Live blog: Midterm election 2018 updates, news and analysis

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Tuesday said she is hopeful that her party will hold the majority in the Senate, but acknowledged that Democrats could take back the House.

McDaniel told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner in a TV interview that the House is “going to be tough” to win for Republicans, thanks to redistricting and dozens of retirements.

“We’ll watch Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,” she said. “We — with the redistricting there from the Supreme  Court, we are going to have a tough time holding on to some of their seats there, absolutely. And the 44 retirements in the House has put a lot of seats at risk too. So the House is going to be tough.” 

On the Senate side, she said races in Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Missouri will be crucial to Republicans holding a majority.

She said she plans to watch returns come in tonight at the White House with President Trump.

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Malfunctioning machines, voter confusion and locked polling sites were among the early problems on Election Day as millions of Americans prepared to cast ballots Tuesday in a midterm election categorized by an outpouring of enthusiasm — and frustratingly long lines.

However, the Department of Homeland Security said that there has been no immediate uptick in hacking attempts.

NBC News will continue to track voting issues throughout the day, so check back for updates to this story.  

Millions of Americans cannot vote thanks to a felony conviction, but Floridians could give more than a million ex-felons their voting rights back if they approve a constitutional amendment at the polls today.

Florida’s Amendment 4 would automatically restore voting rights to more than a million ex-felons who have completed their sentences, allowing them to register to vote again immediately. Florida is one of four states that bans felons from voting permanently — unless they can get clemency from the state — and the law disproportionately affects minorities, who are convicted at higher rates.

A recent poll suggested Florida voters support the initiative, but the measure still faces a steep hurdle: It will need the support of at least 60 percent of voters to pass. Ex-felons convicted of murder or sex crimes are not eligible to have their rights restored by the initiative.  

Google Trends noted on Tuesday morning that the top-trending Google Search in the U.S. was “dónde votar,” Spanish for “where to vote,” which had spiked over 3,000 percent. 

What does that mean? There’s no way to know. But Latino voters are heading to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in a midterm election that in many ways has a lot to do with them — and the outcome in several battleground House and Senate races, such as in Texas and Nevada, could be influenced by Latino turnout.

Read more here.

As voters head to the polls on Tuesday in Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams is locked in a tight race for governor against Republican Brian Kemp, who oversees elections as secretary of state. 

The race, however, has been upended in the final stretch by claims of voter suppression, abuse of power and hacking. 

I reported on the first lawsuit filed by civil rights groups in October after the Associated Press investigation found that Kemp’s office had places 53,000 voter registration applicants in limbo, 70 percent of whom were African-American. Kemp denied the charge, but Abrams swiftly called it voter suppression. Earlier this month, a federal judge sided with the civil rights groups and ordered Kemp to allow more than 3,000 people whose voter registrations were put on hold over proof-of-citizenship issues access to a ballot.

Also, Kemp announced Sunday that he was investigating Georgia’s Democratic Party over an attempted hack of the voter registration system. Kemp did not provide evidence to back up his claims. Abrams responded by calling his investigation a “witch hunt.” 

While the main event on Tuesday night are the elections that will decide control of the House, Senate, governor’s mansions and state legislatures across the country, there’s been a more subtle battle being waged below the surface.

As Democratic politicians consider mounting presidential bids of their own, they’ve been touching down in key presidential states to help campaign with Democratic candidates. While the down ballot candidates were happy to have a higher-profile Democrat to draw supporters, the visits could help ingratiate these candidates with local primary or caucusgoers if they do decide to run.

Along with our colleagues at NBCNews.com, The Rundown has also been tracking the early 2020 jockeying. That includes New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker’s trip to Iowa; former Vice President Joe Biden’s repeated travels; Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’s multi-state midterm blitz; Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley’s Iowa and New Hampshire hires; Michael Avenatti’s trip to Iowa and decision to launch a political action committee; and a joint-fundraising effort by 2020 hopefuls aimed at challenging the National Rifle Association’s political clout.

Stay tuned to the Rundown for all the latest on the 2020 election in the days, weeks and months ahead. 

Earlier this year, during the primary season, several progressive Democrats got on board with an “abolish ICE” message, pledging to end or modify the federal agency that was given broader authority by the Trump administration to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.

But as the midterm elections got closer, the “abolish ICE” issue all but vanished from their radar.

As we reported over the weekend, this happened because of what experts said was the issue’s failure to resonate with mainstream Democratic voters, a misplacing of blame for the nation’s immigration crisis and a successful counter-attack from Republicans, including President Donald Trump.

Read more here. 

As of Tuesday, Election Day, over 38 million — 38,423,020 — votes have been counted as early or absentee in the 2018 midterm elections nationwide.

That’s well more than the total cast in the 2014 midterm elections, when more than 21 million early votes were tabulated.

Read more here.

Throughout the cycle, the political unit has been tracking not just the outsized money being spent in elections, but the messages that campaigns are spending big money to put on the airwaves.

Catch the political unit round table breaking down the key themes in television ads this cycle.

And take a look at the Rundown’s coverage of some of the more interesting ads of the cycle, including where one Democratic candidate’s family member cut an ad for the Republican opponent; a parody ad that takes a dig at California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s warm relationship with Russia; and a controversial ad where an indicted Republican congressman claims his Palestinian-Mexican-American opponent wants to “infiltrate” America.

Throughout Election Day, we’ll be highlighting our past midterm content from NBC’s Rundown blog, which features smart political reporting and analysis from the NBC News political unit.

Google likes to have fun with its “Doodle,” the daily image that adorns the search engine homepage. On Tuesday, the company kept it simple with “Go Vote” in its usual multi-colored font. 

The page also offered visitors a link to find their voting location. 

Other transportation-focused tech companies were offering ways for voters to get to the polls, with Uber and Lyft giving discounts.

Google also offered a look into search interest around the midterms through its Trends page. 

A handy guide to how NBC News calls races and understanding election night calls. 

This historic midterm cycle has prompted historic spending on the airwaves, almost $3 billion in television and radio ads. 

Click through for analysis from NBC’s Mark Murray  about the top spenders and the races that have drawn the most money. 

Throughout the day, we’ll be highlighting our past midterm content from NBC’s The Rundown blog, which features smart political reporting and analysis from the NBC News political unit.

Right now, the blog redirects to our midterm liveblog, but be sure to bookmark this address and return tomorrow for our analysis of this election and to follow our reporting on the 2020 cycle.  

While voters headed to the polls on Tuesday, Twitter users showcased their Election Day state of mind in a form the social media platform does best: memes.

The format for the meme, “Me voting in 2016 vs me voting in 2018,” is simple — take one picture of an animal, actor, or pop culture figure looking glamorous and fresh and juxtapose it with the same (or similar) animal, actor, or pop culture figure looking disheveled, worn, or aged. 

To read more, click here. 

One notable trend that emerged during this year’s midterm races was an unusually large number of former intelligence officers and operatives who ran for office as Democrats.

Fed up with what they said they saw as Trump’s disdain and distrust of the intelligence community, many  — including Abigail Spanberger (a former CIA officer running in Virginia’s Richmond-area 7th Congressional District), Elissa Slotkin (a former CIA analyst running in Michigan’s Lansing-area 8th Congressional District) and Gina Ortiz Jones (a former Air Force intelligence officer and Defense Intelligence Agency employee running in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District) — decided to take matters into their own hands and run for Congress.

Read more about it here.

Former FBI Director James Comey announced that he was going door knocking after voting Tuesday to encourage others to cast a ballot, as well. 

Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adult life but said in 2016 that he was no longer registered with the party. And back in July, he urged the public to vote for Democrats.

After he was fired by Trump last year, he became one of the president’s most frequent critics. 

Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted Monday morning he would not appear on stage at a political rally and campaign for President Donald Trump. 

By Monday evening, Hannity was being welcomed on stage in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he said that the phrase “promises made, promises kept” defined Trump’s presidency and called journalists in attendance “fake news.” Trump stood a few feet away as Hannity spoke. Hannity wasn’t the only Fox News personality to appear, with Jeanine Pirro also taking the stage. 

But it was Hannity’s appearance that drew criticism, adding to claims that the cable news channel had become a mouthpiece for the president. 

“Fox News’s Sean Hannity: Proud to be a Trump operative,” wrote Erik Wemple for The Washington Post. 

“Still can’t get over Hannity denying he would be on stage the whole day, getting brought up by Trump, and then pointing to actual news reporters and calling them fake,” tweeted New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman.

Some conservatives and Fox News personalities defended Hannity’s appearance. 

“Hannity does not pretend to be a journalist. Unlike you all in the #FakeNews media,” tweeted Steve Milloy, and author and Fox News contributor, in response to Haberman.

Fox News and Hannity have previously claimed that Hannity’s position at the news channel is of a “host” and not a journalist, and and is therefore not held to the standards of a journalist.

Hannity doubled down on his initial tweet, saying he did not plan to go on stage but was “surprised, yet honored by the president’s request.” He also clarified he was not referring to Fox News colleagues in attendance with his “fake news” comment.

When reached for comment, a Fox News spokesperson said in an email: “FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”

Texas resident Pamela Aguirre fought back tears while talking about seeing Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Senate, while they both voted in Texas this morning.

“We’re honored that he was here … We want him to win,” Aguirre, 77, told MSNBC while carrying her oxygen tank and wearing a “BETO FOR SENATE” T-shirt.

“We’ll be watching the TV tonight, with him — he’ll be someplace in the city. But it’ll mean just so much. It’ll mean that, by gosh, we all still have a chance to have a decent country, with decent values, with decent relationships with other people,” she added.

Her story went viral on social media after she spoke to MSNBC.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters this morning that she’s 100 percent confident that Democrats will win back the majority in the House of Representatives after today’s elections, saying “I feel confident that we will win, it’s just a question of the size the victory is.” 

“When people ask me, is it a wave or a tsunami, I said all of those are drops of water,” Pelosi said, “These races are very close across the country.” 

When asked whether she was 100 percent certain of a Democratic victory in the race for the House majority, Pelosi responded: “Yes, I am.” 

Pelosi and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján said a Democratic majority would focus on affordable health care and infrastructure, as well as oversight of the Trump administration. 

“One of the items that’s on the agenda is checks and balances in our system, that was the beauty in our constitution,” Pelosi said. 

Pelosi would not say whether she was confident that she would be elected Speaker if Democrats were to take back the majority, telling reporters, “We’ll talk tomorrow, but right now, today, every second is about winning this election, and that’s what’s important.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has canceled a crowd control exercise it announced just hours before Election Day.

A spokesman for the agency said there would be no exercises held in the El Paso sector — the area that Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, represents.

Prior to the cancellation, O’Rourke had raised questions about the Monday night announcement. 

“No walls, no CBP exercises [are] going to keep us from honoring our laws, our commitments,” O’Rourke said before his final campaign rally, according to Texas Monthly. “Why this is happening now, why the president is stirring these issues up at this moment with 24 hours before we decide this election, I’ll leave that to you to conclude.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas called the now-canceled plan for a crowd control exercise, which would have taken place a half-mile from a polling place, “blatant voter intimidation.”

“I was at that very intersection last Thursday … There are no crowds. There’s no need for crowd control practice and certainly not on election day,” Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said.

Homeland Security Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton pushed back on the accusation.

“The suggestion that ongoing exercises at ports of entry in anticipation of a potential mass arrival of migrants are tied to voting by any group is flat-out wrong. DHS has worked tirelessly to ensure the security of our election systems and will always secure our borders regardless of what day it might be,” Houlton said.

Julia Ainsley contributed reporting.