Vote counting continues in critical races to decide control of Congress

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Close key races in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate remain uncalled tonight, as election workers continue their count through the Veterans Day holiday today.

  Lisa Desjardins and Amna Nawaz have our update on where things stand.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That's right, Judy.

  We here at "NewsHour" are relying on the Associated Press to make those calls before we report them. But we have had a few more filled in over the last day.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Let's take a look at where the balance of power stands in the House of Representatives.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Here we are; 211 of the seats called are going to Republicans at this time, 194 for Democrats.

  And here's everybody in between. Amna, I'm still watching about 23 seats. I will say, just in the last day, there's only been three or four races that have been called. It is slow. And half of those races, Amna, are in two states, California and Nevada.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Let's take a closer look at some of those key races that could help fill in the rest of that balance of power. Let's go to Nevada first.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This is sort of one of our weather checks here in Nevada.

  Susie Lee is gaining more points. This is a Democrat here. And it looks like she's doing better there in Las Vegas, but Clark County still has some ballots remaining.

  Let's move on to the next race, some races we haven't talked about as much. Here we go in California, House District 13. This is a seat Republican John Duarte is up ahead. He is a pistachio and almond farmer up against Democrat Adam Gray, whose family runs a dairy farm supply business. This is a battle of farmers right now, the Republican just a little bit ahead.

  Another race I want to look at here in California, this is a Republican incumbent, Ken Calvert. Right now, it looks like he is just ahead by 1,100 points. This is Laura Barron-Lopez territory. This is where she is from.

  But, look, it's only 53 percent of the vote. If the Democrat, Will Rollins, former prosecutor who said he's running because of January 6, by the way, if he's able to make up this distance, this is one of those races that allows the Democrats still the remote possibility of taking — keeping control of the House.

  It's a long shot. This race would have to flip, right now, the Republican winning.

  One more race to look at where Democrats are doing well, this is Washington state. This is Jaime Herrera Beutler, the Republican's former seat. She was beat out in the primary by Joe Kent. He is someone who is an election generic. He's a former Army Ranger. His wife was killed by an ISIS terrorism bomb. He has blamed the establishment for that.

  But he has run on a platform of denying the election and January 6 itself. This is Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. She's an auto body shop mechanic and owner. She's winning. This is a surprise for a lot of Democrats, but we still have 30 percent of the vote left in that race to go there.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Still a ways to go there.

  Also, we should note, a ways to go in a few key statewide races in a few states you have been keeping track of. Where are those ballots that are still being counted?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Let's run through these key states.

  Clark County, Nevada, 50,000 mail ballots still out. We expect an update tonight. Los Angeles County, California, oh, just 800,083 ballots left.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That's it?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Mostly mail ballots there. Maricopa County, Arizona, 400,000 ballots, an update expected tonight.

  Now, how much of an update will we get with these races? We don't know. Will we know the fate of the House of Representatives tonight, tomorrow, Sunday? We don't know. It could be a few more days still. Or we will see.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The counting continues. This is the process. Patience is key.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Yes. Patience, everyone.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.