Nathaniel Rakich: “In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans have each won 48 seats, and four states are still unprojected: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. However, it’s almost certain that a Republican (either Murkowski or Tshibaka) will win in Alaska, so really it’s more like 49-48. That means Democrats need to win two of Arizona, Georgia and Nevada in order to hold the chamber.”

“In the House, 209 seats have been projected for Republicans, and 193 have been projected for Democrats. A majority is 218, so Republicans are closer to that, but it’s not impossible that Democrats could run the table. Given how many unprojected House seats there are in California alone, and how slowly California counts its votes, we could be waiting days for an official projection.”

Nate Cohn: “Republican control of the House was all but a foregone conclusion heading into Tuesday, but Democrats outran the polls and projections.”

“Republicans will have to claw their way to a majority, seat by seat. The Needle suggests Republicans are likelier than not to win the House, but it is no certainty. As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, there was only enough information to have them projected to win 197 seats — 21 short of the 218 needed for a majority.”

“They’re nowhere close to being called the winner in many of these races — in many of these states, late mail ballots have the potential to help Democrats. It will take days to count these ballots.”

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceded defeat Wednesday, a humiliating loss for Democrats and the chair of the party’s campaign arm, Politico reports.

National Review: “No excuses, Republicans. Everyone thought you had just about the ideal issue environment for a midterm election, and the exit polls verified it. Seven in ten Americans said they were ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘angry’ about the state of the country. Around three-quarters of voters nationally characterized the state of the economy as ‘poor’ or ‘not good,’ and the same amount said that inflation has caused them severe or moderate hardship. About two-thirds said that gas prices have been causing them hardship. You had parents livid about the learning loss in schools because of the long closures for Covid-19 and inappropriate materials in the curriculum. You had an unpopular president, who was such a liability that Democrats couldn’t let him go anywhere near a swing state.”

“And the nation, deeply dissatisfied with the way the Democrats were running things, looked at what the GOP offered as the alternative and concluded, ‘Nope, I’ll stick with what the Democrats are giving me’ in a lot of key places.”

Sen.-elect J.D. Vance (R-OH) did not mention Donald Trump in his victory speech Tuesday night, despite receiving the former president’s endorsement, Fox News reports.

David Wasserman: “The NBC News House estimate is that Republicans will win 220 seats plus or minus 10 seats, meaning the fate of the House rests with nine uncalled competitive races in California, six in New York, two in Nevada, two in Oregon, two in Arizona, two in Colorado and a smattering in other states. Republicans have a slightly better than even chance of taking the House, but this could take more than a week to sort out (especially in slow-counting California and Arizona), and could depend on recounts. If it weren’t for GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin’s coattails in the New York governor’s race, Democrats might be favorites to hold onto their majority.”

“The blue state vs. red/purple state divide was real — for the most part. Democrats struggled in New York and came within a few points of losing double-digit Biden seats in Connecticut and Rhode Island (miraculously, it looks like Democrats will avoid losing a single New England seat). But Democrats were able to hold their ground in states where split control of state government made abortion a more prominent issue — such as Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”

Jessica Taylor: “This election was a rebuke of the former president — but will Republicans actually hold him accountable, as a 2024 announcement looms? Trump elevated damaged candidates simply because they would show fealty to him, not be the best choice to flip a seat from blue to red. Republicans should blame him for snatching possible defeat from the jaws of victory, but will there be any real backlash?”

“In fact, Trump could enter a new presidential cycle even worse off than he was before in battleground states, with Democratic governors holding on in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — and even the possibility of state legislatures in the latter two states flipping from red to blue. So much for trying to get a legitimate presidential result overturned.”

Missouri voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports.

Vox notes that Maryland also legalized marijuana but voters in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota rejected the measures. 

“One likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 had a triumphant night on Tuesday, and it wasn’t Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.

“The former president spent the final days of the campaign lashing out and even threatening Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose apparent interest in running against Trump has puzzled him, according to advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. The Florida governor didn’t return fire, other than to hold his own campaign event on Saturday, competing with a Trump rally in Miami and further irking the former president.”

“Come election night, however, it was DeSantis holding the ebullient victory party, having won reelection in a 20-point landslide, almost 15 points better than Trump’s 2020 margin in their shared home state. At the party, DeSantis’s supporters chanted ‘Two more years!’ — encouraging the governor to seek the presidency before finishing his second term.”

Ross Douthat: Did Ron DeSantis just become the 2024 Republican front-runner?

Punchbowl News: “To give a sense of how much of a shock this was to the Washington political establishment, consider this – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s team and allies were spread across two downtown hotels, ready to celebrate victory and their new majority. The DCCC had no public event or party scheduled.”

“But McCarthy’s Election Night bash ended up as more of a ghost town than celebratory party. For hours, dozens of GOP staffers milled around an open bar, nervously sipping drinks while watching Fox News. Next door in the ballroom, a stage emblazoned with ‘TAKE BACK THE HOUSE’ remained empty.”

Politico: McCarthy’s victory party fizzles.

Bill Sher: “This midterm featured multiple crises: a rise in prices, a rise in crime, a wave of abortion bans, the continued fallout from the pandemic, and a wave of election denialists loyal to Donald Trump. Republicans charged Democrats with botching inflation and public safety. Democrats warned that Republicans were undermining democracy and personal freedom. This wasn’t an election about one thing but a clash of narratives.”

“The two narratives achieved a rough parity of importance to voters for a few reasons. First, unlike most midterms, the opposition party could implement a major policy, thanks to a Supreme Court stacked by the opposition party that abolished a long-standing constitutional right and allowed state governments to ban abortions. Second, Trump, the opposition party’s titular leader who seems certain to run again, helped field the GOP’s slate of candidates and demanded fealty to the scurrilous notion the last election was stolen.”