Path to power: House races to watch on election night

WASHINGTON » The path to power in the House runs through a few dozen districts in Tuesday’s election, with Republicans defending their majority and Democrats looking to gain 23 seats they would need to win control.

After the first polls close in the Eastern United States, the tallies will start revealing clues to where Americans stand in 2018 on immigration, health care, gender equality in the #MeToo era — and who they want representing them in Washington during the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Some races to watch for those keeping score, listed in order of pollclosing times: Harvard Business School graduate. Trump won the district by 12 points and a Democrat hasn’t been elected to represent it since John F. Kennedy was president.

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. EST is political newcomer Andy Kim, a National Security Council staffer under Obama who has worked in Afghanistan.

Polls close 8 p.m. EST 3rd District west of Minnesota by 9 percentage points. GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen is under heavy pressure from Democrat Dean Phillips there. Paulsen avoided Trump’s recent rally in Rochester and his rally this summer in Duluth, and he has said he wrote in Marco Rubio’s name in the 2016 election. Still, Trump endorsed Paulsen last month.

Polls close 9 p.m. EST argues that Tenney’s hyperpartisan approach undermines her claim of working across the aisle. Trump beat Clinton by nearly 16 percentage points here.

Polls close 9 p.m. EST.