Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. President Donald Trump and Joe Biden are locked in the tightest presidential

contest in decades with Trump threatening to drag the race to the Supreme Court.

Biden is ahead by a sliver in Wisconsin. Trump is up in Michigan and Pennsylvania, but it's

close with plenty outstanding. Nevada is subtly tight. George is too close to call. We'll get to this all in a minute, but let's close with plenty outstanding. Nevada is subtly tight.

George is too close to call. We'll get to this all in a minute, but let's start with what we know now. Tuesday was an abject disaster for Democrats in Washington to imagine the

amount of soul-searching and explaining the party we'll have to do after Tuesday is absolutely

dizzying. The infighting will be bloody as it should be.

We feel the text after text from Hill Democrats Tuesday night and early Wednesday with existential

questions about their leadership and the direction of their party. Democrats told us in the

weeks and months leading up to election day that they were on track to win the majority in the Senate

and they don't appear poised to do that. Donors gave $90 million to lose to Mitch McConnell, $108 million to lose to Lindsey Graham,

24 million to lose to John Cornyn, Steve Daines won in Montana, Tom Tillis is up in North Carolina,

David Purdue is above 50 in Georgia, and Susan Collins is narrowly ahead in Maine,

despite Democrat Sarah Gideon raising $70 million.

Joni Ernst won her second bid in Iowa.

Democrats and Republicans told us that they'd win a dozen seats in the House and knock off a

whole host of Republican incumbents. And that was completely wrong. Instead, Republicans,

power by the NRCC and CLF, beat a bunch of Democratic incumbents.

The GOP added women to their ranks. They beat Minnesota Representative Colin Peterson after a few

decades of trying. Instead of sitting somewhere in the 180s, Republicans now have north of

200 house seats, making them an extremely powerful minority.

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