Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, is expected to report remaining results tonight. The governor’s race is extremely tight.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy promised Monday that he would kick key Democrats off committees if his party gains control of the lower chamber.

McCarthy said that he would remove Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee, according to a source in the room during a Republican conference leadership forum.

The California Republican is vying to become speaker of the House.

CNN has not yet projected which party will control the lower chamber, though Republicans appear on track to gain a narrow House majority.

Some context: The vote to elect the next speaker will take place in January at the start of the new Congress, but House Republicans are holding their internal leadership elections to pick a speaker nominee this week.

Republicans held a candidate forum Monday evening. It will be followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley on Monday said the midterm election “was the funeral for the Republican Party as we know it.”

“I think that this election was the funeral for the Republican Party as we know it,” he said at the US Capitol as he headed to vote. “The Republican Party as we have known it is dead –– and voters have made that clear.”

The Missouri senator added:

On whether he supports Trump running in 2024, Hawley said, “I’m not gonna give him advice, he’ll choose to do what he’s gonna do.”

Confronted with an unexpected moment of reckoning, some moderate Republicans are pointing out that the party has some important decisions to make about its future: 

Are they going to be the party of former President Donald Trump or a party that wins elections?

Are they going to be able to excise the “extremism” in their party that more Republicans are openly talking about?

First test: The first indication of where the party is headed will come this week when Republicans, anticipating they will ultimately hold a slim House majority, choose their nominee for speaker.

Some of the most Trump-aligned lawmakers want Rep. Kevin McCarthy to commit to a more combative stance against the Biden administration. While McCarthy expects to prevail, the unfolding drama will show what he has to sacrifice to keep Republicans in the House on the same page. CNN reported Monday that Trump has been quietly working to shore up support for McCarthy. 

Moving beyond extremism: Two moderate Republican governors who will be handing over their jobs to Democrats next year are speaking out about how their party failed in a year when it should have romped.

“Voters, generally speaking, especially in battleground states, aren’t interested in extremism. They just aren’t,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Monday on “The Lead.” Baker, who will be replaced by Democratic attorney general Maura Healey in January, said Trump’s influence hurt Republicans on Election Day and is driving people from the party.

Third strike for Trump: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, long a Trump critic, was more unvarnished in his criticism during an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“Commonsense conservatives that focused on talking about issues people cared about, like the economy and crime and education, they did win,” Hogan told Dana Bash. “But people who tried to relitigate the 2020 election and focused on conspiracy theories and talked about things the voters didn’t care about, they were almost universally rejected.”

In that regard, American voters were sophisticated, splitting tickets to elect Republicans in certain races and Democrats in others.

Hogan, who will be replaced by Democrat Wes Moore in January, said this is the third straight election Trump has cost Republicans. “It’s like three strikes, you’re out,” he said, adding, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And Donald Trump kept saying, ‘We’re going to be winning so much, we will get tired of winning.’ I’m tired of losing. I mean, that’s all he’s done.”

Others are not quite as direct, even if they’re saying some similar things.

Read more.

No candidate stood up to announce a run against House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy once he finished speaking and taking questions at a post-election Republican conference meeting Monday, according to two sources in the room.

A candidate can still stand up to run tomorrow when the leadership election is held. 

Some context: The vote to elect the next speaker will take place in January at the start of the new Congress, but House Republicans are holding their internal leadership elections to pick a speaker nominee this week.

Republicans held a candidate forum Monday evening. It will be followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed the Republican conference behind closed doors Monday and got a standing ovation at the first post-election meeting, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

It was a call for unity, a source said, adding that McCarthy said, “We will win as a team — or we will lose as individuals.”

One member in the room said McCarthy was taking questions from lawmakers in the audience. Some members were standing up to show support, while others raised concerns to see what rule changes McCarthy will make.

Rep. Matt Gaetz asked McCarthy if he would try to solicit or accept speaker votes from any Democrats, according to a source in the room. McCarthy told him “no.”

Sources told CNN today that McCarthy allies had tried to convince moderate Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar to switch parties. The Texas congressman’s office said it was not an idea he would entertain.

Some context: The vote to elect the next speaker will take place in January at the start of the new Congress, but House Republicans will hold their internal leadership elections to pick a speaker nominee this week.

Republicans are holding a candidate forum on Monday evening, followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.

With a razor-thin majority looking likely, allies of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy recently attempted to convince moderate Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar to switch parties in hopes of padding their slim margins, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. But Cuellar flatly rejected the idea, the sources said.

McCarthy’s spokesperson said the Republican leader was not involved if these conversations took place and said this is not in any way part of their strategy for the majority or for his speakership bid. 

“Anyone suggesting this is simply exercising in fan fiction,” said McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar. “Leader McCarthy is going to be elected Speaker by the current and newly-elected members of the House Republican Conference. Our efforts are exclusively focused on bringing our conference together and saving the country.”

Cuellar’s office did not confirm whether he spoke to any McCarthy allies about switching parties but made clear it was not an idea he would entertain.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the outreach to Cuellar.

Charlie Baker, the moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts, said former President Donald Trump’s influence hurt their party in this year’s midterm elections as voters demonstrated they “aren’t interested in extremism.”

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Baker said Trump “hurt the party’s chances on Election Day, not just here in Massachusetts and Maryland, but in many of those other battleground states.”

In this year’s midterm elections, across key battleground states, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Trump endorsed candidates who embraced his lies about widespread election fraud. Most of those candidates lost.

Baker said Republicans need to learn as a result of the midterms that voters aren’t interested in extreme candidates — an implicit suggestion that Trump’s endorsements proved costly.

Baker, who is set to depart office after two terms in the deep-blue state’s governor’s office, said he thinks voters want “elected officials who are going to reach out, who are going to engage with the so-called other side and who are going to take seriously this idea that you are supposed to try to represent and hear the voices of all of the people that you serve.”

“I think in the midterms, one of the big lessons that the Republican Party nationally needs to take away from it is voters want collaborative elected officials. They don’t want extremes,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday said his plans for the Democratic majority in the next two years include working on accomplishing as much bipartisan legislation as possible. 

“We can have a great, great two years if we work together,” he said, in remarks on the Senate floor as the chamber returned from recess. 

CNN projected Saturday that Democrats will maintain their narrow Senate majority, after victories in close contests in Nevada and Arizona.

Speaking to his caucus, Schumer said “let us proceed in the next two years by putting people first and getting things done even if we have to compromise. We may not accomplish everything we want, but if we can get real things done that will measure how good a Congress we can be.”

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” he added, pointing to the successful bipartisan gun and mental health deal as an example. 

Asked if he had enough votes to remain Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell told reporters in the Capitol on Monday, “of course.” 

He declined to answer questions about whether former President Donald Trump should delay announcing a 2024 presidential campaign or comment on calls to delay the Senate GOP leadership elections. 

A potential challenger: Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, says he hasn’t made a decision yet on whether to challenge McConnell on Wednesday when leadership elections are scheduled.

“I haven’t made a decision yet,” Scott told CNN, adding that he was headed to McConnell’s office for a leadership meeting.