Conservative Republican Nick Begich will win a tight race for Alaska’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press.

Begich defeated his main rival, Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, the first Native Alaskan in Congress, and one of only five House Democrats currently representing a district won by President-elect Trump in 2020.

The win widens the Republican majority in the House to 219 and 213 for Democrats.

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The GOP candidate is no stranger to politics, having been born into a prominent political family in Alaska – made up of mostly Democrats.

His grandfather, Nick Begich, Sr., was an Alaska congressman, before mysteriously disappearing on a flight and being pronounced dead in 1972. His uncle, Mark Begich, was a U.S. senator for Alaska from 2009 to 2015.

The other two hopefuls in the race were Alaska Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Democratic candidate Eric Hafner.

Alaska is one of only two states to use ranked-choice voting in federal elections, something that benefited Peltola in 2022, when Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin knocked each other out of the running by splitting the Republican vote.

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Rep. Mary Peltola is one of a few House Democrats in a seat won by Trump in 2020. (Getty Images)

Republicans took a lesson from that defeat, however, and instead, coalesced around Begich earlier in the race.

Alaska has just one House seat given its modest population compared to more densely packed states. It is also one of only two states to use ranked-choice voting in its federal elections.

Peltola won her seat in a special election following the sudden death of longtime Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, in 2022.

Young’s daughters and several former staffers endorsed Peltola for re-election in the November race later that year.

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Rep. Mary Peltola replaced late Rep. Don Young, who died suddenly in 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The moderate Democrat has been known to break from her party on certain climate and energy issues, among others.

Begich’s victory is a much-needed win for House Republicans who have fought tooth-and-nail to retain and even expand their majority.

He was added to the House GOP campaign arm’s “Young Guns” list in August of this year, giving him access to National Republican Congressional Committee resources, support, and advisement.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. 

When NBC launched MSNBC in 1996, the network was marketed with the slogan “It’s Time to Get Connected,” a line that acknowledged the emergence of the internet as a game-changing force in the media. Microsoft, then a minority partner in the channel, made web culture part of its programming.

Now, MSNBC is being upended by the very technology it first embraced, with streaming video now accounting for nearly half of all TV viewing, according to Nielsen. The decline of pay TV has culminated in Comcast placing MSNBC — along with sister networks such as CNBC and E! — in a spinoff company that will essentially be a repository for its cable outlets.

The plan, formally announced Wednesday, means MSNBC will be owned by a separate entity from its parent NBC News, ending what has at times been a tense relationship.

Nothing changes right away, however. The spinoff, valued at $7 billion, isn’t expected to be completed for about a year. And NBC News will continue to provide news-gathering services to MSNBC after the spinoff.

Nonetheless, the deal raises questions about the future of liberal-slanted MSNBC, which has at times beat its more down-the-middle rival CNN in ratings for major events such as election night.

NBCUniversal Group Chairman Mark Lazarus, who will oversee the new spun-off company, told MSNBC staff Wednesday that he was unsure what the arrangement would mean for the channel’s name and logo, which incorporates the recognizable multicolored NBC peacock.

After all, NBC considered changing the MSNBC moniker after it bought out Microsoft’s share of the network in 2005. (Microsoft was the “MS” is MSNBC.) But the plan was rejected because the name was already part of TV news culture.

Changing the name MSNBC now would require a massive promotional campaign. Its audience of habit-bound older viewers — the media age is over 70 — may be resistant to trust a brand they don’t recognize.

The spinoff could also increase pressure on talent salaries, which are under scrutiny across all TV news organizations that are facing shrinking audiences.

In 2021, NBCUniversal signed its star host Rachel Maddow to a massive deal paying her a reported $30 million a year. Maddow reduced her MSNBC workload to one day a week in a deal that also has her working on film, documentary and podcast projects for the parent company. How that arrangement would work under the new structure is one of the issues the new company will face.

In its early years, MSNBC served as a training ground for NBC News talent. Brian Williams and Lester Holt both spent hundreds of hours handling breaking news coverage on cable before they were promoted to the anchor chair at “NBC Nightly News.” Correspondents such as Savannah Guthrie frequently appeared on the channel, honing the skills that eventually brought her to NBC’s “Today.”

MSNBC also gave viewers a sense that NBC News was always on, giving it an advantage over its broadcast network competitors CBS and ABC. But it long was unable to overcome the advantage CNN had as the go-to utility for cable news.

Eventually, MSNBC followed the model set by cable news ratings leader Fox News, which succeeded by adding conservative opinion to the mix. Keith Olbermann became the first prime-time star on MSNBC in 2008 by publicly taking on Bill O’Reilly, who was then the signature Fox News host.

While the scuffling got attention, the push into liberal political commentary caused tensions among the more traditional-minded journalists at NBC News.

“Being a maverick always ruffles some feathers, and MSNBC was always being a maverick,” said veteran TV news producer Jonathan Wald, who was a senior executive at the network.

But the formula worked. The network became only more popular after Donald Trump emerged as a viable Republican presidential candidate in 2015 and disrupted the accepted norms in presidential politics. Once Trump got elected, MSNBC became home base for viewers opposed to his policies and behavior.

Maddow became a break-out star in prime time. The national shock of Trump created personalities out of Republicans who opposed him, such as Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director under George W. Bush.

As MSNBC’s reputation as a destination for progressive viewers became more pronounced, its fans rejected the more neutral approach of NBC News journalists such as Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell, who also appeared on the channel.

Todd’s program, “Meet the Press Daily,” was moved off MSNBC in 2022. Mitchell, a midday anchor on MSNBC for 16 years, is returning to duties as a correspondent for NBC News at the end of this year.

Earlier this year, MSNBC hosts blasted NBC News management on air when it attempted to hire former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel. The unprecedented public rebuke resulted in NBC News management scrapping the deal.

Meanwhile, MSNBC’s function as a 24-hour service became redundant at NBC News once the network launched NBC News Now, a free streaming news channel.

But Lazarus, a respected veteran inside NBCUniversal, tried to keep an optimistic tone when addressing staff, according to one attendee at the meeting at the network’s Rockefeller Center headquarters in New York. He said the new corporation will be committed to investment in the network.

“I completely empathize with people who think this would be a bittersweet thing,” Lazarus said. “I think it’s exciting is because very few times in life you get to have the opportunity to be part of what I’ll call a ‘well-funded startup.’”

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won her 22nd term in Congress in northwest Ohio, defeating her Republican challenger and holding on to her seat in one of the most closely watched races in the country.

Kaptur defeated Ohio state Rep. Derek Merrin, according to the Associated Press, which called the race Wednesday at 1:02 p.m. With 99% of precincts reporting, Kaptur led Merrin with 48.27% of the vote to 47.63%, a lead of 2,382 votes. 

Though the race was not called on election night, Kaptur had declared victory early on Nov. 6. Her win will keep the incoming Republican House majority at 218 seats while Democrats hold 213. 

“Tonight, the people of Ohio’s 9th District have spoken, and I am deeply grateful for the trust they have placed in me to continue fighting for working families, creating good-paying jobs, protecting healthcare for everyone, and securing Social Security and Medicare so Ohioans can retire with dignity,” her campaign said in a statement. “This campaign has always been about the strength and resilience of our communities, and tonight we celebrate not just a victory but a renewed commitment to the belief that what America makes and grows, makes and grows America.”

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Kaptur was one of eight Democrats running in 2024 in a district that voted for Trump in 2020. Trump won the state of Ohio by 8 points in 2020.

Heading into the election, Republicans were optimistic they could flip the seat after redistricting following the 2020 census brought more Trump-friendly areas into the district.

Merrin took aim at Kaptur’s long tenure in Congress by pushing for term limits and criticizing the congresswoman for sponsoring only five bills on her own that became law in 41 years.

“Marcy Kaptur hasn’t done squat for the four decades she has served in Congress,” Merrin told Fox News Digital earlier this year, arguing that Kaptur will “continue the ineffective status quo.”

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State Rep. Derek Merrin talks to reporters on Feb. 15, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Samantha Hendrickson, file)

Merrin’s campaign also focused on Kaptur’s voting in line with the Biden administration 100% of the time.

Pro-Kaptur ads running on radio and television in Toledo focused on Merrin’s past support for convicted politician Larry Householder, attempted to paint him as a radical on the abortion issue and called him a “corporate puppet.”

Rep. Marcy Kaptur speaks at the VFW Post 2529 Annual Corn Roast in Sandusky, Ohio, on Aug. 20, 2022. (Bill Clark/Getty Images)

“I would put my record up against any person in the current Congress and even some who have preceded me,” Kaptur said in a recent interview. “And I defy my opponents to even show anything they’ve done that comes close to what we have been able to accomplish because of that seniority.”

Kaptur was viewed as one of the most vulnerable members of the House heading into the 2024 election.

“This is seen by everybody around the country as what may be the best pickup opportunity we have to flip a blue seat to red,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said while rallying for Merrin in October.