Election month in America got off to a rather unexpected start. It’s the day after the midterms and surprisingly, the House still hangs in the balance (though it leans towards a GOP edge) and less surprisingly, so does the Senate (which, at the moment, leans toward a Dem hold). Given surf conditions that include terrible inflation, a teetering economy, and a sitting president with historically weak approval numbers, the GOP expected Nazaré meets Jaws meets Mavericks. Instead, they got an ankle slapper, proving once again that American elections are never a shore thing. So far, the big stories of the night include a solid turnout among the young, consistent wins for choice, and a beached whale on the Mar-a-Lago shoreline. Here are five takeaways from the ‘red tsunami’ that didn’t materialize. And David Wallace-Wells in The New Yorker: The Midterm Elections Deliver a Stunning Return to the Status Quo. Yet again, Americans are divided in Fall.

+ “As of Wednesday morning, Sen. Raphael Warnock led Republican Herschel Walker by just over 35,000 votes with nearly all the votes counted, but neither candidate is expected to clear 50 percent.” In other words, we’re headed for another GA runoff that could decide the Senate. That Herschel Walker did this well and still has a chance to become Senator Walker is not a great reflection on the human race. The red wave didn’t happen. The dollar green wave headed for Georgia is a sure thing.

+ In one of the most watched (and most cringed at) Senate races, stroke recoverer and cargo pants standard bearer John Fetterman bested snake oil-selling TV doctor and PA carpet lagger Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race. In another closely watched race, Republican J.D. Vance defeated Tim Ryan in Ohio.

+ Maxwell Frost was elected as the first Gen Z member of Congress. And that was just one of many firsts. Meet the history-makers of the 2022 midterm elections. In a nice twist, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted efforts by Trump to overturn election results in Georgia won re-election by a comfortable margin.

+ WaPo: Election deniers score big wins, but also suffer significant setbacks. Any wins for these traitors is a loss for America.

+ Vox: A mixed night for marijuana on the ballot. Basically, we got two tasty buds and three bags of shake.

+ As the final House and Senate races shake out, our attention will shift to 2024 (sorry) which will feature two very big questions. Will Biden be the candidate for Dems? And will the GOP finally drop their seditious, egomaniacal albatross or spend another election under the orange crush. The Atlantic’s David Frum on the GOP battle royale: Trump Lost the Midterms. DeSantis Won. “Republicans had a bad night yesterday. Their disappointment was very much Trump’s fault. Trump stuck them with bad candidates and bad issues: his own grievances about the election of 2020. That record should weaken Trump’s standing. But the weakening only matters if somebody uses it. For seven years, Donald Trump’s superpower has been the abjectness of his fellow Republicans. He would abuse and insult them; they might fight back for a round or two—but then crumple. Trump led his party from loss to loss.”