Election Watch Party Continues ...

As we hit 9 PM Eastern, polls are closing in a large number of states in the West and Midwest.

That includes Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Some of these states are likely to move almost directly to one pile or the other. But the ones that are the most interesting this evening—the "blue wall" states of the upper Midwest and possible surprises like Iowa—are unlikely to be called immediately. Just hang in there. We'll have more to report soon.

Also, several states that should be wrapping up at this point still have open polls. That includes Fulton County, Georgia where bomb threats have disrupted polling and resulted in extended hours. Numbers in Georgia may not look great right now, but the big Democratic counties are still to report.

Update: It's not about Harris. It's about what Florida has become.

Florida has become the first state in which voters failed to protect abortion rights. Going into tonight, seven states in a row had voted to overturn restrictive abortion bans.

Update: With 57% of the vote in, the Associated Press has called Texas for Trump. A big disappointment, though it's difficult to say at the moment what the final margin will be.

Some good advice.

Update: President Joe Biden called Lisa Blunt Rochester, who has won a Senate seat in Delaware, and Matt Meyer, who has been elected Governor. Biden has also been calling other winning Democrats tonight, including Josh Stein who (huzzah!) beat Mark Robinson to become the new governor of North Carolina.

In addition to winning the overall state of Nebraska and the two electoral votes that carries, AP has now declared Trump the winner in the 3rd Congressional District giving him one additional electoral vote

NBC has also called state Sen. Sarah McBride as the winner of Delaware's House seat, which would make her the first openly transgender member of Congress. No official word from AP yet.

Update: Florida may have gone sour, but it's not universal.

The Associated Press also reports that Amendment 1 has passed in New York.

New Yorkers approved an amendment that would expand the state constitution’s antidiscrimination language in a way that supporters say would protect the civil rights of people who are seeking or have had abortions.

The state constitution already barred discrimination based on race, creed or religion. Opponents argued that the amendment might give transgender athletes the constitutional right to play on girl’s and women’s sports teams. This is another victory for Harris and Democrats nationwide as they see abortion as a key campaign issue.

If you're starting to feel gloomy, it's always a good idea to listen to emptywheel.

Update: AP has called Missouri for Trump. Again, this isn't a surprise. Missouri has been an increasingly red state for decades and wasn't on anyone's list of places that might go unexpectedly blue.

Well ... frack.

Update: AP has called Colorado for Kamala Harris and Montana for Trump. So far, there are no states that have flipped from 2020.

AP has also called Washington D.C. for Harris.

This is one of the critical counties that remains uncounted in Georgia.

NBC is reporting that Ted Cruz has been reelected. We're not going to believe that one yet.

The Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party have filed a motion to close the polls that a judge ordered to remain open after a bomb threat disrupted voting earlier in the day. The attorney handling the suit is Alex Kaufman, the same attorney who was earlier slammed for his attempt to throw out absentee ballots.

Update: Colorado voters have joined New York and Maryland in protecting a woman's right to an abortion. With about half the vote counted, an amendment that would roll back the state's repressive new abortion law is also passing in Missouri.

This is an unexpected blow.

Downstate Republican Mike Boost trounced his Democratic opponent and Mary Miller ran unopposed (something that should not happen in a race at this level).

If you're getting freaked out by The New York Time's needle of doom (currently being operated by scabs, as their technical staff is on strike), remember that it blows around like a leaf in the slightest breeze:

AP has called Kansas and Iowa for Trump. These are big disappointments based on the Selzer poll that showed Harris up in Iowa by 3 points and seemed so exciting. But again, Trump has yet to take a state he didn't take in 2020.

AP has also called Maine's first congressional district for Harris.

Harris wins Washington and California, as expected.

Hunter here, taking over for a bit:

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says Trump has "insurmountable" lead and that he predicts Trump will be the victor. AP hasn't called the race yet.

Meanwhile, this is a real stumper: "Ted Cruz won Latino voters by 6 points, per NBC News exit polls. In his last race in 2018, Cruz lost Latinos by 29 points," reports Sahil Kapur. "A 35-point swing." Don't ask me to make sense of that one, because I can't.