Union-Bulletin: “North Carolina evenly split its U.S. House delegation in Tuesday’s midterm election, with Democrats and Republicans each winning seven of the 14 seats up for grabs. … “The Republican Party has made a significant investment in judicial elections the last two cycles, and it has paid off,” said Bob Orr, a former Republican justice…

ABC 4 News: “Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has signaled his intent to run for President of the United States of America. Hutchinson said he plans to spend time with his wife, Susan, and their six grandchildren when he leaves the governor’s office in January, 2023. After that, he says he has other plans. I plan to be…

TX Observer: “More than 100 butterfly enthusiasts descended on the border city of Mission over Halloween weekend to celebrate the annual Texas Butterfly Festival. The event marked a comeback for its host, the National Butterfly Center, which has been threatened and harassed by right-wing extremists who believe (falsely) that the wildlife sanctuary is a human trafficking hotspot….

Political Wire: “Herschel Walker performed significantly worse than Gov. Brian Kemp, who easily won reelection Tuesday while Walker failed to crack 50% of the vote,” Axios reports. “Republicans turning out to vote for Kemp may have helped pull Walker’s scandal-plagued campaign close to 50% — meaning he could have a harder time rallying support on his own…

Axios: “A federal judge in Texas struck down the Biden administration’s student debt relief program Thursday. The latest: The Biden administration said in a Thursday night filing that it’s appealing the ruling of the Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman. “We strongly disagree with the District Court’s ruling on our student debt relief program,” said White House press secretary Karine…

The Hill: “Democratic strategist James Carville said the party would be “better off looking harder at Mississippi” than Florida following the overwhelming GOP success in the Sunshine State in this year’s midterm elections.  Carville told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Thursday that Democrats don’t lose “that bad” in Mississippi, saying a large Black population in the state means…

Lexington Herald Leader: “In a major victory for abortion rights groups, Kentucky voters rejected a proposal to revise the state constitution to make clear there is no protected right to abortion. Unofficial election results from the Associated Press Wednesday morning showed voters narrowly defeated Amendment 2, a largely Republican-backed measure that sought to add these…

WaPo: “Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke has spent 1,175 of the past 2,048 days of his life running for office. Three races in six years: U.S. Senate, thenpresident, now governor. O’Rourke is young, just 50 years old. He has become the emblem of unrealized ambition in the Democratic Party, a candidate who has kept going and…

NPR: “Democrat Maxwell Frost has won in Florida’s 10th Congressional District, according to a race call by the Associated Press, making him the first member of Generation Z elected to serve in the U.S. Congress. Frost was heavily favored to win the Orlando-based seat, which is solidly Democrat. He defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish by 19 percentage points….

AR Times: “Once more: The Arkansas Republican Party is intent on branding the nonpartisan Arkansas Supreme Court as a partisan tribunal and now even boasts of it. The latest example: Ads run during the Razorback football game last night branded Supreme Court candidate Chris Carnahan as a Republican, endorsed by the party, and incumbent Justice Robin Wynne as a liberal Democrat. (He…