Republican leaders are displaying confidence they will retain control of the House of Representatives as another election was decided in their favor on Thursday, while Democrats insist they still see a path to the majority and demand assurance that every vote will be counted.

Republicans took control of the US Senate on Wednesday morning.

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Election officials say key Maine race must go through ranked choice counting

Maine election officials say a crucial congressional race in the state must be run on a ranked-choice basis to determine the winner.

Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate known for defying his party, led Friday by a slim margin over Republican Austin Theriault in a race that was still too early to call days after voting ended. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Thursday evening that neither candidate received 50% of the total vote, meaning ranked-choice ballots must be counted. The Associated Press did not call the race.

Ranked-choice voting typically comes into play in races with more than two candidates on the ballot. Golden and Theriault were the only candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but write-in candidates was an option and some voters used it.

Thériault said Thursday he was calling for a recount of the election, even though the results were not yet known at that time. A spokesperson for the Golden campaign said the recount was reasonable but the classified count was unnecessary.

“State Rep. Thériault asserted his right to a manual recount and Rep. Golden accepts it. So let’s do it, rather than incur the delays and expense of a preferential runoff,” the campaign said in a statement.

The Thériault campaign signaled Friday that it supported the ranked count.

“There is a process in place and we look forward to it being done according to the law,” campaign manager Shawn Roderick said.

In ranked-choice voting, the second choices of voters who chose a losing candidate are redistributed to the highest ranked.

Television audience on election night declines sharply compared to 2020 and 2016

The idea of ​​grabbing some popcorn and watching TV to see who America chose for its next president was much less appealing this year than in years past.

The Nielsen company said 42.3 million people watched the election night returns between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday night. That’s a big drop from the 56.9 million viewers in 2020, when Trump faced Joe Biden, and the 71.4 million people who watched on election night in 2016, Nielsen said.

Election night is often known as the Super Bowl for television news, but this year even the NFL conference championship games were watched by more people.

Learn more about election night television audiences

Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s new chief of staff at the White House?

With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles is moving from a largely behind-the-scenes role as campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of closest adviser of the president. and advice.

She has worked in political circles for years. But who is Wiles, the operative who will be the first woman to take on the powerful role of White House chief of staff?

Read more about Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles

An update from the AP Decision Desk on the Nevada and Arizona races

Nevada: Late updates Thursday in Nevada’s Clark and Washoe counties didn’t add many votes to the tallies in the presidential and U.S. Senate races. The deadline for mail-in ballots to arrive and be counted is Saturday. With tens of thousands of ballots potentially still to be counted in the state’s two largest counties, the election is too early to call.

Arizona: Another day of vote counting in Arizona added tens of thousands of votes to Thursday’s tally, but there are hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count, including nearly half a million in Arizona County. Maricopa. Officials are still working their way through early votes that arrived in October. Elections for the presidency and the US Senate remain too early to call.

The GOP is picking up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to the majority.

Republican leaders expressed confidence Thursday in their ability to maintain control of the House of Representatives as other elections go in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path to victory. majority and asked for assurances that every vote would be counted.

The GOP won two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which has become a tough battleground of Democratic defeats up and down. Democrats scored another victory in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in the state.

Both parties in the House met privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a MAGA-infused GOP power grab is within reach of President-elect Donald Trump.

Revisit Thursday’s home visits