By Rachel Withers
Vox.com
Nov 18, 2018, 4:49pm EST
After a weekend full of midterm results, many of the most contentious outstanding 2018 elections have now been called. A number of high-profile Democrats have conceded following recounts, but the blue wave has continued in California.
Results are still being finalized, almost two weeks since election day — and for some, there may be many more weeks of waiting.
You probably thought you’d be waking up on November 7 not knowing how all of the 2018 election results turned out; November 15, not so much. But after the weekend, many of the most attention-grabbing races have been called.
A handful of House elections are still up in the air, and one Senate race — in Mississippi — will be decided by a runoff; the latest trends in those ongoing counts indicate some may actually go the opposite way than expected.
Here’s what happened over the last 48 hours:
Gillum, Nelson, and Abrams all conceded — sort of
All of 2018’s high-profile statewide races have now been called, with the Democratic challengers in Florida and Georgia all conceding this weekend.
Andrew Gillum, Florida’s first black gubernatorial candidate, originally conceded his race on election night, but took it back when it became apparent that the margin was close enough to warrant a machine recount (that is, less than the state’s 0.5 percent threshold). Unfortunately he only picked up one vote in that recount, and on Saturday, he congratulated his Republican opponent Rep. Ron DeSantis and conceded again, this time for good.
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson conceded his incredibly tight Senate race to outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday, following a manual recount that saw Scott’s lead shrink from 12,603 votes to 10,033 but not disappear, according to CNN.
Georgia’s gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who stood to become the nation’s first black woman governor, acknowledged on Friday that her opponent Brian Kemp would be “certified as the victor.” Her speech was not, however, a concession, she said. Kemp, who continued to serve as Georgia’s secretary of state during the election, overseeing a race he was running in, was criticized for various forms of possible voter suppression — a reason Abrams cited for not officially conceding, saying, “Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede.”
On Sunday, in her first national interview since her “acknowledgement,” she refused to say that Kemp was the “legitimate” governor-elect, telling CNN that “The law as it stands says that he received an adequate number of votes to become the governor of Georgia. But we know sometimes the law does not do what it should, and something being legal does not make it right.”
Republican incumbent Mia Love, presumed to have lost, took the lead in an updated Utah count
Rep. Mia Love, whom Trump said did poorly because she “gave me no love” (when it appeared she had lost), has taken the lead for the first time in an updated vote count for Utah’s 4th Congressional District, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Her opponent, Salt Lake County Mayor and Democrat Ben McAdams, was presumed to have won, and has spent the past week in DC attending House orientation.
An updated vote count from Utah County on Friday has put Love up by 419 votes, or 0.16 percent, well within the 0.25 percent margin for a recount. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, “thousands” of provisional ballots remain uncounted.
One more California district was decided for the Democrats
On Saturday night, Democrat Gil Cisneros tweeted that he had defeated Republican Young Kim in the race for California’s 39th Congressional District, completing California Democrats’ sweep of Orange County, once a GOP stronghold. While Clinton won the county in 2016, Republicans still held four of its six House districts. Now they have zero.
Could Democrats also stand to gain a Senator?
Probably not. But according to the Washington Post, Republicans are beginning to feel concerned about a Mississippi Senate runoff that “should have been a romp,” pouring in money and resources to support Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Hyde-Smith faced backlash for a recent “joke” on the campaign trail about “public hanging,” and on Friday put her foot in her mouth again, saying that “maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult” for liberal college students to vote.
According to the Post’s Republican polling sources, Hyde-Smith’s lead over Democratic challenger Mike Espy has narrowed significantly in recent days. Trump is planning to hold two rallies in Mississippi in the days leading up to the November 27 runoff, to shore up support.
There’s still a handful of outstanding races
With Nelson’s concession Sunday, Mississippi’s battle between Hyde-Smith and Espy remains the only undecided Senate race.
Six House races remain too close to call:
Georgia’s Seventh Congressional District: Rob Woodall vs. Carolyn Bourdeaux
Democrat challenger Bourdeaux is trailing by fewer than 500 votes in unofficial returns, and is expected to call for a recount once the results are certified.
Maine’s Second Congressional District: Bruce Poliquin vs. Jared Golden
Democrat Golden has been declared the winner, but incumbent Poliquin has refused to concede, with his legal challenge of Maine’s new ranked-choice voting method expected to last weeks.
New York’s 22nd Congressional District: Claudia Tenney vs. Anthony Brindisi
Democratic challenger Brindisi now leads by 3,178 votes, and is seemingly assured of a victory.
New York’s 27th Congressional District: Chris Collins vs. Nate McMurray
As Vox’s Emily Stewart noted this week, this is “too close to call with absentee and affidavit ballots still being tabulated. [Republican] Collins is still leading by a few thousand votes, but [Democrat] McMurray attended congressional orientation.”
Texas’s 23rd Congressional District: Will Hurd vs. Gina Ortiz Jones
Republican incumbent Hurd leads by 1,150 votes. Democratic challenger Ortiz Jones attended orientation, and has a few weeks to request a recount — one she would have to pay for under Texas law.
Utah’s Fourth Congressional District: Mia Love vs. Ben McAdams
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