>> in tuesday's elections, democrats won 16 of the 36 governors' races. washington governor and democratic governor association chair jay inslee talked about the races and newly elected democrats at a meet, this is 15 minutes. >> ready? good morning. i think it is fair to say that last night was a historic night. historic in the sense that the democrats had the largest number of electoral pickups in 36 -- of gubernatorial pickups in 36 years. the last time we had anything approaching it was 1982. we started the night with 15 gnchor, we have ended with 23.

and we are most pleased about that result. over 38 million more americans will now have the services of democratic governors. that means big changes that we will talk about in a little bit. it means for the first time in a long time, the majority of americans will have the services of democratic governors working for them. by any stretch, this was a historic night. michigan, kansas, maine and new mexico, the largest number that any party has swept for the last 24 years. there's some interesting things about the states that we did win last night. the most obvious thing to say is that we have rebuilt the blue wall. we started that process and got a long ways doing it with wins in michigan, wisconsin, illinois and kansas. e won in the last -- west. new mexico and nevada, and new hampshire and maine.

importantly for those who were troubled by the results of 2016 in the midwest, we have proved that democrats can run and win in the midwest in quite a number of states with some great governors. we are happy about the midwest particularly. obviously, this is more about the people's interest rather than the parties. the most important thing about last night is that we have three new potential medicaid expansion states, kansas, wisconsin and maine. this could mean another 319,000 americans getting health coverage. speaking as one who helped get 700,000 people in washington, this could be very gratifying ith our new governors. it also means in the seven states that we picked up, 6 million people with pre-existing

conditions now have a shot at making sure they get coverage for their pre-existing conditions. nothing can be more important. it means better roads and infrastructure in michigan. that infrastructure package is important. having a governor in michigan to really fix the roads, which i believe is the best win this ear. i told gretchen, i came off of climbing a mountain on the olympic peninsula last summer, this couple were taking off their boots, i offered them a brew and asked them where they were from. they said michigan. i said, i have a friend running there for governor. they both said, fix the damn roads. it worked in washington state as well. we protected our incumbents. every single democrat in an open seat. republicans talked a good game -- big game about challenging ur incumbents.

but we held them all. i'm pleased that six of our seven new governors have pledged to join our u.s. climate alliance in the fight against climate change. with a climate denier in washington, d.c., to have six new allies to join the rest of the world is very gratifying. i will enjoy working in their tates. i'm excited about working with them in that regard. why did we do so well? we had seven great candidates. we had the largest class of democratic women in american history. janet mills, the first women -- woman governor of maine. jared polis, first openly gay governor. michelle lujan grisham, first democratic hispanic governor in american history. this was historic on many, many fronts. also hugely important for the u.s. house because of our edistricting reassessment.

we set an ambitious goal of flipping 10 seats and we flipped seven. that's very important. those seven seats can help us and the pathology of gerrymandering. this is going to give americans the chance to have them pick their member of congress rather than the member of congress picking them. we are excited about the progress we made in that regard. good news all around. would you like to add? >> i don't think so, i think we an open up to questions. >> can you talk more about climate change, the carbon fee , u were wanting in washington would you do that?

>> we would've liked to have had that pass. we were against $37 million of big oil money. we know we are undaunted because we know climate change is not going away. we are not going away. in january, i will have somewhere between one and four new senators and five to nine new members of the house. we will advance climate change legislation. i'm very confident about that. we have multiple tools in the toolkit on how to flight -- fight climate change. the one thing the voters did not accept is not the only tool in the toolbox. i cannot wait until january, i'm very excited. every single one of the new legislators we have are fully committed to climate change initiatives. they are some of the most vigorous climate change fighters we've got. i'm looking forward to january. >> what did you take away from these races when it comes to the issue of immigration? something that republicans ran eavily on.

they ran ads against mayor gillum in florida. what lessons do you take away? what do you think the democratic party should stand for on immigration moving forward? >> certainly, the politics of division did not work in wisconsin. they did not work in michigan. they did not work in nevada or new mexico. they did not work in illinois. they did not work in kansas. if the politics of division don't work in kansas, there's a good sign for hope in this country. we won seven seats. i heard the president crowing that this was a really good night for him. listen, when you flip seven seats, the biggest, in some sense, rejection of the president's party in 36 years, there's a message there which is that people want to have commonsense measures. and my state has stood up against some of the lack of common sense.

we have stood up against the president's decision to separate children fromer that parents. and we've, in some sense, backed them down though we're not done with that battle yet. we stood up against him on the muslim ban and will continue to stand up for measures. we need the u.s. congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. we need congress to pass the dream act. i've got dreamers on my college campuses languishing because donald trump holds them hostage still. the congress needs to get with it and have meaningful immigration. they will have security on the border. that's something most parties can embrace. we have to get with fairness on this and donald trump has not helped us. i hope the message of seven new governor beating republican, flipping seven red states in a historic event might be a message to the republicans to start working on that subject.

yeah? >> you mentioned seven new governors who are signing on to the climate change agreement. >> so far. we're not done yet. >> who was the last person? >> governor kelly i don't believe has signed up but i haven't had the chance to talk to her about that. we look forward to that. we know kansas can be a really important part of the clean energy revolution, biofuels is an important thing in kansas as is potentially wind power and there's a lot of good things coming out of kansas. i'll have a chance to talk to her and we'll let you know. this has been an important thing by governors this u.s. climate alliance. it has been successful in preventing any single country in the world of following donald trump over the cliff of climate change denial. jerry brown and i and governor cuomo started this. it has been successful letting the world know that we are still

in it. we now have over half of the american population committed to the paris agreement. think about that. we haven't pulled out of the paris agreement, half of us are in it with the injection of the six new governors and six new states. we represent over half of the american population. we feel good about that. it's working. > are there other democratic governors who haven't signed on yet? >> chair. e will keep talking. >> idaho and iowa -- ohio and iowa, what does that tell you about where things stand, sit about the two states specifically or the politics of ivision works somewhere?

you don't win every single time. in close races, sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. in florida it was a close race , in ohio less so. sometimes you catch the wind at the end of the race and sometimes you don't. i think the message is, and i think this is important coming out of 2016, there were some people concerned that democrats just were never going to be able to compete in the midwest again, that there was something in the watter that made us incapable of competing. we blew up that myth. winning illinois, wisconsin, minnesota, michigan, an kansas, just absolutely shows we can be competitive on a big, beg night and we were. so no, i don't think there's anything endemic or persist theant creates problems in ohio and florida. it means again having good candidates, there's going to be different voting pool in florida because the people of florida in a resounding volt decided to

allow their fellow citizen who was paid their debt to society to vote again. that's over a million new voters in florida. >> what about in ohio? democrats are worried there was a win for us there. is it moving away from democrats? >> i wouldn't say that, in part because senator brown won with a fair margin. i don't think -- given the fact that senator brown did so well, it doesn't indicate to me that there's something out of reach in ohio. we haven't had a chance to look at the exact turnout in ohio so i can't give you any more detail aid sessments than that, other than the ball sometimes doesn't bounce your way. >> vu you given any thought now that the mid-term is over to a potential presidential run in 2020?

>> no. >> [inaudible] >> yeah. >> more questions? >> avoiding like all the -- > maybe not. >> one more question here. >> on twitter there's been talk about exit polls in florida, how 18% of black women voted for desantis and how that doesn't seem like that makes sense based on -- >> i don't think exit polls make a lot of sense in general. i've never been in a cycle where they've been particularly helpful before the election or after. >> so it's not --

>> i don't think so. >> since you mention twitter i want to reject the notion that the reason governor walker was defeated is the fact that when i was campaigning for our great candidate there that i was involved in a twitter battle with gnchor walker and we thought we won but we don't think that was the whole reason. we think tony's brilliance was he reason. >> eck, last question. >> recent report from difficulties voting. do you think governors can do anything, in washington it's an all vote by nail state is there something governors can do? >> most definitely. aisle convinced we have to have governors who can help their people have a better, more secure way for voting and we need the federal government to do that as well, i believe. it is just unexcuseable to me

that people have to wait in line for hours to vote for a basic american right. in my state you vote from your kitchen. it's been extremely successful. we have a vote by mail system that's been secure, it's been convenient and it's increased turnout. this year, i and our republican sec retear of state paid for postage out of our account. no one has to put a stamp. it's been very, very successful. i certainly would encourage other governors to consider this in other states. but i believe the federal government needs to protect all americans and the right to vote. when you look at the voter suppression that went on in georgia, when you look at the voter suppression that's gone on in ohio. when you look at the efforts of local communities to remove polling stations away from minority communities, and end up with three-hour waiting line, it's a scandal. we need the federal government to step in and provide additional protection. i just believe everyone should have the opportunity to vote by mail if you can't stand in line

for three hour. people ought to have that right. we ought to have some federal protection against insidious efforts to kick people off the rolls. which went on big time in georgia. i don't know whether that had a role in this or not but it was societyly unaccept to believe try to kshesly drn -- and by the way, the secretary of state there was slapped down twice by judges about his efforts to suppress the vote in that record. we need federal protection as well. thank you. >> as your primary source for campaign 2018, we brought you candidate debates in the most competitive races, only on c-span. over 160 races from across the country. the voters have new decided on a

new congress with new leaders. watch the process unfold on c-span. live thursdayen the c-span network well, look at the results of the 2018 mid-term election. at noon on c-span a post-election analysis of 2018 from the american enterprise institute. later at 6:45, smithsonian associates host a panel on mid-term elections and what the results reveal about america. over on c-span2 at 9:30 a.m., the brookings institution looks at the state of american politics and the factors that produced the mid-term election results. and at 12:30 p.m., american university hosts journalists and analysts for a breakdown of the lection outcome. >> i thought about forgotten presidents even before i began the book. then it occurred to me there might be something they had in problem.

not that they were forgotten, but perhaps were significant in some way. >> this week on "q&a," michael gerhart talks about two of his books, "the forgotten presidents," and "impeachment." >> i think that bill clinton did a lot to merit his own impeachment. i think he knew members of congress were looking for him to make mistakes and then when he made the mistakes and later testified under oath in a way that was false, and for which he was later held in con terpt by a judge for perjury, bill clinton made his impeachment almost inevitable. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> conservative activists discuss mid-term election results at a press conference. they represent the tea party patriots, the media research center, the club for growth, the senate conservatives