Alaska’s map is complicated. Here’s what we’re watching for.

LatestHere’s the latest.Democrats seized control of the Senate on Tuesday night, as voters delivered a thorough rebuke to President Trump in places long considered Republican strongholds. On a night shaping up as a romp, Democrats flipped Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and even Texas, according to The Associated Press, and were in a strong position to take control of the House.Mr. Trump told The New York Times in an interview that he was “absolutely willing to accept those results” and was prepared to work with Democrats. “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” he said. “We’ll probably work something out.”Democrats won Senate seats in six states Mr. Trump carried in all three of his presidential elections, several of them by double-digit margins each time. The seats in Texas and South Carolina had been in Republican hands for decades. The Kansas seat had been red for nearly a century.Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who across 30 years in Washington repeatedly foiled Democratic efforts to unseat her, conceded her race to Troy Jackson, a former state legislator whom Democrats anointed in July after their preferred nominee quit the race in scandal.In Texas, James Talarico, a state legislator who became a national fund-raising sensation, toppled Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Republican state attorney general whom Mr. Trump elevated to the nomination in the spring. “We just took back Texas,” Mr. Talarico said in his victory speech. “We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.”In South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. In Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton stunned Senator Roger Marshall, a one-term Republican.Democrats also notched major victories in races for governor. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman to be elected governor in the country’s history. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa was the first Democrat elected governor since Ann Richards in 1990, by ousting Gov. Greg Abbott, a three-term Republican.In another race for governor, Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman elected to lead Ohio, emerging from a vicious campaign that included an ad by her Republican opponent that featured her estranged mother. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat ousted from his seat two years ago, will again represent Ohio in the Senate after flipping a Republican seat.The results came in a midterm election that is the first national mandate on Mr. Trump’s second term. They showed what polls have indicated for months — that voters are supremely dissatisfied with Mr. Trump and Republicans who have backed his agenda.Democrats flipped House seats in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New Jersey and North Carolina. And Republicans’ redistricting effort appears to have failed to yield the sweeping victories that they intended: Democrats won districts in Florida that Republicans redrew to be favorable for themselves, and a North Carolina seat Democrats flipped was also part of the Republican redistricting effort.Democratic candidates have blamed Mr. Trump, and the war he started this year in Iran, for the economic hardships that have driven a current of frustration across the nation. Republicans have focused on portraying their Democratic opponents as extreme on social issues and the economy as they played defense in reliably red states.Republicans fended off a significant challenge in a Senate race in Florida: Senator Ashley Moody defeated Angie Nixon, a progressive Democrat, in a tight contest to complete the term of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.The last polling places will not close until 1 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, in Alaska, and full results for some races may not be known for days or longer.Here’s what else we’re covering:A complicated landscape: More than 400 Times reporters, editors, data analysts, video journalists and photographers are covering the midterms, seeking to understand a large country with voters who are complicated — and sometimes contradictory. Read more ›Minor disruptions: A technical problem with voting machines in Westchester County, N.Y., outside New York City, led officials there to collect ballots by hand in a competitive House race. In Florida, flooding forced more than 20 polling stations across eight counties to be relocated. In North Carolina, technical problems at several precincts caused minor delays; state election officials said they would delay the release of election results to at least 8:15 p.m. from 7:30 p.m. Read more ›Election integrity: Many election officials and Democrats have said they fear that Mr. Trump’s attacks on the integrity of U.S. elections could lead to tensions during voting and baseless challenges to the outcome. The administration has sought to prove that many noncitizens have cast ballots, but few people have been charged with offenses related to voting fraud. Local and state officials say they are well prepared to run a secure election.Court rulings: A federal judge has turned down a request by Democratic lawmakers and party organizations to prohibit the Trump administration from coercing states into screening incoming ballots. And the Supreme Court issued what appeared to be an extraordinary rebuke to Mr. Trump, signaling that it was not interested in assisting his efforts to interfere with how states administer elections.James Talarico’s victory speech hit themes he has hammered throughout his campaign, including that “love is not weak” and that the rich and powerful look to divide people “so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets.”He said he would serve, rather than shun, Republicans who opposed him. “This win is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” he said. “It’s much bigger than that.”He added that America’s economic and political systems were broken. “That’s because the most powerful people in the world want it that way,” he said.Analysis From Our ReportersBy Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh, Edward Vega and Stephanie SwartBy Shane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Thomas Vollkommer and James SurdamBy Shane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Jon Miller, Edward Vega and James SurdamBy Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh, Stephanie Swart and Edward VegaBy Evan Reynolds, Laura Bult, Nour Idriss, June Kim and Edward VegaBy Shane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Thomas Vollkommer, James Surdam and Edward VegaBy Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh and Stephanie SwartBy Evan Reynolds, Laura Bult, Nour Idriss, June Kim and Edward VegaAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn California, Democrats’ newly redistricted map has left just one true tossup House race. But there are a handful of intriguing Democrat vs. Democrat contests that have, in many cases, become battles of insurgent progressive against an establishment politician, or older against younger. In one race in Los Angeles, Angela Gonzales-Torres, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, is leading Representative Jimmy Gomez in early returns, though only 54 percent of the vote has been tallied.Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star, flips a House seat in Texas for Democrats.ImageBobby Pulido at campaign event in October.Credit...Gabriel V. Cardenas/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBobby Pulido, a moderate Democrat and Latin Grammy Award-winning Tejano musician, ousted Representative Monica De La Cruz, a three-term Texas Republican, early Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, signaling a deep backlash to Republicans and President Trump among Latino voters.The South Texas border district that Mr. Pulido won was seen as a bellwether for Latino voter sentiment. Mr. Trump won it by 18 percentage points in 2024, as residents lashed out against inflation and the Biden administration’s immigration policies.Mr. Pulido said in an interview during the campaign that when he began his bid, “nobody thought I had a chance” because the district had so heavily favored Mr. Trump.But this year, Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown and the high cost of gas and groceries, as well as deep cuts to Medicaid in a district reliant on the program, spurred voter anger.ImageRepresentative Monica De La Cruz, Republican of Texas.Credit...Michael Gonzalez/Getty ImagesMr. Pulido became the subject of international media attention as he performed for free at quinceañeras and other local parties as part of his outreach to low-propensity voters. He also cut a distinctive profile, pitching himself as a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat who supported a secure border, owned guns and loved God while also promoting Democratic visions for government-funded health care and safety net programs.Ms. De La Cruz attacked Mr. Pulido over offensive statements he had made in the past, including about postpartum women’s bodies, and his connection to a former bandmate who is a sex offender. But in the end, she could not overcome Mr. Trump’s unpopularity and Mr. Pulido’s popularity.Senator Marsha Blackburn, a reliable Trump ally, will be Tennessee’s first female governor, The Associated Press reported. She held off a crowded field that included Jerri Green, a Democratic Memphis councilwoman, and two independent candidates.ImageCredit...George Walker Iv/Associated PressAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTLawler concedes in a N.Y. House swing district to a Democratic newcomer.Representative Mike Lawler, left, and Cait Conley, right.James Estrin/The New York Times and Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersRepresentative Mike Lawler, a two-term Republican who was a chief target of Democrats in the critical midterm elections, conceded on Tuesday to his Democratic challenger, Cait Conley, in a swing district in New York’s Hudson Valley.Mr. Lawler chose to concede despite uncertainty hanging over the race because of tens of thousands of uncounted votes in Westchester County, where issues with the voting machine programming led to Election Day chaos and delayed the vote count until Wednesday. The New York Times has not accepted the race call.Speaking at a banquet hall in a Hilton hotel in Pearl River, N.Y., Mr. Lawler said that he had called Ms. Conley to congratulate her and that “when all the votes are counted tomorrow in Westchester, it will be pretty clear.”ImageAfter ballot machine complications, the vast majority of votes cast in Westchester County on Election Day will be counted on Wednesday.Credit...Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters“I’m a big believer of humble in victory and gracious in defeat,” he added.Mr. Lawler portrayed himself as an independent Republican, but Ms. Conley tried to alter that narrative on the campaign trail, suggesting that Mr. Lawler was in league with President Trump and voted with him “100 percent of the time,” according to one campaign ad. (Mr. Lawler cast his vote for Trump-supported bills 94 percent of the time in 2025, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly.)Ms. Conley, a newcomer to politics, held leadership positions in the Biden administration, eventually leaving to work for a company that built anti-drone systems and to consult for an artificial intelligence firm that scraped public sources for law enforcement analysis. Mr. Lawler had accused Ms. Conley of using her connections for personal gain, suggesting that she was wading into ethically murky territory.Ms. Conley did not bring up her 19-month sojourn into the private sector on the campaign trail, instead emphasizing her military service; she spent over a decade in uniform before joining the National Security Council.Her time in the military helped underscore to voters her more moderate stance — applauding Gov. Kathy Hochul’s moratorium on data centers in the state while declining to say whether she supported local law enforcement collaborating with immigration agents.“We started this because we knew that America, the land of promise and opportunity, was on the wrong path — but we knew, if we came together, if we brought people together, that we could fix it,” Ms. Conley said on Tuesday night at her results party at Club Infinity in Pleasantville. “And tonight we show that this fight wasn’t a partisan fight. This was a patriotic fight.”Wesley Parnell and Kristi Berner contributed reporting.Bobby Pulido, a moderate Democrat and Tejano musician, ousted Representative Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican, on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, signaling Latino voters’ deep frustration with Republicans and President Trump. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTShane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, James Surdam and Edward VegaVideoA Seismic Shift in TexasThe Democratic victories in the Senate and governor’s races are a historic change for Texas. Our national political correspondent Shane Goldmacher explains why.Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont, a Republican, was elected to a sixth term, The Associated Press reported, putting him on a path to become the longest-serving governor in state history. His Democratic challenger, Amanda Janoo, an economist, ran a strong campaign, but Scott, a moderate who has distanced himself from President Trump, still won comfortably.Scott prevailed despite growing concern about affordability in his rural state and effective messaging by Janoo. A political newcomer who pledged to raise taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters, she contrasted her progressive agenda with what she described as a “managed decline” on Scott’s watch.Letitia James, a Trump foe, wins a third term as N.Y. attorney general.ImageLetitia James quickly emerged as one of President Trump’s key antagonists after she became New York’s attorney general in 2018.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesLetitia James, New York’s Democratic attorney general who gained a national following after clashing with President Trump, won a third consecutive term, defeating Saritha Komatireddy, a little-known Republican ex-prosecutor, according to The Associated Press.With 85 percent of the vote counted, Ms. James was leading Ms. Komatireddy by 20 percentage points.Ms. James, 68, a Brooklynite, was first elected attorney general in 2018 after having served as a city councilwoman and as public advocate in New York City. In her statewide role, she quickly became one of Mr. Trump’s chief antagonists.Ms. James won a fraud suit against Mr. Trump in 2022 that was eventually thrown out. In 2025, she was indicted on a charge of mortgage fraud by federal prosecutors. That indictment was dismissed, but prosecutors attempted to indict Ms. James again.“We have used the sword and shield of the law to protect the rights of New Yorkers, no matter what God they worship, no matter what the color of their skin, no matter their gender and who they love, no matter their immigration status or their socioeconomic status,” Ms. James said at the New York Hilton Midtown ballroom where top Democrats had gathered for an election night party.During the campaign, Ms. James accused Ms. Komatireddy, 42, an Upper East Side resident who worked as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, of supporting Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the state.Mr. Trump nominated Ms. Komatireddy as a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York in 2020. He gave her a “Complete and Total Endorsement” on social media last month, calling her an “America First Patriot.” Ms. Komatireddy said she was honored.Ms. Komatireddy said Ms. James was so focused on the president that she was not using the office’s powers to address issues such as fraud and street crime. In their only debate, both women accused each other of not understanding the power of the office.“She’s obsessed with national politics. I’m focused on the safety of New Yorkers,” Ms. Komatireddy said. “The right attorney general can tackle crime, homelessness and fraud. You just need a prosecutor as attorney general.”Ms. James responded that the office’s work is mostly civil in nature. She listed the lawsuits against opioid manufactures and tech companies that her office has pursued and said “politics stop at the door in my office.” She has said her willingness to fight Mr. Trump in court demonstrates that she can take on powerful interests on behalf of New Yorkers.Ms. Komatireddy also attacked Ms. James for her comments expressing sympathy for a former Cornell student who has accused several men of raping her.After Ms. James made the remarks, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed her as a special prosecutor in the case, but some have called for Ms. James to recuse herself because of her comments. Ms. James faced a similar critique when she first ran for attorney general for her comments about Mr. Trump.Ms. James rejected that idea in a statement, saying that she was “committed to leading a comprehensive investigation" that would be “guided only by the facts, the evidence and the law.” Ms. James was also seeking an outside law firm to examine the case.In spite of what was considered a strong debate performance — her campaign said it raised $1 million in the days after the debate aired — Ms. Komatireddy could not overcome Ms. James’s name recognition and national reputation.As the campaign neared its end, Ms. James rolled out a commercial with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and rallied in Brooklyn with Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSenator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, projected optimism at his election night party in Anchorage, with no results in yet for Alaska’s Senate race. “We’re seeing a blue wave in the Lower 48, and that’s not good,” he said. “But we all know the great state of Alaska is different.”Republicans experienced a remarkable reversal of political fortune tonight in Iowa. The state has not been represented by a Democrat in the Senate since 2015 or in the House since 2023. In the next Congress, it is poised to have just one Republican senator and one Republican representative.John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, posted a statement early Wednesday morning applauding Republicans’ record in the Senate, saying his party “put up a strong record of accomplishment that’s created safer streets, more money in Americans’ pockets, and new opportunities for families and businesses to get ahead.”“As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done. Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House, and we’ll work with him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism. We cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream,” he wrote.Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh and Stephanie SwartVideoA Democratic Senator for KansasDemocrats won a Senate seat in Kansas for the first time in nearly 100 years. Our election data reporter Christine Zhang talks about the growing Democratic footprint in the state.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRepresentative Henry Cuellar, an 11-term Democrat, defeated his Republican challenger, Tano Tijerina, a county judge, according to The Associated Press, in a Texas border district redrawn to favor Republicans. The new boundaries in Texas’ 28th District increased the share of Hispanic voters to about 91 percent from about 75 percent, but Cuellar’s victory suggests that President Trump struggled to keep some of the inroads that he made with Hispanic voters in South Texas two years ago. Tijerina switched his party affiliation to Republican from Democrat after Trump was re-elected in 2024 and made attacking Cuellar, who received a pardon from Trump late last year after he was indicted on bribery charges, a central piece of his campaign.Charlie Hatcher, a farmer in Tennessee who defeated Representative Andy Ogles in the state’s Republican primary, won the state’s Fifth Congressional District, according to The Associated Press. Democrats had hoped that Mayor Chaz Molder, a more centrist candidate from Columbia, could win the seat even after it was redrawn to be more conservative and include part of Memphis in West Tennessee.Elon Musk, who is always online and constantly interacting with people on X, the social-media platform he owns, has been conspicuously silent tonight on the website. He hasn’t sent a message in about eight hours.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTI’m at the Anchorage election night party for Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican. It’s safe to say that the mood is not exactly celebratory, but Sullivan’s supporters are hoping that he can defy the national trend and pull out a victory over Mary Peltola, his Democratic opponent. Peltola’s supporters, meanwhile, are feeling optimistic about her chances. Polls in most of the state just closed here, and we may not get results for some time — and a race call could take up to several weeks if the contest is close, because of the state’s ranked-choice voting system.“We just took back Texas,” James Talarico says at the start of his victory speech. “We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.”Senator Susan Collins, Republicans of Maine, conceded her race in a statement. “It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate,” she said, adding that she “called Troy Jackson tonight to congratulate him and to assure him that my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition.” The race has not yet been called by The Associated Press.A vast majority of polling places in Alaska closed at midnight Eastern time; one polling place in the Western Aleutian Islands closes at 1 a.m. First votes are expected between 12:45 a.m. and 1 a.m. and will consist mostly of results from ballots cast on Election Day or through last Thursday as part of the state’s early voting period. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRepresentative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Democrat, trounced her Republican rival by some 60 percentage points. While her odds of winning a fifth term were never in doubt, the disclosure of a criminal investigation into her family’s immigration journey marred the final stretch of an otherwise sleepy race. Omar spent the final days of the campaign asking donors to chip in for what she anticipates could be a long and expensive legal fight.I’m at a party in Texas for Bobby Pulido, the Democratic challenger who appears to have ousted Monica De La Cruz, a Republican who first won in 2022. While the House race has not been called by The Associated Press, the mood here is euphoric — not only for Pulido, but for Democratic wins across the state. In the last two elections Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley swung toward Republicans, but that changed dramatically tonight. “There are moments when history is made in places that people never thought to look,” he said. “Tonight one of those moments happened right here in Texas.”Two Native American women break political barriers this election.Deb HaalandPeggy FlanaganTwo Native American women made history in the midterm elections: Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat, will be the nation’s first woman Native American governor, and Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat of Minnesota, is the first Native American woman to win election to the Senate.A third Indigenous woman, Mary Peltola, could also be elected to the Senate from Alaska, but her state’s unique ranked choice voting system ensures that a victor in that close race might not be known for days, if not weeks.This week’s victories were the latest in a string of political accomplishments for Native women in the United States. Ms. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, has been at the forefront of those milestones: In 2018, she was one of two Native American women elected to the U.S. House, and under the Biden administration, she was confirmed as the first Native American cabinet secretary, overseeing the Interior Department.In that role, she helped the administration focus on tribal issues, including devoting resources toward finding missing or murdered Indigenous women and conducting a review of the government-run schools that Native children were forced to attend. It was a significant historical shift for an agency that played a large role in the oppression of the nation’s Indigenous people.She will succeed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is term-limited, in New Mexico.In Minnesota, Ms. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, will take the seat left vacant by Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat. Ms. Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, worked to improve relations between the state government and the 11 tribal nations in the state as part of her work in Minnesota government.Ms. Peltola, a Democrat, became the first Alaska Native to serve in the House in 2022. She could double the number of Indigenous women elected to the Senate if she prevails.Ernesto Londoño and Reis Thebault contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTA Democrat unseats a House Republican in Iowa, flipping another critical seat.ImageChristina Bohannan, a law professor who previously served in the Iowa Legislature, made the rising cost of living, federal health care cuts and the war with Iran central to her campaign.Credit...Thalassa Raasch for The New York TimesChristina Bohannan, a Democrat and former state legislator, defeated Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, according to The Associated Press, flipping a critical Republican-held seat and delivering a significant victory for Democrats in their bid to win control of the House.Ms. Bohannan’s victory represented the end of a long political battle against Ms. Miller-Meeks, a third-term Republican who had repeatedly held off Democratic challenges by narrow margins, including by just 799 votes over Ms. Bohannan in 2024.But this year, with President Trump’s approval ratings sinking and his economic agenda increasingly unpopular, Ms. Miller-Meeks — like many Republicans across the country — faced a substantially more difficult political environment.By the final weeks of the campaign, two of the most powerful Republican super PACs had effectively abandoned her, withdrawing millions of dollars in planned advertising as party strategists concluded that her seat in a competitive district spanning southeastern Iowa and the Quad Cities area had become increasingly difficult to defend.Ms. Bohannan, a law professor who previously served in the Iowa Legislature, made the rising cost of living, federal health care cuts and the war with Iran central to her campaign, arguing that Ms. Miller-Meeks had consistently placed loyalty to Mr. Trump ahead of the interests of her constituents.During their only debate, in October, Ms. Bohannan criticized the incumbent for repeatedly opposing congressional efforts to halt the war before reversing course as public opinion turned against it.“The American people are hurting; they don’t want this war,” Ms. Bohannan said, calling Republicans in Congress “a rubber stamp the entire time.”Ms. Miller-Meeks, a former ophthalmologist and military veteran, defended her record. She promoted the tax cuts Republicans enacted last year as part of their major domestic policy law and claimed that the deep cuts to Medicaid included in that measure would preserve benefits for those who needed them. She also maintained that Mr. Trump’s tariffs would help bring manufacturing jobs to Iowa and said her decision to drop her opposition to a resolution to rein in Mr. Trump’s power to wage war with Iran reflected changing circumstances.Ms. Bohannan argued that the administration’s tariffs were hurting Iowa farmers and that Republican cuts to Medicaid threatened rural hospitals already struggling to remain open.Ms. Bohannan’s victory was especially significant given her previous defeats. Ms. Miller-Meeks beat her by roughly seven percentage points in 2022 before surviving their rematch two years later by fewer than 800 votes, one of the narrowest margins in the country.Rather than retreat after those losses, Ms. Bohannan mounted another campaign focused on reaching voters in the district’s rural communities and smaller towns, including places that had supported Mr. Trump.For Ms. Miller-Meeks, who had survived several exceptionally close elections, the loss means the end of a run in Congress that began with a victory by just six votes in 2020.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPeggy Flanagan of Minnesota becomes the first Native American woman elected to the Senate.ImagePeggy FlanaganCredit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesPeggy Flanagan, a Democrat who has served two terms as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, defeated the former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya, according to The Associated Press. The contest to replace the retiring Senator Tina Smith became surprisingly competitive in the final weeks.Ms. Flanagan, who has governed Minnesota alongside Gov. Tim Walz, since 2019, made history as the first Native American woman elected to the Senate.She ran on an unabashedly liberal agenda, vowing to fight for the universal health care policy known as Medicare for All, pursue a sweeping overhaul of the immigration enforcement system and set a $17 federal minimum wage.As she campaigned, Ms. Flanagan, 47, faced questions about her role in a scandal over widespread fraud in state-run safety net programs.Prosecutors and lawmakers from both parties said that the Walz administration was slow to respond to brazen schemes that resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from programs meant to feed low-income children, treat minors with autism and help people at risk of homelessness.That was a dominant issue during the primary race, in which Ms. Flanagan trounced a centrist rival, Representative Angie Craig. And it was the main line of attack in Ms. Tafoya’s bid to win a Senate seat in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 2002.Ms. Flanagan sought to deflect responsibility for the fraud by arguing that Mr. Walz, who is leaving office, had taken the lead in responding to the problem. And she sought to portray Ms. Tafoya as beholden to President Trump and his agenda.Ms. Flanagan criticized Ms. Tafoya’s support for the war in Iran after her opponent suggested in March that Americans forgo trips to Starbucks to compensate for the rising cost of fuel caused by the conflict.As Democrats were bullish about winning races in traditionally Republican areas during the final weeks of the midterm campaign, polls suggested that the Minnesota Senate race was close.Political observers attributed that in part to Ms. Tafoya’s relatively moderate stances on issues such as abortion rights and the deep frustration among Minnesotans about rising taxes and fraud.Alaska’s map is complicated. Here’s what we’re watching for.Results from the Senate race in Alaska are difficult to interpret for many reasons, including the state’s ranked-choice voting system, the post-election processing of mail-in ballots and the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan. Even the results map is complicated because a vast majority of the state’s voters are concentrated in relatively smaller geographical areas. Case in point: Alaska reports election results by state House district. One seat in the Arctic is roughly the size of Germany while another in downtown Anchorage covers just four square miles; both have roughly the same number of people.Here’s your guide to some key areas to watch on election night and beyond.AnchorageDistricts 9-24Anchorage is the most populous city in Alaska by a wide margin. Responsible for about 40 percent of the statewide vote, it is a major part of Alaska’s recent leftward shift in federal elections.In 2020, Joe Biden lost Alaska overall but won Anchorage by about two percentage points — the first Democrat to do so since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. In the 2022 U.S. House race, Mary Peltola, this year’s Democratic Senate nominee, beat Mr. Biden’s margins in Anchorage, helping her become the first Democrat to win Alaska’s at-large district since 1972. She lost in her 2024 re-election bid but performed better than Kamala Harris had in Anchorage, winning it by 10 percentage points compared with the former vice president’s one-point margin.This time, Ms. Peltola will look for even more support in Districts 9-22, the city proper, which is one the regions most likely to draw her large numbers of voters. She is expected to fare worse in Districts 23 and 24, which include the suburban community of Eagle River, a consistently conservative area.Greater FairbanksDistricts 31-35Fairbanks and its surrounding suburbs account for about 12 percent of the statewide vote and are a crucial swing area in the race. Ms. Peltola won this region by a little over one percentage point in 2022 but lost it by eight percentage points in 2024. Still, she outperformed Ms. Harris, and she was slightly ahead of Mr. Sullivan there in the August primary.A key question will be whether Ms. Peltola can run up her margins in parts of the region where she has previously done well, including downtown Fairbanks (District 31) and the university district (District 35), while holding onto the suburban ring around Fairbanks (District 34), which she narrowly won in August. She has also tried to make inroads in Republican areas like Fort Wainwright (District 32) and the district containing the Christmas city of North Pole (District 33).Mat-Su Region and the Central Kenai PeninsulaDistricts 25-30; Districts 7-8Two reliably red spots on the state map are the Mat-Su region and the central Kenai Peninsula. Together, they make up roughly a quarter of the statewide vote.The Mat-Su area is the state’s most Republican region, and it includes the core Mat-Su Valley (Districts 25-28), where most of its population lives, as well as larger, less populated swaths of land that make up the rural areas around it (Districts 29-30).South of Anchorage, the central Kenai Peninsula (Districts 7-8) is the state’s second-most Republican region.Big margins and high turnout in both of those areas could help Mr. Sullivan cancel out Ms. Peltola’s advantages in Anchorage and other blue zones like Juneau.The BushDistricts 37-40The Bush refers to remote areas of the state that are largely inaccessible by road and are home to high concentrations of Indigenous residents. In other states, rural areas are favorable for Republicans, but these regions are a home base for Ms. Peltola, who became the first Alaska Native member of Congress after her 2022 election. She grew up in Bethel (District 38) and spent a decade representing the area in the state legislature, where she was chair of the Bush Caucus.In 2024, she ran nearly 27 percentage points ahead of Ms. Harris there.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn a key victory for Democrats, Elaine Luria wins her Virginia House race.ImageElaine Luria, a Democrat, during her election night watch party in Virginia Beach on Tuesday.Credit...Quinn Glabicki/The New York TimesFormer Representative Elaine Luria, a Democrat and former Navy commander, defeated Representative Jen Kiggans of Virginia on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, flipping a Republican-held seat critical to her party’s quest to win control of Congress.Ms. Luria won back the seat representing a military-heavy district in Virginia’s tidewater region after losing in 2022 to Ms. Kiggans, a former state senator and Navy helicopter pilot. At the time, Ms. Kiggans and the G.O.P. unsparingly tied Ms. Luria to President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda, including his handling of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.In this year’s rematch, it was Ms. Luria who yoked her opponent to an unpopular president and his administration. The Democrat blasted Ms. Kiggans for failing to break with President Trump over the Iran war despite the toll the conflict had taken on Virginia’s Second Congressional District.Covering Virginia Beach and abutting Naval Station Norfolk, the district is intrinsic to the country’s Atlantic Fleet, which has shouldered a sizable share of the branch’s deployments to the Middle East.The seat is often seen as a bellwether in the race to control Congress. Before this year’s election, the district had flipped between the parties four times since 2008.On the campaign trail, Ms. Luria argued that Ms. Kiggans had repeatedly voted against resolutions directing Mr. Trump to end the war. She also slammed Ms. Kiggans for initially dismissing reports of unsafe conditions aboard the Abraham Lincoln, a San Diego-based aircraft carrier that was deployed for nearly 11 months.Ms. Kiggans hoped to protect her seat by pitching herself as a common-sense lawmaker with a moderate reputation.She also frequently tied her opponent to stock trades that Ms. Luria made while serving in Congress between 2019 and 2023, arguing that the Democrat had a record of serving herself over the district. Ms. Kiggans also criticized Ms. Luria for living outside the district in neighboring Norfolk.But Ms. Kiggans was unable to shrug off her ties to Mr. Trump and the war, along with the downstream economic consequences of the conflict.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT