This morning Senate Republicans chose South Dakota’s Thune as the Majority Leader in waiting, with McConnell returning to the back benches. Thune’s majority is now set at 53-47 for now, as two days ago the AP called Nevada, the last uncalled Senate race, for Gallego.

The House remains in limbo, but the current declared count is 216-207 Republicans, and it still feels like 222-213 could be the final tally for Speaker Johnson’s team. However, I was pleased to see that the Democratic candidate has come from behind in my old stomping grounds of Orange County, California and may now retain the California 47th for the blue team.

Trump has started to roll out his nominations for certain Cabinet posts and other significant foreign policy roles. So far he has tapped two Republican House members, Stefanik for U.N. Ambassador and Waltz for National Security Advisor; their appointments may temporarily make the Republican majority in the House even more precarious. Trump has also tapped Senator Rubio to be Secretary of State, which would make him the highest-ranking Latino in the country’s history, and Governor Noem to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Trump has also picked a Fox News host for Secretary of Defense and a Baptist minister for Ambassador to Israel, in case you felt these nominations sounded too normal.

In other news, Judge Merchan was originally slated to issue his ruling yesterday on whether the Trump v. U.S. decision ought to have any bearing on the guilty verdict in New York v. Trump, but now he has decided to take an additional week to allow everyone to think through more globally how Trump’s election ought to impact the resolution of this case. More to come around November 19th.