NBC News Exit Poll: Voters once again say nation is on the wrong track A majority of voters nationwide said that the United States is on the wrong track as they cast their votes today in the 2018 midterm elections, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll. By contrast, about four in 10 voters think that things are generally going in the right direction. This is the seventh national election in a row in which a majority of voters said that the U.S. was on the wrong track. For the past 14 years, Americans’ sour mood about the nation’s direction has held whether the White House and Congress were controlled by Democrats or Republicans. The last time a plurality of voters expressed optimism about the nation’s trajectory was President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, when the Exit Poll found “right direction” leading “wrong track” by 50 percent to 47 percent. Not surprisingly, the exit poll reveals a sharp red-blue divide on this question today, with four out of five Democrats saying that the nation is on the wrong track, while about three-quarters of Republicans believe that things are going in the right direction. Share this -







NBC News: Jon Tester wins in Montana Senate race Two-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester is the apparent winner in the Montana Senate race, NBC News projects Wednesday, defeating Republican challenger Matt Rosendale. The projection came Wednesday afternoon, most than 12 hours after polls closed in state closed. Tester and Rosendale, the Republican state auditor, had been locked in a neck-and-neck race. With 99 percent of the votes in the state tallied, Tester led Rosendale 49.1 percent to 48 percent with Libertarian Party candidate Rick Breckenridge getting 2.9 percent. President Donald Trump had campaigned hard in the state against Tester — he held a rally for Rosendale just days before Election Day — hitting the incumbent for his involvement in thwarting the nomination of his choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, White House physician Ronny Jackson. Share this -







Nevada voters scrap 'pink tax' on tampons, sanitary napkins Nevada's "pink tax" on feminine hygiene products has been repealed, NBC News projected early Wednesday. Voters were asked whether tampons and sanitary napkins should be exempt from sales and use tax. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that opponents said the exemption could result in the loss of $900,000 to $1.3 million in sales-tax revenue each year. Fourteen other states do not subject feminine hygiene products to a sales tax, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy nonprofit. Share this -







Scott Walker loses bid for third term as Wisconsin's governor Former Republican presidential candidate and Trump ally Scott Walker was defeated in his bid for a third term as Wisconsin's governor. NBC News declared Democrat Tony Evers as the apparent winner at 3:30 a.m. ET. Speaking of his race, Walker last week said that "whether it was Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama or now Donald Trump" any president's first midterm election is "tough." A NBC/Marist poll published on Oct. 11 found that 45 percent of likely voters in Wisconsin approved of Trump's job performance, while 50 percent disapproved. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016. Share this -







NBC News: Rosen beats Heller in Nevada Senate race Democrat Rep. Jacky Rosen has defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in the Nevada Senate race, NBC News projects. With 93 percent of the Silver State's vote tallied, Rosen, a congresswoman representing the state's 3rd Congressional District, was leading Heller 50 percent to 45.8 percent. Rosen's win would mark the only pick-up of a Republican-held Senate seat by a Democratic candidate in the 2018 midterm elections. Moments before NBC News called the race, Heller called Rosen to concede. Rosen then declared victory in a speech in Las Vegas, tell cheering supporters that she loved them, too, before vowing to get to work. Share this -







NBC News Exit Poll: Most U.S. voters say Trump tax cuts have not helped personal finances Despite President Donald Trump's promise that tax cuts passed last year would positively affect the personal finances of Americans, only 29 percent of voters say the changes have helped them, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. Nationwide, 45 percent of voters report that the tax changes have not impacted their personal finances, while 22 percent say their finances have been hurt by the changes. The exit poll also shows that voters in higher-income households are twice as likely as voters in lower-income households to report that tax law changes have helped their personal finances. Seventeen percent of voters with annual household incomes under $30,000 said their personal finances had benefited, compared to 34 percent of those with annual household incomes of $100,000 and higher. Share this -







NBC News Exit Poll: LGBT voters remain loyal to Democrats Democratic candidates enjoyed strong support from LGBT voters nationwide on Tuesday, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. Roughly four out of five LGBT voters reported casting a ballot for their district’s Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives. The exit poll also found LGBT voters supporting Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates in strong numbers. Since the 1990s, exit polls have found large majorities of LGBT voters supporting Democratic presidential candidates as well as the party’s candidates for Congress. The exit poll also found LGBT voters expressing strong concerns about the direction of the country under President Donald Trump. About eight in 10 LGBT voters said things in the country were on the wrong track, and just one in 10 said they cast their House vote to express support for Trump. Share this -







Major news: A record number of women were elected to the House A record number of women were elected to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. As of early Wednesday morning, at least 89 women had won seats, breaking the current session's record of 84 women. See how all the women fared here. Share this -







NBC News Exit Poll in Missouri: White evangelicals and gun owners help Hawley beat McCaskill Republican challenger Josh Hawley is projected to pick up a Senate seat tonight in a hard-fought battle with incumbent Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. NBC News Exit Poll results find Hawley doing particularly well with voters who say immigration is a top issue. He also captured three-quarters of the vote from white evangelicals and 62 percent of the vote from white men. Voters from gun-owning households also sided with Hawley over McCaskill, who was given an F rating by the National Rifle Association. Among the nearly half of voters (46 percent) who oppose stricter gun measures, Hawley beat McCaskill 77 percent to 21 percent. Share this -





