The Hill’s Campaign Newsletter: Election Day – Part 4

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.

We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail:

LEADING THE DAY:

It’s Election Day: Part 4 in America, and we’re still waiting. 

Joe Biden is on the cusp of becoming president-elect, taking the lead in a number of key swing states. Americans woke up to Biden leading in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two states that President Trump must win to hold onto the presidency for four more years. Biden’s lead also keeps growing in Nevada, and as more votes come in from Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties to extend his lead in the Keystone State, it seems more certain Biden will clinch 270 electoral votes at some point. 

However, there is still confusion over where the race stands with the slow process of counting a large volume of mail-in ballots.

Biden is slated to deliver a primetime address to the public on Friday evening, however it is unclear whether any additional states or the race will be called by then. 

Meanwhile President Trump is showing no signs of conceding the race anytime soon. The Trump campaign has mounted a number of legal challenges in various states, including Pennsylvania where the campaign is challenging the commonwealth’s rules for election observers and mail-in ballots. The campaign is also intervening in a Supreme Court case surrounding Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot deadline. 

While Biden took the lead in Georgia early Friday morning, it’s unlikely that the state will be called for him anytime soon. The latest figures out of the state show the former vice president leading Trump by a scant 1,564 votes, and there are still thousands of outstanding ballots from military and overseas voters out.

Even after officials finish tallying the votes, a recount appears inevitable. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger noted that reality at a news conference on Friday morning, saying that the very slim margin in the presidential election race made a recount a certainty. 

“As we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look toward our next steps,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said. “With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia.”

In Nevada, Biden has nearly doubled his lead on Friday, but we could be waiting a while until more of the votes are tallied. In the Clark County, the state’s most populous county, the registrar said that the bulk of the county’s mail-in ballots will likely be counted by Saturday or Sunday. 

ELECTION OVERTIME:

The Trump campaign has tapped David Bossie, the conservative activist, to lead its legal challenges to election results in several states. The New York Times first reported that Bossie was joining the campaign for the post-election efforts.

With results in most of the remaining battlegrounds favoring Biden, the Trump campaign has begun mounting a series of challenges to the ballot counting process in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia and has already indicated it will seek a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden leads Trump by fewer than 21,000 votes. 

But up to this point, the campaign lacked a point person to coordinate the various efforts. Installing Bossie, who also served as deputy campaign manager for Trump’s 2016 White House bid, puts a veteran of some of the country’s most bitter political disputes at the forefront of the campaign’s efforts.

DOWN THE BALLOT:

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who infuriated Democrats earlier this year when he switched parties to become a Republican, will hold onto his seat for at least another two years. The New Jersey Republican was declared the winner in the race for New Jersey’s 2nd District on Friday, defeating Democrat Amy Kennedy in one of the closest-watched House elections of the year. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos has more on that here. 

But Democrats got some good news elsewhere in the country. In Georgia’s 7th District, Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux defeated Republican Rich McCormick in the race to fill the seat of retiring Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.). Bourdeaux’s win marks the first success for Democrats seeking to flip GOP-held seats this year. Republicans, on the other hand, have won 28 of the 38 seats they targeted. The Hill’s Rebecca Karl has the story Georgia’s 7th District here. 

Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) was declared the winner in Pennsylvania’s 7th District on Friday after an aggressive challenge from Republican Jim Bognet. More on that race here from The Hill’s Justine Coleman.