Election News

President

States continue to certify the results. See the current certification map and calendar here.  The electors meet to vote in their respective states December 14. 

Five states Donald Trump won in 2016 were won by Joe Biden:  Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Pennsylvania (20), Wisconsin (10). In addition, Biden won the electoral vote associated with Nebraska's 2nd district. Before accounting for faithless electors, the result is a mirror opposite of Trump's 306-232 win in 2016.

Senate

Democrats gained two seats (Arizona and Colorado) while Republicans flipped Alabama. None of these was a large surprise. The GOP was able to sweep the other seats seen as most competitive: Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina. Control of the Senate in 2021 will come down to two runoff elections in Georgia on January 5. Republicans maintain control by winning either of these runoffs. 

The 117th Congress is expected to be seated on January 3. There will be seven new Senators sworn in that day:  Tommy Tuberville (R, AL); Mark Kelly (D, AZ); John Hickenlooper (D, CO); Roger Marshall (R, KS); Ben Ray Lujan (D, NM); Bill Hagerty (R, TN); Cynthia Lummis (R, WY). 

House

Democrats will retain control but with a notably smaller majority. Heading into the election, the party held a 233-201 advantage, with one Libertarian. As of this writing, that number is 222-209, with four seats uncalled. NY-1 seems almost certain to stay in GOP hands, which will make it 222-210. The other three races are incredibly tight. See the latest results below the map. 

Aside from two seats gained through court-ordered redistricting in North Carolina, the only Democratic flip was in GA-7. Republicans have won back at least 10 seats they lost in 2018. With these gains, Republicans will have the majority of House delegations in 26 or 27 states, while Democrats will have 20. Currently, the GOP edge is 26-23.

The 117th Congress is scheduled to be seated on January 3. Speaker Pelosi's majority will get even more narrow after that, at least temporarily.  At least one member, Cedric Richmond (LA-2) has been tapped to join the Biden Administration; he is expected to resign before January 20.  

CA-25: A rematch of the district's special election held in May, after the resignation of former Rep. Katie Hill. Republican Mike Garcia flipped the seat.

IA-2: Incumbent Democrat David Loebsack did not seek reelection.

NY-22: A rematch of the 2018 election; Democrat Anthony Brindisi defeated incumbent Republican Claudia Tenney.

Governor

Only one of the 11 seats up for election this year was expected to be highly competitive.  In the end, Greg Gianforte won that Montana race rather easily, flipping the seat for the GOP. Gianforte will be one of two new governors; Spencer Cox (R, UT) succeeds the retiring fellow Republican Gary Herbert.  The tightest election ended up being in North Carolina, where incumbent Democrat Roy Cooper won by 4.5% over Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.

2021 will bring gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

11 states have certified as of November 22:  Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming

Estimated certification dates/deadlines for the remaining states and DC follow. Note that these aren't all ironclad, as the date has passed in a few cases. 

Source:  Ballotpedia

Here's a map of where things stand, with the 10 uncalled races shown as toss-up. Click or tap for an interactive version. For those looking ahead, keep in mind that the map will change for 2022, as redistricting will occur based on the upcoming Census results. 

Update: The map below will change as these 10 races are called.

Uncalled Races

CA-21 is a rematch. T.J. Cox (D) defeated incumbent David Valadao (R) in 2018; it was the final U.S. House race to be called that year.

CA-25 is a rematch of the district's special election held in May, after the resignation of former Rep. Katie Hill.

Just 47 votes separate the candidates in IA-2, out of nearly 400,000 cast. A recount is expected.  Incumbent Democrat David Loebsack did not seek reelection.

The Associated Press called NJ-7 on election night for incumbent Democrat Malinoski.  Our results partner, Decision Desk HQ has not made a call as of yet; the race continues to tighten as more results come in. 

The count of absentee ballots did not begin in New York until several days after the election. This has delayed the determination of a winner in several districts.  

NY-2 is an open seat, with the retirement of 14 term Republican Peter King.

Heading into the election, NY-3 was seen as safely Democratic.  

NY-22 is a rematch of 2018, where Anthony Brindisi (D) ousted then-incumbent Claudia Tenney (R).

Republican Burgess Owens has declared victory over Democrat Ben McAdams who flipped the district in 2018.  While the race hasn't yet been called, Owens appears to have the edge.

Runoff

LA-5 will be decided in a December 5 runoff as no candidate will get a majority of the vote. However, both candidates advancing are Republicans, so the district is decided from a party perspective; that is reflected on the above map.

Iowa will also move to a tie if Democratic nominee Rita Hart wins in District 2. If Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks wins, the GOP will have a 3-1 edge there. This race is exceptionally close; Miller-Meeks leads by 47 votes out of nearly 400,000 counted thus far.

Therefore, Republicans will have 26 or 27 majorities, Democrats 20 and there will be 3 or 4 ties.

In the map below, Iowa is shown in lighter red, reflecting the 2-1 GOP edge in called races.  If you click the image, Iowa will display in purple (tie) on the map because District 2 was consensus-rated Leans Democratic heading into the election.  You can use the toggle to the right of the map to adjust that.

This info is nice to know, but becomes relevant in the case of a presidential election where no candidate receives 270 electoral votes. In that case, the newly-elected House would select the president, with each state receiving one vote, regardless of the size of its delegation.

Looking ahead, the 2020 Census reapportionment will change the number of congressional districts some states have after the 2022 election. If this late 2019 projection holds, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania will all lose a district, giving all these currently tied states an odd number of districts. Two states with a small Democratic majority, Arizona and Colorado, are expected to add one each. Montana, with a single at-large district, is expected to gain one. No impact on the partisan majority is likely in the other states expected to gain/lose seats. 

U.S. Senate

The Republican incumbent is likely to prevail in both these races, which will put the Senate at 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats. Control of the Senate will be decided by two Georgia runoffs on January 5, 2021. 

All Results >>

U.S. House

Democrats will retain control, although the party's majority is likely to decrease. Thus far, Republicans have gained 8 seats (including that held by Libertarian Justin Amash), while Democrats have gained 4. 

All Results>>

Two Democrats advanced in CA-34; the party will hold the seat although the winner has not yet been determined.

LA-5 will go to a December 5 runoff as no candidate will get a majority of the vote. Waiting on a determination of who will finish in second place.

Here's how things stand as of Saturday morning, courtesy of this excellent interactive from The New York Times.  In the graphic below, we are showing the states/districts that remain uncalled by one or more outlets.

Here's a bit more on some of the players involved here.

Decision Desk

270toWin contracts with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) to provide real-time vote counts and projections on its site.  Founded in 2012, the firm became more well known when it was the first service to call the 2014 Virginia GOP primary where Dave Brat ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.  This article discusses how DDHQ goes about its business. As of this writing, it is the only service to have called Pennsylvania for Joe Biden. That put Biden over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

National Election Pool

This is a consortium of most of the major news networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC) that pools resources to gather vote and exit poll data. The consortium contracts with Edison Consumer Research to collect this information. While the pool adds efficiency to the data gathering process, each of these networks has its own independent decision desk. As of this writing, two of them have called Maine's 2nd district for Trump, while two have not.

Associated Press

The AP has been calling presidential elections since 1848. Here's a bit more on their process.  It left the National Election Pool after 2016, and introduced AP VoteCast in 2018. AP VoteCast is a replacement for traditional exit polls, which the AP believes are not as effective in a world where less of the electorate votes in-person on Election Day itself. AP VoteCast is used by several organizations in addition to the AP, including Fox News.  AP and Fox (which has its own decision desk) called Arizona for Joe Biden late on election night, while it remains uncalled elsewhere.  Most newspaper clients of the AP automatically use the service's race calls, but some, like the New York Times, will make their own evaluation in important races.

Some outlets have called Arizona for Biden; our results provider Decision Desk HQ has not as of yet.

Click the image below to use our 'Road to 270' feature to game out the uncalled states.

Here are the live vote counts for the seven uncalled states.  Aside from Nevada, these were all won by Donald Trump in 2016.

Click the image below to use our 'Road to 270' feature to game out those remaining states.

Here are the live vote counts for these remaining races.  Aside from Nevada, these were all won by Donald Trump in 2016.

Maps of the final Crystal Ball projections follow. Click or tap any of them for an interactive version.

President

November 2: All toss-ups are removed. Florida, Iowa, ME-2 and Ohio move to Leans Republican; Georgia and North Carolina to Leans Democratic.

Senate

November 2: Iowa moves from Leans Democratic to Leans Republican; North Carolina from Toss-up to Leans Democratic; Texas from Likely to Leans Republican.

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House

November 2: 18 Toss-ups moved: 11 to Leans Democratic, 7 to Leans Republican.  NV-3 moves from Likely to Leans Democratic; NC-9 Safe to Likely Republican; NC-11, WA-3 Likely to Leans Republican.

Governor

November 2: Montana moves from Toss-up to Leans Republican.