PBS News Hour | Election 2026 PBS News special coverage - PBS

Co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett led our election night coverage, along with our reporters, analysts and campaign strategists who provided takeaways throughout the evening.

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Co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett led our election night coverage, along with our reporters, analysts and campaign strategists who provided takeaways throughout the evening.

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Welcome to live special coverage of the 2026 midterm elections.

I'm Jeff Bennett and I'm Amna Nawaz.

It's a battle for Congress and a referendum on President Trump who's told voters to pretend he is on the ballot despite his record low approval rating.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control of the U.S.

Senate, and a total of three additional seats to win the House of Representatives.

And a reminder, we are reporting results tonight based on the Associated Press, which has a team of thousands of people across the country gathering vote totals.

And the AP only calls winners when it's certain a trailing candidate cannot catch up.

Well, polls have closed in several more states.

We can now share some of those race calls with you based on the Associated Press.

In the Delaware Senate race, Democrat Chris Coons hangs on wins in that contest and the Illinois Senate race.

Democrat Juliana Stratton is the declared winner in the Massachusetts Senate race.

Democrat Ed Markey, the incumbent, wins that race.

And in new Jersey and that Senate race, Democrat Cory Booker has won reelection in Rhode Island.

So has Jack Reed in that Senate race and a call from a state that closed earlier.

Earlier the Georgia Senate race, Democrat Jon Ossoff has won.

Here is a quick look at the balance of power.

This will, of course, change throughout the course of the night.

But this is how things look right now at 8 p.m.

Well, lucky for us, tonight we have a full team joining us for reporting and analysis.

Lisa Desjardins is at our super screen.

Joining us here at the desk are Amy Walter, editor in chief of The Political Report with Amy Walter, as she's checking on all the latest returns.

Our friend David Brooks, staff writer for The Atlantic.

And, of course, Kimberly Atkins, store columnist for The Boston Globe.

Also with us is Mo, Olathe Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

He's a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

And Tiffany Smiley is back with us.

She's a former Republican candidate for U.S.

Also, of course, our white House correspondent, Liz Landers, is at the white House.

And that's where we begin this evening.

Liz, over to you and tell us about some of the issues you're tracking.

I just have to say, I know weather is always an issue on election night.

You've been tracking what's been going on in Florida in particular.

And this is a contingency that election officials plan for.

But they still had to move some precincts in Florida.

So we heard from the Secretary of state earlier today saying that per a executive order that was signed by governor DeSantis, that Florida had to relocate some of their polling precincts along the Space Coast because they experienced some really bad flooding there.

But now, apparently, people can go to these alternative voting locations, and the Secretary of state is saying that everything is fine and going as planned there.

There's some other issues, though, technical issues that we're tracking in Westchester County in New York.

This is the congressional race, the 17th district there in New York.

And early this morning, the Board of Elections in Westchester County said that they started hearing of issues preventing voting machines from tabulating ballots.

This ended up being a programing glitch, but because of that, there were a bunch of ballots that were not tabulated.

So we heard from both of the candidates there, the current congressman, Mike Lawler, in addition to his Democratic opponent, Kate Connolly, urging voters to stay in line to have faith in the election system there.

And we're hearing now that those ballots will be scanned and counted tonight.

Polls closed there in Westchester at 9 p.m.

and just one more state that, of course, we're tracking very closely.

In Dearborn, Michigan, the mayor is saying that some precincts are running out of ballots.

He is voters, though, to stay in line, saying that the county clerk there in Dearborn is sending over more ballots so more people can vote.

And this seems to be a turnout issue, or turnout is always a good thing, but this seems to be because of turnout there.

This mayor is now saying that within the last hour or so, that the turnout in Dearborn has already surpassed the total voter turnout in the 2024 presidential cycle.

So just a small sliver of an example of some of the turnout we're seeing in some of these key races, election officials, you know, moving along with whatever is thrown at them.

And they do all kinds of planning for years in advance to be ready for these kinds of events when they happen on Election day.

And, Liz, the president, as we understand it, is watching the returns tonight from the residents just to your right there as you stand out in front of the West Wing.

You've been reporting from the white House all day.

What are his aides and advisors telling you?

Yeah, I think that the white House and the president are kind of downplaying the hopes that Republicans will do well in the House and also in the Senate.

I spoke with a Republican who is a close ally of the white House, and this person was telling me that they do expect that the white House or that the Senate will flip to Democratic control the president sort of managing those expectations.

In a speech that we saw him give yesterday here in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he talked about his renovations here around Washington, focusing as much time on those kinds of projects as his closing message to American voters, and sort of towards the end of his comments there, he said, look, we gave it the best shot we have.

So we know that the president is is hosting this party right now.

We're checking in with sources throughout the night, and of course, always checking his truth social feed.

And Liz, just to double check, you said white House advisers believe the Senate will switch to Democratic control or the House they believe that the Senate could now flip.

And this person in particular, was pointing to the Kansas race, that Senator Marshall was not a good candidate.

And they've been up on the air with ads in the last few days.

Now, as a kind of a closing message explaining some of his medical debt actions when he was a doctor and the and the candidate himself, the senator had to explain some of this on TV.

This one person that I was talking to saying that that was not a great closing message, and they're now worried that that race in particular could flip and that Republicans will lose control of the Senate.

Interesting insight there from inside the white House.

Our Liz Landers will be at the white House for us all night tonight.

Meanwhile, back here, let's head over to Lisa Desjardins at the super Screen.

Lisa, you're tracking a few places where polls have already closed.

What's most interesting to you at this hour?

There are so many interesting things happening.

Let's start where Liz left off the US Senate.

As much as we know expectations may be changing for some people, as she's reporting right now, we really don't have any change, any gain or loss by either party.

We, as you reported, Georgia has been called for the Democrat Virginia, Illinois.

And I want to help viewers understand how this works through the night.

When you see these darker colors, darker blue, that means that's a race that's been called these lighter blues.

That means the Democrats ahead, lighter red or pink.

That means the Republican is ahead.

But folks, I want to check in on a few races here.

This is something a lot of people watching around the country right now.

We have the current incumbent, Ashley Moody, ahead 50% with 30% of the vote.

90% of the vote is in now in Florida.

It is the early vote that is counted first.

So this is a chance Republicans could continue.

But this is a closer margin than we've seen in Florida's past Senate races.

I want to also look at the House races in Florida because some fascinating things are happening.

First of all, let's look at one of the most redistricted places in the country.

This is Florida's ninth district right now.

Congressman Soto, he is a major target of Republicans, and he is ahead by just 1400 votes with 96% reporting this district.

Anyway, this is a district that voted heavily for President Trump.

But we see the Democrat tied at the moment with Dan Green.

I want to also look here, another close race on Florida's 13th district on the other coast of the state.

We have Congresswoman Luna, who is tied 4949 with Leila Gray.

She, if she were to flip this around, would be the first female general in Congress.

So this could go to overtime with 99% of the vote in one more state to look at.

This is a lot of blue in this state.

There are a lot of races up for grabs here.

But one place where the Republican is leading but only 12% is here in Ohio's ninth district, Eric Marin in a rematch with Marcy Kaptur ahead.

But again, we just have to wait for more results in places like this.

Lisa Desjardins before we go any further, we have marveled for weeks at your ability to navigate this super screen.

And we should note none of these districts are numbered.

Have you memorized the size of all of these districts and know which which shape is which?

You got to know the shape, and I've had a whole team quizzing me.

We have, in fact, my friends, I have to shout out to my friend Adrian, who may be watching, who helped me over the weekend by quizzing.

And one of my favorites I like to point out is the state of Maine, which reports not by county but by township.

So you have to learn where all of these townships are, and some of them are quite rural, as you can see in the Northeast Piscataquis unorganized Territory of Maine waiting for results to come in so I can show you more.

Lisa Desjardins, let's keep you caffeinated.

Chat out to Adrienne watching at home for your health flashcards.

After this you can learn all these districts.

We'll be back to you in just a moment.

Back here to our extraordinary panel.

I just want to touch Tiffany Smiley on some news that Liz shared earlier about some reporting from inside the white House, where she's saying she's hearing that they believe Democrats could win the Senate.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that's completely surprising.

But again, I think we're all just watching and and, you know, trying to to just decipher how this all will play out.

He certainly did leave it all out on the field.

He did everything he possibly could with the energy and the enthusiasm to get out the vote.

And I think that was sort of the overall message at the end.

And when he was closing and going to South Carolina and going out was you have to get out and vote.

So we'll see where the where it falls.

But that's not entirely surprising.

I mean, just the idea that Kansas was brought up as one reason why they're seeing that.

But Donald Trump, again, is not helping.

I mean, he went out to Kansas and spent most of his time there bringing attention to the problem with Roger Marshall and the fact that he billed 80 some odd people for medical bills at a time where health care, according to our recent poll, is an issue, a top issue that voters are worried about health care and health care costs.

And in the process of doing that, the president also dropped an anti-Semitic slur during his rally there.

So again, it shows that Donald Trump is not helping this situation.

He seems to be wanting to go to these states and rally up his face.

He either starts talking about himself, talking about his projects, talking about something, talking about body parts.

I mean, he seems it's almost there are times that this almost seems like, okay, we're in a simulation, right?

Because it can't really be happening that the president of the United States is going out and one of the most crucial midterm elections in the country, and talking about absolute nonsense and doing it in a way that is either, at best unhelpful, at worst offensive.

I thing I'd add to that is that Trump has been doing this for ten years.

He's been doing things and people like me say, that's crazy.

That's not the way you're supposed to act.

And it's worked for him for a long period.

And the question is, it may be stopping working for.

And the gentleman over there on the other end of the table served our country by being spokesperson for our major parties.

I've appointed myself spokesperson of the normie party.

And so we've had a lot, in part because of what has happened to our politics ten years.

A lot of candidates who I would not say are Normie.

We briefly had Graham Plattner running in Maine, who was not particularly normal.

I wouldn't say Vivek Ramaswamy, he's running a normal campaign.

I wouldn't say Darlene Graham is sort of a normal candidate.

And yet look at who's doing well tonight.

Some of the incumbents that we just talked about who have won.

Chris Coons, Cory Booker, Jon Ossoff, these are people, whether you agree with them or not.

These are people you'd say respectable.

I'm proud of this person as a public servant.

So I just want those kind of candidates to win tonight.

And I'm hoping the non normies who are sort of have crossed below what used to be the threshold to respectable behavior.

Im hoping they don't have a good night, and I don't want to rain on this parade, because I love where you're going, but just a little rain.

Wasn't that voters suddenly decided they were sick of the norm busting and the chaos and all of the democracy piece of it.

It really is pretty simple that what have Trump's policies done to the economy?

65% of voters say they it worsened it.

What broke this if indeed this is coming down to a night that these early numbers are suggesting, is that the one thing that Donald Trump always had going for him was this belief that he could handle the economy.

And once that got away from him, everything else kind of put kind of landed on top of that.

The other thing, to your point is it's kind of remarkable.

We have now been through for the last ten years.

Covid, January 6th, record high inflation, overturning of Roe versus Wade.

We have not seen much movement in our partizanship the seats that move were always sort of on the edges.

You move a purple seat this way one year, you move a purple seat that way.

The House and Senate have flipped, but only on the edges if Kansas is flipping.

This is what the remarkable piece is.

These are not Pennsylvania Michigan alone.

These are the most Republican, some of the most Republican heavy states.

That to me is the big that would be inflection point that the party that are partizanship, which has really kept our politics within this very narrow band in terms of the movement of seats.

If indeed some of these numbers start to hold up in Florida, where Democrats are winning in double digit Trump districts, suggests now that there is now, I don't know where it goes from here, but there is a breaking down of that partizanship that ultimately the economy and the corruption piece, which Democrats spent a great deal of time talking about on the campaign trail, linking those two things, that conversation about corruption in the first Trump administration just didn't have as much of a sting because they saw it as this was something the president's doing it.

My real life is getting my kids to school and making sure that we can fill up the grocery tank as soon as the grocery cart or the tank the groceries, as Tiffany does.

But now it is about the cost of stuff and the point of the president going to the reflecting pool and talking about the reflecting pool is something that voters have been telling us for a while.

He doesn't seem particularly interested in that.

The best thing you can do is take your opponent's strength and turn it into a weakness.

I think the reality is, over the past few months, Trump has really done that himself.

Remember he was he was the big businessman.

Everything was was gold plated and successful.

And as voters have spent more and more time spending more and more money or not spending money because they can't afford a new refrigerator or to finance a new car or a home.

It is really taken the shine off of that.

And then that combined with ultimately this Trump fatigue of ten years of this, we think of Donald Trump as the executive producer in chief.

Nobody understands visuals and television better.

But we should know that by the time you get to season 6 or 7 of a show, people are sort of see it wearing thin and they're ready to go on to something else.

I think that's going to be a problem for Trump as he comes out of this election and how he navigates Congress.

We'll see a lot more executive orders and so forth.

We see it empirically in, in the, in the polling, and we'll see it in the voter data.

But we also see it anecdotally where you travel into rural parts of this country.

If I go to Emmetsburg, Iowa, in northwestern Iowa, Palo Alto County, the Trump signs are gone.

This summer I was at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, where when I when I went there in 2016, 2017, 2018, Trump flags were flying on boats and docks everywhere.

Those flags were everywhere this summer I counted two.

So the shine has come off of Trump on this.

And this is this is sort of the proof of the pudding on it.

You know, the fact that you've got some of these Florida districts where, as Amy pointed out, Lisa pointed out ones that Mr.

Trump won by double digits, where it's not very tight race.

How are you looking at that and drawn this way?

I mean, as part of the mid-decade redistricting, they drew these districts this year to make this election easier for them and their neck and neck at best for Republicans, which goes to show the point everyone's making.

Look, for most of our history, we have lived on this paradigm of left versus right.

But over the past couple of decades, we've seen a steady shift away from left versus right as the defining divide.

People who feel like they are stuck at the back of the line versus everyone in front of them, and everyone keeping them there, right?

Part of the problem Democrats had in 2024 was at a time when people are so fed up with our institutions, we became the defenders of institutions.

This time it's Donald Trump and the Republicans who are doing that.

And Donald Trump has actually gone out of his way to sound more elite every single day.

You know, every time he goes, you know, we're making a lot of money off of this war.

These are the things that people have been screaming.

They said in 2024 the system isn't working.

So let's bring in the guy who can kind of blow up the system.

Instead, he made the system work for himself.

And that's why I think you are seeing in race after race Kansas, you've got, you know, and this is the other point, I'll make the other lesson from 2024.

We all remember that moment when Kamala Harris was asked on television, what would you do differently than Joe Biden?

In most of the races tonight, the Republicans can't give an answer to that either because they don't have one or they're afraid to give it.

The candidates, the Republican candidates who seem to be the best position to buck this trend, are the ones who are pushing back on the president a little bit, but most of them aren't.

And that's why I think you see Roger Marshall in a state like Kansas struggling.

I see you shaking your head or nodding your head.

I can't tell if you agree with Mo or if you take issue.

I agree on the partizanship and that we do.

We need to get back to that space where the American people actually have confidence in Congress, that they will deliver results for the American people.

So that's why I'm looking at Florida, because it's interesting to see these congressional races.

And and I truly believe a lot of that is the Latino vote.

And I don't know if you guys remember Congresswoman Salazar's video that she or ad that she put out not that long ago, maybe a couple months ago, talking about the Latino voters in her district and how they need to be heard.

They need to be they voted for president.

Trump overwhelmingly voted for President Trump.

He did all he did everything right for the American people.

But there was a communication breakdown and there was a communication.

She was saying she felt her voters that the immigration crackdown went too far.

And so she was obviously she was probably seeing numbers that were now seeing now as far as as the voting goes.

I think, you know, those Latino voters overwhelmingly were our were in Trump's camp.

And that's what we're seeing I think played out in Florida in these congressional districts.

As we talk about Partizanship, we've just had the final polls close in North Carolina, that Senate race.

We can pretty much call right now, and we'll find out about House races.

But 50% of voters 44 and under are unaffiliated with either party.

So they're not having the conversation of R versus D or right versus left.

They're looking for something different.

And both parties need to figure out that they are on a losing end of this conversation.

Regardless of what happens tonight.

I could go back to most comment at the front of the line.

I was driving here trying to figure out if the Republicans have a not terrible night, what could possibly be the explanation?

And so I look at the Israeli elections.

If anybody deserved to lose an election, it was Bibi Netanyahu.

You take the judicial problems, his own personal corruption, his failure to prevent October 7th.

All that's happened after that, he should have been clobbered.

It was because a lot of people who were sort of the back of the line in Israel took a look at the elite and said, no, not those people.

And if Republicans had had a decent night, it would have been because rural and working class voters said, no, not those people.

If Democrats seem to be having a very good night, it's because some of those working class and rural people said, I'm fine with those people right now.

And that doesn't mean that doesn't mean they have those people.

The Democratic approval rating is still terrible.

So if you go to Emmetsburg, Iowa, right, you'll be surrounded by corn.

There's diesel and they're really struggling to get fertilizer.

Two problems directly created by this administration.

And this is this is a heavily red area.

And so ultimately this is now Ashley Henson's problem.

Well, we are winding our way to 830 on the East Coast, 530 on the West coast.

And we have a few more race calls coming in a house race, a toss up race in Florida's 14th district goes to the incumbent, Democrat Kathy Castor.

So here's a look at the House balance of power at this hour.

Clearly, way more races yet to be called.

And in New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Senate race, Democrat Chris Pappas has won.

Here's a look at the Senate balance of power.

You see it there Lisa Desjardins over at the super screen.

I like to talk about Florida because there's a lot to talk about there right now.

As you reported, Kathy Castor there in Tampa has held on to her seat despite being targeted for redistricting.

You see some of this red as expected filling in.

But I want to point out some observations here.

As we look at the Trump margin from 2024 and what's happening in real time in Florida, let's look at this.

Florida's seventh district right here.

Now we have the Republican Ryan Elijah up just barely.

What was the Trump ratio in this district.

Another place where we see Republicans just holding on right now.

If I can get my pen to work, hold on a second.

Is over here in Congresswoman Luna's district.

It was 13 points for President Trump.

Then if you go over here to where Maria Salazar is also winning, what was the Trump ratio there?

However, if you go to the center of the state and you go to this district right here, the 22nd, this is where the Democrat right now is leading with 96% of the vote in what was Trump's ratio there.

So you see right in that ratio of Trump winning by around 10 to 11 points.

That's a real danger zone for Republicans.

If it's above that they seem to be holding on.

At least that's the case here in Florida.

All right, Lisa Desjardins at the super screen for us.

Meanwhile, more news, more results coming in in the North Carolina Senate race.

AP has now declared that the Democrat Roy Cooper has won.

That's a pickup for Democrats there.

We'll get a deeper dive on that race in just a moment.

You also want to share we're not just following control of Congress.

36 governors races are on the ballot.

Two potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are among the governors who have been reelected.

Let's bring those results to you now.

Pennsylvania governor Democrat Josh Shapiro has won his race, and Illinois governor, Democrat J.B.

Let's come back here to the panel now.

Get some reaction to those results coming in, Amy, in particular in North Carolina, where Cooper has extended his winning streak in this state.

What's your reaction there at the beginning of this cycle?

North Carolina and Georgia were going to be the marquee Senate races.

We were going to all be sitting here talking about.

I wonder when we're going to learn the results of North Carolina and Georgia.

And they were called at closing time.

And Doug and I have been talking about this on and off for a little while now, is what the blowout in North Carolina means down ballot, because Republicans basically took their money out of the state a little while ago.

That left a lot of Republicans who were running for Congress and other office without a big driver for turnout.

And so these are the places where every election night has surprises.

They're usually a surprise in a place where there's nothing else going on on the top of the ticket.

But again, this is these states, the North Carolina, the Georgia.

Look, if this were election night for a presidential election and Georgia and North Carolina were called quickly for Democrats, this would be just an absolute blowout, kind of a night.

But in this case, Democrats also had really strong candidates.

Well, on that point in the North Carolina Senate race, Roy Cooper was running against Michael Whatley, a candidate that Donald Trump himself effectively handpicked the former RNC chair.

North Carolina is a state that President Trump carried three times.

Yeah, you were talking about this earlier.

It goes to the president stepping into these races that would otherwise be winnable to include like a state like Texas, which hasn't been called.

But Ken Paxton has been a difficult candidate for Republicans.

This allows me to ride my hobby horse, which everybody else on the panel is going to disagree with, which is that the power of money is vastly overestimated in American politics.

In my view, if you spend money to get to a threshold point where everybody knows who you are.

After that, you're basically making the rubble bounce.

And the Republicans had a money advantage.

And I don't think that money advantage is going to help any more than it helped Hillary Clinton when she had the money advantage.

There are certain the money is localized, I understand, in certain key states which the parties chose.

But if we see Republicans getting a bloodbath, then the money advantage did them no good.

And I think that to both your point and also to Amy's, I think in the sense again, Democrats don't have a leader but that freeze them up because a big, big factor here are independent in these races.

And if you have high quality candidates who understand what voters want on the ground in their communities, and they can pitch not only to Democrats and turn them out, but also to independents to say, you know what?

There's a solution to some of these problems that you're facing.

Is it is it the how fuel prices are hitting farms?

Is it your worries about health care?

Is it your worries about Ice raids?

We can find something else and they can pitch a very specific message without being tied nationally to some leader who may not be working on the ground, which we're seeing happening in Republicans right now.

You are seeing higher quality candidates who are making who are doing a good job at campaigning.

Let's not discount that Trump is a big factor, but it's also Democrats on the ground doing the work, listening to their constituents and responding to them.

Look, Roy Cooper was the best recruit that Democrats could get in North Carolina, practically any other state.

But also the Whatley campaign never connected and I don't think ran a smart campaign.

Their entire attack was on a radical Roy.

And if I could ban the words radical and extreme from campaign ads on either side, I would do it.

He looks like Matlock, he talks like Matlock.

And you're going to convince North Carolina, North Carolina voters who voted for him for attorney general and statewide and for governor statewide, that all of a sudden they voted for somebody who's radical.

And Amy and I talk about this a lot.

Senate races in North Carolina are always close.

There's been two double digit races, wins since 1976, 1978, 1978 and then Richard Burr in 2010.

This 1st May be the third that doesn't happen in North Carolina.

It's the Trump erosion, and it's a lackluster campaign with a lackluster candidate.

You may need to do a generational explanation for those following on YouTube.

I think PBS viewers are very familiar with Griffin, and anybody who's watching in North Carolina knows our patron saint.

We've seen hit primetime drama back in the 80s, so I didn't expect that generational to come from you.

Well, well, I bet she was looking at my direction, right?

Look, we're seeing this dynamic in race after race, right?

I mean, it is Trump's unpopularity, which, by the way, one thing that has been proven time and time again over the past decade, Donald Trump's popularity is not transferable, but his unpopularity absolutely is transferable.

Number two, very strong Democratic candidates in all of these states.

And number three, really weak Republican candidates, most of whom were handpicked by Donald Trump, whether that is Paxton in Texas or Collins in Georgia or Whatley in in North Carolina, even Roger Marshall, I keep coming back to Kansas, which could be the biggest surprise of the night for so many people running that ad that we talked about earlier in the final days of the campaign, which, by the way, reportedly was done against the counsel of all of his advisers and campaign staff.

Meanwhile, the time honored campaign day, election day tradition is the text, people, what are you hearing?

Here's what I'm hearing from South Carolina in the last ten minutes from two people, Republicans who've worked multiple gubernatorial and Senate races.

They're scared to death that Darlene Graham is going to lose.

And not not that they're thinking they think she's going to lose.

Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong.

But if that's your mindset in South Carolina, indeed.

Kansas, Carolina, Doug, take us inside.

Just if you were in the RNC headquarters right now, it's 830 here on the East Coast.

You just saw these critical calls in the North Carolina and Georgia Senate races.

What are they thinking right now about how the rest of the they're thinking it's going to be a very, very bad night.

And we talk so often about maps expanding.

We see this map expanding on what might be possible.

Now we're seeing it might not that it might be possible.

And if you're winning in South Carolina, if you're even talking about South Carolina, that's a problem.

But for season, Republican veterans in South Carolina say I think she's toast.

And that's a problem everywhere looking at the map.

And we'll be talking about North Carolina congressional races to.

Just looking at the map in South Carolina, Darlene Graham Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham, sister who's running.

And I'm looking at the places where no votes have come in like Columbia, Charleston, a lot of them, the places Kamala Harris carried easily.

So that that does look pretty grim for her.

So the reason conversation you're having.

This is a South Carolina Senate race.

I do want to add that South Carolina, like some of the other states tonight, counts.

So that is an advantage usually for Democrats.

But to Davids point we are seeing some Democratic heavy as like Richland County around Columbia has not come in some areas here in the low country as well.

And I want to also move next door to and look at the governor's race in Georgia, because there's some interesting things happening there.

We see the Democrat, Keisha Lance bottoms ahead by 17 points with 60% of the vote in.

Now, I will say many of these counties where we haven't seen any votes come in are red.

However, I also want to point out that some of the ones that haven't come in are this one, Dougherty County.

Let's look at how it voted in the presidential election.

We haven't seen any votes yet in Georgia.

And right now even without that county, which is one of the larger ones with outstanding votes in the state, we still see the Democrat ahead in the state fix that anyway.

So a lot of things happen on the East Coast.

I have senators now texting me, asking me, how do you think it's going?

This is that moment where people can feel a tilt, potentially a lot of results still to come in.

And I know a lot of people are interested.

We don't have a lot of results in 25%.

This is also a state where generally the early vote comes in first.

But right now we have the Democrat ahead of Ken Paxton, the Republican, and a lot of votes from Dallas.

That's where we see Talarico running up the total right now.

And of course, everyone's interested in here.

And we keep doing that in the Rio Grande Valley here for the House races and the Senate races as well.

But just because I know people are interested, I wanted to take a look.

So public media reporters are tracking tonight's election results across the country.

And our William Brangham is here for a conversation with one of them.

And we are joined now by Steve Miller from Portland, Maine.

Steve is the chief political correspondent and statehouse bureau chief for Maine Public Broadcasting.

Steve, thank you so much for being here.

All eyes are on the Senate race there.

I want to just talk about Susan Collins for a second.

People who have followed her incredible long career.

She has shown a tenacity and an ability to to to do better in than all the polls ever show.

How do you explain her remarkable resilience?

Well, I think, first of all, if she's really worked hard at sort of cultivating this image as a moderate and a centrist, and I think regardless of party in Maine, that's really important if you're going to win statewide election.

And she's one, you know, 30 years, 30 years running now.

So, you know, she's doing a good job at it.

I think this year is obviously a very big test of whether or not that will endure.

You know, and I think in the past in 2020, for example, that really did carry her over the finish line and she won with a pretty convincing victory.

But this is a different Trump presidency.

And she's facing different kinds of electoral headwinds this time in a different challenger, to be honest.

So this will be a real test for her.

Because people who follow this race saw the Democrats changing horses midstream.

They were trying to find a candidate originally was Graham Plattner, who dropped out of the race after all sorts of allegations came out about him.

Troy Jackson is the man who is now assumed that role and is running against her tonight.

Do you have a sense that Jackson had enough time to mount a campaign to take his message against Susan Collins, effectively?

Yeah, I mean, I think obviously he would have liked more time and maybe even some more money, but he did well on the latter actually ended up outraging Collins.

And in the last quarter or the most recent quarter.

It's, you know, the Platner got into the race a year ago in August and, you know, he had basically he was running almost for 10 to 11 months straight.

And Troy Jackson hasn't had a chance to do that.

And the other problem Troy Jackson faced is that even though he was the former Senate president in Maine in a long time legislator, people just didn't really know who he who he is.

And so he's really had to try to, like, introduce himself to voters in a very condensed time window.

All in doing that, amid just this machine of Republican attacks that have tried to define him before, he's had a chance to define himself, and that has been the struggle for him all along.

Although I would say that he seemed to have found his stride in the last few weeks of the campaign, he things were looking a little dicey back in September and even maybe even made October, but he seems to be much more comfortable on the trail.

He held his own during debates against Collins, who's a pretty good debater.

And, you know, I think he he's tried to really try to puncture her strengths, which, again, is that independence and of course, her seniority and her ability to bring back federal money, which is what almost exclusively what she's running on.

That is Steve Miller of Maine Public Radio.

We can share with you based on, of course, the Associated Press's reporting in the Florida Senate race.

The Republican Ashley Moody has won that race.

So just past 830 here on the East Coast.

Let's take a look at the Senate balance of power beginning to fill in the puzzle pieces there.

Let's bring it back here to the panel and get some reaction to the latest race calls.

A couple of tough losses for Republicans so far.

But how are you looking at the tracking of the races tonight?

You know obviously I'll be watching Maine and Susan Collins.

You know, I feel like every time she's up, everyone gets a little worried and thinks someone can take Susan Collins down.

No one has been able to do that before.

Is the cycle that that's going to happen.

I think on the Senate side, you know, as we've heard Republicans talk to, they they they haven't been that bullish on thinking that they were going to keep the house.

So it's you know, I mean, I talked about Florida because I, I sort of put out some warning signs early saying we have to pay attention to the Latino voters and we have to communicate in message to them correctly.

I think we're seeing that played out in Florida, things like that.

And I'm also curious about North Carolina congressional.

I think it's a the congressional or district one congressional race.

I'm getting sure that unaffiliated voters early voted D plus 20 in North Carolina.

That means North Carolina 11 goes Democratic.

And if I'm a other Republican, members of Congress, names that have been talked about a little bit or haven't been, I am really nervous right now.

We could be looking at a situation where Pat Harrigan, who nobody's probably heard of because he's a freshman Republican member, actually from my district, could be the dean of the delegation.

And you have some interesting exit polling data.

You know, we've talked a lot about what is going on with the Trump coalition.

And so there's movement obviously from 2024 with Latino voters.

I'm also looking at younger voters.

This is a group that in 2024 Democrats won, but by just 12 points today.

These are the voter poles, the the exit polls.

They are winning these voters by over 40 points.

So the big shift, really dramatic shifts among Latino voters, younger voters, independent voters, also winning independent voters by 16 points.

This was all part of his 24 coalition.

But the more interesting thing to me to is the Republican coalition.

We've talked a lot about just what is MAGA, and Trump obviously defines what MAGA is.

But how do Republicans define MAGA themselves?

And right now, again, in this voter poll, 24% of Republicans consider themselves MAGA.

Not surprisingly, almost every single one of them voted for a Republican.

But for those who say, well, I'm a Republican, but I don't really identify with MAGA, which is a good chunk of Republican voters, 20% of them, only 84% gave their vote to a Republican, 13% gave it to a Democrat.

That is how you see these big shifts, even though the number of Republicans voting is, is a pretty big number.

They're only under Democrats by about three points in terms of total vote share.

But when you're losing 13% of your base to the Democratic candidate, that's part of the story here.

So independents, non MAGA, Republicans, Latinos, younger voters, that's the big shift from both 2024.

But this MAGA non MAGA divide is really new since really since 2016 it's striking.

He's been standing by at the super screen because Tiffany mentioned that one North Carolina congressional district, Lisa, North Carolina one which many folks were saying is sort of an early bellwether of how successful some of these Republican mid- decade redistricting efforts might be.

What can you tell us about that and other similar races?

We'll be talking a lot about this, I think, in coming days.

This is the first district that they were talking about.

Don Davis, the incumbent, was targeted.

Here he is right now up by nine points.

I'm sorry 11 points with 46% of the expected vote in now his district has changed significantly.

It used to be a little bit more kind of like this.

Now it includes the coast, the Outer Banks, all of that.

But he's holding on right now against Lori Bucket.

This isn't just any redistricting race.

She has strong credentials herself.

But Don Davis has been running a good race.

And the redistricting right now he is out running.

However, I want to point out there's some we're seeing blue all across North Carolina at the moment.

So that means to me that I want to wait to see more results.

These, again, are most likely the early results, early voters.

However, the other district a lot of folks around the country are watching.

Is this one North Carolina's 11th district.

Beautiful mountain landscape, folks who are watching from there.

You're very fortunate to live there right now.

The Democrat Jamie Agar, he is winning.

He is a sustainable meat farmer and someone who actually came to renown during hurricane recovery, really kind of bringing the community together there.

She's a replacement candidate in this district when the incumbent decided to retire.

So this is one that we're watching already with 77% of the vote.

So this looks like a potential flip, at least right now.

I understand that Roy Cooper is speaking now to supporters.

Are we able to go to him live right now?

There's a few people I need to thank before anybody else.

My wonderful daughters and the rest of my family over here.

I am so grateful for your love and support.

You guys are the light of my life and I could not do it without you.

And everyone here, including our volunteers, staff and supporters in this campaign.

Thank you for everything you did to take this United States Senate seat back for the people of North Carolina.

Now, I know this was a hard fought race, and I do wish God's blessings for Michael Whatley and his family.

I spoke with him earlier tonight, and he acknowledged our victory.

You know, 16 months ago we lost this campaign together.

We knew that for too many people in North Carolina, the middle class was feeling like a distant dream.

We knew that the Washington, DC insiders and the richest Americans were getting unimaginable wealth at our expense.

We knew that the chaos and corruption in Washington were hurting our people.

I am ready to take that message to Washington and work to do something about it.

Democrat Roy Cooper, who has now demonstrated once again that he knows how to win in North Carolina, a state that has voted for Donald Trump three times but has repeatedly elected Cooper to statewide office and now, of course, to the US Senate.

Kimberly Atkins thought we were talking earlier about the mid-decade redistricting, and Democrats might have a favorable political environment right now, but Republicans have redrawn the maps to protect their House majority.

How much of an advantage do Democrats really need in order to overcome these strategic obstacles?

One thing that I've been thinking all night is I thought one of the biggest stories of this would be the gerrymandered districts that we got this year, after the Supreme Court decision that really gutted a part of the Voting Rights Act.

And we are not seeing you looking at the return so far.

You would not have known that had happened looking at the results of this.

So I think a couple of things, I think that was one of the things that motivated turnout, that engaged voters, that made voters realize this is a big issue.

So we have to make sure that we turn out and vote, that we get our community members to turn out and vote, and more.

A second issue, though, is the way that a lot of these maps were drawn.

They actually ended up spreading out Republicans, too.

So if Republicans are already facing an uphill battle in this, it actually backfired on them a little bit.

And I think you're really starting to see that I will be interested in watching Texas is more results come in there.

But I think that's some of the factors that you're seeing in these states where Democrats are over performing.

I think Republicans shot themselves in a foot a little bit with some of these mid, mid decennial redrawing of the districts.

We call it a dummy mander, and specifically North Carolina three.

And if you look at the two districts, at least a pointed out earlier in North Carolina, those were the two best Republican recruits that we could have had.

Really excited about both candidates.

And they don't stand a chance in this environment.

That's just the reality of where we are.

And we'll see more congressional lines with these kinds of losses.

And by the way, we're not talking about the state General Assembly or the state Senate yet in North Carolina or other states.

If there's a maybe a note of caution to temper the Democratic enthusiasm at this hour, it is early ten minutes to nine here on the East Coast.

We have a lot of races to call and have the maps filled in, but at least I mentioned earlier about the Georgia race so far and many of the districts left to report are red.

And so we know Democrats tend to vote early.

We do have this thing we like to tell people about called the blue Mirage.

How how are you looking at that at this hour, especially with the races as yet to be called?

When we looked at that map of Texas that showed Talarico up by 20 points, the only colored in areas on the map were in the big urban areas, the democratic areas, lot of rural Texas still out there.

So there's like I said earlier, this is no time to be measuring drapes.

Having said that, comes the tape measure, right?

But having said that, the reason why Democrats can afford to have a little bit of a bounce in our step right now is because of these trends that we're starting to see, right.

The Democratic coalition I remember after the 24 election, people were talking about how Donald Trump was presiding over a major voter realignment.

We're seeing a lot of those voters come home.

There may be a blip in the other direction this time, where we see some traditionally Republican voters start to pull the lever for Democrats this time.

So let's see how these rural areas come back.

Those are going to tell the tale in a lot of the states, and we'll see how the turnout is in those rural areas, because Donald, Republicans win those areas.

That may not be enough to overcome the huge numbers we're seeing in the cities.

Well, actually, Moody, the former Florida attorney general who was appointed to her Senate seat by Governor Ron DeSantis, who has actually now won the Senate seat in her own right.

She's speaking to supporters right now.

Let's dip in and take a quick look.

We worked really hard to fight for this state.

When a lot of states weren't fighting for their people, they weren't standing up for their rights.

They weren't standing up for common sense.

They weren't standing up for safety.

We're going to take a stand when it's not politically convenient in the face of criticism in the face of fierce winds.

And we built this into the free state of Florida.

We used to be known for plastic flamingos in Florida.

Not even real goes now we're known for freedom, and I was so proud to be a part of that and fight those battles alongside the governor.

And so the direction I got was go up there and fight for this state like you did when we worked here when you were attorney general, and we've been doing it ever since.

So it has been my incredible honor for almost two years now to fight for Florida's families.

And when I say I believe that I am accountable to every Floridian, whether you voted for me or not, I am mindful that there are millions of Floridians that voted for someone else.

And what I think the message there is, they want government to be accountable.

They want to make sure they have a government that is offering and protecting meaningful opportunity to pursue happiness for their families so their families can thrive.

And I want everyone to know whether you voted for me or whether you didn't vote for me.

And if you ever need me, if I can ever help you and your pursuit of the American dream, please call my office.

It would be my great honor to serve you.

Very concerned with the movements and trends of socialism.

I'm very concerned that our young people in this country, ages 18 to 34, very few of them and the teens are extremely proud to be an American.

If you compare that to those over 70, that is Ashley Moody addressing supporters after winning her Senate race in Florida.

Meanwhile, more results to bring you as they come in, based on the Associated Press.

In the West Virginia Senate race, the Republican Shelley Moore Capito has won that race.

Let's take a quick look at the Senate balance of power as it stands at this hour.

43 seats for Democrats, 33 now for Republicans are Liz Landers has been standing by at the white House all night reporting on both the white House, the president and his advisers reactions to these results as they come in, and also how these elections are being administered around the country.

Yeah, I'm not well, sitting here from the white House, we heard that the white House pool got a note a minute ago saying that the president is watching these midterm results and returns come in in the East Wing in this party that he is having.

He's there with cabinet officials and political advisors right now.

I can tell you, we saw earlier two of those cabinet officials here, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, and then also Secretary Rubio, poked his head out of the West Wing around 5 p.m.

So the president watching these results here from the white House right now.

But I also wanted to just share a little bit about the immigration issue and how that is impacting voters and how the white House is looking at that.

President Trump ran on securing the border in 2024.

And according to voters that I talked to in that election cycle, he won because of that issue.

We are seeing and hearing something different now in this election cycle.

We saw some of that when we did a reporting trip down to Texas.

I talked to a voter there who runs a small business who had voted for President Trump every time that he had been on the ballot that election cycle.

But because his business runs on immigrant labor and relies on immigrants, some coming from Mexico for seasonal labor, etc., his business had been very impacted by these Ice raids, and he basically felt that the administration, Department of Homeland Security, that those enforcement operations had gone too far.

So of course, we're still going to be looking at some of those races in Texas to see if that is the deciding factor on.

That's our white House correspondent, Liz Landers, reporting outside the white House.

Meanwhile, back here, we're going to take a very short break, but don't go anywhere.

Some PBS stations are going to be reporting results from their local races.

Others are going to stick with us for a closer look at the Associated Press data.

More national results in just a moment.

Elections are run and ballots are counted by thousands of local jurisdictions across the country.

The Associated Press is tracking results in thousands of races.

Knowing how many voters actually showed up is critical to knowing when a race is over.

To explain what it takes to count the vote.

I'm joined by David Scott, vice president of election services at the Associated Press.

So in this year's general election, we will tabulate close to 7000 races across national races for Congress, state legislative races, local races for mayor, some city council, some school board.

And as we said, elections are locally run.

So how many people does it take for AP to gather results?

All wherever we can get vote count.

And it's actually one of the hallmarks of what we do is multiple sources.

So we will employ 4000 stringers this year.

Reporters essentially, who go to local election offices and wait for results to be posted, or they talk to election officials as they are releasing ballots.

We also know that those results are posted online in many places.

Some states and some counties have electronic feeds.

So we are looking wherever we can get those, and we take it all that data and we match it up is what the stringer is hearing from election officials, the same thing on the website.

It adds a layer of accuracy to our vote count and to what we're reporting on election night.

We like to say that what we do at AP on election night is the single largest act of journalism there is now.

There's lots of big stories, but there will be close to 5000 people working for AP on this election night, all trying to answer that question of who?

And as you're tracking these results and calling races, you're also estimating the number of votes cast.

So I want to ask how do you determine the actual size of the electorate?

But we get a lot of help from election officials.

So in many states, they say ahead of time, how many advanced ballots have been returned?

How many have been cast on the day of election?

Many states, many counties will post details or tell our reporters this is how many people have voted at the polling place on Election Day.

And so we use that information, that data, to make an estimate of how many people have voted and what the turnout will be in every race.

How have the elections now changed over the years, and both how people have vote and how you count the vote?

Well, the biggest change is that people vote before Election Day 1972.

95% of Americans voted at their neighborhood polling place on election day, and that number is now less than 50%.

A lot of people, most people, are voting before Election Day.

The biggest change has been the rise of mail balloting, early in-person voting, just the different ways that you can cast a ballot.

David Scott, vice president of election services at the Associated Press, thank you for joining us.

Welcome back to live special coverage of the 2026 midterm elections.

Polls have now closed in the next round of states.

We can now bring you more race calls based on the Associated Press.

The Democrat John Hickenlooper is the declared winner in that race in New Mexico's Senate race.

The Democrat, Ben Ray Lujan, is the winner.

And in the Wyoming Senate race, the Republican Harriet Harman has won.

Let's take a look at the Senate balance of power as we fill in these numbers.

43 seats for the Democrats, 33 for the Republicans.

Remaining key races, of course, in battleground states will continue to bring you as the night goes on back here with our illustrious panels.

We're watching all of these results come in, Amy, 9:00 here on the East Coast, based on what you've seen so far.

I know we had some early, maybe surprise results, the fact that some of these races were called as early as they were for Democrats.

I mean, the South Carolina Senate race is really kind of everything.

You know, when we look back at South Carolina, there are some folks maybe around this table that have a little PTSD about that state in the 2018 election.

The polls showed that Lindsey Graham was tied with Jamie Harrison.

This was a race I think was the most expensive Senate race that cycle.

And Lindsey Graham won by ten points.

So there was, I think, a lot of reticence for folks to believe that this race was as close as it was.

Lindsey Graham, even though he had many detractors, even within his own party, he was a very polarizing in that sense, did have a brand in South Carolina and did have a base.

And I think the most amazing thing.

This was Donald Trump's choice to be the nominee, the Democratic candidate, Annie Andrews, a doctor, raised a lot of money thanks to the fact that originally she was running against Lindsey Graham, used that early money advantage to get herself on television.

Nobody was doing much on the Republican side.

The Darling Graham campaign not really engaging until it looked like it was too late.

There was an assumption that, well, this is South Carolina.

But to flip south, the have South Carolina flip is one that is is is definitely an earthquake type of situation.

If that indeed happens I know it has not yet.

And David Brooks the other part of this that striking to me is that President Trump assembled what could have been should have been a politically durable coalition in 2024.

You had working class voters, you had Hispanic voters.

You had young men, young men of color.

What happened to that coalition in just two years?

Well, the simple answer is inflation and gas prices.

I mean, you don't have to get too complicated about it, but I will say a few things.

Republicans have done better with working class voters.

South Carolina has been a boom state for a decade or more.

And those even upstate down in the low country, the low districts, it's been a strong economic growth.

It's a different South Carolina than it was 10 or 15 years ago.

The second thing I'm thinking about is how much of this election getting past the obvious economic issues is people being upset with norm busting, with the mid-decade redistricting, people saying, because I thought Americans would be outraged by what was happening in Texas and California and all those states because it was basically disenfranchizing voters.

Voters should be in open revolt against that.

And if God is just, the Indiana Republicans will do okay because they did not redistrict.

So it could be that that people are just upset.

We want to get back to a normal country where we can talk to each other again.

The second theory is that who who lives by the sword dies by the sword.

And historians, I won't go into details about this.

Historians can look at the nature of American public conversation going back to the 1850s.

America has always been a very optimistic country.

The words we use are optimistic progress, growth.

The American dream that stopped in 2010 for reasons nobody quite understands.

We are now in the most pessimistic public culture that at any time since 1850, more pessimistic than the Great Depression, the known World War one and World War two.

Donald Trump, road pessimism in 2016, American carnage and that pessimism may now be turning against him.

One of the interesting things that's been going on in American culture in the last couple of years is that the economy is struggling, but it's not terrible.

If you look at the Michigan Consumer Survey, it's the worst and the lowest on record.

And so Americans are extremely pessimistic about the economy, even more pessimistic than the numbers justify.

And when you get that level of pessimism, it's like change, give me change.

And so it could be all these things have contributed to what I think we're seeing today.

One question is what to put to complete to pick up on a point you made earlier.

We've talked so much about Democrats being enthused by their dissatisfaction with the president and high prices.

And that's what's driving so many to the polls.

But you mentioned the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

We've seen this huge surge in early voting.

And I wonder the degree to which you think, you know, especially districts in the redistricting moves in which black districts were eliminated.

People in the South in particular, we saw record early voting numbers, how much that's contributing to what we're seeing so far.

I think that is a great deal of it.

I mean, one thing that we're seeing with these early voting numbers, much of it done by mail, is a complete and utter rejection of Donald Trump's fear mongering about election integrity, trying to cast doubt on mail in ballots, trying to go to court to stop mail in ballots from being counted at least immediately, or block that voters seem to be rejecting that outright.

They weren't kept away from using that.

But on top of your point about, you know, this dissatisfaction, this dissatisfaction works when people are doing okay right now, they're not.

And also dissatisfaction that works for the president when they can't tie what's they're dissatisfied about directly to him.

You know, even for a win that Republicans get, like securing the border, it's it's completely wiped out by the fact that you have these immigration raids that are hurting fishermen in Maine.

There you can't people don't want to see the people working on their house reconstruction suddenly get, you know, abducted by Ice officials in the middle of the day.

So how can you focus on the fact that the border is more secure when you're seeing these sort of things taking place right in their communities in a way that's really distasteful?

It is part the general dissatisfaction.

People understand the issues and they're tying them directly to the president.

And when you have candidates that are close to the president or can't run away for the president, in some situations, that really, really hurts them.

Look, Donald Trump is at his best when he's an outsider taking on the system, right, pointing the finger at the ills at the other side for the ills of the country.

Now, when he takes office, whether it was in his first term or in this term, he becomes, I've always thought of him sort of like that character Pigpen from peanuts, the guy walking around with the cloud of dust swirling over, said.

He walks around with the cloud of chaos swirling around him and voters who, you know, vote for him because they want him to be a disrupter.

No, no, the disruption isn't working for me.

Whether that was Covid in the first term or whether it's tariffs and the war and gas prices in this term.

And so they start to swing away from him.

And, you know, I'm looking at some of these Florida numbers.

Congratulations Senator Moody, but not by much against a candidate in Angie Nixon who wasn't supposed to do well.

She got outspent like, a bazillion to one in the primary against an establishment Democrat.

Didn't really have a ton of institutional support behind her in the general election.

And when you look at the swing it compared to the 2024 election, Miami-Dade County swung Democrat by 19 points, Broward County by 15 points.

Black voters statewide in the low double digits.

Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade County swung 19 points towards the Democrat in the Senate race.

It wasn't enough to get her over the hump, but that sure tells the story of some of those down ballot races, those congressional races.

And it speaks to what we're talking about here, right?

People are just so dissatisfied because Donald Trump promised to give us something different to take on the system, and he became the system that's throwing us, we think, just real quick, I'm sorry, we have two House races that we're going to call by way of the Associated Press, starting with New York, New York's eighth district.

That's Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader.

And in North Carolina, there is a flip.

This is the North Carolina 11th district.

Let's take a quick look at the House balance of power.

Let's go over to our Lisa Desjardins at the super screen.

Lisa what are you saying makes sense of this North Carolina race for us.

This is the first house flip of the night for Democrats.

Remember folks, that they just need to flip three on net for the country in order to take over the House.

Maybe maybe in redistricting you might see a little back and forth.

But this is a district where we saw, I think, a problem with a Republican incumbent who retired after a scandal involving some of his staffers or is not returning to the job, rather.

And we saw a very strong candidate.

They were going Jamie, a first time candidate well known for his work in the community during Hurricane Helene.

We have talked about redistricting in North Carolina a little bit.

That mainly has affected this part of the state.

He is still ahead, but Laurie Bucket is closing on him right now within three points in North Carolina's first district, heavily redistricted.

But I want to draw attention to North Carolina's ninth district.

We just talked about Hakeem Jeffries just easing back in his chair because he's returning to office.

Speaker of the House if they keep going.

This man right here, we see Richard Hudson.

He is the man in charge of the House campaigns for the Republicans, the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Right now he is down two points to Richard.

He ran in West Virginia and also for president a few years back.

So right now this is another race to watch as well.

Amy mentioned South Carolina as the race she is interested in.

So I want to take a look at what's going down there, going on down there in the Senate race right now.

We see Annie Andrews up by seven points.

Now, this again is likely early vote, but it's 75%.

So now we are seeing some Election Day votes coming into South Carolina.

I want to compare this to what happened in 2024, in the presidential election.

So watch the red and blue here and you'll see that right now Annie Andrews is ahead in some places right here, including Chester County.

This is a rural county and you know, the invisible.

Look, 87% of the vote is in in this rural county, and Andrews is winning there.

So this is a place where we're seeing something happened and we'll keep watching it.

Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much, David Brooks.

Yeah, I was going to ask a question.

Everybody everybody can take a shot at this question.

So in past in recent cycles, Republicans have given away some seats by picking candidates who are too extreme.

Angie Nixon joined the Democratic Social Party Socialist Party this year, and it became a big campaign issue.

She was not a down the line orthodox DSA member, but nonetheless, she wore that label and it became a big issue.

Is this a case where if the Republicans had picked a more moderate candidate, or, I dare say, a more establishment candidate, they could have won this seat?

Look, Florida is still Florida, and I think they're going to be lots of questions about that, as well as in a couple of other states that we see.

But at the end of the day, I actually don't know that that label matters the way Republicans so desperately want it to matter.

It might cost a few votes here and there.

It might cost a seat here and there.

But when you hear voters, right, I mean, they lean so heavily in all of these states, pushing the socialist label on Democrats who weren't DSA affiliated at all, calling all of us socialists and communists and Marxists and what have you.

And for most voters, they were just like, whatever.

Are you going to bring down the cost of gas or not?

Are you going to bring down the cost of eggs or not?

Ultimately, Republicans, I think, fell into the trap.

They fell into the trap where what worked for them last cycle, they thought could work for them this cycle by just hurling labels at Democrats, running culture war against Democrats, thinking that that would be enough.

It wasn't because, just as it was true in 2024, voters are saying there is something we care about more and that is, you know, are you looking out for me or not?

Doug Wayne on that, on what Mo just had to say.

But also, I saw you shake your head when we got those results for North Carolina 11 and that Democratic flip.

The destruction from the hurricane is still very real.

But, you know, as I as I'm watching these results in North Carolina and what we're seeing in South Carolina and other states, I'm reminded of when I worked for Eric Cantor, when he was majority leader, and when I first got a text message that there might be an issue with some of the numbers.

It took about 15 minutes to realize to go from, is there a problem to there is a problem to it's over.

And when we go then to 2016, that was in 2014.

In 2016, once I saw that Virginia was even in question, I texted a friend who worked for Cantor with me and I said, this race is over.

We learned early that the race was over.

And what we're seeing right now is this sort of early numbers coming and not early voting per se, but early numbers coming in on the East Coast.

That's going to tell the rest of the story for the rest of the country.

And part of it also comes down to, yeah, we can talk about Trump and the economy and and so forth and ballrooms and all that.

But Amy said something earlier that is a sentence that we can say about so many of these candidates not engaged until too late.

Too many Republicans didn't take this as a serious race for them, because they had been reelected for so long, because they had been reelected so easily.

I met with a Republican member who's down in their district.

This is about a month ago, said, I don't like my numbers.

They just went on the air two weeks ago.

And Tiffany, as far as I know, you're the only person on this panel who has actually been a candidate herself.

So you know what it's like to try to establish yourself and make your own case to voters when the president of your own party is so dominant and voters are judging you by, based on, based on what they think of him, and they conflate their ideas of him with you, how do you how does one navigate that?

And it was an incredible experience.

But yeah, I ran a very high profile race and a deep, deep blue state.

Raised the most Republican candidate has ever raised over $22 million in that state to get our message out far and wide.

And I was kind of a nobody that came out of nowhere, which was refreshing.

And I think in some some of these candidates that we're seeing when they're not coming, they're not being plucked out of the normal political machine.

And the Democrats have done a good job of recruiting some of these candidates.

And like you compare them to some of ours.

And like, we have a candidate quality issue in some of these races.

But, you know, it's going to be interesting to me to watch this.

You know, we talked about the Latino vote, Amy, you talked about the young voters.

I think if this is a whopping night for the Democrats, they're going to they're going to have a hard time living up to what they were selling the American people.

And there can be a big pendulum swing, you know, switch coming in the presidential election because they're going to have a hard time keeping these younger voters and keeping them happy.

We're seeing it happen with mom Dani in New York.

Everyone's mad at him now, even his own DSA parties mad at him coming at him.

So I think that's something to watch and keep in mind as we're watching these races unfold.

The the Republicans do have a messaging issue, and I've talked about this for a long time.

If they if they were talking about health care and they had a health care plan, I think this would be a completely different conversation if they could show the American people that we're going to save you money, we're going to take on insurance giants, we're going to get rid of hidden fees.

We're going to make sure you're healthy and protected, and we're going to save you money.

No one Democrat or Republican, no one's doing that.

But the Republicans could have dialed in their messaging a little bit, I think.

Yeah, we would be in a different place right now.

I think they tried to do that in some of these states and some of these races in Iowa.

In Michigan, the problem was the the president was refusing to make help them make that case because the economy is great.

We're the hottest economy in the world.

But I completely agree with you that this is going to be the challenge.

They're not naive to the fact that they're going to get a whole bunch of not just the the voters who have opinions and would like to see them do certain things, but these members coming in who are going to want to do things immediately.

And what I've been saying throughout the cycle is the biggest difference to me between this midterm and Trump's first midterm is the types of Democrats running in 2018.

The message from Democrats was, let's get back to normal.

And they nominated a lot of folks who were there.

They were not part of the establishment, but they were part of institutions.

They came from the they were normies, but they came from they came from the military.

They came like a lock in from coming.

They had the kind of established credentials.

Not not a political credentials, but from other institutions that are well respected.

This year, the Democrats are coming in much like the Republicans did in 2010 as the Tea Party.

Yes, Trump's a big part of the problem, but he's not the whole problem.

And we need to get in and change the system.

It's how corruption became a top issue.

If you watched any campaign ads this cycle that was front and center in every single Democrats ad, so those Democrats are going to want to come to Washington and deliver immediately on that.

Do we have a lot more time to talk about what the next two years will look like a night first?

And I know there's still a number of key races to watch.

William Brangham has been speaking to PBS reporters across the country about some of those key races.

Now we're going to turn to Kansas right now.

And joining us from there is Jared Cirillo.

He hosts Kansas Week, which is a statewide public affairs program and joins us from Wichita.

Jared, so nice to have you on the program.

This is a theme that we are starting to see across the country tonight.

And it's particularly true in Kansas.

We're looking at the Senate race there between Adam Hamilton and Republican Roger Marshall.

How is it that ruby red Kansas, a state that Donald Trump dominated by double digits in the last election?

Well, first of all, Kansas has always been a finicky state.

Kansas is no stranger to electing Democrat governors.

We have a two term Democrat governor in office now, and we have previously seemed to flip back and forth between Republican and Democrat governors in this race.

Though Kansas has always been a lock for Republicans in congressional seats, House seats, Senate seats.

But unfortunately, in the last couple of years, the incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, has really had a rough time.

He's he's made a number of blunders, errors, if you will, for lack of a better phrase.

Things really started going wrong for Senator Roger Marshall last year when he walked out of a town hall meeting that he had called and was facing some pretty tough questions.

He had told the crowd that he would spend 45 minutes with them and ended up walking out of the town hall.

There have also been some serious accusations that he doesn't even live in Kansas, that he lives in a home in Florida and has for several years, in fact, moved out of the state of Kansas.

The allegations are that right after he was elected that he moved out of Kansas.

He says he has continued to live in Kansas.

And the third thing that started going wrong for the incumbent Republican was that he used to be an ob gyn in Great Bend, Kansas, and he filed.

He sued 7 or 800 of his patients, and more than 80 of them even went to jail.

Some of these low income mothers who had had children, Doctor Marshall delivered them, and he ended up suing them.

They went to jail because they eventually ignored court orders to pay their bills.

Tell us a little bit about his opponent, because Adam Hamilton was a complete political neophyte.

I mean, he's the pastor of a very large Methodist congregation, a bipartisan congregation, I should say.

And yet he came out of nowhere and now has made this such a competitive race.

Tell us a little bit about why he is coming on so strong.

He was nobody had ever heard of him in terms of politics before.

He is the pastor, the senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the resurrection.

And it is actually the largest United Methodist Church congregation in the entire country in the Kansas City area, the Leeward, Kansas area.

You know, typically, Democrats have not been able to find a viable candidate to run against the incumbent Republican because Kansas has not elected a non Republican senator in almost a century.

It's been about 1936 or 32, in about 94 years, I think it's been since Kansas has even had a Democratic senator.

Well, they found a good candidate, apparently in Adam Hamilton.

And of course, with Senator Marshall's mistakes on the campaign trail and his errors that he's made, that hasn't helped him either.

But Adam Hamilton has certainly been a viable candidate.

And there is as of right now, only about 40% of the vote is has been called in that race so far.

Going back to you Jeff and Amna in the studio.

All right William Brangham thank you so much.

We have more race calls to bring you now as results continue to come in.

In the closely watched Georgia governor's race, the Democrat Keisha Lance bottoms has won that race, becoming the first black woman to serve in that role in the Florida governor's race.

The Republican Byron Donalds has won, also making history as the state's first black governor and in the House race.

So Florida's 22nd congressional district, a toss up race there that goes to the Democrat Pierre Dundee in the Kentucky Senate race.

The McConnell seat, formerly held by Mitch McConnell, of course, stays with the Republicans.

I believe our Liz Landers over at the white House has been keeping an eye on some of these races and joins us now with her latest reporting.

Yeah, we were in Georgia out of watch party for Keisha Lance bottoms and her Republican opponent, Rick Jackson, just a few weeks ago.

And hearing some of the questions from voters in Georgia was very similar to what we've been talking about the whole night.

Questions that voters have from across the country about affordability, about the cost of health care, one in particular about flock cameras, surveillance around the city of Atlanta, also data centers and Keisha Lance Bottoms and Rick Jackson offering very different viewpoints on these these many issues that voters were bringing to them.

Rick Jackson is a multi- millionaire businessman in Georgia there, and he spent almost 200 million of his own dollars on this race there.

So this is a really big upset that we're seeing in Georgia, which is, of course, a state that President Trump has kept a very close eye on since the 2020 election, when he lost that race.

And we've seen him heavily invested in Georgia.

He was down there several times campaigning for the Senate candidate, who also lost tonight as well.

We should we should mark this moment Kimberly I can store because in the history of this country, only three black Americans have ever been elected governor.

You have Douglas Wilder in Virginia in the 90s.

You have Deval Patrick, Massachusetts in 2007, and Westmore in Maryland, who's serving right now?

And tonight you have Byron Donalds in Florida and Keisha Lance bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, now the first black woman to ever be elected governor in this country.

Reflect on the moment, if you will.

It's a night that was set to be primed to have a lot of firsts like this.

And when you state that, it's still I think it's shocking to me still to hear how few black people have held the governor's spot.

So it is historic for both of them.

One Republican I mean, often in the history of this country, the first black whatever official in a place has been a Republican.

It's not, you know, traditionally black voters or strongly within the Democratic bloc.

It's someone in Donalds who Donald Trump stumped very hard for.

But look at that margin though in in Florida.

That's what I can't that's the headline for me in the Florida gubernatorial race where he barely edged out David Jolly, of course, a former congressman who former Republican who left the party and then ran for governor in deep red Florida and came just within, you know, the striking distance of winning there.

But yeah, I mean, it's important to have diversity in office.

But, you know, when you look at the policies that Donald Trump supports, I don't think that I will be interested in looking at all the exit polling and the data that comes out of there.

I doubt that that Donald's got a huge amount of the black vote there in Florida, but it is a first indeed.

And Amy, one wonders Stacey Abrams, she ran for governor in Georgia.

You wonder if she had run in this cycle, given the difference in the political environment, if it would have turned out differently?

Well, the political environment, and it was also the candidate she would have run against.

And I think this is probably going to be another thing we'll learn from tonight.

Brian Kemp, who was the Georgia governor, was unable to run because of term limits.

He really cemented himself in that state, won in good years and bad, in part because he was seen as close enough to Trump that he wasn't seen as a traitor.

But he also distanced himself from Trump when he needed to.

Obviously, it was the 2020 election when Trump called him and asked him to to move some ballots around.

So he had a level of credibility in that state that I think a lot of these Republicans, especially if they haven't run before, they haven't built up their name as being somebody who could be seen as a a broker between the, the more Trump wing of the party and, and Democrats.

And so, look, I do think we keep talking about candidates matter the mood matters.

And in Georgia, all three of those things came together.

A deeply unpopular president, Jon Ossoff, a very, very strong candidate.

And they say they campaigned together.

So I think money and energy also helping Lance bottoms, because she was running against a Republican who spent a bazillion dollars of his own money.

Let's remember why Jon Ossoff and and Warnock are senators because of Donald Trump telling people do not believe the polls in Georgia do not believe that your vote is going to count.

And and it's another example of how Republicans have proactively cost themselves Senate seats.

We should have two Republican senators from Georgia.

It is it is politically criminal that we don't.

Can I just get your reaction to that Florida governor's race being as tight as it is?

Because, as Kimberly pointed out, Donald Trump campaign very hard for Byron Donalds.

He promised to basically continue Ron DeSantis entire policies and agenda.

What do you make of it being as close as it was?

You know, politics is interesting because a lot of it is timing, political environment and a little bit of luck and wind in your sales.

And I think I mean he handedly one there's no contest about that.

He won outright and and I think it's sort of the mood of our country.

It's like who are we and who are we going to be is what's sort of sort of playing out right now.

You know, the Democrats really this should be a huge, massive blue wave.

But they've struggled with who's leading our party and where do we belong.

And you know, what's our future look like.

So it's an it's an interesting time you tie that with the issues of inflation in the economy.

And and Byron I don't he's you know he was a congressman from that or from Florida had never run statewide before.

There's something to say about that as well.

And just the effort and the energy and the money and everything it takes to get that machine to where he obviously got to, which is victory.

I mean, David, to your question earlier about what if Democrats had nominated more moderate candidates, you don't get two Democratic nominees in the same state, more different than David Jolly and Angie Nixon, right?

They both got 3.9 million votes tonight.

That one was DSA and the other was a former Republican member of Congress.

So that tells you something about the the the pull of the environment.

I want to say one thing about Georgia as well, because this is a huge night there.

And, Doug, I generally agree with you that that John Ossoff is there because of Donald Trump after the 2020 election.

But we brought up Stacey Abrams earlier.

We cannot underestimate the importance of her role in getting Georgia to where it is tonight, because what she did was draw a roadmap for Democrats across the South in red states by organizing when there wasn't even an election going on, by going out there and making the affirmative case for Democrats, two voters in this what was then a red state.

Now I think it's a red, slightly reddish hue of purple as a state.

But one that now has two Democratic U.S.

senators and a Democratic governor.

And the work that she did is something that Democrats across the South and the Midwest should, should study.

But I had one other thing that the Democrats have done, Amy, had mentioned how many military people the Democrats were running in past election cycles.

If you weren't a helicopter pilot, you couldn't run as a Democrat.

But over the past couple of years or cycles, the Democrats have done a better job of being religious.

And Raphael Warnock and Georgia led the way.

But now we see Talarico in Texas talking side is talking about his faith.

I got to know Adam Hamilton like ten, 15 years ago when he invited me to his church, which looks like a big basketball arena, which it may actually have once been.

And he he asked me to help unify the United Methodist.

And I did a fantastic job with that.

But what struck me was a he was a brilliant preacher.

He told me when he was a kid, he had a rough childhood and he found a Bible and he read it alone, and he went to a priest or a pastor and wants to know about faith.

And he said to the guy, I read this book called The songs.

He didn't know how to pronounce songs because because he was all alone there with the Bible.

And one of the things his church did was they had the collection plates go around and you could put your money in, but then he asked you to take out a slip of paper, which had a name and the email address of a teacher in Kansas City, and it was like, send them an email thanking them for teaching.

And that's just a beautiful act of civic action to do, but shows a sense of civic, frankly, skill to.

I'm not only pastor to my flock, I'm helping the state of Kansas.

And I love your shown in his ads where he's speaking directly to camera in a way that we haven't seen a lot of candidates do.

Yeah, well, one candidate who is speaking is John Assaf in Georgia, the reelected senator there.

These last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our republic would survive.

Let tonight's results give you courage.

That the first light of dawn is on the horizon.

But remember that in living rooms and backyards and at rallies across Georgia these last two years together, we've affirmed that our task is not just to contain one president's wickedness, but to heal the brokenness beneath.

This moment is an opening not for restoration, but for reformation.

And so when midst our celebration tonight, we must acknowledge that the underlying crisis gripping our Republic remains, and that therefore our most vital work lies ahead.

Because while the wealthy and well lobbied feast on inside information and official favors, America's forgotten families are treated to systemic corporate disrespect and official indifference, working harder and harder while the treadmill just gets faster and steeper and the bills get higher and higher.

Instead of reading your daughter her favorite book, that precious spare hour after work, you're on the phone begging the insurance company to cover the medicine that prevents her seizures.

You report the black mold to your landlord who doesn't fix the leak, and the ambulance for your toddler's asthma attack is followed by a $3,000 bill.

For too many home ownership of fantasy family farms face ruin.

And while health care is never cost more, plastics invade our bodies.

Blood and breast milk toxic forever chemicals taint half the country's drinking water, and polluters have been granted fresh license to poison our air.

American credibility and leadership are in decay, and the world is rearming for global conflict and at our grave peril.

Humanity is fast forgetting the terrible lessons of two world wars and the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, the titans of Silicon Valley dig bunkers for themselves and warned that the artificial intelligence they're creating risks human extinction.

And amidst these challenges of unprecedented consequence and complexity, though we rightly celebrate tonight's historic victory, the fact is we've been too long mired in a small and selfish politics, bought by big money, unmoored from fixed moral principles, and resigned to intractable division.

In other words, the United States has been adrift in a gale.

But Georgia, we can and will reclaim control over our own destiny.

Tonight, we've struck a necessary and undeniable blow on behalf of justice and progress.

And tonight in Georgia, we've proven not just that unity is possible, but that we can overcome division without sacrificing clarity of purpose in every corner of Georgia.

This campaign urged the necessity of banning corporate and secret money from politics of American leadership for peace and human rights around the world, and of guaranteeing health care for every single American.

We committed to continuing the work of bringing Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Tech to heal the defense of struggling Georgia families.

And on that basis, we built a new majority that extends far beyond party lines.

And the foundation for that new majority has been trust.

Trust built through years of phone calls to mayors, pastors and farmers, and trust measured in problems solved together without concern for ideology or party affiliation.

I thank Republican mayors Matheson, Smith and Frye of Valdosta, Tifton and Toccoa, and the countless other Republican leaders who joined our team.

And I thank the hundreds of thousands of that is Jon Ossoff speaking to supporters after winning reelection in that Georgia Senate race.

Still, a couple of critical Senate races we're tracking and do not yet have calls on for that.

Because certainly that's something we have all been talking about for many months now.

We have some results coming in in the Michigan Senate race right now, Abdul El-Sayed is over former Congressman Mike Rogers by 12 points.

But I want to take a look at what we're learning from that vote that's come in.

Let's look here around the Lansing area.

We're still waiting for the main county that includes Lansing to come in.

First of all, how is Mike Rogers doing right now?

This is a county where we have most of the results in Michigan since its day of and early votes in at about the same time.

So we don't see as much of a mirage in this state as others.

This is a place where the majority of votes Mike Rogers has 61% right now.

How does that compare to what this county was doing when President Trump was on the ballot?

So you see Mike Rogers at the moment seeming to hold on to at least the percentage.

We want to watch the numbers of votes as well that President Trump had.

However, we also see Abdul Al-Sadd seems to be let's look at what he's doing in Wayne County compared to Kamala Harris, who had 63% there right now, he will only have a few votes in there, but 3% of the vote.

But he is in some of these Democratic counties outrunning Harris.

So I think we're going to have an interesting mixed picture here of what's going on in Michigan.

I also want to take another look again at South Carolina.

We've been talking about this a lot because I do think this is still in play.

It is a state that obviously can switch to read at any point.

We could have a blue mirage here very easily, but I was pointing out some of these more conservative counties.

This right here is Graham territory Lindsey Graham kind of homeland area.

And we see right now Andy Andrews is winning in still some of these rural counties.

But I want to point out where the biggest vote is missing.

Any student of politics knows this is a majority black district.

It is an important district, especially in the civil rights history of this country.

And we don't have any votes there yet.

This is a place that is likely to go heavily democratic, and we're waiting for that.

We'll see what that does in this race, where Anna Andrews is ahead with 82% of the vote in at the moment.

Lisa Desjardins, our thanks to you, we have another Senate race to call by way of the Associated Press.

And that is in Oklahoma, where the Republican Kevin Hern has won.

Amy, when Lisa was talking about South Carolina, you were her Amen corner.

I heard you over here saying, pick up on what you what she was saying.

Her her state, someone who spent a lot of time in South Carolina.

But but again, I think what she's pointing out is the fact that the one part of the state that's out is a part of the state that is most likely to go heavily for Andrews suggests that this is going to be a very uphill battle for Republicans to hold this.

And, you know, we're starting to see I know a lot of these races haven't been called yet, but a number of seats where the Democrat is ahead in places like Indiana and Kentucky, these double digit Trump districts.

And so Lisa laid this out really well at the very beginning.

If you think about this election as one where everything is shifting basically 10 to 12 points to the left from where things were in 2024, there's a whole lot in that territory here, especially on the Senate side.

But even on the House and many of these House candidates have never.

They've always enjoyed having a pretty safe seat.

And part of the challenge was they knew what the risks were, and they assumed that Partizanship would come and save them, that what we're going to do is we're going to just appeal to our partizans on the issues.

We know that they will be sort of excited, incensed about.

This is why you're hearing a lot about socialism, or you heard a lot about trends issues.

At the end of the day, those were not enough to move voters who fundamentally have been saying throughout this entire campaign, told us in the exit polls this was an election about the economy, Kimberly, but can I, can I make another point?

It sort of dives off of David's point about religion.

You're seeing more Democrats embrace religion.

We saw Jon Ossoff preaching there in his sense.

And I'm wondering if this is evidence, this election of a change in the way that Democrats are talking about morality, right, beyond just religion.

So I think Republicans had this sort of lock that they were the party of, you know, values.

But what do those values look like?

They look like a very traditional type of household where women often feel subjugated.

It was really centered on the issue of abortion that I think when you look broadly in the United States, they do not like what has happened since Roe v Wade was struck down, and that's going against them.

Whereas what do you see Democrats talking about?

They're talking about caring for your neighbors.

You saw people out during the Ice raids with whistles, who who were just trying to notify people in neighborhoods that these raids were happening.

You're seeing communities of Haitian immigrants and Somalia, immigrants being attacked and targeted and slurred.

I think that there is a distaste for that kind of thing that Donald Trump pushed as part of his fear mongering in his first term, and continued in this one, trying to make those people the enemy.

And increasingly, you are seeing voters not see these folks as enemies and Democrats capitalizing on that, if that's the right word for it.

But saying, speaking to people, taking care of their communities the way that John Ossoff has been speaking, I think this is an opportunity for Democrats to reclaim what morality actually looks like moving forward in a way to build on whatever wins they get.

And Kimberly, for Republicans, the reality is for ten years, those values have been whatever Donald Trump told them they would be.

Yeah, we have accepted so much behavior from Donald Trump that Lord knows, when I came up in politics, if Bill Clinton had done that and Bill Clinton sometimes did do that, we impeached him.

We went after him, we went after Hillary.

We went after anybody who ran afoul of whatever we decided our set of values were at that particular time.

Donald Trump has turned that all on its head.

So where else is that being turned on its head in congressional districts throughout the country?

My home state of North Carolina, every Republican is down in all 14 congressional districts.

Doesn't mean they're all going to lose, but it means most of them are going to, and all of them could lose.

That includes the chair of the rules Committee, Virginia Fox, the hardest working member of Congress I've ever seen.

That includes Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

This is going to be a complete wipeout, because Republicans, we've had these conversations about how do you separate on the issue of Iran and so forth.

The reality is, you can't do it because you've gone along so long with Donald Trump and all of the values, and, you know, you're not allowed to talk about January 6th anymore.

Unless they attack Capitol Police, we have just aborted our own values for a decade now.

And the emperor has no clothes and neither do his minions.

Oh, on this point of organized faith, though, is this something you've seen Democrats are more willing to embrace because of some larger shifts?

I mean, part on the faith question, I think so, I mean, I remember working for a candidate back to in 2000 who got asked a question about his faith on the campaign trail and basically said, it's not your business.

That's not where we're at now, right?

Whether it's Jon Ossoff talking about his Raphael Warnock, Adam Hamilton or Abdullah Al Sadd.

So I do think that there's more of an openness.

I remember in 2008, talking with Hillary Clinton about how she used to attend prayer breakfast with Lindsey Graham in the US Senate.

So I do think you're seeing a movement towards that.

But on this issue of values, I think about it a little bit differently.

I think everything you were talking about, I hear and I see out there, but at the same time, I mean, so much of our politics right now is about other rising, right?

It's about I'm getting screwed and it's your fault.

And so I got to look out for me and mine because you're just looking out for you and yours.

That's our politics in a nutshell right now.

And what when I think about this values conversation, I'm hearing more and more Democrats across the spectrum from, you know, whether it's some of the Democratic socialists or whether it's some of the more normie moderates who are kind of saying the same thing, which is we got to put an end to that.

The biggest problem we have right now in our society, it's opportunity, inequality, economic, social mobility, all of it.

That that because there are forces out there that are denying opportunity to so many people.

And so we have an obligation to extend that opportunity to as many people as we possibly can.

That's what I think you hear Democrats talking about.

And it manifests itself in terms of economics.

It manifests itself in terms of some of these cultural issues.

And to me, that is the crux of the current democratic messaging on values.

And I think this cycle it may be working.

I think in 2015, I wrote a book called The Road to Character on Character Formation, and I got a lot of pushback from people on the left because the word character coded right back then.

And the view was, you shouldn't be judgmental about this stuff.

Let people choose their own values.

Donald Trump has solved that problem.

The word character no longer codes, right?

Now, I think everybody believes character is super important.

And so I do think Democrats have have have found it easier to publicly embrace public moralizing.

And I'm not saying that is a negative thing, by the way.

Moralizing to me can be a very negative thing if it's done insufferably, but it can be very positive thing.

And so I do think that the the strength of character really does matter has become pretty obvious over the last decade.

Well, I think the thing I love that we've normalized the use of your phrase, Normie, you have the table theme of the night.

To say, you know, when I'm thinking of this campaign cycle, we're obviously like in the Super Bowl of it all right now.

But something that really stood out to me was just a few days ago when Haley Stevens went to church with Mike Rogers at a black community, a black church, and stood there together.

I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican.

If you have an American heart, you love that.

And and I think both parties need to get to that place spiritually, morally, where where we love this country and we love each other.

And we can have conversations and we can walk into a church where maybe they don't all agree with me or disagree with me, but or agree with you.

And we'll see how that plays out in Michigan.

Let's take a break here and just check in with someone for an on the ground perspective.

William Brangham has been checking in with public media reporters across the country on the races.

And for that, we are joined by longtime political reporter David Yepsen.

He was a host at Iowa PBS, and he joins us from Des Moines.

David, so nice to have you on the show.

You have so many, so many open seats in Iowa right now.

But I want to talk specifically about this, this toss up Senate race that you've got going.

When this seat first opened up, it seemed like, again, this is Representative Ashley Hinson against Democrat Josh Turek.

Hinson seemed like the obvious heir apparent.

And yet Turek has waged a campaign that has really made this a very, very tight race again.

You're seeing this pattern all across rural America that many Republican and Trump voters in rural America have been hammered by this economy.

Diesel prices, the embargoes, tariffs are a bad word in the Midwest have been since the Great Depression.

And so that explains a lot of this.

But the pattern we're seeing in Iowa in an election night or larger counties report their results more quickly than some of the smaller rural counties.

And so, as the night goes on, Hinton's numbers should go up.

The other factor to remember, William, is there are 175,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in this state.

So it's tough all over for Republicans in rural America.

So on that you're seeing that in Kansas.

And the same thing is, is starting to unfold here.

I was seeing that some of the gas prices, as you were mentioning, were up 50, 60, 70% in some counties.

My understanding is she's had to walk this delicate balance of keeping Trump in her camp, but yet trying to distance herself from the president and some of his more unpopular policies.

A candidate came at her from the right.

He got 25% of the vote thereabouts, and 30 some thousand.

And not that those are people who, you know, Hinson had the early court while at the same time moved to the center on issues and try to distance herself from some of Trump's policies.

But it's clearly the Republicans are worried about turnout.

When the president of the United States decides to spend the Sunday before the election in Dubuque, Iowa, and a few days earlier, he was out in western Iowa.

And they're just simply trying to deliver that reluctant Republican vote to Ashley Hinson.

David Yepsen, great to hear from you.

All right William Brangham thank you so much.

Meanwhile very quickly a couple of more calls to share with you as the Associated Press continues to report results in the House, we can report that New Jersey's seventh Congressional district has flipped.

The Democrat Rebecca Bennett has won, ousting the Republican Tom Kean.

So let's just take a quick look at the House.

Seats are starting to fill in 99 seats for the Democrats, 53 seats for the Republicans.

We're continue to bring you updates from the Associated Press, analysis from our reporters, and, of course, insights from our incredible panel here with us in studio right now.

We're going to take a short break, but stay with us.

We'll have more national results and analysis in just a few minutes.

Millions of votes have been cast in this midterm election.

Traditional battlegrounds have expanded in the fight to control Congress.

It all comes down to one question who won?

This year, the NewsHour is once again relying on the Associated Press to call winners in critical races.

For a closer look at how the AP makes those race calls.

I'm joined by David Scott, VP of election Services at the Associated Press.

People watching results on election night want to know the winner.

So tell us, how do you know when the race is over and which candidate won?

So the thing that we're looking at primarily is the vote count.

We are reflecting the choices that Americans have made at the ballot boxes.

They make their choice about who they want to lead the country, who they want to represent them in Congress or in the state House.

And really, the question we're asking ourselves is, are the trailing candidates or a trailing candidate able to catch the leader?

And when we've determined based on all of the evidence, primarily the vote count, but other things that we take into account, what happened in the advance vote.

What's the history of a state, what our poll shows about what took place and what voters were thinking about on election night.

But really, the vote count when we see and we are certain that the trailing candidates can't catch up, that's when we declare a winner.

And who makes that ultimate decision?

We've got a big team at the Associated Press that makes up our decision team, and they're all journalists.

They are people who cover politics.

They are experts in political science.

They are folks who study this year round, full time.

We have folks who are focused on turnout and what the expected vote is.

What's the denominator, how many votes are going to be cast in this election?

And then of course, the numerator, what are each candidate getting.

And again we're trying to answer that question.

When we look at all the votes that have been counted so far, what do we see about what's outstanding and have.

Has a candidate reached the point where none of the others are able to catch them, and they will be the winner?

And that's when we declare a winner.

And not until that moment, not until that moment, are certainty is our standard.

We're not trying to race to a decision.

We are looking at what's coming in.

But we also feel an obligation to let the voters know, to let America know this is who you've chosen to lead.

And so we're being swift but always focused on accuracy.

We are certain when we declare a winner that the trailing candidates can't catch up.

And basically, why should Americans trust AP to get it right?

We've been doing this literally since the founding of the Associated Press.

1848 was the first time that we counted the vote and declared winners.

It's part of who we are as a news organization.

We think that the choices that Americans have made is a news story.

In this year's primaries, we declared winners in more than 11,000 races, and we made three mistakes.

And one was because of bad information from election officials, for example.

And another one was because of a technical problem.

So they do happen, but they're very rare.

David Scott, Vice president of Election Services, Associated Press Thank you so much.

Welcome back to our live special coverage of the 2026 midterms.

It is 10:00 on the East Coast, 7:00 on the West Coast.

I'm Jeff Bennett and I'm Amna Nawaz.

Let's check in now with the balance of power in the Senate as those race calls continue to come in.

Of course some critical races as yet to be called.

We're relying on the Associated Press for those.

Meanwhile, over in the House, here's the current balance of power as race calls come in.

101 seats for the Democrats, 55 seats for the Republicans.

That does include two seats that have been flipped for the Democrats.

A reminder they need a net gain of three seats to win control of that chamber.

Our Liz Landers, white House correspondent, is over at the white House tracking not only how elections are being administered across this country, but also checking in with her white House sources.

Yeah, we're getting a little bit more insight right now into how the white House is thinking about some of these election results that we've been reporting on, and a night that is not going all that well for Republicans so far.

A white House official just texted me and said that the white House mood is defiant here.

They're pointing this official to the fact that the president is not on the ballot, and that when it is, they say that it's proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot.

This person is also pointing to candidate quality, saying that President Trump in some cases, campaigned more for candidates than they did for themselves and made a better case than the candidates themselves did.

This person also going on to say that people who voted for Democrats today are going to have, quote, buyer's remorse when they see gas prices come down when the Iran conflict is over.

And then this final note from this white House official saying that President Trump's resolve to stop the Democratic Party is going to only become stronger.

So I'm going to, you know, a defiant message, I would say, coming here from the white House at 10:00 this evening and also no recognition in there of the president's low approval numbers right now on a number of issues.

But, of course, that is not something that we have seen him do in the past, is take responsibility for some of his own policy and administration's actions.

Liz Landers over at the white House.

Let's head over to our Lisa Desjardins.

Lisa, I know you have some updates about the new Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York House races, but before we get to that, bring us up to speed what's happening in South Carolina right now?

Now, we do have results from all of the state.

Right now we are at 86% of the expected vote.

Andy Andrews is up by four points, which is not negligible.

That is a significant amount at this time of the night.

Where are the next votes that we're looking for?

Actually, some of them are in Democratic rich areas like Richland County.

That is where only 61% of the vote is in.

So this is something that Democrats have got to like because their candidate is up by a whopping 60 points so far in the vote that's been counted.

Now, of course, we are still waiting for votes there, so it's hard to say how this would go.

But Democrats have a real shot at this state at this point and we need to watch it closely.

Now, I want to also talk about what's going on in the House races, where we are for the night right now, as you all have been reporting, Democrats are up two races.

So I'm going to attempt to do something here with this map, expand it and show you exactly what's happening all over the map.

Democrats picked up this seat right here in North Carolina, the 11th district there.

They also picked up one here in new Jersey, the seventh district.

But I will also stress right now, Republicans potentially could pick up in Maine.

That's Jared Golden's old district where they are winning.

But let's take a closer look at what's going on in the northeast in Pennsylvania, where we're getting some results.

These three districts right here, eight, seven and one have all been closely watched.

Let's look at the first district, because that is the one that is the most surprising to be on the map right now.

Brian Fitzpatrick, a strong incumbent there right now he is down by 18 points to Bob Harvey, the Bucks County vice chairman of the commissioner with 44% in.

And this is kind of the picture you see around all of these races.

Bob Brooks in the next one, the Democrat up with 59 points.

Page right there, 57 points in the next district up.

And then look at Scott Perry over here.

We see Janelle Stillson, the former TV anchor.

So there's a real picture at this point in the night in Pennsylvania of Democrats up by 20 points.

We will wait for more votes to come in there.

But the northeast is another very hot, potentially potential place for flips for Democrats.

For those of you just joining us and got to say, it's a great panel tonight.

Amy Walter, editor in chief of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

David Brooks, staff writer for The Atlantic and Kimberly Atkins store, a columnist for The Boston Globe.

On this side of the desk are Mo Lattes, the Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

He's a Republican strategist, former spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

And Tiffany Smiley, former Republican candidate for U.S.

Let's bring it back here to the panel.

Now, also, if you're just joining us, where have you been all evening?

And let's just talk about Pennsylvania for a second.

Walter, because Lisa was walking us through some of those critical House races, we're still watching.

Pennsylvania is interesting because those battleground races sort of tightened up in recent weeks, but they could be an indication of how bad some of the Republican losses could be if they all go by a certain margin or a certain way.

How are you looking at what I mean?

What I am looking for actually is in the first district, this is Bucks County.

This is a Republican who is one of the handful of Republicans who sits in a district that Donald Trump did not win.

He has survived good years, bad years for the Republican Party for the first time.

He is now in looks to be in serious danger of losing this seat.

But what's also important to see in Pennsylvania, and again, this is what's so different from 2018.

2018 was a realigning of the suburbs, and it was a realigning of the Republican coalition that used to be central in places like suburban Philadelphia and suburban Chicago and suburban Atlanta.

Since 2018, those areas have now become pretty consistently Democratic.

This battle in Pennsylvania this year is in more of the working class areas of the state.

This Bucks County district I talked about in Pennsylvania.

There's a Scranton area district where you have the mayor of Scranton running against an incumbent, and then you have fabrics in the seventh district, Lehigh Valley, who is a firefighter?

These are the kinds of so if if 2018 was about the suburbs, this is really about Pennsylvania, especially the more working class parts of the state.

And, you know, these were the parts of the state.

And this was true in other parts of the country that shifted dramatically in the Trump era from these were districts when we were all growing up, when we knew who Matlock was, and we also know who Pigpen was.

We are just we are all dating ourselves by Partizan.

Anyway, in the 90s, Democrats held these kinds of districts.

They lost them over the you know, Obama held on to some.

And then during the Trump era, they moved.

Right now, Democrats, if they are winning them back, it's not clear for how long they hold them.

But it is a it is a sign that they're moving now into these, that what we thought was pretty solid Trump territory.

It was on that one the turn of the other century.

But I wonder how permanent these are.

So I went to high school in Delaware County in Pennsylvania, which is suburban right outside of Philadelphia, lived a little while in Chester County and which was a little further out.

These were so Republican, you can't believe it.

But once they turned, they never went.

And so I'm wondering if the Bucks County, if those and maybe on the other side of the state, the the Pittsburgh side, I never could say that.

And so this could just be these northeastern areas, basically coastal areas.

And then when you think about the future swing areas of the country, I think you really are thinking about the Rio Grande Valley in places like that.

Well, this is what my colleague David Wasserman, I'll give him a shout out.

He was calling this the back to the future election because in looking at some of these districts, haven't been called yet, but in Kentucky, in this part of Pennsylvania, around Scranton, these were the kind of these were the kinds of areas that the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama carried.

And so they're kind of the question isn't, has it been realigned?

It's just it got de aligned, and now it's maybe open for moving once again, but that it never settled 100% into the Republican camp.

Well, in these swinging areas, those were now calling them the Rio Grande Valley, for example, Mo.

We we know Texas led the way when it came to redistricting by Republican legislature there, and they did it based on Trump's 2024 wins.

And that was when he saw a surge of support among Latino voters, who now seemed to be swinging back the other way.

We're still waiting for a lot of these results to come in, but you had what we thought were vulnerable Democrats there who could actually survive redistricting if that swinging this happens again.

If what we saw in Florida continues into Texas, you know, you called it a dummy mander.

My other favorite word I've been hearing is Gerry Blunder.

But because I think you're right, I think they were making this decision based on the certainty of a realignment.

And I think our politics are going to be constantly realigning for a little while now.

Like, I'm not sure the whole notion of traditional coalition politics that has governed the way we campaign for a generation holds right now.

A couple of things seem solid, right, that the biggest divides in our politics are the education gap and the geographic gap.

But with the swinging ness we saw with young voters between, you know, two cycles ago, last cycle and tonight with Latino voters, with perhaps working class voters, everybody's in play.

And if everybody is in play, that actually could be a really good thing for our politics and the way we campaign moving.

Well, on specific issue of immigration, Tiffany, and you were right about this.

Voters after the Biden era, they wanted a secure border.

And the other tactics we've seen from this administration?

To what degree did the administration overplay their hand?

Well, I think that's that's sort of the referendum that we're seeing being played out with voters here tonight is they wanted this.

They wanted a secure border, and they were.

And that's why they elected Donald Trump.

And they that's again why they elected Donald Trump.

Kamala didn't stand a chance like the American people completely rejected her.

And now it's like they're kind of everyone's coming back home and saying, okay, what's the next four years going to look like for us?

How are we going to get through this?

We have a secure border and people applaud Trump on that.

I mean, it's really and he put Tom Homan in charge.

I think Tom Homan is a national treasure for our country and what he has been able to step in and do and secure.

I mean, it was at a it was at a crisis, a massive national security crisis was happening in our country and that needed to be dealt with.

And it took the we needed President Trump, like the American people, knew that we need someone who could come in and lead like this.

Now we can argue on communications and PR and how that was rolled out and what we you know, we saw chaos on our TVs constantly, which the Democrats love and feed into that as well.

That's the politics that I think people are sick of in some regard.

But what he did do was protect our children and get drugs out of our states and stop and secure stopping terrorists and people who hate our country from having a free flow into our country.

We don't even know where most of them are.

I think he was the guy to do it, and he has to face the political ramifications of it.

He also is facing the political ramifications of going into Iran and dealing with Iran.

The American people don't, you know, it's hard to sell that because they don't care about Iran.

They care about their gas and their car and food on their table for their kids.

So it's hard to sell like, well, do you want Iran to have a nuclear weapon?

And in five years they could potentially bomb your house?

You know, that seems very unrealistic.

It doesn't seem real to the American people.

What does what is real is that people are struggling.

And and that's why this country is awesome.

Because you can use your voice and you can vote.

But what is also real is the impact of these immigration raids and deportations on actual communities.

I remember leaving my home one day to walk my dog, and there was a sign out front with a name and a phone number saying, this person was abducted here by Ice and we don't know where they are.

You know, when you see that happening in a nice.

Someone said that there was a sign out front, that someone was taken from the street by immigration officials because they were here illegally.

And they we don't know that we have seen a lot of people picked up by Ice who are U.S.

citizens, who are legal residents, a host of folks who are.

And when that's happening in your community, that makes it very real and that gets it back, even morality.

That's because that's what dangerous with them.

But getting back to this issue of morality and authenticity, I think that's in this moment.

At least that's how these coalitions are being built.

That's why you have Republicans reporting, you know, voting Democratic for the first time in this election because they don't like how things are going.

You they want people who actually want to solve the problems that we have, including border security, but not give up our soul in that process.

And I'm also going to disagree a little bit about the church service in Detroit.

I'm actually the granddaughter of a preacher who had his own church in Detroit.

You mean when Stevens and Rogers were 17, Rogers showed up at the at the church in Detroit after Stevens did that last minute switch and endorse the Republican Mike Rogers there?

To me and to a lot of people who I talked to in Michigan, that felt like a stunt.

It felt insulting that they would use a black church as a prop.

It would be something entirely different if Haley Stevens and or Mike Rogers have been seen in those pews in the months, in the weeks, in the years leading up to that moment, because they wanted to hear what was going on in that church and know what those people said.

And also, given the fact that also a lot of people in those church being black folks in the church, they voted early.

So this isn't like they were word that they were that they were getting new votes, but it was trying to make a point that was inauthentic in this moment that people are looking for authenticity.

I think that even me finished my point.

People may not like everything that Abdul al Qaeda saying.

He's speaking to the people in Michigan authentically.

You can take him or leave him, but he's saying a message that does not feel like a stunt.

And I think that's why we're seeing in the polling that he was leading, we got to this conversation starting on the issue of immigration.

I just want to put some data to this, because we have some of this insight about why people are voting the way that they are, what matters to them.

It's a collaboration between the Associated Press and broadcast networks, sort of a modern exit poll, if you will.

14% of people said immigration was their top issue.

They broke for Republicans, 89 to 9.

For Democrats, 37% said immigration was crucial to their votes and not the top issue, but crucial.

And they broke for Republicans 58 to 40%.

So immigration was not a leading issue as on its own when it came to voters this year.

But as we know, there's a lot of overlap in some of these issues.

You know, it wasn't the the animating issue in this election the way it was in 2024, in the presidential election.

But I think for those people who voted based on something else, the economy, cost of living, corruption, the stuff that you were talking about, the raids and the images of the chaos and the streets further underscored the point that this is a president who promised this one thing and gave us something else.

He promised that he was going to close the border.

And we'll give him credit for that.

But he also promised that he was going to go after the worst of the worst.

He didn't tell us he was going to send that.

He was going to militarize the interior of the country and end up killing American citizens.

He said he was going to focus on bringing down the cost of living, and he's not really talking about that.

He's focused on all these other things, including militarizing.

It was an illustration of of a misapplication of priorities in the minds of a lot of voters.

How did he just dealt with the border?

You know, I don't think it would have hurt as much.

But it was the fact that he showed that that demonstrated that show of force that he didn't apply to the things that people were saying, please focus on this.

That I think is helping the lead to.

Is there a risk, though, that Democrats misread a victory tonight, a potential victory?

But as a as a mandate for a more permissive immigration policy moving forward, I think we've moved past that.

I think we've moved past that as a party.

And we saw that in the last couple of cycles and some of the special elections in between.

I think Democrats are getting the the message that people want to make sure that the border is not out of control.

And so I don't think you're going to hear them roll anything back.

I think people saw that the Biden administration's policies and messaging around it and add up hurting us as a party.

So but I do think you're going to see a prioritization in how they a different prioritization, how they approach border security.

They don't want to see farm workers snapshot.

They want to go after the worst of the worst.

As the president promise that I think, will be the Democrats approach.

I just want to say, in terms of Mr.

Trump's priorities, I am old enough to remember when people were holding up mass deportations now signs at the convention.

So I would say that was part of the campaign promise, so to speak.

Maybe not what people imagined it would look like on the streets, but it was part of the consistency for those voters who voted for Biden and then voted for Trump.

And that's why Minneapolis became such an inflection point.

After Renee Good and Alex Preti were killed, the president of the United States told us that they were terrorists, right?

They sure didn't look like terrorists to most Americans.

And that's where really the numbers started to fall on the issue for Trump.

I think Lisa Desjardins is standing by for a deeper look at how some of these issues were talking about are resonating on the ground.

First of all, I'm going to look at the Texas Senate race where we are.

We with that race, so many people paying attention to right now.

Talarico, the Democrat winning over Paxton with 57%.

Again, this state sometimes does have a blue mirage, but once we're over 50%, the Mirage does fade a little bit.

I think these numbers will change, but right now, Tyler Rico is ahead.

What I want to talk about air the House races here in Texas.

This is a heavily redistricted state.

This started the whole redistricting contest around the country.

And here you see the redistricting especially was done down here in the Rio Grande Valley.

And let's look at what the results are right now in the Texas 23rd district.

This is a vacant district right now.

But the Democrat Katie Padilla Stout, she is a former school teacher, is leading over Brendan Herrera.

He is someone who himself is an arms manufacturer.

He's known as the AK guy on the internet.

This is the district that includes Uvalde.

So guns and how you keep kids safe has been an issue in this district right now.

The Democrat ahead with 58% of the vote.

But I want to point out another district over here.

If I get it right, I did Texas nine.

This is a district that was specifically designed for Republicans to pick up a seat in the House.

She has been campaigning on the idea of being pro-immigrant.

She is up against Alex Mueller, who is a veteran and some Republicans saw as a strong candidate.

But right now Mueller is down 16 points.

This district was designed to be a Trump plus 19 district.

So while these numbers could change, this is an extraordinary gap in a place that was redistricted specifically for this reason also in this region.

Talking about big Trump district, I want to look at Colorado.

This is Colorado's fourth district.

Those who pay attention might know this best as Lauren Boebert district.

Right now she is down by four points the Republican.

And this is a place that is Trump also I think plus 18 points he won this district by.

But it is 75% of the expected vote that is in.

And right now Lauren Boebert down to Eileen Law Baker.

This speaks to someone with the panelists talked about as well.

Eileen lawmaker herself is a former retired she's a retired rear admiral.

And so that is one of these kind of folks who comes from outside of politics.

The Democrats have put on the ballot.

Finally, let's just do another check at another big race.

I don't know, we're going to find out together.

Do Alcide is up by ten points with 23% of the vote.

And still a lot to understand about Michigan.

And a quick note about our election coverage.

Those of you at home watching on TV or watching on on YouTube, you might see other networks call races before we do.

Here at the PBS NewsHour and PBS news, we are relying on the Associated Press to make those calls.

The AP has a long track record of accuracy, and we'll report those results as soon as those races are called.

In the meantime, we do have a House race.

This is in Kentucky sixth district.

And let's take a quick look at the House balance of power.

This of course is evolving throughout the night.

Let's bring it back to the panel here.

Or actually we're going to our friend William Brangham.

Forgive me William Brangham has a Michigan state reporter.

Yes, we are going to turn to the state of Michigan, just as Lisa was talking about.

And for that we are joined by Colin Jackson.

He's a capital reporter for Michigan Public Radio, and he's coming to us from the Democrats Watch Party in Detroit, a rather noisy watch party as far as we can hear.

Colin, thank you so much for being here.

You have two races that we've been paying attention to, the Senate race and the governor's race.

I want to talk about this Senate race.

This is Republican Mike Rogers against Democrat Abdullah Al Sayed.

A lot of national attention on this race, Abdul said from the president on down throughout the course of this campaign, has endured some quite vitriolic Islamophobic attacks.

And yet he is still running very competitively in this race.

How do you explain that his his his resilience.

It looks like we're having some tough time talking to Colin right now.

William Brangham we'll wait to see if we can reconnect with that reporter for a look at the ground on Michigan.

But let's bring it back here to the panel to talk more about Michigan Amy.

We're waiting for critical race calls there.

Of course this is if the Democrats want to win control of the Senate.

This is going to be a crucial state for them.

And we've been covering in depth, of course, talking about the issues around that race between Abdullah and then Mike Rogers.

How are you looking at it now, especially when we have so much of the vote left to report?

Well, and also as we're watching what's going on in the rest of the country, I mean, there seems to be there.

David and I were just looking at the shift across the country.

You're seeing a ten, 12 point shift from where things were in 2024 to where they are now.

So a state like Michigan that President Trump narrowly one, you know, this this race has gotten a lot of attention.

A lot of money has been spent here.

But it's just hard to to see that in this environment.

Michigan would go go the other way.

The other thing about the Kentucky race that you all just called, again, this is one of those districts that not that long ago, back in the Obama era, this was a seat that Democrats held on to outside of Lexington, Kentucky.

But as these sort of areas moved, especially in the more rural parts of Kentucky, kept moving away from Democrats, this was seen as one of those districts that, well, you just can never kind of get back because of its its realignment.

But that is a that is a Trump plus 15 district that just went down rather easily there.

So we've now breached into when I talked about breaching, we've had I'm keeping old school a little piece of paper I do it districts that Trump won by less than ten more than ten and then the ones that were redrawn.

And right now you can just see that Democrats are winning in all of those categories.

There's not really one where they're under indexing or over indexing.

And that just points to a very big night.

I met Andy Bar in 2012 when he was running for that seat, and I've known him ever since.

And congratulations, Senator elect Barr.

But to lose that seat is such a big deal.

You know, we all sort of make predictions to friends or put memos together for clients.

And I said, if this if this race is within five points, that's a real problem for Republicans.

This is another harbinger of a really bad night for Republicans.

And we'll see more of that the further west we go to.

And what I'm worried about for Republicans is we haven't used the words Mississippi or Louisiana yet.

We may hold on to those two Senate seats, but my guess is they're going to be a lot closer than we thought they would be.

Tiffany, I want to get your take on that.

And if we can bring back up the House balance of power map, just to take a look at where things stand at this hour.

It's 1030 now here on the East Coast, as we've been reporting results based, of course, on the Associated Press calls.

They do not call races until the trailing candidate has no chance of catching up.

Here is where things stand right now.

Obviously many, many more races to call their.

But Tiffany, Democrats have managed to flip three seats so far.

They need a net gain of three seats to win control of the House.

I think most everyone felt that the Democrats would would take back the House.

I guess for voters, it's you know, Donald Trump obviously is the president for two more years and will work hard for the American people.

But he'll be in this sort of gridlock.

And I guess it might be an opportunity for Congress to come together and show who they really are.

And that's maybe, you know, people are voting for candidates less on maybe if they're Democrat or Republican, and more on if they believe that candidate will go to DC and get something done for them.

We're going to see more and more House seats, you know, continue.

I think there'll be a couple more surprises.

Well, tonight, it also feels like we're about to see more and more Senate seats right the way this night is going.

Yeah, I mean, we all know that Democrats need a net gain of four to take control of the Senate.

Based on the numbers that Lisa was showing us earlier, South Carolina might be the second.

That is, South Carolina is is one of the earlier could be one of the earlier calls based on the trajectory of those numbers.

If that's the case, if what we're seeing out of Michigan continues to hold, if what we're seeing out of Texas continues to hold even at this early stage in those states, that late confidence that the white House was trying to voice about their ability to hold on to the Senate is going to disappear very quickly.

How about what we're seeing out of Pennsylvania?

You mentioned we might see some more house flips.

We can now report another AP race call that is a flip for Democrats.

The Democrat Bob Brooks has won election in Pennsylvania's seventh congressional district, which, by sheer coincidence, is the same place that Lisa Desjardins was on the ground reporting earlier this year, I believe.

Lisa, over to you for a deeper look at that race.

And so let's talk about this district.

This is the seventh congressional district of Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley, Bethlehem, Allentown used to be steel country.

There is good Union support here, but it also has big business.

It's a thruway between Philadelphia and New York.

And Ryan McKenzie was known as a worker in that district.

We ran into people who said, hey, he helped me get a job.

He was not someone who was a lazy politician.

However, he was initially really backing of Trump.

He talked a lot about Trump and had Trump on his website.

I think in the last election then now he has become more of a moderate, more of a problem solver kind of person.

In Congress, however, he's beaten by Bob Brooks, the firefighter first time candidate today.

And this is something we saw a lot of union intervention.

We spent time with union workers who really targeted this district.

But, you know, I think this is as I think, Amy, the panel is saying, a harbinger of what's going to go on in the rest of Pennsylvania.

We see in Pennsylvania, eighth district.

For all you fans of the office, page the mayor there.

And then you see down here, of course, in Pennsylvania.

One, this is this is quite wild to me because this is this is the incumbent, as Amy was saying, Brian Fitzpatrick, who Republicans thought was the most safe of the vulnerable incumbents in Pennsylvania.

But right now he's down by nine points.

And with 61% of the vote could make that up.

But that's going to be a tough climb for him.

Also, I love what you guys are talking about.

So we're going to go to the Senate and we're going to talk about Mississippi for the first time tonight.

We've got an incumbent from Mississippi Republican who is up by only two points over a Democrat right now with 68% of the vote.

And what we've seen is we have a lot of votes still to come in.

Let's compare this to the presidential vote in 2024.

And you can see Trump won this state.

If I can do the math quickly by 25 points.

And so we're seeing she is running far behind that total right now with up just two points.

I think the panel is right to say this is a state we need to watch tonight.

I'm told reporter Colin Jackson is back with us from Michigan.

So we are joined again by Colin Jackson.

He is a capital reporter for Michigan Public Radio.

And he is coming to us from Detroit where he's at the Democrats Watch party.

Colin, thanks so much for being here.

There are two big races in Michigan.

There are two, as I mentioned, two races.

People are watching the governor's race.

But this very contested Senate race, and that is between Mike Rogers, the Republican and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

And when this Senate race first opened up, the GOP really thought this would be a great pickup opportunity.

And then Abdul Qadir comes along and after enduring this withering series of Islamophobic and quite bigoted attacks from the president on down, has kept this race very, very competitive.

And it is still neck and neck tonight.

I mean, this was always going to be a slog.

You know, Republicans haven't won a U.S.

Senate seat in Michigan since the 90s.

So this was going to be a competitive race.

That being said, l said, you know, this is part of his law.

This is part of his background story.

He's saying he's somebody who grew up being named Abdul in a town when there weren't a lot of people named Abdul.

And he went on to play high school sports.

He said, once you get used to dealing with bullies, that's a skill you take with your whole life.

And so he's really tried to translate that more to the Senate campaign.

And Mike Rogers has been trying to sort of bone up on his his moderate credentials.

He's been trying to appeal to independents and some Democratic voters.

Do you think that campaign has been effective for him?

I mean, could he break that that losing streak that Republicans have had that you were just describing?

I think it would be optimistic to say that Mike Rogers was going to take away any significant support, especially following black voters here in Detroit.

This is a majority black city that has been a heavy Democratic stronghold over the years and over the decades.

That being said, I think it comes down to the strategy of siphoning away little pieces of the Democratic base here, or in little pieces of the Democratic base there, just enough to make the race competitive.

You know, he opened Rogers the Rogers campaign, opened Senate office here in Detroit a few weeks ago.

He was the first Republican candidate to do that.

He's been campaigning hard to the Jewish community here in Michigan, especially in Oakland County.

That has been the core of the Democratic coalition over the years.

And so the Rogers campaign is really trying to make inroads here that I think Republicans have often ignored in past years.

President Trump has famously said he wishes voters would think of him as being on the ballot in this election.

But how have his policies played out in Michigan?

I mean, as the war have tariffs, have his immigration policies been central to these campaigns?

Yeah, I mean, here in Michigan, we haven't hit record guests yet, but we have close to that.

And that's been something that Democrats have really been hammering Republicans for this whole time.

When it comes to tariffs, you know, a lot of folks here are attached to the auto industry.

You might not be surprised to learn that Ryan in Detroit right now, downtown, if I was to maybe take a few steps out toward the street, I could look to my left and see Canada.

And so the tariffs, people really feel connected to Canada.

You know, automobiles, when they get built in beer, Michigan, they go back and forth across the border many times.

And so people are saying that their jobs are tied to this.

You know, affordability has been an issue that Republicans are really heavily running on.

And I think that has made hard for Trump and Republicans aligned with Trump to really stick with that message.

That is Colin Jackson of Michigan Public Radio.

Let's go quickly now to South Carolina where the Democrat Andy Andrews is declaring victory.

The Associated Press has not called this race, but Andy Andrews has, and I wish her and her family well, and I and I just and I just spoke with her and she congratulated me on our victory tonight.

And to the heartbeat, the heartbeat of our campaign, our volunteers.

Who worked their tails off and never stopped believing.

And two are state party chairwoman Krystal Spain.

The first black woman to lead our state's party.

Who invested in this race, who believed in us, who believed in me and worked tirelessly, tirelessly to build a stronger South Carolina across all 46 counties.

And to my dear friend Jamie Harrison.

To all of our incredible staff who poured their hearts and souls into this race.

To the thousands of people who welcomed us into their homes, their churches, their businesses, and onto their front porches.

And to the Republicans, independence and Democrats who took a chance on a pediatrician and a mom of three.

Because you believe that South Carolina should come first.

My name may have been on the ballot, but this victory doesn't belong to me.

Because tonight we here in South Carolina sent a clear message that this Senate seat does not belong to one family, one party, or to Washington, D.C.. It belongs to you, and it always will.

We embarked on this journey over 18 months ago, and while it was long and exhausting and there were plenty of days when I was running on nothing but protein bars, coffee, and giant Diet Cokes from gas stations.

It truly has been the journey of a lifetime.

We took this campaign to every single one of our 46 counties, from small towns and main streets, to farms and our rural communities, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the upstate to the swamps, the literal swamps in the Midlands, to the beaches here in the Low country.

I sat on the back of a pickup truck with an eighth generation farmer in Barnwell, who told me that it now costs her $1,900.

Speaking to supporters in deep red South Carolina after winning the Senate race there, defeating the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, Darlene Graham, in a state in a race rather that President Trump was heavily involved in and strongly endorsed the Republican candidate there.

I want to turn now to Liz Landers over at the white House, who's been speaking to white House advisers about the reaction the president has been having as he's watching these results come in.

Liz, this was a race the president himself was deeply, personally involved in.

And what are you hearing from sources about how he's reacting to this trends we're seeing so far strongly towards Democrats?

Yeah, we have messages out to the white House to see what they're thinking of this.

But as you said, the president was very invested in this because he had a close personal relationship with Darlene Graham's late brother, Lindsey Graham, who unexpectedly passed away.

And the president then got very involved in South Carolina politics, telling her to run for this open seat.

He endorsed her in the primary process, and even went down to South Carolina to campaign with her in the primary process.

You saw him go down there twice in the last few weeks of this campaign.

He was in Rock Hill, South Carolina, just a few days ago, and that is where her primary opponent, the congressman Ralph Norman, is from that district in that area, and he was not throwing his full support behind Darlene Graham.

And I heard from other Republican allies of the president, said they were worried that she was just not a very strong candidate.

She, of course, is not a politician.

Her brother was that's not what she was doing in South Carolina prior to being appointed to his seat.

So I am sure that this will be a race at the white House, will be looking at closely, and if we get any update in reaction from the president, will, of course, bring that to you and Liz.

A question about something you reported earlier tonight on the NewsHour.

There was this issue in Westchester, New York, where the ballots were too thick for the the voting machines to count them properly, tabulate them.

We have an update now about how long this vote will now take, given the delay.

Yeah, this is in Westchester County in New York.

This is the 17th Congressional District there, and a tight race, one that we're seeing play out between the Republican Mike Lawler and the Democratic.

His Democratic opponent, Kate Connolly.

There there were some ballot tabulation issues early on this morning there.

Board of elections notified voters about this fairly early today.

This was based on a programing glitch that happened there.

Both of the candidates were telling voters to stay in line and cast their ballots.

We're now hearing this evening that this delay is going to delay the vote counting there in New York until Wednesday, until tomorrow.

So this is one of these races now that we are going to have to wait until we're all awake tomorrow at some point to get those ballot results.

Apparently, those those ballots that were not able to be tabulated in those voting machines there were separated and they were given a police escort to the sort of main tabulation center there in Westchester County.

So there's election officials following all those procedures to make sure that those ballots will still be counted.

And the people who cast them, their voices will still be heard.

But we will not get those results now until Wednesday.

That is Liz Landers reporting from the white House.

I'd love to turn to you now to maybe give us a closer look at some of these races that we're now getting calls.

If we just look up at those South Carolina results in the Senate race once again there, Annie Andrews defeating Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

Lisa, give us an inside look into how she did it.

Well, first of all, as you can see on our map, South Carolina is now a firm blue color because it has been called.

As you say, she's up four points right now with 93% of the vote in.

I think you can actually tell from the colors how she has done this.

Look at all of these red counties, some of them around Columbia, some of them around Charleston, some of them, these are more rural counties down Savannah Aiken that Annie Andrews has managed to flip into blue.

It looks like that is what's going to happen tonight.

And I think what's especially interesting, we're going to have to watch the vote totals.

So she has done this not just by in a race where only Democrats have showed up.

This whole state came out to vote and Annie Andrews was their choice tonight for sure.

Now, at the same time, I want to look at where we are overall for the race for the US Senate.

A reminder to everyone that in order to take over the Senate, because Republicans have the vice president, Democrats need to pick up four seats.

Now here's what's happened tonight.

Then we go all the way over here to my less competitive chart.

And they've also picked up now South Carolina.

So that's two out of four right now.

How are they doing there ahead right now in Michigan.

We're going to keep watching for results.

So right now the Democrats to take over the Senate hold these four which looks very possible and just need to flip two of these.

Or maybe even Mississippi could be on the board.

So right now the Senate clearly within reach for Democrats.

And it's actually pretty early in the night.

Some of us were concerned that Alaska was going to decide everything, and it could actually take more than a week.

But now we could have an answer tonight.

I also really quickly want to visit the House of Representatives and where we are with the full House map.

Right now, we have in the House a reminder the magic number.

That's the net gain that Democrats need to take over the House.

Now again, Republicans will probably have at least 1 or 2 flips.

That's one that looks like could go their way.

But right now Democrats have picked up six.

These are East Coast races, and there are still I'm just going to take this take I'm going to take over the show for just one more minute.

Do show to show you something else going on in Florida.

Because we may not have the full margin.

But look at what's happening in some of these races in Florida.

Florida's 13th district right here, Congresswoman Luna.

Let's go over here to the seventh Congressional District.

Let's look at another one of these right here.

So we have potential overtime races in Florida.

There are four that are near ties right now.

And I think this really says a lot about kind of what's happened in Florida and the switch that's happening that Democrats are competing kind of all over the board and creating these tie races right now.

Lisa, I don't know how you do that, but we're so grateful that you do.

So you heard Lisa mention the six flips.

I'm about to tell you about two of them.

Well, we'll start with this house call for the Louisiana fourth district.

That's Mike Johnson, the Republican leader, House speaker.

But in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania eight as a flip.

Let's move to Pennsylvania's 10th district.

You see, the Democrat Janelle Stillson has won there.

And let's take a look again at this.

Lisa showed it to you a second ago, but here it is again, a reminder.

What you're seeing right now is a snapshot, not the final picture, but we've got six total flips at this hour.

You see there the Senate race, Tom cotton has been reelected the Republican in that race.

Let's shift our focus back here to the panel.

I wanted to actually pick up on something sort of a broader conversation we were having about.

And I think, Mo, you started this and then we've been going we've been doing a lot of things weaving in and out of conversations.

But just this idea about dividing the country into red and blue and how the the spectrum of what's a liberal and what's a conservative keeps getting sort of mixed up.

And so one of the questions that was asked and the voter poll was opinions of capitalism and socialism.

And, you know, 57% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of capitalism, 31% unfavorable.

But those who have an unfavorable view of capitalism include 20% of Republicans, 25% of Democrats say they have an unfavorable view of socialism.

So what we're watching, I know we try to we try to put these into red and blue, right?

The attack on Democrats was they are embracing socialism.

The attack on this election wasn't necessarily on capitalism, but it was on the idea that there are and institutions, data centers.

One example of this, that people in AI who are using their positions to make life harder for you.

And I think that is going to be the main theme we're going to hear a lot about in the next two years, is how the institutions themselves have become as much of the problem as the leader who's sitting in the white House.

Kimberly, say more about that, because it wasn't that long ago that to be called a socialist in this country was a political death sentence.

And now you have Democrats, a younger generation of Democrats by and large, who are embracing this Democrat socialist title.

It doesn't make sense to a lot of people who have come up through the traditional ranks of politics and who have covered politics for the last 20 or 30 years.

Yeah, yeah, I think especially that you're putting your finger on it is that you have young people who don't have these kind of associations, but what they are seeing is the people, some of the candidates who are calling themselves socialists are talking about the things that they want to hear.

They're talking about ensuring that people can afford to live.

They're talking about housing costs.

They're talking about the things that they want to hear.

So that's not a dirty word to them.

And you're seeing that, you know, some Republicans responding to that by moving on.

We're going to call you communists now because that wasn't a dirty enough word.

People are getting used to that and they're okay with that.

And so we're moving to something else.

But it also speaks to this idea that, you know, Republicans trying to tag Democrats as socialists, even those who are not who are not a member of the DSA, who have never spoken to that also just shows the weakening of for a long time, Republicans were really, really good at at sort of defining Democrats.

And Democrats couldn't define themselves.

Now that spell is wearing off and people are listening to what the people are saying, what they're talking about and what they're doing, as opposed to just these titles, which are sort of losing some of their power here.

And I think that's why you're seeing this.

I think the the polling will probably catch up once they see what the people who are calling themselves these titles are actually doing.

But right now, I think voters are just like, oh, I don't know what that is, but I do want somebody who's going to talk about how do we'll talk about the fact that there are too many billionaires and such.

You know, to your point, back in, I was at the DNC during the 2014 cycle, which was not a good night for us.

But I remember in the run up to that, we did a series of focus groups around the country where the moderator did something I hadn't seen before.

He gave everyone a piece of paper and a pencil and said, I'm going to say a word and you got 15 seconds.

Draw the first picture that comes to mind.

First word was Republican, and the focus group was we're kind of swing voters around the country, the most commonly drawn picture.

So this 2014 post, Romney pre Trump most commonly drawn picture was a dollar sign.

They said, oh, because the Republican Party is the party of the wealthy.

That's exactly what we want them to say.

The most commonly drawn picture was a question mark that was far worse than the dollar sign for Republicans, and we asked people about it.

And what we kept hearing was Democrats.

Therefore they don't tell me what they're for.

I am playing by the rules that you set out for me.

And Republicans are focused on the wealthy.

Democrats are focused on the poor and the blacks and the Browns and the gays and but who's looking out for me?

And that's kind of what I think Democrats are finally getting at this time.

And why I don't think these labels last time we got it wrong, last time we ran around the country screaming fascist, fascist, fascist, and people said, I don't know what that means and I don't care because he's talking about no tax on tips.

He's talking about the cost of living.

This time they ran around saying socialist, communist, and people said, I don't know what that means and I don't care because they are looking they are talking about the things I care about.

We have from the Associated Press continues to make race calls as they come in.

In the closely watched Ohio governor race, the Democrat Amy Acton has won, defeating Vivek Ramaswami in this House race in Ohio's 15th congressional district.

That is another flip for Democrats.

The Democrat Don Leonard has won that race.

Briefly in, I was like, oh, you know how Lisa has the like, oh, these are the races we're watching.

And then it's like, oh, I mean, how 15 was on our list, but it was one where Republicans were feeling and actually both sides were feeling like this is probably not going to go.

So for that to go and to be called this early again, we're now looking at just to put things in the context, the biggest Democratic majority in the House in the century was right after 2008.

There was a they had 247 seats or 257 seats.

Since then, the highest margin they've had is the highest number of seats that Democrats have had is 235.

We are on track to surpass that by a pretty significant number.

And to think that we, you know, I came into this election thinking that are polarization was so cemented and was so deep that it wasn't going to be able to break.

We have a lot more to talk about, especially when it comes to strategy and messaging in that Ohio governor's race.

But for now, we're going to take a short break so stations can report on the results from their local races.

To know exactly who showed up to the polls and why they voted for a particular candidate.

You have to ask the voters this year.

NewsHour is getting some of that information from the voter poll.

It's a new collaboration between the Associated Press and other news outlets to survey voters directly by phone, internet and in person to explain how it works.

I'm joined by David Scott, VP of Election Services at the Associated Press.

So this is a new system this year, joining forces with broadcast networks.

After about a decade of developing and using your own system to measure the vote.

We wanted to reach voters where they are.

So if you're conducting a survey as Americans are casting their ballot, you need to be in all of the places where they cast a ballot.

We needed to be able to interview voters who are casting their ballots in person on Election Day.

But at the same time, most Americans vote in advance.

And so we look at the voter file and look at who's cast a ballot, and then we try to interview them either online, by mail, by phone, whatever way that they would like to interact with us.

Once we see that they've cast a ballot, then we're able to interview them, ask them questions about who they voted for and why.

So people are familiar with this term exit poll.

Can we talk a little bit about how exactly.

Well, part of it is an exit poll, right.

We are going to have thousands of people who are out in the 50 states interviewing people as they cast their ballot on Election day, but we also will interview people before Election Day because people cast their ballots before Election Day.

Really, what we've tried to do with our colleagues at the broadcast networks is design a methodology that reaches Americans.

No matter how you cast your ballot, you have the opportunity for us to ask you questions so we can understand the fullness of the American electorate.

And how many people are you talking to?

Yeah, it's an enormous survey, like a normal political poll that you might see in a state about a Senate race might be based on 500 interviews.

We're going to aim for somewhere between 80 and 100,000 interviews taking place leading up to Election Day and then on Election Day itself.

So it's an enormous survey, and it's one of the things that we think is really important that we're going to have results in every state where there's a statewide election this year.

It's not just about the battlegrounds.

What does this help tell you guys at the AP?

We're looking for insights in the data about who has voted, what they cared about, what issues were resonating.

We know which issues each candidate was talking about in a race.

And so which ones were most important to voters?

We look at the demographics of a state, and we look at the demographics of the electorate and see how that matches up.

One of the things that we saw in 2024 was some of those demographic shifts that pointed early in the night to success for President Trump.

You could see in the data about who was voting that he was poised to have a good night.

We were able to get a sense that this is where the election was going.

And so those are the types of things that we'll be looking at.

David Scott, vice president of election services at The Associated Press, thanks again for joining us.

And welcome back to our live election coverage of the 2026 midterm elections.

on the West Coast, and we have a few more race calls to make at this hour in Oregon.

In that Senate race, the Democrat Jeff Merkley has won in California the governor's race, Democrat Javier Becerra has won.

Back here in our panel, we want to get some reaction to some of those race calls we made before that break.

Weigh in here on the Ohio governor's race, which got a lot of attention, in particular because of an ad by run by the Republican candidate there, Ramaswamy, about Amy Acton and her family.

What does all of this tell you about the tactics, the messaging, what resonated with voters and didn't this year?

Yeah, I think one takeaway from this cycle is running an ad featuring a woman who covered for her daughter's rapist is probably not as smart campaign tactic.

In many ways, one of Ramos Swami's biggest problems was he was just unlikable by so many voters.

I know just as many Republicans who hate to give up the seat, but are celebrating his loss as much as Democrats are.

So this one, I think if you had told me at the start of this cycle that Democrats might do better in the Ohio governor's race than in the Ohio Senate race, I would have not believed you.

But as the campaign progressed and Ramasamy continued to talk about everything, but the issues that their voters were focused on ran an incredibly polarizing campaign.

I'm not as surprised by the final outcome now.

And I think Rama Swami started off as a particularly bad campaign.

He just always rubbed people the wrong way, even in MAGA world, which is sort of hard to do.

And it goes to to the word that David started with.

He just doesn't strike Ohio voters as a normal person.

And that's whether he makes up his professional tennis career, which, by the way, didn't happen.

Or we see him trying to connect with voters by swinging a baseball bat, which didn't look good.

And then there's the ad, and the ad was sort of the fait accompli that this race is over.

And I've been texting with a few Republican friends who are not upset about this at all.

And Tiffany, both President Trump and certainly Vice President JD Vance have personal connections to Ohio.

If they if they are losing a race that they were both in Ohio campaigning for, what does that mean for the party more broadly?

Well, you know, even I think the campaign ad was a was a huge misstep.

I do believe he could have done really, really good things for Ohio.

And you just politics can be very different than business, you know.

And there's a there's a way to play that.

Having been a former candidate, it's a very interesting weave that you have to play running.

And it takes an interesting and a unique set of skills and abilities to do that.

And you, you're constantly, you know, having people talk to you and, and advisers share things.

And I think it just was a huge misstep.

Is it per se, the direction of our country or projecting that?

I'm really actually shocked by South Carolina at the Senate race there by the Senate race winning.

But now that I'm like looking at it, tonight is a really good night to be a Democrat candidate.

I mean, having run for office, I'm kind of like in my heart I'm like, you know, good for you guys.

Like, well, but Andrews is a good candidate.

Like, you know, she's a pediatrician.

It sounds like she was on the ground.

She made, you know, raise the money.

And maybe, perhaps Darlene Graham looked like she was just plucked and placed, and it was owed to her.

You know, President Trump won it by 17 points in 2024 to swing so drastically.

I said earlier in politics, you want to turn your opponent's strength into a weakness.

The strength of the Graham last name was about national security.

So when she proactively said national security is not my thing, that confirmed to every Republican voter who sort of liked the idea that she was appointed as like a caretaker for her brother's seat, but didn't want her running for another six years because they thought she wasn't remotely qualified.

That codified it, and it meant that Ralph Norman could go around saying, I don't support this person at all, which was massively harmful to our campaign, but can I just we have to interject real quick because we have a major Senate race to call.

The Democrat there, James Talarico, has won.

He has defeated the Republican Ken Paxton.

Our good friend Tony, who covers Texas politics, is with us.

This is a this is a major earthquake, certainly in American politics and certainly so for for Texas politics.

Jeff, good evening to all of you there.

This is a seismic moment here in Texas politics.

Not only have we learned just within the past few minutes that James Talarico has won this race, but in addition to that, we are now just watching on the screen here.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott conceding in his race for an unprecedented a historic fourth term and congratulating State Representative Gina Hinojosa, who will become the next governor of Texas.

This is seismic because this is the first time in a generation, three and a half decades, that a Democrat has led the Texas governor's office.

And it is also the first time in nearly 40 years that the state of Texas has sent a Democratic senator to the US Capitol.

Tony, please stay with us for just a moment.

If you don't mind, we're going to just dip in and listen to Greg Abbott here for just a moment.

Men and women who believe they could transform a vast wilderness into a land of opportunity and prosperity.

We are the sons and daughters of the liberty they fought for.

We believe in freedom over fear, God over government, and the bona fide greatness of this great place.

The story of Texas is nearly 200 years old, and one that will continue to be shaped by you and generations to come.

Leading this state has been the greatest honor I've ever had.

God bless you all and God bless the great state of Texas.

Let's go back to Tony Ploeg, investigative reporter with the Austin American-Statesman and of course, Kvue.

Tony, as you well know, Democrats have talked about turning Texas blue for for years, for decades.

In fact, tonight they have done something far more consequential than just talking about it.

What does this what does this mean?

I think it means a number of things.

Number one, just going into this race, it was a dream of Democrats to elect James Talarico.

They had pointed to a number of factors that they believed could set the stage for that.

Number one, a rebuke of President Trump's immigration policies, which have been particularly viewed as heavy handed here in Texas, where, much like Minnesota, there have been acts of violence by federal immigration agents on citizens or non-citizens who were being taken into custody.

There have also been the same economic and affordability issues on the ground here in Texas, and that has also fueled a lot of the energy among us and particularly Democratic voters.

But also in addition to that, there have been issues like data centers that have really roiled the electorate across the state of Texas, in both big towns and small.

And that has also set the stage for what has happened here tonight.

But again, it was the dream of Democrats to push James Talarico across the finish line.

The fact that we are now seeing this happen with Governor Greg Abbott also just really continues to underscore and highlight a seismic shift in Texas, something that Democrats have long sought and really, over the past several years have worked very diligently to set the stage.

For they came close, as you all recall, in 2018, when Beto O'Rourke challenged Ted Cruz for Senate seat coming within about three points of defeating him.

But going into this, there was still some level of apprehension among Democrats that they were actually going to be able to pull this off.

And so to be sitting here tonight, for them to see this become a reality again just underscores the seismic shift that is now occurring here in Texas.

That is Tony from the Austin American- Statesman.

Joining us with some seismic is the word you used their Tony seismic news out of Texas back here to the panel.

I mean, how many conversations have we had over the years about is this the year the Texas goes blue?

Is this the year that Texas goes blue?

I mean, I before we even got this call, I was going to have a step back for a minute and just take in the fact that Ohio and South Carolina states that Democrats would have never thought just a couple of years ago, they even had a shot at.

We're seeing these results out now.

Texas puts that on ten, especially at this margin.

Now, putting aside the fact that Ken Paxton might be the worst candidate on Earth, I mean, he could have been a Democratic plant for as terribly as he ran this campaign and as many scandals and knocks that he had both personally and politically against him.

This is Texas being controlled at the state level and represented in the Senate by a Democrat.

Texas, the state, the first state that the Supreme Court let their near-total abortion ban go into effect, which predicted the Dobbs decision.

Texas, where a ton of conservative policies are floated and passed in order for courts to try to get these conservative wins.

This is absolutely ground shaking politically for voters to reject that and to give Democrats control of the governor's office and the Senate.

This is really an unbelievable turn of events.

We have another race call to share with you by way of the Associated Press.

The Democrat there, Sherrod Brown, has won, defeating John Husted.

So let's look at the Senate balance of power yet again.

Senate flips Democrats flipping for seats here.

Again this will change throughout the course of the night.

But this is how things look right now a little bit after 11:00 on the East coast and 8:00 on the West Coast.

Yeah, well, the Texas a couple of thoughts on that.

The first is, you know, a lot of Republicans were very upset to see the president endorsing Ken Paxton said if John Cornyn had been on the ballot, we would have won this race.

Who would be in the same mold as a John Cornyn.

So there's something bigger and deeper going on here, though I do think Paxton was part of the the issue.

Certainly that helped to motivate voters.

To me, the next question, because I always have to go to.

Well, now what is to flip Texas now means that Democrats have to start taking Texas very seriously.

And when I talk to you, when I talk to Texas Democrats, they'll say, you know, they always talk about we're going to we're going to invest in Texas.

And then they never do, or they do it too late or they wait until this now and again, if you look at not just tonight, but think through where we'll be in 2030 with the next round of reapportionment.

And if Democrats are going to fight for the Electoral College in 2030 with just the same map they had in 2024, it's not going to work.

Just winning the blue States isn't in the blue wall.

States in the upper Midwest isn't going to cut it.

So success in Texas means they now have a foothold in the.

It's going to be one of the largest electoral college repositories, but they got to be able to deliver in Texas.

And that is going to be really time consuming and money consuming, and it's not going to happen easily.

They don't presently have the infrastructure to do that.

No, this is not and yeah, this is not the DNC doesn't have the infrastructure, but this is a state that is has been pretty much decimated.

There used to be a bigger infrastructure there.

And when there were Democrats that represented all parts of the state, it's been a long time since they've had to talk about having a Democratic governor from Texas enables you to raise a lot of money that you weren't able to raise.

I mean, look, James Talarico alone did not face a shortage of cash in his Senate race, but Gina did.

And Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, who was chair of the Democratic Governors Association, caught a lot of flak from primarily national Latino groups.

But a lot of other Democrats for not investing in the Texas governor's race.

It looks like, by a very comfortable margin.

I don't think the next DGA chair is going to make that mistake, right.

I think you are going to see the investment.

But the infrastructure that comes with having a senator and a governor is suddenly going to be thrust into overdrive.

David, can I ask you about in this moment, I'm thinking back to when Sherrod Brown lost his seat and there was this sort of anti-democratic wave.

Then I asked him afterwards, did you lose because you're Sherrod Brown, or did you lose because you're a Democrat?

And he said, I lost because I'm a Democrat, had nothing to do with my opponent in this race.

Did he win this race because he's a Democrat?

I think in general, this election, Republicans lost more than Democrats one.

But I have to give Sherrod Brown credit.

I think he first got that Senate seat in 2006, which was a good year to be a Democrat.

But he is also a precursor of what the Democratic Party should be, which is he was a working class populist before it was cool.

And he really began to author what they now are beginning to stand for.

To me, losing that's to me, the biggest shock of the night.

I did not expect to have it to lose.

And when I'm left with that shock, like, where is the Republican Party now with the Mitt Romney, George W Bush era John McCain?

They were sort of pro-immigration or at least comprehensive immigration reform.

But Donald Trump took all that away.

They're not small government anymore.

He's done more buying companies with the government, which that's socialism.

And it's Donald Trump was doing it and he's extremely Stephen Miller on immigration.

And so where do you go if you're a if you're a Republican right now, what do you believe in.

Donald Trump basically eviscerated the old Republican Party.

And now Trumpism as a movement, as a belief system is just in shambles right now.

And so if you're Ron DeSantis, you're thinking, where do I fit in here?

And then we just heard about the data centers.

We're going to regard this election from the future point as a very innocent pre-K election, or at least the beginning of an AI election.

It's not going to be the same in two years, right?

We're going to see a lot of turmoil.

And then a rising issue, which I think explains a lot of what's going on, which we haven't mentioned tonight, is agency.

People have a feel that they don't control their lives.

Somebody's got to have an agenda for you will get to control your life, and it won't be these massive forces raining down upon you.

And I don't think I'm not sure Democrats have an answer, but right now they have a much better answer than the Republicans.

So let's go to our let me answer the question.

At least the days are, Dan, just because Democrats are on the brink of taking control of Congress, they flipped for Senate seats from Republicans.

And they're not going some key House wins.

The magic number in the Senate is four that Democrats need to pick up.

They've gotten North Carolina, South Carolina now Texas, by the way, these two flips, neither of these states has had a Democrat in the Senate this century until now.

So what's the next one that we're watching?

Maine takes a long time to count, but Kansas also.

So take a look at the map, see where we are.

It's going to flash through it really quickly and take a look at what the results are.

If Democrats are able to hold the rest of the seats tonight.

And I want to take a look also at what happened in Texas, because we do know a little bit from the map here.

I want folks, there's a lot to focus on in Texas.

A lot is going to be discussed about this state, but take a particular look, as we've been talking about here in the Rio Grande Valley, heavy Hispanic population and one county, for example, right here, Nueces County, right here, we've got Talarico up by 12 points with 80% in.

Pay attention to what happened in this county two years ago in the presidential election, Donald Trump by 11.

It is completely flipped from 11 points for Trump to.

Now look at this 12 points for Talarico.

That's a 23 point flip in two years in a heavily Hispanic county.

So I think that's going to be a huge part of the conversation going forward.

And now, speaking of going forward, I want to pay attention to some House races coming up in, for example, Arizona, where we now see a potential flip for Democrats and what used to be Dave Schweikert seat.

Looks like it could be going to them, but also blue.

And Jonathan Nez is a former president of the Navajo Nation right now ahead of Eli Crane.

So it's just to say, as you are indicating, as the sun has set on most of the country, we are seeing more and more kind of of a blueness across the map.

Will it say, I don't know, but that's certainly the direction so far.

Our Lisa Desjardins breaking it down for us at the super screen.

More race calls to share right now coming in from the Associated Press.

We showed you Governor Greg Abbott earlier delivering his concession speech.

The Associated Press has now officially called that Texas governor race for the Democrat.

Gina, you know, you saw Lisa breaking down how that happened in the Iowa governor's race, another Democratic win.

Two other pieces of news to share with you.

There's a number of ballot measures, referendums that were reporting on tonight in Missouri.

There was a referendum to repeal the right to abortion there.

Voters in Missouri have rejected that, meaning that's a win for abortion rights activists.

Also in the state of Virginia, they passed a ballot measure to protect the right to abortion.

Tiffany Smiley, I want to come to you on Texas once again, because that Senate race, obviously, Talarico winning over Ken Paxton.

Was that overwhelmingly a candidate quality issue for Republicans or a mix of various factors?

I think it's a mix of various things.

I mean, I remember saying a week ago, no way.

Well, I mean, the last time a Democrat, one statewide was 1988.

This is like, what a time for me to be alive.

And part of this, like, it's it's crazy.

But again, I, you know, it's good our country.

This is why our country is amazing though.

Because sometimes we need a reset and we need to recalibrate.

And the voters in this country I do they they they want something to hold on to and they're not sure what that is.

I think Latino voters are saying, hey, we matter and you need to communicate and and deliver for us.

I think that's that's a powerful message.

And I knew, like, I know they're powerful.

And we need to engage with them and understand them and deliver for them on that point.

Can I ask what's the reset message for the president who asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot?

What do you think he takes away from?

Obviously, we know when Donald Trump is on the ballot.

And he can turn out voters in an incredible way that, you know, he's a unique president and he's he's done some really, really good things for our country.

But to David's point, you know, it's like I think people are scared.

I think they're worried about this country, their future.

You look at AI, the rise of China, the lack of control.

And the Republicans will have an opportunity to step in.

I can think of someone right now would be an amazing president, Mike Pompeo, and he could deliver on so many levels for the levels for the American people.

And I know that's down the road, but we cannot talk about 2028.

I got a text message from a Republican who worked in Texas politics for a long time.

Some of you may know, and he just said three words burn it all down.

And he's talking about the Trump quake that has just happened with obviously, what we saw with Paxton, who was never going to win a uniquely awful candidate, Greg Abbott, losing by a very wide margin and everything else we're seeing.

And I've said this in my party before, I'll say it again, you need to stay away from the cartoon characters.

You need to stay away from the pillow salesman, stay away from these caustic media personalities who drive you to say more and more frankly, insane things.

So Governor Abbott, in his concession speech said, we need freedom over fear.

Who doesn't agree with that, right?

What did he say this morning with another one of these, you know, wacko TV internet personalities that his opponent, the governor elect, will destroy white men and their jobs in Texas?

Is are these the people, after ten years of Donald Trump sending people to attack Capitol Police officers, of tearing down our beliefs in our own government and our own elections, do we want to continue down this road?

Republicans have a very a time of choosing.

As Ronald Reagan said when Goldwater was running, we better decide if we want to be, and I won't use the term.

But if we want to be normal people, or if we want to appeal to the pillow salesman and the cartoons characters and the Addams Family Republicans that we've been for ten years, because this is what it gets us.

We lose in Texas, we get wiped out in North Carolina, we get wiped out in Ohio, and we're going to see where else we get wiped out tonight because we're getting wiped out in a Trump quake.

The Senate likely have a majority of the governor's mansions now likely.

And they did it with a blend of candidates.

It wasn't a huge progressive sweep.

It was it's being done by candidates who fit their states, who fit their districts.

Now we're going to have a lot of issues that we're going to have to sort through.

And once we take, you know, all of them take the oath of office, they're going to have to figure out how to how to govern with a Republican president.

But Republicans have a reckoning now.

And I know you don't want to talk about 2028, but tomorrow, tomorrow night.

He's going to have to have to start figuring out how does he turn the corner on this.

Ted Cruz is probably the happiest Republican in the country right now.

And he just saw his state get wiped out, which helps make the theory of the case that he wants to make.

But Republicans are going to have to figure this out.

So both parties are about to have a moment of reckoning in what the next stage looks like.

Let's go to New York, where the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is speaking to reporters.

Actually, he's in D.C., I'm told could soon become House speaker.

Many people who are struggling to survive and certainly cannot thrive here in the United States of America.

And we believe in this great country that when you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to live in affordable life, a comfortable life, and a good life.

That's a good paying job, good housing, good health care, a good education for your children.

And then when it's all said and done, a good retirement.

And House Democrats will work hard to revive it.

For every single person in this land.

We're going to fight for small town America.

We're going to fight for urban America.

We're going to fight for rural America.

We're going to fight for suburban America.

We're going to fight for the heartland of America.

We're going to fight for black and brown communities all across America.

We're going to fight to make sure that we make this country affordable for every single American.

And we understand as House Democrats that we need to deliver dramatic change.

We need a Congress that puts the American people first.

The wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected tried to buy this election.

The American people have responded in a resounding way and made clear that America is not for sale.

We will deliver a Congress that puts everyday Americans first, working class Americans first, middle class Americans first, and all those who aspire to be part of the middle class.

House Democrats are committed to fighting for an affordable America.

We will fight hard to lower the high cost of housing and groceries and gas, and we're going to fight hard to make sure that we can ensure that every single American can afford to go see a doctor when they need what.

We will fight for your nursing homes.

We will fight for your community based health clinics.

And we're going to fight to reverse these painful Medicaid cuts.

We also understand that in addition to fighting to make this country affordable, we're going to bring accountability to those who have visited unprecedented corruption on this country.

Because if you have people in high office who are so focused on enriching themselves, their family members, their friends or their donors, then they're not focused on making life better for the American people.

But House Democrats will put the American people first.

We understand that this election, a dramatic change election, means that the American people are crying out for transformational change.

And House Democrats are committed to making life better for you.

Beginning House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, speaking to supporters there after winning reelection in his New York congressional district.

Meanwhile, another major race call to bring to you via the Associated Press history made in Kansas As Democrats break a 94 year losing streak in Senate races there, the Democrat, Adam Hamilton has won that race.

Lots to discuss on that in just a moment.

But for now, we want to take you to Mike Johnson, the current House speaker, who spoke earlier today after handily winning his reelection campaign in Louisiana's fourth district.

From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history.

Okay, it's only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats for his party in that first two year cycle, and there's a lot of reasons for it.

It's very, very difficult to overcome.

And it looks like history will be kept tonight.

Let's go now to the white House and have a conversation with our Liz Landers.

Because, Liz, we were talking earlier about the historic pickup in Texas by Democrats there.

And as you well know, President Trump invested enormous political capital in Texas.

He made three trips to the state in a single month.

He endorsed Ken Paxton over the sitting Republican senator.

His political operation poured millions of dollars into that race.

And despite all of that, Democrats won a Texas Senate seat for the first time in 1988.

And they also picked up the governor's seat there.

Bring us up to speed in terms of what that has, what that means, and some insights based on your reporting.

Yeah, Jeff, I think that it's fair to say that the president spent more time and was more personally invested in Texas than really any other race this election cycle.

He, as you mentioned, was there several times.

The Republicans also had that midterm convention there for two full days of programing back to back.

We heard from President Trump both nights in a row, though there the vice president was there as well.

But President Trump also went out of his way to appear with Ken Paxton, even though he was a flawed candidate.

Trump endorsed him early on and also endorsed him over the sitting U.S.

senator from Texas, John Cornyn, who warned Republicans that if Paxton was the nominee, that he would lose.

We are seeing that come to fruition tonight.

The president also said that the president and his I would also add that his cabinet was down there, too.

JD Vance was there to and we heard on the ground when we were in Texas that voters were really frustrated at the direction that both Paxton and Abbott were running on, in particular with AI data centers, that they had allowed some of those data centers to start being built in Texas.

This was a big problem and honestly a nuisance to some of the voters we talked to who had them adjacent to their properties.

So that was a big issue for voters there in Texas that we we talked to.

And in contrast, we saw James Talarico run a totally different campaign and tie Paxton negatively to Trump at every chance he got.

We even attended an event where Talarico was talking about the Epstein Files during the midterm convention there in Dallas in mid-September.

So I think that, you know, this is in particular a race that we will want to ask President Trump more about in the coming days, what happened in Texas when it has been so red for so long, and he did spend so much of his capital there, is he to blame for some of these losses?

That's our white House correspondent, Liz Landers, with the latest for us outside the white House.

Back here in the panel, David Brooks, can I come to you first for reaction on that race call that was made by the Associated Press in Kansas?

We're talking earlier about Kansas and what you've covered there, the Democrat Adam Hamilton, they're making political history.

And I don't mean that's like demeaning Lee.

He's just a warm, wonderful human being.

And I do think I've always thought there's a market.

For people who smile when they talk.

And I think that's part of the secret.

And I think that's part of Adam Hamilton's secret.

And I'm expecting the biggest vibe shift in human history in that awful year, 2028.

Cory Booker ran for president a couple of years ago with his personality, which is super upbeat, and it wasn't the right time for him.

It would not shock me if 2028 was the right time for somebody like Cory Booker.

With that kind of personality, I think we're just going to want to turn the page on all of this.

And that will be accelerated by the fact that Donald Trump is not the first president to lose a midterm.

But in all the ones I've covered from starting with Bill Clinton, they when they lost, they said, or I think, as Barack Obama said, it was a shellacking was that do I have that right?

Oh, the voters have spoken, I respect you, I respect you, and we will try to change it.

But Donald Trump is saying out there on true social, well, I wasn't on the ballot.

And Donald Trump has created a climate in the Republican Party where you cannot admit error.

And when Mike Johnston goes on the air and said, well, it's a historical, this is just what happens.

I don't see how that party changes as long as he's around.

And while I'm at it, I don't know the answer to this.

I'm thinking of Donald Trump's mental state over the next two years as he gets more contentious with Congress.

No Senate, no judicial confirmations for two years.

And it's just that something's going to spiral downward.

And I think something different is going to be needed.

But right now we have a Senate race to call out of Iowa.

The Democrat, Josh Turek has won 51% of the vote there to Ashley Henson's 46%.

To your point about what the president is going to do for the next two years, in an interview with The New York Times tonight, he said a couple of things that he will accept the election results, that he blamed the GOP losses on, the fact that he wasn't on the ballot, and he said he's willing to work with Democrats.

The question becomes, what should Democrats be willing to work with him on?

I think they're seeing, especially with the Senate flipping, which looks like now that it's going to do, I think the agenda would be to stop the Trump agenda for Democrats.

You see him he's been flirting about his next Supreme Court nomination, for example.

Not going to happen with a with a Democrat controlled Senate.

It's going to be, you know, cabinet position.

I mean, this is a really, really big backstop against the Trump agenda that Democrats are going to have.

He's saying he's going to work with Democrats because that's his only hope at this point in the next two years, that this lame duck with full Democratic control, which is what it looks like of this, of this Congress, I don't know what else he thinks he can do.

Maybe he still fancies himself a deal maker with Democrats.

I think based on what has been happening for the first two years of this term, that that is highly unlikely.

I will take a look at let's take a quick look at the balance of power in the Senate.

Yeah, just it's just after 1130 here on the East Coast.

And Democrats have won the US Senate, ending Republican dominance in Washington by harnessing voters frustrations with President Trump.

As we've been discussing all night, the magic number there, 51% or Lisa Desjardins is in position.

All right, let's take a tour of the country in the U.S.

Senate, because it sure has changed in just the last 15 minutes.

As you've been reporting, Democrats have picked up six seats so far in the Senate.

The Associated Press has made that call.

Let's talk about where these seats are.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Texas we haven't had any results yet from Alaska.

That's a place Democrats could look for another pickup very easily.

Now, I also want to point out Michigan is not yet certain for Democrats.

But obviously this is a Democratic night.

Also, I want to remind people that there is a person in the world named Susan Collins.

She lives in Maine, and right now Susan Collins is up by exactly 835 votes in the state of Maine, with 48% coming in.

This is going to be a race that Democrats are watching.

She spoke earlier to her supporters, saying that it would be a long night.

We know that Maine counts very slowly and then we are still keeping an eye on Mississippi as well, where Cindy Hyde- Smith is also up by two points with 89% in.

So in other words, right now we also oh, Minnesota.

This is somewhere that I think Republicans will look to Michelle to fire the first time candidate, former ESPN correspondent, over Peggy Flanagan right now.

But there's a lot of votes to come in, especially in some democratically heavy areas.

But I know right now this is to say Democrats are on track potentially to pick up not just six but maybe seven, maybe eight.

And it looks like Maine has now just gone to Troy Jackson.

This could go back and forth, but this is a sign that perhaps this could be another pickup.

So it could be even 7 or 8 night for Democrats potentially.

Lisa Desjardins, thank you for that update.

You were trying to make sure anybody from using the term lame duck when it comes to Donald Trump, we've spent ten years saying Donald Trump is unlike any political figure we've ever seen.

So why would we put him in the same category as any other president for two years?

He can sign whatever executive order he wants.

We've never seen that actually happen before, but he is not going to be constrained or feel like he can be constrained by any norms, constitutional or otherwise.

And if I am president elect Cory Booker or president elect JD Vance, I want somebody standing next to Donald Trump at 11:59 a.m.

on January the 20th, 2029, when he still has the full power of the presidency.

That's when he's technically a lame duck, but he can still launch missiles.

He can still do whatever he wants to do.

I'd want somebody standing by him and standing outside of his door while he's sleeping.

What do you believe that the president could do in these next two years?

Look, I think we've seen what he can do when it goes back to January 6th.

We've seen what he can do when he undermines our elections.

We've seen what he can do when he cozies up to Putin on every single possible way.

I don't know, but I'm not going to put him in the same boxes.

Jimmy Carter after Jimmy Carter lost, or Dwight Eisenhower after his time was sort of running out.

I don't think we should look at him in that.

In that context, the president said that tonight that he wants to work with Democrats.

I hope he does, but I don't buy it.

And on some level, I actually kind of think this is the outcome he really wanted, because Donald Trump likes having a foil.

He likes having someone that he can spar with, that he can fight with.

That hasn't been Congress up till now because Republicans controlled Congress and he found them to be irrelevant.

There's a scenario where he now goes out of his way to try to prove that Congress is irrelevant by just going around them on everything, forcing quite a few showdowns where I think it could be most consequential on foreign policy, national security issues.

Yeah, I wouldn't count him out on saying he wants to work with Democrats.

I actually believe him when he says that.

I mean, you can look back to the race when mom Donny, one mayor of New York, he invited him to the Oval Office.

They sat down, they had conversations.

He's deeply invested in the success of New York, but of this country.

I could see him being very serious about working with Democrats and taking this now in the next two years and cutting some sort of deal or, or, you know, delivering on on some of his policies as he's wanted to get through.

I know he will work hard to get the economy back on track for the American people these next two years.

That's something he could work with the Democrats on.

And the Democrats will need to show that they're willing to do that as well.

But look, the reality is Donald Trump, if he was the great dealmaker, he could have cut in his first term the deal on guns and immigration that we wouldn't have allowed his Republicans, President Jeb Bush to do, or President Marco Rubio to do.

He has never shown interest in doing that.

But here's the setup that he's making.

None of these results are his fault, right?

Even though in some cases he put Ken Paxton over the line or whomever else, and under these are his fault.

So whoever runs if let's say it's JD Vance, he's the nominee.

If JD Vance wins, hey, it's an endorsement of Donald Trump.

If JD Vance loses, well, JD was a loser and I'm Trump.

He's setting himself up to win in either situation.

A lot more to talk about on all of these issues.

We should continue to get some on the ground perspectives that William Brangham has been talking to.

Public media reporters across the country reported on those critical South Carolina results earlier.

We're going to go to turn to South Carolina now.

And we are joined by Gavin Jackson.

He's a public affairs reporter for South Carolina ETV and hosts the shows This Week in South Carolina lead.

Gavin, so nice to have you on the program.

So any Andrews tonight defeats Darlene Graham.

This was a complicated race because of the death of Lindsey Graham.

I will echo the word seismic as one of your other guests mentioned when it came to the results coming through tonight.

And it's a multitude of factors when you look at South Carolina, a state that President Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024, that flipped to doctor and Andrews winning by five points at this current time.

And it comes back down to Senator Darlene Graham being the nominee.

Being one of the folks that jumped in this race was handpicked by President Donald Trump to pick up the torch of her late brother and run in this race.

And, of course, Senator Darlene Graham was kind of a political unknown.

And you had a field of ten Republicans also vying for that nomination, that special runoff, that special primary in August.

A lot of folks that have been waiting their turn to to jump into the Senate, including Fifth District Congressman Ralph Norman, who just lost a Republican gubernatorial primary in June.

He was poised and he was ready to take up that mantle in the Senate.

He actually got in that runoff with Senator Graham.

And that really is what set the tone for this race going forward.

We saw the president come down and rally for her in August and Myrtle Beach get her across the finish line by five points then.

But then that kind of those fissures, those fractures just continue to grow despite calls for unity from Republicans up and down the ticket.

And of course, her inexperience was something that a lot of voters, according to the Associated Press, were expressing their concerns about.

About 6 in 10 voters were concerned about her experience.

And you might remember that debate performance at Newsmax, ETV debate, where I was on the stage with her when she talked about her lack of foreign policy experience, which was a huge flub at the time.

And then you look forward to, you know, what she did when she was in the Senate and she passed that sanctions bill limiting Russia from from dealing with selling its oil and its gas to other countries and hitting these sanctions and putting tariffs on countries that bought that, only to be undercut by the president weeks later on her signature achievement and her not standing up to the president.

Of course, that's what the president liked about Darlene Graham, that she was going to be a loyal foot soldier, similar to what her brother was like.

But of course, the late Senator Lindsey Graham had a way of persuading people, of influencing people, including the president, who he was opposed against years before, but became very close with.

She didn't have that ability to engage folks the way that Doctor Annie Andrews did.

She didn't have the way to unify the party like Doctor Annie was.

Any injuries was able to do with getting Republicans, with getting an attendance and getting a whole coalition together to create this movement that was historically historic.

I mean, we have not seen a Democrat win the US Senate in South 1998 with Fritz Hollings, and Andrews did it by five points.

It was simply remarkable tonight, certainly a remarkable result.

Were there other national trends that played out in this race?

I mean, we talked a lot about the tariffs, the economy, gas prices.

Have any of those resonated in a way that have touched voters specifically?

Well, I think that's exactly what resonated.

You know, you kept seeing the president at these rallies.

You did two rallies in eight days for Darlene Graham in critical areas of the state, and he continued to use anti- transgender slurs while talking about Annie Andrews.

And then you heard Darlene Graham get up there and use curse words about Annie Andrews.

Just continue to throw these these names, these assaults against people, this rhetoric that you did not see anywhere with Andrews campaign.

She said, you know, if these if name calling would solve problems like high gas prices, high fertilizer prices, high health insurance prices, then go ahead and call me all the names that you want.

In the past two years when President Trump has been in power.

And Darlene Graham represented the status quo.

She was going to do whatever President Donald Trump wanted to do, and she just wasn't an enthusiastic and engaging candidate.

And a lot of Republicans like Ralph Norman, like Russell Frye, the other congressman, while they might have said that they were going to unify, especially Russell Frye and other Republicans, I think there's a huge enthusiasm gap.

I think a lot of folks wanted to have this moment that we're experiencing right now, so they could say, I told you so.

She was not the candidate to represent South Carolina.

You had a whole stable folks like Norman, like Frye.

We would not be having these conversations right now if one of those solid Republicans that have been in Congress, that have been in politics for years was the nominee right now, this would this would not be happening.

But instead, Donald Trump went with his friend Lindsey Graham, sister Darlene Graham, thinking that she was maybe going to just be able to walk into this nomination.

Maybe the seas would have parted for Darlene Graham, but they did not.

In it created a giant fracture, giant fissure in the state, and it's hitting down ballot races in the state House and in Congress as well.

That is Gavin Jackson of South Carolina ETV.

Gavin, thank you so much for joining us.

Let's shift our focus to Kansas now specifically Overland Park which is in Johnson County.

And that is where the Democrat Adam Hamilton who has won that Senate race is speaking to supporters.

In addition to addressing the cost of living for people in health care, I'm running on two other big ideas.

One of those is that we are better together.

Republicans and Democrats, thoughtful Republicans, thoughtful Democrats choosing to come together and solve problems like it used to be.

Bob Dole and George McGovern, who gave us a separate council working with Ted Kennedy, saw the big problems.

I'm going to tell you a little secret.

I want to become Jerry Moran's best friend.

I'm going to do anything I can for us to model for the rest of the United States.

States in deeply red Kansas, the heart of America.

I want us to model what it looks like when thoughtful people actually work together to solve problems instead of and run at each other, and instead of deciding, you know who's going to get the credit, you've heard this before.

You can get a whole lot done if you don't care who gets the credit, right.

We're going to be that kind of state.

And what I think about what is decency look like?

I want you to finish this for me, if you will.

It's in Matthew chapter seven, verse 12, in the sermon on the Mount.

Do unto others as you have them doing.

What does it look like in Washington if they actually did that?

How would our policies and our politics change if we treated people this way?

You don't have to believe in God to find this verse very powerful.

But the prophet says to his people, what does the Lord require of you?

What does he require of you but to do justice?

Justice is is fairness for people who are powerless to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly before God.

I mean, these are attributes that everybody needs to model in our world.

I think about something that Jesus said in Matthew 25.

He was describing the last judgment.

He said, here's how it's going to go down in the end.

I'm going to look at all of you, and I'm going to say this to those who are the sheep.

I'm going to say to you, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger in the Greek word was immigrant.

And in Christian Democrat Adam Hamilton, Democrat Adam Hamilton, they're speaking to supporters in Kansas from Kansas.

We're going to head to Washington, D.C., where the Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer, or I should say the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, is speaking.

Even in red states, these people touched my heart.

Every one of them that we recruited had great other opportunities, but they ran out of patriotism.

They knew their country needed them.

They knew in many cases they were in every case, they were the best candidate for their state.

And then the president, the Republicans, rather than the Republicans embraced Trump, the worst president ever.

Republicans made a choice and follow Trump over the cliff as some of the time he talked about extraneous things that were ridiculous.

But much of the time he implemented things that raised their costs on electricity, on health care, on goods.

Well, Republicans had a choice of following Trump over the cliff, even though Trump policies made American families pain much worse.

We listened to the American people what they wanted.

We sat down in their kitchens and their living rooms and said, what should we do?

And the American people reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks.

And as a result, there is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and on into the future.

Americans voted for change, and now Democrats must deliver.

We take a couple of questions, and I can't even see who you are with that light.

Chuck Schumer here in Washington DC taking questions from the press after winning his race.

Let's talk actually let's share a couple more race calls.

They're coming in fast and furious.

Now some governor's calls to share with you now from the Associated Press in the state of New Mexico.

Deb, I apologize for showing you now a house race that we can call for you.

This is in Colorado's House district eight, and the winner there is the Democrat.

Manny routinely will get more insight into that from Lisa Desjardins in a moment.

Also in the critical state race in Virginia House district two that we've been watching.

The Democrat, Elaine Lauria has won that race.

More racist to show you now in New Mexico's governor race.

Democrat Deb Haaland has won that race.

Making history, I believe, is the first Native American woman elected governor in the country.

In Wisconsin, another Democratic win there for David Crowley.

And one more from the state of Maine and the governor's race there, another Democratic win for that race.

We'll come back for full analysis in just a moment.

That's a lot of race call it is that time of the night?

And thanks to everyone for bearing with us as we bring you those race calls.

And thanks to our friends at the Associated Press.

Liz Landers, our white House correspondent, has been talking to her sources and trying to get a handle on how the president and his advisers are looking at these results.

Liz, since we last spoke, Democrats have won control of the Senate.

We've seen the president posting Fast and Furious online.

So the president has been posting online different things than what we have heard from the white House.

So we're getting some mixed messaging here throughout the evening.

Earlier tonight, we heard from the white House that it was a defiant mood here that the president felt like because he was not on the ballot, that he doesn't win, that these candidates were not going to do well.

He posted something like that on True Social, but he's also talking to some news outlets, The New York Times and CBS news this evening and kind of offering an olive branch to Democrats, he told CBS news a few moments ago.

My message is congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country.

On the other hand, though, we're also seeing within the last few minutes the official rapid response white House account, posting a picture of a red hat that looks like the red MAGA hat with the word veto on it.

And the president was talking about his veto power just a few days ago in an interview that came out, he said he might be known as Mr.

Veto now around Washington, D.C.. So some mixed messages here at the white House this evening as we are seeing Democrats do better and better.

And of course, now seeing that they have flipped both the Senate and the House in his favor.

One thing that we do know that the president is concerned about going into this new Congress with Democrats having subpoena power, is the ability to investigate this white House and potentially impeach him again.

Liz Landers, our thanks to you, Mo, on that point, Rahm Emanuel, who helped engineer the Democrats pick up back in 2006, 20 years ago.

I asked him on this program last week what Democrats should do if they regain power.

And he said they should not waste a second of time on impeachment, that it would suck up a ton of political oxygen that would not serve them well.

He said they should focus on an ethics package, raise the federal minimum wage, and restrict President Trump's tariffs to deliver results immediately to the extent that they can.

Well, I think that's generally right.

Ending the president's misguided tariffs that have jacked up the cost of living, figuring out a way to get us out of this war in Iran.

That's something that I think Democrats need to focus on, that this war that is cost us in terms of lives and treasure and jacked up our gas prices and some level of accountability, I think.

And I think they are going to be squarely focused first on the Pentagon and HHS.

Secretary Seth, Secretary Kennedy, but being affirmative, as Ram said, an ethics package, stock trading is a big thing that that a lot of that tripped up a lot of candidates this cycle.

That's something that Democrats can can take a lead on.

And my guess is that rapid response, that white House rapid response photo that they put out with the hat that said veto.

If Democrats put forward these things, he will veto all of those things.

Those are not things he's going to want to work with them on.

And that's where the showdown will come in.

But focusing on impeaching Trump, I don't think, is the right thing to do.

Well, I think putting forward these policies that clearly voters want and letting Trump veto them is probably one of the strongest political moves that Democrats can make when they are in power.

I think that is exactly what they should do, because so far there has been this is more, it seems, a rejection of Trump than an embrace of Democrats.

At least we don't have the full data to show that that's what this was about.

So now Democrats need to start making their case for the future, to voters to keep whatever trust voters have temporarily put in their hands.

My big question now is, what do Republicans do in the minority?

Donald Trump has really blown up that party.

And the results of tonight are showing that.

Do they continue to be to express fealty toward him?

If I were a Republican that's still in that chamber, either of those two chambers, I would be trying to make some deals to get some things done, to show that, hey, I'm a Republican that can actually work with Democrats.

I'm a Republican that can actually do something on a on a meaningful immigration reform.

I'm a Republican who sees that the public does not want this war in Iran, and I'm going to try to bring that to an end.

I think that's what Republicans should do.

They have been just purely the party of Trump for a decade now.

It also depends on who the Republicans are, right?

We still have so many states and congressional districts to figure out who those members of Congress are going to be.

But also, there are very real challenges here.

We're going to have a lame duck session.

The first thing that will happen, it will be Thomas Massie will introduce a resolution for impeaching Pete Hegseth.

So there's another blow up, but there will probably be a CRPS that goes to February.

Democratic House, Democratic Senate, Republican president that gets very difficult debt ceiling.

And, you know, it's going to be interesting to see if, if and how Hakeem Jeffries deals with what John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy and, and Speaker Johnson have all had to deal with a House Democratic Freedom Caucus.

And that could be a very real sticking point for for Jeffries as he tries to cut some deals to keep the lights open, keep the lights on.

I had a Trump source once tell me that Trump actually likes Schumer and Jeffries because as it was, as it was put to me, they knew how to speak New York to him.

Now, I don't know that that shows up in any sort of results that we've seen publicly, but that and I see you shaking your head in agreement.

Yeah, that's that's sort of what I was saying earlier is like, that's who he is.

He's he's going to I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to try to meet with them and cut some sort of deal.

A debt ceiling would be amazing for the American people.

I think that's something he would be able to to have to figure out and get behind.

But yeah, he he not only brought me into the Oval Office, he met with him multiple times and has an open phone line.

He's constantly on the phone talking to people because in business that's the only way to get things done.

You have to work with people you don't like sometimes.

Now let's apply it and put it to work these next two years.

And I think that would be good for Republicans to follow as well, but also loves them.

Donny, he's a winner and he's a bright, shiny thing.

What does Donald Trump love more than that?

Well, he's trying to make sure that New York doesn't fall into the abyss.

I mean, like, I actually appreciated it when he met with them.

And some Republicans were like, this is this makes our job harder now.

We have a couple more House races to call.

Nebraska's second district, the Democrat Denise Powell, has won, defeating Brinker Harding.

This is the second district in Missouri.

Balance of power as this starts to take shape.

I see Lisa Desjardins standing by at the super screen.

Remember this moment because I think these numbers are going to keep growing.

I know I'm always interested in that particular.

This is the race that just flipped.

A lot of people know this district because it's the blue dot.

Don bacon, the retiring Republican congressman there.

This was, you know, almost an assured pickup basically for Democrats.

But look, right next to it, Mike Flood is the Republican incumbent there.

Right here he is down to his opponent, the Democrat back Meyer.

He's a foreign service officer history.

And here we've got 49% of the vote in.

But it looks like he this is a place that Democrats are going to expand the blue dot potentially tonight.

But it's not the only one I want to go to where you all just brought up.

I heard the panel make some noises outs because an Wagner is really such a key member for House Republican women on the Hill.

And her defeat is something that you're going to hear a lot about.

And so she lost to this is not just any candidate, but the Democrat here is someone who is a former CEO of the Lincoln Project as well as a former aviator.

And let's go to Iowa, where I understand there is also a race.

There it is, of course, right there.

I, I with three I think we've heard we have a call sorry I will three.

Sarah Garrett she is now defeated Zach.

None the Republican incumbent here.

This is a race that I think Democrats felt good about for a long time.

You talked earlier tonight about the religiosity of some Democratic candidates this year.

Sarah Garrett is a Lutheran minister, and she will be joining the Democrats in Congress next year.

But I want to look at somewhere else, less expected that I don't know if you all have been noticing here.

Tennessee for this is Scott DesJarlais.

He is a woman he's running against here.

And this was what it looked like just two years ago.

This is a Trump I believe plus 24 district.

And so this really shows how much things are swinging tonight.

So really the map is expanding in wild ways.

We're watching races that really weren't on the radar.

What a difference just two years can make.

Just want to point out, by the way, it is now officially the day after Election Day.

Jordan is still going strong in Alaska.

It's not not here on the East Coast.

Meanwhile, there's word that President Trump is speaking to Fox at the moment.

I believe that interview is ongoing.

But our Liz Landers has been monitoring for any news and reaction from the president.

Yeah, we were just listening to this phoner that the president is doing.

So he is upstairs there in the white House calling into Fox News, talking with them about these midterm results, and again reiterating that he believes that if he had actually been on the ballot, that they would have done much better, though he did, I would say campaign and tell voters repeatedly to pretend like he was on the ballot there.

He was asked about Iran and the factor of the war here.

And the president actually says that he believes that voters agree with his decision to fight against Iran and fight this war.

They were just not happy about the price of gas.

So focusing he believes that it was, you know, primarily focused on the economic issue of the war with Iran and not the war itself.

I will tell you that we spoke with voters, though, in Georgia and in Texas, who said that they were not happy that the president went to war with Iran when he ran on starting no more new wars.

So talking about that as well, and and also blaming some of the candidate quality there, we had seen him make some statements about that earlier.

He said that he wasn't getting along with some of the candidates that he campaigned for, that some of these people didn't necessarily like him, per se.

I mean, we did see some of these Senate candidates try to distance themselves from the president on certain issues like this war, like the price of gas.

So we'll take a listen more to what the president is saying.

But from what I'm hearing right now, not really taking responsibility for his role in tonight's midterm losses for the Republicans.

That's Liz Lander, who's also, I should point out, been reporting for hours there outside the white House.

Liz, just let us know if there's any new news from the president's interview there.

Meanwhile, another race call to make there and the Minnesota Senate race.

Press has now called that for the Democrat, Peggy Flanagan.

She is the first will be the first Native American woman to serve in the Senate.

So another piece of history being made in tonight's midterm elections back here with the panel.

David Brooks, I'd love to come to you on this issue that was raised earlier that Kimberly raised about what do Republicans do next now in the minority?

Do they speak out more against an unpopular president?

If there were any Republican moderates?

And so when you your party shrinks in a midterm, you get more ideologically extreme.

And that's what's going to happen to the Republican Party and what they're going to tell themselves, what they're already telling themselves.

The Trumps, the MAGA side of my Twitter feed is that this is all around.

They never liked the Iran war, and they're going to blame Seth and Trump for doing the Iran war.

And they're going to they've got to find some way to blame something that they already don't like.

And so this is what they're going to do.

Are they going to be in a mood to compromise?

I just think the people who are there are just locked into MAGA.

The change is not going to come from Congress.

It's going to come from Ron DeSantis.

It's going to come from the governors.

And my own personal view is JD Vance.

And so but there's going to be some other kind of Republican who is not even remotely like Trump.

And we just that person is already out there.

But somebody is going to run in 28 that's going to present something new.

But I, I do not expect for all that we associate with the members of the House as part of the creative innovators.

I don't expect much creative innovation coming from the halls of Congress.

We have another House race to call.

The Democrat Christina Bohanon has one.

And this is the balance of power at this hour.

It is just after midnight on the East coast, 9 p.m.

I mean, look, the price per gallon for diesel right now in Iowa is about $6.

In South Carolina, roughly the same in Texas.

You heard the president, as Liz reported, tell Fox News tonight that people appreciate the war in Iran.

The president doesn't seem to be able to connect the two.

I mean, to your point is this the night that Trump ism is broken?

I mean, it seems that Trumpism has been this force that has had a hold of the Republican Party for a solid decade, even during the four years of President Biden's presidency.

And we are seeing such a strong repudiation of it.

Is it about people who, in Michigan who told me that they are sick of the nastiness and vitriol?

But all of those things are distinctly Trumpism.

And so that's one of the reasons why I was asking what Republicans do now.

And I take Amy and David's point that they just, you know, become more concentrated, like a, you know, like a reduction source.

It's just they're smaller and more concentrated.

But a metaphor I would not have come up with.

That's going to be for long, dummy.

But this feels like the election where Trump really is beaten.

Much as many excuses that he makes about this.

I feel like Trump and Trumpism is the big loser tonight, and it just is such a seismic shift in American politics where Trump turned Texas blue despite the gerrymandering that they did.

I mean, that's that's the headline of the night I want to pick up on the language.

Kimberly, is there for a question to you, Mo.

This is a national rebuke of President Trump.

Jeff raised earlier the potential concern that Democrats could override this as an affirmation of Democratic policies.

And Democrats are now tasked where we showed earlier in that voter poll results, Americans think that they will be better able.

Democrats will be better able to handle the economy, foreign policy, health care, government corruption, inflation is persistently high.

Those will be increasingly democratic responsibilities.

Like they've got to as we were talking about earlier, they've got to go out there now.

Look, I, I'm so happy with the results tonight.

But, you know, I've been arguing for months that Democrats should go out there and put out their version of a contract with America before the election.

Here's the five things, ten things that you will get from us.

They didn't need it before the election.

They won, but now's the time to do it.

Get out there and say, here are our top three priorities and we are going to be laser focused on that.

This is going to be a great test for Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, their leadership.

I know there was some noise about whether or not Schumer in particular would be the majority leader.

My guess is he's going to be fine now, but they're going to have to get their caucus, their conference singularly focused on the Republican side.

Look, in 2016, Donald Trump defeated the Republican Party.

Before he did it, defeated the Democratic Party.

What happens next is the Republican Party is going to have to defeat Trumpism.

If there's going to be a pivot, if there's going to be a change, and that means that there's going to have to be one a standard bearer and two, the Republican voters who are willing who are actually ready for that change.

Every time Trump put his thumb on the scale in a primary, Republican voters reacted.

And that's why you saw so many Republican candidates reluctant to distance themselves from Trump.

You might see some more start to step up.

The Republican voters have to have to be there.

It's going to require that, though, to turn the page.

Otherwise, we're just going to be sort of in this stagnant, you know, phase of the Republican Party moving forward.

And the first thing that happens is they'll be meeting next week, right.

Republican conference will meet leadership will have their separate meetings.

These are going to be shell shocked meetings.

And Wagner from suburban Saint Louis wasn't on anybody's tier one.

She was probably like a tier seven.

And we thought he was probably going to lose Miller-Meeks.

We thought she was probably going to lose.

And for those North Carolina members, right.

Some of them will come back, some of them won't.

But right now, every single one of them winning or losing is under 50%.

So they're going to have to learn a political lesson.

If you've gotten reelected with 49.8% of the vote when you won with 58 last time, there's a political lesson for you to learn there.

What they learn, ultimately, we'll have to see, but they need to learn something from this.

Tiffany Yeah, that's good for Congress.

I mean, like, I think it's a reckoning for both parties, in a sense, and and a wake up call for both parties that the status quo doesn't fly.

The American people will hold you accountable, and you have to deliver, like, enough of the status quo, enough of the lip service.

We are casting our votes to you to go do something for us.

And if you can't, they've just proven tonight we're not afraid to vote for someone else.

We're going to zoom into Ohio very quickly.

Karen Kessler joins us now and she's going to speak with our William Brangham.

Karen has been following all of these races in Ohio right now.

Amy Acton defeats Vivek Ramaswami for the governor's job.

Sherrod Brown makes a big comeback, defeating John Husted in the Senate again at the beginning of this election cycle.

How do you explain what unfolded tonight?

I think there's a lot of issues involved here.

I mean, the economy's big, been a big issue.

Diesel prices are at record highs in Ohio.

These are the kind of things that voters have said that they're concerned about.

In fact, there's about 21 data center issues on Ohio's local ballots today.

So that's kind of part of this whole affordability question because of the electric bills that tend to result from those.

But I think what was really interesting here is to see that Vivek Ramaswamy and John Houston were both very closely tied to Trump.

And I think when you start looking at Trump's approval ratings, even in a state like Ohio, where he won by 11 points just two years ago, that really has had an effect.

And you mentioned the data centers were a particularly big issue, but what other of the national things that we have been seeing, you mentioned gas prices as well.

What else really seemed to motivate voters to go to the polls this year?

I think tariffs were a big issue as well.

Canada is a big trading partner of Ohio.

We have a lot of big parts of the state that are farming areas, and they are concerns for farmers trying to afford equipment, trying to afford fuel and fertilizers.

So I think that that was part of the equation here.

But I think that there were some other things at play, too, when it came to especially the race for governor, where Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton were exchanging some really nasty ads, and Ramasamy kind of stepped it up there toward the end, just a couple of weeks ago, with an ad that featured Acton's estranged mother, who had lost custody of acting, her brother after she stood by her husband, who was accused of raping the ten, the then 12 year old Amy Acton.

That is Karen Kessler of Ohio State House news.

Karen, thank you so much for being here.

Kimberly what are you thinking it this hour that Donald Trump can say all he wants that he wasn't on the ballot.

And this is probably his biggest defeat of his political career tonight.

Just seeing that, I thought it would be days before we even knew who was in control of the Senate, let alone the House.

And already we know that he has lost the Senate.

And everything ties back to him in a way that I usually am.

The one that says, look, you can't take things.

This is a repudiation of Trump and Trumpism.

I think Kimberly made the essential point.

This is sort of the end of Trumpism as a live political movement.

You will obviously still be in power, and I hope I'm happiest about Adam Hamilton women.

That's a little, but I don't know him well.

But the one we saw, a bit of his, his acceptance speech or whatever you call it and what he said, he's reaching to Republicans serving the marginalized.

And he said the Republican senator which whom he'll serve with will be his best friend.

This is now the 10th of the last 11 elections where the House, the Senate or the white House has changed hands.

There's been nothing like this before in sort of our modern history.

And this is a sign from the public, once again, the deep frustration they have.

But the things that they would like to see elected officials fix, they do not these elected officials get into office?

They push an agenda that half the country doesn't like.

And in some cases, what we're seeing tonight is an agenda that not only turned off people, but it actually caused significant economic damage.

And it is a this is a reply to that.

Yes, well, Donald Trump loves to make history and make them and he certainly did that to.

And and I want to you know, in some regards I'm excited and I want to say to all Americans, thank you for voting.

I hope the American people are encouraged that it is we, the people in this country, and your vote does matter.

And what we choose as a country dictates the future.

Change is really good for this country.

And I think Trump will embrace that through the next two years.

And it could be our best years yet.

I'd say we often hear all politics are local.

This is a night where not only all are all politics national, all politics are Trump.

And so we can sort of extrapolate with what we've seen, what the other races that haven't been called are going to go.

This is a terrible night for the Republican Party.

There is now a Democratic governor and senator in Texas, in Iowa, in potentially in Kansas, where the Democrats leading in the governor's race in Iowa, leading in Michigan across the board, different types of states with different types of Democrats.

And they did it by being laser focused and disciplined on the needs of everyday Americans.

And that's where the next big test comes.

So before we bring this election coverage to a close, let's head over to the peerless Lisa.

Seriously, all that you have contributed to our coverage tonight, my past few weeks, thanks to my team, Kyle and Alexa and of course the Great Laumann.

First of all, I want to convey what you all have been talking about the national map.

And of course many of these flips are still to come.

These are some of the places where Democrats in the House have so far flipped 15 seats.

Here's the latest one right there in the hardest to get corner of Iowa for Democrats tonight.

That is where they have picked up another one.

So this is one way of looking at it.

But I also want to talk about the Senate map.

Especially look at these southern states.

Southern states right here that Democrats have now controlled.

But if you look at the Senate map like this, this is what we have tonight.

Let me take you back just two years ago, here's what the presidential election looked like.

Now some of these states are not in play.

But look at all the blue here that just two years ago was red.

And I think this is the story of tonight, which of course will be unfolding over the next couple of days even more.

I think the numbers we have now will continue to grow for Democrats.

Can we just quick round of applause for these.

Walking us through the highs and lows.

The big and very detailed picture over there.

Liz Landers is still with us at the white House.

Liz, final thoughts from you on this election night?

Will, we just heard the president just wrapped on Fox News, and he says that he will accept the election results tonight.

And I do think that that is notable given the past, especially in 2020, when the president has denied and continues to deny those election results.

But he says he will accept the ones from tonight.

And he was asked about his final message as he got off the phone with with Fox News.

And he says congratulations to the Democrats.

They've been looking for this one for 11 years and they finally got it.

So it seems like the president is in a better mood than maybe one would expect.

After these pretty bad losses for Republicans.

We will see how he works with Democrats going forward.

Liz Landers, remarkable reporting and coverage from you tonight as well outside the white House.

And that concludes our live special coverage of the 2026 midterm election.

A huge thank you to our entire panel of experts here at the desk.

That's Amy Walter David Brooks, Kimberly Atkins, Mo Olathe.

Great panel, Lisa Desjardins at the super screen, Liz Landers at the white House, and of course, William Brangham and all of our station reporters.

We will now return you to your regularly scheduled programing, and there is additional coverage where you can be sure to join us online.

You can see live maps and results throughout the evening on our website.

That's PBS.org, and you can join us on YouTube for a live Q&A with our Lisa Desjardins, Liz Landers and Dema.

And of course, join us back here for the Nightly News Hour.

Thank you so much for joining us I'm Jeff Bennett.

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