Analysis: The road to the White House now runs through Georgia and Arizona

When President Biden won Georgia and Arizona en route to the White House in 2020, many Republicans called the outcome a fluke, a one-time response shaped by a deadly pandemic. Florida, which was among the most closely divided states from 2000 to 2016, shifted heavily toward the GOP in 2020 and moved even further in this year’s midterms, in part because of the gains among Latino voters that Republicans have made in the state. “There were really two elections in this midterm,” said Rosenberg, who correctly forecast that no red wave would appear this year: “a bluer one in the battleground states and a redder one outside the battleground.” Of the most competitive states, Democrats probably start out in the best shape in Michigan, where they won the governor’s race and both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1984 and where the state Republican Party appears mired in factional warfare and far-right conspiracy theories. The latest from Washington — The Supreme Court’s conservatives hinted Wednesday they may rule — but only narrowly — for Republican state lawmakers in North Carolina who are claiming an exclusive power to set election maps without review by state courts. — An influential Sacramento lawmaker has proposed legislation that would require California’s 266,000 lawyers to report misconduct by colleagues to the State Bar of California, the agency that regulates the legal profession.