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Democrat Nathan Johnson beat Republican Mayes Middleton in the Texas attorney general race, 52.4 percent to 45.9 percent by the most recent tally. Johnson becomes the first Democratic attorney general in Texas this millennium, while in Georgia Tanya Miller beat State Sen. Brian Strickland. In Kansas, Chris Mann declared victory over Kris Kobach on a lead of nearly 13,000 votes, while Iowa's Brenna Bird conceded to Nate Willems.

Speculation about Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas retiring has grown after Democrats' midterm victory put them on track to take control of the Senate in January, giving them power to block President Donald Trump's judicial nominees. Alito, 76, has said he intends to stay through the current term, while Thomas is 78. Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center said, "Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement Tuesday under which New York's Strand Bookstore will return nearly $1.5 million. The DOJ said the store was ineligible because owner Nancy Bass Wyden is the wife of Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and it had applied in 2021 for a $932,350 loan. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the program was meant to save American jobs, not enrich ineligible people, while Bass Wyden called the mistake unintentional.

Articles mentioned in this episode: Democrats Sweep Republicans in Nearly Every Race That Matters Voters Set $400 Million of Elon Musk’s Money on Fire The Biggest Pro-AI Super PAC Network Didn’t Really Impact the Midterms ‘I’m 100 Percent at War With Trump’: MAGA Revolts After Midterms Wipeout Knives Are Out in the White House The Results Are In: Voters Hate Data Centers Election Deniers Aren’t Contesting Their Massive Losses You can follow Leah Feiger on Bluesky at , Hugo Lowell on Bluesky at , David Gilbert on

India-born Saba Haider won the November 3 US mid-term election from Illinois' 84th House District, securing a seat in the state House of Representatives. She took 20,756 votes, or 70.9 per cent, against 8,520 votes for Republican candidate Brian Scopa. Her brother Abbas Haider, who lives in Ghaziabad, told PTI that background, caste and community do not matter, and that ability and education count more. Her father Syed Ali Haider called the win "a moment of pride for the entire country".

Outside progressive and center-left groups are urging Democrats, who take over key investigative committees in January, to focus oversight on living costs and corporate actors. Groundwork and Hart Research polling found two in three voters rate investigations of corporate greed as a high priority, versus 58% who want Trump's personal corruption prioritized. Sen.

Voters passed 40 of 41 proposed ballot measures this week that would restrict some of the more than 2,000 new AI data centers planned around the nation. Operators typically report usage figures companywide rather than site by site, so local figures are hard to calculate. Shaolei Ren of the University of California, Riverside, said gigawatt-scale facilities can consume up to 10 million gallons of water per day.

Democrats, who will control the U.S. Senate and House, may seek common ground with the Trump administration on housing after this week's midterm elections. Andy Winkler of the Bipartisan Policy Center said voters' focus on affordability should keep housing high on the federal agenda. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law on July 11 with 85 Senate and 358 House votes, and advocates have floated a 'ROAD 2.0' follow-up bill.

Analysts say Democrats' sweep of Congress is likely to reset the political calculus for crypto, pushing the Clarity Act to the back burner. Sherrod Brown's return to the Senate and Elizabeth Warren's influence over financial policy point the new Congress toward scrutiny of Trump's personal crypto dealings. The crypto industry spent more than $200 million to sway the midterms.

Kelly Gonez, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member, says enrollment declines worsened after ICE raids escalated in the city in 2025. Federal researchers project enrollment will decline by at least another 2 million students by 2030, a 7% national drop, based on data gathered before the crackdown began. Stanford economist Thomas Dee found student daily absences spiked more than 20% in California's Central Valley after raids in 2025.

The U.S. government warned of an "ongoing cyber threat" to industrial refrigeration units in a joint statement on Thursday, issued by CISA, the FBI and several other federal departments. Two separate waves of attacks let hackers raise temperatures on freezers and chilling units in at least a dozen countries, spoiling food and destroying produce. Some affected units were remote-controlled systems made by Danish company Danfoss, which had stopped providing security updates to customers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he will commute the sentences of 548 people facing the death penalty in California to life in prison without parole. He said he is using his constitutional clemency authority, and the move does not repeal the death penalty or stop prosecutors from seeking it in future cases. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the commutations override jury verdicts, while Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo García praised them.

Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit early Thursday over a 2010 house fire near Evansville that killed his girlfriend's two children. Noelle Russell, the Indiana Department of Correction's chief communications officer, said he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. local time. Florida executed Jesse Guardado, 64, at 6:13 p.m., and Alabama executed Michael Taylor, 54, at 6:10 p.m. It was the second time this year three people in the U.S. were executed on the same day.

A New York state appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a homeowners' lawsuit against New York City's pied-à-terre tax, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing and were not injured by the roughly 17,000 notices. All four judges agreed, reversing an earlier Staten Island judge's September 29 order that had required the city to cancel the notices.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an order just before midnight Friday barring construction of President Trump's arch in D.C. for 14 days. The order grants a request from the D.C. and Virginia governments, and in a 33-page opinion Chutkan said the local governments are likely to be harmed by the construction. The 250-foot arch would stand in Memorial Circle, and administration officials have said work would run 20 hours a day, year-round, for two to three years.

Google, Meta and TikTok each filed separate lawsuits in federal courts in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, California, seeking to block a state law on children's social media use. The companies argue the law violates their First Amendment rights and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and bars addictive feeds, endless scrolling and autoplayed videos for users under 16.

Democratic challenger Scott Colom led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,813 votes on Thursday, with 951,744 votes counted, the Associated Press said. Hyde-Smith's campaign told county officials in all 82 Mississippi counties to separate provisional ballots, and Colom's lawyers said the move was unlawful and extraordinary. A final result may not come until next week, and Mississippi has no automatic recount provision.

Montana voters on Tuesday approved Initiative 194 with roughly 65% support, stripping corporations, unions and nonprofits of power to spend money on state elections. The measure takes effect as state law on Jan. 1, though the Republican-controlled legislature could amend or repeal it, and proponents have pledged to return to voters in 2028. Corporate contributions to outside federal election groups rose from $13 million in 2010 to more than $600 million by September 2026, according to OpenSecrets.

Three House Republican committee leaders asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a letter unveiled Thursday to sit for a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 about his ties to Megaspeed executive Alice Huang. The New York Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence found Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen, was funneling information to Beijing. Nvidia said its regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information, not sensitive trade secrets.

The Associated Press called the race Thursday for City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who took 52.1% of the vote to 47.9% for incumbent Karen Bass. With roughly 76% of the expected vote counted, Raman led by 4.2 percentage points and becomes the second Democratic Socialists of America member to lead a major U.S. city. Bass conceded and promised a 'smooth and seamless transition,' becoming the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose a reelection bid.