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6 House Races, 1 Senate Race Still Uncalled as Mia Love Pulls Closer

Utah Republican trailed by 3 percent on election night, but is now only 873 votes down to Democratic challenger

Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, walks down the House steps after final votes of the week in the Capitol on March 8, 2018. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, walks down the House steps after final votes of the week in the Capitol on March 8, 2018. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Officials have yet to determine the winners in one Senate contest and six House races — a week and a half after the midterm elections.

As the Florida Senate race between Sen. Bill Nelson and his GOP challenger, Gov. Rick Scott, heads to a manual recount, a federal judge called the state’s election processes “the laughing stock of the world.”

Nelson trailed Scott in the original tally and machine recount by a shade over 12,000 votes.

House Democrats have already passed the threshold for a majority that they haven’t held since 2010. They currently have 231 seats called in their favor with the potential to win some of those six not-yet-called races. They’re likely to finish around 234 with a 33-seat majority.

In the Senate, the GOP flipped seats in Indiana, North Dakota and Missouri — states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2016. But Democrats picked up seats in Nevada and Arizona.

Here are the races yet to be called as of Friday that will determine the size of the Republicans’ majority in the Senate and the Democrats’ in the House:

Senate

Florida

The race for the Senate seat in Florida is as nasty as ever as state and local officials kick off a manual recount.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott won the machine recount completed Thursday by a little more than 12,000 votes over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Scott declared victory over the three-term senator late on election night, but nearly a week and a half later, the race remains uncalled by The Associated Press. Scott’s margin narrowed since election night as votes from Broward continued to trickle in and absentee and provisional ballots remained uncounted.

A judge tossed out the lawsuit this week from Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee against Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes for failing to turn over information about ballots that have been counted. There has been no evidence of voter fraud in Broward, the judge ruled. Scott has also called for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into Broward’s handling of ballots.

President Donald Trump and Rubio, without citing any evidence, have also accused Broward County officials of voter fraud.

Mississippi

The Mississippi special election for the final two years of former GOP Sen. Thad Cochran’s term is heading to a Nov. 27 runoff after no candidate cleared 50 percent last Tuesday night.

Just 1 point separated appointed GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and former Democratic Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, with Hyde-Smith ahead 41 percent to 40 percent. Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel took 16 percent of the vote.

House

Late vote counts favoring Democrats

Eight of the last nine House races that have been called by the AP have flipped to the Democrats after Bruce Poliquin lost his Maine 2nd District seat and Democrat Katie Porter ousted Rep. Mimi Walters in California’s 45th District on Thursday. Democrats now control every seat in Orange County, California.

Republican incumbents

In Georgia’s 7th District, Rep. Rob Woodall leads by less than 500 votes over Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux in the Atlanta suburbs. Bourdeaux has called for a recount.

Utah Rep. Mia Love, who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and is the only African-American Republican woman in the House, pulled within 873 votes of Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams with 94 percent of precincts reporting in the 4th District. McAdams’ lead has narrowed since Election Day, and Republican-leaning Utah County still has more votes to report.

Democratic challenger Anthony Brindisi leads Rep. Claudia Tenney by about half a percentage point in New York’s 22nd District. Tenney ran one of the most pro-Trump campaigns of any vulnerable Republican this cycle.

Republican incumbents in New York’s 27th (Chris Collins) and Texas’ 23rd (Will Hurd) hold narrow edges in their respective races, but those contests remained uncalled Friday.

Open seat

One open seat held by the GOP remains uncalled.

Republicans, including new House GOP standard-bearer Kevin McCarthy, have claimed victory for Young Kim over Democrat Gil Cisneros for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Ed Royce in California’s 39th District.

But Cisneros took a 941-vote lead over Kim on Thursday as California officials continue to tally mail-in votes. Kim’s lead shriveled from 4,000 votes on election night.

Watch: Bill Nelson Makes a Statement on Florida’s Senate Race Recount

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