 people on death row.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 02:08 UTC)

Democrats made sweeping gains, capturing Congress and flipping twelve state legislative chambers. They won governorships in Texas, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio, and gained control across several states. Young candidates also won local races, including Sebastian Matta in Arizona.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 01:09 UTC)

Democrats made sweeping gains in state races, flipping governorships and legislative chambers across the South. They also won key Senate seats, while Republican supermajorities fell in Florida and South Carolina. Voters’ concerns included rising costs and immigration enforcement, while Democrats face pressure to deliver.

(UPDATED November 6, 2026 00:03 UTC)

Democrats swept Congress and flipped 12 state legislative chambers, making gains across several states. In Texas, they captured the governor’s office and both legislative chambers. Voters focused on affordability and immigration enforcement.