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Gov.-elect Tony Evers enters a room filled with members of the news media Wednesday at the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County in Madison. (John Hart / Wisconsin State Journal via Associated Press)

Democrat Tony Evers looked ahead to leading Wisconsin with a Republican-controlled Legislature, the first time state government has been divided in a decade, while ousted Republican Gov. Scott Walker eyed a possible recount following the state's closest governor's race in more than half a century.

The Evers victory, coupled with the apparent win by Democratic attorney general candidate Josh Kaul in a race too close to call, realigns the political dynamic in Wisconsin following eight years of Republican control. While Democrats had hopes of making headway in the Legislature, Republicans will remain in the majority with Evers as governor, setting up at least two years of divided government. That hasn't happened in Wisconsin since 2008, when Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was in office and Republicans controlled the Assembly with Democrats in charge of the Senate.

Evers declared victory early Wednesday morning, but Walker held off conceding while his campaign investigated 2,000 absentee ballots in Milwaukee that were reconstructed due to damage or errors. The city's elections commission said the reconstruction process is routine, transparent and overseen by representatives of both political parties, election workers and the public.

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Election 2018: Democrats seize control of the House ...

Democrats harnessed voter fury toward President Trump to win control of the House and capture pivotal governorships Tuesday night as liberals and moderates banded together to deliver a forceful rebuke of Mr. Trump, even as Republicans held on to their Senate majority by claiming a handful of conservative-leaning seats.

The two parties each had some big successes in the states. Republican governors were elected in Ohio and Florida, two important battlegrounds in Mr. Trumps 2020 campaign calculations. Democrats beat Gov. Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Republican and a top target, and captured the governors office in Michigan two states that Mr. Trump carried in 2016 and where the left was looking to rebound.

Propelled by an unusually high turnout that illustrated the intensity of the backlash against Mr. Trump, Democrats claimed at least 26 House seats on the strength of their support in suburban and metropolitan districts that were once bulwarks of Republican power but where voters have recoiled from the presidents demagoguery on race.

Early Wednesday morning Democrats clinched the 218 House seats needed to take control. There were at least 15 additional tossup seats that had yet to be called.

From the suburbs of Richmond to the subdivisions of Chicago and even Oklahoma City, an array of diverse candidates many of them women, first-time contenders or both stormed to victory and ended the Republicans eight-year grip on the House majority.

But in an indication that the political and cultural divisions that lifted Mr. Trump two years ago may only be deepening, the Democratic gains did not extend to the Senate, where many of the most competitive races were in heavily rural states. Republicans were set to build on their one-seat majority in the chamber by winning Democratic seats in Indiana, North Dakota and Missouri while turning back Representative Beto ORourkes spirited challenge of Senator Ted Cruz in Texas.

[Make sense of the countrys political landscape with our newsletter.]

In two marquee races in the South, progressive African-American candidates for governor captured the imagination of liberals across the country. One fell to defeat at the hands of Trump acolytes, and the others future was in doubt a sign that steady demographic change across the region was proceeding too gradually to lift Democrats definitively to victory.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp of Georgia was ahead of Stacey Abrams, who was seeking to become the first black woman to lead a state; early Wednesday morning, Ms. Abrams suggested the race might go to a runoff. And former Representative Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, in the largest presidential battleground, Florida.

At an election-night celebration in Washington, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the House who may soon return to the office of House speaker, signaled how central the theme of checking Mr. Trump and cleaning up government was to the partys success.

When Democrats win and we will win tonight we will have a Congress that is open, transparent and accountable to the American people, she proclaimed. Are you ready for a great Democratic victory?

But at a meeting of Democratic donors and strategists earlier on Tuesday, she signaled there were lines she would not cross next year. Attempting to impeach Mr. Trump, she said, was not on the agenda.

Even so, the Democrats House takeover represented a clarion call that a majority of the country wants to see limits on Mr. Trump for the next two years of his term. With the opposition now wielding subpoena power and the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, still looming, the president is facing a drastically more hostile political environment in the lead up to his re-election.

Their loss of the House also served unmistakable notice on Republicans that the rules of political gravity still exist in the Trump era. What was effectively a referendum on Mr. Trumps incendiary conduct and hard-right nationalism may make some of the partys lawmakers uneasy about linking themselves to a president who ended the campaign showering audiences with a blizzard of mistruths, conspiracy theories and invective about immigrants.

And it revealed that many of the right-of-center voters who backed Mr. Trump in 2016, as a barely palatable alternative to Hillary Clinton, were unwilling to give him enduring political loyalty.

The president was initially muted Tuesday night, offering only a terse statement on Twitter, but then turned more boastful, citing others to claim that he deserved credit for Republicans who won.

For Democrats, their House triumph was particularly redemptive not only because of how crestfallen they were in the wake of Mrs. Clintons defeat but due to how they found success this year.

The president unwittingly galvanized a new generation of activism, inspiring hundreds of thousands angered, and a little disoriented, by his unexpected triumph to make their first foray into politics as volunteers and candidates. He also helped ensure that Democratic officeholders would more closely reflect the coalition of their party, and that a woman may take over the House, should Ms. Pelosi secure the voters to reclaim the speakership.

It was the partys grass roots, however, that seeded Democratic candidates with unprecedented amounts of small-dollar contributions and dwarfed traditional party fund-raising efforts. The so-called liberal resistance was undergirded by women and people of color and many of them won on Tuesday, including Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Lauren Underwood in Illinois and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia.

In next years session of Congress, there will be 100 women in the House for the first time in history.

The Democrats broad gains in the House, and their capture of several powerful governorships, in many cases represented a vindication of the partys more moderate wing. The candidates who delivered the House majority largely hailed from the political center, running on clean-government themes and promises of incremental improvement to the health care system rather than transformational social change.

To this end, the Democratic gains Tuesday came in many of the countrys most affluent suburbs, communities Mrs. Clinton carried, but they also surprised Republicans in some more conservative metropolitan areas. Kendra Horn, for example, pulled off perhaps the upset of the night by defeating Representative Steve Russell in central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City has grown increasingly diverse and todays Republican Party has little to say to people of color, said the citys mayor, David F. Holt, noting that Mr. Russell sought to broaden his appeal but was running against the national message of his party.

And in a traditionally Republican South Carolina district where Representative Mark Sanford had lost his primary race in June, a Democrat, Joe Cunningham, upset a Trump enthusiast, Katie Arrington.

Indeed, the coalition of voters that mobilized against Mr. Trump was broad, diverse and somewhat ungainly, taking in young people and minorities who reject his culture-war politics; women appalled by what they see as his misogyny; seniors alarmed by Republican health care policies; and upscale suburban whites who support gun control and environmental regulation as surely as they favor tax cuts. It will now fall to Democrats to forge these disparate communities alienated by the president into a durable electoral base for the 2020 presidential race at a time when their core voters are increasingly tilting left.

Yet the theory embraced by hopeful liberals in states like Texas and Florida that charismatic and unapologetically progressive leaders might transmute Republican bastions into purple political battlegrounds, proved largely fruitless. Though there were signs that demographic change was loosening Republicans grip on the Sun Belt, those changes did not arrive quickly enough for candidates like Mr. Gillum and Mr. ORourke. And the Democratic collapse in rural areas that began to plague their candidates under President Obama worsened Tuesday across much of the political map.

Polling indicated that far more voters than is typical used their midterm vote to render a verdict on the president, and Mr. Trump embraced the campaign as a judgment on him: the signs above the stage at his finally rally in Missouri Monday night read, Promises Made, Promises Kept, and made no mention of the candidate he was ostensibly there to support.

But by maintaining the intense support of his red-state conservative base, Mr. Trump strengthened his partys hold on the Senate and extended Republican dominance of several swing states crucial to his re-election campaign, including Florida, Iowa and Ohio, where the G.O.P. retained the governorships.

Despite how inescapable the president was, Democrats carefully framed the election on policy issues such as health care to win over voters who were more uneasy with than hostile to the provocateur in the White House. There were far more campaign advertisements on the left about congressional Republicans endangering access to health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions than there were about a president who many liberals fear is a menace to American democracy.

While drawing less notice than the fight for control of Congress, Democrats enjoyed mixed success in something of a revival in the region that elevated Mr. Trump to the presidency by winning governors races in Michigan and Illinois. Beyond the symbolic importance of regaining a foothold in the Midwest, their state house gains will also offer them a measure of control over the next round of redistricting.

Drawing as much notice among progressives hungry for a new generation of leaders was the Senate race in Texas, where Mr. ORourke, a 46-year-old El Paso congressman, eschewed polling and political strategists to run as an unapologetic progressive in a conservative state undergoing a demographic shift.

Mr. ORourke ran closer than expected against Mr. Cruz thanks to a historic midterm turnout, and the Democrats unconventional success prompted calls for him to seek the presidency long before the polls closed Tuesday night.

In the states Mr. Trump made a priority Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri he came away with several marquee victories for Senate and governor. But in parts of the country with many college-educated white voters, some of whom supported Mr. Trump in 2016, his style of leadership and his singular focus on immigration in the last weeks of the campaign contributed to Republican House losses.

Among the major races of the night, Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, three moderate Democrats in increasingly conservative states, were decisively defeated thanks to Republican strength in small towns and rural areas. In Tennessee, Representative Marsha Blackburn, a conservative Republican, was dominating former Gov. Phil Bredesen in the middle and western parts of the state that were once Democratic strongholds.

The Democrats flipped the Senate seat in Nevada, with Representative Jacky Rosen beating Senator Dean Heller, the chambers most endangered Republican this year.

In addition to beating Wisconsins Mr. Walker, Democrats also elected Gretchen Whitmer as governor of Michigan, a former State Senate leader who is seen as a rising star in the party. Illinois voters elected J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat and Hyatt hotel heir, over the embattled governor, Bruce Rauner.

The night began with a result in Kentucky that suggested a night of mixed results. Republicans staved off an early setback in a conservative-leaning House district in central Kentucky, as Representative Andy Barr repelled a fierce challenge from Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot running as a Democrat. Mr. Barrs survival offered some hope to Republicans that they could hang on to a small majority in the House.

Many voters were waiting to see if the country would place a check on Mr. Trump and Republican power in Washington, and if antagonism toward the president would fuel a wave of Republican losses. But just as Mr. Trump shocked many Americans with his victory in the Electoral College in 2016, the possibility that he might receive a political boost Tuesday with Republican wins in the Senate if not a mandate for the next two years was a bracing thought for Democrats, and an energizing one for Republicans.

In Chapmanville, W.Va., a hardware store worker, Chance Bradley, said he was voting Republican because Mr. Trump had made him feel like an American again. But Carl Blevins, a retired coal miner, voted Democratic and said he didnt understand how anybody could support Mr. Trump or, for that matter, the Republican candidate for Senate there, Patrick Morrisey, who went on to lose to Senator Joe Manchin.

I think they put something in the water, Mr. Blevins said.

Mr. Trump had appeared sensitive in recent days to the possibility that losing the House might be seen as a repudiation of his presidency, even telling reporters that he has been more focused on the Senate than on the scores of contested congressional districts where he is unpopular. And Mr. Trump insisted that he would not take the election results as a reflection on his performance.

I dont view this as for myself, Mr. Trump said on Sunday, adding that he believed he had made a big difference in a handful of Senate elections.

Early exit polls of voters, released by CNN on Tuesday night, showed a mixed assessment of President Trump as well as of Democratic leaders, and a generally gloomy mood in the country after months of tumultuous campaigning marked by racial tensions and spurts of violence.

Overall, 39 percent of voters said they went to the polls to express their opposition to the president, while 26 percent said they wanted to show support for him. Thirty-three percent said Mr. Trump was not a factor in their vote.

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Democrats Capture Control of House; G.O.P. Holds Senate ...

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Nov. 6, 2018 / 1:52 AM GMT/ UpdatedNov. 7, 2018 / 12:27 PM GMT

By Alex Seitz-Wald

It's a split decision.

Democrats won control of the House in Tuesday's critical midterm elections, and Republicans will hold the Senate after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, defeated Democratic challenger Beto O'Rouke, NBC News projects.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi laid out the vision of a Democratic majority in the House, saying Tuesday night it will "be led with transparency and openness."

"Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans its about restoring the constitution's check and balances to the Trump administration," she said in a speech. "Its about stopping the GOP and (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnells assault on Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the health care of 130 million Americans living with pre-existing medical conditions.

In governor races, Democrats made some key gains even as Andrew Gillum in Florida was defeated and Stacey Abrams in Georgia was struggling. Both were vying to be their state's first African-American chief executives.

"We recognize that we didn't win it tonight," Gillum told supporters. Abrams is trailing, though her race remains too close to call.

With polls now closed in all states, Democrats' hopes for a tidal wave to rebuke President Donald Trump have been tempered by early returns that delivered some surprises in both directions for the out-of-power party.

"This is not going to be the wave election that people like me hoped for, but it could still be a good election," Democratic strategist James Carville said on MSNBC.

In addition to Texas, Republicans won key Senate contests in Indiana, North Dakota and Tennessee, suggesting the GOP may be on its way to ousting other vulnerable Democratic incumbents in red states, such as Missouri, where Sen. Claire McCaskill was defeated by Republican Josh Hawley, according to an NBC News projection.

Still, the Democrats will find plenty of bright spots after a campaign that often seemed to be playing in two different universes, one for the House, where Trump was a liability for Republicans, and one for the Senate, where he was an asset.

Powered by a suburban revolt against Trump, Democrats flipped more than two dozen congressional seats, a victory sweetened by out-of-the-blue victories in Oklahoma and Staten Island, New York, according to NBC News projections.

Democratic activists are also likely to cheer the defeat in the Kansas governors race of Republican Kris Kobach, who has a national profile for cracking down on undocumented immigrants and allegations of voting fraud, and the passage of a referendum in Florida to restore voting rights to 1.5 million felons, according to NBC News projections.

Governor races also presented a mixed decision, with Republicans winning Ohio and Florida, both crucial to Democrats' 2020 plans, while Democrats won in Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, and several others, and hold narrow leads in too-close-to-call races in Wisconsin and Iowa, two states Trump won.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Menedez, D-N.J., whose trial on corruption charges ended in a hung jury last year, won another term, despite his Republican opponent spending $23 million on the race, much of it from his own bank account, NBC News projected.

And a referendum to legalize marijuana in Michigan also appears headed for passage, though NBC News has not yet made a call in there.

Democrats were hoping that voters would reject Trump and the nationalist vision for America he's championed in the closing weeks of the race. The first rounds of NBC News exit polls show a majority of Americans, 54 percent, do not approve of Trump, with a substantial number 47 percent expressing strong disapproval.

Health care, which Democrats emphasized throughout the campaign, was the top issue for Americans, with 41 percent selecting it, followed by immigration and the economy, two issues seen as favoring Republicans, which were selected by 23 and 21 percent of voters, respectively.

Overall, Americans expressed a fairly dim view of the state of politics, with 56 percent saying the country is on the wrong track and three-quarters of Americans saying the country is becoming more divided.

What is clear, however, is that few congressional elections have ever captivated so many Americans.

Early voting exceeded 2014 levels in most states, according to TargetSmart, while campaign spending has been pushed to a record $5.2 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The superlatives demonstrate the significance millions of Americans have invested in this midterms, believing it will help determine the future of the country and who gets to be a part of it.

The character of this country is on the ballot. Who we are is on the ballot, former President Barack Obama, hoarse from campaigning, told Democratic volunteers at a Virginia campaign office Monday.

The race has already made history with a record number of women and people of color running for office, and gave voters a chance to make a number of firsts: First transgender governor, first Native American woman in Congress, first black woman governor, among others.

Trump is not on the ballot, but the president has explicitly sought to make this election a referendum on his agenda as he campaigns for Republicans across the country, holding 53 campaign rallies in 23 states, including 30 since Labor Day.

"I need you to vote for a Republican House and a Republican Senate so we can continue this incredible movement," Trump told supporters in Indiana on Friday.

In almost every midterm since the Civil War, Americans have opted to put a check on the president by handing more power to the opposition party in Congress.

The booming economy appears to be cushioning the blow for the GOP this year, but Trump has instead tended to focus on darker themes, for instance highlighting a caravan of migrants moving towards the U.S. southern border as much as he has the low unemployment rate.

With the Democrats winning the House, they plan to wield Congress vast oversight authority against the White House and could even vote to impeach the president, though removing him from office seems out of the question, since that requires a supermajority in the Senate.

Alex Seitz-Wald is a political reporter for NBC News.

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Midterm election results: Democrats win House, GOP holds ...

Democrats are heading into Tuesday's high-stakes midterm elections with optimism, feeling strong about their chances of retaking the House of Representatives. Control of Congress is on the line as is the fate of Donald Trump's presidency. (Nov. 1) AP

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 26, 2018.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

WASHINGTON If Democrats have been a thorn in President Donald Trumps side while in the minority, just wait.

Some of his sharpest critics are among those in line to lead committees if Democrats win majority control of the House. They would have the power to issue subpoenas, call hearings and generally make Trumps life miserable.

Imagine the 3 a.m. tweets from Trump if Democrats use that power to probe whether he has financial ties to Russia and financial conflicts of interest or to subpoena the tax returns hes been reluctant to disclose. All of that would come on top of special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.

Democrats have campaigned on lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs, infrastructure improvements and cleaning up corruption in Washington. Their oversight agenda isnt set, but those campaign promises are likely to inform it.

Our challenge will be to overcome the Trump administrations stonewalling and to keep the focus on the answers that the American people are owed from their government, said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Republicans are worried. House Speaker Paul Ryans political operation sent out a flyer, obtained by USA TODAY, to donors and industry leaders listing the Democrats they believed would be in leadership and the top committee slots.

"Dont let this happen, support Team Ryan today!"the flyer read.

Still, Democrats shouldnt start an oversight effort saying, "Now were going after President Trump,"said former Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2007 to 2009.That would be "politicized"and "not credible."

But they could look into, for example, whether the Trump administration has turned its back on protecting peoples health or the environment or trying to make the tax code fair, he said.

I think that there are many legitimate oversight issues, and I think if those issues are reviewed in an honest and fair way, this administrations going to be embarrassed, because they havent done the job they should have been doing, he said.

Here are some House members who would be poised to lead oversight efforts.

More: Midterms: Races for governor, statehouses will help decide control of Congress for a decade

More: 2018 midterms: Racial justice motivating factor for young voters of color, poll finds

If Pelosi regains her former title of House speaker, shell play a leading role in shaping the narrative and scope of oversight efforts.

Centrist Democrats will likely want to pursue a cautious approach, while some progressives will want aggressive oversight of the administration.

Make no mistake whoever next becomes speaker, whether they are a Democrat or a Republican needs to provide complete oversight of this reckless, criminal administration starting on day one, Tom Steyer, thebillionaire activist who has called for Trumps impeachment, said in a statement to USA TODAY.

During a recent forum at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Institute of Politics, Pelosi said the calls for Trump's impeachment were"very divisive."But she said Democrats would make sure the Mueller investigations documentation is preserved for further examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Pelosi blasted Republicans during the forum for providing "absolutely no oversight" of government agencies. She has already convened meetings with members in line to chair committees to talk with them about their approach and coordination.

"This shouldnt be scattershot,"she said. "This should be responsible, honoring our Constitution and our responsibilities, seeking the truth and, in terms of the agencies of government, having the proper oversight to make sure that we are exercising our balance of power."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 17, 2017.(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

While Cummings was often critical of Trump over the course of the 2016 election the congressmanat one point called Trump"dangerous" the two still metfor an hour in the Oval Office in March 2017 to discuss a proposal to lower prescription drug prices.

"Great discussion,"Trump tweeted after the meeting. (He later saidthat Cummings proclaimed he'd be one of the country's "great presidents," something Cummings denied.)

Cummings said he got "radio silence" from Trump after that meeting, thus ending that brief brush with bipartisanship.

If Cummings chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he would have jurisdiction over a broad array of topics. The rising costs of drug prices, along with other everyday issues confronting Americans, would be one part of his mission. Another would focus on waste, fraud and abuse in the Trump administration, according to a Democratic aide.

That could include oversight on topics such Trumps potential financial conflicts of interest and protecting against violations of the Constitutions emoluments clause," which prohibits officeholders from accepting payments from foreign governments without consent from Congress. Potential violation examples could include foreign government officials who buy up floors of Trump's hotel rooms orpay higher-than-market rents at Trump Tower, according to committee Democrats.

Other topics could include the handling of security clearances, attacks on government watchdogs and employees, ethics scandals involving senior administration officials and Trumps immigration and child separation policies at the southernborder.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, arrives at a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 18, 2018.(Photo: AP)

When House Republicans in March concluded there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Schiff called the end of that yearlong probea terrible disservice to the country and the American people.

A former federal prosecutor, he said as early as February that there was "ample evidence"that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016, though he left it up to Mueller to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Schiff is likely to chair the House Intelligence Committee if Democrats win the House, and hes not ready to give up on the investigation.

He said in a statement that Democrats would need to "fully assess what areas of inquiry in the Russia investigation still require a full accounting"by reviewing their work along with what the Senate and Mueller have uncovered.

There are serious and credible allegations the Russians may possess financial leverage over the president, including perhaps the laundering of Russian money through his businesses, Schiff said in an Oct. 12 op-ed in the Washington Post. It would be negligent to our national security not to find out.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., joined at left by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., makes a statement at a gun-rights hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Nov. 29, 2017.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Nadler could chair the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over articles of impeachment.

So far, he has been guarded about his position, telling The Atlantic in September that he hasnt seen information thats proof positive that hes committed impeachable offenses.

Regardless, its clear Nadler would pursue a vigorous oversight agenda. A report by the committees Democratic staff called A Record of Abuse, Corruption, and Inaction, blasts the GOP majority for failing to conduct meaningful oversight on a host of issues, including election security, enforcement of federal ethics rules, breaches of the emoluments clause of the Constitution and allegations of obstruction of justice.

He told The New York Times last month that, if Democrats win control, the committeewould open an investigation related to allegations of sexual misconduct and perjury against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, arguing the Senate failed to do its job of advise and consent. He said the committee would likely subpoena records from the White House and FBI, which conducted an investigation into the allegations that Democrats said wasn't thorough enough.

Nadler has also been a critic of Trumps immigration policies, another topic that falls under the committees jurisdiction.

The abuses and ethical lapses we have seen in the Trump Administration, in the Trump Campaign and in Congress clearly show the need to address the culture of corruption that has developed in the absence of appropriate checks on power, Nadler said, delivering the weekly Democratic Address last month. This corruption is at the heart of what Donald Trump represents: self-interest and ego-driven decisions that come at the expense of the American people.

House Financial Services Committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asks a question of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson during a hearing June 27, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

Waters was among more than a dozen Democrats and high-profile critics of Trump who were targeted last month with suspicious packages carrying bomb-like devices. She blamed Trump for promoting violence among his supporters and urged others to not be intimidated.

"We have to keep to doing what were doing in order to make this country right, she said in an interview with Blavity. Thats what I intend to do, and as the young people say, 'I aint scared.

If Democrats win the House, Waters would be in line to lead the House Financial Services Committee. That means more power to explore a key interest Trumps finances.

She has been seeking records that could show whether Trump, his family members and associates have financial ties to Russia.

She would also be in position to review Republican efforts to roll back Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform protections.

"Financial services issues are critical for all Americans and for our economy, and I am focused on making sure that our financial system is fair, she said in a statement.

Waters, who has long called for Trumps impeachment, made waves this summer when she encouraged protesters to confront Cabinet officials in public. Trump responded by calling her an extraordinarily low-IQ person and alleging falsely that she called for harming his supporters.

More: Forget the pantsuit. In 2018, 'badass' female candidates show strength after decades of being told how to look, sound and act

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More: Midterms: Democrats have more final advertising dollars in six of the nine hottest Senate races

Contributing: Eliza Collins

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2018 midterm elections: Democrats who could challenge ...

Christine Blasey Ford had just revealed her identity and was prepared to testify in public, detailing her allegations that Kavanaugh had tried to sexual assault her more than three decades ago. On top of that, a New Yorker article had just revealed that a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, was accusing Kavanaugh of exposing his genitals to her while they were college students.

Then came Michael Avenatti.

She also alleged that at some parties, boys lined up by a bedroom to "gang-rape" incapacitated girls and claimed those in the lineup included Kavanaugh and Judge. But she did not say Kavanaugh or Judge assaulted the girls in the bedroom, nor did she provide the names of corroborating witnesses.

Kavanaugh furiously denied the allegations.

But the eye-popping nature of those claims suddenly gave Republicans an opportunity to shift the narrative away from Ford's allegations and make a broader case that the growing accusations of sexual misconduct amounted to an orchestrated Democratic smear campaign, something Sen. Susan Collins, the swing GOP vote, cited herself when announcing she'd be the decisive vote to support Kavanaugh's confirmation.

A host of Democratic senators and senior aides told CNN that the allegations from Avenatti's client gave the GOP an opening to conflate -- and dismiss -- all the allegations in one broad brush.

"Well you know at some point there were a lot of folks coming forward making all sorts of accusations," said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, when asked about the allegations raised by Avenatti and his client. "It turns it into a circus atmosphere and certainly that's not where we should be."

Asked if Avenatti was helpful, Peters said: "I think we should have focused on the serious allegations that certainly appeared very credible to me that would be our best course of action."

Privately, the assessment was far more scathing.

"Democrats and the country would have been better off if Mr. Avenatti spent his time on his Iowa vanity project rather than meddling in Supreme Court fights," a senior Senate Democratic aide fumed, referring to Avenatti toying with the idea of seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. "His involvement set us back, absolutely."

A Democratic senator, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, said: "Not helpful at all. I think Susan was always yes, but Avenatti was a useful foil."

Reached for comment Saturday, Avenatti pushed back, criticizing anonymous Democrats as "cowards" and saying the assessment shows the "failed leadership" in the Democratic Party.

"It is outrageous that these so-called Democrats would attack a sexual assault victim from coming forward," Avenatti told CNN. "I guess their position is that she should have shut her mouth and remained silent? It is disgusting that these cowards blame my client and the other accusers from coming forward.""

Avenatti, who represented Daniels, the porn actress who was paid by Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen in the 2016 campaign to keep silent about an alleged affair with Trump, has furiously criticized the FBI for not investigating the allegations, saying Swetnick would be willing to testify under oath about her claims.

In a statement released on Sunday, Swetnick said Collins "does not deserve to represent women" and that her allegations deserved an investigation.

"My allegations should have been investigated. I know of multiple corroborating witnesses and we were all prepared to speak with the FBI as we made known for weeks," the statement read.

Swetnick went on to say that key Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee "purposely prevented any inquiry into my claims and those of other sexual assault victims in the interest of politics."

While Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, cited the allegation once they were made public to call for the confirmation to ground to a halt, other Democrats quickly distanced themselves from the allegation, choosing instead to keep the focus on Ford's claims -- and a lesser extent, Ramirez's.

And on Friday when she announced her critical decision to give Kavanaugh the votes to confirm his nomination, Collins called the allegation "outlandish" without "any credible supporting evidence."

"Some of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh illustrate why the presumption of innocence is so important," Collins said on the floor. "I am thinking in particular not of the allegations raised by Professor Ford, but of the allegation that, when he was a teenager, Judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape."

Avenatti sharply criticized Collins -- and Democrats, as well.

"How do they know her claims, supported by six witnesses were not credible?" Avenatti said. "They did basically nothing to find out."

Many Democrats did not know what to make of the claims made by Avenatti's client. In particular, Democrats pointed to more than 1,000 pages of FBI tips on Kavanaugh that poured in and were never investigated -- some of which, they said, could have been credible. They said Swetnick's could well be credible -- or perhaps not.

"I just step back and I just look at the totality -- this was not attempted to be a serious process," said Sen. Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts, when asked if Avenatti was helpful to the case against Kavanaugh. He called the FBI probe a "coverup" directed by the White House

"I just consider this to be a larger story," Markey said, when asked again about Avenatti's clients came.

Peters said some Republicans pointed to the Swetnick allegations "to distract from the task at hand, which is really about pursuing what are serious allegations, and one that seemed to be credible.

"So there are always efforts whenever you dealing with a serious issue like this, that people want to change the discussion and have everybody chanse another different shiny object," Peters said. "Our job in the Senate, and it should have been the job of the FBI too, is to focus on those that are credible."

One Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee privately was more direct.

"It wasn't helpful because the story became about Avenatti," the Democratic senator said.

Avenatti, who headlined an Ohio fundraiser Friday and is considering running for president in 2020, said he wears that Democratic criticism with a "badge of honor."

"Many establishment Democrats are concerned because they see me as a threat," Avenatti said.

CNN's Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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Democrats say Michael Avenatti undercut their case against ...