Several races across the country remain close and the final dust hasn't settled, though some clear early winners and losers have emerged from Tuesday's results:
► WINNERS
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)
The Florida governor has been riding a wave of support following his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he refused health officials' calls to shut businesses down, require vaccinations and mandate masks.
He's been called a "mini-Trump" and is generating steady buzz about his own White House potential, while shirking the former president who previously endorsed him.
DeSantis put up a nearly 20-point win over former Gov. Charlie Crist (a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat).
Trump has taken aim at DeSantis in recent days, calling him "Ron DeSanctimonious" and holding a rivaling campaign rally in Florida, but it doesn't appear to have harmed DeSantis's standing in the Sunshine State.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
Grassley, 89, who has been in the Senate since 1981 (and previously in the House for six years), won another six-year term Tuesday. Grassley has been seen as key to helping the GOP hold onto the Iowa seat. While polls at once point suggested the Iowa race may be competitive, they recently showed the seven-term GOP incumbent with a commanding lead.
He will be among the oldest sitting senators. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is the oldest sitting senator — she's about three months older than Grassley.
President Biden
Despite all odds — record-high inflation, sagging polls and an ongoing war in Ukraine — the president racked up a lot more wins than pundits had expected, keeping Democrats' hopes alive of retaining control of at least one chamber.
Midterms typically spell trouble for the party occupying the White House. Biden had even largely stayed off the campaign trail, sending surrogates instead to campaign for many candidates who could have been dinged by the appearance of being too chummy with him.
One notable exception was Pennsylvania, where its native son Biden held multiple campaign rallies and events in support of Democrat John Fetterman, who defeated the Trump-backed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.
► LOSERS
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.)
Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responsible for helping elect House Democrats, couldn't eke out his own win.
Republican challenger Mike Lawler was projected to capture the district, which covers parts of Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley.
Republicans
Tuesday wasn't the bloodbath many predicted for Democrats, despite the president's party typically suffering major losses in midterm cycles.
Democrats have minimized pickups for Republicans in the House, where the GOP will have to navigate a party split between far-right conservatives and more moderate Republicans.
And while the Senate remains up in the air, even if Republicans do take a majority it appears it will be by a smaller margin than the party hoped for.
Just a few hours before polls closed Tuesday, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) predicted a "red wave" was on its way. Instead, her race remains too close to call, with more than 90 percent of precincts reporting a day after the election.
Boebert, whose once-rising profile has been linked to her stance on gun rights — she owned a restaurant called "Shooters Grill" in Rifle, Colo., where workers were expected to carry firearms to match the theme — had been predicted to sail into a second term in Congress against challenger Adam Frisch (D).
Boebert's fellow GOP stalwarts Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) both easily won reelection.
► DRAW
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.)
McCarthy, who just won his ninth term in Congress, has long had his eyes on the Speaker's office, having bowed out of consideration in 2015 before later taking over as minority leader when Democrats took control of the chamber in 2019.
And while he's still favored for the position, a narrower GOP majority than anticipated could require extra effort to shore up his path to the Speaker's gavel in a chamber with increasingly divergent voices.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Pelosi might not be Speaker in the next Congress, but she correctly predicted that her party would beat expectations on Tuesday night.
Pelosi, 82, has had a rough few weeks — her husband was brutally attacked during a home invasion at their San Francisco home. She's likely losing her hold on the Speaker's gavel. And it's an open question how much longer she'll try to lead House Democrats.
Still, she managed to keep hold of many House seats on Tuesday that could have been in danger and make sure the GOP had a narrow path to the majority.
Former President Trump (R)
The former president was expected to announce his plans for the 2024 election imminently. But his mixed record of backing candidates in the midterms — several won Tuesday, while notably Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon lost — has raised questions about whether the MAGA-anointed have lost their shine.
Trump still remains the most popular Republican and a frontrunner for the 2024 nomination, though Tuesday's results — coupled with DeSantis's big win in Florida — have raised the specter of a serious looming battle for GOP standard bearer.
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