In Mississippi's gubernatorial contest, Reeves leads by about 15 points, 57 percent to 42 percent, with 34 percent of the expected vote reporting. However, one of the most critical counties in the state will probably be late to report its vote. Hinds County, home to the state capital of Jackson and Democrats' biggest voter base, had ballot shortages, which led a state court to order that all precincts remain open another hour beyond the 8 p.m. Eastern poll closing time, and a handful of others until 9 p.m. The Mississippi Republican Party filed an emergency motion with the state supreme court to vacate the lower court's ruling regarding extended poll times. Hinds County's population is almost three-quarters Black.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538

We did warn that, of the more than 250 mayoral races in the country, we might see an upset someplace. For now, that place seems to be Manchester, New Hampshire, where local media projects that Republican Jay Ruais will win the race to replace Democratic Mayor Joyce Craig, who is running for governor and had endorsed Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh to replace her.

Technically, the mayoral race is nonpartisan. However, Ruais was a congressional aide to former Rep. Frank Guinta, a Republican who had also previously served as mayor of Manchester. Ruais also had an endorsement from outgoing Republican Gov. Chris Sununu

Across the state, Republicans have been campaigning on the idea that Manchester “is out of control,” according to reporting from the local NPR station. Expect to hear plenty of prognosticating over how Republicans won New Hampshire’s biggest city in the coming days, if not months.

—Leah Askarinam, 538

In the 11th District, the AP has projected that state Sen. Vin Gopal has won re-election in a district that Republicans had heavily targeted. Gopal leads his GOP challenger 60 to 39 percent, while his ticket-mates running for state Assembly, Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, are running ahead of their GOP opponents as well.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections

Beshear spoke after his victory, saying that voters didn't choose to move right or left, but made "a choice to move forward for every single family." He said "anger politics" should end, and that Republicans had run ads in the state full of hate and division. Beshear touted his record of economic and infrastructure development, and promised to raise pay for educators and establish universal pre-K. His parents, including former Gov. Steve Beshear, wife, and children shared the stage with him. He said Hadley Duvall, a 21-year-old who appeared in an ad for him, speaking about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child and criticizing Cameron for his support of an abortion ban, was in the audience.

—Monica Potts, 538

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abortion rights issues have won every time they’ve been on the ballot. Tonight, we’ll see if that trend holds as Ohio voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitution.

But more broadly, abortion rights proved to be a motivator for Democratic voters in last year’s midterm elections, helping propel their party to better-than-expected midterm election results. Abortion remains an important issue for Democrats: 86 percent view it as very or somewhat important in the Oct. 25 weekly YouGov/The Economist poll. It’s a sharp contrast to Republicans, who are much less likely to support abortion rights than the general electorate, and also less likely to rank it as an important issue: only 68 percent did so in the YouGov/Economist poll.

That could keep Democrats likely to show up at the polls even when abortion is only implicitly on the ballot, like in Virginia, where Republicans have a chance to win full control of the state government. Hoping to drive turnout, Virginia Democrats have campaigned on abortion rights in competitive legislative districts this year, warning voters that Virginia could join other Southern, Republican-led states in banning abortion. Republicans in the state have denounced these efforts as fearmongering.

If the Ohio abortion-rights amendment wins and Democrats once again outperform expectations in other elections, it could be a sign that abortion is still driving Democrats to the polls. But no matter what happens tonight, abortion will likely continue to shape the presidential primary and election season that begins next year.

—Monica Potts, 538