For all of New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown's rhetoric against immigration reform, a majority of voters in the state actually support allowing undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, according to exit polls.
Brown made immigration key to his campaign against incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and his statements were nearly all negative. He warned that undocumented immigrants could bring Ebola and terrorism across the border, and went after Shaheen for supporting immigration reform that passed the Senate last year.
According to the exit polls as of this writing, 56 percent of New Hampshire voters think undocumented immigrants should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, including 26 percent of Brown supporters. Forty percent of New Hampshire voters said undocumented immigrants should be deported -- 27 percent of Shaheen supporters and 73 percent of Brown supporters said so.
Only 14 percent said immigration was the most important issue facing the country.
-- Elise Foley Shortly after the polls closed in Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) emailed supporters 'a heartfelt thank you' for 'fighting for what we believe in.' Warren wasn't running, but she traveled all over the country and campaigned for Democratic candidates and incumbents running for re-election. From her message:
In 2012, you defied the odds, helping a first-time candidate raise money from more small donors than any Senate campaign in the history of this country. You've always had my back, and I've worked hard to always have yours.
But here's what I'm most proud about from that historic campaign: You didn't stop when the polls closed on November 6, 2012. You knew that this was never just about me - it's about fighting for what we believe in.
It's about standing up to the big banks when they break the law, and fighting to help our students getting crushed with debt. It's about protecting and expanding Social Security for our seniors, raising the minimum wage, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work and access to birth control.
It's also about fighting for candidates who will stand by our side in the U.S. Senate. This election cycle, our grassroots supporters pulled together to help raise an incredible million for Democratic campaigns and committees across the country. You raised critical funds that our candidates needed if they were going to have a fighting chance against Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, and all those Super PAC attack ads.
Read her full email here.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) has won her Senate race, and will replace retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). There's are other opportunities - most notably in Iowa (where Joni Ernst is a favorite to win) and in Georgia (where Michelle Nunn is running a competitive race) -- to add to the twenty women who currently sit in the Senate. On the other hand, some of the incumbents -- New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, and North Carolina's Kay Hagan -- are fighting for their political lives tonight.
Can any significance be attached to the number of women in the Senate? Is something lost if their membership decreases? To answer that, cast your mind back to the government shutdown in 2013. As The New York Times' Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer reported:
In a Senate still dominated by men, women on both sides of the partisan divide proved to be the driving forces that shaped a negotiated settlement. The three Republican women put aside threats from the right to advance the interests of their shutdown-weary states and asserted their own political independence.
[...]
The women are hardly in lock step politically. But their practice of meeting regularly and working on smaller bills together, even in a highly polarized Congress, set the stage for more significant legislation. Ms. Ayotte and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, hosted an informal get-together for women in the Senate last Monday evening.
'I don't think it's a coincidence that women were so heavily involved in trying to end this stalemate,' Ms. Collins said. 'Although we span the ideological spectrum, we are used to working together in a collaborative way.'
The Huffington Post's Laura Bassett reported at the time that many prominent male senators were quick to praise their female counterparts:
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday afternoon that their female colleagues can take most of the credit for driving the compromise that is expected to temporarily reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling before Thursday's deadline.
'Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily from women in the Senate,' McCain said after the bipartisan deal was announced.
Pryor said that people sometimes like to joke about women in leadership, but he is a huge fan of his female colleagues after watching them negotiate. 'The truth is, women in the Senate is a good thing,' he said. 'We're all just glad they allowed us to tag along so we could see how it's done.'
If the future portends a return to budget brinksmanship, we may come to regret losing some of the incumbent women senators.
-- Jason Linkins
The Associated Press projects that Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) will win re-election.
--Sam Levine
Elaine Chao says Grimes should be commended for giving Kentucky a real choice. #classy
- Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) November 5, 2014
NH AG: Hanover polling place evacuated after fire alarm. People may have voted after poll closed. Poss. emergency court hrg tonight. via
- WMUR TV (@WMUR9) November 5, 2014
The polls in Georgia closed at 7 p.m. ET, but Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn planned ahead: she told her supporters all they had to do was get in line before 7 and stay there till they cast their vote. Now, she's sending them extra support:
Thank you so much for staying in line, #GA. This is how we make a difference. Every vote counts! #StayInLineGA #GApol http://ift.tt/1usksvB
- Michelle Nunn (@MichelleNunnGA) November 5, 2014
The Georgia Senate race has grown significantly tighter in recent days and is being closely watched as one potential bright spot in an otherwise bleak election for Democrats.
HuffPost Pollster, which is tracking 51 polls on the race from 19 pollsters, had Nunn 4 points behind Republican candidate David Perdue as of 1 day ago. Observers have noted that the race will go to a run-off if the winner receives less than 50% of the vote -- which would mean a wait not for hours until all votes are cast tonight but for months until the run-off election on January 6.
-- Akbar Shahid Ahmed
HuffPost's Jason Linkins and Zach Carter discuss Mark Udall's chances of winning the Senate race in Colorado and how a loss could affect the possibility of reforms on government surveillance.
One of the questions for Democrats in close Senate races tonight: can they outperform President Barack Obama's lagging ratings in their states?
In New Hampshire, the answer may be yes. Early exit polls show Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) taking 98 percent of the vote against Scott Brown among voters with a positive view of the Obama administration, but also 26 percent of the vote among those with a negative view of the administration.
Similarly, while voters who were 'satisfied' or 'angry' about the Obama administration were split along party lines, the 30 percent of voters who described themselves as 'dissatisfied but not angry' with the Obama administration split 56 for Brown, and 44 for Shaheen.
-- Ariel Edwards-Levy
Republican Ed Gillespie is leading Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) 52.0 % to 45.5 % with 40 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.
--Sam Levine Just three weeks ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was insisting that Alison Lundergan Grimes would manage to topple Senate minority leader and longtime foil to the labor federation Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The labor leader had just barnstormed through Louisville, Owensboro, Paducah and elsewhere on the challenger's behalf.
'I'm telling you,' Trumka told reporters. 'I've been on the ground.'
In the end, the Kentucky Senate race was called in McConnell's favor by dinnertime on Tuesday, a harbinger of what could be one very long night over at AFL-CIO headquarters.
But in an immediate statement on the election results, Trumka remained just as critical of McConnell's record in the Senate as he had been out on the hustings -- and just as boosterish as he had been on Grimes' future:
'Throughout the campaign, Mitch McConnell struggled to say why you ought to vote for him because his record is dismal. It doesn't support Kentuckians. It supports rich corporations who bankrolled him to his fourth decade in Washington. The truth is that Kentuckians don't support his gridlock-style leadership that has paralyzed the United States Senate. Despite these results, Alison Lundergan Grimes remains one of America's brightest stars and a leader who will continue to champion working families.'
-- Dave Jamieson
Fifty-seven percent of voters in the Georgia Senate race favor raising the minimum wage, according to exit polls.
The vast majority -- 75 percent -- of those voters went for Democrat Michelle Nunn, while 86 percent of voters who oppose raising it backed Republican David Perdue. The race remains too close to call.
-- Amanda Terkel
Colorado has same-day registration and the polls close in approximately an hour.
--Sam Levine
Grimes just called McConnell to concede, per aide #CNNElection
- Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) November 5, 2014
The Washington Post's Nia Malika Henderson has a piece up on what may be next for the young Democrat.
-- Akbar Shahid Ahmed
HuffPost's Paige Lavender reports:
Scott became a senator in 2013, when when Sen. Jim DeMint (R) resigned. He was appointed to fill DeMint's Senate seat by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R). At the time, he was only the fifth African American ever to hold a U.S. Senate seat. With his victory on Tuesday, Scott officially became the first black senator to be elected by popular vote in the South. He'll now finish out DeMint's term, set to end in 2016.
Read more here.
With Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) having just won re-election, attendees at his campaign's celebration are keen to hear what he has to say. One reporter explains that they won't need to wait very long:
Kasich is at the hotel. We expect him in the ballroom within the hour. This is not a governor who likes to stay up late.
- Jim Heath (@JimHeath10TV) November 5, 2014
.@Wisconsin_GAB says turnout on pace to meet prediction of about 2.5 million, or 56.5%, which would be record for midterm election
- Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) November 5, 2014
Voters under 30 remain a largely Democratic voting bloc, preliminary exit polls find.
One recent poll suggested that millennials who definitely planned on voting were more likely to favor a GOP-controlled Congress. Other surveys, however, differed -- and while national exit polling is still trickling in, the first results show voters ages 18-24 favoring Democrats by a 14-point margin, and those ages 25-29 voting Democratic by a 13-point margin.
-- Ariel Edwards-Levy
Eighty-nine percent of voters followed news about the Ebola virus at least somewhat closely, according to preliminary results from a national exit poll of voters in U.S. House races Tuesday evening. A quarter of voters said they followed Ebola news 'extremely closely,' while only 8 percent said 'not too closely.'
A narrow majority said they disapproved of the government's response to Ebola, with Democrats favoring the response and Republicans disapproving.
-- Arthur Delaney HuffPost's Paige Lavender reports:
Republican Shelley Moore Capito defeated Democrat Natalie Tennant in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia, according to The Associated Press.
Capito, who has served in Congress since being elected to the House of Representatives in 2001, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the Mountain State. She is the daughter of former West Virginia Gov. Arch Moore.
Read more here.
Latino voters nationwide heavily supported Democratic candidates over Republicans, with nearly 70 percent favoring the Democratic candidate in gubernatorial, Senate and House races, according to a poll released Tuesday by Latino Decisions.
The polling firm reported earlier Tuesday that immigration reform remains a major issue for Latinos, and is now releasing state-by-state findings throughout the evening. The first installment included nationwide numbers, and found that 68 percent of Latino voters favored the Democratic candidate for governor. Sixty-seven percent favored the Democratic candidate for Senate, and 69 percent favored the Democratic candidate for the House.
A Pew Research Center poll released last week found that a majority of Latino registered voters still support Democrats, but that support for congressional Democrats is down slightly from 2010. In 2012, President Barack Obama won with 70 percent or more of the Latino vote, according to polling.
Latino Decisions also released results from its survey in Georgia, which largely mirrored the nationwide results. They found that 70 percent of Latino voters preferred Democratic challenger Jason Carter to current Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, whom only 27 percent favored. For the Senate, Latino voters supported Michelle Nunn (D) over David Perdue (R) by a 69 percent to 29 percent margin. And for the House, 74 percent of Georgia Latino voters favored the Democratic candidate in their district, versus 23 percent who favored the Republican.
In North Carolina, Latino voters preferred Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan over her Republican challenger Thom Tillis by a margin of 63 percent to 33 percent. They favored the Democratic candidate for the House over the Republican by a margin of 67 percent to 31 percent.
The poll was conducted by Latino Decisions on behalf of a number of groups supportive of immigration reform: America's Voice, Latino Victory Project, the National Council of La Raza, AFL-CIO, Mi Familia Vota, NALEO Educational Fund and People For the American Way.
Latino Decisions released additional results later Tuesday evening. Illinois Latino voters were even more strongly supportive of Democrats than Latino voters nationwide. Seventy-seven percent of them favored Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn over his Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner, who was preferred by only 22 percent. Eighty-two percent of Illinois Latino voters supported Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin -- a strong supporter of immigration reform. Latino voters in the state favored Democrats over Republicans by a 82 percent to 17 percent margin.
Latino voters in Florida were less skewed toward Democrats. A slim majority -- 52 percent -- favored Democrat Charlie Crist over Republican Gov. Rick Scott in the governor's race. Forty-five percent of Latino voters preferred Scott. For House races, Latino voters favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by a margin of 53 percent to 44 percent.
-- Elise Foley Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle joined HuffPost Live to share his thoughts on Mitch McConnell's victory over Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky.
The majority of wealthy Kentucky voters banded together to send Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) back to Congress Tuesday. According to exit polls, McConnell won 60 percent of voters who had a family income of $100,000 or more. The senator also won with voters who make $50,000 to $99,999.
Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), meanwhile, won 50 percent of voters who make under $50,000, compared to 44 percent who backed McConnell.
The issue of economic fairness was a major campaign theme, with Grimes going after McConnell's wealth, his support for tax cuts and his opposition to raising the minimum wage.
-- Amanda Terkel
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) defeated Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes thanks to a strong advantage among men in Kentucky, according to exit polls. McConnell won 58 percent of men, compared to only 46 percent of women.
The gap was much larger among women of color. Ninety-six percent of black women voted for Grimes, while only 2 percent of them voted for McConnell. White women preferred McConnell by a 6-point margin.
Broken down by party, the polls show that while a strong majority (83 percent) of Democratic women favored Grimes, independent women broke for McConnell.
Grimes spent much of her campaign courting women voters by pointing out McConnell's votes against the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Violence Against Women Act. Overall, she won 51 percent of women voters in Kentucky, but the gender gap broke in McConnell's favor.
-- Laura Bassett The Associated Press and MSNBC project that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will be re-elected to another term.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will also earn another term, the Associated Press and MSNBC project.
The Associated Press also projects that Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will earn another term in Congress.
-- Sam Levine Sen. Mitch McConnell was projected by CNN, MSNBC and NBC to win over Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky.
-- Sam Levine HuffPost's Howard Fineman joins HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski to discuss the implications of a possible Republican Senate majority.
How different would reports about the midterms look if they were written the way the U.S. media writes about other nations' politics? Just imagine--or let Slate's Joshua Keating do so for you. Keating writes:
On Tuesday, voters in this country of 300 million, the world's second-largest democracy and most populous Christian nation, will head to the polls for elections that will determine control of the upper house of the legislature and serve as a referendum on the country's embattled ruling regime.
While international monitors expect a mostly free and fair contest, questions have been raised about why the equivalent of the GDP of Montenegro is being spent on a contest to determine the membership of a body expected to accomplish little over the next two years. Human rights observers have also noted a troubling rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric stoked by far-right nationalist candidates.
President Barack Obama's ruling party will almost certainly lose seats, but whether or not the opposition is able to take over the upper house will be determined by closely fought races in the nation's torrid southeastern swamps, central agricultural region, and even frigid Arctic villages thousands of miles from the capital.
Read more here.
The Star Press reports:
A candidate for Yorktown Town Council was arrested on Election Day at a polling site, accused of earlier stealing other candidates' signs and leaving the scene of a traffic accident during a confrontation with his accusers.
Richard E. Yencer Jr., 60, 3100 N. Delaware County Road 500-W, was preliminarily charged with theft and leaving the scene of accident.
Read more here.
BREAKING: Member of the AG's office assaulted at Newmarket polls this afternoon.
- Trent Spiner (@TrentSpiner) November 4, 2014
Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist's campaign manager tweeted this Tuesday evening:
The campaign is filing an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Broward County from 7pm to 9pm. See the motion: http://t.co/rHt108gVjO
- Omar Khan (@OmarDanielKhan) November 4, 2014
The Miami Herald previously reported that Broward's turnout had, so far, been 'woeful:'
As of 3:15 p.m., 136,000 voters had cast ballots, according to the supervisor of elections. Another 248,000 voted early or by absentee ballot.
There are 1,072,349 registered voters in Broward -- equal to a mid-afternoon turnout of about 36 percent.
Broward County is a key Democratic stronghold where 'Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two-to-one.'
-- Jason Linkins
Democracy for America, a grassroots progressive group, is trying to organize a last-minute push to get out voters on a Native American reservation in South Dakota that the group argues may be key to Democratic control of the U.S. Senate.
In an email, DFA argued that votes for Democrat Rick Weiland in those precincts could help determine control of the Senate:
Polling locations in the largest Native American reservation in South Dakota opened LATE this morning, and now people are stuck waiting in extremely long lines. We need to let voters know that some polling locations in the Pine Ridge Reservation will be open until 8 PM Mountain Time tonight to accommodate voters.
Read more here.
-- Kate Sheppard 