North Carolina Senate Race Was Over Before Election Day Even Began

Roy Cooper won North Carolina’s Senate seat before the polls even opened on Election Day.

The number of early votes cast for the Democratic nominee totaled more than 1,728,000, besting the total number of votes cast overall for his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, by roughly 85,000 votes, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. By the time the polls closed, Whatley received 1,643,000 votes, while Cooper received nearly 2,468,000 in total.

Cooper managed to flip the seat blue, helping the national caucus obtain a majority in the upper chamber. He will replace outbound North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

Speaking to a crowd at his victory party in Raleigh on Tuesday, Cooper pledged to orient his focus in Washington toward affordability and ending the war in Iran.

“I am still a prisoner of hope,” Cooper said. “I truly believe that our best days lie ahead, that we can make the course correction that our great country so badly needs. That North Carolina and the United States have a future teeming with possibilities.”

Cooper previously served as the Tar Heel State’s governor from 2017 to 2025, but his election on Tuesday was just one component of a blue wave that swept over the historic battleground state.

Despite a gerrymandered map that was intended to give Republicans a steep advantage on Tuesday, Democrats gained at least five House seats and are projected to win a sixth. Five districts in the state have yet to report their final vote counts, but so far, Republicans have won zero seats. (Current forecasts estimate they will win four.)

The Democratic Party has amassed such a strong majority in this week’s midterm elections that they may be able to challenge President Donald Trump’s veto power.

Republicans’ only remaining hope to thwart Democratic majorities’ plans rests in Trump’s veto power. However, the president’s veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority congressional vote, equivalent to 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate.

Democrats are projected to win at least 250 seats in the House of Representatives, and are reportedly on track to win roughly 260 seats total, meaning that they will only need to convince 30 Republican lawmakers in order to bypass the president’s official objections. Twenty-nine House races remained undecided Thursday.

As the results rolled in Tuesday night, and a Democratic majority appeared imminent in both chambers of Congress, Trump posted an image of a red MAGA-style hat that read “VETO.” Now, it seems that the president can’t even count on that as the Democrats continue to defeat his party members.

Democrats apparently didn’t even need to run to win over Trump country this midterm election.

Iowans were so pissed off with Republicans on Tuesday that they elected Eric Armstrong to the state House. The catch: Armstrong, a retired railroad executive, pulled out of the race in September due to health issues.

Nonetheless, he bested his Republican opponent, Keith Jones, by roughly nine percentage points, or 865 votes, according to results tabulated by the Associated Press.

On September 7, Armstrong posted to his Facebook account that he would step away from the race effective immediately.

“Running a successful campaign requires immense physical and mental energy. Recently, I have been facing some personal health issues that require my full attention and immediate care,” he wrote at the time.

“Because I must prioritize my health and recovery at this time, I am stepping down from my campaign, effective immediately,” he continued. “This was a deeply difficult choice. However, I know it is the right one.”

Armstrong was still elected to fill a state House position vacated by Josh Turek, who managed to flip Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday.

It’s an enormous change of pace from how Iowa’s 20th House of Representatives district was feeling even two years ago, when it swung in favor of Donald Trump by a margin of 20 percentage points. Beyond that, Iowa’s politics have been about as Trumpian as it gets: The state voted to send the MAGA leader to the White House all three times he was on the ballot.

Speaking with The New York Times via phone Wednesday, Armstrong said he would “do my best to represent” Iowa’s 20th district.

“But I still have health issues, that’s what I’m struggling with,” he noted.

Even if he has to miss votes, local political experts argue it won’t be a huge cause for concern.

“Iowa has a part-time legislature that meets from January to May or so,” University of Iowa professor and expert on Hawkeye State politics Timothy Hagle told Newsweek. “If he had to miss some time it probably won’t be a major concern given that Turek missed a lot of votes this year,” given the priorities of Turek’s Senate campaign.

Amid reports that he may be on his way out, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has decided to expand the National Guard’s presence in Washington, D.C.

Politico, citing an October 29 memo, reports that Hegseth has authorized the National Guard to begin using Humvees, light medium tactical vehicles, several dozen marked police cars, and boats in the district—though there isn’t a clear reason why.

Soldiers with the National Guard still aren’t allowed to pursue suspects or make arrests, and the vehicles Hegseth is allowing were used in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The memo states that the boats will be conducting “perimeter security” for police targeting suspected gang leaders and drug traffickers in Anacostia, the southeastern corner of the city, but won’t be surveilling U.S. citizens. Federal officers “must always be on board” the boats “to help arrest a criminal suspect,” according to the memo.

On Wednesday, D.C. police charged a man with “threats in a menacing manner” and assault on a police officer for allegedly pretending to shoot at National Guard troops by making a “finger gun” gesture. Those kinds of headlines are what make the National Guard’s presence in the city unpopular, and beefing up their vehicles will only make them further seem like an occupying army to D.C. residents.

While the memo was drafted before the finger-gun charges and Republicans’ historic defeat in the midterm elections, this kind of move would seem to be a direct challenge to the new Democratic-controlled Congress, as well as Washington’s Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George, who is on record as opposing the deployment of the National Guard in the district. This move could hasten an impeachment vote against Hegseth and set up a showdown between George, backed by Congress, and President Trump.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted the sentences of 548 death row inmates in one of his last acts in office. This is the largest death sentence commutation in American history.

“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” he wrote in an open letter Thursday. “I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.”

Those on death row will instead serve life without parole. The California Supreme Court must now review the commutations of death row inmates with multiple felony convictions,, a process that has no clear timeline.

California has more inmates waiting to be executed on death row than any other state, representing one-quarter of death row inmates in the entire country. Newsom’s office noted that of the 548 people on death row, 220 have waited 15 years or more for legal representation to fight their cases. The last person to be put to death in California was 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen in 2006.

This move also comes as Newsom decides whether or not to run for president in two years.

“This will always weigh heavily on me. As Governor, I alone bear the responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” Newsom concluded. “For this reason, I am compelled to follow my conscience and, as authorized by our Constitution, take this action for the welfare of the state of California.”

This story has been updated.