National election results: Republican who made sexist comments loses to a woman

Voters across the country offered a strong rebuke to President Trump and his agenda during the 2018 midterm by electing into office a new Democratic majority in the House. But voters in solidly conservative states also came out in support of the president, flipping several seats in the Senate held by moderate Democrats.

Here are some key national results from the midterm elections:

• Democrats will retake the House, which will likely stymie Trump's agenda. With 218 seats needed for a majority, Democrats have won 220 and the Republicans 193, with winners undetermined in 22 races, the Associated Press reports.

• Republicans retained control of the Senate after flipping three Democratic seats in Indiana, North Dakota, and Missouri. Democrats did flip one Senate seat in Arizona.

• Several key races remain too close to call, including Senate races in Arizona, Montana, and Florida and a explosive gubernatorial race in Georgia.

• Republicans also won a hotly contested governor's race in Florida.

Here are the latest updates:

Minnesota Republican Rep. Jason Lewis, who once complained about no longer being able to call women "sluts," was unseated by Democrat Angie Craig.

Craig, a former health care executive, defeated Lewis by nearly 6 percentage points in the largely suburban district.

CNN's KFILE uncovered several sexist comments Lewis made on his radio show, The Jason Lewis Show, which he hosted from 2009 to 2014.

"Only we can tell our young women, 'don't look like some slut and you won't get hit on," Lewis said during a Dec. 2012 segment.

"This has all been litigated before, and as Congressman Lewis has said time and time again, it was his job to be provocative while on the radio," Lewis' campaign manager, Becky Alery, told CNN in a statement.

In addition, Lewis approved several not-so-subtle campaign mailers that were paid for by the Republican Party of Minnesota:

In addition to taking control of the House, Democrats also had a great night when it came to health care, with voters in three solidly conservative states passing ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid.

In Idaho, voters approved Medicaid expansion with more than 61 percent of the vote. Medicaid-expansion initiatives also passed with clear majorities in Nebraska and Utah. The expansion in these three states could extend coverage to more than 300,000 people, according to various reports.

Including Tuesday night's results, 35 states and Washington, D.C. have expanded Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion also seems likely in three additional states — Maine, Wisconsin and Kansas — after Democrats who support the health care initiative won races for governor.

In Montana, a ballot measure to fund Medicaid expansion by increasing taxes on all tobacco products is losing with 82 percent of precincts reporting.

Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof died on Oct. 16 at his Love Ranch at the age of 72. On Tuesday, he won election to the Nevada state Assembly.

Hof, best know to television viewers thanks to HBO's Cathouse series, defeated Democratic opponent Lesia Romanov in Nevada's solidly-conservative Assembly District 36, which President Trump won overwhelmingly in 2016 with nearly 70 percent support.

Democrat Tony Evers narrowly defeated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker by a slim margin of around 30,000 votes, the AP has declared.

Walker became a national political figure over his public battle with his state's labor unions, diminishing their power within weeks of arriving in office in 2011. The fight led to a recall election, which Walker survived.

In July 2015, Walker was met with protests in Philadelphia and mocked after ordering a cheesesteak at Geno's with American cheese and no onion.

Trump narrowly won Wisconsin by 22,700 votes in 2016.

President Trump didn't speak to reporters on election night, but did offer a brief statement on Twitter, where he made the head-scratching declaration that losing the House to Democrats was a "tremendous success."

Democrats will take control of the House for the first time in eight years, likely creating problems for Trump and his agenda for the next two years.

As my colleague Jonathan Tamari points out, Democratic victories in the House were anchored by suburban voters in Philadelphia and elsewhere across the country, who delivered a strong rebuke to the president and Republicans.

" 'Trumpism' was repudiated in suburban America, in urban America today. It was emboldened and validated in rural America today," said Steve Schmidt, a long-time Republican strategist and an MSNBC contributor. "And that's going to have enormous implications as we get ready for the presidential election."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California told a crowd of Democratic campaign aides and legislative staffers Tuesday night that "tomorrow will be in a new day in America."

"Thanks to you we owned the ground," Pelosi said, "Remember this feeling, know the power to win."

It's unclear if Democrats will select Pelosi as their next speaker. Pelosi, a favorite target of Republicans who signaled her willingness to serve as a transitional leader, served as speaker from 2006 through 2010.

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar have become the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress.

Omar, a 36-year-old former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, will also become the first Somali American elected to Congress and the first woman of color to represent elected to represent Minnesota.

"What an amazing journey this has been. I stand here before you tonight as your congresswoman-elect with many firsts behind my name," Omar said during her victory speech Tuesday night. "The first woman of color to represent our state in Congress. The first woman to a hijab to represent us in Congress. The first refugee ever elected to Congress. And one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress."

Women won at least 85 seats in the House, a record, the AP reports.

Despite a string of losses in the House, Republicans will retain control of the Senate, largely due to a favorable map that featured several vulnerable Democrats in states Trump won easily.

AP declared Republicans would retain control of the Senate after Democratic incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was unseated by Republican challenger Kevin Cramer in North Dakota.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Heitkamp, who was running for re-election in the state Trump easily won in 2016. But Heitkamp made an unlikely upset even more difficult by accidentally listing the names of sexual-assault and domestic-abuse victims in a newspaper ad.

Heitkamp's loss makes it all but certain that Republicans will not only keep control of the Senate, but will likely gain several seats.

Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz has defeated Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke in a surprisingly close Senate race in Texas, according to the AP.

Texas hasn't been represented in the Senate by a Democrat since 1994, but O'Rourke captured national attention and several celebrity endorsements, and enthusiasm over his campaign likely helped down-ballot Democrats throughout the state.

Thanks to O'Rourke's tough campaign, Cruz was forced to turn to Trump — who famously insulted the appearance of Cruz's wife — to help drive Republican support to his campaign. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Cruz called Trump a "pathological liar" and "utterly amoral."

Early returns showed promising signs for Democrats, who successfully picked up 11 Republican seats in the House, according to the AP. They need 23 pickups to regain the majority and control of the House. Among the first seats to turn for the Democrats were:

• Colorado 6th: Jason Crow unseated incumbent Mike Coffman. • Kansas 3rd: Sharice Davids unseated incumbent Kevin Yoder. • Florida 26th: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell unseated two-term incumbent Carlos Curbelo. • Florida 27th: Donna Shalala defeated Maria Salazar. • Illinois 6th: Sean Casten unseats incumbent Peter Roskam. • New Jersey 11th: Mikie Sherrill defeated Jay Webber. • New York 11th: Max Rose unseated incumbent GOP Rep. Dan Donovan. • Pennsylvania 5th: Mary Scanlon defeated Pearl Kim. • Pennsylvania 6th: Chrissy Houlahan defeated Greg McCauley. • Pennsylvania 7th: Susan Wild defeated Marty Nothstein • Virginia 10th: Jennifer Wexton unseated two-term incumbent Barbara Comstock.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is projected to successfully win election over Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey in a state that Trump won overwhelmingly in 2016. Manchin lead Morrisey throughout the campaign, and solidified his support in the conservative state after voting for Trump's controversial supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Democrats' slim chances of winning back the Senate just became nearly impossible.

Indiana Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly is projected to lose his re-election fight to Republican challenger Mike Braun, according to the AP.

Donnelly faced an uphill battle in a state Trump won handily in 2016, and is home to Vice President Mike Pence. Despite voting against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Donnelly campaigned on his support for Trump's idea of a border wall and criticized the "radical left" in campaign ads, in which he has also quoted Ronald Reagan.

In Kentucky's Sixth Congressional District, Republican incumbent Andy Barr has narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Amy McGrath, according to the AP. McGrath wasn't predicted to win in the solidly-Republican district, but managed to keep the race close with Barr, who won he last re-election by 22 points. Still, the results is an indicator the "blue wave" might fall short of Democrats' expectations.

Democrats were also denied upset victories in four solidly conservative seats in Florida, including the 6th Congressional District, which was vacated by Ron DeSantis so he could run for governor.

"This is not a blue wave," CNN anchor Jake Tapper declared.

The Natural State has no competitive races, so this will be the first and last time Arkansas is mentioned this evening.

At 8 p.m., polls closed in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the rest of Florida, Illinois, most of Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, most of Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, the rest of New Hampshire, New Jersey, some counties in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, eastern South Dakota, most of Texas, and Tennessee.

You can follow our live coverage of results in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware here.

Heading into Election Day, Democrats seemed confident they would secure enough seats to flip the House from Republican control. But predictions about the number of seats Democrats will walk away with tonight have varied widely.

In their final House forecast, CNN predicted that Democrats would gain 32 seats, ending the night with 227 seats to the Republicans 208 seats. But according to their margin of error, Democrats could end the night with as few as 207 seats (11 short of the majority) and as many as 259.

According to FiveThirtyEight's projections, the average seat gain for Democrats is 36, and are predicting with 80 percent certainty Democrats will gain between 20 to 54 seats. Politico's final race rating predicts Democrats ending the night with at least 216 seats (compared to Republicans 197 seats), but rates the remaining 22 toss-ups too close to call.

Ohio and North Carolina don't have many competitive races, but in West Virginia, Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin is trying to hold onto his Senate seat against Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey. Despite Trump's popularity in the state, Manchin has maintained a double-digit polling lead throughout the race.

Adding to the Election Day drama, voters that headed to the polls in some states faced long lines, malfunctioning machines, and in one district a closed polling site.

In Georgia, where there's an explosive gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, widespread reports of technical malfunctions and long lines at polling stations were reported from across the state. One voter in Snellville, Ga. told the New York Times she arrived around 7 a.m. wand waited nearly five hours to vote.

"People were not surprised," Ontaria Woods told the Times. "Of course, the term 'voter suppression' was used many, many times."

In Chandler, Ariz., voters that went to one polling place in the Phoenix suburb of Gila arrived to find the precinct's doors locked and the building closed. According to the Maricopa County Recorder, voters were re-directed to another polling place before the location was re-opened by officials.

In Philadelphia, machine malfunctions delayed voting for some early-morning voters. At least seven polling places opened late and at least 13 others had malfunctioning machines, according to election protection watchers.

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh that claimed the lives of 11 Jewish congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue, some local voters received "I voted" stickers featuring the familiar "Stronger Than Hate" graphic based on the logo of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

According to The Incline, 15,000 stickers were distributed at polling locations in East Liberty, Oakland, Shadyside, and Squirrel Hill.

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