Yes, it’s a blue wave after all: Democrats win back the House easily — fall short in the Senate

Ahead of Election Day, a confident Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi asserted her eagerness to reclaim the speaker's gavel she surrendered in 2011, during Barack Obama's first term.

"I know the territory," Pelosi said in a new profile. "And I’m really good at what I do."

Just before midnight on Tuesday, Pelosi fielded a call of congratulation from President Donald Trump. Democrats have won a clear House majority, likely picking up somewhere from 35 to 40 seats. She is nearly certain to become the next speaker.

Americans headed to voting booths on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the first midterm elections of Donald Trump's presidency. The result was unquestionably a split decision: While Republicans expanded their Senate majority, defeating at least three incumbent Democrats, voters went heavily blue on the House side, more than enough to overcome a congressional map gerrymandered in Republicans' favor. With Democrat Abigail Spanberger's victory over Tea Party Republican Dave Brat in Virginia's 7th district -- Brat being the right-wing rebel who defeated onetime House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a 2014 GOP primary -- Democrats officially picked up the 23 seats they needed to flip the House.

While the final polls had suggested that Democrats were favored to win, early results on Tuesday evening initially dampened expectations of  a "blue wave." The first exit polls published by NBC News on Election Day found that 54 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump — 47 percent registered "strong disapproval" — and that their top issue was health care, which Democrats placed at the front and center of their congressional bids.