Election night 2026

19:21 CST. We lead off tonight with completely unsurprising results from Illinois: JB Pritzker sailed to his 3rd term as Governor, Lt Governor Julianna Stratton won outgoing Senate minority whip Dick Durbin's seat, and we have absolutely no idea who won any of the board elections. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has declared that Democrat Jon Ossoff has won re-election to the Senate as well.

Now for the good stuff: According to the New York Times, Democrat Roy Cooper has flipped North Carolina's Senate seat and in New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas easily defeated John E Sununu for the Senate. So far, all of the called Senate races have gone to Democrats, but we still have 29 left to go.

19:43: The AP has called Florida Senate for incumbent Republican Ashley Moody 50.8% to Angie Nixon's 48.1%, which is a D+11 swing from the OAFPOTUS's win in 2024. This means nothing for the rest of the country, but it's an interesting data point.

19:53: Our first Democratic pickup in the House: Jamie Ager in NC-11, which includes the westernmost end of the state, including Asheville. This is interesting because the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature redrew the district in 2023 to dilute Asheville's relative weight. In 2024, Republican Chuck Edwards won 56.8% to Caleb Rudow's 43.2%. With almost 4/5ths of votes tallied, the district is showing a D+17 flip. Nice job fixing it, villain!

20:01: Here we go. Polls just closed in 15 states including Texas, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. So far no surprises: The Times calls Democrats Kathy Hochul for New York Governor and John Hickenlooper for Colorado Senate.

20:07: "The White House just released President Trump’s schedule for tomorrow, and as of now, he has no public events. The schedule says he has four policy meetings at the White House, but they are all closed to the press." (NYT)

20:27: Republican Andy Barr holds onto the Senate seat in Kentucky for the Republicans, but with 80% of the votes reporting, we see a D+12 swing there. Meanwhile, Republican Byron Donalds will become the first Black governor of Florida, barely defeating David Jolly 50.1%-48.6%. That's a D+8 shift from 2022. Ohio, Michigan, Texas, and Iowa are still counting votes.

20:31: I'm now 3-for-3 on the top offices on my ballot: Democrat Dan Biss has won IL-9. He was projected to win by 65 points, so this is hardly a shocking outcome. More interesting, though, is Keisha Lance Bottoms solidly defeating Rick Jackson for Georgia Governor. Nice!

20:47: US Senator Rafael Warnock (D-GA) said Sunday that he was "nauseously optimistic," a feeling I share. But you know who is completely unfazed by tonight's news? This girl:

20:54: Tonight's second House flip sees Rebecca Bennett defeating Tom Kean in NJ-7. Kean, you may recall, vanished for several months this year, and was not expected to do well tonight. With about 3/4 of votes counted, this looks like a D+9 swing.

21:12: W000000t! AP and the Times call South Carolina Senate for Annie Andrews, defeating deceased Senator Lindsey Graham's sister Darline, and becoming the first Democrat to hold the seat since racist POS Strom Thurmond switched parties in 1964. This one feels great, and represents a D+8 shift from 2024 with 90% of the votes counted.

21:17: Zach Dembo flips KY-6, vacated by US Senator Elect Andy Barr in what appears to be a D+15 shift.

21:30: Bob Brooks defeats Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in PA-7; only a D+6 shift, but it's Allentown, Pa.

21:43: Two more pickups in Pennsylvania as the 8th district goes to Paige Cognetti in a D+5 shift and the 10th goes to Janelle Stelson also at D+5. In Arkansas, Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Republican US Senator Tom Cotton have held their offices.

21:50: Amy Acton has defeated entitled slimebucket Vivek Ramaswamy for Ohio Governor. Unfortunately, no narcissistic asshole as unctious and loathesome as Ramaswamy is likely to disappear from politics as a result. With 85% of votes counted, this is a D+12 shift. In the Ohio 15th, Don Leonard flipped Republican Mike Carey into retirement. And in New York City, voters approved five ballot initiatives giving the mayor more power to build housing, increase bike lane coverage, and expand outdoor dining.

22:03: Texas governor Greg Abbott has conceded to Gina Hinojosa just now, and the AP has called James Talarico over Ken Paxton in a stunning D+17 shift from Kamala Harris's vote share in 2024.

22:09: After one of the bitterest House fights in this cycle, Rep. Mike Lawler has conceded to Cait Conley in the New York 17th. And in Ohio, Sherrod Brown has removed Republican John Husted's nice ass from the Senate.

22:26: Adam Hamilton flips the US Senate seat for Kansas, giving the 120th Congress a tied Senate. But we're not done. Oh no. We're not done. And Missouri voters rejected a ban on abortions to boot.

22:30: Wisconsin has elected David Crowley its first Black governor. (As my Brews Buddy just texted: "Imagine if Francesca Hong were running, she'd have won by seven zillion percent!")

22:36: Iowa, Iowa, oh, I-, Iowa! Josh Turek has won the US Senate seat in the Hawkeye State. The Senate will now be under Democratic control on January 3rd.

22:48: Another House flip, this time VA-2, where Elaine Luria has unseated incumbent Republican Jen Kiggans. Also, The Daily Show just posted on social media, "Touching: Darlene Graham honors her brother, the late Lindsey Graham, by finishing on bottom". Awww.

22:51: Colorado's Manny Rutinel flips that state's 8th district.

22:57: Comedian Steve Hofstetter: "Republicans just became the thing they fear most: a minority." Andy Borowitz: "Mike Johnson begs God to rapture him tonight."

23:13: Two pickups in Iowa: Sarah Trone Garriott has won IA-3 and Christina Bonhannon has won IA-1. Plus, the Times just called Amy Klobuchar for Minnesota Governor and Peggy Flanagan for Minnesota US Senate, both Democratic holds. That's 52 Democrats in the Senate and 192 in the House, with 8 Senate and 133 House races left to be called.

Meanwhile, Maine and Michigan are nowhere near done counting votes, and polls are still open in Alaska. So we don't yet know how big our margin will be in the Senate. Nor do we know about a few other contentious races, like Kansas governor and Attorney General, two races where Democratic victories would be especially sweet.

I, however, am pooped, and Cassie needs to pee. I may sign off here, unless something truly outrageous happens in the next half-hour. I am also going to have my one drink of the night: a 19-year-old sherry cask Tobermory specially bottled for Cadenhead that I picked up in London about 10 years ago.

23:23: Vait, vait, vait! Republican Susan Collins has conceded to Troy Jackson, ending her 30-year Senate career and giving us our 7th Senate flip of the night.

Now I'm going to take Cassie outside.

00:01: Election night 2026, I just can't quit you.

Two flips in Wisconsin: Mitchell Berman, an emergency room nurse, won the 1st district, which includes Kenosha, Racine, and Janesville, while Rebecca Cooke won the 3rd, which runs along the Mississippi River from Eau Clare to the Illinois line. WI-1 was Paul Ryan's district, and also includes many of my dead ancestors, some of whom voted for Paul Ryan back in the day. Even in deep-red Indiana, J.D. Ford has picked off Rep. Victoria Spartz in the 5th district, which includes Muncie and Kokomo, neither of which has a particularly left-wing bent.

And one of tonight's strangest phenomena has to be Mississippi, whose Senate race is too close to call. This is a state that Harris lost by 22 points. And it's in play this time. Mississippi is currently at D+22. Missi-fucking-ssippi.

(Sadly, the dumbest person currently in the US Senate is likely to win the governor's race in next-door Alabama. Not to worry: Wisconsin's Ron Johnson still has another two years in his term, so Tuberville's successor for the dunce crown isn't going anywhere yet.)

00:24: (WTF am I still doing up?) The New York Times has called the North Carolina State House for the Democrats; no call yet on the state senate. I have been watching this closely because North Carolina's Republican legislature perpetrated some egregious bullshit in the past few years, yanking power from Democratic governors and returning it to the office when Republicans got elected. They also perpetrated some absolutely batshit gerrymandering, squeezing out 10 Republican seats out of 14 districts in a state whose popular vote was 53-42. Well, guess what happens when you engineer R+5 districts in a D+15 election, hmm? FAFO, that's what.

And with Johnny Garcia's win in TX-35 just now, it looks like Texas "dummymandering" has met with a similar fate. Garcia's win, incidentally, officially puts Democrats at 218 confirmed seats, which means we will control both houses of Congress next year. FAFO indeed.

00:42: All right, I can't keep my eyes open any longer. Still no final word in Michigan, Alaska, or Mississippi FFS, though Abdul El-Sayed has declared himself the winner in Michigan. I'm happy if he wins, but man, I'm happier he's not the 51st Democrat next Congress. It also looks like former principal Jessica Biggs will win Chicago School Board president, which is fine, I guess. It looks like the Chicago Teachers Union will have about half and the Chicago Public Schools will have about half, which means our schools will continue to struggle.

This has been quite a night. If we'd only gotten to 51 senators, diyenu, you know? As for the House, we won't know for sure until all of California's races are counted, which could take a couple of weeks. But now we're looking at over 250, when we were thinking maybe 225. It's not veto-proof, and I'm sure a couple of them will screw up badly before 2028, but we've still got the OAFPOTUS out campaigning for us every day he stays in office.

Lots of history tonight. I'm going to bed happy.