November 5, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Inside Team Trump’s historic collapse in the 2026 midterm elections

Six days before the election, more than two dozen of President Trump’s top strategists logged onto a private video call. The mood was grim. The discussion began with talk of cyanide. “Do you want the white pill first, or the black pill first?” asked Tony Fabrizio, the president’s chief pollster. Tim Saler, one of the Republican Party’s top data consultants, laid out two scenarios. In the first, the $400 million MAGA Inc. super PAC was reaching the voters that it had wanted and expected to vote. “That’s the optimistic scenario,” he said. The other was a wipeout. “I’m getting my affairs in order,” James Blair, who left the White House to oversee the president’s midterm strategy, said to laughter, according to four people on the call. “I suggest everybody else do the same.” For roughly 30 minutes, the call ran on gallows humor: funeral arrangements, prison food, presidential pardons, even a brief riff on fleeing the country.

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“At least Bibi won. He’ll protect us,” Mr. Blair said sarcastically of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country had voted the day before. (Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc fell short of a majority, and his party soon claimed the election had been stolen.) The scope of the Republican wreckage would become clear a week later. Democrats stormed to a huge House majority and won control of the Senate, a remarkable feat powered by victories in Republican strongholds — Kansas, South Carolina, Texas — that few could have imagined a year ago. This account of the Republican Party’s collapse is based on interviews with more than 70 people — among them lawmakers, political strategists, party leaders, pollsters, White House officials and congressional aides — who were directly involved in the midterm elections, many of whom were granted anonymity to describe private conversations and decisions. The scale of the defeat was far from inevitable. Republicans had record fund-raising, the world’s richest man, a favorable Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance and a demoralized, unpopular opposition. In the Senate, they had a map that required Democrats to compete in states they hadn’t won in decades. And in the House, the Trump team demolished the tradition of redrawing congressional lines only once a decade in order to carve up new districts to help the G.O.P. bolster its narrow majority. What Republicans could not overcome was a president who lost the public’s trust on the economy and so much more. And what they had not counted on was an unpopular war in the Middle East — one that would close the Strait of Hormuz and push gas prices past $4 a gallon — that would rage all the way through the election. And Democrats were ready, this time, to seize on the G.O.P. stumbles.

Cruz suggests GOP ignored cost of living as top midterm issue: ‘They didn’t understand’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday gave his take on Republicans‘ upset in the midterm elections, saying the GOP fell short on addressing voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Cruz, who is a possible 2028 presidential candidate, shared a lengthy X post the evening after the elections, which he referred to as an “a** kicking” for Republicans. He noted polls taken prior to the elections that showed the cost of living was overwhelmingly the top concern for voters but acknowledged that the GOP didn’t put enough focus on the topic.

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The senator went on to compare economic data from the past to now and said it reflects “very real pain from real Americans.” “Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care,” he said. “Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high.” Vice President JD Vance similarly offered his review of the “bluenami” that hit Tuesday night after Democrats took control of Congress and blamed the results on the impacts of the Iran war. Cruz, however, only briefly touched on the unpopular conflict, noting a detail in a memorandum of understanding negotiated by Vance with Iran that included funding for Tehran to rebuild. “Tariffs have made everything too expensive, and the Iran war has dragged on too long,” he said. “It should have been brief, decisive, and over. It needs to end, and we should never, under any circumstances, give the Ayatollah billions of dollars.” While acknowledging what was lost in the midterm elections, Cruz also laid out the road that lies ahead and pointed out how he is now the only statewide elected Republican after Democratic Sen.-elect James Talarico and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa secured their nominations.

Elon Musk’s net worth drops $33.5 billion as Democratic majorities loom

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, saw his net worth fall by $33.5 billion on Wednesday as investors sold off shares in his companies in anticipation of the incoming Democratic majorities in Congress. Musk, the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX, saw the total value of his wealth decline by 3.7% in just one day, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index, which tracks the wealth of the world’s richest people and updates it every evening. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing Republicans against Democrats in the midterm elections and was one of the architects of the Department of Government Efficiency. The blue wave raises the odds of Democratic investigations into companies seen as close to President Donald Trump.

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And Musk’s businesses took a hit on Wednesday after already seeing declines in overnight trading. Tesla fell about 3.3%, while the total value of SpaceX declined by about 3.8% on Wednesday. Democrats could deploy oversight investigations into Musk over his leadership of DOGE or for his decision-making when it comes to satellite communications in war-torn Ukraine. Despite Musk’s decline in net worth and his companies’ losses, the stock market as a whole performed very well on the day after the election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1,570 points, or 3%, the best single day since April 2025. Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P 500 closed up nearly 1.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 1.44% in value. Oil prices also fell on Wednesday, with Brent crude down more than 8% to just over $95 a barrel.

GOP’s losses will raise pressure on conservative Supreme Court justices to retire

The GOP’s sweeping losses in the midterm elections Tuesday set up an unsettling possibility for the party: If they don’t act now to confirm a new Supreme Court justice, they may not have another chance for years to come. That prospect is likely to ramp up pressure on the court’s two oldest conservatives — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., 76, and Clarence Thomas, 78 — to retire during the lame-duck period, while Republicans still have the votes to get a nominee confirmed by the Senate. The new Senate, in which Democrats will hold a majority, is seated on Jan. 3. Alito, who joined the court in 2006, said last month he has no plans to retire during the lame-duck session. Thomas has said in the past he has no plans to step down from the court. He joined the court in 1991 and could become the longest-serving justice in its history in 2028.

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But given the magnitude of Democratic inroads in the Senate, legal and political experts said it could be 2033 before Republicans have a realistic shot at winning back enough seats in that chamber to approve a conservative justice. At that point, Alito and Thomas would be well into their 80s. Neither responded to a request for comment. “I think both are making an implicit bet that they will live long enough ... so that a Republican president can replace them with someone ideologically similar,” said Ed Whelan, a conservative attorney and senior fellow at Ethics and Public Policy Center. This is likely to make many Republicans antsy, particularly those mindful of the lesson of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died while still on the bench at 87, in September 2020. Ginsburg’s death allowed Republicans to move the court in a more conservative direction when they confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace her weeks later. President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to replace Ginsburg, and over the vociferous objections of Democrats, Senate Republicans quickly muscled the nomination through just ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

State Stories

John Cornyn: Republicans forgot how to win elections

Even before the polls closed on Tuesday, an epic blame game had begun. How did Republicans fumble the success of 2024 into this midterm meltdown? How did we lose so many Senate seats, including in my home state of Texas, a conservative cornerstone for more than three decades and a state Donald Trump carried by 14 points in 2024? Die-hard Never Trumpers will rush to eulogize the MAGA movement. Some populists will shop a stab-in-the-back narrative that blames the traditional conservatives they themselves chased away. But both sides miss the point. This week’s beat-down wasn’t only foreseeable, it was foreseen—because our party forgot four basic rules of coalition politics. First, successful coalitions add, they don’t subtract. In 2024, a unified Republican Party dominated among the white working class, won Hispanic men outright and won the largest share of black voters since the 1970s. Lifelong conservatives and first-time Republican voters all embraced our message of lower prices, border security, cultural sanity and American strength.

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This year, losing candidates like Ken Paxton and Mike Collins shrank the tent, obsessing over “RINOs” and political theater. In Texas, statewide candidate Bo French poisoned the well even further with blatant bigotry against Indian-Americans, anathema to the party of Lincoln and Reagan. When nominees show contempt for voters and request a smaller Republican Party, voters oblige them. The second forgotten lesson was even simpler: Be likeable. We are no longer in 2010, when articulate, appealing conservatives like Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey challenged “establishment” candidates over real policy differences. Today, it is fringe challengers who play down voting records and policy in favor of performative politics. A strange reverse personality test has taken root. If a candidate talks like an affable, reasonable person, he must be a sellout. If he makes bizarre comments or has past scandals, that’s considered authenticity. The oddball Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky (who lost his primary this year) once described his base as seeking “the craziest son of a bitch in the race.” This is a losing mindset that Republicans must outgrow. It selects for nominees who can’t win general elections. Third, when you win, do what you promised. In 2020, President Biden won a narrow mandate to restore normalcy, but advisers talked him into open borders, inflationary spending and unrestrained wokeism.

“MAGA needs to be dead”: Dade Phelan on the Republican wipeout

Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan saw it coming—at least in part. Three weeks ago, when he and I sat down for an extended interview about the upcoming election, he told me the mood among Republicans was grim. “People are freaking out,” he said, exaggerating those last two words in his East Texas drawl for maximum effect. “You see it in their faces. There’s serious concern like I’ve never seen before.” Phelan could see the scenario in which a bad night for Republicans turned into a seismic shift in the state. If Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico won his race by six or seven percentage points, he predicted, it would be “a bloodbath downballot. I don’t know how people survive.” Talarico won even bigger than that. As of this morning, with more than 95 percent of the votes counted, the Austin Democrat is leading his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, by twelve points. And the bloodbath for the GOP is total. Texas’s partisan politics skipped the purple phase all together, flipping from bright red to an unmistakable shade of blue. As the enormity of Democratic gains was becoming clear last night, I called up Phelan to see how he was taking stock of the Republican wreckage he had warned about.

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Texas Monthly: I was just looking back at our conversation nearly a month ago, where you predicted that if Talarico won by a big margin, it would be a rout downballot. Dade Phelan: "And that’s where we are." TM: "Honestly, it looks even worse than you predicted." DP: "These are extinction-level numbers. This is a complete extinction-level election. I think the Texas House is gone. Right now, I’m looking at nineteen House seats that are gone. It only takes about fourteen to flip it. [As of this morning, Democrats have a 68–56 advantage, with 26 races yet to be called.] There will be a Democrat Speaker. And the congressional seats that we drew last year [at the urging of President Trump], I mean, all of them and then some are gone too. This is the worst-case scenario for Republicans. I don’t know how you can say it any other way." TM: Have you been talking to a lot of other Republicans tonight? DP: "Oh, yeah. I’ve gone to a couple different watch parties, and it’s about as somber as you can imagine. So it’s about as bad as you can get. Some were anticipating this. They’ve been seeing some numbers internally. They didn’t want to say it, but they knew this was probably coming—and here it is."

This Democrat won Fort Worth House seat after dropping out. Can she take office?

A Democratic candidate for a Fort Worth area state House seat dipped out of the race less than a month before voting started, amid questions about her eligibility stemming from accusations of a past felony conviction. The candidate — Ericka Lomick — has won anyway. Will she serve in her newly elected seat? Lomick faced Republican Alan Blaylock, a former Fort Worth City Council member, in the Nov. 3 midterm election, and in a special election held on the same day to finish out the term of former state Rep. Nate Schatzline’s term that ends in January. Schatzline did not seek reelection for the seat to become a senior adviser for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

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The district covers the northeast part of Fort Worth, Haslet, Blue Mound and northeast Saginaw. Lomick won both elections with 51% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State. A news release from Lomick’s campaign announcing the suspension of her campaign cited “questions” raised about her ability to serve in the seat. The press release does not mention specific questions about eligibility, but in mid-September, a political action committee alleged that Lomick has a felony record. Lomick’s name still appeared on the ballot after she suspended her campaign. Federal court records out of North Carolina analyzed by the Star-Telegram in earlier reporting indicate an Ericka Lomick was convicted in 2011 of mortgage fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a plea deal.

Lockheed Martin will pay millions to settle discrimination claims related to DEI

Lockheed Martin has been ordered to pay $29.5 million after the company was accused of employment discrimination. In July 2025, Tim Booher, who was a vice president in Lockheed’s Combat Systems division in Fort Worth, filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas against Lockheed, alleging discrimination on the basis of race and gender. In October of this year, the U.S. government intervened in that lawsuit, saying Lockheed violated antidiscrimination requirements as a federal contractor. According to the settlement agreement the Maryland-based company entered into with Booher and the government this week, Lockheed in some cases prioritized women and minorities when giving employee raises that were supposed to be merit based.

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The settlement agreement quoted a director of diversity and inclusion with Lockheed as saying the company would “identify at least 11 additional PoC” for raises to clear a “race flag.” POC is shorthand for people of color. Lockheed also allegedly used demographics when evaluating performance goals for a management compensation plan and when hiring job candidates, and some of its business units were said to have tracked demographic goals tied to race and gender. Lockheed will pay the U.S. government $22 million. Booher will receive $4.4 million of that, plus attorneys’ fees. According to his LinkedIn page, Booher left Lockheed in 2023 and now serves as an adviser in the Pentagon for the U.S. Department of War. The remaining $7.5 million of the settlement money will be paid to more than 1,000 Lockheed employees who were found to be affected by the alleged discrimination. That portion of the settlement is related to a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge. Under the settlement agreement, Lockheed does not admit to wrongdoing, and the agreement said the company denies the discrimination allegations.

Davis claws back McLennan County seat for Democrats

Jeremy Davis unseated incumbent Republican McLennan County Precinct 2 Commissioner Donis “DL” Wilson on Tuesday to take back local Democrats’ most prized seat. Davis won 51.8% of the vote in a rematch against Wilson, who narrowly won in a three-way race in 2024. Before Wilson’s narrow victory in 2024, the precinct had long been a Democratic stronghold represented by Black leaders Lester Gibson and Patricia Chisolm Miller. Davis campaigned largely on the need for more diverse representation on the all-white, Republican commissioners court. “?To have a seat at the table, to be a part of the decision-making. It was a huge win for us across Precinct 2,” he told KWBU shortly after the results were announced. He celebrated the results at a watch party Tuesday with the McLennan County Democratic Party.

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“I think it’s been a long time since we’ve ushered in a new generation of leaders, so I think that motivated a lot of people to get to the polls,” Davis said. Wilson, a former state trooper, was at a private gathering Tuesday evening and could not be reached for comment. The all-Republican Commissioners Court in October 2025 redrew Precinct 2 boundaries in an unusual mid-decade redistricting, resulting in more conservative, rural precincts and fewer minority-dominated urban precincts. The precinct includes parts of East Waco, Lacy Lakeview, West, Bellmead and now most of the rural eastern edge of the county towards Axtell and Elm Mott. That means two of the three known data center projects in McLennan County now fall in the district. That’s something Davis said he plans to tackle. “?I don’t think that they will bring more benefit than harm to our community,” he said. “So I think the first thing I need to do is meet with the developers,” Davis said. “?Like I said in the campaign, we need an effective leader who knows how to negotiate, putting people first, and with the community in mind, and now we have it, so I’m ready to get to work.”

Gina Hinojosa’s victory could change Austin ISD’s fate. But state law may stand in the way.

Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s stunning defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott has raised hopes that Austin ISD could escape a state takeover. But even with a former district trustee in the governor’s office, Texas law may still force the state to intervene. Hinojosa, who served on the Austin ISD board of trustees between 2012 and late 2015, including as president, has promised to replace Education Commissioner Mike Morath on her first day in office and end state takeovers of public schools. Her victory Tuesday makes her Texas’ first Democratic governor since 1994, putting her in a position to reshape how the state manages struggling school districts. But the change in leadership comes as Austin ISD faces a budget crisis and the threat of state intervention after Burnet and Webb middle schools received their fifth failing accountability ratings. Education policy experts say a new commissioner would still be bound by state law, which requires intervention.

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The crucial difference could be what shape that intervention takes and how a new education commissioner might oversee the district’s future, including whether to replace its elected school board or close the two campuses. Public education was central to Hinojosa’s campaign and her victory speech Tuesday. The former Austin ISD trustee, who first ran for office when her son’s school faced closure because of budget constraints, pledged to increase investment in public schools, raise teacher pay and preserve local control. “In case you have not heard, on day one, I will fire Mike Morath, and we will work tirelessly to repair the damage of the Texas vouchers scam and end an era in which our schools are sold for parts,” Hinojosa said at a rally Tuesday. But replacing Morath, whom Abbott appointed in December 2015, would not eliminate the laws governing state intervention. And with Austin ISD facing decisions about the future of Burnet and Webb, the timing of any change in leadership could prove consequential.

Rev. Frederick Haynes on election, economy and excitement about congressional win

The Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III got a taste of what it would be like to be both a pastor and a politician when he learned on Tuesday (Nov. 3) that he had won a Texas congressional seat while he was working at his predominantly Black megachurch in Dallas. Haynes is aligned with two historically Black denominations — the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., the one in which he grew up, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, where he is cochair of the social justice commission. After being encouraged to run by his 12,000-member Friendship-West Baptist Church congregation, Haynes conducted a race calling for economic relief, including lower healthcare costs for the people he would represent if he made it to Congress.

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He also agreed with Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, declaring, “We’re going to have to get money out of politics so we can get money back in the pockets of the people.” Now, he plans to continue to preach to the 2,000-3,000 parishioners who attend each week — and sometimes three times that many online — while also representing Texas’ 30th congressional district. "I was doing young adult Bible study at the church. It had started at 7 p.m., and it was interesting because my team was telling me they’re going to call your race early, so you need to be available. And my phone rings, and there’s a notification that Vice President Harris is trying to reach me to congratulate me. It’s like 10 minutes into Bible study, and my daughter (Abeni Jewel Haynes) is the leader of the ministry. And then I started getting all these congratulatory messages, and so yeah, I was at Bible study, and it was very funny: The young adults stopped Bible study and said, we have Congressman-elect Haynes as our pastor. So it was a very moving moment I felt good about because I was doing my work as a pastor, which is not going to stop just because of this second job," he said of where he was.

Election results: D-FW voters reject billions in bonds, tax hikes

North Texas voters rejected billions of dollars in proposed public spending Tuesday, leaving local officials to figure out how to pay for major projects they say are needed. Residents turned down plans for schools, public safety facilities, homelessness services and a new arena for the Dallas Stars. The defeats stretched across cities, counties and school districts, including proposals that officials said wouldn't raise property tax rates. The rejections raise bigger questions about whether voters are opposed to more public spending or simply want better plans for how their tax money is spent.

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Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said affordability concerns and skepticism about government spending likely contributed to the widespread rejections. "When people say everything costs too much, healthcare costs too much, fuel costs too much, housing costs too much, then the last thing they want to do is approve even a modest tax increase that might take a bit more out of their pockets," Wilson said Wednesday. In Plano, voters turned down five venue taxes intended to help finance a proposed $1 billion arena for the Dallas Stars. In Dallas County, a property tax increase that would have generated about $100 million a year for homelessness services also failed. "We don't want to approve funds to help the wealthiest. We don't want to approve funds to help the poorest," Wilson said. Among the other measures defeated Tuesday were Dallas' $443 million public safety bond, Collin County's $817.5 million bond package for roads and other facilities and Collin College's proposed $600 million bond for new campuses and workforce training facilities. School bond packages totaling $952 million in Irving ISD, $828 million in Keller ISD and $500 million in McKinney ISD also fell short, along with a Mesquite ISD property tax proposal meant to fund salaries, student programs and campus safety.

Yes, Texas Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson worked on the ‘Dragon Ball Z’ score

One of the common journalists’ greatest gripes is that we possess pieces of lore and factoids that will never be relevant to the general public. So, we live with this useless knowledge, hoping it comes up at trivia nights. Until yesterday, the knowledge that Nathan Johnson, the brand-new Texas Attorney General-elect, composed the English versions of the “Dragon Ball Z” score was purely Dallas Observer happy-hour fodder. But now, we are seizing the opportunity. Last night, Johnson won the race for the position as the state’s top lawyer, beating Sen. Mayes Middleton of the Houston area with 52.4% of the vote to replace outoing Attorney General Ken Paxton. It was a remarkable upset for the Republican Party, which lost control of the Texas House, the governor’s office and a seat in the U.S. Senate, to name a few.

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Johnson, who served as a Texas state senator representing parts of Dallas, has remained one of the few local politicians who answers our emails. And so for years, when someone in the office says: “You should call Nathan Johnson; he’ll probably be willing to go on record to talk about this heinous bill that strips Texans of their rights.” Someone else in the office usually chimes in with, “Did you know he made the ‘Dragon Ball Z’ score?” Time and time again, this conversation has happened. Unfortunately, this factoid is seldom relevant to discussing lawmakers attempting to remove sex toys from convenience stores or decriminalizing small marijuana possession, and so it remains on the cutting room floor. But now, with Johnson holding a powerful political office in Texas (he’ll officially be sworn in in January), national publications have already started spreading the news. Johnson primarily plays the piano, but he can also play the ocarina, an ancient wind instrument somewhat similar to the recorder. He learned to play it specifically for the “Dragon Ball Z” score. He also has a bachelor’s degree in physics. Talk about an overachiever.

Denton, Collin counties pick up Democratic commissioner court seats

Democrat Candace Valenzuela unseated Republican incumbent Kevin Falconer for the Denton County Commissioners, Precinct 2 seat, according to unofficial results from Denton County. Valenzuela recorded 46,289 votes, or 52.58%, while Falconer earned 41,753 votes, or 47.42%, after all 252 Denton County precincts reported. All results are unofficial until canvassed.

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Democratic candidate Julie Holmer has secured a seat as Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 4, according to unofficial results from Collin County. 56,177 of voters, or 53.3%, voted for Holmer. 49,198 of voters, or 46.7%, voted for her Republican opponent, Shelby Williams. Holmer will take the place of current Precinct 4 Commissioner Duncan Webb, who has served in the position since 2011. The Collin County Commissioner Precinct 4 position represents Plano, Allen and some of Carrollton and Dallas.

Alex Mealer concedes to Leticia Gutierrez in Texas’ 9th Congressional District race

Mealer’s campaign manager confirmed the Republican conceded to Democrat Leticia Gutierrez in the race for the Houston-area seat. Republican Alex Mealer has conceded to Democrat Leticia Gutierrez in the race for Texas’ 9th Congressional District, Mealer’s campaign manager confirmed to KHOU 11. The candidates competed for a seat in the U.S. House representing a district whose boundaries changed substantially following Texas’ 2025 congressional redistricting. The district’s new boundaries cover parts of the Houston area, including Pasadena and the Houston Ship Channel, and extend into Liberty County, according to the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. Before Election Day, Gutierrez’s campaign emphasized affordability and government accountability.

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“Texans in the 9th District are fed up with politics as usual and are ready for real accountability,” said Leticia Gutierrez. “Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and their allies thought they could draw lines to protect themselves, but this community knows when it’s being taken for granted. Working families here are feeling the squeeze every single day, and they are tired of politicians who prioritize extreme partisan agendas over lowering costs and raising wages. Our campaign has built unprecedented momentum because voters want a representative from the community who answers directly to them.”

Texas used to be ‘the best place’ to build data centers — but not anymore

When BaRupOn LLC, a California-based developer, bought land in East Texas for a 700-acre industrial campus in 2023, the company received a warm welcome from the state. The developer set out to build numerous data centers and rare-earth manufacturing facilities at the site, as well as its own power plants. At first, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office worked closely with BaRupOn, said Balaji Tammabattula, the chief operating officer. The governor’s office staff would recommend site locations for future projects and which county officials they should get in touch with, Tammabattula said. Developers were encouraged to seek out incentives and tax breaks. The governor’s office, which was just a phone call away, even gave the planned industrial campus, in Liberty, Texas, the codename of “Project Tough,” Tammabattula said. “Texas used to be the best place,” he said. “Fast forward to 2026, it’s impossible to have [the governor’s office] respond to our emails.”

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The climate around data centers has soured so severely that new developments in Texas are essentially on pause until after November’s elections. The land, energy and water usage of the large warehouses filled with server racks have elicited strong protest across the country—even becoming a bipartisan issue among midterm election candidates, including in Texas. Abbott has gone against his typical business-first approach and led some companies to rethink their major data center investments in Texas, analysts and developers said. Those seeking to keep their spot in the lengthy line for grid power are laboring to not only secure state permits but social permission from communities across the state. The data center industry flocked to invest billions of dollars in the state to quickly construct the physical infrastructure required for tech companies to develop the most mature artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. The developers, many of whom were new to the industry, saw a state not only open to doing business but a grid committed to connecting projects to power faster than anywhere else. Texas became the epicenter of A.I. development as Abbott willed last year. But that tune changed fast. The state has long been seen as the best place for business development in the country, with its previously unfussy regulatory environment.

Texas state board of education could flip after years of GOP control

Texas Democrats swept all statewide races on Tuesday, and one of the last holdouts of Republican control — the State Board of Education — could flip, too. On Wednesday, the makeup of the board that decides what Texas’ 5.5 million public school students must learn appeared evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with a tie-breaking Houston-area race too close to call. Democrat Dana Van de Walker appeared to be leading incumbent Republican Audrey Young by fewer than 600 votes. Young said she was still waiting on votes trickling in, while noting that the Secretary of State’s website, which was missing returns from more than a dozen precincts, showed her leading by about 3,500 votes. Democrats haven’t had a majority on the board since 1994. With this election, they’re poised to have the most influence on the board in years and the potential to halt conservative rewrites of education standards.

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In addition to being on track to flip two seats on the 15-member board, Democratic governor-elect Gina Hinojosa will have the power to nominate the board’s chairperson, who runs the meetings and sets the agenda. And Hinojosa has also vowed to replace the state’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, whose office recommends charter schools and reading lists that the board considers. The board in recent years has tilted to the right, enacting more conservative social studies standards that include passages from the Bible as required reading. Those standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, dictate what publishers include in textbooks. The board also sets graduation requirements. Of the nine races, just three incumbents were on the ballot. Three others chose not to seek reelection, two ran for another office and one lost in the primary. Thomas Ray Garcia, a community college professor and former high school teacher, will take over this Gulf Coast district previously held by Republican L.J. Francis. Francis lost the GOP primary to Victoria Hinojosa, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and wife of a state senator.

Democrats sweep Fort Bend County judge, commissioners races

Unofficial voting totals from Fort Bend County show Democrats won the county judge and commissioner races, marking a significant shift in the county’s local leadership following a contentious election season. The future of the diverse, largely suburban and growing county outside of Houston has become a closely watched political landscape, where demographic change, population growth and shifting voter priorities intersect. The election results mean Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, a five-member governing body that oversees the county's operations, will shift from a Republican-led majority to Democrat after candidates won three of the five seats on Nov. 3. Unofficial results show Democrat Dexter McCoy defeated Republican Daniel Wong in the county judge race with 59% of the vote to Wong’s 40%.

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Wong and the county’s two incumbent Republican commissioners, Andy Meyers and Vincent Morales, have held a majority on Commissioners Court, as well as when former county judge KP George switched to the Republican party in 2025 after being elected two-terms as a Democrat. The county’s political and legal turmoil intensified in April, when George was suspended from office and a visiting Galveston County district judge appointed Wong as interim county judge. “This has been a rough journey,” McCoy said. “It has been so dark and it often times didn’t seem like we could see the light. I think people responded to what we have seen as a lack of character, a lack of real care and concern for the hardworking people in our community. And it’s been overwhelming across the state.” The Wong campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Democrat incumbent Grady Prestage won reelection to Precinct 2 commissioner seat, defeating Republican challenger Tony Aranda with 74% of votes to Aranda’s 25% of votes. Precinct 2 covers the southeastern portion of the county including parts of Fresno, Missouri City and Sienna. Prestage was also at McCoy’s event when the early voting results started pouring and said public officials must handle taxpayer funds carefully, avoid arrogance and genuinely listen to the community to maintain their success.

National Stories

Scott Colom projects victory in razor-thin Mississippi Senate race as uncounted ballots linger

Democratic challenger Scott Colom declared confidence Wednesday morning in Mississippi’s uncalled U.S. Senate race, telling supporters he believes outstanding ballots will carry him to victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Colom held a razor-thin lead of just 43 votes out of more than 925,000 cast — leading Hyde-Smith 462,821 to 462,778 with an estimated 95.6% of ballots tabulated. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins garnered 19,935 votes. Because federal general elections in Mississippi do not trigger a runoff, the candidate who finishes with a plurality will claim the seat.

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“Where we are, where the ballots are, we’re gonna win,” Colom said as he addressed supporters at a 10 a.m. news conference. “This is our election. We’ve won it. The people have done it. They’ve decided to go in a new direction. I’m confident of that.” The outcome now hinges on uncounted ballots. According to reporting from Mississippi Today, the Colom campaign estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 affidavit ballots remain outstanding statewide. When asked about the microscopic margin, Colom emphasized that his campaign has spent months preparing for the post-election count. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers; we have everybody involved to make sure the process goes according to the law,” Colom said, adding that his primary concern is the integrity of the count rather than speed. Asked about Hyde-Smith’s earlier declaration of victory Tuesday night, Colom offered a brief response: “Bless her heart.”

Trump asking advisers if Hegseth should stay after midterm losses, sources say

President Trump has been asking advisers around him and on the phone whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay in his job, following Republicans' catastrophic losses Tuesday night, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CBS News. Some White House aides have predicted some of the blame for GOP midterm losses will be trained on Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, who both played big roles in guidance on the Iran war. Still, other sources said the president hasn't decided to replace Hegseth. Before the election, Democrats were already trying to impeach Hegseth, and the likelihood of an impeachment effort could increase with Democrats holding strong majorities in both chambers.

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Vice President JD Vance is blaming the war for the GOP defeat. "The reason we lost is the war," he said in a lengthy post on X Wednesday morning. One source told CBS News that GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is being floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth, arguing DeSantis could go through Senate confirmation in the lame-duck period and then take the post when his term as governor expires Jan. 5. Mr. Trump was asked Wednesday afternoon whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, and he told reporters, "No, I think he's doing a very good job." The president was also asked if he'd like to see Hegseth appointed to fill the seat that will be vacated by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn when she takes office as governor. "I actually think he'd be very popular if he did that," Mr. Trump said, "but I haven't heard that at all." Asked for comment about reports that Hegseth's future as defense secretary was in question, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president "has full confidence in Secretary Hegseth." In the statement, Kelly also praised the military operations in Iran and Venezuela and Hegseth's efforts to reverse the Biden Pentagon's prioritizing of "DEI and woke ideology."

Which Senate, governors races are still uncalled by The Associated Press

Just a handful of races for Senate and governor have not yet been called by The Associated Press as of 4 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. The narrow margins come as Democrats flipped seats in places Republicans comfortably won two years ago, securing control of both chambers of Congress. In the House, 59 races where party control of the seat is at stake have yet to be called. The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap. In Mississippi’s Senate race, Democrat Scott Colom has a lead of a few dozen votes over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Several thousand provisional ballots are expected to be counted in the race and the state has until Nov. 10 to resolve those ballots. Those votes will be decisive. In 2022, the state counted about 5,700 provisional ballots. Mississippi does not have an automatic recount process, but a challenger can seek a court order for one.

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The Associated Press has also not called Alaska’s Senate contest between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, who has a 626-vote lead over Sullivan with an estimated 74% of votes counted. Under Alaska law, if neither candidate gets more than 50% of the vote then it goes to ranked-choice tabulation. Also in Alaska, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has a 20 percentage point lead over Republican Bernadette Wilson in Alaska’s governor’s race. Kreiss-Tomkins had 49.2% of the vote with an estimated 74% of the ballots counted. Like the Senate contest, the governor’s election advances to another round if no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes. In Kansas, Democrat Cindy Holscher has less than a percentage point lead over Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race. Holscher’s 5,557 vote lead with an estimated 98% of votes counted comes after Democrat Adam Hamilton became the first member of his party to win a Senate seat in nearly a century. Both Holscher and Masterson serve in the state Senate, where the Republican serves as its president.

Republican Boebert still short of Democrat Laubacher in Colorado district 4 race, ballots still being counted

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is facing the possibility of losing her congressional seat in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, with Democrat Eileen Laubacher maintaining a lead as votes continue to be counted Wednesday evening. The race is defying expectations in a district widely considered a safe Republican seat. While not all ballots have been counted, Laubacher's lead has put Boebert's political future in jeopardy. "I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished," said Eileen Laubacher, the Democratic challenger, at her election night watch party. Laubacher's campaign appeared to be gaining momentum despite early expectations that the heavily Republican district would be difficult for a Democrat to win.

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"They told us that the district was too Republican," Laubacher said. Kyle Saunders, a Colorado State University political science professor, said the results are far from what political analysts anticipated heading into Election Day. "This is a pretty safe district, and most of the ratings folks had it at likely R, so for this seat to have been challenged, this had to be quite a blue wave, if not a blue tsunami," Saunders said. "I'm not sure Boebert or the Republicans were prepared for that challenge," he added. At her election night watch party, Boebert acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the race but told supporters she was not ready to give up. "This isn't the first time I've had to wait. I know a waiting game," Boebert said. She also reminded supporters that ballots were still being counted and urged them not to give up hope. "Listen, y'all don't start trying to sell your houses and move to Florida just yet. OK, we still got to count some ballots here," Boebert said. "We are winning all but three counties right now, and we'll see. We'll see," she added. Saunders said Boebert's association with President Donald Trump could be one factor contributing to the unexpectedly competitive race. However, he said the results also point to an energized Democratic electorate and potentially lower Republican turnout. "Part of it points to Boebert being part of the problem, but then you also have this really energized Democratic electorate, as well as this idea that a lot of Republicans seem to have stayed home," Saunders said. Laubacher said her campaign was able to connect with voters who previously supported Republicans or had become disengaged from politics.

Bernie Sanders lost the fight in 2016. A decade later, he won the war.

In 2016, two populist revolutions threatened to remake American politics. Donald Trump’s conquered the Republican Party and delivered him the presidency. Bernie Sanders’ fell short against Hillary Clinton, but introduced a populist economic vision that, at the time, much of the Democratic establishment dismissed as politically impractical. Ten years later, Trump and MAGA were hit with a devastating midterm repudiation, as candidates across the country in blue and red states echoing versions of Sanders’ message broke through in places that once seemed beyond Democrats’ reach. Sanders, as cantankerous as ever, isn’t surprised.

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“If you’re asking me, am I shocked by that? That the argument about economic justice and taking on oligarchs and fighting for the working class is working in Texas, is working in Ohio, is working in Montana, is working in Florida, is working all over the country — no, I am not shocked,” Sanders said in an interview Wednesday, fresh off over 20 rallies in October alone. “That is what I’ve always believed.” Sanders’ laser focus on economic populism in 2016 faced criticism from his own party during his contentious primary against Clinton for being too dismissive of identity politics — often couched as his lack of support among Black voters. Now, his brand of relentless focus on corporate and billionaire election interventions and income inequality proved a winning formula not only for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, but for James Talarico in Texas, Sam Forstag in Montana and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin. “Bernie normalized the kind of campaigning that really is about making a direct appeal to working people,” El Sayed told POLITICO. “Wherever I went in Michigan, there are people who remember Bernie 2016 and Bernie 2020 — we stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Midterms over, Democrats plunge into wide-open 2028 presidential race

With the US midterms over, Democrats are turning to what could become one of their most crowded and unpredictable presidential primaries in decades, a 2028 contest likely to expose the party's divide over how to win back the White House. No Democrat has emerged as a clear ?favorite in a field that could attract dozens of contenders, while Republicans have a smaller group of widely discussed candidates, led by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to succeed ?President Donald Trump, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

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Potential Democratic candidates, including sitting governors and senators, have spent months cultivating donors, visiting states with early nominating contests and raising their national profiles, positioning themselves for a race that strategists expect to begin in earnest now that the midterms are over. The sweeping victories by Democrats on Tuesday, when voters delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump and his agenda, will intensify discussions within both parties about how to win over an electorate unhappy with the country's direction. Despite their resounding victories on Tuesday, Democrats enter the ?2028 campaign still divided over whether to tack to the center or move further left on issues ranging from healthcare and taxes to policing and foreign policy. Republican candidates will face a different challenge - how to distance themselves ?from Trump after Tuesday's repudiation of his policies. They need to broaden their appeal beyond the president's base while avoiding a break with the populist Make America Great Again ?movement that has come to define the party.

DOJ stays quiet on Alaska investigations as Senate race too close to call

The Department of Justice offered no new details Wednesday on its Alaska election investigations as Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK) and Democrat Mary Peltola remained locked in a Senate race too close to call. As of Wednesday evening, Peltola led Sullivan 102,701 to 102,075 in first-choice votes, a 626-vote advantage, with an estimated 74% of votes counted. The Associated Press has not called the race. Asked about next steps, a department spokesperson declined to comment on specific plans to the Washington Examiner but pointed to public civil filings and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Tuesday Fox News interview, in which he defended preserving ballots to examine possible voter confusion over a spoiler candidate with the same first and last name as the Republican incumbent, who has garnered more than 3,500 votes.

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Blanche on Tuesday described a scenario in which Sullivan “could lose, but really he didn’t lose,” if confusion between the incumbent and spoiler candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. affected the outcome. “That’s why you need to preserve these ballots,” he said. Sullivan’s campaign argues that Peltola’s narrow lead could disappear once voters’ backup choices are counted. Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system, if no candidate wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Ballots for that candidate transfer to each voter’s next choice still in the race. The process repeats until someone has a majority of the remaining active ballots.

Florida Dems scrape together a few wins but miss the big, blue wave

Democrats hoped a “blue wave” would crash over Republicans in the Sunshine State Tuesday night. They were left with a trickle. Republicans won the governor’s mansion, swept the state Cabinet, kept their U.S. Senate seat and maintained power in the Legislature. Yet Democrats displayed their strongest showing in years, winning multiple congressional districts redrawn earlier this year in an effort led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which GOP officials hoped would net Republicans four congressional seats — and breaking the Republican supermajority that has ruled over the Florida House in Tallahassee for the last four years. While Republicans pulled off victories, headlined by Rep. Byron Donalds securing the governor’s race over Democrat David Jolly, they won by significantly tighter margins compared to 2024.

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“We’ve earned trust from a number of our voters, and even in the worst situation that you can imagine politically, we were able to hold the line and prevent the worst from happening here,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday in Tallahassee. “But just be clear, we’re in a deep hole nationally as a result of this election.” A historic blue wave swept across the nation on Tuesday, with Democrats taking control of Congress and winning gubernatorial races as well as House and Senate seats in deep red states and counties, including in Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton ousted incumbent GOP Sen. Roger Marshall; South Carolina, where Republican Darline Graham lost to Annie Andrews; and shocking defeats in Texas, where three-term Gov. Greg Abbott fell to Democrat Gina Hinojosa and Democrat James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton. As Republicans here pounded their chests after pulling off close wins in the face of losses in other states, Democrats were left lamenting how close they came to upsets on several fronts.

Copyright November 05, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved