Wednesday, November 4th, 2026 - Blue Wave, DOJ Sends Target Letters, US Strikes Iran’s Qeshm Island

Today's Headlines: Democrats wildly overperformed, winning the House and the Senate as of just after midnight, with Hakeem Jeffries becoming Speaker and a Black woman becoming governor of a former Confederate state in the same night. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff won reelection easily over Mike Collins, and Keisha Lance Bottoms flipped the governor’s seat to become Georgia’s first Black governor, which also means Ossoff and/or Raphael Warnock could run for president without costing Democrats a Senate seat. Texas turned too, as James Talarico beat Ken Paxton and Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott for Democrats’ first statewide wins since the 90s. The Senate flips kept coming, with Dr. Annie Andrews taking DarLindsey Graham’s seat in South Carolina, Adam Hamilton ousting Roger Marshall in Kansas, Josh Turek beating Ashley Hinson in Iowa (where Rob Sand also flipped the governorship), Chris Pappas beating John Sununu in New Hampshire to become the first openly gay man in the Senate, and Roy Cooper moving up to senator in North Carolina, while in Ohio, Sherrod Brown beat Jon Husted as Amy Acton beat Vivek Ramaswamy for governor. Republicans’ best night was in Florida, where Ashley Moody held her Senate seat by a much smaller margin than expected and Byron Donalds won the governorship, though Republicans lost their legislative supermajorities. Elsewhere, Democratic incumbents including Booker, Warner, Hickenlooper, Luján, and Merkley held on, and Phil Weiser (Colorado), Xavier Becerra (California), and David Crowley (Wisconsin) are new Democratic governors. In the House, final counts will take weeks, but Democrats are projected at 248 seats or more, with flips including a longshot Kentucky seat (Zach Dembo), Pennsylvania (where Janelle Stelson ousted Scott Perry), New Jersey, and North Carolina, while Senate results in Michigan, Maine, Nebraska, Mississippi, and Alaska are still pending. As for Trump, he posted, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE,” and told the NYT he’s “absolutely willing” to accept the results, though the DOJ meanwhile sent target letters to 20 Democrats in its Alaska Senate probe over alleged “ballot stacking,” or recruiting spoiler candidates, which isn’t illegal, on Election Day itself. On the Iran front, the WSJ reported US “defensive strikes” on Iran’s Qeshm Island as Trump reportedly weighs full-scale war after the midterms, with Netanyahu pushing and JD Vance sent to revive talks, and Trump even said that if people tire of him, “I’ll move to Israel and become prime minister.” Finally, Google announced AI tools for schools, but blocking its AI features means losing regular Google Search too, with an employee telling the NYT there’s “no google search without AI” (anything for the shareholders). Resources/Articles mentioned: NYT: 2026 Midterm Elections Live Updates: Democrats Win the Senate in Rebuke of Trump NYT: Trump Says in Interview That He Will Accept Election Results NYT: Justice Dept. Sends Target Letters to Democrats in Escalation of Alaska Inquiry WSJ: Exclusive | U.S. Strikes Iran’s Qeshm Island as Trump Talks Down War Risks Yahoo: Trump says he’d move to this country ‘if people ever get tired of me in the US’ CNN: Google will let schools turn off AI, but they may also lose Search Subscribe to the Betches News Room and join the Morning Announcements group chat. Go to: betchesnews.substack.com Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices