Election Night 2024 had come and gone. For Joe Biden, who had been expecting at the beginning of 2024 to be facing Donald Trump once again, Trump's forced exit from the Presidential race after being convicted in both Georgia of attempting to overturn the election there, and in federal court of insurrection charges in late February 2024, essentially threw the Republican nomination to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the only other candidate in the field at that point. Trump would be sentenced in June to life in prison on the federal charges, and would essentially receive probation on the Georgia charges, with Fulton County prosecutors deciding that they couldn't top the federal sentence.
Joe Biden (D-DE)/Kamala Harris (D-CA) 50%
Ron DeSantis (R-FL)/Elise Stefanik (R-NY) 47.6%
In the Senate, Democrats lost control of the chamber. In addition to the expected losses in West Virginia (Jim Justice defeating Joe Manchin) Montana (Matt Rosendale defeating Jon Tester) and Ohio (Frank LaRose defeating Sherrod Brown), Democrats also saw scandal-scarred incumbent Bob Menendez go down in New Jersey against Jeff Van Drew.
However, there were two bright spots for Senate Democrats. Sherrod Brown's place as a leader on progressive issues was filled on California as the open seat of Dianne Feinstein would be filled by Katie Porter, who defeated prominent Trump critic Adam Schiff.
And in Texas, the dream of a blue Longhorn State became one step closer to being a reality, as Colin Allred knocked off perennially unpopular incumbent Ted Cruz for the Democrats's lone gain of the night.
The battle for the Governor's mansions had been a third string story, like it usually was in Presidential years, but it was an interesting sideshow, as Democrats lost in North Carolina, with far-right Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson defeating Attorney General Josh Stein, but gained both New England Governor's mansions, picking up Vermont behind State Auditor Doug Hoffer after Phil Scott chose to retire, and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig stunning the incumbent, Chris Sununnu in New Hampshire.
The only other seat that even bordered on competitive was in Washington, where retiring Governor Jay Inslee left a sizable vacuum. Attorney General Bob Ferguson defeated former Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler by five points, in a race where many Democrats were worried about being locked out of the general election, with three strong Republicans (Herrera Beutler, former Representative Dave Reichert and former State Senator Dino Rossi) running against two strong Democrats (Ferguson and Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz).
In the House, Democrats entered 2024 needing three seats to take control, though that number was technically higher thanks to mid-decade, Republican favorable redistricting in North Carolina. (A Florida map that attempted to crack Orlando failed to advance past the State Senate, despite cajoling from DeSantis).
Democratic Gains: AZ-1, AZ-6, CA-40, CA-41, CA-45, CO-3, NY-3, NY-4, NY-17, NY-21, NY-22, PA-1, TX-15, VA-2, OR-5.
Republican gains:
CA-47, IL-17, KS-3, ME-2, MI-7, NC-2, NC-4, NC-13, NC-14, OH-1, OH-9, OH-13, PA-8, TX-28, VA-7.
When the counting was done, the Democrats had failed to take the house by two seats on election night with recounts in NY-2 and NY-11 still pending. If both of those recounts went their way, they would flip the House.
