Midterms unsettled; Tropical Storm Nicole; Twitter remote work

The 2022 midterms remained unsettled as of early Thursday morning; Hurricane Nicole downgraded to a tropical storm shortly after making landfall in Florida; and Elon Musk banned remote work at Twitter. These stories highlight the Daily Rundown for Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.

Midterms unsettled – While Republicans made small gains in both houses of Congress Wednesday, both chambers remained up for grabs more than 24 hours after polls closed in the 2022 midterm elections. As of 7:00 a.m. EST, Republicans held a 207-184 lead in the House (218 needed for party control) and a 49-48 lead in the Senate.

Based on partial results of the undecided races, Republicans are still expected to take the House. They are currently leading in enough races to secure 220 seats.

However, control of the Senate may come down to next month’s Georgia Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. With the midterms still unsettled, some allies of former President Donald Trump were calling on him to delay his planned announcement of a presidential run for 2024.

“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” former Trump adviser Jason Miller said. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now.”

Nicole downgraded to tropical storm – Hurricane Nicole made landfall along the east coast of Florida early Thursday, shortly before being downgraded to a tropical storm. Nicole had already led officials to shut down airports and theme parks and order evacuations in areas that included former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Authorities warned that Nicole’s storm surge could further erode many beaches hit by Hurricane Ian in September. Nicole is forecast to head into Georgia and the Carolinas later Thursday and Friday, dumping heavy rain across the region.

Twitter ends remote work – According to a Bloomberg report, new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s first staff email included a ban on remote work unless he personally approved it.  The new rules, which kick in immediately, will expect employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week.

In the email, Musk told staff to prepare for “difficult times ahead” as it pertained to the social media company’s finances. Musk has upped the price for the Twitter Blue subscription to $8 and attached user verification to it. Musk told workers in the email that he wants to see subscriptions account for half of Twitter’s revenue.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.