Gender and partisan split on whether sexual harassment is a serious problem

A record number of women were elected to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. As of early Wednesday morning, at least 89 women had won seats, breaking the current session’s record of 84 women.

See how all the women fared here.

Republican challenger Josh Hawley is projected to pick up a Senate seat tonight in a hard-fought battle with incumbent Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. NBC News Exit Poll results find Hawley doing particularly well with voters who say immigration is a top issue. He also captured three-quarters of the vote from white evangelicals and 62 percent of the vote from white men.

Voters from gun-owning households also sided with Hawley over McCaskill, who was given an F rating by the National Rifle Association. Among the nearly half of voters (46 percent) who oppose stricter gun measures, Hawley beat McCaskill 77 percent to 21 percent.

The Wisconsin gubernatorial race between incumbent Republican two-term Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tony Evers is too close to call, according to NBC News.

With 93 percent of the vote in the Badger State tallied, Evers, the state schools superintendent, was leading Walker 49.1 percent to 48.9 percent.

Under a bill signed into law by Walker in 2017, any candidate in an election where more than 4,000 votes were cast can demand a recount if he or she lost by 1 percentage point or less.

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who has been indicted for alleged misuse of campaign funds, and New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, who was indicted on insider trading charges, have both won their races, NBC News projects.

Hunter, won against Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in California’s 50th House District and won his deep red district of Western New York against Democrat Nate McMurray, according to NBC News.

Except maybe it was, and on live TV, no less.

White evangelical women are not abandoning the Republican Party or President Donald Trump, the NBC News Exit Poll found. 

While both white evangelical men and white evangelical women were less likely to vote for Republicans for the House in 2018 than they were to vote for Trump in 2016, both groups remain steadfast Republican supporters and the decline is actually steeper for white evangelical men. In fact, the 11-point gender gap that existed among white evangelicals in 2016 shrunk to six points in 2018.

Why are evangelical women continuing to support Republican candidates in 2018? While slightly more than a quarter of white evangelical women either somewhat or strongly disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, the remaining three-quarters approve of Trump’s job performance. These numbers are similar for white evangelical men. 

Three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, trailing Republican challenger Rick Scott by more than 55,000 votes as of 12:50 a.m. ET, will make a “full statement tomorrow,” a campaign spokesperson said early Wednesday.

“This is obviously not the result Senator Nelson’s campaign has worked hard for,” the spokesperson said. “The senator will be making a full statement tomorrow to thank all those who rallied for his cause.”

Moments earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that President Donald Trump had made congratulatory calls to winning Republican Senate candidates, including Scott.

The race is too close to call, according to an NBC News projection. 

With 99 percent of the vote tallied, Scott, the outgoing GOP governor, had 50.3 percent of the vote, while Nelson had 49.7 percent. However, Florida has a mandatory recount rule if candidates are within 0.5 percent of each other. 

If Scott wins, it would add to the GOP’s growing cushion in the Senate. Republicans had, as of 12:30 a.m. ET, successfully held several seats they were defending (including in Tennessee and Texas) and picked up two other seats held by Democrats in Indiana and Missouri.

Just 25 percent of voters nationwide report that President Donald Trump’s trade policies have helped their local economies, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. Thirty-seven percent of voters think Trump’s trade policies have provided no local economic benefit, while 29 percent think trade policies have actually hurt their local economies.

By region, voters in the South and Midwest are the most likely to report that Trump’s trade policies have helped their local economies (29 percent).

Out of the states in which NBC News Exit Polls were conducted, voters in Tennessee and West Virginia are among the most likely to say that Trump’s trade policies have helped their local economies. In contrast, about three in 10 voters in Wisconsin, Ohio and Virginia think Trump’s trade policies have hurt their local economies.

In his victory speech Tuesday, Mitt Romney remembered the Utah mayor who was killed last week while serving with the National Guard in Afghanistan.

Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and the former governor of Massachusetts, defeated Democrat Jenny Wilson to win election to the Senate, NBC News projected.

“Now quite seriously, an unfathomable price in patriot blood was paid to give us the right to vote. This week that price was paid again,” he told supporters. “Major Brett Taylor — husband, father of seven and mayor of North Ogden – gave the last full measure of devotion for freedom’s cause.”

“In his last post on Facebook he quoted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said this: ‘In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be achieved,'” Romney said. “Thank you, Major Taylor, and thank you to all of those  who serve our country in the cause of freedom.”

Taylor, 39, the mayor of North Ogden, was killed Saturday in an apparent “insider attack” while serving with his unit in Kabul, which is helping to train Afghan defense forces.

Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who lost his Senate bid to incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, offered an impassioned concession speech late Tuesday, pledging to work with his former opponent, emphatically praising his supporters, and expressing a desire to help unite the country.

“We’re not about being against anybody,” O’Rourke told a screaming crowd in El Paso, Texas, where his campaign headquarters was located. “We’re not going to define ourselves by who or what we’re against, or what we’re afraid of.”

“We are a great people. Ambitious. Defined by our aspirations,” he said. “Every single one of us, Republican, Democrats, independents, from the biggest of cities, to the smallest of towns, the people of Texas want to do and will do the great work of this country.”

O’Rourke, a 45-year-old congressman who represents an El Paso-area district, said he’d called Cruz to congratulate him on his win “and to wish him well going forward.”

“At this time of division, the country’s been as polarized as I can member it in my life,” he said. “If there’s anything we can do to help him in his position of public trust… in any way that brings us back together, around the big things we want to achieve.”

O’Rourke, his hoarse voice beginning to crack, then turned his attention to his adoring crowd.

“I’m so f—— proud of you guys,” he said, prompting loud cheers.