All The Outstanding Races Called In The 3+ Weeks Since The Presidential Election

Where The Unresolved House Races Stand

A dozen races are still on our radar as we wait to see how they will play out in the coming days. Here’s a quick look at where those contests stand:

• Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District: In the closest race in the country, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks leads Democrat Rita Hart by fewer than 50 votes in an open seat held by retiring Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack. But given the current margin is just 0.01 percentage points (!), Hart is going to request a recount across all 24 counties in the district. As Iowa’s election code gives counties 18 days to complete a recount after finishing their canvassing and certifying results — which they were supposed to do on Tuesday — it may be a couple of weeks before we know the final score here.
• Utah’s 4th Congressional District: Republican Burgess Owens now holds a 0.4-point edge over Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, or slightly fewer than 1,600 votes, according to ABC News. It’s unclear just how many votes still have to be tallied here — Utah is an all-mail voting state — but the math is getting better and better for Owens, as McAdams needs to win a solid majority of the last few votes to be counted to overcome the Republican’s edge.
• Three California races: California often sees a large number of votes counted in the days following the election, which sometimes leads to sizable shifts in vote margins. This is due in part to California’s generous mail ballot receipt deadline (Nov. 20), so more votes may arrive in the coming days that will help decide the three remaining contests in the Golden State. In California’s 25th District, Republican Rep. Mike Garcia holds a razor-thin 0.07-point edge (219 votes) over Democrat Christy Smith. While Garcia flipped this seat in a May 2020 special election, it looks like his reelection fate will come down to a final tranche of votes from Los Angeles County. The GOP also holds narrow but somewhat larger leads in California’s 21st and 39th Congressional Districts, but it’s unclear how those races will pan out as multiple counties in the 21st District have more ballots to process, while Orange County — home to part of the 39th District — also has more to count.
• Six New York races: There’s a lot to cover in these contests — see Nathaniel’s previous post.
• Bonus — New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District: This race isn’t in our unresolved table because ABC News projected this race for Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, but things appear to still be up in the air as more votes have been counted. As such, The New York Times removed its projection for the Democratic incumbent, and it may not be the last. Malinowski’s lead is down to 1.1 points, or around 4,600 votes, according to ABC News. And the trajectory of the count has been an example of a “red shift” as Republican Tom Kean Jr. has been gaining as votes have been tallied.

Six New York House Races Are Still Unresolved

New York is one of the slowest states in the country to count absentee ballots, and that means a lot of candidates across the Empire State still don’t know whether they won. Here’s a rundown of the six congressional races in which ABC News has yet to project a winner. In general, the Democratic candidates are expected to gain ground in these contests, since absentee ballots tend to be Democratic.

• 2nd District: Republican Andrew Garbarino leads Democrat Jackie Gordon in this open, Republican-held seat 58 percent to 41 percent, or a margin of 44,497 votes. According to Newsday, there were only about 63,000 absentee ballots cast here, so Garbarino is a heavy favorite.
• 3rd District: Republican George Santos leads Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi 49.9 percent to 49.6 percent, a margin of just 918 votes. However, Newsday says more than 99,000 absentee ballots were cast here, so Suozzi should easily be able to close that gap.
• 18th District: Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney leads Republican Chele Farley 51 percent to 48 percent, a margin of 10,041 votes. Maloney has said he’s confident he will extend his lead as absentees are counted, and we tend to agree.
• 19th District: Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado currently leads Republican Kyle Van De Water by a margin of 51 percent to 47 percent, or 12,926 votes. Again, the Democrat is favored to hold on here, even when all the absentee ballots are counted; Decision Desk HQ, in fact, has already called the race for Delgado.
• 22nd District: Republican Claudia Tenney led Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 28,422 votes after Election Day, but when absentees started to be counted on Thursday, Brindisi cut that lead down to 21,094 votes. As many as 60,000 absentee ballots were cast district-wide, so Brindisi has a narrow but feasible path to victory.
• 24th District: Although this race remains unprojected, Republican Rep. John Katko has secured a victory over Democrat Dana Balter. On Thursday night, Katko’s lead was 44,729 votes, and there were only 44,400 absentee ballots left to count. And on Friday, Balter conceded the race.

With those final projections for Georgia and North Carolina, the 2020 election map is settled. Biden takes 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.