Closely watched Senate races still uncalled as Dems stack wins in House

• Blaming the war: President Donald Trump said it was “largely true” the Iran war contributed to the GOP shellacking , echoing Vice President JD Vance . Many Republican lawmakers and allies are moving swiftly to pin blame on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth , and the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach the Pentagon’s chief.

• New oversight: Senate Democrats have issued document preservation letters ahead of expected investigations into the Trump administration. And the Department of Homeland Security is bracing for an onslaught of congressional oversight efforts , according to current and former officials.

• What we’re tracking: CNN projects that Democrats will win at least 245 House seats. In the Senate, two contests have not yet been called: CNN Sightline rates the Mississippi race as neutral and Alaska as favoring the Democrat.

China assessing midterm rout while focused on possible Xi-Trump-Putin summit

China kept a watchful eye as President Donald Trump received a drubbing in the midterms.

Publicly, Beijing remains cautious and tight-lipped as any conclusion would be too soon to draw.

The only official response has been from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, who was quick to call the midterms “an internal matter for the United States.” She reiterated that China is ready to work with the US to build a constructive and stable bilateral relationship, a consensus reached by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Trump during their May summit.

Beijing understands that even though the Democrats have taken back the both chambers of Congress, a lame duck Trump is still powerful when it comes to trade and foreign policy.

A fragile trade truce between the world’s two biggest economies will expire in January – and some analysts say that a Trump administration no longer concerned about Chinese countermeasures’ impact on elections may become more willing to play hard ball during future negotiations.

With the Republicans’ resounding defeat widely viewed as a rebuke to Trump, some GOP members of Congress may also be less fearful of crossing him and taking a tougher stance on China if Trump continues to laud Xi and take a perceived soft approach to Beijing.

Beijing is also preparing to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in less than two weeks in its high-tech hub Shenzhen, where Xi is ready to showcase a stronger China and welcome a slew of leaders.

There, Xi is expected to meet Trump for the third time this year – and the two men may hold a historic meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin on the sidelines.

Last month, Trump said he was open to this idea. He told reporters: “We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,” adding, “I’m sure we’d talk about other things like trade too.”

In Alaska, a Senate seat hangs on late ballots and a possible ranked-choice count

The contest between Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola remains unresolved , and a winner may not be known for weeks – a delay election officials stress is routine for Alaska .

Peltola led Sullivan by just over 600 votes by the end of Wednesday, with an estimated 75% of the vote counted . The race remained uncalled, though CNN Sightline favored Peltola, whose victory would give Democrats another pickup amid their sweeping midterm gains.

Geography helps explain the wait . The state is vast, and some ballots from far-flung communities must be flown in to be counted. Because of that remoteness, Alaska allows absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive within 10 days after the election if mailed from within the US, or 15 days if mailed from overseas.

Ranked-choice voting could add another step . If no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Those ballots transfer to each voter’s next-ranked candidate still in the race. The process continues until a candidate has a majority of the votes. Alaska waits until the 15-day ballot-receipt deadline has passed before conducting that tabulation.

Alaska’s Senate race has already been overshadowed by controversy over how a second Dan Sullivan ended up on the ballot, which has sparked lawsuits , criminal investigations and threats to block certification of the election if the incumbent is defeated.

Only a trickle of votes had come in for Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, by the end of Wednesday.

The Mississippi Senate race is a nail-biter. Here's why it's taking so long to call

House or Representatives/Scott Colom campaign

Votes are still being tallied in Mississippi, where the Senate contest between Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has turned into the nail-biter of the midterms.

Colom was leading by just over 1,000 votes as of midnight, with about 96% of the ballots in. While the race is still too close to call, it’s another sign of the midterms’ seismic shift toward Democrats, even in deep-red territory.

The race is expected to come down to the roughly 15,000 provisional ballots — known as affidavit ballots. Voter advocates and legal observers expect it could take until next week, at the earliest, before we know how many of those ballots will go into the final count.

One reason a person in Mississippi would have to vote provisionally is a lack of photo ID. Those voters will see their ballots counted if they provide the required ID in five business days – or by November 10.

Another reason a voter may have to submit an affidavit ballots is they are not in the pollbook, something that could happen if the voter was tagged as inactive.

Voter advocates believe this could be a large portion of affidavit ballots because of new protocols the state to clean its voter rolls, which resulted in some voters being incorrectly tagged as inactive.

A final potential category of disputed ballots could be affidavit ballots cast by people who submitted registration forms, but were not registered because of incomplete forms.

State law requires that clerks try to reach out to the registrant missing that information to complete their registrations, but officials’ willingness to do so varies county by county, Merchant said.

All eyes on Mississippi and Alaska as American awaits final Senate results

As both parties digest election results, Democrats are already moving to reshape Washington’s agenda by outlining investigations and promising action on affordability, while Republicans confront divisions over the Iran war and responsibility for their losses.

Results continue to trickle in, with several Democrats flipping House seats across the country and a flip for the GOP last night.

But there are no final results yet in Mississippi’s Senate race , which could come down to roughly 15,000 provisional ballots pending verification, according to Democrat Scott Colom’s campaign.

In Alaska, a result in the controversial contest between Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola may not be known for weeks – a delay election officials stress is routine for Alaska .

Here’s what else is going on in the elections space:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces mounting pressure as Republican lawmakers and allies are moving to blame him for the party’s historic losses, and the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach him.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has issued letters asking for preservation of documents ahead of expected investigations into the Trump administration’s actions, a Democratic Senate aide told CNN. Describing it as a “standard committee process,” the aide said letters were sent to the Trump administration, to Elon Musk regarding the slowdown of Starshield in Ukraine, and to ports, banks and private entities involved in the Russia diesel deal.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming House Oversight chairman , said Trump investigations won’t distract Democrats from lowering costs, naming four targets: the Trump family’s businesses, immigration enforcement, corporate donations to the White House ballroom and the Epstein files.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was critical of many Republican races, telling CNN that voters were “disappointed in the productivity” of Congress and playing the blame game on gas prices.

Across the party aisle, Democratic Sen.-elect Annie Andrews of South Carolina also said the Republican party is “fractured,” with the GOP primary between Rep. Ralph Norman and Sen. Darline Graham being a symbol of that rift.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attributed Democrats win to focusing on working-class Americans and the issues that matter most to them, including cutting costs and building trust with voters.

Maryland’s Wes Moore used to hold the title of the only Black governor in the US, but soon he will be joined by four others. He emphasized to CNN the historic election of Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms , who is the first Black woman to hold the office.

Looking ahead, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich put doubt on Vice President JD Vance leading the party as the presidential nominee in 2028, saying the GOP loss in the midterms, along with several strategies Vance has taken, has made “a good bit of the luster has come off the bloom.”

CNN’s Aditi Sangal, Tori B. Powell, Elise Hammond, Katherine Koretski, Arpita Dasika and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.

Is the MAGA/Trump era over?

CNN’s Jake Tapper explores whether the MAGA/Trump era is coming to a close after the Democrats won control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

After the Democrats won control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, CNN's Jake Tapper explores whether the MAGA/Trump era is coming to a close.

• 将失败归咎于战争：唐纳德·特朗普总统表示，伊朗战争“在很大程度上”是导致共和党惨败的原因之一，这与副总统JD·万斯的说法如出一辙。许多共和党议员及其盟友正迅速将矛头指向国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯，众议院最早可能在下周就弹劾这位五角大楼负责人进行投票。

• 新的监督措施：参议院民主党人已发出文件保存函，以应对预计将对特朗普政府展开的调查。据现任和前任官员透露，国土安全部正严阵以待，准备迎接国会的大规模监督。

• 我们正在关注：CNN预测民主党将赢得至少245个众议院席位。参议院方面，还有两场选举结果尚未公布：CNN Sightline认为密西西比州的选情胶着，而阿拉斯加州则倾向于民主党。

中国在评估中期选举惨败形势的同时，也关注着可能举行的习近平-特朗普-普京峰会。

在唐纳德·特朗普总统中期选举惨败之际，中国密切关注着局势发展。

北京方面公开表态谨慎，保持沉默，认为现在下任何结论都为时尚早。

目前唯一的官方回应来自中国外交部发言人毛宁，她迅速称中期选举是“美国内政”。她重申，中国愿与美国一道构建建设性、稳定的双边关系，这是中国领导人习近平和特朗普在5月峰会上达成的共识。

北京明白，尽管民主党已经重新掌控了国会两院，但即将卸任的特朗普在贸易和外交政策方面仍然拥有强大的影响力。

世界两大经济体之间脆弱的贸易休战将于1月到期——一些分析人士表示，特朗普政府不再担心中国的反制措施对选举的影响，可能会在未来的谈判中更愿意采取强硬立场。

共和党惨败被广泛视为对特朗普的否定，如果特朗普继续赞扬习近平并对北京采取被认为软弱的态度，一些共和党国会议员可能也会减少与他作对的恐惧，并对中国采取更强硬的立场。

北京也正准备在不到两周后在其高科技中心深圳举办亚太经合组织峰会，届时习近平将展示一个更加强大的中国，并欢迎众多领导人出席。

届时，习近平预计将与特朗普举行今年的第三次会晤——两人还可能与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京举行历史性会晤。

上个月，特朗普表示他对这个想法持开放态度。他告诉记者：“我们可以开会讨论核武器和无核化问题，”并补充说，“我相信我们也会讨论其他问题，比如贸易。”

在阿拉斯加，一个参议院席位的归属取决于后期选票和可能采用的排序复选计票法。

共和党现任参议员丹·沙利文和民主党前众议员玛丽·佩尔托拉之间的竞争仍未决出胜负，可能要几周后才能知道获胜者——选举官员强调，这种延迟在阿拉斯加是常态。

截至周三结束，在已统计的约75%的选票中，佩尔托拉领先苏利文600多票。尽管CNN Sightline预测佩尔托拉胜算更大，但选举结果仍未最终确定。如果佩尔托拉获胜，民主党将在中期选举取得压倒性胜利后再添一席。

地理位置有助于解释计票延迟的原因。阿拉斯加州幅员辽阔，一些偏远地区的选票需要空运才能计入。正因如此，阿拉斯加州允许邮寄选票（邮戳日期为选举日当天）在选举日后10天内送达（如果从美国境内寄出），或在选举日后15天内送达（如果从海外寄出）。

排序复选制投票可能会增加一个步骤。如果没有候选人获得超过50%的第一选择票，则得票最少的候选人将被淘汰。这些选票将转给每位选民排名第二的仍在竞选的候选人。这个过程会一直持续到有候选人获得过半数选票为止。阿拉斯加州会在15天的选票接收截止日期过后才进行计票。

阿拉斯加州的参议员竞选已经因为第二个丹·沙利文的名字出现在选票上而引发争议，这引发了诉讼、刑事调查，并威胁称，如果现任参议员落败，将阻止选举结果的认证。

截至周三结束，退休教师丹尼尔·J·沙利文只获得了寥寥几张选票。

密西西比州参议员竞选异常激烈，结果难以预测。以下是计票迟迟未能公布的原因。

众议院或众议员/斯科特·科洛姆竞选

密西西比州的选票仍在统计中，民主党候选人斯科特·科洛姆和共和党参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯之间的参议院席位之争已成为中期选举中最扣人心弦的一场。

截至午夜，科洛姆以1000多票的微弱优势领先，当时已统计了约96%的选票。虽然选情依然胶着，难以预测最终结果，但这再次表明，即使在传统共和党票仓，中期选举也出现了向民主党倾斜的巨大趋势。

预计此次选举的最终结果将取决于大约15000张临时选票——也称为宣誓选票。选民权益倡导者和法律观察人士预计，最早也要到下周才能知道最终有多少张选票会被计入最终结果。

在密西西比州，选民需要进行临时投票的原因之一是缺少带照片的身份证明。如果这些选民在五个工作日内（即11月10日之前）提供所需的身份证明，他们的选票将被计入。

选民可能需要提交宣誓选票的另一个原因是，他们的选票不在选民名册上，这种情况可能发生在选民被标记为不活跃的情况下。

选民权益倡导者认为，由于该州为清理选民名册而采取的新规导致一些选民被错误地标记为不活跃选民，因此这可能是很大一部分宣誓选票。

最后一种可能存在争议的选票类别是宣誓选票，这类选票由提交了登记表但因表格不完整而未登记的人投出。

Merchant表示，州法律要求办事员尝试联系缺少相关信息的登记人以完成登记，但官员们这样做的意愿因县而异。

美国民众正密切关注密西西比州和阿拉斯加州，等待参议院最终结果。

两党都在消化选举结果，民主党人已经开始着手重塑华盛顿的议程，他们概述了调查计划，并承诺采取行动解决民众负担能力问题；而共和党人则面临着在伊朗战争和自身败选责任问题上的分歧。

计票结果仍在陆续公布，民主党在全国各地赢得了多个众议院席位，而共和党昨晚也赢得了一个席位。

但密西西比州参议员竞选尚未有最终结果，据民主党候选人斯科特·科洛姆的竞选团队称，最终结果可能取决于大约 15,000 张待核实的临时选票。

在阿拉斯加，共和党现任参议员丹·沙利文和民主党前众议员玛丽·佩尔托拉之间备受争议的选举结果可能要几周后才能揭晓——选举官员强调，这种延迟在阿拉斯加是司空见惯的。

以下是选举领域正在发生的其他事情：

国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯面临越来越大的压力，共和党议员及其盟友正试图将该党的历史性失败归咎于他，众议院最早可能在下周投票弹劾他。

据CNN报道，一位民主党参议员助理透露，参议院外交关系委员会已发出信函，要求保存相关文件，以便对特朗普政府的行为展开调查。这位助理称此举是“委员会的常规程序”，并表示信函已发送给特朗普政府、埃隆·马斯克（就其在乌克兰的“星盾”项目放缓一事提出要求）、以及参与俄罗斯柴油交易的港口、银行和私营实体。

即将上任的众议院监督委员会主席罗伯特·加西亚表示，对特朗普的调查不会分散民主党人降低成本的注意力，他列出了四个目标：特朗普家族的企业、移民执法、企业向白宫宴会厅的捐款以及爱泼斯坦档案。

佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯批评了许多共和党候选人，他告诉 CNN，选民们对国会的“效率”感到失望，并将责任推卸给汽油价格。

在党内另一边，南卡罗来纳州当选的民主党参议员安妮·安德鲁斯也表示，共和党“四分五裂”，共和党众议员拉尔夫·诺曼和参议员达琳·格雷厄姆之间的初选就是这种分裂的象征。

纽约市市长佐兰·马姆达尼将民主党的胜利归功于他们关注美国工薪阶层以及他们最关心的问题，包括削减成本和建立与选民的信任。

马里兰州州长韦斯·摩尔曾是美国唯一的黑人州长，但很快将有四位黑人州长加入他的行列。他向CNN强调了佐治亚州州长凯莎·兰斯·博顿斯的历史性当选，她是首位担任此职的黑人女性。

展望未来，前众议院议长纽特·金里奇对副总统JD·万斯能否在2028年成为共和党总统候选人表示怀疑，称共和党在中期选举中的失利，以及万斯采取的一些策略，已经让“光环褪去了很多”。

CNN 的 Aditi Sangal、Tori B. Powell、Elise Hammond、Katherine Koretski、Arpita Dasika 和 Aaron Blake 对本报告做出了贡献。

MAGA/特朗普时代结束了吗？

CNN 的杰克·塔珀探讨了在民主党赢得参议院和众议院的控制权后，“让美国再次伟大”/特朗普时代是否即将结束。

在民主党赢得中期选举的参议院和众议院控制权后，CNN 的杰克·塔珀探讨了“让美国再次伟大”/特朗普时代是否即将结束。