In Mississippi, a few dozen votes separate Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom. In Alaska, Mary Peltola leads Sen. Dan Sullivan by about 600 votes with a quarter of ballots left to count.
Two Senate races were still uncalled by the Associated Press as of noon Eastern on Wednesday, November 4. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by a few dozen votes with about 96 percent of votes counted; the state has no automatic recount, but a candidate can ask a court to order one. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by 626 votes with an estimated 74 percent counted; under Alaska law, if no candidate tops 50 percent, the race goes to ranked-choice tabulation.
Georgia holds runoffs on Tuesday, December 1, in any race where no candidate won a majority on November 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to Georgia.gov. Mail-in ballots must reach county registrars by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Check the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page for whether your ballot has a runoff, your polling place and early-voting times.
California's county election officials have until Thursday, December 3, to certify their results, and the Secretary of State certifies the statewide Statement of Vote and issues certificates of election on Friday, December 11, according to the Secretary of State. Results will keep changing until then as counties count mail and provisional ballots, so close races and ballot measures may not be decided for weeks.
The stopgap spending law signed September 2 keeps the federal government funded through Friday, December 11. Before then, the current Congress, which keeps its Republican majorities until January, must pass spending bills or another extension to avoid a shutdown. None of the 12 annual spending bills had passed both chambers when the stopgap was signed.
Under the 20th Amendment, the terms of members of Congress begin at noon on January 3, so the House and Senate chosen on November 3 take office on Sunday, January 3, 2027, when Democrats are set to take control of both chambers. Until then, the current Congress, with Republican majorities, remains in session.
The party flipped Senate seats in North Carolina, Maine, Texas, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina and won a House majority. A few races remain uncalled, and the new Congress takes office in January.
Democrats won majorities in both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, according to the Associated Press, which called the Senate for the party shortly before midnight Eastern time and later called the House majority, Time reports. Republicans had held the Senate 53 to 47 and the House 220 to 213 going into the election. As of 8 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Democrats had won 54 Senate seats and Republicans 44, with two close races still uncalled, according to Yahoo News's tally.
The Charleston pediatrician becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina, winning the seat Lindsey Graham held for more than two decades.
Democrat Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, defeated Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina's Senate race on Tuesday, the Associated Press projected, PBS News reports. Andrews becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina; Graham, who was appointed in July after the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, was the first woman to represent the state in the Senate.
Every House seat, 35 of 100 Senate seats and governor's races in 36 states are on the ballot November 3. Here's what's being decided and where to find official information.
Americans vote Tuesday, November 3, in the 2026 midterm elections. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are on the ballot, along with 35 of the 100 Senate seats, 33 regularly scheduled and two special elections to fill vacancies, and governor's races in 36 states and three territories.
The House passed the bill 370-48 under fast-track rules, keeping agencies funded at current levels past October 1 and setting up a new deadline after the midterms.
President Trump signed a stopgap funding bill on Wednesday, September 2, that keeps the federal government open at current spending levels through December 11, after the House passed it 370 to 48 on Tuesday under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority, Breaking Defense and The Hill reported. The Senate had advanced its version in August.
The appointed senator beat Rep. Ralph Norman to become the party's nominee for her late brother's seat. She faces Democrat Annie Andrews on November 3.
Sen. Darline Graham won South Carolina's special Republican Senate runoff on Tuesday, August 25, defeating Rep. Ralph Norman with about 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent, according to NBC News's projection and unofficial results. She becomes the Republican nominee for the seat held by her brother, Lindsey Graham, until his death in July.
The appointed senator led a 10-candidate special Republican primary but fell short of a majority. The runoff is August 25, and the winner faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November.
Sen. Darline Graham, appointed in July to finish her late brother Lindsey Graham's term, finished first in South Carolina's special Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, August 11, but short of the majority needed to win outright, according to unofficial results. She received about 32.7 percent, Rep. Ralph Norman about 24.6 percent and Rep. Russell Fry about 19.7 percent, with former Gov. Mark Sanford among the other candidates, Decision Desk HQ and NBC News reported.
The defense secretary and the Joint Chiefs chairman asked Congress for about $67 billion in emergency funding, much of it to replace munitions used in the war.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, July 21, that the war with Iran has cost the Defense Department about $37.5 billion so far, up from an estimate of nearly $29 billion in mid-May, Military Times reports. He and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified in support of the administration's request for about $67.1 billion in supplemental defense funding.
The Sunshine Protection Act would end the twice-yearly clock change. It now goes to the Senate, where it faces opposition from senators who prefer permanent standard time.
The House voted 308 to 117 on Tuesday, July 14, to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly clock changes, Reuters reports. President Trump supports ending the clock change. States and territories that now stay on standard time all year, such as Hawaii and most of Arizona, would not be required to switch.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister and a former commissioner of the state's Commission for the Blind, to serve the rest of his term, which ends in January, CBS News reports. Graham became her legal guardian when he was 22 and she was 13, after both of their parents died. The appointment does not decide who will be on November's ballot; Republicans will choose a nominee in a special primary.
The four-term Republican, who had won his party's nomination for a fifth term in June, died after what his office called a brief and sudden illness.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who served in the Senate since 2003, died Saturday, July 11, at age 71, his office said, after what it described as a brief and sudden illness. Before the Senate, he served four terms in the U.S. House and in the South Carolina House, and he was an Air Force lawyer and reserve colonel.
The Federal Register, published by the National Archives.
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