What the hell just happened? I’ve been asking that all night. Before the final polls closed, I said that this election did for midterms what Donald Trump’s election in 2016 did for presidential races: It scrambled everything we thought we knew about politics. Democrats overwhelmingly defied what pundits, the press, political professionals and yes, even I thought would happen, holding tough in many House races and successfully flipping Pennsylvania’s Senate seat.
To be clear, the election isn’t over yet. Tons of mail-in ballots have yet to be counted, and some races will probably take until the end of the week. Similarly, some vulnerable Democrats lost their races as expected, among them January 6 committee member Elaine Luria. But as we parse the results and wait for more, here are some winners and losers from tonight.
