Democrats just picked up another seat in Maine's second congressional district after state lawmaker Jared Golden prevailed over Rep. Bruce Poliquin, bringing their new total to +35.
Another pick-up for Democrats: Maine just tabulated the #ME02 instant-runoff & Democrat Jared Golden finished ahead of GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin. Dems are now at +35 in the House (more is likely to come).
— Taniel (@Taniel) November 15, 2018
Dems now hold both of Maine's House seats; they also gained a trifecta here.
The contest in Maine was especially intriguing, because for the first time in the U.S. election officials used ranked-choice voting. Poliquin had sued the secretary of state to prevent the process. Before the ranked-choice count, the Republican was up by 2,000 votes.
A day earlier, Democrat Josh Hardner beat Republican Rep. Jeff Denham in California's 10th District and Democrat Andy Kim beat Tom MacArthur in New Jersey's 3rd district.
CNN's Harry Enten noted on Thursday that the 2018 House pickups are now the largest gain since Watergate.
"It's more like Hanukkah than Christmas," he told Brooke Baldwin, because the wins have been spread out over several days. He added that yes, it is a blue wave.
After the 2016 election the Democrats had a lot less house seats than the Republicans. After the 2018 election the Democrats have a lot more house seats than the Republicans. pic.twitter.com/OLe0LzosZP
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) November 15, 2018
Five races are still undecided, including CA-39, CA-45, GA-7, TX-23, and UT-4.