nathan-l-gonzales

When I was a kid in small-town Oregon, my family would occasionally go to King’s Table, and my sister and I would get free rein at the buffet.

I became famous in my own family for my condiment salad — an impressive collection of bacon bits, croutons, shredded cheese, sunflower seeds and plenty of ranch dressing. Essentially, my strategy involved choosing what looked and tasted good and avoiding anything of nutritional value.

Two days after Election Day, three Senate races and 13 House races remain unresolved. A runoff later this month will determine the winner of the Senate race in Mississippi.

House Democrats have already passed the threshold for a majority by winning 225 seats so far, wresting control of a chamber they haven’t held since 2010. Based on current projections, they could obtain as many as 234 seats — good for a 33-seat majority — though it is more likely they’ll land somewhere around 228 seats for a still-significant 21-seat margin.

Most midterm elections have dozens of individual House and Senate races that remain unpredictable right up until — and after — the polls close on Election Day. The 2018 cycle was no different, with 22 House and three Senate races still uncalled by 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

But each year, there are a few races that experts thought they had a handle on, only to be flummoxed by the results.

Two Senate races and 16 House races remain uncalled as of 9 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast.

House Democrats have already passed the threshold for a majority by winning 220 seats so far, wresting control of a chamber they haven’t held since 2010. Based on current projections, they could obtain as many as 234 seats — good for a 33-seat majority — though it is more likely they’ll land somewhere around 228 seats for a still-significant 21-seat lead over the Republicans.

The votes haven’t all been counted in the 2018 Senate elections, but we know the size of the incoming majority will be critical, because the 2020 Senate map offers limited initial takeover opportunities for both parties.

Of course, it’s too early to tell what the presidential race will look like, how voters will feel about the economy and direction of the country, and whether they’ll believe more Democrats are needed in Washington.

In a final pitch Monday to independent and undecided voters before Election Day, Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters she doesn’t “really care” whether Democrats win back a majority in the Senate or if Republicans squeak out another win.

The Missouri Democrat, one of 10 Democratic senators running for re-election this cycle in states President Donald Trump won in 2016, faces state Attorney General Josh Hawley in Tuesday’s midterm election.

When Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the midterm elections, voters in 35 counties — from Las Vegas to Dallas to Tampa — will head to precincts that are being closely monitored by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for “compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” the DOJ announced Monday.

“Voting rights are constitutional rights, and they’re part of what it means to be an American,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has retweeted and met with far-right groups with ties to Nazis, defended himself against accusations of being an anti-Semite over the weekend by telling the story of his recent trip to Poland to visit sites of the Holocaust.

The Jewish non-profit group From The Depths, which raises money to take members of Congress and other other public figures to see Holocaust memorial sites, recently hosted King on a five-day tour through Poland.

Two of the top three Republican lawmakers in Tennessee declined to explicitly say this week whether they voted for the GOP’s Senate nominee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

Sen. Bob Corker, the retiring chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, whose Volunteer State seat Blackburn is running to fill, and term-limited Gov. Bill Haslam, each hinted that they voted for Blackburn over centrist Democratic candidate and former governor Phil Bredesen — but declined to use Blackburn’s name when answering reporters’ questions.

In a tour de civility, Rep. Carlos Curbelo met with a 19-year-old who threatened to kill him and forgave him.

Curbelo, a Florida Republican, appeared at a joint news conference on Thursday with Pierre Alejandro Verges-Castro, whom the congressman said had fallen “into the trap of violent political speech and hateful expression” but did not plan to actually follow through on his threat, the Miami Herald reported.