How 106-year-old woman with desire to vote became a citizen — on Election Day

Maria Valles Vda De Bonilla, 106, with her daughter Bernarda Bonilla as she receives her U.S. citizen certificate at the USCIS office in Fairfax, Va., Tuesday, November 6, 2018. (Photo by Cal Cary for the Washington Post).

When Maria Valles Vda De Bonilla moved to the United States from El Salvador 16 years ago — at age 90 — there was one thing she requested: to become a citizen.

She wanted to be able to vote in the adopted country she loves, something she was never able to do in El Salvador — first because it wasn’t legal for women to vote, and later because the polling locations were too far away and the journey was unsafe.

Tuesday afternoon, at age 106, Bonilla sat in her wheelchair in a bright sapphire dress in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Fairfax County and took her oath of citizenship. She waved a tiny American flag and smiled, her eyes moist with tears.

“I am so happy, there are no words,” said Bonilla, who was surrounded by 18 family members who came to celebrate their “abuelita.”

Bonilla — who lives in Gainesville with her daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren — is not registered to vote in Virginia, so she didn’t get to cast a ballot vote in the midterm elections after her ceremony. But when you become a citizen at age 106, you’re an optimist.

“Next time,” she said, speaking in Spanish. “God willing.”

It was a coincidence that the ceremony fell on Election Day. She was part of a routine naturalization ceremony with 12 other people from various countries, including Italy, India, Mexico, Cameroon and Thailand.

She’s not the oldest person to be naturalized in this country. That honor goes to a Turkish immigrant who at age 117 took the oath in Los Angeles almost 20 years ago. But Bonilla is the oldest in recent memory, said Kimberly Zanotti, director of the Washington Field Office, who has worked at the office for seven years and in the Newark office for 18 years before that.

“It’s fantastic,” Zanotti said

Bonilla was born on March 22, 1912 and lived in rural El Salvador, farming beans, corn, rice and lettuce for most of her life. She had 18 children, said her youngest daughter Bernarda Bonilla, 55. But only eight are still alive. Her husband died many years ago, though nobody remembers exactly when, her daughter said. Her oldest child is 75.

Women got the right to vote in El Salvador in 1939 when Bonilla was 27 years old. But she lived far from a polling location for many years and never made the trip. When she got older, she moved to San Salvador, where the streets were too dangerous for her to leave the house and vote, said her granddaughter Diana Cortez.

“You can’t just walk around, no way,” said her granddaughter Diana Cortez, 36. The criminal gang “MS-13 has taken over the country.”

Freedom is one of the things that delights Bonilla about this country, Cortez said.

“She can walk around, go outside day or night, without any fear,” said Cortez, who is a manager at a health clinic. “We can’t do that in El Salvador because of the crime.”

Bonilla came to the United States in 2002 to follow her children, who were all living here and were worried about her living on her own at age 90. She also wanted to spend time with her grandchildren, who were all born here.

When she arrived, she immediately fell in love with her new home. But in recent years, her heart has started to give out, Cortez said. In April, she had two heart attacks on the same day and almost died.

“She asked God to give her extra time to so this could happen,” Cortez said about her citizenship.

When they got home from the hospital, Cortez filled out her grandmother’s citizenship application and asked for a medical waiver, meaning Bonilla would not have to complete the civics and language exam to become naturalized. The waiver was granted last week after she was interviewed by immigration officials who reviewed her paperwork. Because of her health and age, immigration officials decided to have her ceremony as soon as possible.

Maria Valles Vda de Bonilla, 106-years-old, with her grandson Ramon Bonilla is sworn in as a US citizen in a ceremony at the USCIS office in Fairfax, Va., Tuesday, November 6, 2018. (Photo by Cal Cary for the Washington Post).
Maria Valles Vda de Bonilla, 106-years-old, with her grandson Ramon Bonilla is sworn in as a US citizen in a ceremony at the USCIS office in Fairfax, Va., Tuesday, November 6, 2018. (Photo by Cal Cary for the Washington Post).

Bonilla was one of 19,000 people naturalized in the Washington Field Office in the past year, and one of about 750,000 naturalized each year across the country.

Cortez said her grandmother is honored to be part of that group. She says the secret to her grandmother’s longevity is a will to live.

“She never thought she’d live that long, to be honest,” Cortez said. “She doesn’t know why God decided to have her here at almost 107. He must have a reason for her to be here. She wants to be here.”

Then Cortez paused and added another small clue.

“But grandma does like her tequila,” she said. “We give her a shot sometimes. The doctor says not too much. He also says that she’s 106, she can do what she wants.”

Record number of women appear headed to Congress

Democrat Jennifer Wexton (center) unseated Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.

A record number of women appeared headed to Congress after Tuesday’s election. Overwhelmingly, they are Democrats critical of the direction President Trump is taking the country.

“There will be a historic number of women walking into Congress in January,” said Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, an influential Democratic-leaning group that supports women in politics. “The only question now is whether it will be a good night or a great night for women.”

Women have never held more than 20 percent, or 107, of the 535 seats in Congress, the current number.

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That percentage is lower than in many other countries, from Mexico to Britain, and is seen as a reason the United States has never elected a female president.

But late Tuesday night as results were still coming in, that record was on pace to be broken. Women ran for office in unprecedented numbers, mostly as Democrats and many as first-time candidates.

Women made inroads in gubernatorial races, too, which are particularly important because of the upcoming redistricting battles.

In both Kansas and Michigan, women flipped states that had been under Republican control.

Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly defeated Republican Kris Kobach, whom Trump had campaigned with in Kansas last month.

Gretchen Whitmer, a former state senator in Michigan, won her race after campaigning on a promise to fix the state’s roads and aging drinking water infrastructure, and to expand Medicaid to lower-income adults.

Notably, Michigan Democrats selected a woman for every statewide office on Tuesday’s ballot: governor, U.S. senator, attorney general and secretary of state.

Georgia had the most high-profile governor’s race. Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who won the backing of former president Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, was aiming to be the first black female governor in the nation.

But she was trailing late Tuesday night behind Trump-backed candidate Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, who cast himself as a “politically incorrect” hard-line immigration candidate like the president.

The women who ran this year were remarkably diverse — black, Latina, Native American. But noticeably absent on ballots were more Republican women.

“We need to go out and get our women engaged,” said Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership. “We are being dwarfed by the Democrats. This is something we are going to focus on.”

Chamberlain said she hears voters in key districts talking mostly about an affordable health-care system that serves everyone, even those with preexisting medical conditions. That has been the loud and clear message of many Democratic candidates.

The new faces coming to Congress include:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, 29, a Latina who defeated incumbent Joseph Crowley in a decisive primary, is set to become the youngest woman elected to Congress.

In Virginia, Democrat Jennifer Wexton unseated Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.

Deb Haaland, a Democrat in New Mexico, became the first Native American woman to serve in Congress.

In Florida, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant from Ecuador and educator, focused her campaign largely on health care and toppled Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the Republican incumbent. Curbelo had voted to repeal Obamacare in a district that contains thousands of people who benefited from it.

Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, born in Detroit to Palestinian parents, and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, who arrived in the United States from Somalia at age 14, won their House races, becoming the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

At a rally in Minneapolis on Monday night, Omar was cheered wildly, and danced as she was introduced.

“The opportunity to be here, to participate in this democracy, has made me want to dance, and door-knock and talk to people and invite people to the joy of what it means to participate in a democracy,” she told a crowd of volunteers.

“What I want to do for you is have my energy be contagious,” she said.

Some GOP women won key races.

Marsha Blackburn, who called herself a “hardcore, card-carrying conservative,” became the first female senator ever elected from Tennessee. Backed by Trump in the Republican state, she defeated Phil Bredesen, a centrist Democrat and former governor.

While men with military backgrounds have long been recruited to run for office, this year’s candidates include several female veterans.

One of the most well known, Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, became a national sensation when her online video ads went viral. But she lost a close race to Republican incumbent Garland “Andy” Barr. Trump had won that district handily.

Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran and first-time Democratic candidate, was projected to win Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District race. She would replace retiring Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican.

Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and Democrat, was on track to win New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. She said she was motivated to run for office by what she calls a “lack of respect” for women by the Trump administration and was astounded to see an all-male Senate panel debating whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act last year.

In Arizona, a close race between Republican Martha McSally, a former Air Force fighter pilot, and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who is openly bisexual, means that Arizona will have its first female senator no matter who wins.

They are vying for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

A record 33 of the Tuesday’s matchups for Congress were women vs. women. In Florida, Democrat Donna Shalala, the former president of the University of Miami and Cabinet member during the Clinton administration, defeated Republican Maria Elvira Salazar, a broadcast journalist of Cuban heritage, according to early results.

“Are women fired up? That is putting it mildly,” said Jen Cox, a founder of PaveItBlue. Her group, one of many formed since Trump’s election and after the Women’s March, connected thousands of women in the Atlanta area interested in becoming more politically active.

“It’s historic. It’s our turn in having a say in changing the face of politics,” Cox said.

Kelly Dittmar, a political scientist at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said the female candidates in 2018 did not fit any particular mold.

“They have disrupted public expectations of how they behave, and what credentials and attributes they bring to politics,” Dittmar said. “And that could have long-term effects.”

Along with better health care, other key issues that helped propel women were their pledges to better protect the environment and to help stop the rising incivility and divisions among Americans.

“This is only just the beginning,” said Schriock, president of Emily’s List. “I think we are going to see a historical turnout of women in 2020 — this is not dying down.”

A night of firsts: the candidates who made history in the 2018 midterms

Groundbreaking campaigns have broken barriers this election, with historic candidates changing the face of Congress and statehouses across the US. Women have run in record numbers, and Native Americans, Muslims, Latinos, immigrants, millennials and LGBT candidates have already made history with their campaigns.

Here are the key trailblazing candidates who are diversifying American politics and have already won their races so far.

a woman wearing a microphone: Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at her midterm election night party in New York City

Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at her midterm election night party in New York City Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, youngest woman elected to Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory in the June congressional primary in New York shook up Washington and the Democratic party. The progressive challenger and member of the Democratic socialist party unseated a powerful 10-term New York congressman, running with a campaign ad that said: “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office.”

Now age 29, she has become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Elise Stefanik previously held the record when she was elected to Congress at age 30 in 2014.

Related: Ballot measures latest: Florida restores voting rights of ex-felons

Ocasio-Cortez is the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a Bronx-born father and grew up in a working-class community. She ran a grassroots campaign that took on the “Queens Democratic party machine” and championed progressive proposals, such as the abolition of the Immigration Customs Enforcement (Ice), a single-payer healthcare plan and tuition-free college.

BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 04:  Ayanna Pressley, Boston City Councilwomen and House Democratic candidate, gives a victory speech at her primary night gathering after her opponent Mike Capuano conceded on September 4, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. Pressley beat Capuano, a 10-term incumbent, in Massachusetts' 7th District.

BOSTON, MA – SEPTEMBER 04: Ayanna Pressley, Boston City Councilwomen and House Democratic candidate, gives a victory speech at her primary night gathering after her opponent Mike Capuano conceded on September 4, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. Pressley beat Capuano, a 10-term incumbent, in Massachusetts’ 7th District. Ayanna Pressley, first black House member from Massachusetts

Pressley was the first black woman to serve on Boston’s city council and made history again after defeating the 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano in the primary. She did not face a challenger in the general election, making her the first black member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.

In her victory speech in September, she said: “These times demanded more from our leaders and from our party. These times demanded an approach to governing that was bold, uncompromising and unafraid. It’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power but it matters who those Democrats are.”

Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, first Muslim congresswomen

Tlaib ran unopposed in her race to represent Michigan’s 17th district and has become the nation’s first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, and one of two Muslim women elected on Tuesday.

She is a Democratic-Socialist who served on the state legislature from 2009 to 2014 and ran her congressional primary campaign supporting Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage and abolishing Ice. Tlaib was famously escorted from a Trump rally in 2016 as she shouted questions at the candidate, asking him if he had ever read the constitution.

Ilhan Omar, also the first Somali-American in Congress, is a formerrefugee who spent the last four years as a state legislator. There, she pushed a progressive agenda, including a $15 minimum wage and subsidizing higher education costs for low-income students.

Her congressional platform has included the cancellation of student debt, banning private prisons and aggressive funding cuts to military spending. In 2016, she became the first Somali-American state legislator in the country.

Jared Polis, first openly gay man elected governor

As the Democratic nominee for governor in Colorado, Polis ran on a leftwing platform, which included single-payer healthcare, repeal of the death penalty, universal full-day preschool and stronger gun laws. Polis, who declared victory late Tuesday night, has long been outspoken in favor of marijuana legalization.

Kate Brown, who is bisexual, became the first openly LGBT person elected governor in 2016 when she won her Oregon race. Jim McGreevey, a Democrat and former New Jersey governor, came out while in office in 2004.

Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, first Native American congresswomen

An attorney and former MMA fighter, Davids became the first Native American congresswoman and the first lesbian congresswoman from Kansas.

Raised by a single mother army veteran and a member of the Wisconsin-based Ho-Chunk Nation, Davids was a fellow in the Obama White House.

In New Mexico, Deb Haaland became the first Native American woman to chair a state political party. Now, the former Democratic chair has also become the first Native American congresswoman in the US, alongside Davids. A citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe, Haaland is a longtime activist who ran on a progressive platform, including Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, and the impeachment of Trump.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Nov. 3, 2015.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Nov. 3, 2015. Marsha Blackburn, first female senator from Tennessee

A Republican who represents Tennessee’s 7th congressional district, Blackburn has become the first female senator in the state. Her race received national attention after the pop star Taylor Swift, who previously avoided politics, endorsed Blackburn’s opponent, the Democratic former governor Phil Bredesen. Blackburn has been closely aligned with Trump and is farther to the right than the GOP senator she is replacing.

Janet Mills, first female governor of Maine

Maine has elected its first female governor, the Democrat Janet Mills, who was the state’s attorney general. She declared victory early Wednesday morning and is replacing a controversial and bombastic Republican governor, Paul LePage. She regularly clashed with LePage, who is known for his overtly racist comments and was once caught threatening a state lawmaker in an an obscenity-laced voicemail.

Abby Finkenauer, first congresswoman from Iowa

In Iowa, Abby Finkenauer beat the Republican Rod Blum, who has held the seat since 2014. In addition to being the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa, at age 29, she is also one of the youngest people ever elected to the House. She is a two-term Democratic state representative.

Power change – Democrats plan to investigate Trump and his administration top to bottom

What Democrats will do now that they are in power

For the first time in years, Democrats will have an opportunity to show the country their policy vision for the future. Ahead of 2020, the party’s left-leaning base badly wants leaders to chart a path that’s unabashedly progressive, including Medicare-for-all, a $15 minimum wage, and a green jobs bill.

But with such a slim majority, Democrats will have no choice but to work with Republicans to pass at least some bills through the chamber. There are plenty of things Democrats have identified that they can work with moderate Republicans on — namely, a large infrastructure bill.

“We’ve got to look at what’s doable,” Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) told Vox in September. “Policies where we can win folks in the middle.”

Democrats have also proved they can negotiate with Republicans on large, bipartisan spending bills this year — there have been relatively few fights over spending in Congress. Beyond the task of negotiating with their colleagues across the aisle, Democrats will have to deal with an unstable entity: President Donald Trump. Trump has proved to be a difficult negotiating partner with his own party, and has been clear he plans to go head to head with Democrats after 2018.

Democrats now have the power to investigate

Democrats plan to investigate Trump and his administration top to bottom.

Democrats already have a list of more than 50 subpoena requests denied by the Republican majority that they plan to forge ahead with in January. They want to look into everything from Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, to the administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, to Jared Kushner’s emails, to Trump’s attempts to destabilize the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is likely to become the House Judiciary Committee chair, has promised an investigation into whether Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh perjured himself in testimony to the Senate.

Although Democratic leaders are telegraphing loud and clear they want to avoid any talk of impeachment, they still plan to investigate every possible Trump-related angle they can.

“The president is a guy who calls truth lies and lies truth,” House Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) told Vox this fall. “We’ve got to show what he is doing to take the foundation out of our democracy.”

Democrats also want to send a clear message they’re serious about cleaning up corruption in Washington; they are planning to take immediate action on a sweeping bill that would crack down on lobbying and expanding voting rights. That effort is being led by Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, who is adamant his party needs to undergo a serious reckoning of its own when it comes to getting money out of politics.

“Walk the walk, and we’ve got to walk it quick,” Sarbanes told Vox recently. “A lot of [voters] don’t believe it can happen because the system is rigged.”

Nancy Pelosi really wants to be speaker again. A slim majority might not stop her.

House Leader Nancy Pelosi is now focused on how she can get to 218: the number of votes she needs to become House speaker.

Pelosi has been at the helm of House Democrats for 16 years but has spent just four of those in the majority as House speaker. She previously served as speaker from 2007 to 2011, after Democrats swept into power in the 2006 midterms.

Had Democrats returned to power in this election in larger numbers, her return to the speakership would have been almost assured, as few people have raised their voice to challenge her, and Pelosi would have been able to argue she effectively returned Democrats to power.

Democrats are indeed back in power in the House, but they’re not in the dominant position they’d hoped for.

Now, Pelosi must appease a Democratic caucus that’s been growing restless with the entrenched structure under her leadership, as well as the leadership of the other two top House Democrats: House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) and House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (SC). Hoyer plans to run for House majority leader — the No. 2 spot behind Pelosi. Clyburn could also be jockeying for that position.

Clyburn has indicated he will challenge Pelosi only if she falls short, and Hoyer has also coveted the speakership for years but won’t openly challenge Pelosi unless she doesn’t have enough support.

With a number of younger members complaining about the amount of time it takes to get a coveted committee chairmanship and leaving the House to pursue other political offices, and with a Congressional Black Caucus that wants more representation at the top, Pelosi will be juggling a lot of competing demands when she returns for leadership races. But she has tools to win over members. She and her allies argue her experience is an asset dealing with Trump and heading into 2020.

Pelosi has also been aggressively fundraising and campaigning in 2018, raising millions and breaking her past fundraising records earlier this year. That money will be an important incentive to win over the support of House members who may be on the fence, especially since the national Democratic Party will be so focused on beating Trump in 2020, when House members will also all be up for reelection.

Pelosi and her allies are confident, at least outwardly.

“We always assume Pelosi will be challenged,” a senior Democratic aide told Vox this summer. “No one can beat her in the caucus; that is the fundamental problem.”

Democrat Ilhan Omar becomes one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress

Democrat Ilhan Omar becomes one of the first Muslim women elected to the House of Representatives. Jeff Baenen/AP

Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar has become one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, easily winning the election in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District — the Minneapolis-area district previously represented by Keith Ellison — on Tuesday.

Omar, a 36-year-old Somali refugee who immigrated to the United States as a teenager, beat Republican Jennifer Zielinski to take Ellison’s seat, which he vacated to run for Minnesota attorney general.

The district, covering Minneapolis and some surrounding suburbs, is deep blue, so Omar was expected to be elected to the House in November. The voters elected Ellison for six terms before he sought the attorney general’s office.

The makeup of the district has allowed progressive politics to flourish. Omar ran on a platform that embraced the left, including Medicare-for-all, a $15 minimum wage, and tuition-free college.

Omar said President Trump’s “politics of fear” motivated her to get in the race.

“It is a district that is very much interested in making sure our progressive values are represented, and they know the only way they’ll continue to be represented is if we have people who are not going to just think about getting themselves to Washington, but think about getting other progressives to Washington,” she said in an interview with MinnPost.

Omar is one of two candidates likely to become the first Muslim women elected to Congress this fall: The other is Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib. Tlaib is expected to replace disgraced Rep. John Conyers, who resigned after sexual misconduct allegations, in another safe Democratic district. Congress currently has only two lawmakers who identify as Muslim — and both of them, including Ellison, are men.

Omar, the first Somali-American Muslim to be elected to the Minnesota legislature or any elected office in the United States, is also part of a historic wave of women looking to clinch higher office this year. Women and people of color are still underrepresented in Congress (20 percent women and 19 percent people of color), but 146 women have won Democratic primaries in 2018.

Omar faced Islamophobic attacks during her campaign from outside conservative media outlets, who have baselessly claimed she was once married to her brother and has ties to terrorists. Laura Loomer — a far-right provocateur and “guerilla journalist” with a history of anti-Muslim rants who says she is investigating Muslim candidates — also crashed a joint campaign event with Tlaib and Omar, yelling questions about Hamas and female genital mutilation.

Those attacks didn’t have any sway in the general election, though.

Stacey Abrams vows to remain in Georgia governor’s race until “every vote gets counted”

 

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, vowed to remain in the race, refusing to concede to Brian Kemp, her Republican component, despite a large deficit in the vote count.

“Democracy only works when we work for it, when we fight for it, when we demand it, and apparently today when we stand in line for hours to meet it at the ballot box,” Abrams said in remarks to supporters at nearly 2 a.m. Wednesday. “I am here today to tell you there are votes remaining to be counted. Voices are waiting to be heard.”

As of early Wednesday, Kemp led Abrams by about 3.1 percentage points, a difference of about 115,000 votes out of a total 3.75 million votes counted.

Before Abrams addressed the crowd, campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said thousands of absentee and provisional ballots remained to be tallied.

“Democracy only works when we work for it, when we fight for it, when we demand it, and apparently today when we stand in line for hours to meet it at the ballot box..”

“We have three factors to be considered here: outstanding votes, absentee ballots to be counted, and provisional ballots,” Groh-Wargo said. “Given those three issues, we believe this is likely heading to a runoff.”

Under Georgia election law, a candidate for governor must reach 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. As of early Wednesday, Kemp’s share of the vote stood at 51 percent.

Abrams would be the first black female governor in the history of the U.S. and, not surprisingly, exit polls showed that race played a significant role in the election. Black voters comprised about 30 percent of the electorate and whites 60 percent — figures similar to recent elections. Abrams won the bulk of black votes (92 percent) and Kemp was up big among white voters (74 percent).

While she was not the favorite of white voters, Abrams was nevertheless performing slightly better among whites than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, garnering 26 percent compared to Clinton’s 21 percent. The difference was even starker among white, college educated women. This year, nearly half supported Abrams, compared to only about one-third for Clinton.

Although the electorate is Georgia is fairly conservative, only 40 percent said that Abrams is too liberal, with about half viewing her issue positions as neither too liberal or too conservative.

The race has been in some ways a referendum on President Trump and his policies, and a test of the diverse, progressive Democratic coalition that helped elect former President Barack Obama.

Abrams, the former minority leader of the state’s House of Representatives, and Kemp, the current Georgia secretary of state, had been locked in a close race for months. The contest attracted national attention, as Mr. Obama and Oprah Winfrey campaigned with Abrams and Mr. Trump held a rally with Kemp. To make the rally, Kemp skipped a debate with Abrams.

Democrats accuse Kemp, who is in charge of overseeing elections in the state, of disenfranchising voters. And in the lead-up to Election Day, Kemp’s office leveled a vague accusation of “potential cyber crimes” at Georgia Democrats. Kemp did not provide evidence to back up the charge, however, and Democrats dismissed the move as an 11th-hour stunt.

Georgia has had a Republican governor since 2003, and the state has voted for the GOP in presidential elections since 1992. But political experts tend to believe that Georgia is likely to become more Democratic due to changing demographics, particularly in the Atlanta area.

Matters arising: Trump just called to congratulate Pelosi

Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi and her party stands on the brink of recapturing the House of Representatives.

President Donald Trump has called to congratulate Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi as her party stood on the brink of recapturing the House of Representatives.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president made a series of calls while watching the election results late Tuesday.

Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill said Trump called Pelosi to congratulate her and to note her tone of bipartisanship.

Sanders says Trump also called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “to congratulate him on historic Senate gains.”

Trump also called outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

And he called several Republican winners for whom he campaigned in recent weeks, including incoming Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, incoming Ohio governor Mike DeWine and incoming Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

Election day began in the U.S. on Tuesday morning. Control of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and numerous governorships and state and local offices are all at stake. (Nov. 6)

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12:20 a.m.

Women will break the current record of 84 serving at the same time in the U.S. House.

With ballots still being counted across the country, women have won 75 seats and are assured of victory in nine districts where women are the only major-party candidates.

From the Women’s March opposing President Donald Trump the day after he was inaugurated in January 2017 through a stream of sexual assault accusations later that year that sparked the #MeToo movement, outrage and organizing by women have defined Democratic Party politics this election cycle.

More than 230 women, many of them first-time candidates, were on the general-election ballots in House races.

Despite the gains, men will continue to hold the vast majority of House seats.

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12:15 a.m.

Democrats have picked up at least 23 House seats, putting them on track to reach the 218 needed to seize control from Republicans after eight years.

Democrats knocked off at least 17 GOP incumbents, picking up moderate, suburban districts across the country. Democrats won seats stretching from suburban Washington, New York and Philadelphia to outside Miami, Chicago and Denver. West Coast results were still coming.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger of Virginia defeated Republican incumbent Dave Brat in suburban Richmond to give Democrats the 23rd pickup.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is hailing “a new day in America.”

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11:30 p.m.

Republican Ron DeSantis will be Florida’s next governor, riding President Donald Trump’s support to a victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum.

The 40-year-old former congressman and Navy officer won Tuesday after Trump came to Florida twice in the final six days of the election to help increase Republican turnout. Gillum was hoping to become Florida’s first black governor.

DeSantis was considered an underdog until Trump injected himself in the Republican primary, helping DeSantis cruise to victory over better-funded and better-known Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

DeSantis stumbled after his nomination, most notably by saying Floridians shouldn’t “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. Although he took a more moderate turn after the primary, DeSantis relied heavily on Trump in the campaign’s final days.

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11:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump is deeming the election results a “tremendous success,” as Republicans maintain control of the Senate but Democrats make gains in the House.

Trump tweeted Tuesday night: “Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!”

Trump spent the evening watching returns in the White House with family and friends. He spent the days leading up to Election Day on a campaign rally blitz, aimed at boosting Republicans running for Senate.

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11:15 p.m.

Florida Democratic nominee for governor Andrew Gillum is conceding to his Republican rival Ron DeSantis. AP has not called the race.

The Tallahassee mayor was seeking to become the state’s first black governor and become the first Democrat to win the governor’s race in more than 20 years.

Returns show that DeSantis has a narrow lead in the race. DeSantis was supported by President Donald Trump.

Gillum tells a crowd at Florida A&M University: “I sincerely regret I couldn’t bring it home for you.” But Gillum, who is just 39 years old, vowed to remain involved in politics.

“I can guarantee you this I’m not going anywhere,” said Gillum. “We’re going to fight, we’re going to keep fighting.”

Gillum pulled off an upset when he won the Democratic primary in August.

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11 p.m.

Democrats have won half the seats they need to reclaim the House majority, while Republicans were picking up key Senate contests.

Democrats picked up at least 12 Republican-held House seats in early returns but fell short in a closely watched race in Kentucky as they fought to wrest control of the chamber after eight years of GOP rule.

Democrats needed a net gain of 23 seats to control the House and gain a check on President Donald Trump.

Democratic gains included several suburban districts eyed for turnover because they were won by Hillary Clinton, including seats outside Washington, Philadelphia, Miami and Denver.

Meanwhile, Republicans Mike Braun and Kevin Cramer won Democratic-held Senate seats in Indiana and North Dakota, ousting incumbents Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp.

___

10:50 p.m.

Republicans have retained Senate control for two more years, shattering Democrats’ dreams of an anti-Trump wave sweeping them into the majority.

The result was all but assured when Republican Kevin Cramer ousted North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and when Republican businessman Mike Braun ousted Sen. Joe Donnelly in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz fended off a spirited challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn triumphed in Tennessee.

The GOP’s gains come even as the results in Nevada and Arizona have yet to be determined.

___

10:25 p.m.

Democrats are gaining ground in their fight for control of the House, picking up key seats in Florida, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

The early wins give Democrats a share of the seats they’ll need for House control. They won two seats in Florida, knocking off two incumbents there, and have won three seats in Pennsylvania, where court-ordered redistricting made the terrain more favorable to Democrats. They have also defeated a Republican incumbent in Minnesota.

Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the House.

___

9:50 p.m.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says a Democratic wave may look more like a “ripple.”

Sanders spoke to reporters at the White House Tuesday night, as election returns were still coming in. She says, “Maybe you get a ripple but I certainly don’t think that there’s a blue wave.”

She says there is still a “long way to go,” but the White House feels “good about where we are right now.”

Should Republicans lose the House, Sanders says the president’s agenda is not going to change.

Speaking on Fox News, Sanders said the candidates that Trump campaigned for are doing well. She also said that if Republicans should lose the House, Democrats should try to work across the aisle.

__

8:10 p.m.

Polls have closed across the East Coast, but the results in some of the most closely watched races remain too close to call.

Polls across six states closed at 7 p.m. EST, including battlegrounds Georgia, Indiana and Kentucky. Polls in other key states including Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey closed at 8 p.m. EST.

At least two lower-profile elections with presidential implications were decided after the first major wave of polls closed in the East.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders easily won his third term as he considers another bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another potential 2020 contender, also won her race.

Health care and immigration were high on voters’ minds as they cast ballots in the midterm elections, per a wide-ranging survey by The Associated Press.

___

7:15 p.m.

As polls begin to close, the White House is stressing the effort President Donald Trump put into a political ground game aimed at putting Republicans in the win column for Tuesday’s midterm elections.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a written statement that Trump has headlined 50 political rallies, 30 in the past two months. He’s campaigned for dozens of candidates at all levels of government.

Sanders says the Republican National Committee raised more than $250 million under Trump to defy what she calls “midterm history,” which tends to favor the party that does not control the White House.

Sanders says the president and first lady Melania Trump are looking forward to watching election results Tuesday night with friends and family in the White House residence.

___

4 p.m.

President Donald Trump is spending Election Day calling allies, tweeting endorsements and following news coverage, after concluding a six-day rally blitz in Missouri late Monday.

Trump packed his closing argument with hardline immigration rhetoric and harsh attacks on Democrats as he stared down the prospect of Republican losses that could shadow his presidency.

Faced with the possibility of keeping the Senate but losing the House, aides have begun laying out the political reality to Trump, who could face an onslaught of Democratic-run investigations and paralysis of his policy agenda.

Trump has already been trying out defensive arguments, noting that midterm losses are typical for the party in the White House, pointing out a high number of GOP retirements and stressing that he has kept his focus on the Senate.

__

11:45 a.m.

Long lines and malfunctioning machines marred the first hours of voting in some precincts across the U.S.

Some of the biggest problems Tuesday were in Georgia, a state with a hotly contested gubernatorial election. Voters reported waiting up to three hours to vote.

At a polling place in Snellville, Georgia, more than 100 people took turns sitting in children’s chairs and on the floor as they waited in line for hours.

Voter Ontaria Woods said about two dozen people who had come to vote left because of the lines.

At a poll site in Atlanta, voters waited in the rain in long lines that stretched around the building.

Hannah Ackermann said officials at the polling site offered various explanations for the delay, including blaming workers who didn’t show up and overloaded machines.

___

10:50 a.m.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the midterm elections are basically a referendum on Republican efforts to scrap Obamacare.

The California Democrat says at a Tuesday morning press conference that the election is “about health care.”

Pelosi credits Democratic politicians and activists across the country with helping to fend off attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act following 2016 election results that left Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.

Pelosi says that after 2016 Democrats “didn’t agonize, we organized.”

She forecasts Democratic victories across the country, but with a small overall margin of victory. Pelosi says that as few as 25,000 votes nationwide could swing the results.

Pelosi has remained noncommittal amid speculation that she would step aside to make way for new leadership, regardless of the election results.

___

10:25 a.m.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he hopes the outcome of the U.S. midterm election will ease domestic tensions in the United States and enable Washington to focus on global issues.

Speaking to reporters in Madrid on Tuesday, Lavrov lamented that Russian-American ties have become “hostage to internal political squabbles in America.”

Lavrov said he is hopeful that the election will help stabilize domestic politics in the U.S. “so that Washington could concentrate on some positive steps on the international arena.”

Lavrov also reiterated Moscow’s position that it is not meddling in U.S. elections.

He said, “All the accusations that we will be meddling in today’s elections turned out to be empty statements.”

____

9 a.m.

Severe weather in several Southern states could affect voter turnout on Election Day.

A line of storms moved through the Deep South overnight and early Tuesday morning, knocking down trees and power lines from Louisiana to South Carolina. There were no serious injuries but an estimated 11,000 residents were left without electricity.

A separate storm front in central Tennessee overnight killed one person, injured two others and also left thousands without power.

The National Weather Service warned of a possibility of high winds, severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes Tuesday around Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and the Mid-Atlantic region.

Dry weather was forecast for the West and Southwest, but significant snow accumulations were expected across the northern Rockies.

__

1 a.m.

A turbulent election season that has tested President Donald Trump’s slash-and-burn political style against the strength of the Democratic resistance comes to a close as Americans cast ballots in the first national election of the Trump era.

As voters head to the polls Tuesday, nothing was certain.

Anxious Republicans have privately expressed confidence in their narrow Senate majority but fear the House is slipping away.

Democrats’ very relevance in the Trump era depends on winning at least one chamber of Congress. They remain laser-focused on health care as they predict a nationwide “awakening” that will break up the GOP’s monopoly in Washington and state governments.

The first polls close at 6 p.m. EST.

Sen. Ted Cruz Fends Off Beto O’Rourke in Texas Senate Race

Ted Cruz (R-TX) shakes hands with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) prior to the start of a debate Tom Fox-Pool/Getty Images

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz fended off rising-star Democrat Beto O’Rourke to win re-election in a much-watched Texas Senate race that began as a cakewalk but needed a visit from President Donald Trump to help push the incumbent over the top.

Cruz finished a surprising second in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and began the Senate race as a prohibitive favorite.

But O’Rourke visited fiercely conservative parts of the state that his party had long since given up on, while shattering fundraising records despite shunning donations from outside political groups and pollster advice.

Cruz argued that his opponent’s support for gun control and universal health care were too liberal for Texas.

Trump and Cruz were bitter 2016 rivals, but the president visited Houston late last month to solidify the senator’s win.

Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, praised O’Rourke and said in a statement the Democrat Congressman from El Paso

President issued this statement on the reelection of incumbent Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate contest in Texas “neared the mountaintop by standing up for all Texans who seek a Fair Shot at better lives.”

Democrats edge toward House takeover, prepare to challenge Trump

After a strong showing in House races by Democrats on Tuesday, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi addresses supporters at a hotel in Washington. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)

By Erica Werner Erica Werner

Democrats appeared on track to take control of the House Tuesday night, a victory that would transform the Republican-controlled chamber that has supported and protected President Trump into a legislative body eager to thwart his agenda.

Early results suggested Democrats would pick up at least the 23 seats they’d need to take the House, giving the party control of half of Congress after being completely locked out of power since Trump took office last year.

They aim to quickly usher in a new era and tone in Washington, starting with a legislative package of anti-corruption measures aimed at strengthening ethics laws, protecting voter rights and cracking down on campaign finance abuses.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said the party hopes to follow with bills to lower the cost of prescription drugs and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure — both areas, infrastructure in particular, where they see the possibility of common ground with Trump.

“That is something he wants to do,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday evening in an interview on PBS NewsHour, referring to infrastructure. “It’s always been nonpartisan — always been nonpartisan. Hopefully, we can work together to advance that agenda.”

A House takeover would amount to major vindication for Pelosi, who became the first female House speaker in 2006, only to lose the majority in 2010 as voters rebelled against former President Barack Obama’s health care law and other priorities in the first midterm elections of his presidency.

Midway through Trump’s first term, the elections once again focused on health care, only this time Democrats were on the attack against Republicans, attacking the GOP over attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its signature protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Pelosi would be the favorite to ascend to the speakership once more, though that outcome is not assured, as a number of Democratic candidates distanced themselves from her in the course of the campaign.

Democrats appear to have picked up the seats they need by targeting suburban districts where Trump had grown increasingly unpopular, as well as by focusing relentlessly on health care and other economic issues. But their message didn’t resonate as widely in rural areas, leaving them short of the massive “blue wave” some in the party had hoped for.

Democrats also appear to have failed to take over the Senate, leaving the GOP-controlled chamber as a check against Democrats’ ability to pass partisan legislation through Congress.

That could mean an impasse on issues including immigration, guns and health care — the topic that, more than any other, defined House races around the country this campaign season.

In the eastern suburbs of Denver and in Kansas City and Minneapolis-area districts, GOP incumbents fell to Democratic challengers. All three seats had been heavily targeted by Democrats in 2016, but this year was different.

In Northern Virginia, Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock lost to Democrat Jennifer T. Wexton, while in one surprise win, Democrat Max Rose — a former boxer who raised millions on the strength of a viral video — unseated Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) in a seat encompassing Staten Island and Queens. Donovan was the only Republican representing New York City.

In a disappointment for the Democrats, incumbent GOP Rep. Garland “Andy” Barr held off a strong challenge from Democrat Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot. McGrath raised millions in small donations and rocketed into contention thanks to a viral video introducing her candidacy, but her bid fell short in a district where Trump beat Clinton by 15 percentage points.

Polls had closed in nearly all states but many votes remained to be counted, leaving an outside chance that late results could making the ultimate outcome uncertain.

Heading into Election Day, Republicans said their best-case scenario after Tuesday’s voting was a narrower House GOP majority than the 45-seat margin they now command. Republicans had pledged that, if returned to power in the House, they would get to work on a new 10 percent tax cut for the middle class Trump spoke of in the closing days of the campaign.

“We’ve known from the beginning that history was not on our side this election cycle. And the big money was not on our side,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said, citing a “motivated base” on the Democratic side who inundated Republican incumbents with small donations to their challengers.

House Democrats and Republicans both face leadership questions heading into the next Congress, as well as internal ideological differences that would complicate their ability to enact a unified agenda.

If Democrats retake the majority, it will be thanks to many moderate candidates who beat Republicans in districts that voted for Trump. But the party would welcome newcomers who ran on distinctly progressive agendas calling for Medicare-for-all or abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — such as New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat longtime Democrat Joseph Crowley in a June primary, and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, who is set to claim the seat once held by veteran lawmaker John Conyers Jr. in a deep-blue district.

That mix would be certain to create tensions over the party’s priorities, especially with a restive liberal base that has already begun calling for impeachment proceedings against Trump.

On the GOP side, with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) retiring from Congress, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is his likeliest successor as the top Republican leader in the majority or minority. But he may not get there without a fight, since Scalise is also eyeing the job, and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, is the choice of some conservatives.

If surprising late results leave Republicans in control of the House but with a smaller margin, the Freedom Caucus — a bloc of conservatives that has proved difficult for successive leaders to control — could gain even more clout, pulling House Republicans to the right and making dealmaking with Democrats and with the Senate even tougher.

Tuesday’s voting capped intense House races around the country that saw many Republicans on defense over health care. Republicans who rode their opposition to Obamacare to the House majority in 2010 were forced to backtrack in race after race, insisting that they actually did support such protections.

Despite the strong economy and Republicans’ success in pushing a $1.5 trillion tax cut package into law, those achievements were not central to many GOP campaigns. Instead many Republicans followed Trump’s lead in raising fears about illegal immigration and crime, while casting Democrats as overly liberal and linking them to Pelosi.

“They still have a big internal struggle within their ranks, win or lose,” Scalise said of Democrats. “There are a lot of Democrat members that don’t like Nancy Pelosi’s agenda. They’re just afraid to take it on. And I think they’re going to have to confront their internal struggles as soon as this election is over.”

♦ Culled from The Washington Post

The Latest: Wife of indicted AG wins Texas Senate seat

Texas 2018 midterm election: how results unfolded

11:57 p.m.

The wife of Texas’ indicted attorney general has been elected to the Legislature, wining a heavily Republican Senate seat representing suburban Dallas.

Republican Angela Paxton, an ex-Christian academy guidance counselor, topped Mark Phariss. He’s a lawyer who sued over the right to marry his partner and was trying to become Texas’ first openly gay state senator.

Paxton’s husband, Ken, was re-elected Tuesday despite being indicted on felony securities fraud charges.

A frequent singer at public events, Angela Paxton for years sung that she’s a “pistol-packing mama whose husband sues Obama,” referencing Texas frequently suing to block regulations issued by the previous administration.

Tuesday’s result was expected after Paxton beat Phillip Huffines, twin brother of Republican state Sen. Don Huffines, in a GOP primary where both combined to spend a record $12-plus million.

___

11:51 p.m.

One of President Donald Trump’s few Republican critics in Congress has won re-election in a Texas swing district.

Will Hurd is a former CIA officer. He accused Trump this summer of “standing idle on the world stage” and being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He also opposed Trump’s border wall. The race was a test of his independent reputation in a district that stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border and was carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones said Hurd’s reputation for standing up to Trump isn’t backed up by his record. Her loss is a blow for Democrats who saw the district as one of their best chances to help win back the House in the midterms.

___

11:33 p.m.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has won a second term while still under felony indictment for securities fraud.

Paxton has spent nearly his entire first term in office charged with defrauding investors in a tech startup. He has pleaded not guilty and faces five to 99 years in prison if convicted.

Democrat Justin Nelson staked his campaign on reminding voters that Paxton was indicted and still awaiting trial. The case has languished in court for nearly a year after a Paxton ally sued over how much special prosecutors in the case are being paid.

Paxton was indicted in 2015 but has steadied his political career by becoming a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and leading lawsuits over religious liberty and anti-abortion laws.

___

11:28 p.m.

Longtime Republican Rep. John Carter has fended off a high-profile challenge from a well-funded ex-Air Force pilot to win re-election in a reliably red suburban Austin district that Democrats had longshot hopes of flipping.

Carter, from Round Rock, north of Texas’ capital, was first elected to the House in 2002 and had rarely been challenged since, winning re-election by 20 points in 2016.

But Hegar produced an ad highlighting her having survived an abusive father and being shot down and injured by the Taliban in Afghanistan while flying a helicopter in 2009. It became a national sensation, helping her raise $4-plus million – more than triple Carter’s haul.

She then blanked TV airwaves with anti-Carter ads. But those ads and glowing national attention weren’t enough in a district so deeply conservative.

___

11:25 p.m.

Democrat Beto O’Rourke is striking an optimistic – if also profane – tone after his defeat to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

He told thousands of supporters in El Paso that Tuesday’s loss “does nothing to diminish how I feel about Texas or this country.”

O’Rourke said the movement he started would continue in some form saying, “We will see you out there, down the road.”

He also praised a campaign that broke fundraising records despite shunning money from outside groups. And he told his supporters how proud he was of the campaign, adding a choice profanity that was carried live on at least one cable network.

___

11:10 p.m.

Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher has upset Republican Rep. John Culberson, flipping a Houston House district that has been GOP-controlled since first sending George H.W. Bush to Congress 50-plus years ago.

Fletcher is a prominent corporate attorney and outspoken defender of abortion rights who argued that President Donald Trump was trying to hurt advances in women’s equality.

She was backed by national Democratic groups, while GOP organizations and a visit by Vice President Mike Pence tried to save Culberson.

Culberson had represented the wealthy and well-educated district since 2001 but has seen its demographics shift to become less white and more heavily Hispanic and black.

Democrats hope a wave election nationally can help them pick up 23 seats and retake the House.

Fletcher’s victory marks the party’s second pickup in deep-red Texas.

___

10:45 p.m.

George P. Bush won re-election as Texas land commissioner, which oversees oil and natural gas exploration rights on 13 million acres of public land.

The grandson and nephew of former presidents and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, George P. Bush topped underfunded Democrat Miguel Suazo.

The 42-year-old fluent Spanish speaker is considered a rising Republican star. But Bush has drawn criticism from some Texas conservatives for leading a makeover of the Alamo that some complain is too politically correct.

He also has led Texas’ housing recovery after last summer’s Hurricane Harvey – and been dogged by complains things are moving too slowly.

Fellow Republicans Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Comptroller Glenn Hegar also easily clinched re-election Tuesday.

___

10:43 p.m.

Republican Rep. Pete Olson has defeated Indian-American challenger Sri Preston Kulkarni to win re-election in a suburban Houston district that Democrats had hoped to flip due to a large Asian-American population.

Olson first came to Congress in 2009 in reliably Republican territory. But Texas’ shifting demographics now mean that 60 percent of his district voters are minority and 20 percent are Asian, making it one of the state’s largest Asian districts.

Both candidates raised over $1 million and charges of racism marred the race. The Fort Bend County Republican Party apologized for an ad in a district newspaper popular with Indian-Americans that likened Hindu deity Ganesha to the GOP’s elephant symbol.

National Democrats that Kulkarni, while a longshot could upset Olson as they look to retake control of the House.

___

10:35 p.m.

Former NFL linebacker and civil rights attorney Colin Allred has defeated longtime Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, flipping a reliably conservative Dallas enclave.

Sessions has been in Congress since 1997 and rarely challenged in an area that is home to the likes of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He didn’t even face a Democratic opponent in 2016.

But Hillary Clinton topped Donald Trump in the district two years ago. Its growing minority population helped prompt national Democrats to pour funding and field staff into supporting Allred. Sessions had national help too, including an October visit from Vice President Mike Pence.

Democrats hope a surge nationally can help them gain 23 seats and retake the House. Allred’s victory marks their first Texas pickup.

News of Allred’s win sent booming cheers through the ballroom at a Dallas hotel. A group of young supporters near the stage hugged and chanted.

Allred told supporters he was prepared to work with anyone from any political ideology.

___

10:30 p.m.

Newly re-elected Sen. Ted Cruz says Democrat Beto O’Rourke “worked tirelessly” and that millions of people across the state were “inspired by his campaign.”

Cruz spoke Tuesday at his victory party shortly after clinching his second term in a race that was closely watched nationally.

Cruz told his supporters that “Texas saw something this year that we’ve never seen before.”

Ultimately, he says, Texans came together behind “a common-sense agenda of low taxes, low regulations, and lots and lots of jobs.”

___

10:15 p.m.

An ex-Navy SEAL has been elected to the U.S. House three days after “Saturday Night Live” mocked the eye patch he wears because he was badly wounded in combat.

Republican Dan Crenshaw defeated Democrat Todd Litton on Tuesday to represent a vacant Houston-area district.

Crenshaw lost his right eye in a battlefield explosion. Comic Pete Davidson joked on Saturday that his eye patch made him look like a “hit man in a porno movie,” The joke drew widespread condemnation and attention to Crenshaw’s campaign.

Crenshaw tweeted Sunday that he hoped SNL “recognizes that vets don’t deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes.”

___

10 p.m.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s father is telling several hundred supporters that “Texas remains free” after his son won a close re-election battle against Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

Rafael Cruz referred on Tuesday night to O’Rourke by his birth name, saying: “Robert Francis O’Rourke, you cannot buy Texas.” Some of the senator supporters used O’Rourke’s birth name to suggest that he was falsely presenting himself as Latino. Ted Cruz also uses a nickname.

Rafael Cruz also attacked George Soros, the billionaire financier and major Democratic donor. He accused Soros of trying to “buy Texas” as well.

The crowd chanted “Ted! Ted!” as Rafael Cruz spoke.

9:25 p.m.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz fended off rising-star Democrat Beto O’Rourke to win re-election in a much-watched Texas Senate race that began as a cakewalk but needed a visit from President Donald Trump to help push the incumbent over the top.

Cruz finished a surprising second in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and began the Senate race as a prohibitive favorite.

But O’Rourke visited fiercely conservative parts of the state that his party had long since given up on, while shattering fundraising records despite shunning donations from outside political groups and pollster advice.

Cruz argued that his opponent’s support for gun control and universal health care were too liberal for Texas.

Trump and Cruz were bitter 2016 rivals, but the president visited Houston late last month to solidify the senator’s win.

___

9:10 p.m.

Thousands of people are milling around the infield at the El Paso baseball stadium where Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke is holding his election-night party.

As they awaited results in the closely fought race, people in the crowd were entertained by a cumbia band. They cheered when the singer said, “El Paso never gives up.”

O’Rourke is a congressman from El Paso who has mounted a competitive challenge against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

His campaign drew national attention and a wide range of endorsements, including one in the last few hours of the race from Beyonce, the singer and Houston native.

Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in nearly a quarter-century.

___

8:50 p.m.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says it’s time for Texans to “work side by side” following a divisive midterm campaign season.

Abbott struck a tone of unity after easily winning re-election over Democrat Lupe Valdez.

The 60-year-old Abbott says that Texans must remember that “what unities us as Texans is far greater than our differences.” He released the statement as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and other GOP incumbents in Texas were still locked in much closer races.

Republicans have kept a grip on the Texas governor’s mansion since 1994.

Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff, never put together a serious statewide challenge.

___

8:25 p.m.

Texas is sending its first Hispanic women to Congress, with Democrats in Houston and El Paso both earning that trailblazing distinction during the same electoral cycle.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia won a heavily Hispanic district in Houston, replacing retiring Democratic Rep. Gene Green, who remained popular representing the area for decades despite being a self-described white man who spoke marginal Spanish.

A former county judge in El Paso, Veronica Escobar won a seat to replace El Paso Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is leaving the House as he challenges Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Texas has the nation’s second-largest Hispanic population behind California but had never elected a Latina to either congressional chamber. Cruz became the state’s first Hispanic male senator in 2012.

___

8 p.m.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has won a second term after an uneventful race against Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez.

Abbott’s re-election was seldom in doubt. Republicans have won every governor’s race in Texas since 1994, starting with George W. Bush and continuing with Rick Perry and now Abbott.

Valdez is a former sheriff in Dallas who would have been Texas’ first openly gay, Hispanic governor. But she struggled to raise money and support, and her race was overshadowed in Texas by Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s high-profile run for Senate.

The 60-year-old Abbott is the nation’s only governor who uses a wheelchair. He was paralyzed from the waist down after a tree fell on him as a young law student.

___

7 p.m.

As polls closed across most of Texas, supporters of both candidates in the closely watched U.S. Senate race gathered at opposite ends of the state.

Thousands of Democrat Beto O’Rourke supporters are at a minor league baseball stadium in the Texas Democratic Senate candidate’s native El Paso to await elections results that could come late into the night.

At U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s party in Houston, a line of people waited to enter the hotel ballroom, chanting “Ted! Ted!” Some in the crowd wore red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps.

Polls in El Paso and far west Texas are still open for another hour. Nine polling places in the Houston area will also stay open under a judge’s order after reports that they opened late this morning.

___

5:10 p.m.

Beyonce has endorsed Texas Democratic Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke’s bid to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in the final hours before her home state’s polls close.

The native Houstonian released a series of Instagram posts with a black and white “Beto” cap partially covering her face on Tuesday afternoon.

O’Rourke himself then retweeted one of the pictures under the caption “Thank you, Beyonce.”

An El Paso congressman, O’Rourke is trying to become the first Democrat to win statewide office in Texas since 1994 and has drawn the adoration of many celebrities, including Texas country music icon Willie Nelson.

Cruz dismisses his opponent’s upset-minded campaign as too liberal for Texas since O’Rourke supports universal health care and impeaching President Donald Trump.

___

4:50 p.m.

Nine Houston-area polling places will stay open until 8 p.m. after a judge ruled in favor of advocacy groups that complained the locations didn’t open on time and forced many voters to leave without casting a ballot.

State District Judge Fredericka Phillips granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday that directs Harris County to keep the nine locations open until 8 p.m., an hour later than the rest of the county.

The Texas Civil Rights Project and Texas Organizing Project filed several statements from voters who reported long morning lines and malfunctioning machines.

One person said she was first in line before the 7 a.m. opening but left at 7:45 without voting because poll workers’ sign-in machines weren’t working.

An attorney for Harris County says the county will comply with Phillips’ order.

The nine locations are listed here . There are roughly 1,000 polling places in Harris County.

___

3:30 p.m.

A Harris County deputy has cited a poll worker for misdemeanor assault after she allegedly bumped a voter during an argument and made a racist comment.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter the deputy responded Tuesday morning to a disturbance call at a polling site in Houston.

The Houston Chronicle reports the dispute began over a discrepancy with the voter’s address. The confrontation escalated and the worker, who is white, made a racist comment to the voter, who’s a black woman. Witnesses confirmed to the newspaper that the worker said, “Maybe if I’d worn my blackface makeup today you could comprehend what I’m saying to you.”

The election judge at the site separated the two.

Harris County authorities are investigating the matter.

___

12:45 p.m.

Apparent technical problems have cause Election Day delays for some voters looking to cast ballots in Harris County.

Houston resident Xenia Kulick says voting was delayed by about 20 minutes after her polling site opened Tuesday, and then problems with registration check-in machines resulted in a long line forming.

The Houston Chronicle reports an election judge at the polling location said iPads, which are used to certify voter registration, were not working for less than 10 minutes.

A Harris County elections official says technical glitches occur periodically and county workers try to move quickly to resolve them to prevent disruptions for voters.

___

11:55 a.m.

Texas’ U.S. Senate race is at the top of voters’ minds as they head to the polls.

Republican Amanda Martin, a 40-year-old high school teacher, cast her vote Tuesday in Dallas for Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

She likes that O’Rourke is “more in the middle,” adding that her displeasure with President Donald Trump also factored into her decision since Cruz has supported Trump.

But Republican Elizabeth Sharp, a 33-year-old who works in marketing, said that while she thinks Trump is “a little too divisive” and Cruz “probably has a ways to go” as far as inclusiveness, she cast her vote for Cruz.

Octavio Rodriguez, a 45-year-old who works in consulting, said he was excited to vote for O’Rourke, saying, “He represents at least something that counteracts that divisiveness that’s going on right now.”

___

11:45 a.m.

A “crowd control exercise” the U.S. Border Patrol planned in Texas on Election Day has been cancelled after being criticized by civil liberty groups.

Border Patrol agent Fidel Baca confirmed Tuesday that the exercise in a Latino neighborhood of El Paso was cancelled, but declined to say why.

The Texas Civil Rights Project says the exercise, billed by Border Patrol as a “mobile field force demonstration,” was to be held within a half-mile of a polling site.

The group is seeking an explanation from federal authorities about the intention of the exercise.

The group says in a statement that President Donald Trump “has drummed up anti-immigrant sentiment” and the exercise is “part and parcel of those efforts.”

Border Patrol has previously held similar operations: one in South Texas on Monday and another in El Paso last week.

___

11 a.m.

A Central Texas elections supervisor has resigned after she berated a woman who was apparently confused about where to vote.

Williamson County Elections Administrator Chris Davis told KVUE-TV in Austin that the supervisor resigned in the aftermath of the confrontation Friday and is not working on Election Day. Friday was the last day of early voting.

KVUE broadcast video taken by another voter that showed the supervisor becoming angry with the woman then rising from her chair and yelling, “Get out. Get out. Get out.”

Davis says the woman was registered to vote in Williamson County but lives in adjacent Travis County.

He says the woman arrived at the Williamson polling site after being turned away by Travis poll workers.

Davis says workers should have directed the woman to the Travis County elections division so she could have cast a limited ballot.

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9 a.m.

Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke says he expects to win his high-profile Texas Senate race against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz – defying the odds in the country’s largest red state.

O’Rourke walked from his home in El Paso on Tuesday and voted at a community college, accompanied by his wife and three children. He said he didn’t have any polls on which to base his optimism but said his campaign is “bringing people together, I feel it. And so, yeah, I feel good.”

Cruz, who cast an early vote in his native Houston last month, says he’s confident he’ll prevail and was boosted by President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Houston.

O’Rourke says an upset win would prove that “Texas is not going to be governed by our fears.”

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8:15 a.m.

Polls have opened across Texas for Election Day and a strong turnout is anticipated following an early-voting period in which nearly 4.9 million people cast ballots in Texas’ 30 largest counties alone.

Polls throughout the state opened Tuesday after a campaign season that featured the much-watched Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Like other states in what has been a deeply divisive election year, Texas shattered early voting records in big cities for a midterm election.

Fewer than 5 million voters in Texas cast ballots in the 2014 and 2010 midterms, but this cycle could be closer to a high-turnout presidential year.

The Senate race has overshadowed other contests, such as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s push for a second term against Democrat Lupe Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff.

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10 p.m.

The U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke has grabbed most of the attention, but Texas has a full slate of candidates on the midterm ballot.

Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to cruise to re-election, as are fellow Republicans Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is under federal indictment, but still favored.

All 36 congressional seats are up, and the Democrats are hoping to reduce the Republican’ 25-11 advantage, especially with races that could be close in Dallas, Houston and a sprawling West Texas district.

All 150 state House seats are up too, as are 15 of 31 Senate seats – though Republican majorities in each look safe.

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