By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Matt Meyer, Elise Hammond, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN
From CNN staff
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes will win in Connecticut's 5th District, CNN projects, and defeat Republican George Logan.
This is a Democratic hold.
Here's where things stand in the House:
From CNN's Dan Merica and Gregory Krieg
Democrat John Fetterman's victory over Trump-backed Republican Mehmet Oz, the cardiothoracic surgeon turned TV doctor, was the culmination of his own political journey, from big, brash small town mayor in Western Pennsylvania to the cusp of membership in one of the country's most traditionally genteel political institutions.
In the primary, Fetterman, without a patron or validator, delivered a resounding victory by winning all 67 counties, often by overwhelming margins what ended up being a four-candidate race. He even came away on top in Philadelphia, with nearly 37% of the vote. Fetterman also swept the collar counties around the city, which would become a key focus for him and his opponent in the fall, prevailing in each by an average of almost 25 percentage points.
But his triumph was tempered after he revealed in a statement that he had suffered a stroke. The following two months — which Fetterman spent much of at home recuperating — ended up being the most critical period of the Democrat's campaign. Unable to do in-person events, the campaign leaned into a hyperactive social media presence, all directed at defining Oz as an out-of-state elitist by using a mix of memes, pithy tweets and, at times, the help of famous celebrities.
"It was a strategic plan to define Oz early and define him as not being from PA or for PA," said Rebecca Katz, the campaign's top adviser, adding that Fetterman insisted the content never be "mean," and often spent time during his recovery pinging staff with memes and ideas to connect with the voters with whom he couldn't personally engage.
The success of the messaging even surprised Fetterman's top aides. The stickiness of the attacks also struck Republicans.
The race grew more competitive after Labor Day, as more voters tuned in to the race and tens of millions of dollars from outside groups like the GOP's Senate Leadership Fund and others led to ads blanketing the airwaves. Questions about Fetterman's heath dominated coverage of the campaign.
In a debate with Oz, Fetterman struggled as many expected. But the Fetterman campaign moved quickly to shift the narrative, seizing on one debate line from Oz, and they announced a new ad hammering Oz over his suggestion that "local political leaders" should have a hand, along with women and doctors, in the process.
The final weeks of the campaign were a nerve-rattling, expensive whirlwind. Former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden appeared for rallies with him across Philadelphia. Aides also pointed to a late endorsement — delivered with no warning, a few days before the presidential cavalry arrived — from Oprah Winfrey, who helped launch Oz's TV career.
Just days later, Calvello watched silently as Fetterman took the stage on Election Night and immediately touted his campaign's work in typically red enclaves.
Democrat Wes Moore said becoming the first Black governor of Maryland — and only the third Black person elected governor in US history — "means a great deal" to him.
"I know the history of my state. This is a state that is a place, a birthplace and home place of Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall and Harriet Tubman. But it is also the birthplace of the red line. It is the birthplace of some of the most historically discriminatory policies, the most creative discriminatory policies that we've seen in this country," Moore told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.
When asked about current GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, who has been popular in a largely blue state, Moore expressed appreciation for Hogan tackling more extreme members of his party — including Moore's Republican gubernatorial opponent Dan Cox, who has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
“I appreciate the current governor for calling out these MAGA Republicans early,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash.
“I think people are tired of being at each other's throats. I think people are tired of caring more about who originated [an] idea than ‘is it a good idea?’ I think as a state, we are ready to move fast and we are ready to move together,” he added.
Moore tied stumping throughout the state as key to his election victory.
"You go to their territories and you make your pitch. If you show up, you will see exactly what we saw here in the state of Maryland yesterday. We won, not just Democrats, not just Independents, but we took a large swath of Republicans. That is why I think we saw the numbers and the margins that we saw in the state of Maryland," he told CNN's Abby Philip.
From CNN's Fredreka Schouten
A Republican-led Arizona county plans to appeal a court ruling that blocked its planned hand count audit of ballots cast in this year’s consequential midterm elections.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 Wednesday to lodge the appeal.
The decision comes as key races in Arizona – including contests for governor and a US Senate seat – remain too close to call.
And the action underscores how much distrust of electronic vote-tallying machines has taken root in parts of the country, following the 2020 presidential election and false claims that widespread fraud contributed to former President Donald Trump’s loss in the state.
Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley had blocked the county’s plan earlier this week, ruling that undertaking a broad hand count as a way to check the accuracy of those machines violates state law – which he said permits election officials to audit only a small percentage of ballots by hand.
The proponents of the hand count argued that it “would help ameliorate fears that the electronic count was incorrect,” McGinley wrote in his 12-page opinion. “However, there is no evidence before this Court that electronic tabulation is inaccurate in the first instance, or more importantly, that the audit system established by law is insufficient to detect any inaccuracy it may possess.”
It is unclear how consequential the appeal will be to the overall certification of the vote in Arizona.
A brief submitted on behalf of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for governor, argued that hand counting — if not completed quickly — could potentially delay the certification of election results.
Her brief noted the statutory deadlines that election officials face for certifying the results, which include a deadline for the county to canvass the results by 20 days after the election and a deadline for the secretary to then complete the statewide canvass by the fourth Monday after election day.
“Counting just a few races, much less dozens of races, on tens of thousands of ballots by hand is extremely time-intensive, tedious, and prone to human error,” Hobbs wrote in the brief. “This would be a massive project, for which the extensive planning and preparation required would have been a major effort even if it began months before the election.”
Arizona counties must certify their election results by Nov. 28. The state’s certification deadline is Dec. 5.
There are more than 80,000 registered voters in Cochise County, which lies in the southeastern corner of the state and includes the city of Bisbee.
From CNN's Jeremy Hochman
New York Republican Representative-elect Michael Lawler told CNN that he wants the Republican Party to "move forward" from former President Donald Trump.
“I would like to see the party move forward,” Lawler told CNN. “I think anytime you are focused on the future, you can't so much go to the past. And I think people are really excited about the opportunity to address the challenges that we’re facing as a country, and I think more focus needs to be on the issues and the substance of those issues than on personalities.”
Lawler added, "I think moving in a different direction as we move forward is a good thing, not a bad thing. But ultimately, look, the voters will decide what they want to do, and the former president will decide what he wants to do.”
Lawler was asked if he is interested in focusing any time on investigations and potential impeachments of this administration.
"I think the top priority is to deal with inflation and the cost of living. That is what I ran on and that is what my focus will be ... I don't want to see is what we saw during the Trump administration where Democrats just went after the president and the administration incessantly," he said. "I don't want to go from one issue to the next without dealing with the issues that got me elected in the first place."
From CNN's Ellie Kaufman
There are about 400,000 to 410,000 ballots left to count in Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates told "CNN This Morning" on Thursday.
Out of the 400,000 to 410,000 left to count, about 290,000 of those ballots were dropped off on Election Day at voting places, Gates said.
Out of the remaining 110,000, about 90,000 ballots were received before Election Day.
“These are early ballots that we would have received over the weekend, or, specifically 290,000 that were dropped off on Election Day at our vote centers,” Gates said.
About 17,000 of the remaining 110,000 are ballots that were attempted to be counted on Election Day but were not read by the tabulator because of a printer error. These are referred to as "Box 3" ballots, Gates said.
Gates said he could not predict which votes would be counted first out of the remaining votes to be counted, but he said the ones they received earlier would likely be counted first.
“We can’t really zero in on that with specificity, but they would tend to be those we received earlier first, and then as we move on we’re getting more into those Election Day mail-in ballots that we received on Election Day,” Gates said.
Maricopa County is expected to report more results tonight.
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who is projected to win reelection in the midterms, said a number of voters told him they could not vote for him due to his stance on abortion.
"Certainly, there were people who came up to me and said, 'Mike, I like what you're doing, I think you've been good on education, you were good during the pandemic, you protected us, you did this, but I can't vote for you because of abortion. We certainly did have that," he told CNN Thursday.
To these voters, abortion "was a defining issue," he added. "They simply would not vote for me because of the fact that they disagreed with me on the issue."
However, DeWine said he also met people who voted Republican because they liked his accomplishments in office so far.
"We also, though, had a lot of people who came up to me and said, 'I don't really vote for Republicans, but I like what you've done in regard to job training,' or 'I like what you've done in regard to mental health and I'm going to vote for you," he said.
From CNN's Daniella Diaz
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterms because of many reasons, including Democrats' candidate quality, the Supreme Court's decision on abortion and voter response to former President Donald Trump's role in the party.
"We had some incredible candidates in the Senate and the House," she said on "CNN This Morning." "No. 2, when you have a situation that defies the tides of history, it's got to be something monumental going on and in this case, it was a rejection of the orthodoxy of the Republican's position. You have so many of their candidates, basically, wanting an abortion ban put in place."
"And finally, democracy was on the line. If the Republican Party wants to keep allowing Donald Trump to pick their candidates, you're gonna see the kind of results that you're seeing in red states, blue states and purple states," she added.
She also said a major priority for her and her colleagues is to pass the Electoral Count Act during the lame-duck session.
"In Washington, we have a bunch of things on our plate, including getting the defense bill done with Ukraine right before us and the strides that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky is making against [Russia President] Vladimir Putin. On our plate is the end-of-the-year budget bill to make sure we get that right. As you know, the Electoral Count Act, an effort that I'm leading with Susan Collins and Joe Manchin and others, so we don't have Jan. 6 happen again. All of that is immediately when we get back."
From CNN's Jeremy Hochman
Republican Georgia Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan told CNN that after Tuesday night's election results, former President Donald Trump was fired by Republicans.
"There's no way to deny the Donald Trump got fired Tuesday night. The search committee has brought a few names to the top of the list, and Ron DeSantis is one of them. Ron DeSantis is being rewarded for a new thought process with Republicans and that solid leadership," he said Thursday.
Duncan also said that Georgia's Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker needs to make three important phone calls to win the runoff.
"Make three successful phone calls. One is to tell Donald Trump to stay out of Georgia for four weeks. He is toxic, he would do nothing to help the ticket. Secondly, I would pick up the phone and call Brian Kemp and ask him for his help. Apologize for not endorsing him during the primary against David Perdue. And third, I would call Ron DeSantis and ask him to come to Georgia as often as he possibly can the next four weeks. That would be a winning recipe for Herschel Walker," Duncan told CNN.
Watch here for more: