Democrats’ Blue Wave Could Get Even Bigger

The Slatest The elections are too close to call, but they’re not looking bad. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images, Brad Vest/Getty Images, and Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images. This story is adapted from the Slatest newsletter. You can sign up here to get it in your inbox every day. We know that a blue tsunami has swamped America and swept scores of Republicans out of office. But we still don’t know the full extent of Democrats’ dominance. Two Senate races—in Alaska and Mississippi—remain too close to call, and votes are still being counted in dozens of House districts. Let’s take a quick spin through the key outstanding races. Alaska: The U.S. Senate contest, where Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola seeks to topple Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, remains extremely close. As you may recall, Peltola got in some hot water last week after the New York Times revealed that allies of hers helped recruit a spoiler candidate with the same name as the incumbent in an effort to cost him votes. The stunt prompted Donald Trump and other Republicans to launch lawsuits and investigations with the hope of forestalling a narrow Peltola victory. Right now, with about three-quarters of the expected vote in, the Associated Press shows the race virtually tied between Peltola and Sen. Sullivan. (Vote totals can vary by source, but we generally use the AP as our gold standard.) But the uncounted votes seem to be in blue parts of the state, so Peltola appears likely to end up in the lead. The more critical question, though, is whether she’ll end up with more than 50 percent of the vote. If not, it will trigger the state’s ranked choice voting process, which reallocates support from the two lowest-vote-getting candidates to those voters’ second-, third-, and potentially fourth-choice candidates. Peltola might still win in that scenario, but it may also trigger renewed Republican efforts to block her victory. It will also take election officials at least two weeks to run the ranked choice process, so we could be in for a long wait. Mississippi: Careful Slatest readers will remember that we recently labeled the U.S. Senate race here as being among Democrats’ “more far-fetched Senate reach seats this year.” Well, it isn’t looking so far-fetched anymore. As of this afternoon, Scott Colom, a Democratic district attorney, led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 65 votes—not a typo—out of nearly 1 million cast. (Votes are still trickling in, so it’s possible that number has since changed; you can follow the results via the AP here.) Some election experts think most of the outstanding vote will come from blue areas or from voters who cast mail ballots, which can arrive as late as next Tuesday and still be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. But a former Democrat is also running as an independent candidate and has already won about 20,000 votes, so this will be a photo finish either way. How on earth did Colom keep this race so close in a state Trump won by more than 20 points in 2024? He appears to have energized Black voters furious over a Supreme Court decision that could let Republicans eliminate Mississippi’s only majority-Black congressional district while also winning over about a quarter of the white electorate. Those happen to be exactly the numbers Colom’s pollster predicted last month would be needed to win. Hyde-Smith’s fumbles have also helped. In February, she told a local TV station that Americans concerned about high beef prices have “so many proteins to choose from”—remarks Colom quickly turned into a viral ad. A Colom win would also come with an ironic twist. In 2022, then-President Joe Biden nominated Colom to a federal judgeship—only for one of the state’s GOP senators to block Colom’s nomination. That senator was Cindy Hyde-Smith. House elections: Democrats have officially won 237 House seats, already well north of a majority. But that number appears set to rise once the final results from a few dozen uncalled races trickle in. Among the most interesting are: • You remember Rep. Lauren Boebert, right? The gun-toting, scandal-tarred MAGA firebrand who distanced herself from Trump over the Iran war and the Epstein files. She’s fighting for her political life against Eileen Laubacher, a Democratic retired Navy rear admiral, in Colorado’s 4th District. • Five Republican-held Arizona House races remain too close to call. But in a sign of how high the blue tsunami broke, Democrats are ahead or close in all five—including two that weren’t expected to be competitive. • Dummymander watch! Democrats remain competitive in several uncalled Florida and North Carolina House races that Republicans redrew to be more GOP-friendly. Oops! • Will a progressive cost Democrats a winnable seat? Maine’s right-leaning 2nd District is currently represented by Rep. Jared Golden, a conservative Democrat who’s retiring. Yet Golden’s progressive would-be successor, Matt Dunlap, currently trails Republican former Gov. Paul LePage. Tolga Akdoğan Speaking of the midterms: Here’s a selection of Slate’s election coverage from last night and today, as curated by my colleagues. And if that’s still not enough midterms content for you, you can peruse the rest of our coverage here. Celebrate some historic wins: The Democrats’ blue tsunami was driven in part by historymaking candidates. In the Senate, Democrats elected the first openly gay man (New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas), the first Muslim (Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed), and the first Paralympian (Iowa’s Josh Turek). Shirin Ali compiled some of the election’s notable firsts from around the country. Say goodbye to Susan Collins: Maine’s Republican senator seemed undefeatable … until she wasn’t. Jill Filipovic breaks down why Maine voters finally rejected Collins—and identifies the moment the tide began turning against the longtime senator. And Vivek Ramaswamy: Few election outcomes were more satisfying than Ramaswamy’s wipeout in the Ohio governor’s race. His campaign was defined by its vitriol and cruelty, culminating in a disastrous ad featuring his Democratic opponent’s estranged mother. Nitish Pahwa argues that Ramaswamy’s “loss reveals him to be a pathetic Trump wannabe who was simply too repulsive, too unlikable, too transparently hungry for power.” Reflect on the catharsis: Democrats finally had the night they’ve been fantasizing about since the dawn of the Trump era: a blue tsunami, and a broad and sweeping repudiation of the president. Jim Newell explains that Tuesday night, a shocking number of Democrats’ dreams came to fruition. And Narda Pérez explains why it was such a great night to be a Texan. Fear not, we’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow to do some more explaining about what these results mean. Until then, enjoy your evening!