4 governor’s races to watch on election night
There are 11 gubernatorial races down for decision on Election Day, with four being competitive, according to the Fox News Power Rankings. This year, up to 150 million Americans are expected to cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, while levers will also be pulled for gubernatorial races and other down-ballot races. New Hampshire is the most difficult governor’s race to call and is considered a toss-up, as former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte takes on Democrat Joyce Craig, who served three two-year terms as mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE 2024 ELECTION They are bidding to replace GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, a popular governor with a large national profile, who decided not to seek re-election after winning four straight two-year terms as the Granite State governor. Ayotte received Sununu’s endorsement this summer. Despite having a Republican governor, New Hampshire has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 2004. Ayotte is also a former state attorney general who narrowly lost her Senate re-election in 2016 after breaking with former President Donald Trump following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video. As she ran for her party’s nomination for governor, Ayotte endorsed Trump this year. Morse, facing an uphill challenge against the higher polling and better funded Ayotte, repeatedly questioned her conservative record as a senator and her support for Trump. The pair have clashed on local issues including taxes, the opioid crisis and housing homelessness, as well as abortion. New Hampshire law allows abortions up to the 24th week of a pregnancy. Craig has accused Ayotte of voting against abortion rights and then changing her position to run for governor, according to WBUR. Ayotte voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood as a senator and says she will support the state’s right to decide the issue following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. “I will fight with everything I have to defend New Hampshire’s right to decide this issue and protect our law,” Ayotte said. In Indiana, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Mike Braun should have been able to cruise to victory against any Democratic opponent. However, Braun’s hardline position on abortion has given Democrat Jennifer McCormick an opening. The state enacted a near total ban on abortion two years ago, which McCormick argues is too extreme. Braun maintains that Indiana should be a “right-to-life state. He was endorsed by former President Trump before May’s GOP primary, who took the Hoosier state by large margins in 2016 and 2020. Braun is aiming to extend the GOP’s 20-year hold on Indiana’s governor’s office by defeating McCormick, a former Republican who split with the party after serving as the state’s schools superintendent. The GOP has controlled Indiana’s governor’s office since Mitch Daniels defeated the late Gov. Joe Kernan in 2004. Additionally, Democrats have not won a statewide office in Indiana since 2012. There are also unusual partisan dynamics at play. The GOP’s candidate for lieutenant governor could impact support for the Republican ticket among moderates, and there is a Libertarian on the ballot. Indiana’s governor race has moved from Solid R to Likely R. In the key swing state of North Carolina, current Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson faces an uphill battle to defeat Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein in the battle to replace Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term-limited and not allowed to run for re-election. The key talking point in the race involves allegations that Robinson made controversial comments on a porn website more than a decade ago. Robinson has denied saying those words, and Republicans began to distance themselves from the candidate afterward, while at least four top staffers resigned in the wake of the report. Former President Trump endorsed Robinson before the March primary but also began distancing himself. 4 MARK ROBINSON CAMPAIGN STAFFERS RESIGN IN WAKE OF REPORT ON PORN WEBSITE POSTS Stein has attacked Robinson for his stance on abortion. Since Reconstruction ended in the 1890s, North Carolina has only elected three Republican governors. If elected, Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor. The race is Likely D. Longtime Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is hoping to keep the governor’s mansion in Democratic hands, while former Rep. Dave Reichert is trying to become the state’s first GOP governor in 40 years. The Evergreen State has voted Democrat in every presidential election since 1988. Reichert, who served as King County Sheriff for 33 years, is best known for his role in capturing the Green River Killer, a notorious serial killer. His tenure as sheriff and his subsequent service in Congress have been central to his campaign messaging, positioning him as a tough on crime public safety candidate. For his part, Ferguson’s campaign has been marked by his sharp criticism of Reichert on hot button issues such as abortion, as Ferguson has attacked the former Republican congressman for his previous support for a nationwide abortion ban as out of touch with Washington’s values. Ferguson, has been the state’s attorney general since 2013. He came to national prominence by repeatedly suing the Trump administration, including bringing the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s initial travel ban on citizens of several majority Muslim nations. Ferguson’s endorsements include prominent state leaders like U.S. Senate Pro Tempore Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee. Reichert faced an uphill battle in a state considered a Democratic stronghold. Of the remaining gubernatorial races, Delaware is considered Solid D, while Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia are Solid R. Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Matthew Richter and Jamie Joseph, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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GOP prepared for pivotal court battles that could decide 2024 election
The Republican Party is determined not to be outmanned in the courts regarding the 2024 elections, with GOP leaders leaning heavily on a new, litigation-focused “election integrity” effort launched earlier this year in a bid to avoid many of the same pitfalls as 2020. The two-pronged effort seeks to improve the GOP ground game across the country, both by recruiting and training poll observers and by adding more transparency to the voting process, senior Republican Party officials told Fox News Digital in an interview. To date, they have recruited some 230,000 volunteers across the country, RNC officials said, including 5,000 lawyers concentrated primarily in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On the eve of Election Day, it is the lawyers whose talents could be especially useful in the days and weeks to come. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS PENNSYLVANIA PROVISIONAL BALLOT RULING, IN A MAJOR LOSS FOR GOP That is because the second half of the election integrity push focuses on litigation. Some of the lawsuits are aimed at ensuring “poll worker parity” and access for Republican observers at many election sites across the country, senior party officials told Fox News Digital. However, they have also filed dozens of lawsuits aimed at cracking down on voter identification laws, tightening citizenship verification standards and adding new requirements for mail-in ballots and provisional ballots accepted by various states. The Republican Party has been especially aggressive in filing these pre-election lawsuits, which officials describe as helping “set the rules of the road in key swing states.” As of this writing, party officials said they have filed more than 130 lawsuits—the vast majority of the roughly 200 election-related lawsuits in the 2024 election. While the flurry of GOP-led lawsuits have dominated headlines in the final race to Election Day—primarily in the seven swing states considered to hold outsize importance in determining the next president— Republican Party officials pointed to courtroom victories won as early as this summer as some of their biggest achievements. One example was the RNC’s successful lawsuit against the city of Detroit in August. The RNC had sued to add more Republican election inspectors to the city’s 300-plus voting precincts, citing a “7.5-to-one” ratio of Democrat inspectors to Republican inspectors. Republicans successfully argued that the disparity ran afoul of state law, which requires “an equal number, as nearly as possible” of election officials from both major political parties. More Republican observers were added as a result. A more recent win occurred last week in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where a judge sided with the GOP’s request to extend early voting deadlines from Tuesday, Nov. 5, to Friday, Nov. 8. BEHIND-THE-SCENES BATTLES: LEGAL CHALLENGES THAT COULD IMPACT THE VOTE BEFORE ELECTION DAY BEGINS Republican officials have touted success in achieving more transparency in state elections. “We really view this as making America’s elections run in a transparent and trustworthy way. And that’s a net positive for everyone in this country, regardless of Republican or Democrat [party affiliation],” a senior RNC official told Fox News Digital in an interview. Still, on the eve of Election Day, it remains to be seen whether these efforts will have accomplished their stated goal of establishing more trust in U.S. elections. That is because the concept of “election security” not only requires certain safeguards to be placed around the voter registration and ballot-casting process, but also that the voters themselves then trust the results of the vote as legitimate. A fresh AP-NORC poll found that Democrats are far more likely than their Republican counterparts to express confidence in the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. The poll found that while 71% of registered Democratic voters said they have “a great deal” of confidence in the national election outcome, just one-third of their Republican counterparts, or 24%, reported the same. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS PENNSYLVANIA PROVISIONAL BALLOT RULING, IN A MAJOR LOSS FOR GOP While some of these lawsuits could be used by the RNC as a pretext to challenge the outcome of certain states after Election Day, legal experts said it is unclear what impact any of these legal challenges could have in contesting the results — even if the outcome in certain states is just as close as expected in a neck-and-neck election. Courts are highly disinclined to take up cases after Election Day, Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, told Fox News in an interview. “We want to have the game be fair, in the sense that there’s bright lines way before you ever get to Election Day,” McCarthy said. “So everybody has their eyes open about what the rules are.” “It’s really hard to get a court to involve itself after an election has taken place and where they’re in a position of potentially changing the outcome of the election,” he added. That is especially true of the nation’s top court, Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and member of Congress, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I think the Supreme Court is very wary of being drawn into overtly political fights,” he said. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
‘Very close’: Nevada expert reveals which presidential candidate he predicts will win crucial battleground
A respected election expert in Nevada has released his final analysis for the presidential race in the Silver State and predicted that Vice President Kamala Harris will carry the state by a razor-thin margin over former President Doanld Trump. Jon Ralston, editor and CEO of The Nevada Independent, wrote in a blog post on Monday that he predicts the crucial swing state of Nevada by a margin of 48.5% to 48.2%. “It’s a simple question: Can the Democrats catch up?” Ralston asked, referencing the early voting lead that Republicans have surprisingly amassed in the state along with significantly cutting down the voter registration lead Democrats usually enjoy. “It’s really a coin flip, and I know people on both sides who have analyzed the data who can’t decide. I have gone back and forth in my own head for days, my eyes glazing over with numbers and models and extrapolations. The key to this election has always been which way the non-major-party voters break because they have become the plurality in the state. They are going to make up 30 percent or so of the electorate and if they swing enough towards Harris, she will win Nevada. I think they will, and I’ll tell you why.” BEHIND-THE-SCENES BATTLES: LEGAL CHALLENGES THAT COULD IMPACT THE VOTE BEFORE ELECTION DAY BEGINS Ralston explained that he believes many Harris voters who are registered as “nonpartisan” will get out and vote as part of the “Reid Machine” put in place by the late Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, to help pool resources to maximize support for candidates up and down the ballot. “The machine knows who they are and will get them to vote. It will be just enough to overcome the Republican lead – along with women motivated by abortion and crossover votes that issue also will cause.” I’M SAM BROWN: THIS IS WHY I WANT NEVADA’S VOTE FOR SENATE Ralson wrote that his previous analysis “concludes Trump probably has a 30,000 raw vote lead right now,” but he believes there are “a lot of Clark County mail ballots to be counted that favor Democrats” and suggested early GOP turnout is cannibalizing part of its Election Day vote. Ralston added, “I know some may think this reflects my well-known disdain for Trump, heart over data. But that is not so. I have often predicted against my own preferences; history does not lie. I just have a feeling she will catch up here, but I also believe – and please remember this – it will not be clear who won on Election Night here, so block out the nattering nabobs of election denialism. It’s going to be very, very close.” A Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital that Ralston’s “prediction” is “all wishcasting and not based on data.” “The MSNBC contributor hates Trump and admitted as such in his prediction. Republicans are turning out and Democrats aren’t in Nevada. The math is the math.” Ralston, who said he has “never missed a Nevada presidential call,” also predicted that incumbent Dem. Sen. Jacky Rosen would win re-election in Nevada and that Democrats down the ticket would perform well. He did admit he has “botched races down-ballot.” Nevada and its six electoral votes are expected to play a critical role in the presidential election in a state where the Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Trump with a one-point lead. President Biden won Nevada by roughly 34,000 votes in 2020 and Nevada has voted for every Democrat who has run for president since 1992, except the two elections with President George W. Bush on the ballot. However, the average margin across those eight elections is just 4.1 points.
22 toss-up House races to watch on election night
Election Day is here, and tens of millions of Americans are now heading to the polls across the country. Their votes will be the deciding factor in 22 toss-up House races that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the chamber for the next two years. Beneath the surface, the battle for the gavel is getting more expensive. House candidates have spent more than $3 billion on their races so far, concentrated in roughly 40 battleground districts. Arizona’s 1st District covers a northeast chunk of Maricopa and is represented by Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who has served Arizona in Congress since 2011. Biden won the area he represents by 1.5 points in the last presidential election (Dave’s Redistricting), making this an ultra-competitive race. Schweikert is up against Democrat and former state Rep. Amish Shah. It’s a Toss-up on the Power Rankings. ‘ADMIRES DICTATORS’: HARRIS CONTINUES COMPARING TRUMP TO HITLER DURING BATTLEGROUND STATE TOWN HALL Arizona’s 6th District is tucked away in the southeast corner of the state. The 6th District is represented by freshman GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani. Biden won this area by an even thinner margin in 2020 — just 0.1 percentage points — making it another closely watched race. Ciscomani is running against Kirsten Engel, another Democratic former state representative. It’s also a Toss-up. California’s 22nd District is home to Rep. David Valadao, one of two Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. He kept this district on a three-point margin in the midterms, but Biden won it by 13 points in the last presidential election. Valadao’s strong centrist brand keeps this race, against former assemblyman Rudy Salas, at Toss Up this cycle. California’s 41st District is represented by Republican Ken Calvert, who has served in the House since 1993. He won his most recent race by under five points, and this year, he’ll face the same competitor: former federal prosecutor and Democrat Will Rollins. This race is a Toss Up. California’s 45th District went to President Biden by six points last cycle; its heavy and right-leaning Asian American population makes it highly competitive. Incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel faces Democratic lawyer Derek Tran in this district, which includes parts of Los Angeles. It moved to Toss Up last month. Colorado’s 8th District starts in rural Weld County, where Trump won by 18 points in 2020. But the farther down you go, the more suburban it becomes. Strong Democratic turnout in Adams County, which Biden won by 16 points, gave Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo her first win in 2022. This time, the incumbent is up against Republican state politician Gabe Evans. This is a toss-up race. HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE 2024 ELECTION Iowa’s 1st District went to second-term GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks by six votes in 2020, and while redistricting gave her a more comfortable win in the midterms, she remains vulnerable in the Davenport and Iowa City district. Former state Rep. Christina Bohannan is the Democrat candidate. It’s a toss-up in the Power Rankings. Maine’s 2nd District sees Incumbent Rep. Jared Golden running as one of five Democrats in districts Trump won in the last presidential election (Golden won by 6 points). The former Marine made headlines this year when he said he “didn’t know” whether he would vote for Biden again and was one of the first Democrats to question Biden’s mental fitness. This time, he’s up against Maine State Representative and former NASCAR driver Austin Theriault, who says he wants “more balance and less extremism” in politics. This race is a Power Rankings toss-up. Michigan’s 7th District sees Democrat Elissa Slotkin vacating this south central Michigan district, which she flipped by a 5.4-point margin in the midterms. This year, it’s a battle between two former state senators — Democrat Curtis Hertel and Republican Tom Barrett. This race is a toss-up on the Fox News Power Rankings. Michigan’s 8th District is also without an incumbent. Rep. Dan Kildee is retiring after 12 years in the House, making this a race between Democratic state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet and Republican businessman Paul Junge. The seat includes Flint and the Tri-Cities area, so winning the working-class vote will be critical. It’s also a toss-up on the Power Rankings. North Carolina’s 1st District saw Democratic Rep. Don Davis win this open seat in the midterms by under five points. This year, he’s up against Army veteran Laurie Buckhout for this northeastern district with a high proportion of Black voters. This race is a toss-up on the Fox News Power Rankings. Nebraska’s 2nd District sees incumbent Republican Rep. Don Bacon defending his seat against Nebraska state legislator Tony Vargas. Bacon won his seat from a Democrat in 2016, and he has since won every election by less than 3 points. New Mexico’s 2nd District occupies most of the southwest land area of the state. It includes Las Cruces and parts of Albuquerque, but it also has a chunk of rural votes. Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez won the district by just 1,350 votes in the midterms; this year, he faces the seat’s former Republican occupant, Yvette Herrell. This is a Power Rankings toss-up. HARRIS, TRUMP, HOLD ELECTION EVE DUELING RALLIES IN THE BIGGEST OF THE BATTLEGROUNDS New York’s 4th District lies closer to New York City and includes the ultra-competitive Nassau County. The county is comprised of Long Beach, Garden City and Uniondale, where former President Trump held a rally last month. Incumbent Rep. Anthony D’Esposito spoke at that event. He’s up against local Democratic Town Supervisor Laura Gillen. It’s ranked toss-up on the Power Rankings. New York’s 19th District is the third Hudson Valley battleground with a moderate incumbent. The 19th District includes the Catskills and the Finger Lakes. GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro flipped this seat in the midterms with a roughly 5,000-vote margin. This year, he faces Democratic attorney Josh Riley. This race is a toss-up. Ohio’s 9th District lies in northwestern Ohio, and the seat has been held by populist Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur since 1983, but
State officials say lawyers ready to compel county election officials to swiftly certify vote if needed
Officials in battleground states say lawyers are ready on this Election Day to pursue legal action against any counties who try to disrupt or delay the vote certification process. The warnings come after a few counties in Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Mexico initially did not certify results or did so with incomplete tallies following the 2022 midterm elections, according to Politico. “If you don’t certify an election at the county level, or certify a canvas, you’re going to get indicted,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told Politico. “We’ve sent, on top of that, some what I would call sternly-worded letters out to folks to let them know.” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also said that lawyers have prepared draft legal filings in order to sue any county that tries to avoid certifying this year’s results. LIVE UPDATES: AMERICA TO DECIDE THE NEXT PRESIDENT TODAY “We’ve got great attorneys that we’re working with at the attorney general’s office, who are prepared as well, who were there in 2020 and ready to go,” Benson told Politico. “It’s more about just making sure we’re able to rapidly respond and are prepared to ensure that the law is followed.” During the last presidential election, former President Trump urged two members of Michigan’s Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to certify the results, according to a report from The Detroit News. LEGAL CHALLENGES THAT COULD IMPACT THE VOTE BEFORE ELECTION DAY BEGINS In September, during an event hosted by the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research, Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said, “There are those who think they can magically hold up everything by one county… That is not going to happen, and the courts won’t allow for that,” according to Politico. “With the system we have in place, with the lawyers we have in place, we have game-planned a lot of this out,” he reportedly added. State election officials tell Politico that local officials are duty-bound to certify results and the task is not optional.
Trump slams Pelosi as ‘evil, sick, crazy,’ but stops short of profanity: ‘It starts with a B’
Former President Donald Trump blasted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just stopping short of calling her an obscenity. During remarks at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee called Pelosi a “crazy, horrible human being” and a “crooked person.” “She’s an evil, sick, crazy,” Trump said, seemingly sounding out the first letter of the word he had in mind, while stopping just short of uttering the obscenity. “It starts with a B, but I won’t say it. I wanna say it.” TRUMP SAYS GOODBYE TO ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL RALLIES’ IN LAST EVENT BEFORE ELECTION He also referred to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as “Adam shifty Schiff” and “pencil neck,” saying that the congressman is “an unattractive guy” on the inside and outside. During a recent appearance on MSNBC, Pelosi claimed that Trump is suffering “cognitive degeneration” and would not be capable of serving a four-year presidential term. She said that those thinking of voting for Trump “have to know that he can’t last as president for four years with his brain deteriorating at the rate that it is … and they may be voting for President Vance, which would be a horrible thing for our country.” HARRIS, TRUMP CONCLUDE CAMPAIGNING — NOW IT’S UP TO THE VOTERS AS ELECTION DAY 2024 GETS UNDERWAY Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Pelosi in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The only thing deteriorating is Nancy Pelosi who is a decrepit washed up corrupt politician who America can no longer stand,” Leavitt said in the statement. “She should go back to the City of San Francisco, which she has totally destroyed, and never return.” TRUMP GETS LAST-MINUTE ROUND OF BIG-NAME ENDORSEMENTS INCLUDING JOE ROGAN, SON OF ROBERTO CLEMENTE CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Pelosi, who is currently seeking re-election, has been serving in Congress for more than three decades. She took office in mid-1987.
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