By the end of the day Monday, there were more than 5,000 active-duty troops deployed to the US-Mexico border, where they are laying razor wire in preparation for the arrival of migrant caravans consisting of potentially thousands of people from across Latin America.

There are roughly 2,700 active-duty troops in Texas, 1,200 in Arizona and 1,100 in California, the Department of Defense revealed Monday. These figures are in addition to the more than 2,000 National Guard troops that were deployed to the border in April.

"We have enough concertina wire to cover up to 22 miles already deployed, already to the border," Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, head of US Northern Command, explained last week.

"We have additional concertina wire that we can string with over 150 miles available," the general added.

Over the past week, thousands of troops were deployed to the border to begin hardening points of entry and securing crossings ahead of the anticipated arrival of migrant caravans.

• Republicans counted on their tax cut law being a key part of their 2018 midterm strategy.
• But a new exit poll showed that few Americans believed the tax law helped them.
• Only 28% surveyed said the Republican tax cuts benefitted them, while 45% said they had no effect. 

Republicans wanted to make their tax cuts the centerpiece of their 2018 midterm strategy, but it doesn't look like it worked.

According to an exit poll conducted by CNN, NBC, ABC, and other major news outlets, few midterm voters believed that the GOP tax law benefited them:

• 28% of people surveyed said the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has helped them.
• 45% reported no impact.
• And 23% of people said the TCJA has hurt them.

In the run up to the passage of the TCJA, Republicans were convinced that the bill would be a political winner. But over the course of 2018, polls routinely showed that the tax reform was unpopular. Eventually GOP candidates and groups pared back their advertising around the law.

An internal GOP poll obtained by Bloomberg showed that the party had admitted that Republicans lost messaging battle over the TCJA.

While most Americans will receive a tax cut from the law, not many people have filed taxes under the new system which could have blunted the impact. At the same time, the GOP's promises of a boom in business investment and wages has not materialized.

On the other side, Democrats were able to convince voters that most of the tax laws benefits will go to wealthier Americans and corporations. The internal GOP poll found that 61% of Americans believed that corporations and the wealthy got more of the benefit than the middle class. Also, the TCJA's massive addition to the federal deficit became a major talking point for Democrats.

Weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump even announced that a new tax cut for middle class Americans is on the way — a move that took GOP leaders by surprise. Many analysts said that amounted to an implicit admission that the TCJA was not the political winner that the GOP expected.

SEE ALSO: Exit polls show healthcare is the biggest issue for voters — and that could be a good sign for Democrats

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

• Staten Island and a chunk of South Brooklyn will decide whether to keep or replace New York City's lone congressional Republican on Tuesday. 
• Polls have Republican Rep. Dan Donovan and Democratic challenger Max Rose within single digits of each other. 
• Voters at Rose's polling place on Tuesday — including some who voted for President Donald Trump — told INSIDER they support Rose in large part because they want a check on Trump. 

Staten Island has long been New York City's most conservative borough. Some New Yorkers like to think of it as more akin to New Jersey than the Big Apple. 

But Staten Islanders and a chunk of South Brooklyn will decide on Tuesday whether to break from tradition and replace New York City's lone Republican in Congress with a Democrat.

Their choice is between incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Donovan, who has tacked toward the center since seeking President Donald Trump's endorsement in his contentious primary, and Max Rose, a 31-year-old Army veteran and former health care executive who's framing himself as an independent voice. Recent polls have the candidates within single digits of each other.  

Issues that came up in conversations with Staten Island voters on Tuesday: traffic congestion, the opioid crisis, and reining in the president. 

Read more:Here's what a dozen voters in one of the country's most competitive Senate races think about politics right now

Trump won Staten Island by 17 points, despite the fact that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans on the island by nearly two-to-one. 

One such voter, Steven Gross — a 51-year-old dad of two who has lived on Staten Island all his life — cast his ballot for Trump in 2016 despite being a registered Democrat, but voted for Rose on Tuesday because he wants to see a check on the president. 

"I don't want to let him do everything that he wants to do," he said in an interview with INSIDER at his Staten Island polling place, PS 16, on Tuesday. 

SEE ALSO: Here's what a dozen voters in one of the country's most competitive Senate races think about politics right now

"I voted straight Democrat, but I'm an independent."

Charlie Sauss — a 70-year-old musician and Vietnam vet — called Tuesday's elections "probably the most important election in my lifetime" and said he "reluctantly" voted for Rose "because he's a Democrat, and that's it." 

He added that "in any other year" he would have voted for Donovan, who he generally likes, but this year he wants to see "everything flipped." 

"I voted straight Democrat, but I'm an independent," he said, calling Trump a "devil.""I didn't care who they were, what name was on there, I voted for Democrats." 

Sauss said Rose's abundant advertising and constant mention of his military experience has irritated him. 

"He mentions the Army too much and I find it offensive," Sauss said. "How many times is he gonna say it and in how many ways?"

"You can't give [Trump] free rein."

William Castillo — a Vietnam veteran who grew up in Brooklyn — moved to Staten Island a year ago after he lost his home in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, where he lived for the previous 33 years.

His biggest concern is the cost of living — particularly housing — and he said he doesn't trust Trump primarily because he's a real estate mogul.

On Trump, Castillo says, "You can't give him free rein." 

"[Trump]'s very racist."

Brenda and Luis Carazas, siblings and students at the College of Staten Island who moved to New York from Peru in 2006 and are both new US citizens, had nothing good to say about Trump. 

"He's very racist," said Brenda, a 21-year-old independent. "He's not a typical president." 

Luis, 19, said he and his sister voted for Rose because he'd shake things up. 

"The younger image — it brings more attitude to it," Luis said. 

• While this year's midterms elections are likely to have record-high turnout, 6 million Americans were unable to vote this year because of a previous felony conviction.
• In Florida, which has one of the strictest laws in the country, one in 10 voting-age adults and almost one in four African-American adults are barred from voting for life because of a previous felony conviction — for now.
• A ballot referendum in Florida this year, Amendment 4, would add an amendment to Florida's constitution automatically restoring voting and civil rights to people convicted of most felonies after the completion of their sentences.

While millions of Americans across the country have set records for early voting, and even more headed to the polls to vote on Election Day, approximately 6 million Americans remain legally barred from voting because they hold felony convictions.

But on Tuesday, the state with the highest rate of felon disenfranchisement could overturn its longstanding practice of denying 1.5 million citizens the right to vote.

Dating back to skyrocketing incarceration rates beginning in the 1970s with the start of the War on Drugs, the number of people disenfranchised from a criminal conviction has jumped from 1.2 million people in 1970, to 6.1 million today.

Currently, 48 states restrict the rights of people with felony convictions to vote in some way. While most of those states automatically restore the civil rights of felons upon their release from prison or after completion of parole or probation, some permanently disenfranchise those convicted of serious crimes (like Nevada and Arizona) or election-related offenses (like in Missouri).

In Florida, which disenfranchises felons for life — as does Iowa and Kentucky — a staggering 1.5 million voting-age residents, and 23% of African-American adults cannot vote due to a previous felony conviction.

Not only do those people permanently lose their right to vote, but also the right to serve on a jury of their peers, run for office, own a firearm, or obtain a professional license — unless they receive clemency from the governor.

Because the clemency process is entirely up to the executive branch and not the legislature, procedures have varied drastically depending on the Governor. Republican Gov. Jeb Bush granted clemency to about one-fifth of the 385,522 applicants for clemency from 1997 to 2007.

When Democratic Gov. Charlie Crist took office in 2007, he overhauled the clemency system, automatically restoring voting rights to non-violent offenders upon the completion of their sentences and putting violent ones into a review process. When Crist was Governor from 2007 to 2011, 150,000 people with felony convictions regained their civil rights.

But when Republican Gov. Rick Scott came into power, he made the rules for receiving clemency stricter than ever before, and only granted clemency to 3,000 applicants in eight years, leading the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to estimate that the current backlog of clemency applications will take decades to clear up.

Read more:The evolution of American voting rights in 242 years shows how far we've come — and how far we have to go

Florida felons could get back the right to vote

In Florida, a person with a felony conviction must wait 5 years before applying for clemency to regain their civil rights. The 5-year waiting period re-starts if they are arrested anytime within it, even if no charges are filed.

After the waiting period, the application, and sometimes a hearing, a person can be denied restoration with no justification, and must wait another two years before applying again. A federal judge recently ruled that the current system of clemency under  Scott is unconstitutional, and the state must reform it to be less arbitrary and set out clearer criteria for receiving clemency.

This Election Day, however, all of that could change. The Floridians who can vote on Tuesday will be deciding on a ballot referendum, Amendment 4, to pass a constitutional amendment automatically restoring voting rights to felons, except those convicted of murder and felony sex crimes, after completion of their sentences. 

The issue has gotten more and more attention in the media since the referendum made it on the ballot. An average of three recently-conducted polls shows that 66% of those polled support the amendment, 25% oppose it, and 8% are undecided.

If the amendment gets over the 60% of the vote it needs to pass, it would be the single largest granting of voting rights since the 19th amendment to the US constitution extended the right to vote to women in 1920.

Read more of Business Insider's 2018 Midterm Election coverage:

• Follow along for live coverage of a wild election night
• See the House and Senate results as they come in
• SENATE BATTLEGROUND MAP: The race for control of the Senate is as tight as it can be
• All the dates, deadlines, and rules you need to know before voting in the 2018 midterm elections
• This timeline shows the evolution of American voting rights

SEE ALSO: Midterms 2018 LIVE: Follow along for live results and coverage of a wild election night

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

• A white poll worker was dismissed and charged with criminal assault on accusations that she hurled a racial remark and shoulder-bumped a black voter at a polling station in North Houston.
• Juanita Barnes, who is white, reportedly yelled at Rolanda Anthony, who is black, and pointed a finger at her face after an issue with the address on her voter registration.
• "Maybe if I'd worn my blackface makeup today you could comprehend what I'm saying to you," Barnes reportedly said.
• Barnes continued to make racist comments after Anthony threatened to file a police report: "I'm white. Have you seen the news," she reportedly said.
• "If you call the police, they're going to take you to jail and do something to you, because I'm white," Barnes added.
• Barnes was escorted out of the building and the county attorney's office launched an investigation.

A white poll worker was dismissed and charged with criminal assault on accusations that she hurled a racial remark at a black voter at a polling station in North Houston on Tuesday, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Rolanda Anthony, a graduate-school student who reportedly works as a case manager for families in need, attempted to vote at the polling station at 8 a.m. when she was notified there was a discrepancy regarding her address.

A poll worker informed Anthony she needed to fill out a residency verification form, The Chronicle reported. Anthony, who claimed the address in the database and her identification were identical, asked the poll worker why she needed to fill out the form.

But before the poll worker was able to answer, Juanita Barnes, an alternate election judge, reportedly interjected by coming in close distance to Anthony, The Chronicle said.

Barnes, who is white, reportedly yelled at Anthony and pointed a finger at her face as onlookers watched. Barnes' coworkers alleged she had a history of making racist comments and tried to prevent her from working at their location.

"It's illegal for you not to change your address on your driver's license if you move," Barnes said, according to Anthony.

Anthony claimed she was "living here for years" and that her address was "correct," The Chronicle said.

Barnes responded by making a racially-charged remark that was corroborated by witnesses: "Maybe if I'd worn my blackface makeup today you could comprehend what I'm saying to you," she allegedly said.

"I stepped back, all the way against the wall," Anthony said to The Chronicle. "[Barnes] comes all the way over there, putting her hands in my face, yelling and screaming at me, telling me she's the [alternate] election judge and I'm going to do what she says."

A presiding election judge reportedly told Barnes she "can't say that," and told her to back off of Anthony. As Anthony filled out the verification form, Barnes allegedly continued harassing her, according to The Chronicle. The judge eventually dismissed Barnes, and Anthony told said she was going to file a police report.

Barnes reportedly bumped her shoulder into Anthony and continued to make racially-charged comments: "I'm white. Have you seen the news?"

"If you call the police, they're going to take you to jail and do something to you, because I'm white," Barnes allegedly said.

Barnes was escorted out of the building and the county attorney's office launched an investigation. A presiding election judge said the confusion over the address may have been attributed to a computer glitch.

Despite the scene at the polling station, Anthony cast her ballot, The Chronicle reported.

"I don't care who you vote for," Anthony said. "Don't let anything stop you from voting. Your vote matters. It's your right so use it."

Most polls in Texas close at 8:00 p.m. EST. The polling site was located in the 18th Congressional District, where Democratic incumbent Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has a high likelihood of becoming reelected, according to a FiveThirtyEight poll.

SEE ALSO: Exit polls show healthcare is the biggest issue for voters — and that could be a good sign for Democrats

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Megyn Kelly in 2017: 'I regret a lot' of the controversial stuff I've said on live television

• On Tuesday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took to Twitter to invoke the help of Elon Musk. 
• Benioff asked Musk if his Boring Company could come to San Francisco and help improve the city's transportation system. 
• The Boring Company (a subsidiary of SpaceX) has created its first "test tunnel" under the streets of Los Angeles to help prove out its tunnel system, meant to alleviate city traffic. 
• Musk nonchalantly agreed to Benioff's request. 

Before votes could even be counted on Tuesday in San Francisco for the highly debated Proposition C — which would tax the city's largest corporations to provide more funding to homeless services — the measure's number one backer, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, was already on to the next issue: transportation. 

This time, however, instead of personally spending over $2 million to support a ballot measure, he took to Twitter and invoked the help of none other than Elon Musk. 

The tweet was a reply to the video Musk posted last Saturday, showing off the tunnel that The Boring Company (a subsidiary of Musk's SpaceX) had created under the streets of Los Angeles. The project is the company's "test tunnel," used to demonstrate how its "pod" vehicles and "lifts" will work.

The Boring Company's overall purpose is to create alternative modes of transportation to help reduce city traffic. 

Read more:Elon Musk shares first look into The Boring Company's 'disturbingly long' tunnel

A little over an hour after Benioff's request to have the Boring Company build similar tunnels throughout the Bay Area — and even one that extended over 350 miles south to Los Angeles — Elon agreed, nonchalantly. 

The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 1A which earmarked $9 billion to initiate construction on a high-speed rail system that would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles. Construction for that project has already begun. 

SEE ALSO: San Francisco’s tech billionaires are fighting over how to deal with the city's homelessness crisis — Here’s what each tech bigwig says about Tuesday's vote on Prop C

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A cybersecurity expert showed us how hackers can tap into an office phone and listen to everything you're saying

• Democratic candidate Jennifer Wexton has unseated Republican incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock in Virginia's 10th district.
• The seat had been held by Republicans for decades, but GOP support in the Washington, DC suburbs has waned with each election.

Jennifer Wexton, the Democratic state senator challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock in Virginia's 10th congressional district, has won the highly competitive seat in the suburbs of Washington.

NBC News and others projected that Wexton had won shortly after polls closed on Tuesday, signaling a likelihood that the final tally will be a large gap.

Read more: Opposition to Trump is making the DC suburbs finally turn blue

Comstock had weathered tough races before, including a sizable victory in 2016 when the district also went for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But the backlash against President Donald Trump and his agenda in Washington's backyard had proved to difficult to navigate.

Wexton had garnered support from the large contingency of federal government employees, many of whom hold a negative view of Trump.

Wexton had also converted former FBI Director James Comey, who until 2018 had only donated to Republicans. Comey donated the maximum legal amount to Wexton and even canvassed for her campaign in the final days of the election. 

Wexton credited her surge in support with the heavy opposition to Trump from the district, which resulted in what she viewed as increased enthusiasm for her campaign.

"One of the things that is also helping is that in the post-Trump era, I think a lot of people realized just how fragile our democracy is and they realize that it’s important that they get out and vote and make their voices known," she told Business Insider in an October interview. "People recognize that they can’t just sit on the sidelines and assume everything’s going to be OK."

SEE ALSO: James Comey just broke a long streak of donating to Republicans by jumping into a key House race

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NOW WATCH: This top economist has a radical plan to change the way Americans vote

• Starbucks will look to improve its services in the US after experimenting with new innovations in China.
• Among those innovations are delivery services designed to closely resemble the experience customers enjoy inside Starbucks retail stores.
• The coffee chain says it has developed methods for delivering coffee products that have the same quality customers would normally get at a Starbucks store, by utilizing tools like heat-retaining packaging and spill-proof lids.
• China is Starbucks' second-largest market after the US.

Starbucks' president and chief executive Kevin Johnson said on Monday that the company would look to improve its delivery services in the US after experimenting with new delivery technologies in China, CNBC reported.

Among those innovations are delivery services designed to closely resemble the experience customers enjoy inside Starbucks retail stores.

The coffee chain says it has developed methods for delivering coffee products that have the same quality customers would normally get at a Starbucks store, by utilizing tools like heat-retaining packaging and spill-proof lids.

When customers receive their orders, "the beverage is the same temperature as if the barista just prepared it and handed it to them," Johnson told CNBC.

Johnson further explained to CNBC that China's food delivery industry was growing "faster than any other part of the world."

China is Starbucks' second-largest market, after the US.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why this Bovet watch costs over $450,000

The 2018 midterm elections are upon us, and the country is anxiously awaiting to hear the results of an array of consequential races nationwide.

There's a lot at stake on Tuesday, November 6. If Democrats are able to retake either the House or Senate, it has major implications for President Donald Trump's agenda over the next two years.

Most polling places open between 6 and 8 a.m. and close between 6 and 9 p.m. local time, but times vary based on location.

It can take hours, days, and sometimes even weeks for results to come in.

Follow our full coverage of the 2018 midterm elections here, and find live updates throughout the day and night below.

CLICK HERE TO REFRESH FOR UPDATES >>

8:08 p.m. ET: Donna Shalala flips another House seat for Democrats in Florida.

Democrat Donna Shalala won in Florida's 27th congressional district to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Shalala defeated Republican Maria Elvira Salazar.

8:00 p.m. ET: Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, Ben Cardin, Bob Casey, Tom Carper, and Sheldon Whitehouse win reelection.

Polls in multiple states close at 8 p.m. as it's announced a number of Democratic senators have won reelection, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tom Carper of Delaware, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

7:54 p.m. ET: Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown wins reelection in Ohio.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown won reelection in Ohio on Tuesday night. 

Democrats can't afford to lose a single seat in the Senate if they have any hope of winning a majority. They need a net gain of at least two seats, but pollsters have widely predicted Republicans will maintain control of the Senate. 

• The Boeing 737 MAX is the fastest-selling plane in company history.
• Through September, Boeing has taken orders for 4,783 737 MAX aircraft with 219 delivered to customers.
• The 737 MAX currently operates with 40 airlines around.

The Boeing 737 MAX entered service in 2017 to great fanfare. The jet is the latest in Boeing's long line of hot-selling 737 family narrow-body airliner. The 737 MAX has earned praise for its advanced aerodynamics and fuel-efficient engines.

In fact, the 737 remains the best selling airliner of all time while the new MAX variant quickly became quickest selling plane in Boeing history. Through September, Boeing has sold 14,985 737s since the 1960s with 4,783 of them the MAX variant. In total, 219 737 MAX aircraft have been delivered to airlines and leasing companies. 

In October, the tragic crash of Lion Air Flight JT610 brought the jet back to the forefront the public consciousness. Flight JT610, which killed all 189 people on board, was the first major accident involving the 737 MAX.

Read More: The incredible history of the Boeing 737, the best-selling airliner of all time.

On Tuesday, Boeing issued a safety bulletin for airlines operating its new 737 Max airliner in the wake of the crash.

The bulletin cautions operators of the 737 Max that erroneous readings from one of the plane's sensors can cause the aircraft to enter into a sudden dive, Bloomberg reported.

"On November 6, 2018, Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB) directing operators to existing flight crew procedures to address circumstances where there is erroneous input from an AOA sensor," the company's statement said.

In spite of the tragedy, industry analysts and Boeing's investors remain confident in the company. 

"This is a tragedy, but (the safety bulletin) says absolutely nothing about the design of the plane and its major subsystems," TEAL Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Business Insider.

Boeing stock closed up 1.51% on Wednesday. 

Read More: The amazing story of how the Airbus A320 family became the Boeing 737's greatest enemy.

The 737 MAX's major US customers include Southwest, American, and United. The plane is also in operation around the world from Air Italy to China Southern.

According to data from Airfleets.net, the 737MAX is currently in operation with 40 airlines around the world. 

Here's a closer look at the 40 airlines that fly the Boeing 737 MAX:

SEE ALSO: Boeing is warning 737 Max customers about a flaw that could make the jet suddenly dive — but an expert says the potentially deadly issue won't affect the company's business

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• Retail price prescription medication is prohibitively expensive. If you have insurance, your policy still doesn't always cover as much as you'd like. 
• Blink Health is a no-commitment, no-fee service that offers access to over 15,000 medications for a fraction of their retail price. 
• Here's the quick and easy process: search for your medication on its site, pay the low price online, then pick it up at a major or local pharmacy near you. 

I never particularly enjoy picking up a new prescription from the pharmacy because I know I'll stand at the counter in fraught silence, waiting for the pharmacist to tell me how much it's going to set me back.

Even though I have insurance, it doesn't always cover a lot, and I'm often surprised at how much I still have to pay out of pocket. If you don't have insurance, the damage is even worse. In either case, you feel like you have no choice but to pay for expensive prescriptions, or face the repercussions on your health. 

It's a dilemma that millions have to face, but shouldn't. Though you don't have the power to negotiate prices, an online company called Blink Health does. Blink Health works with pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring you lower prices on over 15,000 medications.

There are no membership fees or hidden fees, and the process is pretty simple. As long as you have a prescription from your doctor, you can use Blink Health's website or app. 

You start by searching for your medication, making sure to match the medication form and dosage to that of your prescription. You'll see two prices, one that's available at major pharmacies and an even lower one available at one specific pharmacy near you. 

Here's an example of how much Blink Health saves you on some common medications. It also has a price match guarantee on generic medications. If you find a lower price elsewhere, it will refund you the difference.

After paying online to lock in the price, you receive a "Blink Card," which you can either print out or show on your phone to the pharmacist. Bring this and your prescription to your chosen pharmacy, and they'll fill it like any other prescription. You should pay $0 at the pharmacy. 

Its network consists of over 30,000 pharmacy partners nationwide, including major stores like Walmart and Albertsons as well as local independent pharmacies, so it's easy to pick up your prescription at a location convenient for you, or you can have it delivered to you for free in two days. 

Whether you're uninsured, insured, or have Medicare, it's always helpful to check Blink Health to see how much you could be paying instead. Especially if you're taking a medication for a long period of time, the significant monthly savings are worth the few minutes of extra effort to look up your medication. 

Search for your medication at Blink Health here

Join the conversation about this story »

Women across the country saw historic wins in Tuesday's Midterm elections.

The night was poised to be a night of firsts, with a record number of women on the ballot and a number of candidates set to diversify Congress.

And the night resulted in just that, with victories for Native American, Muslim, black, gay and female candidates.

An all-time record number of women ran in Congressional races this year and now there are more women in Congress — 113 — than ever before. 

At a state level, Democrat Janet Mills of Maine and Republican Kristi Noem of South Dakota were elected as their state's first-ever female governors, and another 3,379 women were their parties' nominees for legislative seats.

This year's election saw a 75% increase in women of color running for Congress since 2012. A record-high 40 women of color were elected to the House, beating the previous record of 38.

Here, Business Insider takes a look at some of the women who made history.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, shocked many in New York when she defeated ten-term Rep. Joe Crowley in the state's Democratic congressional primary earlier this year.

The defeat made her the face of young Democrats as her campaign made national headlines.

She takes the record of youngest woman to be elected into Congress from Rep. Elise Stefanik, who was elected when she was 30, according to The Associated Press.

Sharice Davids and Debra Haaland became the first Native American women elected to Congress.

Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids and New Mexico Democrat Debra Haaland are the first Native American women to be elected to Congress.

Davids also became the first LGBT Native American elected into Congress when she ousted Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder on Tuesday.

The only previous Native American to serve on Congress is Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who represented Colorado from 1993 until 2005. 

Haaland, a tribal member of the Laguna Pueblo and former chairwoman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, has pushed for renewable energy, immigration reform and a higher minimum wage, according to The Associated Press.

Janet Mills became Maine’s first female governor.

Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills was elected to be Maine's first female governor in Tuesday's Midterm.

Mills defeated Republican businessman Shawn Moody and independent state treasurer Terry Hayes.

When she takes office, Mills will succeed GOP Gov. Paul Lepage.

Mills has vowed to fight against the Trump Administration policies on the environment, immigration and welfare, according to The Associated Press.

"Hope has been severely challenged in the last few years — both here in Maine and across the country," she said. "Challenged by the politics of cynicism, of fear, of distrust, of anger."

Other landmark female governor races include Lou Leon Guerrero, who became the first female governor of Guam, and Kristi Noem, who was elected as South Dakota’s first female governor.

• Apple on Wednesday released its redesigned iPad Pro and accessories.
• I bought the new 11-inch iPad Pro with the redesigned Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard.
• The whole package, including AppleCare+ to insure my new purchases, cost me over $1,300.
• Still, this tablet is beautiful, and I have some thoughts about using it.

I’ve been using Apple’s new iPad Pro for about two hours now. In fact, I’m typing all these words on Apple’s new Smart Keyboard, which magnetically hooks onto the new iPad Pro for support and power.

Overall, I’m happy with my purchase, but I have some initial thoughts of the new iPad Pro, having upgraded from a 4-year-old iPad Air.

Here are my first impressions of the new iPad Pro:

• Apple does an excellent job of getting you excited about your big purchase. The packaging of the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Smart Keyboard is very elegant. You don’t need to tear anything open like an animal; everything peels away and unhooks from itself like it’s designed that way. It feels very high-end. I love Apple’s packaging, and the iPad Pro is no exception.
• Apple’s new Smart Keyboard takes some getting used to. Unless you plan on exclusively using the iPad’s touchscreen for typing, I would highly recommend buying a keyboard accessory with this new iPad, or any iPad, really. I’ve owned and used Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard for years now, on my 2013 iPad Air, but I wanted to give Apple’s latest Smart Keyboard a try. The positives: The keyboard feels soft but sturdy, and it easily hooks onto the iPad Pro. The negatives: It’s loud, and you almost have to “punch” the keys with your fingers for them to register. 
• The Apple Pencil is a beautiful stylus, and I love how pairing and charging is as easy as attaching it to the top of the iPad Pro. That said, I don’t know how often I’m going to be using the Apple Pencil. Unless I feel like drawing something, I don’t know the next time I’m actually going to need the Pencil, and that makes me feel bad since it costs over $100. Most people will probably not need this gorgeous accessory.
• I need to learn new gestures to get the most out of this thing. Multitasking gestures have existed since iOS 11, but I've never really had much of a reason to try them, since I never really considered using my iPad like a real work computer before. But with the iPad Pro, I feel compelled to get the most out of this computer, and that means learning new gestures and workflows. Apple shows you a few GIFs of what multitasking looks like during the iPad’s setup process, but after that, you're on your own.
• I already miss having a trackpad — and a real computer. Not having a more precise input tool to do normal computer things like select text, for instance, is already getting on my nerves. Even for this story, where I’m bolding the first sentence of each paragraph, highlighting groups of text was so finicky that I ended up manually selecting the text by pressing shift and the arrow key until I highlighted the full sentence. Fingers are rarely as precise as a mouse or keyboard, and all of those hand gestures get awfully tiresome when you're trying to do work. Apple needs to make this thousand-dollar machine support mice and trackpads, like, yesterday.
• Multitasking is not as good as it is on a Mac. Aside from needing to learn all the new gestures, trying to drop pictures from my Photos app into this story was so bad (it was slow, and the photos flipped even though I saved the photos in the proper orientation), I eventually gave up and did everything on my laptop, which took a fraction of the time. Having to put a brand-new iPad Pro down to do real computer things is not good!
• Looking at the new iPad Pro and my 4-year-old iPad Air side by side, I’m surprised how well the iPad Air has held up. Both devices are roughly the same thickness, and the iPad Pro’s display is only slightly larger than the iPad Air, even though the newer device doesn’t have a home button holding it back. I love the iPad Pro, but looking at it next to a semi-old iPad Air, the differences don’t feel quite so radical. It makes me wish Apple took some more risks to make the redesign stand out, like adding support for special accessories (again, mouse and trackpads, please), or making the display reach further into the corners of the screen. It’s easily the best iPad yet, but it’s not a revolution. It’s an evolution.

I'll put more thoughts on the iPad Pro into a full review, but in the meantime, let me know what you think of the new iPad Pro. Did Apple do enough this go-around? Email me at dsmith@businessinsider.com

SEE ALSO: Apple's new iPad Pro is not compatible with any external storage devices

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• Goldman Sachs promoted 69 bankers to partner on Wednesday. Two of them are from the bank's star technology, media and telcom banking team. 
• Barry O'Brien and Ward Waltemath, bankers behind some of the biggest tech deals of the year, woke up early on Wednesday to congratulatory calls from Goldman Sachs COO John Waldron.
• O'Brien and Waltemath are now charged with leading one of Goldman Sachs' growing business units through an ongoing M&A and IPO boom.

One of Goldman Sach's most active investment banking units just promoted two star tech bankers to partner — one of the most coveted titles on Wall Street. 

Barry O'Brien and Ward Waltemath both woke up early on Wednesday to calls from Goldman's president John Waldron, congratulating them on their new roles. They were two of just 69 people across the bank given the new title. 

Goldman's technology, media and telecom investment banking team now has 17 partners globally, more than half of which are based out of San Francisco. Goldman ranks first for US technology M&A deals so far this year, according to Dealogic data. It's worked on 49 such deals, compared to 34 for No. 2 JPMorgan.

O'Brien has worked at Goldman Sachs for 19 years. He is based out of New York, where he head tech M&A and co-heads TMT M&A, and left his mark of key deals including IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat and AT&T's acquisition of AppNexus for a reported price of $1.6 billion

O'Brien, who grew up in Ireland, moved to New York in 2004. He just completed the New York City Marathon on November 4, but the sprint continues when it comes to tech deals.

"I think it's a testament to continued heightened activity in that sector in particular," O'Brien told Business Insider, as he waited for a car to take him to the airport. "It's extremely busy in TMT."  

Tech M&A reached $423.7 billion so far this year, up 57% compared to the same period a year prior, according to data provider Refinitiv. 

Read more: A small group of Goldman Sachs employees just got the call of a lifetime — here's how it went down

O'Brien is joined by Waltemath, who is a 13-year veteran of Goldman Sachs. Waltemath, who is based out of San Francisco, focuses on software investment banking and cybersecurity. Some of his recent deals include MuleSoft's $6.5 billion sale to Salesforce and Zscaler's $192 million IPO. 

A Tennessee native, Waltemath said he spent last weekend slow cooking meat in his Big Green Egg in preparation for his son's 10th birthday.

And while the work did not stop Wednesday, Waltemath said, he's looking forward to getting some downtime —eventually.

"It's not just about me," Waltemath said. "I've got a wife and four children and they've all made sacrifices for the last 15 years. That's what I want to celebrate." 

See also:

• WALL STREET PAYDAY: Dealmakers could pull in $330 million in fees from takeover frenzy
• We spoke with 7 insiders about IBM's $34 billion Red Hat takeover — here's how the biggest software deal of all time came together
• IBM was losing the cloud wars — here's why Wall Street thinks its $34 billion Red Hat acquisition will change that

SEE ALSO: IBM was losing the cloud wars — here's why Wall Street thinks its $34 billion Red Hat acquisition will change that

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NOW WATCH: A cybersecurity expert showed us how hackers can tap into an office phone and listen to everything you're saying

• Pancreaticcancer survival rates are extremely low — around 9% for five years and around 1% for 10 years — and haven't improved significantly in the past 40 years. 
• But 13-year-old Rishab Jain is determined to change these statistics with his AI-based tool, PCDLS Net, that improves pancreas tracking during radiotherapy.
• Jain won the 2018 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, before he's even started high school.
• Watch the video above to see how Jain combined his passions for medicine and engineering to create a safer way to treat pancreatic cancer. 

Following is a transcript of the video.

Rishab Jain: It all started in the summer of 2017 when I went to visit my brother in Boston, and there I learned about some research that was happening, and the surprisingly low statistics about pancreatic cancer, like its survival rate. My name is Rishab Jain. I'm in 8th grade, 13 years old, from Portland, Oregon, and I created an artificial intelligence-based tool called PCDLS Net to improve pancreas tracking during a treatment called radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

The five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is around 9%, and the 10-year survival rate is around 1%, which is extremely low, and these survival rates have not improved significantly in the past 40 years, so currently, pancreatic cancer is detected in a late stage, and by then, doctors try to use radiotherapy to help treat it, but most of the time, it's not effective enough, so I got inspired to do some research on this because I'm a big programmer, and I like artificial intelligence, so I wondered if I could combine my knowledge in the two areas to help solve the problem, and I created an artificial intelligence-based tool called PCDLS Net to improve pancreas tracking during a treatment called radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

I contacted over 253 doctors, and got around 30 replies from leading experts from institutions at cancer centers and around the world. So as you can see in the pancreas right here, there's other organs such as the stomach and liver that may cover the area, and also, it's right below the lungs causing it to move during some of the treatments. It's also very hard to reach in. It's right in the center of the abdomen next to the spinal cord, so for surgery, biopsies, other things like that, it may be hard to find where the pancreas is. It's sometimes detailed as a mushy or angry organ because of its position in the body.

This right here is a real patient's CT scan, and as you can see throughout its transforming, it's very hard for the human eye to detect where the pancreas is, and this is especially a problem in real time when radiologists and oncologists have to find the pancreas and apply radiation treatment. So over here on the left side, my tool can be run to find where exactly the pancreas is in one of these CT or MRI slices and output this result instantaneously. So currently, doctors have to apply sometimes a seven-millimeter overlay around the pancreas of radiation, and this can affect millions of healthy cells, so my tool is able to reduce that area to around four millimeters, so that saves millions of healthy cells and can improve patient quality of care.

Text on screen: For his invention, Rishab Jain won the 2018 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. For his award, he received a $25,000 prize.

Rishab Jain: So, I have a detailed five-year plan about how I wanna globally commercialize my tool, PCDLS Net, and improve pancreatic cancer survival rates. So I envision partnering with a hospital as well as 3M to work and create my tool as an add-on, and for this, I'll need to conduct clinical testing, so I want to gain FDA and IRB approval. So I want to continue pursuing medicine and engineering as I grow up, so for my undergraduate degree, I'm thinking about becoming a biomedical engineer, and later, I want to make a difference in other people's lives.

I've gotten to see first-hand some of my relatives who are doctors and how they can perform surgery or make other treatments that improve the quality of care and solve problems for people in need, so I'm thinking about becoming a surgeon and continuing medical research as I grow up.

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• Heart rate training is the measuring and monitoring of your heart rate during a workout.
• To properly and effectively train around your heart rate, you need to know what your resting heart rate, maximum heart rate, and VO2 max is.
• Heart rate training helps you better achieve your fitness goals.

Cardio can feel almost torturous, especially when you've committed time and energy to sprinting on the treadmill four or five times every week without any visible progress to speak of.

But pushing yourself to the limit is tricky. If you under-perform, you're definitely not going to see the results you're looking for. If you overexert yourself, you put your body at risk for injury. So how can you identify the happy medium for your personal endurance level?

Aqib Rashid said the easiest and most effective way to gauge the intensity of your workout is through heart rate interval training.

Heart rate (HR) interval training is the measurement and monitoring of your heart rate during exercise in order to yield specific results.

"Heart rate training is a method of exercise in which you leverage your heart's functional response as an indication of exercise intensity," the founder of the technology-driven personal training facility and luxury fitness lounge, GHOST told INSIDER."Rather than relying on an external performance benchmark (e.g. running speed, number of reps etc), exercise intensity is set based on 'target' heart rate zones."

Heart rate training might sound like a mouthful to the fitness novice, but the technique is pretty straightforward.

Before you begin, you have to identify your RHR, or resting heart rate

Resting heart rate, Dr. Robert Segal, co-founder of LabFinder.com told INSIDER, is the number of beats per minute (bpm) your heart pumps when it's at rest (i.e. when you first wake up in the morning, or right before engaging in any physical activity). The normal baseline for adults falls anywhere between 60 to 100 bpm, while the average athletes' baseline can is between 40 to 60 bpm.

Once you've identified your RHR, you can work with a trainer or doctor to figure out which heart rate zone is going to be ideal for your fitness goals.

The second part of heart rate training is becoming familiar with the five heart rate zones, which, Segal explained, are the levels of exertion that intensify from your RHR, to your MHR, or maximum heart rate. According to Active's Target Heart Rate Calculator, you can calculate your MHR by subtracting your age from 220.

Each heart rate zone represents a percentage of your MHR, Dr. Joel French, Ph.D, senior director of research, fitness and wellness at Orangetheory Fitness explained. "Training in zones 3, 4, 5 have the biggest impact which is why interval training is so effective," while "zones 1-2 would be your marathon pace, while 4,5 are short sprints during interval training."

This is why heart rate training can be so beneficial: it all depends on your capabilities, and your goals

So the heart rate zones of marathon runners, who need to sustain their endurance levels for long periods of time, are going to look a little different than, say, the heart rate zones of a sprinter, who runs at an extremely fast pace for shorter periods of time.

"By establishing different zones of training, an athlete can better capitalize on aerobic/anaerobic training thresholds as well as regulate training intensity by goal," such as peak performance, or fat loss, Segal said.

The most accurate way to track your heart rate throughout your workouts is via wearable tech.

The best way to train around your heart rate, Segal told INSIDER, is to use either a chest strap or other wearable fitness trackers like the Fitbit HR, Apple Watch or Garmin Forerunner, as these accessories are made with advanced technology that track your bpm, among other details, and uploads the information to your phone or app. But you don't necessarily need a fitness tracker to practice this technique.

"You can also palpate (feel) your HR at your wrist, neck, etc. to determine your rate," French said. "Simply stop your exercise for 15 seconds, count the number of beats and multiply by four to get your HR in beats/min."

If you do choose to rely on a fitness tracker, Rashid warned that these devices are not perfect, and their readings aren't necessarily as precise as the medical instruments and tests your physician can perform.

"The main purpose in using HR as a barometer for exercise is observance of the overall trends of your heart rate— for which a wearable device is very helpful," he told INSIDER. "So as much as we all love data, try not to focus on the number itself. Instead challenge yourself to simply improve on your current level as assessed by the device or your hand."

The benefits of heart rate training range from an increased performance level, to just becoming a more mindful athlete in general

When you're trying to achieve a very specific goal, it can be hard to reign yourself in before pushing your body too hard. Through heart rate training, you become more aware of your body, and the cues it initiates when something doesn't feel right.

"This goes for both elite athletes and those new to fitness," Rashid told INSIDER. "Often times athletes have a difficult time lowering the intensity of their training, which is essential to a balanced program. Similarly, individuals who may not be used to intense training find it challenging to push themselves to higher levels of exertion."

In other words, keeping a close eye on your heart rate is a key indicator of when to speed up, and when to slow down.

Of course, heart rate training offers a slew of physical benefits as well, such as improving your VO2 max. In case you aren't familiar, your VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen you can use during a workout. What's more, French said it's the number one determinant of your aerobic endurance, and overall health.

Figuring out your VO2 max, in combination with your RHR and MHR, you'll be able to narrow down which heart rate training zones to start in, and track your progress accordingly based on how much endurance you can handle overtime.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Edge computing solutions are key tools that help companies grapple with rising data volumes across industries. These types of solutions are critical in allowing companies to gain more control over the data their IoT devices create and in reducing their reliance on (and the costs of) cloud computing.

These systems are becoming more sought-after — 40% of companies that provide IoT solutions reported that edge computing came up more in discussion with customers in 2017 than the year before, according to Business Insider Intelligence’s 2017 Global IoT Executive Survey. But companies need to know whether they should look into edge computing solutions, and what in particular they can hope to gain from shifting data processing and analysis from the cloud to the edge.

There are three particular types of problems that edge computing solutions are helping to combat across industries:

• Security issues. Edge computing can limit the exposure of critical data by minimizing how often it’s transmitted. Further, they pre-process data, so there’s less data to secure overall.
• Access issues. These systems help to provide live insights regardless of whether there’s a network connection available, greatly expanding where companies and organizations can use connected devices and the data they generate.
• Transmission efficiency. Edge computing solutions process data where it’s created so less needs to be sent to the cloud, leading to lower cloud storage requirements and reduced transmission cost.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence examines how edge computing is reducing companies' reliance on cloud computing in three key industries: healthcare, telecommunications, and the automotive space. We explore how these systems mitigate issues in each sector by helping to efficiently process growing troves of data, expanding the potential realms of IoT solutions a company can offer, and bringing enhanced computing capability to remote and mobile platforms.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• In healthcare, companies and organizations are using edge computing to improve telemedicine and remote monitoring capabilities.
• For telecommunications companies, edge computing is helping to reduce network congestion and enabling a shift toward the IoT platform market.
• And in the automotive space, edge computing systems are enabling companies to increase the capabilities of connected cars and trucks and approach autonomy.

In full, the report:

• Explores the key advantages edge computing solutions can provide.
• Highlights the circumstances when companies should look into edge systems.
• Identifies key vendors and partners in specific industries while showcasing case studies of successful edge computing programs.

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• A 70-year-old Taiwanese man has gone viral for his dedication to the mobile video game "Pokémon Go."
• Photos from Twitter show Chen San-yuan playing the game on 11 different phones at the same time using a special rig tied around his waist. 
• San-yuan, who has been given the nickname "Uncle Pokémon" has slowly upgraded his setup over the last few months and reportedly spends more than $1,200 a month on the free-to-play game.

A Taiwanese man has earned the nickname Uncle Pokémon after gaining international attention for his outrageous dedication to "Pokémon Go." Recent photos show Chen San-yuan, 70, using a waist-mounted rig to play the mobile video game on 11 different phones at the same time.

San-yuan first garnered virual attention in May, when photos of the elderly man playing "Pokémon Go" on a bike-mounted setup with six phones surfaced on Reddit. By the time video game news outlet EXP.GG tracked him down on camera in June, San-yuan had upgraded his setup to use nine phones at once from his bike.

Now it seems that San-yuan has built a new rig to use even more phones without a bike. In August, BBC reported that San-yuan spends more than $1,290 a month on "Pokémon Go." While the game is free-to-play, the money is spent on new phones and in-game items — the kind of dedication that may have helped Pokémon Go ring up $73 million in revenue in October. 

San-yuan uses multiple portable battery packs to power the devices and he can play for up to 20 hours at once. He told the BBC that he plans to add four more phones to his setup, bringing the total to 15. 

SEE ALSO: 'Pokémon Go' raked in $73 million during October, a whopping 67% increase over the previous year, proving people are still obsessed with the game

SEE ALSO: 'Pokémon Go' just rolled out a fresh batch of Pokémon from 'Diamond and Pearl' -- Here's the list of new additions

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NOW WATCH: Watch Apple's October 2018 event in 8 minutes

• Justice Department veterans and lawmakers sounded the alarm after President Donald Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be replaced by Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker at the DOJ.
• House Democrats, who regained control of the chamber after Tuesday's midterms, signaled that they would dig into Trump's motivations for ousting Sessions and hold parties accountable.
• Legal experts said they weren't concerned by Sessions' ouster as much as they were by his replacement, who has mused about defunding the Russia probe and been described as the White House's "eyes and ears" at the DOJ.
• "Will Whitaker on his own, or under Trump's direction, try to shut down or constrain Mueller's investigation?" one former federal prosecutor told INSIDER. "That's the worry here."
• Another said that Sessions was right to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe last year: "It is the one time Sessions acted like a true prosecutor and not a politician. It is ironic that it was his undoing in this administration."

Lawmakers and legal experts sounded the alarm Wednesday when President Donald Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was out at the Justice Department.

He will be replaced by acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker, who was Sessions' chief of staff at the DOJ. Whitaker is widely seen as a Trump loyalist and was once reportedly described by chief of staff John Kelly as the West Wing's "eyes and ears" in the DOJ.

A DOJ spokesperson said in an email that Whitaker will assume oversight over the Russia investigation and Special Counsel Robert Mueller from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert in criminal law, didn't mince words when reacting to the news.

"This is a disturbing development," Ohlin told INSIDER in an email. "The nation's eyes are on Mr. Whitaker and how he discharges his responsibility to oversee the Mueller investigation."

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department, told INSIDER it was "safe to say this news wasn't shocking to Mueller."

"Perhaps the timing, but everyone knew Sessions' tenure was limited," Cramer added. "We should see grand jury action or a report soon. Whitaker could try to slow-walk future efforts to sit on a report. But it's naive to think the new Democratic House of Representatives just sits there and watches."

Indeed, Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler — the ranking member on the powerful House Judiciary Committee — said in a tweet that Americans "must have answers immediately as to the reasoning behind" Trump's decision to remove Sessions.

"Why is the president making this change and who has authority over Special Counsel Mueller's investigation?" Nadler added. "We will be holding people accountable."

Democrats will assume official control of the House of Representatives in January, and several lawmakers have made clear that they intend to exercise more oversight of the executive branch in their new role.

"At the time when we formally take control of the House ... we'll have to see what Bob Mueller has been able to do and what Bob Mueller has been able to say either via indictment or via report, and that will also guide what we intend to do in our committee," Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC on Tuesday.

Schiff struck a far more ominous tone Wednesday, following Sessions' ouster, saying in a statement that Trump's move "places the Special Counsel's investigation in new and immediate peril."

Saying that it is "abundantly clear" that Sessions was forced out for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, Schiff criticized Whitaker for being "publicly critical" of Mueller and said the acting attorney general should recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.

'Will Whitaker on his own, or under Trump's direction, try to shut down or constrain Mueller's investigation?'

Whitaker said in a CNN op-ed shortly before he was hired as Sessions' chief of staff that "Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing."

Whitaker added that his concerns stemmed from reports that the special counsel was probing the Trump Organization's financial records, saying the move "falls completely outside of the realm" of Mueller's mandate.

But in a letter outlining the scope of Mueller's appointment last year, Rosenstein gave Mueller broad authority to not only investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated" with Trump's campaign, but examine "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

Whitaker has also publicly mused about how an acting attorney general could go about defunding the Mueller probe.

"I could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn't fire Bob Mueller, but he just reduces his budget to so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt," Whitaker said during a July 2017 interview with CNN.

In the wake of Sessions' removal, several prominent Democratic lawmakers began calling for Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller, arguing that his previous comments on the investigation hurt his ability to remain impartial.

DOJ veterans voiced similar concerns.

"Will Whitaker on his own, or under Trump's direction, try to shut down or constrain Mueller's investigation?" Alex Whiting, a former federal prosecutor in Boston and Washington, DC, told INSIDER in an email. "That's the worry here."

Sessions' removal also sparked immediate speculation over whether it was another piece in the growing obstruction-of-justice case Mueller has been building against Trump since last year. But experts cautioned against reading too much into it.

"Sessions' ouster is another data point, but obstruction is still hard to prove," Cramer said. "It certainly increases the number of questions Mueller would like to ask Trump."

Whiting agreed, saying the move likely wouldn't significantly add to the obstruction inquiry unless Trump personally directed Sessions or Whitaker to block the investigation. Whiting said he's more concerned Whitaker will slow-walk the inquiry instead of shutting it down all together.

Sessions' removal on Wednesday was not entirely unexpected — several media reports said that the former attorney general was prepared to resign or be fired after the midterm elections.

At the heart of Trump's frustration with Sessions was his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after it surfaced last year that he had misled the Senate about his contacts with Russia.

Cramer said Sessions was right to recuse himself.

"Any prosecutor would recuse themselves from a case where they could be a witness," Cramer said. "It is the one time Sessions acted like a true prosecutor and not a politician. It is ironic that it was his undoing in this administration."

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NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

• Tuesday may not have seen the "blue wave" that Democrats were hoping for, but they had major victories at the state level.
• Democrats flipped seven governor's races on Tuesday, compared to just one governorship that the Republicans stole from an Independent.
• In two of the flipped states, Democratic challengers unseated a Republican incumbent.

Democrats were hoping to see Stacey Abrams elected as the nation's first black female governor Tuesday night, and although she hasn't conceded the Georgia race by Wednesday morning, current numbers show Republican Brian Kemp winning.

The Georgia race was perhaps the closest watched governor's race in the country, along with Florida, where another Democratic hopeful, Andrew Gillum, lost to a Republican.

But overall, the night was widely a success for the Democrats, who flipped seven states.

The Republicans only flipped one, Alaska, which was previously governed by an Independent, Bill Walker.

Read more:Stacey Abrams, the Oprah-endorsed Democratic candidate, hints at a possible runoff against Republican Brian Kemp in the Georgia governor's race

The results of the gubernatorial races will no doubt be heralded as a rebuke of President Donald Trump by the Democrats. Two of the states that flipped on Tuesday, Michigan and Wisconsin, turned Republican for Trump in 2016. And Nevada, another state that turned blue on Tuesday, hasn't had a Democratic governor in nearly 20 years.

The Democrats also unseated two Republican incumbents: Wisconsin's Scott Walker (who ran for president in the Republican primary in 2016) and Illinois' Bruce Rauner.

Here's a rundown of the results of Tuesday's governor's races:

Alabama: Republican incumbent Kay Ivey defeats Democrat Walt Maddox

Alaska: Republican Mike Dunleavy defeats Democrat Mark Begich

Arizona: Republican incumbent Doug Ducey defeats Democrat David Garcia

Arkansas: Republican incumbent Asa Hutchinson defeats Democrat Jared Henderson

California: Democrat Gavin Newsom defeats Republican John Cox

Colorado: Democrat Jared Polis defeats Republican Walker Stapleton

Connecticut: Democrat Ned Lamont defeats Republican Bob Stefanowski

Florida: Republican Ron DeSantis defeats Democrat Andrew Gillum

Georgia: Republican Brian Kemp leads Democrat Stacey Abrams (not called yet)

Hawaii: Democrat incumbent David Ige defeats Republican Andria P. Tupola

Idaho: Republican Brad Little defeats Democrat Paulette Jordan

Illinois: Democrat J.B. Pritzker defeats Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner

Iowa: Republican incumbent Kim Reynolds defeats Democrat Fred Hubbell

Kansas: Democrat Laura Kelly defeats Republican Kris Kobach

Maine: Democrat Janet Mills defeats Republican Shawn Moody

Michigan: Democrat Gretchen Whitmer defeats Republican Bill Schuette

Minnesota: Democrat Tim Walz defeats Republican Jeff Johnson

Nebraska: Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts defeats Democrat Bob Krist

Nevada: Democrat Steve Sisolak defeats Republican Adam Laxalt

New Hampshire: Republican Chris Sununu defeats democrat Molly Kelly

New Mexico: Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham defeats Republican Steve Pearce

New York: Democrat incumbent Andrew Cuomo defeats Republican Marcus Molinaro

Ohio: Republican Mike DeWine defeats Democrat Richard Cordray

Oklahoma: Republican Kevin Stitt defeats Democrat Drew Edmondson

Oregon: Democrat incumbent Kate Brown defeats Republican Knute Buehler

Pennsylvania: Democrat incumbent Tom Wolf defeats Republican Scott Wagner

Rhode Island: Democrat incumbent Gina Raimondo defeats Republican Allan Fung

South Carolina: Republican incumbent Henry McMaster defeats Republican James Smith Jr.

South Dakota: Republican Kristi Noem defeats Democrat Billie Sutton

Tennessee: Republican Bill Lee defeats Democrat Karl Dean

Texas: Republican incumbent Greg Abbott defeats Democrat Lupe Valdez

Vermont: Republican incumbent Phil Scott defeats Democrat Christine Hallquist

Wisconsin: Democrat Tony Evers defeats Republican incumbent Scott Walker

Wyoming: Republican Mark Gordon defeats Democrat Mary Thorne

Click here to see the House and Senate results »

SEE ALSO: Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis defeats Democrat Andrew Gillum to become Florida's next governor

DON'T MISS: Scott Walker was narrowly ousted in Wisconsin, and a law he put in place means he can't ask for a recount

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NOW WATCH: This top economist has a radical plan to change the way Americans vote