tv   ABC News 2018 Midterm Election  ABC  November 6, 2018 5:00pm-10:59pm PST

for now, thank you for joining us for abc 7 news at 4:00. i'm ama daetz. >> i'm good evening, it's 8:00 in the east. polls have closed in half the country. this is the 2018 midterm election. >> live from new york city and across the country, this is abc news election night 2018. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> good evening. and welcome to election night 2018. just two years after donald trump shocked the world by winning the white house, americans are back at the polls. already voting in record numbers for what could be the most consequential midterm election of mod tern times. control of congress, the course of the trump presidency, our country's future all at stake. we're here in new york, our political team in the studio. reporters across the country in key battleground states to track the vote and help explain what

it means for all of us in the months ahead. this is a national election. and we've brought the u.s. capitol to help illustrate how things are trend egg. all 435 streeats in the house a up tonight. as are 35 seats in the senate. 36 governors at stake. and all night long, we're going to be laser focused on the two key numbers you see right there. 23 and 2. congress will change hands if the democrats pick up 23 seats in the house. two in the senate. the gop hopes to increase their majority there. we already have some results. we already have a flip in the house, from the state of virginia. jennifer wexton has defeated bosh what comstock in the suburbs of washington, d.c. barbara comstock, one of the most vulnerable republicans in the country. president trump membership not be on the battle tonight, but he is dominating our politics and

our culture, making this midterm to a degree we've never seen before, a referendum on the president. and we've asked voters what they think of president trump, how it plays into their vote. "world news tonight" anchor david muir here with that. >> we heard from the president so often these weeks, saying, pretend on the ballot. people didn't have to pretend. take a look at the numbers coming in. these are preliminary exit polls. 44% of voters who turned out to the polls today say they approve of the president's job, 55% they say approve. but on the crucial question, did they vote with the president in mind? 26% said they voted to support the president. but look at this. 38% said they opposed president trump. about a third there said the president is not a factor. but nearly two-thirds of the country heading to the polls today with president trump in mind, george. >> and their mind. jon karl is here, as well. one other thing that's different from a lot of midterms, first midterms for the president, is

president's base is energized. >> he did 30 rallies in 20 states just since labor day. this is the first time that the nation has been able to go to the polls and to render a judgment on the trump presidency. and he himself has called it a referendum on his presidency. >> he's called it a referendum. cecilia vega, in the last week, the president chose to focus on immigration, on the border. white-hot rhetoric. >> this has been one of the most divisive midterms in our lifetime. the president using language, laying out the closing argument crystal clear. america will be overrun by masses of illegal immigrants if you do not vote republicans. we'll see if this argument worked for him and drives that base to the polls or scares voters away. >> some republican leaders in congress wanted him to focus on the economy. martha raddatz, trump was on voters' minds. >> absolutely. you go out there and you talk to people and you talk from california to pennsylvania and they're all talking about health

care, immigration, but when it comes down to it, the shadow of trump is over everything. you can start these conversations about issues, but gradually you turn to trump and civility and the divided country. >> playing to two very different countries. i want to bring in tom llamas to talk about how this is really happening on two very different playing fields, the battle for the house and the battle for the senate. let's start with the house. >> two very different stories. we're going to start in the house. we're tracking all the house races tonight. but there are more than 100 competitive races. we call these the key races across the country. you see more red than you do blue, because republicans are on defense. each one of these little pieces is a key congressional race. you can see chunks in new york, pennsylvania, virginia, florida. but in some red states like kentucky, kansas, texas, we're tracking more than a dozen races out in california. when you look at this, it may look like a political jigsaw puzzle, but each piece is important. we've taken all these races and put them on our battleground

board right here. if there is a blue wave tonight, you'll see it here, if the red wall holds up, you'll see that. george mentioned at the top of the night, 23. that's how many seats they have to flip and so far tonight, george, when we look at the board right here, they have been able to flip one seat, as you mentioned, virginia-10. republicans were able to hold indiana-2, florida-16 and flori florida-25. we're still tracking 93 races. >> 93 races. and in the senate, a very different map. >> it is a very different map, and a very different story, because democrats are on defense when we talk about the senate map. look at all that blue there. we're tracking 35 senate races right now, and when we go back to our battleground, our chip board here, you can see all of that blue. we've already had some results come in, democrats have been able to hold virginia, vermont, ohio, massachusetts, rhode island. but we're really tracking 14 key races. the dems have ten. these are states where president trump won and democrats are on defense. there are red states, as well.

nevada, texas, tennessee, we're watching closely. >> thank you, tom. >> nate silver, our statistics guru here, as well. and your forecast going into the election night reflect what we saw on those maps right there. >> yeah, no, and you expected a big split between the house and the senate, there awhere there' much territory. so far, that's borne out. we haven't had any truly tossup races called. so far, it looks like the polls are telling a basically accurate story. kwooel have to see who wins all the tossup races. >> you had coming into tonight, you had the house forecast about 88% -- >> 85%, now it's 81% for democrats in the house and the senate, you can see, you know, difficult map for democrats in the senate, the indiana race, though we don't know where the vote is coming from, does not look terribly great for democrats right now. maybe for a change, it will be a night where the polls got the story mostly right. >> okay. as tom said, we have some results coming in in the senate. want to give you those right

now. in the state of vermont, bernie sanders has won re-election over lawrence zupan. in the state of virginia, tim kaine, remember, he was the vice presidential candidate back in 2016, he's going to win re-election over corey stewart. in the state of massachusetts, elizabeth warren will be the projected winner in the state of massachusetts. and in the state of ohio, senator sherrod brown, projected to win in the state of ohio over jim renacci. want to bring in donna brazile for more on this right now. donna, maybe with the exception of tim kaine, three possible presidential contenders for the democrats in 2020 right there. >> there's no question. several of them on the ballot today, but more to come, after this exciting midterm election. we have a list of democrats who are very excited about tonight, because they are looking forward to running in 2020. >> and chris christie, former republican governor of new jersey, give us a sense of what they're going to be watching in the white house tonight? >> a few things. first off, they're already watching indiana and the indiana

senate seat. they think that's a key -- >> that's joe donnelly, the democrat incumbent. >> correct. >> they're also watching the governor's races. you see the exact opposite of what you saw with the senate map. 36 governor's races, 26, the republicans have to defend, and of those 26, 12 are open seats, george. so, it's going to be a very tough night and republicans in the white house going to be looking at who is going to be drawing those maps in 2020 and 2021 for redistricting of congressional seats. that's what i'm going to be watching tonight. the governor's races. >> we're going to keep an eye on the house and senate. matthew dowd, you've been talking about the governor's races, as well. >> when you look at the long-term implications of the party, they control the redistricting, the budgets and the policy, and that's where you target the races in a 2020 presidential election. so, i agree with the governor. especially the governor's races in the mid western states, iowa, ohio, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania is obviously already done, is places that

donald trump won the presidency, and if those states over the course of the night turn blue, it's a problematic situation going forward there. >> republicans -- >> florida is going to be very important. >> alex castellanos, talk a little bit more about how this really does feel like a presidential election. >> you know, this is really not an off-year election. it's a presidential election that just happens to occur in an off-year. we're seeing record turnout, like we've never seen before, and it's all about donald trump. he really is on every ballot, and he's transform eed two parties. we see a democratic party that in reaction to trump is more female and younger. we see a republican party that's not the old country club republican party, it's outsiders, populists, working class, angry about immigration. he's leading both parties right now, not always in a good way. >> and meghan mccain, one of the big questions is going to be, as the president binds the base of his party closer to him, who is

he pushing off? >> yeah, and i think arizona is a great example of this. we could possibly have the first democratic senator since 1976. it's a complete nailbiter. and i think what's going on in the country is the face of the country is changing, and nothing is more evident of that than arizona turning purple tonight. >> we're seeing the political face of the south changing, byron pitts. >> exactly, george. we could have potentially a black governor in florida and the first black woman governor in the country in georgia. georgia, i lived and worked for awhile. there's two georgia, atlanta and the rest of georgia. the cultural differences across georgia, it's the old south and the new south. we'll see which south wins tonight. >> cokie roberts, women everywhere tonight.>> enom w the gender gap is just enormous. nationally, what we're looking at is men voting democratic and republican pretty evenly, women voting democratic by 60% versus

39% for republicans. that's an enormous difference. it is -- it is partly a reaction to president trump, but it's also true that it's a reaction to the issue they care about most, which is health care. and that is something we're going to be seeing throughout the night. >> top issue tonight. terry moran, one thing this election tonight may not do, heal the divides in this nation. >> it doesn't look like it. and that is partly, i think, the plan that president trump had. going into this midterm a couple of months ago, it was more or less a normal midterm election. it would be a performance review on the economy, on health care. and he, after the kavanaugh nomination, deliberately turned it to those divisive cultural issues where he can fill his rallies and drive his base to vote. he decided to campaign on this turf. >> and we're seeing the results tonight. we do have raw vote coming in from the key senate races we've been talking about. the state of indiana, joe danlely trailing now mike braun, we're not ready to project that yet. west virginia, not enough info

to project there, as well, but joe manchin does appear to have a lead over patrick morrisey right there. and in that key state of florida, couldn't be closer. 50/50. bill nelson, the incumbent dm, up against rick scott, the governor of florida. and nate, i want to come back to you right now, you're seeing a change in the forecasts? >> you saw some early vote reported for example in florida. you didn't have the panhandle in, that was better for democrats than when you have the panhandle in election day vote. the overall story hasn't changed that much. if you are sweating things minute by minute, you probably feel a little bit less bald, as a republican now in the house than you did 15 minutes ago. >> nate, thank you. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back. i can't believe it. that grandpa's nose is performing "flight of the bumblebee?" ♪

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and we are back here at abc news election headquarters here in new york. that is what it looks like in the house right now. democrats have picked up one seat. they need 23 to take control. those are the overall numbers coming in in the house right now. we're going to be following that all night. we've been talking to voters all day long. "world news tonight" anchor david muir here with that. let's talk about the issues that were top of mind. >> we heard so much from trump about caravan, kavanaugh, when you dive into the issues, this is what voters said when they left the polls. by a large margin, 41% saying health care is the most important issue. 23%, far behind that, immigration, which has been donald trump's number one topic

in the final weeks of the campaign. 21% on the economy. the president was hoping, the white house was hoping the economy would loom larger. health care, issue number one. and what a drastic change from midterms past, where health care could, perhaps, buoy some of these democrats in races tonight, given the fact that it's now important and many americans believe that perhaps the democrats have made the better argument that they'll save pre-existing conditions. >> health care usually works against the last people that took action on the issue. i want to bring in tom llamas to take a deeper dive into the numbers. let's start with indiana. what are you seeing? >> george, we can see that braun slightly on top here, senator donnelly, a little bit of trouble. let's take a deeper dive here. the problem for democrats here is that it's 4 versus 88. democrats pull most of their votes out of four counties, where republicans pull out of 88 counties. in indiana, they talk about doughnut counties.

the suburbs in indianapolis. the four counties the democrats pull from, indianapolis right here, he's at 62%. gary, indiana, that's where the president just was, lake county, and then over here, st. joseph, this is where notre dame is, he's outperforming hillary clinton in each one of those counties. >> and jon karl, so important, the president spent a lot of time in indiana. the home state of vice president mike pence. >> he's been to indiana more than any other state. four visits to indiana. mike pence's home state, been working it very hard. this is -- they saw this their best chance outside of north dakota to pick off a democratic senate seat. >> feeling good about what they see so far. tom, let's look at florida. >> dug into some of the numbers here, as well, during the break. you know, george, when we talk about florida, we have south florida, we have the panhandle and then we have the i-4, which i think will decide who wins this race. i was tracking the numbers early in south florida, more diverse voters, younger voters, more

hispanics in south florida. in broward county, palm beach county, nelson is tracking pretty much what hillary clinton did. the problem here, we have 98% precincts reporting in south florida, overall in the state, 90 recording, it's dead even. the problem for nelson right now, there's a couple of the very small counties that are very red that could help rick scott, we'll have to wait and see. one good sign, duval county, jacksonville, nelson's on top there, that's a bell weather. republicans tend to do better there. >> what are we seeing in the governor's race? >> let's take a look. jump over there. of course, andrew gillum -- let's see here. back in the governor's race. zoom in here. really close, too, desantis barely on top, 90% reporting, but again, basically seeing the same map. we thought there would be a lot of connection between gillum and nelson. duval county, where desantis is from, gillum is on top. south florida, as well.

the same thing. one good sign for democrats that i'm seeing, they are picking up some of the blue counties, turning some of the counties blue in the i-4 corridor. pinellas county, we know that gillum's up there, 50 to 47. it's really, really close. >> and george, 90% of florida has reported, but only 51% of broward county, that's a very solidly democratic county down south, and only 75% of miami-dade county. a lot of democratic votes in both those counties. >> i want to go to florida right now, whit johnson is in tallahassee. you had a bit of a rain scare earlier. >> yeah, george, that's right. we knew there would be drama in florida on election night, but we weren't expecting the rain that we saw here. all the media had to be rushed off the platform for a period of time. we had power outages here. but the rain has cleared for a moment after some thunder and lightning. you can see behind me, this is gillum headquarters here at

florida a&m university. the crowds have come in. they are starting to gather here. but this, we talked to voters throughout florida here today and all of them said the same message. they were casting their votes not just for the local candidates, but really to vote in support or against the trump agenda. if we're looking at the governor's race, tallahassee mayor andrew gillum, an underdog. was not expected to win in the primary. he won with massive outside support, bernie sanders was an early supporter, president obama, hillary clinton, millions of dollars came in from megadonors. he's going up against ron desantis, the republican, the congressman who actually resigned his seat so he could focus on this race. he was in lock step, all-in on president trump, president trump endorsed him. basically hand picked him early on in the race. and it has been an ugly battle for governor here. allegations of racism thrown towards desantis and some of his supporters. accusations of corruption

towards gillum and his camp. so, it has been ugly, but they've been plowing forward. the senate race, many people believe bill nelson, if he is to survive here in the state of florida, up against governor rick scott, that it would likely have to be turnout, supporters who were pushing for gillum could help nelson win. >> okay, whit johnson, thank you. matthew dowd, this governor's race was interesting. you had in both gillum and desantis, the new faces in the republican party defeating in the primaries the established candidates. >> yeah, absolutely. they both -- they both beat the candidates that were supposed to win in this, and to me, florida is one of these key states. it's a swing state, and both of these races are going to go down to the wire. >> florida is such an important state, every single year. midterms, presidential, matthew dowd. thank you. we're going to take a quick break, we'll be right back.

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[man laughing] good evening. i'm dan ashley. >> i'm ama daetz. the polls will close at 8:00 p.m. if you have a vote by mail ballot, you can drop it off at any polling place as long as you get it there by 8:00. your ballot will count if it's postmarked today. >> most mail-in ballots need extra postage.

don't forget the sign the back of the envelope. a busy day at san francisco city hall. our cameras captured voters dropping off ballots outside the building. inside a lot busier. >> at the time we were there, every booth was occupied. activity rivaled that of aptal election and could set a record for a midterm election. >> our records in the department go back to 1974. so in the last 11 midterms elections the average turnout las been 58%. we're looking at something that's going to be, i would think, higher than the highest previous turnouts since 1974 which is 63%. so we're looking at from 63 to 70%. abc 7 reporter david louie joining us live from san jose. >> reporter: ama and dan, just because the polls don't close until 8:00, doesn't mean election staff isn't hard at work. they're counting ballots that came in over the past week and also staffing a special window

to handle all the people you see in line. these are people trying to get provisional registration. they have to do an address change or registered too late a and still want to register tonight before 8:00 in order to vote. for hundreds of them, voting today means standing in these long lines for an estimated two hours to change their address or register as a new voter in santa clara county. many young people said they want to do their civic duty and volt. some of them are former students who moved because of new jobs. >> i have to update my address, i have to get in line for that. >> do you still get to cast a ballot today? >> yes, i do. >> why are you standing in line? >> i have to vote. the american duty. >> do you know enough about the measures to vote on? >> i have plenty of time in line to think about it. >> reporter: about a quarter million ballots have been turned in to elections officials as of yesterday. those ballots are being processed and will constitute the early results about 8:01, about a minute after the polls

close. santa clara county has an antiquated voter tabulation system that will be replaced in the near future. it's likely it will be quite a while, possibly into tomorrow for some of the contested or definitive results to come out on some of the close races. live in san jose, david louie, abc 7 news. >> david, thank you so much. on the peninsula, san mateo county is one of only five counties statewide participating in something called a new california voters choice act. >> it means every voter receives a mail-in ballot. >> no longer have polling places, but you have vote centers. you have to picture vote centers as a one-stop service center to receive all forms of voting services. >> you can still vote in person at a volting center as well as drop off a ballot and get help with your ballot. the other counties participating in this election include napa, madera, sacramento and nevada. all counties can conduct voters

choice elections in 2020. in the east bay cars lined up as drivers dropped off their ballots. there are ballot drop boxes where voters can walk up and drop off their votes. students from the phillips academy walked out of class and marched to the polls. these students are too young to vote. this is part of a national project called walk out to vote. in los angeles long lines formed at some polling places. no problems were reported with people being unable to vote. as you can see, great turnout. go to abc7news.com/election to find a local voter guide. we'll break down all 11 state propositions and cover the local measures and candidates on your ballot. >> stay with abc 7 news for election night coverage. we'll be sending out the latest information from the abc 7 news app. the abc news network continues coverage of the biggest races around the country. >> we'll have a full hour of live local election coverage at 9:00 p.m. on kofy tv

we are back at abc news election head quarters. midterms 2018. that is the race for the house right now. democrats have picked up one seat so far. they need 23 in order to take control. we're going to be tracking that all throughout the night. i want to bring in tom llamas to get right to the battleground board. one of the things we're receiving is that democrats, the races that are in so far, the tossup races, they've only won one. republicans have won several. >> like you mentioned, just one, the net gain. that's the big number throughout the night. look at this number here in florida. all the competitive races. some of these were open seats. some of these districts, president trump did very well in. democrats thought they could compete here. indiana, the same story, both the races we thought were competitives, republicans were

able to hold. and virginia-5, as well, the sl charlottesville area of virginia, republicans stay with that seat. >> nate silver, that's created a significant change for your forecast in the house. >> you have to win seats, so far, we have seen democrats win only one seat.l wealthy surbs. th're going to have to gain more seats to comfortably take the house. they are still slight favorites in the forecast, but is not the best case scenario. >> so far, they are not reaching into republican territory. >> none of these seats have been called for the gop, they were called pretty fast in some cases, which is not a great sign. but you know, florida is not going to be the state that provides democrats with their margin of victory in the house. >> yeah, and there's no question, if you're going to have a democratic wave, you got to win some of those seats and we're not seeing that happen. and the race that we're really watching, that early bellwether, the kentucky-6 race, we had a really strong candidate -- >> amy mcgrath, the model for the democrats.

she's a veteran, former marine corps fighter pilot. she's had a very civil race. but this is a very tight race so far and we'll have to watch that one. >> she's not playing it out yet. we have a result in the senate, from bob menendez is going to hold onto his seat. let's bring in the former governor, chris christie. that was tough for him. he was indicted on corruption charges, he was not convicted. >> winning as a republican in new jersey is really hard. there are 930,000 more registered democrats than republicans in new jersey. it's not easy. and bob hugin spent $35 million in that race. >> pharmaceutical executive. >> and the interesting thing, i heard lots of people say they didn't like menendez, but they didn't like the president more. and that's what really, i think, happened in new jersey is that

the trump headwinds in new jersey is probably as hard as it is any place in the country. >> democrats hope to pick up a lot of house seats. >> i think they will pick up some house cements there, for sure. >> and george, i just, one note on menendez, this is incredible, he's at a 33% favorable rating and he won. two-thirds of the state view him unfavorably, only 27% of the state says he has high standards for ethics and he won. >> that's what -- that's what i mean. the presidential headwind in new jersey, that tells you everything right there that you need to know, because these people don't like senator menendez, they don't trust him, but they said, well, if i have to vote between him and the guy that's going to vote with trump, i'm voting for him. >> there's been a lot of attention on texas, as well. ted cruz and beto o'rourke. tom, let's look at what we have right here. there you see it right there. so far, at least, and there's

still a lot of vote to count there, beto 0 kuso'rourke has a on ted cruz. we'll watch that, as well. david muir, let's talk about the exit polls. you see some dramatic swings among groups of voters. >> these are the groups that we keep a close eye on. independents, often called swing voters. they backed donald trump by six points two years ago, but let's break it down tonight. preliminary results coming in tonight, look at how they're vote egg. 54% are voting for democratic candidates. 41% for republicans. when you break down moderates in this country, hillary clinton won moderates by 13 points, but look at this. democrats are now winning moderates in the midterm by a 29-point margin over donald trump. 62% to 35%. they're called swing voters for a reason, and look at what we're seeing tonight. >> matthew dowd, those independents could be the difference. >> i think in all the races that we're seeing that are close, the senate, the governor and house races, it becomes indepen

departments. it's why donald trump is president. one of the things i'm fascinated by and we'll watch how this night unfolds, we saw it in 2016, this is a battle between geography and demography. democrats have younger voters, women, people of color, and republicans have a geographic map they built up a wall around the country and that's what we're running into right now. >> they've got a lock on that right now. let's go to paula faris. we were talking about the texas senate race. she's at beto o'rourke's headquarters. paula, you spent a lot of time in the state covering this campaign. what are you seeing tonight? >> well, i got to tell you, everything is bigger in texas, george, including this senate race. it's going down as the costliest in senate history here in the united states. $110 million has been poured into this state. congressman beto o'rourke is watching the returns here, at a minor league baseball park in el paso. he's trying to become the first democrat to win this seat since

'88. we knew it was going to be an uphill battle. 1 in 3 texans identify as evangelical and they typically go to the republicans. but i think the tides could be changing here. we saw the early voting numbers, almost 5 million voted early. that's more than voted in 2014 in the midterms. over 500,000 registered to vote for the first time since march. we're hearing that the 18 to 39 demographic in that early vote is up, but the other demographics are flat. beto o'rourke said he feels like the momentum is on his side. cruz told me, conversely, he's taking nothing for granted, even though he entered this race with a slight lead in the poll. looks like we're going to have a long night, a close night. george, we're keeping an eye out for one of the greatest political upsets in recent history. >> of course, it still is an uphill fight for beto o'rourke, but donna, he's brought in tons

and tons of money, online. and a lot of democrats look at o'rourke and see bobby kennedy. >> they see bobby kennedy, they see a young leader who is prepared to, i think, change the country in many ways. he has galvanized not just texans, but people from all over the country have been pouring into texas to help him out, to help him raise money and to help him get out the vote. he is clearly somebody to look at for the future. if he loses tonight, i still believe we could have an upset, i know matt disagrees with me, but i still believe, he's someone that we can look at for 2020 and beyond. >> cecilia vega, what a change we saw in that relationship between president trump and ted cruz. >> night and day. i go back to that campaign, when president trump was out stumping for ted cruz and they did the man half hug on the stage. they went from, he went from lyin' ted to out stumping for ted cruz. and this is a race that the president has been paying close attention to. we know from people in the white house, if beto o'rourke were to

win this race, republicans around the country, particularly in this administration, would just have their heads in their hands. >> anna cox, you spent a lot of time down there in texas. >> yeah, i did a big story about ted cruz. though beto is an amazing candidate, if it weren't for ted cruz, he wouldn't have a chance. people really loathe him, you know? ill mean, he's just -- he is the most hated man in the senate. and voters in texas, when i talked to them, he sort of had the worst of both words, to say, the base voters didn't like that he didn't endorse trump at the convention, they still remember the booing, they still wanted -- they feel like he wasn't loyal. and then the people who don't like president trump don't like it because he sucked up to trump. i so, i think a lot of conservative voters stayed home on this one. i don't think he got the numbers he needed to get.raddatz, you s voters in texas, as well. >> i did. in 2016, one particular couple was split. he had never voted for anybody

but a republican, he voted with his nose held for hillary clinton. i asked him yesterday who he was voting for, he said i'm voting for some dems, some republicans, but i'm voting for o'rourke. >> and pierre thomas, there was an interesting development overnight, they actually had a border control exercise in el paso, beto o'rourke's hometown, overnight, which the o'rourke supporters thought was a sign of voter suppression. >> they did, george. and this issue has been percolating throughout the country. law enforcement officials concerned about the whole immigration issue, and i can tell you that the law enforcement community is saying that immigration issue could backfire at some point, because of the whole issue of suppressing votes. >> go ahead, jon. >> well, you know, look, this is -- ted cruz went from being lyin' ted to being beautiful ted. i mean, it was an amazing -- it was just an amazing transformation. and donald trump had to campaign

for him, the fact that donald trump in the closing weeks of the campaign actually made a trip to texas to campaign for the republican senate candidate was incredible. >> matthew dowd, you live in austin, texas. the texas really changing that quickly? >> it's been methodically going. it used to be a blue state and then that got converted 25 years ago and then it became a red state. it's light red. so, i think beto has an uphill climb. he's got a shot. he's energized everybody, as we recall. but what beto/cruz might have done, even if he falls short in this race, it's going to be close, is that he might have pushed that speed faster to a purple state, is what he might have done. the fact that we haven't called texas at this point in the evening is the first time we haven't called texas at one minute after for 30 years. >> you're seeing that in florida, as well. maybe in georgia, as well. you know, matt's point about demographics versus the seats. you know, they might be changing neighborhoods that haven't quite changed yet.

but this spur of these progressive candidates in those states, even if they lose tonight, have moved those states. >> terry moran? >> i'm just amazed, still, on a personal level, at this reconciliation between donald trump and ted cruz. i mean, ted cruz was the last, ant anti-trump republican in that race, and what he said about trump was terrible. trump said his wife was ugly his dad helped kill jfk. politics acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. >> we're going to look at the state of georgia when we come back. - [narrator] if you want serious cleaning with a cord-free vacuum, you need a shark. because only shark's cord-free lineup has duo-clean technology so you can deep clean carpets and give hard floors a polished look. and with two swappable batteries at maximum suction, our shark ion f80

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and we are back here at abc news election headquarters in new york. the republicans have just picked up a seat in the senate. it is from the state of indiana, incumbent democrat joe donnelly has been defeated by mike braun. you see him right there. mike brown, republican, will win the senate seat in the state of indiana. a pickup for the republicans. sigh of relief, jon karl in the white house. >> big sigh of relief. keep in mind that joe donnelly voted for neil gorsuch and voted against kavanaugh. remember, the president said this was a campaign about the caravan and about kavanaugh. so, this was big, and he went there four times, twice in the past week, he was there yesterday. president worked as hard in any

state of indiana. >> when you drill down on donald trump approval in indiana, look at this. 53% of the voters there approve of donald trump, but to get to the kavanaugh point that jon brings up, voting against brett kavanaugh, 10% said it was the most important factor, but another 40% said it was important. half of the voters in indiana said his vote against brett kavanaugh was important. joe donnelly, his final ad was him splitting wood, pointing out how often he split with his party. it was not enough to kons vinco the trump voters. >> and meghan mccain, these states are deep red. >> you see so many democrats not only running against republicans, but running against their own party, as well. i think of claire mccaskill coming out, saying she's not one of those crazy democrats. with donnelly in particular, he was very trumpy.

so, you see so many people, and i would put category, as well. the part of the party that doesn't want to become the party of bernie sanders and the party of socialism. >> or the democratic party is big enough to hold people that are mod ralerate and truly progressive, where the republican party can't really accept moderates anymore. >> well, mike braun just won. >> six years ago, when joe donnelly won, he won against one of the most flawed candidates ever saw in murdoch, who was talking about rape and doing outlandish things. so, joe donnelly knew he was behind, all the way for his six years, and this is an impossible state for him to win with a candidate who is not flawed and braun's not flawed. >> this is the vice president of the united states. the election abopparatus favore the republicans. i believe joe donnelly ran the best possible campaign to stay

competitive. >> big win for mike pence there. >> it is a big win. we have another change in the house. this is coming from the state of florida. donna shalala, former hhs secretary under president clinton, has defeated maria salazar in miami. this is the second pickup of the night for the democrats. nate silver, do you have any sense of what this does to your forecast? >> so, this was kind of a lay-up for democrats, it's a race they should have won and they have won it and they're winning the low hanging fruit. they haven't won any really tough tossup districts yet. they haven't won kentucky-6 for example, some of the -- in the house forecast. we haven't seen a big overall shift. we show democrats are favored to win the house, 4 in 7 favorites. they need to win more of the tossup races. >> just a little over half, more than 80% coming into the night. cecilia vega, donna shalala had a tough road at the beginning of this campaign. >> she had a health care, too. this was one of the races that hillary clinton was out

campaigning for and actually welcomed on the campaign trail. we hadn't seen her during this. former hillary clinton district that she won there. but also heavily latino. and donna shalala doesn't speak any spanish. and that became an issue in this race when they defeated and she said she wouldn't speak spanish. hillary clinton campaigned for her there and it seems to have worked. >> clinton district won by a democrat. i want to go to indiana. linsey davis is there at joe donnelly's headquarters. not that close in the end. >> what's so interesting, george, is that the room has not gotten the information just yet. we've been watching them applaud, be reserved at times as the results have been coming in, and the particular station that they're watching has not projected indiana yet. and so, it wasn't all that long ago that one of donnelly's people came out and said, be prepared for a long night. so people started lining up for the bar, preparing for that long night and hoping it was going to be a celebratory one. i think in the end, they knew this was going to be a hard

fight, after all, indiana has a reputation of being one of the reddest states in the midwest. it's been described as red as the red barns that dot the corn-lined countryside. this is a state that donald trump won with 57% of the vote in 2016, hillary clinton got 38% of the vote. she was only able to win 4 of the 92 counties here. just as the polls close, we heard from the senator, donnelly, he came down, he seemed very reserved. he said he was still optimistic, he talked about how it's an awesome night, with tremendous turnout. they've been saying that this is history-making, as far as turnout in indiana, for a midterm election. and what's been interesting, david muir pointed out one of the exit polls here in indiana, where 53% of hoosiers said that it mattered to them, it was very important that he voted against brett kavanaugh. and i asked the senator, when we heard that news, did he see that as favorable or unfavorable? he said, you know, i can't say

whether that was appealing or not to the hoosier voters, but i did what i had to do, i felt this was the right thing to do. >> linsey davis, thank you. tom, we have the state of indiana up there, and it shows just how daunting this path was for donnelly. >> i want to focus in on indiana right now, because donnelly actually did really well where he had to. he got the four counties, gary, south bend, indianapolis. it was the coalition of red. we talked about the doughnut counties, some of the suburbs, he couldn't win those. we should focus on indiana for a bit. the reason why braun wins, it's a coalition of those tiny counties. and when you go into those, they're really small, but he's sitting at 63%. he's north, almost all of these, 75% in some. the trump voters, the republican voters, turned out in those areas in big numbers. >> they did. and nate silver, a pickup here for the republicans. you had high odds for the democrats to take over the

senate going into the night, getting a lot higher. >> for republicans, yes. they have to draw to an inside straight now. indiana was a problem, but not as difficult as north dakota or west virginia, and so you see, for example, the odds now of a gop senate majority are around 95 in 100. it was a tough task to begin wi with. when you lose tossups, indiana, that's the most important call of the night. it didn't go democrats' way. >> mary bruce, you cover capitol hill for us, big night for the republican leader mitch mcconnell. >> absolutely. and to nate's point. so much of whether or not the senate can flip will come down to the deep red states where democrats are now in the fight of their life. like indiana, where you have so many democrats who are trying to walk this fine line li. they're trying to show they can work with the president, but also show they can stand up to

him. i spend a lot of time in missouri, north dakota, west virginia, and what it comes down to for a lot of republicans there, it's going to be hoping they get a bounce off kavanaugh. so many democrats hope if they hammer health care enough, it will bring them a win. >> i want to look at the big red states, the vote, not ready to project, but we do have some votes coming in from the state of tennessee, you see marsha blackburn with a wide lead over phil bredesen. democrats had some hope he might be able to do well there, but he's not, he's trailing marsha blackburn right now. juju change in the blackburn he headquarters just outside of nashville. >> i'm not hearing you properly, george, but i will tell you that marsha blackburn is in the house, watching the election returns. her staff is incredibly confident and pumped up about what they're seeing.

but what wii will tell you abou the tennessee voters is very much an open story. it's an uphill climb for bredesen, and they offered a very stark contrast, a popular former governor who was basically campaigning on a theme of civility, and yet, it seems as though the enthusiasm in the exit polls are going towards marsha blackburn, who is a fire brand who boasts about being a knuckle-dragging, unapologetically ant anti-politically correct k congresswoman. she seems to be retaining the sum port support of women. she's been holding it by a margin of 49 -- 59, rather, to 41. it looks very much uphill for phil bredesen. >> let's look at the state of west virginia, right now, where the incumbent democrat, joe manchin, is up against the attorney general, patrick morrisey. a lead there for joe manchin.

democrat in the most trump state in the country. matthew dowd, he did his best also to hug president trump when he could, but he really enfa sized the issue of health care. >> he absolutely did, and keep in mind, he was one of the only democratic senators to vote for kavanaugh in the hearing and go back to that. and so, i think this is -- this may be an exception to the rule, where the democrat is able to overcome geography, which is a problem in west virginia, it's a deep red state, deeply favors donald trump. we'll see if man chin can pull it out. >> this is a close one. joe manchin, a known quantity in the state of west virginia. >> absolutely. they know joe. he says, i'm the same joe that you know. he took aim at the lawsuit filed by 20 a.g.s in this country -- >> absolutely. that would invalidate obamacare and the pre-existing conditions. we'll be right back.

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are you in good hands? good evening. thank you for joining us on this midterm election night. >> here in california the spotlight is on the race for governor. democrat gavin newsom voted this morning. republican john cox voted last week. >> nbc 7 is following the candidates in los angeles.

>> those returns are just beginning to come in but behind me you can see the stage is set, the music is playing all for gavin news om's big watch party. republican john cox voted last week. he has been trailing newsom since the primaries. a relative unknown in the political scene the latest polling numbers show him trailing newsom by 16 percent or so. this morning newsom surrounded by his wife and children cast his vote at a masonic lodge. he's been confident the past few months because while a win is more than likely, he says he is more focused on democrats regaining the house more than anything. back here live an interesting tidbit for you as we do our research. if gavin newsom does win, he'll be the first time california will have a back-to-back democrat governors since the

year 1886. some food for thought. >> okay. thanks very much. there is still time to vote. the polls close at 8:00. >> if you have a mail-in ballot you can drop if you are looking for more information, go to abc7news.com for a voter guide. >> we voter guy. abc 7 news network coverage continues off the biggest races off the country and we'll have a full hour at

live from new york city and across the country, this is abc news election night 2018. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> 9:00 here in the east. polls have now closed in 40 states, although six states are keeping their polls open because the turnout so big. so far in the house and senate, so far, republicans have picked up one seat in the senate. that is the seat in indiana. they have picked up one seat, extended their majority. democrats have picked up two seats in the house. they need 23 to take control. we do have a new result coming in from the house. this is disappointment to democrats. amy mcgrath, the former marine combat pilot, defeated by andy barr. as you said, she ran a different kind of campaign. it wasn't good enough.

>> it certainly wasn't good enough. but this is a district that trump won by 15 points, her opponent, andy barr, looks like will get that fourth term. he was all-in on trump. mcgrath did not air any negative ads. it was a new kind of model. they put in a candidate who was a combat pilot, who was a marine, but it just didn't work. >> the democrats said they didn't need amy mcgrath to win, but so far, it just has to be said, the democrats are having, so far, a lot of vote to come in, a disappointing night. >> they are not winning where they thought they were going to win. we had seven potential pickups in the state of florida. republicans have held onto five of those seats already. democrats have only picked up one, we're still waiting for vote count on there. in virginia, they have only p k picked up one of the seats they were tracking. so, democrats are not winning in the way they were hoping to win early in the night. but there's a lot of vote to count. >> a lot of vote to come in. mary bruce? >> and democrats, i'm sure, are not pleased with what they are

seeing in florida, but democrats would argue they only need one seat in florida, and one important outstanding seat is the one held by curbelo. >> we have another result coming in. marsha blackburn will win the senate seat in the state of tennessee. martha blackburn. that is a hold for the republicans right there. she's a strong trump supporter. phil bredesen, former governor. let's go back to juju chang, just outside of nashville and blackburn's headquarters. >> well, what we're projecting, george, is that tennessee is doubling down on trumpism tonight. you know it's a deep red state, and they will be sending their first female senator from tennessee. she's not just any woman. she's a firebrand who calls herself a hard core card carrying conservative and brags about packing a pistol in her esident trump's agenda. he came here three times to this

state to rally for her. in fact, i was there in chattanooga on sunday, and one of the biggest applause lines, george, is when they weould say don't give another vote to the d.c. democrats. and that resonated. she was fighting, against you said, the moderate governor, the very popular here, who basically campaigned against tribalism, against the divisiveness. and he was endorsed by taylor swift, as you know, and the bredesen camp was hoping for the swift lift, as they called it, because young voter turnout spiked here by seven-fold from the previous midterm election. and yet, that wasn't enough, nor was the historic turnout of african-americans. wasn't enough to bring bredesen anywhere near, clearly, martha blackburn was, as predicted by president trump, the red wall. he said, to the extend that there is a blue wave, it will hit a red wall here in tennessee. and sure enough, that came true. george? >> mary bruce, pretty good trade for president trump there in tennessee. the outgoing senator, bob

corker, frequent trump critic, he gets a hard core supporter. h president trpas get fro b corker. he was very -- happy tode trump. now the opposite. >> cokie roberts? >> well, we've been seeing women voting democratic in a lot of these states, but they voted for marsha blackburn in tennessee. and that tells us something, george. something we've seen historically is that if republicans put up a woman candidate, she's likely to get more of the female vote than a male candidate does. she doesn't always win it, but she gets more of it. >> certainly came true there. what are you seeing in the exit polls in tennessee? >> phil bredesen did so many of the things, he supported brett kavanaugh, he said he was disgusted on both parties. but this is what he was up against in tennessee. a state where so many people like what they're seeing from

president trump. 57% of the voters in tennessee approve of the job performance. was he a factor in your vote, look at this, 38% said they support trump, 26% say they oppose him. you break it down by issues, and by far, the number one issue, 38%, health care. he tried to push protecting pre-existing conditions. that didn't necessarily work for him. but look at this. this is the most telling number so far in tennessee. they actually like bredesen. they like phil bredesen. the problem is, they like donald trump more. >> that's true. and jon, you're hearing what donald trump and his team in the white house are saying. >> it's a jovial mood in the white house. they're watching several network networ networks. especially happy with the vote in indiana, a place the president campaigned in just yesterday. he made that a personal crusade to defeat joe donnelly. happy, they say no blue wave yet. >> let's look at florida, what's happening right now. first, in the senate race, bill nelson up against rick scott,

the governor. look at that. 50/50 right now. only about 60,000 votes separate the two right there. in the governor's race, andrew gillum, ron desantis, 50. again, very close right now. this state, also, also so important. often close. we're seeing that place out in both the governor's race and the senate race. chris christie, you're hearing from governor scott? >> the scott people feel very good. with the vote out there, it's about half in the panhandle, half in miami-dade. they feel like for both desantis and for scott, that these margins are going to hold. and i think the other thing that's important to talk about, for a guy like nelson and for donnelly and others, you know, they're going to start questioning decision-making. they're going to be wondering and probably going to be sending not thank you notes to bob

menendez. >> we have another result coming in, it's from the state of west virginia right now. and we are seeing the joe manchin -- there it is right there. joe manchin, democrat of west virginia, will hold on to that seat. looked dicey there for awhile, but joe manchin, incumbent senator, will hold onto that seat. no pickup for the republicans there. but jon karl, that was a seat democrats had to hold. >> absolutely had to hold. also, by the way, that is definitely donald trump's best democratic friend in the united states senate. both a good personal relationship and supported him and also the one and only democrat who voted for kavanaugh, to confirm kavanaugh. >> david muir? >> look at what we're seeing from the exit polls on joe manchin. people still like him in west virginia. that's the thing. he's been around for a long time. 51% of the voters say they have a favorable opinion of joe manchin. he was on his motorcycle, crisscrossing the state. he said that he regretted supporting hillary clinton. said he might be open to supporting donald trump in 2020, if he agrees with him on a

number of issues. he famously went against brett kavanaugh at the last minute after that susan collins speech. he didn't want to be the tipping point on brett kavanaugh, but he did come out against kavanaugh and likely helped him in the end. >> amazing that manchin could survive west virginia. >> you don't know joe. joe is a fighter. joe understands the people of west virginia. he knows they want somebody who will stand up for them and fight for them, and he ran a kind of campaign right down the middle, where he could still appeal to democrats, but reach out to an workdents and be able to eek, enwh a governor runs for the united states senate, they know their governor. the negative ads don't work as well. >> tom, go up to the board there. let's pull up the state of florida. let's pull up the florida senate right now. let's get a sense of where this vote is coming in. >> so, you know, earlier in the night, we talked about how we split up florida into three different parts, and jon karl made the point about the vote

being out in broward county so far. right now, we're talking about a 60,000-vote gap here, and if you look at broward county right now, they have 70% reporting. in miami-dade, they're at 87%. i think, just looking at this race, i know governor scott spoke with governor christie, a lot of panhand panhandle. nelson is overperforming in broward. he's underperforming in miami-dade. but he's doing well in orange county, orlando, in jacksonville. he's doing well right there. if i'm bill nelson right now, i'm watching that vote very closely in broward and miami-dade. if the numbers change, he could stay with his seat. >> for comparison's sake, how much of the vote is in in the panhandle? >> these are very tiny counties. these are some of the most republican counties. they only account for less than 1%. but 100% reporting in here, 81% reporting in here. 100% here. a lot of the panhandle is in

from what we're looking at. south florida, broward, miami-dade, we need to look at those two counties all night. >> matthew? >> very close florida race in 2000. >> 2000. >> that went on for 31 days. on election night, keep in mind, on election night, with 98% of the vote in, we had a 50,000-vote lead. george w. bush and that campaign had a 50,000-vote lead. i looked at what was out, which was broward and palm beach and miami-dade, 50,000-vote margin went to 1,100 votes in about 15 minutes when those came in. so, i think what's going to happen in this race, right now, this is very telling, i think, most everything that is solid red is in. the deep blue is not fully in yet. >> why does broward and miami always come in so late? >> well, you can look at the voting technology in those areas, absentee, they have a lot

of absentee ballots, but matt is right. we're going to see this map change in about an hour. >> cecilia? >> one more county, hillsborough county, we thought as the bellwether county in florida, also still, you know, almost 10% of the vote to count there, and that is a good vote for democrats. >> and he's up right next door in pinellas, which is the tampa suburbs, a bellwether county that almost always picks the winner in this state. let's see where he's at. one of the smaller counties, he's up. that's a good number, even though it's a smaller county, it's a bellwether county. >> this is the state that donald trump calls his second home. there's a very interesting dynamic between donald trump and rick scott. scott tried to distance himself from donald trump -- >> after the hurricane. >> after the hurricane. he ran an ad, when i don't agree with him, i say it. but we're looking at a number of things in this race right now, puerto ricans who have moved to the state of florida in the wake of hurricane maria, and the youth vote. let's not forget the parkland

massacre. one source told me in this race, not just particularly florida, but around the country, the youth vote could end up being the x factor come tonight. >> one thing rick scott is going to like in the early exit polls, as this is a nail-biter in florida, but look at the demographics. donald trump approval, this is a state he won by little her than a percent over hillary clinton two years ago. 51% of the voters today said they like the job that president trump is doing. when asked if it was a factor in the vote, this is interesting to reconcile. 22%, they said they turned out to support trump, 33% said they turned out to oppose. 43% said trump not a factor. you break down by issues. look at what's important to florida voters. health care, issue number one. we're seeing this over and over again. when you break it down from health care to pre-existing conditions, which is what democrats in the final weeks tries to make the campaigns about, 48% say the democratic party. there are good signs in there for rick scott and people who were concerned about donald trump being attached to them. cecilia said, rick scott tried

to separate himself, at least when it came to the hurricane and other issues, but florida voters today said they approve of donald trump. >> mary, you've been hearing from democrats in florida. >> one just told me florida is a little too close for them at this point, not feeling very comfortable. asked what they think of the night overall, two words, not great. >> that sums it up. we'll be right back. a migraine hope to be there... for the good. and not so good. for the mundane. the awe-inspiring. the heart racing. the heart breaking. that's what life is all about... showing up. unless migraine steals your chance to say "i am here."

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invest with confidence. back now at abc news election headquarters here in new york. let's look at where things stand

in the house and the senate. so far, the democrats have picked up two seats in the house. they need 23 to take control. in the senate so far, a good night for republicans, they've extended their majority, picking up one seat, the indiana senate seat of joe donnelly. want to check in on governor's races. we haven't talked about the georgia governor's race. i want to go to steve osunsami in atlanta, georgia, where stacey abrams, the democrat, had a bid to become the first african-american governor of the state of georgia, first african-american female governor in the country, but so far, at least, she's trailing badly behind the georgia secretary of state, brian kemp. steve? >> there are still people in line. they just announced this a second ago, after singing the national anthem and singing the black national anthem, that there are people in line in some of the largest counties, in fulton county here, and in gwinnett county, which is north of here. some polling locations have been extended to 10:00 p.m. i will say that the mood here is that they are preparing for the

long haul. we listened in some of the campaign calls over the weekend. they're expecting a runoff, most likely tonight, and are lawyered up, preparing to sue brian kemp and to sue the counties to extend early voting, because if there is a runoff in this election, that would take place on december 4th. there are more than two conditions in this race, there is also a libertarian candidate. one person has to get above 50% . because of the polling on this, they're expecting this, despite these numbers that you're reporting, they are expecting this to be very, very tight and we could be possibly not getting an answer to who is going to win this election or what's going to happen here until tomorrow morning. >> of course, there's only a runoff if neither candidate breaks 50% there. we do have something coming in right now, it's the governor of illinois, it's a switch for the democrats. j.b. pritzker has defeated bruce rauner. j.b. pritzker, close ally of

president obama, has become governor of the state of illinois. chris christie, big win there for j.b. pritzker. rauner had never really found his footing in that seat. >> bruce just never listened to people about how to try to work with the democratic legislature, to try to bring people together, to get things. he didn't get a budget passed for years. you just can't do that. when you're a republican who wins in a blue state, you've got to work with the democratic legislature and get things done. bruce never learned to do that and tonight he's paying the price. >> matthew dowd, the democrats really hoping the governors races in the midwest become their new base. >> yeah, and obviously illinois is a democratic state, hillary clinton carried it heavy. they're watching ohio, michigan, wisconsin. i think they've secured pennsylvania. i think iowa is an open state. i think that's where the democrats, if they have a really good night, if they have a good night in any part of this, it's going to be in those races. >> we have other results coming

in in the senate. democrat amy klobuchar cruising to re-election there in the state of minnesota. she's talked about as a possible 2020 condition, as well. in the state of new mexico, senator martin heinrich will get his second term. he defeated mick rich there in the state. we project that martin heinrich will win the senate seat in the state of new mexico. in new york, kirsten gillibrand, we project he will win in the state of new york. and in the state of wisconsin, senator tammy baldwin will win, will be re-elected in the state of wisconsin. stephanie cutter joining us, as well, the women democrats tonight doing pretty well. >> they are. and i think that we can see across the board that women are turning out. however, i think the women are turning out, i think, men aren't going to democrats at a margin as we originally thought. there's still a lot left out there. but for the senators many blue

states, they're winning handily, we still have a lot of competitive races. >> the house doesn't seem to be coming in quite the way the democrats hoped. >> i think -- my explanation, really, is that these are largely suburban districts. many were tossups, many were lean republican. i think women are turning out in the suburbs, but men are supporting donald trump for a good reason, the economy. they don't want to change that up. and i think that's not something that we have projected. >> you can't underestimate the power that the president has when he lands in these states and we've seen him travel, just recently in the last few days, a number of states today, you look at tennessee and indiana, where republicans are doing better than people were expecting, and i think what he does is he riles up his base. he reminds them why he won and why he needs people on his team to fulfill his agenda. so, it's more effective when he's on the ground. >> terry moran, stephanie hit on a point that perhaps we haven't

talked about enough tonight, the economy. the economy is going gangbusters right now. that could be working for republicans. >> it usually would, and we were distracted to some degree by what donald trump shifted the debate to, on immigration. but one other thing about donald trump, he tells a story at these rallies. a story of american greatness that i think a lot of people plug into and democrats talk about health care, what's the story they're telling about our country? >> and the story, a lot of people also willing to overlook some of the president's rhetoric, things that he says that aren't true. >> and it is women who we expected to see tonight to be leaving because of that rhetoric, but you go back to donald trump, in these rallies, he says, no one knows these crowds like i do, and he is expecting that to reflect itself tonight. these thousands and thousands of people that we've seen in these rallies there. >> a lot more vote to count. we'll be right back.

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your voice, your vote, live from "abc 7 news." >> good evening, i'm ama daetz. >> i'm dan ashley. only 90 minutes remain to cast your ballot in today's midterm election. >> the polls close at 8:00 p.m. if you have a vote-by-mail ballot you can drop it off at my polling place by 8:00 and it will count if it is postmarked by 8:00 today. one of the 11 propositions is proposition 6. if it passed it will repeal the gas tax which one year ago was

passed. amanda castillo is live in walnut creek with more. >> reporter: doon and ama, voters on both sides tell "abc 7 news" more needs to be done to fix our roadways but that's the only point of agreement. if prop 6 passes, it no only repeals the gas tax increase of about $0.12 a gallon but would eliminate road repair and transportation funding throughout the state. supporters of the gas tax say that money is needed to fix our roads. however, supporters of prop 6 say those funds are being wasted, misused and not spent appropriately. >> the money that's been collected thus far has not gone to the proper place, and, you know, quite frankly i work very hard for my money and i have an issue with, you know, giving any more money towards that until we can see some results. >> reporter: estimates show prop 6 would reduce the state's tax revenues by nearly $3 million in the next two years, and by almost $5 billion in the two years that follow.

let's talk about impact to taxpayers. if prop 6 passes, that means less money to spend on repairing our state highways, local streets and mass transit. i'm live in walnut creek tonight. amanda del castillo, "abc 7 news." >> thank you. go to abc7news.com/election to find a summary of all 11 propositions on the ballot. in addition we have information about local measures and kntds candidates as well. >> dianne feinstein is facing election for her fifth term. >> kate larson joins us live from the presidio. >> reporter: ama and dan we are in the presidio. i can tell you that dianne feinstein staffers are setting up for a 300-person watch party tonight. of course, feinstein started her political career nearly 50 years ago as a san francisco supervisor. now at 85, she serves as a senior senator, a household name. feinstein is a tough one to beat, but her competitor, fellow

democrat kevin de leon, a state senator from east los angeles, has been slowly shrinking feinstein's double digit lead after she took a hit during what some felt was a poor performance during kavanaugh's hearings. the san francisco state senator scott wiener supports feinstein and he told me she is aggressive when she needs to be. >> she has been extremely vocal around brett kavanaugh, around the situation with russia, and so the republicans, you know, maybe don't like her so much. that's okay. i mean she's someone who has always worked with both sides of the aisle. she has been willing to reach across the aisle, and she will continue to do that, and that's why she's so effective. >> reporter: some republicans have come out in support of de leon, even though he's actually more progressive than feinstein, not necessarily because they like de leon but because they do not like feinstein. that being said, senator feinstein is expected to win tonight. her staffers, who are being very

sup superstitious are calling it a watch party, not a celebration. live in the presidio, kate larsen, "abc 7 news". back to you. >> thank you. this is the first general election where you can take and post a selfie. >> governor brown signed a bill making it legal to take a selfie while casting your ballot. >> we would love to see it. you can use the hashtag to get our attention about any issues you have while exercising your right to vote. >> we love to see these. share your voting pride by sharing this image on social media. you will find it on our "abc 7 news" bay area facebook and twitter pages as well. stage with "abc 7 news" for election news tonight. we will be sending out the latest information through the "abc 7 news" app. >> abc news network continues on the biggest races around the country. we will have a full hour of

back here in new york. 9:30 in the east. republicans have picked up one seat in the senate. the seat of joe donnelly in the state of indiana. take a look at the house. democrats so far have picked up two seats in the house. they need 23 to take control. it's coming in slowly for the democrats, not as quickly as they had hoped. we do have some more house races coming in, not to project. we want to show you what's happening there, there in the state of florida, district 26. mucarsel-powell is up against the incumbent republican. this is one democrats have high hopes for. >> look, democrats put a lot of resources in this race. the night is still young, george, and while many people believe that democrats can overcome the hurdles of

gerrymannering, many of these seats are very difficult to win. they should be called reserve seats, because they are so red. democrats need to get out their vote, but attract independents and to get millennials. in some places, democrats will win, and some places, it's going to be very difficult. >> the state of virginia, the democrat elaine luria is up against scott taylor. this is part of a pattern we've seen on the democratic side. >> retired navy commander. she's running against the incumbent, a retired navy s.e.a.l. so, kind of the battle of the navy going there. she's from -- she's an engineer, she's a very, very smart woman. but it's unclear whether she was able to capitalize on kind of a mini-scandal with scott taylor about signatures, some of his people were trying to get, apparently, signing onto independents to challenge her. one fun fact about this, luria voted for taylor in the primary

and general election in 2016. she's running against him now, she's doing fairly well. trump, in this district, won by a very similar margin. >> what a difference two years makes. mary bruce, this is a race the democrats identified, they really thought they were going to win. >> and so far, look, democrats have not been seeing a lot of those races that they were looking for turning their way. but it is early. but that wave that they were expecting, you're not seeing that crest just yet. but keep in mind what states they are keeping a close eye on. pennsylvania, virginia, new jersey, a lot of those races that democrats are closely watching, we still are waiting to hear that. >> and we're waiting to hear from the state of north carolina, where dan mccready is up against mark harris. that is very close, as well, martha. this is another tossup, but one republics felt they had a better handle on. >> the district hasn't been respected by a democrat in 55 years. mark harris, a southern baptist preacher.

he's very leaning full into trump. dan mccready, the iraq war veteran, he touts his christian roots, saying he was baptized while in iraq, with water from the ewe fuphrates river. >> in the state of new jersey, andy kim up against tom macarthur. he's seeking a third term. a lot of vote yet to come in. jon karl, tom macarthur was an architect of the tax bill, not popular in the state of new jersey. >> and republicans were worried there could be a blood bath in new jersey. one republic operative told me you could see a situation where they lost all their house seats. that's not happening. that is not happening. we've seen chris smith won, that was a safe district. and we see macarthur with a lead there. >> chris christie, of the incumbent republicans in danger in new jersey, macarthur the one who has the best shot? >> macarthur will be the strongest. it's the strongest district of the ones in play.

cd-2, that one will probably be lost tonight to jeff andrew, a democrat state senator. the one to watch tonight, i think, if democrats are going to get a majority or not is the seventh district. that's leonard lance against tom malinowski. a ton of money spent there. lance's father was a legislator, his father wrote the new jersey constitution. whoever wins that one may tell us a lot about who is going to win the house. >> let's go back to nate silver. what are you seeing in the foreca forecast? >> we are waiting for calls. we're in a bit of the holding pattern. there are a few races, mike kaufman is a likely democratic pickup. we haven't called yet. democrats are up by a percentage point or so, but 90%-plus of the vote is in. i don't know if you can pull up the graphic. we show a graphic that shows the range of uncertainty in the outlook. so, you've gone from 30 something democratic pickups to 20 something, but there is still

a big range. it is ultimately about calling seats and picking up seats. there are going to be some calls in the next half hour or so. it's going to be a long night. >> it is, but just as we compare to where we were at the beginning of the night, are you snow, from what we've seen come in so far, even though a lot has not come in, i think coming into tonight, you saw the average democratic pickup was 38 -- >> 36. a range from 20 to 55, and probably wind up within that range and that's narrowed a little bit. what's happened is the opportunity for democrats to win in very trump-leaning areas, they thought they could pick up a seat in west virginia, that was called very early against the democrat. they -- if you ask me to bet and our model does make bets, it would say they get there in the suburbs, maybe get there a little bit out west and in california, going to be a big part of the story. but the really big blue wave, where they win 45 seats, you have to go deep into trump territory and they haven't really won any of those races yet. >> tom, go to your board.

we can see it there, we see the red check marks on the states that have come in early. >> you see them all here. florida, they're still performing well. republicans did very well in florida. still holding out in 26. the other thing we have to talk about here, we're still waiting on 85 races. there are several races in california, where democrats think they're going to do well. there are races in texas that democrats feel they can pick up some seats. we still have michigan, we still have seats in new jersey. and of course, we haven't even talked about pennsylvania yet. redistricting there is going to help democrats. >> matthew, you talked about florida in 2000, if we're waiting for california house seats, we could be waiting a month. >> yeah. it's a huge chunk of thoses are ballots my baimail. if we get to california and the democrats are at 20 seats or net 19 seats, we could be here ten days from now. >> of course, for right now, let's look at the big state of florida. tom, let's pull up the florida senate race. we're going to look at that all night long. still close there in the state of florida.

the biggest prize of the night. >> george, this has gotten really interesting. scott -- look. we have all these people voting, we're at 3.8 million, 3.8 million. come down to right now is about 60,000 votes anr ag scots ck -- he's opened4,000 vo. that's what we're talking about, it's so close. and it has come down to broward and miami-dade county. i've been checking all over the state to see how the other bellwethers are doing, and nelson is doing well in st. lucy, pinellas county. he's winning all these bellwethers, he should be doing okay. he's overperforming in broward county. overall, in south florida, when we talk about palm beach, broward, miami-dade. rick scott's doing better than president trump did, and president trump won this state. so, might have paid off, you know, to go and campaign and tell people in puerto rico he cared about them, to break with the president on gun control after parkland. those things may have helped scott. and when we talk about broward

county, and i think it's going to come down to that or miami-dade. we still have 17% left there and 9% in miami-dade. >> what are you seeing in florida, david? >> the most important thing is donald trump's approval rating. he won 100,000 votes, a little her than a percent two years ago. 51% who turned out inlori yhepprof president trump's job performance. rick scott was an early supporter of donald trump. i was down there after the hurricane and he took a break from campaigning and he did nt t want to talk about the campaign. he wanted to make it clear it was about the response. cecilia said this earlier. there are concerns on both sides of this of the displaced puerto ricans, the american citizens from puerto rico there after hurricane maria. rick scott's been very careful about distancing himself from the president in moments when he needs to, but then embracing the president in other moments and i have to say, they have to be happy, within the scott camp when they look at the approval ratings. donald trump is still very well-liked. >> we're hearing from the white house right now, sarah sanders

spoke with reporters just a couple of minutes ago. i think we have the tape ready. >> i think james carville said it best when he said anybody that was anticipating a blue wave tonight is not going to get it. maybe you get a ripple, but i certainly don't think there's a blue wave. >> cecilia vega, people in the white house feeling a lot better right now than they did going into today. >> george, leading up to tonight, every white house official, senior white house official, and even republicans on capitol hill were convinced that the house would fall to the democrats. they were heading into this night, thinking that this was their loss. essentially tomorrow morning they would be back into a corner, facing things like investigation and the big other "i" word, impeachment. >> we do have another result coming in right now, comes from the state of pennsylvania. congressman connor lamb, democrat, he is going to win right there, his race against congressman keith rothfus.

he had to run in a new district after the state supreme court threw out the old districts and jon karl, he's going to win there. third pickup for the democrats. >> he's going to win. expected to win. frankly, his runoff, his special election race was tougher than this one. but another pickup, and remember, if the democrats are going to win control of the house, they have to basically clean up in pennsylvania. very -- especially from what we've seen happen in florida. they have to do very well in pennsylvania. >> that is so true, especially the suburbs of philadelphia. >> absolutely. this is a place where the redistricting makes all the difference. most of these states have huge republican advantages in these districts. that's why it's been so tough all along. but pennsylvania, redistricted in favor of the democrats and the courts upheld it and now you're seeing that they are likely to do well there. but that's why this is so important in terms of these gubernatorial races, george. because the democrats have really bad seats drawn for them all around the country.

>> and terry moran, you're siege two different kinds of democrats running this year. some very progressive running, others like connor lamb, running down the line, middle of the road democrats. >> that is the fight that's coming in the democratic party. if this wave does turn into a ripple, or less, that is going to be a big fight that they will have. >> another switch in the state of pennsylvania, democrat mary gay scanlon has defeated pearl kim. that is another switch there for the democrats. right now, jon karl just said it, donna brazile, pennsylvania is the place where democrats have to score big. >> there's no question. these districts are now fair for democrats. i think democrats are going to look very -- do very well in pennsylvania-10, pennsylvania-16. i spent time in pennsylvania, george, i found myself one morning saying, where the hell am i? and they said, chester county. this is an area where democrats outside of philadelphia, they're looking to pick up seats. i think we're going to see a lot

of women pick up those seats for democrats in pennsylvania. >> i know that area well. that's where my wife was born and raised. and i think the biggest one -- those two we just called were lay-ups for the democrats after redistricting. the one you really have to look. you have fitzpatrick there, who has been popular. going to be very close. if fitzpatrick loses, you're really going to see the democrats run the table in pennsylvania. if he doesn't, that may be another one of these seats, like cd-7 in new jersey, going to show where they came up short. >> that has become a battle of attrition for the house. >> well, i do want to remind everybody that we have most of the country out, and there are a lot of house seats out there that are extremely competitive, that are now going to start to come in, we're starting to see pennsylvania, new jersey and, you know, democrats are still favored to win the house. i want us to take a deep breath on this. however, it is much harder than anybody thought. >> i love when my friends from the democratic party say, it's

going to be a long night. that's really good for republicans, george. >> it's always a long night. >> eva pilgrim in philadelphia. eva? >> george, it's a real opportunity for democrats here in pennsylvania. we've seen those two returns come in, but there could be as many as six seats, really up for grabs for democrats here in the state of pennsylvania. it's because of that redistricting. these districts look completely different than they did before, and the democratic party telling us before this night that they really, really looked at these districts and actively recruited candidates from these areas with real roots from these areas to run in this area. so that they could potentially win these six seats. if they could get six seats in pennsylvania, that would put a real dent in that 23 that they need to make this flip. the other big story here in pennsylvania, it's a big night for women. we have seen already mary gay

scanlon win, there are potentially three other women from pennsylvania that could tomorrow morning wake up as congresswomen. at this point before tonight, there were no women going to congress. >> eva, sorry about that. there is another switch. jason crow, former about mu ranger, has defeated congressman mike kaufman there in the state of colorado. martha raddatz, again, a veteran. >> yeah. a veteran defeating a five-term congressman republican, a former army ranger, served in iraq and afghanistan. he is a first-time candidate. he wasn't even considering a run until trump won and looks like he did it tonight. >> nate silver, we're going to have to go to a break right now, be everything coming in for the democrats, what they needed. >> yeah, they are getting what they needed, they're not getting anymore than they need, so their margin is thinner. they won all the lay-ups. they won all the likely

democratic races. there's been no gigantic surpri surprises. they haven't won a lot of key tossups yet. that's going to be kind of a slog. >> okay. we'll take a quick break.

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back now at abc news headquarters here in new york. midterm elections 2018. what you're looking at right fi seats in the house.eing i they need 23 to take control. let's look at the senate. so far, the republicans have extended their majority in the senate. they picked up that seat of joe donnelly in the state of indiana. they have extended their majority by one. a lot of vote yet to come in here in the midterm elections tonight. i want to look at the florida governor's race. tom llamas, go back to the board up there. this one is so close right now. the senate race is close, as well. what are we seeing here? >> george, the first thing that jumped out at me, we've been tracking the florida's governor race and florida senate race. the difference right now between andrew gillum and ron desantis is nearly 100,000 votes. still very, very close, but that

margin is larger than what's in the democratic senate race with nelson. the wisdom was that gillum was going to excite the party, going to excite democrats. he would lift nelson. right now, nelson is doing slightly better than he is in the state. when you look at the state, democrats are doing well where they need to be doing well. like we said earlier, gillum, like nelson, he's overperforming in broward, not doing as well in miami-dade, but they're still up there. the big question remarks, what happens in proud ard and miami-dade county. i believe both of these races are going to come down to south florida. broward and miammiami-dade. and there's another house we're watching, florida-26. the one thing all these races have in common, hillary clinton won in these districts and that's why we're watching so closely. >> we have another result, the state of colorado. jared polis has defeated walker staple on the there in the state of colorado. jared polis becoming the first governor of the united states who is actually in a same sex

marriage. stephanie cutter, we're seeing a very diverse arare of candidaras on the democratic side. >> we are. that's a good thing for the party, good thing for the country. jared polis ran a great race in colorado. that was a race really defined by local issues that matter to the people of colorado. it's an important pickup and important race for us tknow, i stapleton, the republican that ran in that race, never really caught on. he wasn't -- it became an issue that he wasn't born in colorado, it was a very localized race and it's a great win. >> and of course, colorado, always an important state in presidential elections, as well. let's dive into the house a little bit more right now. i want to look at the raw vote coming in from the state of pennsylvania. there you see chrissy i keep coming back to the same thing. another air force veteran. >> another veteran. another veteran with a very strong showing here. let me give you a couple of things here. there are about 200 military

veterans running for congress, incumbents, 63, republicans, 102, democrats, 62. male, 188, female, 12. chrissy houlahan is one of those 12. >> donna, you campaigned for her. >> i did. i went there. >> my mother-in-law will yell at me if i let you get that wrong. >> martha said it, he's oshe's many veterans running across the country. she ran on education, health care. when i was up there in pennsylvania, people turned out to support her. she is really one of the brightest stars in the new democratic horizon. >> i talked to her just a couple of weeks ago and she felt very confident. she was sticking very much to the issues up there, and, of course, her service. >> of course, this is one the democrats have to win. >> to take the big picture of pennsylvania, we have six potential pickups left for democrats. right now, we're tracking the democrats are leading in all six of those.

one's very, very tight, just a handful of votes, but they are tracking to do very well in pennsylvania. >> we've got another one coming into pennsylvania right now, pennsylvania-7. actually, we now have a result coming in, this is from the state of minnesota, where democrat dean phillips is a projected winner the third district of minnesota, defeating the incumbent congressman erik paulsen. another clinton district coming back home to the democrats. >> and republican that kept his distance from trump, and we saw, we were looking for potentially a lot of women defections in these suburbs there. this is the twin city suburbs. highly educated district. >> we're going to pull up the state of pennsylvania. go back to pennsylvania right there, you see susan against marty mikie shs sherrill against jay

webber. sherrill is a bright star for the democrats. >> that's my district, george. she raised more money, $7ndidat. i got three pieces of mail from her in the last ten days. so, that's how -- >> did it persuade you at all? >> unfortunately, no, george. it didn't work, but she raises an enormous amount of money. again, a veteran. and a former federal prosecutor. >> and you brought up rodney. he's kind of, really, a dying breed in the northeast. moderate republicans. >> it's unfortunate, because rodney represented that district for a long time. his father before that for many years. and rodney was a guy who, i think, really just got tired of all the contentiousness in washington. he was chairman of the prop rations committee and he retired as that. >> part of the reasons democrat s are doing well, because of the

retireme retirements. we have another result, in kansas. sharice day davids over kevin yoder. stephanie cutter -- let me start out with cecilia first. again, we talk about the range of diversity on the democratic party. what a story she is. >> oh, completely. she is openly gay native american, now making her the very first native american woman in congress. and i should say, this comes at a time when president trump is using this phrase repeatedly, pocahontas. this was a republican in a district that clinton narrowly won, and trump tweeted for the republican in there, saying he was strong on crime and borders. >> democrats have picked up seven seats, they need 23 to take control. we're going to take a break.

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your voice, your vote, live from "abc 7 news". good evening. thank you for joining us on this election night. i'm dan ashley. >> i'm ama daetz. this election is bringing out voters in record numbers. san francisco hasn't seen turnout figures this high since 1974 at least. >> now the polls will remain open another hour. closing at 8:00. "abc 7 news" reporter david louie is live from san jose with more on the turnout today.

david. >> reporter: well, dan and ama, there's no question it will be a long night ahead, not only for the election workers but also for all of those candidates who are unerrirunning for office an the supporters of various measures and propositions. if the turnout is as large as the registrar thinks, projected to be 60% to 70% of registered voters, it could prolong tabulation of the ballot goes. normal midterm election normally has a 10% turnout. the processing of ballots is unde tallying then over the las days. tables filled with election staff are filled with the long ballots. voters in santa clara are deciding whether to reelect sheriff lorie smith, whether to pass a housing measure in san jose. there are statewide propositions, governors and senate race. they are scrambling to register a long line so they can vote before 8:00 tonight. >> we always help every voter in

line by 8:00. we will continue processing all of them until they're done. >> reporter: these are people late in registering or because they have to do a change of address? >> the greatest amount of portion of these people in line are people not registered and who are registering in santa clara county today so they can vote today. >> reporter: volunteers have also been busy on the phone to get out the vote. this is a phone bank at the county's gop headquarters. immigrant rights groups have been canvassing door-to-door to mobilize latino voters. we are just over an hour away from the closing of the polls. that means we will have the first results right after 8:00. live in san jose, david louie, "abc 7 news". thanks, david. even if you are not registered to vote, you can still have your voice heard. as of this afternoon more than half of the people that came to san francisco city hall registered as conditional voters. >> "abc 7 news" network coverage continues with the biggest races ar

live from new york city and across the country, this is abc news election night 2018. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> and we are here at our election headquarters here in new york and what you see there is is the story in the house right now. that is the big story of the night. so far, democrats have picked up eight seats. a new one just came in, we're going to call it right now. mikie sherrill in the state of new jersey has defeated incumbent -- defeated republican jay webber. new congresswoman. >> my new congresswoman. yeah. and listen, jay was outraised 9 to 1 in a republican district. so, like i said before, she spent $7 million. great story. she's a combat veteran. she's a former federal prosecutor. and she worked this district, really, george, almost from the time president trump was elected. >> right. >> and we have another one coming in right now from the

state of virginia, big one for the democrats, elaine luria has defeated scott taylor in the state of virginia. virginia-2. this is one the democrats had been counting on, had been hoping for. >> they certainly have. and you've got -- we just called two female veterans in a row, it shows the power of these women in these races. there are ten democratic women who are veterans running this time around and just got two big ones. >> nate, are we seeing anything, is any of this flipping you yet? >> it is, yeah, we are seeing now a more equivocal set of districts where are you seeing tough races called for democrats. we're seeing the numbers tick back up where we most likely will see the house /senate split. >> most likely right now? >> they're up to -- there are calls dropping now very often. but yeah, if we look at this right now, we can see the senate/house odds, you see democrats are back up now to a 7

in 9 chance. >> almost where they began the night. >> so, it's really kind of come full circle. in the senate, democratic odds took a plunge and never recovered. in the house, you have seen now, as races are actually called, projected, as we say, you have seen now it looks more likely than when the evening began. >> we have another one coming in right now. it comes from the state of new york, where max rose has defeated the incumbent congressman dan donovan, seeking a third term. staten island. jon karl, this was a tougher one for the democrats. >> this was a tougher one. so, we're starting to see, george, the democrats winning every race where they were expected to win and now finally picking up some of those that were more truly tossup. the one you just called in virginia, virginia-2, and this in staten island. >> this was leaning republican in our analysis. >> that's a surprise. that one's a surprise. dan donovan, former prosecutor, former d.a. won a good primary. does a good job out there. this one's a surprise. republicans are surprised to

lose dan donovan. >> in fact, they had defeatededd the primary. democrats have taken it. david muir, let's look at what the exit polls are telling us about the house. >> what we're seeing now is bearing out in what we're seeing in the exit polls. these are our exit polls tonight, preliminary results. control of the house. 53% of voters want the democratic party to control the house. perhaps as a check on president trump, because republicans, obviously, control everything right now. 43% want it to stick with the republican party. when you break it down, men and women, heading out to the polls today, 48% of men want the democrats to control the house, 57% of women, you can see the gap right there. and you were talking about this earlier, as the economy goes, sometimes so goes the house, george, as you pointed out. people do believe the economy is in good shape. 67% say excellent or good shape, but look at this. when you break it down, have you felt the effects of this improving economy, 49%, about half of the voters turning out

today say they feel exactly the same as they did a couple of years ago. >> let me bring this to matthew dowd. we saw the ten points in the exit poll. normally you would think the ten points would be, would lead to an easy democratic win. but you've seen a lot of changes in our politics, we become more divided, more politics and the effects of gerrymandering. >> to harken back to what i said earlier, this is another battle between geography and demographp demography. hillary clinton lost the electoral college, won the popular vote. democrats have a ten-point generic advantage and are not sweeping away with this, because they're running against red geography. >> mary bruce, nancy pelosi came into the night saying she was 100% confident that the democrats would take control. she is also now feeling a little better than she was at the beginning about what was happening. >> yeah, i think democrats are probably breathing a sigh of relief as they see some of the

new seats turning their way. and look, nancy pelosi, it was a bold move to say 100% she was certain, but it does seem that the night at least is trending in that direction. >> i also think it's 100% certain that this is going to be a pretty narrow win, if they win. and maybe the thing that's not 100% certain is whether or not nancy pelosi will be speaker of the house. this is a very narrow win. very narrow takeover for the democrats, it's a much harder road for her. >> and we've seen it. it's a little early to get to that, but we'll come back to this, you have seen several of the democrats, including some who have won, like connor lamb, say they're not going to support nancy pelosi. >> 44 candidates have said they are not certain about her fo. four of those have said they are hard nos. it will depend on the margin of victory and the makeup of the caucus. >> another result just coming in for right now, comes from the state of arizona. the governor's race in the state of arizona.

governor doug ducey has gotten a second term. meghan mccain, your state. >> i love him. i'm so excited. tonight we're looking at the senate race. he's a very popular governor. he was expected to be up by ten points. in martha mcsally wins, it will be because of this man's popularity in arizona. i'll thrilled, and really expected. >> he kind of walks the balance beam on president trump. >> he's magically a candidate that somehow gets trump's endorsement and my mother's, so, figure that one out. and he's really good for arizona in a lot of different ways. >> i see you shaking your head. >> doug, incredibly talented. really good governor. and the thing about what meghan said is absolutely true. we're not ready to call anything yet, but if martha mcsally wins, she better give a big thank you to ducey. >> he will have dragged her over the finish line. >> let's go next door to the state of utah.

we're going to look at the senate race there, where mitt romney is projected to win the senate race in the state of utah. of course, he's the former governor of massachusetts, ran the winter olympics in utah, former presidential candidate, as well. that's your state, abby. >> we're going to have romney in our lives forever, aren't we? surprisingly, he did not swim right through the primaries. he actually had a runoff and a lot of people were surprised by that. i was just in utah last weekend and his goal is to go in with a lot of the mod rat republicans leaving, or retiring, he's hoping to be that adult in the room, sort of that voice to bring the party back. how successful he'll be, who noefs. i don't have a lot of faith in it today, but that's what he's planning. >> that's what he wants to do. mary bruce, we said, bob corker, who has been a frequent trump critic, has left the senate, jeff flake, also, retired from the state of arizona. mitt romney, during the presidential campaign, gave that scathing attack on donald trump, was considered for secretary of

state, didn't get it. somewhat moderated his tone. >> he once called the president terribly unfit for office, and now a lot of people on the hill are wondering if he can fill those shoes, if he can be that republican who is going to stand up to the president on so many issues like corker and flake have done. but romney has kind of muted some of his criticism of the president. he said that he will support the president where they agree, speak out against him where they do not. it will be interesting to see how much of a counterweight he is to trump. >> another result is coming in from pennsylvania. pennsylvania-6, chester county, chrissy houlahan will win in the state of pennsylvania. you see it right there, so, another pickup there for the democrats, as they move oneeo kecontrol. let's go to eva pilgrim, just outside of philadelphia. democrats encouraged as more of the numbers come in. >> they are definitely lly

encouraged. and in this room, they cheer every time when one of the democrats is announced. right now on the stage, mary gay scanlon is giving her speech, talking about this hard-fought battle. this was her race, at least was one that we were predicting the m thes would win. and the democrats should pick up some of the seats here in pennsylvania, because of that redistricting. the really interesting thing that we're seeing play out here in pennsylvania, the number of women. there were no congresswomen representing the state of pennsylvania prior to this, and there's the potential for four women to go to congress from the state of pennsylvania. and that will be really interesting to watch, as it plays out. how many seats will the democrats be able to pick up here in pennsylvania? that is the question. but chipping away at that 23 total they need, george. >> okay, eva, thank you. cokie roberts, before i call on you, we do have another project. it's from the state of texas. and the senate race in the state

of texas, we say now that ted cruz will win, he has defeated congressman beto o'rourke, in the state of texas. he's the projected winner right now. matthew dowd, your state, ted cruz in a red state, it's a close win, but it's a win. >> yeah, it's a win. and, you know, as we talked earlier in the evening, beto lit the fire of a lot of people, but this is still a very red state. it's moving, the growth of the latino population, it's moving. and beto made a game run. probably will lose in single digits when the end ofhe night comes, the first time a democrat has got that close in 25 years. >> what happens to someone like beto o'rourke, who lit the party on fire, raised so much money. doesn't get there, doesn't have a congressional seat anymore. where does he go? >> he says he's going back to el paso and pla with hy with his k. he's been a guy that's you a ten tick in all of this. he's going to take a lot of time off. he's been traveling for two

years straight, going to all 254 counties. he probably needs a nap. >> that's a start. >> he made a game run. >> david muir, what do you see in texas. >> these are interesting numbers coming in. even if o'rourke lost, he can be proud of some of the voters he did get to come out to the polls. they set records for a midterm. 24% of the voters in texas were hispanic or latino. 59% white. the issues in texas driving this race, 38% said health care, that's not as far ahead as we've seen in some of the other states, 32% said immigration. that was, as you know, a big issue for ted cruz, pointing to the border wall, saying we must support this president, beto o'rourke saying we need sensible immigration reform. 21% there say the economy. when you break this down, was donald trump a factor in your vote in texas, take a look at this. 22% said they supported, 28% say they opposed, but nearly half of the voters in texas say donald trump was not a factor. ted cruz pulling it out. >> ted cruz pulls it out in

texas. >> first of all -- you have a pennsylvania call, right? >> do we have the chime here on this one? >> let's hope so. pennsylvania-7, susan wild. i did have the card, i didn't hear the chime. we do have another winner there for the democrats, jon karl. >> i want to say, this is a significant win. this is the most significant win so far in pennsylvania. because this was a true battleground district. this was a district that hillary clinton won, but she won by 1% and it's a big pickup in pennsylvania. >> cokie roberts, we are seeing pennsylvania come home the way they wanted it to. >> the republicans were saying they expected pennsylvania to be a blood path fbath for them, an looks like it is. one of the things that is true is that the democrats worked very hard to recruit these candidates. particularly these women veterans. we've got another one. >> we've got another one. this is in the state of pennsylvania, a switch the other way. the 14th district, guy

reschenthaler. this is an interesting one, mary bruce. this is an open seat, connor lamb had won the special election, and he moved next door to the 17th district, this was an open one, republicans get to keep it. >> connor lamb switching districts in the middle, gets to the conversation we've been having an redestricting. most of the redrawing there favor democrats, in one seat helped the republicans. >> and let me just add, another veteran. another veteran. >> we're going to take a quick break.

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this is an abc news election update. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> and what we're reporting right now is that republicans will keep the senate. abc news can project that republicans will keep control of the senate. just been decided on the heels of another win in the state of north dakota, where incumbent democrat heidi heitkamp has been defeated by kevin cramer. third-term congressman. president trump worked hard to get him into the race. heidi heitkamp came from behind six years ago, could not do it this year. jon karl? >> this was, you know, another one of those votes where kavanaugh loomed so large. she voted against kavanaugh for the supreme court. the president hammered her over and over again with it in which she made that vote, she essentially said that she knew

she was sealing her political fate. >> is that what we saw? >> absolutely. take a look. the exit polls show us very clearly. heidi heitkamp's vote against kavanaugh. 8% said it was the most important factor, but the second number right there, 34% say it was an important factor in their vote. look at this. when you take a look at when did north dakotans decide who they were going to vote for, they made this decision some time before. remember what heitkamp said. do i want to continue to do work, absolutely. but do i want to sacrifice the supreme court, my conscience? she said no. she took a stand on kavanaugh. she voted for neil gorsuch, but no to kavanaugh. >> and this is something we were really all watching heading into tonight, because president trump again had said this is an election about the caravan and kavanaugh. and he turned what really could have been a political liability to something that he turned to

the offense. he said accused men in this country deserved due process. all this in the era of me too. >> some of our viewers are going to go back to their programming, but our coverage continues. and we are back now here at abc news headquarters here in new york. we just projected that republicans will take the senate. tonight, will hold on and keep control of the senate. we have another result in from the state of texas in the house right now, where the democrat colin allred has defeated pete sessions, the democrat. this was a tossup race in the state of texas, cecilia vega, a big win for the democrats. >> it is, george. and it's one of these races that the democrats were hoping could give them a leg up if texas is going to change, it would start with a district like this. >> former nfl linebacker.

let's talk about the senate right now, as well. chris christie, i want to bring you back in here, what we're actually seeing is a vindication in the senate of the president's strategy on two fronts. where he campaigned, who he got to run. >> yeah, no, listen, absolutely, george. it was a good map for us, and the president played to the good map. and so, if you look at indiana, north dakota, the places that we're picking up, and we haven't seen yet what is going to happen in arizona, nevada, what's going to happen in missouri. you know, this could be a three or four-seat plus night for the president, which is huge for him in terms of continuing judicial nominations and having some leeway to play with there and he's going to be replacing cabinet members and going to need those folks confirmed, too. all thosethings, these things are going to be helping. >> and it's going to harden partisan divides in this country. >> absolutely. and that's what donald trump wants, obviously. that's what he set out to do, he

was told, focus on the economy and he decided not to. on the kavanaugh effect, you know, i wonder if it would have been the same decisive factor in that north dakota race or other race had it just been the first hearing, on constitutional issues. it was the way it looked like democrats played it, leaking it, it seemed, at the last minute, just before the senate vote, it alienated perhaps even more deeply a lot of voters. >> mary bruce, did you see any second-guessing among senate democrats about how that all went down? >> no, i was just out speaking with heidi heitkamp in north dakota, she told me she had no regrets about her decision. and what's interesting, to terry's point, she actually said that a lot of her decision to vote no on kavanaugh had more to do with brett kavanaugh's temperate, the way he handled himself during the hearings and the other concerns about alleged sexual misconduct, but that it was a broad reason for why she opposed him. but what's interesting, when you look at the numbers here, 34%

say her vote on kavanaugh was important, only 31% say it wasn't a factor. it seems a lot of people in this race made up their mind early. it is a race, of course, that -- a state that donald trump carried by 36%s. >> nate, what do you have there? >> as badly as things are going for democrats in the senate, these are some pretty good results in the house. winning texas-32. winning staten island is a big upset, surprising upset in a place that tends to like president trump. so, our forecast is now back up to showing a democratic gain of 33 seats, it's about where we started this evening. where that becomes higher or lower will depend on california. >> boy, if that was an ekg, democrats, giving a little bit of heart failure, but they are liking where it is now. we're going to take a break.

your voice, your vote, live from abc 7 news. >> good evening. glad to have you with us. >> polls close at 8:00. just about half an hour away. bay area voters are making major decisions. >> they are. in the south bay, they could see a new sheriff. laurie myth is her first election in years. she's facing the rooirned undersheriff. >> santa rosa is trying to

lessen the impact of wildfires. it will increase sales tax by 0.25% for years. the east bay's biggest city, oakland, could have a new major. incumbent libby schaaf is just 1 >> people associated with this campaign still making those last-minute phone kals. trying to convince people it's not too late to vote. libby schaaf expected to arrive shortly after 8:00 this evening. we won't know who will win right away because of rang choice voting. typically, it takes longer to know the results. schaaf looking like she may win this race. she's hoping voters will remember her as the person who stood up to president trump, warning undocumented immigrants about upcoming i.c.e. raids. >> i hope that that is something that voters think about when

they kcast their votes today. is this mayor willing to take risks for her city? is she thinking about us? and the most vulnerable among us? >> i'm proud of what we have built. us and the community together. the hoe men tum. the way we have impacted conversation. presented new and innovative ideas and views about the kind of oakland we can live in. i feel good. >> at the was cat brooks, a well-known activist who voted this afternoon. pamela rice. a civil rights attorney who decided to run for major after losing the d.a.'s race. she, too, is a top contender. the issues here in oakland, like so many other cities in the bay area, homelessness and affordable housing. we'll keep you posted. >> rank choice can be confusing of course. it doesn't have to be. we can explain it to you in one minute. go the abc.

news.com. in san francisco, one of the most hotly contest eed pressure is proposition c. it would add a tax to big businesses to fund homeless programs. >> vick? >> prop c is the biggie among san francisco ballot measures. the election night party will be held here at proposition c would level half a percent tax for homeless programs and programs for mental health. it pits two tech titans against each other. mark benioff. >> people who are kree kating their market capitalization on the back of san francisco. they have to contribute to solving our biggest, most important problem, which is homelessness. >> abc news network continues

coverage of the biggest races around the country. we'll have a full hour of local live coverage on

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and we are back here in abc news election headquarters here in new york. 10:30 here in the east. we have a result, first, we're going to show you the house and the senate right there. so far in the house, the democrats have picked up 13 seats. they need 23 to take control. republicans have extended their gains in the senate. they have picked up two seats in the senate, and we have a result in now from the state of kansas. the governor's race in the state of kansas where the democrat, state senator laura kelly has defeated kris kobach, the secretary of state there in the state of kansas. kansas going to have a democratic governor, defeat there, jon karl, for president trump. >> a big defeat. this is a state that trump won by 21 points. but he endorsed kris kobach in the republican primary. somebody who was simply rad

radioactive, because of his hard-line views on immigration and hard-line views on voter fraud. and now he has lost. >> and you're hearing that chime because we have another switch in the house. this one comes from the state of michigan. the 11th district in michigan. haley stevens. another woman there for the democrats winning in the state of michigan. this one was expected to go, was expected to go to the democrats. they brought it home. >> two women, a female newcomer to the race there, george. and it was really billed as a trump versus obama race, because epstein has chaired trump's 2016 campaign in michigan. democrats were really watching this to see if she won this, this would be a big validation for his agenda. i'm sure they are celebrating over this one tonight. health care was a very big issue in this race. >> democrats feeling better about the house right now. let's look at the state of virginia, where the democrats also hoping still to pick up some more seats there, look at the virginia-7 right there, spanberger, a former cia officer

is up against dave brat, seeking a third term. martha raddatz, snashl securina security experience there. this is one where republicans had hoped, hope still that dave brat can hold on. >> they certainly have been hoping that. but spanberger, former cia officer, there was a little blow-back on that, because some of her records about being a cia officer were released inadvertently by the post office, telling about some of the things she had done in the past. trump won this district by six points in 2014, dave brat upset the house majority leader, let's remember that, eric cantor in a primary, by taking a hard line on immigration, and he is a member of the freedom caucus. >> mary bruce, this is a real switch there in the house. davebr, o theiners in the house republican cause us cacus. >> he is one of the most vocal members of the far-right caucus. be interesting to see what it means for that particular, that

far-right freedom caucus. >> nate, what are we see iing? >> we have democrats back to 32, 33 seats. you are seeing them win the tougher races. polls here close at 9:00 p.m., so, we're starting to see more returns reported in new york. that could give democrats some upside, potentially, new york and california. >> upside for the democrats. in florida, we have the close races there for senate and governor in the state of florida. let's take a look at what we're seeing coming in now. there it is, bill nelson. now rick scott opening up a little bit more of a lead there in the state of florida. tom llamas, what are we seeing on where the voes's coming? >> i'm just checking in on a couple of the counties we have here. we talked about broward county. 99% reporting. nelson at 69%, scott at 31%. like we said, he outperformed hillary clinton here.

down in miami-dade, we go a little further south, 98% reporting in, nelson's at 60%, scott at 39. scott still doing better than president trump did in south florida. but this race is really, really close, so, that's why it has not been called. from what we've heard, from our sources in the white house, president trump is monitoring this state very closely. >> put up the governor's race while we're there in florida. >> all right, we'll go over to the map here. and what we said earlier was that gillum wasn't tracking with nelson. he was doing slightly worse than -- it's similar story here. gotten a little closer, but not as close as they want it to be. gillum still under by, you know, close to 70,000 votes there. 80,000 votes. but again, this one is so close to call, coming down to south florida. we'll see how it ends up. these margins are so close in florida, george. >> george, 99% of the vote is now in in broward county, 98% in miami-dade. most of the vote down there in

south florida has been counted. >> looks like the republicans might pull this out. >> pulling it out in florida, yes. this looks like it's outside the margin of error for a recount, so, and of course, one thing here we've seen is that both gillum and nelson were way up in the polls, we've seen polls giving them 5%, 6% leads. but look how close it is tonight. and remember 2016 when we before sitting here and all of a sudden in florida, we first met the shy trump voter, the voter that the surveys didn't pick up because they saw, hey, how uncool it was to be for a republican and donald trump? they may be more embarrassed in 2018 than 2016, because these surveys have tightened up. there may be a blue wave, but there's a red one, too. >> if rick scott pulls this off, there's no question he was buoyed by his handling of the hurricanes in florida. you have to think about a couple of things here. unemployment in florida, 3.5%. that's lower than the national average.

he said obamacare is a job-killer. he made this argument that we've heard from so many republicans in this cycle that they're the ones who will say pre-existing conditions, if he wins tonight, he will have been successful in making that argument. and when you look at florida, donald trump's approval rating in florida, we keep coming back to this number. see if it's been refreshed tonight. 51% of the voters who turned out in florida, he won this by just a percent, 100,000 votes over hillary clinton, but more than hatch of the voters in florida like what they're seeing from donald trump, and rick scott's been careful about embracing president trump, t buthing he did do on his own was to take eight trips to puerto rico. president trump was criticized for his response to maria. rick scott was very careful. he knew that a lot of the displaced american citizens from puerto rico would play a role in this election and he was careful to show them he cares, too. >> and press secretary sarah sanders was just asked for her thoughts on florida and she said, i think a lot of credit will go to president trump if they pull off the victory there, because he's been there to campaign for them, both in the governor and senate races.

what we're not talking about is the overtones of race and racism that have played out in the governor's race there with the comments like monkey this up by desantis and gillum saying, i'm not calling him a racist, the racists believe he's a racist. and one of president trump's more controversial tweets, he called gillum a thief. >> he laughed off those attacks with a smile. he is a new face for the democratic party. doesn't appear that he brought in enough new voters. >> george, that's right. and i think for many progressives in places like florida and georgia, they'll be incredibly disappointed, and they'll be giving their white neighbors the harry eyeball tomorrow, right? because there's this narrative in places like georgia and florida where you thought, there's this picture painted of president trump, fair or unfair, that for many people he's seen as someone who is anti-minority, right? so, there were people who felt that, in the case of florida, we have a black man running for governor, he's the mayor of the

capital city of the state, progressive, liked be many people, that there might be a new south, a new florida. this is -- >> gillum did not run as a centrist candidate. when barack obama ran for president, there's no red, blue america, there's only one america, gillum ran as a fairly radical left of center progressive in a state that that kind of politics. he tried to overcome it with personal charm and car rise ma. but a lot of voters said, i think, might have told pollsters, we don't want to look racist, but this guy may be just too left of center for us. >> take a look at florida, texas and indiana. all look like they're headed to be all republican again. we always talk about miami or indianapolis or austin or dallas or houston or el paso, these are states with a large amount of small town and rural voters still. a huge amount. and it looks like from the returns, they voted

overwhelmingly, than has been a trend, and as the suburban areas are moving and we see from the house races, more democratic, the rural and small town areas of these states are moving increasingly more republican. >> very different directions. cokie roberts? >> yes. but you also see, and this florida senate race, the hispanic vote is much less for the democrat than it is in the nation as a whole. and so, those trips to puerto rico probably made a big difference. in fact, the hispanic voters were not vilified in any way, they were, in fact, courted, made a difference. but we are seeing a very different state, in different ways. the bottom line is that in these polls, even though the number of liberals was up to about 27%, that's only 27%. >> let's go to whit johnson in tallahassee. >> yeah, george, just wanted to pick up on what cokie roberts was saying about the his ppanic vote here.

it's 16.4% of the voting demographic here in the state of florida and growing. that is a demographic that is changing within the demographic, in large part, due to the tens of thousands of puerto ricans who have relocated here after hurricane maria. the estimates ranging from 50,000 to 75,000. still remaining to see how they would vote and if they would come out and vote. u.s. citizens, they are able to register and vote here in the state. i also wanted to mention this. we're getting some information from our decision desk. we talked about how the vote across the state, for both the senate and the governor, too close to call, and at this point, it's looking like if that margin stays within 1%, then we couldn't make a projection on that. also, remember, if the margin is a half a percentage point or less, there would be an automatic recount. not sure if that's in fact going to be the case, but if there was any concern about the early returns, you wouldn't notice it

here at the gillum headquarters. still a party-like atmosphere. and this is the exact crowd that democrats were hoping to get out. largely african-american voting bloc, also youth, the college vote. they have been mostly dormant in elections in the past, in the major elections here, and they were hoping, the democrats, that they would turn out to vote. but i can't tell you enough how much rick scott and all those visits to puerto rico speaking in english and spanish, how much that could have an impact on the new growing hispanic population here. >> whit johnson, thank you. before we go to break, check in on a couple of other senate races we're not ready to project. that's the state of arizona there, sinema and mcsally. it's a close one, meghan mccain. >> yep, and again, you know, this is the one that i'm looking forward the most to hearing what's going to happen. i don't think you can underestimate some of the clips that have come out of sinema in the past few weeks of her saying disparaging remarks of arizona. she referred to arizona as the

meth lab of democracy and arizona in a negative way. it was the type of thing that my brother called me about and my friends called me about. i think the reminder that at one point in time, she was a code pink protester that mod rated towards the middle. sh gat campaigner. i would say a better campaigner than martha mcsally. in mcsally wins, it is because of doug ducey. >> not ready to call that one. we are ready to project a house seat in the state of illinois. the democrat, sean defeating pete er roskam. again, one of nose in the range of, they had to win to get to their 23. >> yes, and also another one of those moderate republicans gone. another sign, we've seen many of them already tonight that moderate republicans and moderate democrats are leaving the congress. >> going to take a break, we'll be right back.

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seats, the seats in indiana and north dakota. also want to take a look at another red state right now where a democrat is fighting for her life, claire mccaskill in the state of missouri. we're not ready to project that yet, but what you see there, josh hawley is now leading over claire mccaskill as she was seeking to hold onto her seat in a very, very tough state for democrats. jon karl, she's come from behind before, this one's tough. >> this one's really tough. this is a state that president trump won by 19 points. he's been there five times. he was there yesterday. he's campaigned hard. and she had a deeply, deeply flawed opponent, you remember, six years ago. much stronger opponent now. >> we're going to come back to missouri, but we have a call in the state of ohio. governor's race. the republican, mike dewine, has defeated richard corgrave.

he's replacing governor john kasich. mike dewine, an ally of president trump. big win there for the republicans. >> huge win tonight, george. that race was really in doubt. i know folks were really concerned up to this weekend about which way that was going to go. and as we talk about 2020, having mike dewine as the governor is a much better option for donald trump than richard cordray. so, mike dewine, big win for him and big win for the president. >> and ohio such a key in presidential elections. >> for years and years it was. in the last election, donald trump won it by ten points. it is beginning to move away from the swing status. as we see in a year where democrats did very well nationally, they weren't able to pick up the governor's race in ohio. >> yet one of the things we saw, in the senate and the governor's race in the state of ohio, going in -- >> split ticket voters. >> and we're seeing a sequel to 2016 in some ways here, where you have the democrats kind of

running up their vote totals in the urban areas and steps and then, you know, the republicans just doing the same in rural areas. and we're seeing this divide between urban rural america, this demographic problem, but also i feel like i need to point out, a majority of americans live in these places that are blue, and we're seeing kind of a restless blue majority and very vocal red minority. >> we're heading to a split -- >> candidates matter, george. candidates matter. the candidate against senator sherrod brown, not nearly as good a candidate as mike dewine. candidates still matter in these races, above demographics and everything else. not a good candidate, you're not going to win. >> claire mccaskill has been a good candidate, but this one may be too tough for her. we're going to go to deborah roberts in missouri. what are you seeing, what are you hearing? >> well, we're not hearing deborah roberts, which is too bad right there. tom, why don't you go up to the board and show where the vote's

coming in right now. >> we were talking about the two americas, the divide. look at missouri. this is what claire mccaskill is up against. look at all this red, george. it's going to be very, very hard. one of the reasons we haven't called this race just yet is because a lot of the vote in st. louis county, the city of st. louis right next door has not come in. she's doing very well there. if we go just south, to jefferson this is a county that went for obama and flipped to trump. hawley's up there. we go to washington county, hawley's back up there. going to be tough for mccaskill. when you look at the sea of red, it's an uphill battle. >> and george, so much of this race is going to come down to the issue of health care. what we saw place out in this race gets at the issue that republicans were trying to walk this fine line here. claire mccaskill trying to keep the race focused on that issue. she knows that health care is the top issue for voter in america, especially in that state. but her opponent, josh hawley,

trying to walk this fine line. on one hand, saying he wants to repeal obamacare. as the state attorney general, he signed onto this lawsuit that would gut protections for pre-existing conditions. gets at this biggeri issue that we've seen playing out. it raises concerns for republicans, how are they going to walk that line? they don't actually have a plan. >> that's going to get to the question for congress, coming back. that lawsuit is going to proceed. if it strikes down obamacare, congress is going to have one big issue on their plate. >> absolutely. and the republicans absolutely own that. i want to come back to this theme of the moderates. especially in the senate. mccaskill, you know, a moderate to left, heidi heitkamp, moderate to conservative, joe donnelly, moderate to conservative, you know, we'll see what happens with mccaskill. >> every one of those candidates also tried to hug president trump in soim ways, even though they were opposing him on other

issues. you can't be halfway on that issue. >> claire mccaskill said i've sided with donald trump on 48% of the things he's offered his opinion on. that's the language she was using at the end. she was asking people to stand up, if they have a pre-existing condition or if they have a loved one with a pre-existing condition, to drive home the point that he was, her opponent was one of these that signed onto this lawsuit against obamacare. josh hawley did something smart, the ad with his 5-year-old son who they learned had a pre-existing condition. look at the exits from missouri. this is what claire mccaskill is up against. president trump's jobrfmance. yee so care is issue number in that state, they believe the democratic party would do better with pre-existing conditions. and one last thing i want to

show you, when it comes to the brett kavanaugh vote, she voted against kavanaugh, 40% said it was an important factor, but again, george, this is a red state where a democratic senator is trying to hold on, paying a price for the kavanaugh vote. when you broaden out, look at the national perspective, only 43% of voters support brett kavanaugh. it's really in the red states. >> and immigration became an issue for her towards the end, because she ended up hugging donald trump on that, essentially endorsing his poli y policies on the border. he ended up saying -- oh, i hear the chime. >> sorry, sorry. you're hearing it because we have a call in the state of new york. the democrat, anthony another important pickup for the democrats in the state of new york. >> this is in deep red territory. even though it's in new york. this is a district that donald trump won by 15 points, george. this is like staten island. another sign that he -- that democrats are winning in a

district that donald trump dominated. what the democrats did to the theme of candidates matter, they nominated a moderate, anthony brindisi had an a-rafting from the nra. as this got tight, they moved him to an f. >> the state of florida the house in fl florida. florida-26. this was a pure tossup, cecilia vega. >> yeah, it certainly was, and he weighed in on president trump after he threatened to end birthright citizenship. and we're seeing democrats sweep every single district that went for clinton. >> got to stop now, we're going to pause so the rest of the nation can join us. this is an abc news election update. now reporting, george

stephanopoulos. and abc news can now project that democrats will win enough seats to gain control of the house. democrats will pick up at least 23 seats in the house. we've included in our calculations several state s wih later closing times which we believe will not effect the outcome. we are prepared to project that democrats will take control of the house of representatives. so, we are heading for a split decision. we have a split decision this evening in the 2018 midterm elections. republicans will keep the senate, jon karl, democrats will take the house. >> yeah, and this is a whole new ball game. even though this is a split decision, it is not the kind of blue wave. the democrats will now control every committee in the house of representatives. so, the committee chairs that were defending the president, that were going after his allies will suddenly be investigating him and investigating his but because this is a split n decision, i think there's a real danger of democrats overplaying their hand, because we have seen republicans do very well in the senate races, they will have a bigger majority in all

likelihood in the senate and do better than expected in the governor's races. the country was divided in this election and the congress will be divided. >> mary bruce, you cover the house every day. the democrats will take the chairmanship of important committees. >> they are going to investigate everything, essentially. they are not afraid to go and check this administration. many democrats that i talked with feel this administration has been allowed to operate unchecked by the current republican chairmans. that will now come to a screeching halt. they are going to investigate everything from the president's tax returns, to possible russia collusion, to conflicts of interest. they're going to look at what the president has done with his agenda so far. there is a real political danger, though, for democrats in doing this. they are going to have to show that they can legislate and not just investigate. and democrats i talked with are well aware of that. they are likely to pass some legislation, early on, especially something dealing with corruption in government, they know that they need to send a message that there's a new sheriff in town.

>> okay, mary bruce, thank you. democrats have taken control of the house of representatives. abc news can project. we've also projected that the republicans will keep control of the senate here in the 2018 midterm elections, a split decision. we'll be right back.

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good evening. it's 11:00 p.m. in the east, 8:00 p.m. in the west. polls have closed in 49 states. this is the 2018 midterm election. >> live, from new york city, and across the country, this is abc news election night 2018. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> good evening. welcome to election night 2018. 11:00 p.m. in the east, 8:00 p.m. in the west. i want to welcome our viewers in the west. we have predicted a split decision tonight, democrats will take control of the house of representatives, they're on their way to getting the majority. but republicans will hold control of the senate. they've already picked up two seats. many seats left to play. democratic candidate, andrew

gillum, has just conceded to the republican candidate. >> we recognize we didn't win it tonight. we didn't win this transaction. but i want y'all to know, that's just it. it's a transaction, but what we believe in still holds true today. i got to tell you, as i stand here on the highest of seven hills in tallahassee, florida, the campus that gave so much to me, and to my wife, r.j., many a day, for those students that were around, we marched plenty of times. >> andrew gillum has conceded to ron desantis, a strong ally of president trump. and desantis, one of the most

creative and criticized ads of the campaign,g trump's wall with his son on the floor. >> he made it clear he would side with donald trump on all the key issues that donald trump has put forward, including building the wall. and we go back to the florida governor's race, looking at the exit polls. this is a state that helped give donald trump the victory two years ago, with 100,000 votes, and the people approve of what they've seen so far. 40% said health care was issue number one. gillum talked about saving pre-existing conditions, it wasn't enough. they went with desantis, obviously. you look at desantis and his positions, 6% believe that he was too liberal, which is not really -- doesn't really

pertain. 48% said he was about right. but gillum, the son of a school bus driver, the fact that he would come this close with this agenda, that says a lot. >> and kirk patrick has defeated marquez-peterson, the seat of martha mcsally, who is running for the senate. >> two women running in the race. and this is being seen as a bellwether of politics. we'll see. >> it was expected to go to the democrats. >> and still waiting on the senate. interesting that she would take over for mcsally. i can't overemphasize how much the comments took over in the

race, those people are crazy, the water is fine, we stole it from colorado. a lot of these comments came back to haunt her. >> and we have called both the house and the senate, a divided verdict in the country. matthew dowd, this seems to have ratified, not president trump, not the democrats, but the divisions in the country. >> i think because of the way this flowed this evening, i think there was this idea this is somehow a good night for president trump. this is a less bad night for president trump. on election day today, and over the course of early vote, people voted for democrats over republicans with 9%. and he has the lowest job approv approval. but losing the house, only four presidents have lost one branch of the house going in, and it was bill clinton, barack obama,

eisenhower, and truman. the president has to, over the course of this, looks like he will have a larger margin in the senate, and he has a house to face that he's never had to face. and he has to figure out, what's his strategy, when he knows the country voted against him. >> what are you hearing from your sources in the white house? >> we know they're bracing for an onslaught of investigations, and donald trump has said he will handle it very well if in fact the democrats take the house. but this has to have them nervous in some way. they will be backed into a corner. the democrats say they want to resubpoena don junior, and pelosi said her first order of

business would be to go after his tax returns. >> how would you advise them? >> well, obama, clinton, that's the reaction. if that's the result of this, donald trump will be doing just fine. the president is who he is. and i think everybody who keeps waiting for him to become something different, because of an election result or something else will be waiting for a long time. he is who he is, he will be who he is, and that will determine what 2020 will be, who the democrats put up to contrast with him. >> wait until wednesday morning, until the democrats start celebrating taking over the house, how will the president react? >> he will talk about what he picked up in the senate. and republican pickups in the senate, mostly in donald trump states where he won handily, in

red territory, already. and the pickup in the house for the democrats. are americans becoming more united, more divided, or about the same? and 77% say the country is becoming more divided. >> democrats have blamed the republicans largely for this divide. so, the democrats will now have control of the message, they'll have control of the tone, and i think what everyone has said here, if they overplay their hand. i mean, remember, in setting the tone, going into 2020, remember bengha benghazi, the e-mails, they can set the message going into 2020. >> let's see some of the results for the senate. arizona, close race between sinema and mcsally in the state of arizona. tom, why don't you show us what's out there.

>> meghan mccain can probably school us on arizona. but we're going to cut the state like this. about 80% of the vote will come from phoenix and tucson. right now, it's very, very close. sinema, 49% in maricopa county. for the democrat to win here, she wants to be higher. in tucson, she's pulling ahead, but this is a blue area where democrats do much better. 88% of precincts reporting. but it's 49% to 48%, still very close, and still very early. >> and mccaskill up against hawley. so far, deb roberts, can you hear us? >> i hear you. i hope you hear me.

folks here are kind of resigned to settle in for the long haul. they know this will be a tough race. but the votes are still coming in very slowly tonight. st. louis, a big democratic stronghold, still hasn't had their votes tallied. but claire mccaskill told me today she knows this will be a nail-biter. as david mentioned earlier, she voted against kavanaugh, she knew that would cost her some votes. the state has changed, the president is popular here. hawley is a very charismatic young man. she knows this will be a tough race, but folks know she will win by her fingernails if she does. but she hasn't given up. >> republicans hoping this would be a third pickup for them tonight. and florida, tom llamas at the board. the race has been conceded by

gillum, but what's happening on the senate side. gillum lost by 79,000, nelson is behind by 148,000. i've received a call, they said mathematically, it's impossible for nelson to win. we don't know that at this point, but it's looking like it's favorable towards governor rick scott. if republicans pick up florida, having a senate seat there, and having the governor's mansion, and ohio, when we talk about 2020. if you look at the numbers and compare them to the governor's race, nelson is at a wider margin, scott could potentially take the stat >> and the republicans could have quite a healthy majority. >> that could have a real impact

on some huge fights, especially when you think about nominations. if democrats are able to gain the seats, and republicans have a huge majority, that would have an effect on nominations, could make it extremely difficult. >> jeff sessions, the president has made it very clear he's unhappy with his attorney general. the big question is, who could he get confirmed? if he's got a four or five-seat majority in the senate, it's much easier there. >> and you just laid it me. chris christie, a lot of people think you may be up for that spot. but if the president has to nominate someone to satisfy the senate and president trump, especially having to deal with

robert mueller. >> the president wants someone who will be aggressive as attorney general, and will stand up for things that are important in their agenda. and the president has been pretty quiet about russia in the last couple of weeks. i think he knows the mueller investigation is near its conclusion, and he's looking for an attorney general who can take him beyond mueller. >> we'll talk about that more later in the night. we have another switch in iowa, the first district, where finkenauer has defeated bloom. we projected the democrats will take the house. the map is starting to fill in there. iowa, a switch there for the democrats. we'll be right back. i can't believe it. that grandpa's nose is performing "flight of the bumblebee?" ♪

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back at abc news headquarters in new york. we project the democrats will take the house tonight, they picked up 17 seats, and will go beyond the 23 they need to take control of the house tonight. but republicans will keep control of the senate. they've already picked up two seats, several are still out there. president trump has already weighed in on twitter. called it a tremendous success tonight, thank you to all. i want to bring in kellyanne conway from the house. should i say congratulations or condolenc condolences? >> neither. i just left the president, he says hello to everyone at abc.

he went 5 for 5 in just his stops on monday alone. all three candidates he stumped for, for governorship and ohio, and two seats as well, when the president has power in senate, it's easier to get through judicial nominations. that's been one of his big successes in the first two years in office, as well as executivee noms. the house looks like it will go democratic, but not as big as the losses for other presidents. and the two-term presidents found a way to work across the aisle. >> that's what i wanted to ask

you. how will this change the way the president does business? he has a democratic house, republican senate. will he come forward with any new proposals that will try to appeal to both? >> a number of proposals, immigration, like daca, and he just worked with democrats in the house and senate for an historic bipartisan opioid decision. and the democrats will have to present to him as well. i think you can expect a meeting in short order. but the nation's business goes on even during lame duck. and there are a number of issues he wants them to attend to as well. >> and he said he would veto a government funding bill that didn't include funding for his border wall.

is the president committed to shutting the government down if he has to? >> he's committed to bonal lik republican candidates, the boom. and the wall is one component of a very large issue called immigration. something has to be done about chain migration, and daca. he's still willing to negotiate, but we can't see immigration through a single lens. some only talk about the dreamers and daca, others only talk about the border wall. we need to take a complete approach. >> and there's no question, where the president campaigned,

you saw success. some were concerned about the backlash in the suburban house districts. >> that sounds like the blame and shame game that is really misplaced. here's why. candidates and campaigns matter, and they're not all equal. this president did what he could do in many of the senate and governor's races, and even a few house races. andy barr in kentucky 6, that was an early bellwether that everybody was looking at tonight, and rightfully so. andy was embattled. the president went there specifically to campaign for andy about two saturdays ago, because it's important for him to go and support house members who support free markets and freedom. there was no governor's race or senate race, it was just for the house. but a lot of consultants who have enriched themselves in the races are now going to blame the

president here, and they should think about that. because candidates and campaigns matter. were they inventive or creative enough? did they raise enough money? some candidates distanced themselves from president trump, and we respect that, but they lost anyway. >> and because the president will not have the house anymore, will he take a softer tone? >> the president said he would like to take a softer tone, but he hasn't been able to. it's been a rough and tumble game, he hasn't been treated fairly, people focus on personalities, not policy, or politics, not principles. this booming economy has to keep going. we hear from job creators, holders, and seekers across the country, they're just doing better. in your own polling, it suggested that most americans

feel they're more secure. we want that to continue. tone matters, and tweets matter, but policies are what most americans focus on. and the issues are important, a lot of star power went to races like in georgia and florida governor's races, and those candidates came up short. that doesn't matter as much to many voters than the issues. >> kellyanne conway, thank you. we look forward to talking to you tomorrow. and we'll be right back. i'm a musician about to embark on a concert tour,r. with the majority of which will be down south. atlantic city? the deep south.

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your voice, your vote, live from abc 7 news. >> good evening once again. glad you're with us. i'm dan ashley. polls are now closed in california and it's time for some results as they begin to come in. the race for governor is between democrat gavin newsom and republican john cox and it is over. abc news is projecting that newsom will win the governor's race, despite the numbers you see there. that is the prediction that gavin newsom will become the next governor of california. abc 7 news anchor deon lim is following the governor's race and joins us live in los angeles.

deon? >> reporter: that's right, dan. it's starting to really feel lke a nightclub here at exchange l.a. you can hear the music pumping. there has been thunderous applause. as soon as abc news confirmed gavin newsom as l.a.'s next governor. joining me now is nathan clique, communications director. give me an idea of the campaign trail the last few days. >> it's been crazy out there. we spent eight days on a bus traveling up and down the state. we've seen huge crowds. we had kamala harris with us for two days of that. it's been great. we've also been campaigning for these house candidates that are in really tough races. and it looks like the house has just turned democratic, so that's great news. >> i know you've all been very cautiously confident during this entire period. has that been the mood for tonight, as well? i know that gavin newsom has bigger hopes for the house. >> yeah, we're all looking at the house numbers and those look good, and it's really great to see that california so early has

called it for gavin, it's a really great night here. >> nathan, thank you so much for joining us. we do know that gavin newsom himself is in the building. security has been increased. we will have more as soon as he takes that stage. more in downtown los angeles, i'm deon lim, abc 7 news. >> an exciting night for gavin newsom and his supporters. in the race for senator, dianne feinstein faces fellow democrat, kevin deleone. abc news projects that feinstein will keep her seat. she has 52% of the vote with 3% of the precincts reporting, but abc news projecting that feinstein will retain her senate seat. polls closed at 8:00, just about 25 minutes ago, but voters are still in line and if you're in line before 8:00, you get to vote. david louis is in san jose tonight. david? >> reporter: that is right, dan. you know, the scene has changed here dramatically at the registrar's voter's office. the conveyor belt has been set up and sheriff's deputies are here because the ballots will be coming in from 198 precincts.

but look over here. they moved the people in line who are doing late registration into a porch area and the lighting's not very good, but you can see there are several hundred people still in line here. they are -- the line was cut off officially at 8:00. anybody who was in line at that point will still get to register to vote and cast their ballot tonight. the line continues to snake through the double doors and down into the registrar's office. people say that it's still maybe about an hour or longer wait to get to the registrar's office to do that. but the staff is there, ready for them. so it's going to be a lot of late votes tonight and they say they'll have the tabulations maybe done at 10:00 tomorrow morning. we're live in san jose, david louis, abc 7 news. >> david, thanks very much. and that's what we've heard all over the bay area, all over california and the country, just a huge number of voters turning out to participate in these midterm elections. here's a live look in, oakland. this is the site of the campaign party for libby shaft. there you see libby shaft is

hoping to beat nine challengers and win a second term. that always makes things a little interesting. we'll follow that one closely. now to cal proposition 6. that's the effort to overturn last year's 12 cent gas tax increase. yes, 51% to overturn. again, early precincts, 3% reporting. proposition 10 would change state law to let local jurisdictions impose their own rent control policies. right now this measure is going down in defeat, 69% saying "no." prop 11 would require private sector emergency ambulance employees to remain on call during work breaks. you've seen some advertising about that one. 66% say "yes." some of the early returns coming in. a lot more to bring you. stay with abc 7 news for election night results. we'll be sending out the latest we'll be sending out the latest informationbeefing up your morning with a steak & egg breakfast burrito? this guy. loaded with prime rib steak, scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns, and melted cheese. because at jack in the box, whoops, we're all about beefing up breakfast.

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back here, abc news election headquarters in new york. and you see the results in the senate, so far tonight, republicans have extended their lead, picking up two seats. several seats still hanging out there. on the house side, abc news can project the democrats will take the house of representativesrep. based on the seats still out there, we believe they will take it. and second district in minnesota, angie craig has defeated jason lewis, the incumbent. lewis, his campaign was hampered by his career on talk radio. >> he said some things about me too and immigrants that didn't

sit well with people in the suburbs of minneapolis. when we talk about whether trump was successful about turning the conversation to immigration, and scaring people with the caravan, minnesota has the largest proportion of refugees in the country, they just elected the first muslim woman to congress. and they just said no to this guy. >> this is a seat the democrats expected. but you may have a case where the democrat was a little too liberal, but the republican was a little too conservative. >> she's much more liberal than that district. and guns were a big issue, we saw the pro-gun control groups spend a lot of money targeting jason lewis. >> and from new jersey, the

seventh district, tom malinowski has defeated leonard lance. chris christie was talking about that earlier. i want to come to you in a second. but first, stephanie cutter, malinowski, we saw a lot of veterans of the obama administration running for office this year. >> absolutely. when president obama left office, he issued a call to action to people to rise up and serve this country. and i think you saw that. dozens of former obama staffers, haley stevens, who worked on the auto bailout for president obama. there are more to come. we have the second half of the country to come in. and there are more obama alums

on the ballot. >> chris, you said keep an eye on this issue. >> and if the democrats win that one, they'll win the house, and we know that's true. and a couple of points, lance, a moderate in the old style of moderate republicans, now gone by the wayside. he probably struggled more than anybody in new jersey to walk that tightrope between supporting and not supporting the president, and it didn't work out. he didn't convince any of them, very tough for leonard. >> voted against the president's tax bill, against repealing obama care. and the real question, can a moderate survive in a swing district like this one? malinowski is also a rhodes scholar. >> nothing wrong with that. and russell has lost to horn, a

democratic tone. this is a surprise, we didn't have much information on this race. but nate silver, this was an example of the democrats reaching deeply into republican territory. >> we do show now democrats predicted to gain an average of 34 seats in the house. >> it's where we started the house. >> for once in the world, the toss-ups went in a different direction. you don't necessarily see these big national themes like you saw in 2016. >> and you did warn us coming in, there were going to be some results that are not on anybody's radar. >> for 436 races, you're going

to have 10, 12 upsets. there may be more. steve king is down in iowa, he could lose that fourth district as well. >> and spanberger has defeated david brat, a big win for the democrats. >> yes, spanberger, a former cia officer from 2006 to 2014. brat was seeking the third term. he has been an allyump, but he's trying to project a more moderate tone. >> and the democrats picked up three seats in the state of virginia. this was eric cantor's and was crafted to be a safe district for cantor, now brat

could lose it. >> and you remember the class of 1964, coming out of watergate, and others, it's creating a very different house. >> yes, and one that will have a difficult time getting anything done. because it is all over the place. but it is also very interesting in its diversity. you've never seen a house like this. for most of our lives, we looked down and saw a bunch of guys in gray suits. now, it's people of every imaginable ethnicity, many, many more women. and so -- >> there are 100 women. >> and, goreorge, i was lookingt oklahoma five, and one of the

responses i got said, yes, we knew about her, we helped, but she didn't want a national touch. >> wanted to do it on her own. >> and candidates do matter. >> one of the themes of tonight. >> absolutely. >> and we have this incredibly diverse house, and a trumpier senate. and the expectation that there will be gridlock. but all the vets, and the numbers that david referred to, 77% think we're a more divided country. but i bet you somewhere near that wants us to be united. >> in an environment that you have to work together. that's appealing to people, they have the team they get, and they bring it together in whatever way. and you have real leaders there. we talked about veterans tonight. this is the first generation of the all-volunteer military.

so, those veterans going up on the hill are all-volunteer. >> and one of the big questions is, will they change congress, or will congress change them? and you have some news on president trump and mitch mcconnell? >> mcconnell has called president trump, thanked him for the travel that helped so many republicans, to give them a boost in the senate. they will be working together going forward. but with democrats in control of the house, it's hard to see how they will get anything done, even though mcconnell and the president will be working together, getting anything done in washington will be very difficult. >> and this time around, looking at this, what i was hearing was, the president is doing everything we're asking of him with these senate races. i was told the white house political shop is organized, disciplined, they're going to the states we're telling them

to, they're going to the races we're telling them to go to. this president was campaigning harder in midterms than we've seen any president in my lifetime. >> that's washington, and a lot of changes yououtside washingto. whitmer has defeated and brown has hung on to get the victory. and the georgia governor's race, getting a little bit closer. abrams, the democrat, against kemp, the secretary of state. if both candidates are under 50%, there's a runoff. let's go back to steve osunsami in atlanta. >> george, can you hear me there?

george, you know, the crowd here hasn't quite digested the numbers that we're seeing. they're still hoping there are enough votes within the metro atlanta area to make up the difference. but it's looking like it's increasingly unlikely when you crunch the numbers. when you look at the totals c e coming across the state, kemp did well in the rural parts of the state. in the north and the south, they're all red. and you add up the numbers of the counties, it's enough to put him ahead of her, even though she's doing so well in some of the largest counties in the state. there was a lot of concern about his role in this election, because he's the current secretary of state, there was a lawsuit filed today to get him to resign. it still is possible this could

move into a runoff. if that does happen, there will be more calls for his resignation. but right now, he has a very good lead and a lead that within a few hours, we could probably know that it might be enough to seal this. >> steve osunsami, thanks. still waiting on georgia. and the state of michigan -- >> i don't have a second home, i was just born there. >> replacing a governor who didn't know how to deal with donald trump, either, on the republican side. >> i think what happened in flint was a huge black mark on the republican administration there. but this is one of those states, as chris and i and others have been talking about, it's a battleground state, it's a midwestern state. the republicans have now won florida, it looks like. ohio, democrats have kept pennsylvania and michigan.

we're all converging on this, it will be the same place we'll be talking about again and again and again, where they flip, it will be ultimately decided with the politics of that going forward. if you look at the total of the night, democrats have much to cheer, and much to lament. and republicans have much to cheer, and much to lament in this. but the problem comes, is anybody going to come and say, what do we do about the country? because we're -- we were divided before tonight. we're even more divided after tonight. >> i want to bring that to chris christie. seems like governors have had a better record of figuring out how to bridge those divides in their home states than congress. >> it's definitely true. when you're a governor, you're forced to produce results. when you don't, they show up at the dry cleaner or deli, and

say, what are you doing? wisconsin, it could be headed to a recount, and iowa, it could be headed to a recount. but only four governor's races down for the republicans. that tells you something, it's practical results that are being deliver delivered. where they didn't, they lost. in michigan, they kicked out the republicans where they failed on the water. in places where they succeeded, they kept republicans. 26 open seats, it's a lot. >> and the examples are bearing out, especially with the flint water crisis. this was a state that trump won by 20,000 votes two years ago. and who would be better to handle towns having safe drinking water. 42% said only whitmer.

she said i'm going to handle the water crisis, fix the damn roads, and we're seeing that bear itself out tonight. >> swe'll be right back. - [narrator] if you want serious cleaning with a cord-free vacuum, you need a shark. because only shark's cord-free lineup has duo-clean technology so you can deep clean carpets and give hard floors a polished look. and with two swappable batteries at maximum suction, our shark ion f80 gives you more run time than the dyson v10 absolute. and now shark takes cord-free beyond stick vacuums by introducing a full upright model. shark ion cord-free vacuums available in stick and upright.

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back now at abc news

election headquarters. and mccaskill, conceding to hawley, the republican. another big pickup. i want to go straight to missouri, where deborah roberts is. >> you could feel the air go out of this room, and you knew mccaskill was coming in. everybody knew it was going to be an uphill battle. she just came in and decided to support her supporters and thank them. she said she's not going to go home and sit on the couch. she wants to thank them for a job well done, clearly a disappointing night, a big, big loss. this is trump country. it's just too hard for her to overcome the president's pull in missouri. tonight, she's given it up.

>> and huntsman, up against impressi impressive attorney general in hawley. >> i think there is something to that, we're seeing in this election cycle, the candidates that have tied themselves closely to trump, including in florida. the white house is celebrating, they can say this is a referendum on us, in a positive way. this race in particular is a very positive thing for the white house. >> and the governor of north carolina, lujan grisham defeated pearce. will be the new governor of new mexico in the southwest. that's one in for the democrats there. jon cakarl, the president has a lot of bragging rights tonight.

>> he does. he was in missouri five times. he spent more time there than in any other state. he targeted mccaskill over the kavanaugh vote, targeted her over being out of step with a state that is very much trump country. this was a state they targeted, one they thought they would wco, and they did. >> and nevada and arizona, right now, are outstanding. can we look at the raw vote in arizona, let's pull that up. sinema if we have it. it's coming up right now. very close there, 10,000 votes separating mcsally and sinema right now. so, the democrat is behind right

there. let's look also at the state of nevada, rosen against heller. i guess we don't have that quite yet. but donna brazile, some pickup possibilities for the democrats there. >> i want to say something about those democrats in red states. it's hard when the stas red. you look for areas to expand the vote. mccaskill tried to campaign in areas where democrats once had a majority. it was a very uphill battle. i was surprised to see her lose by so much. but she's still a great public servant. >> we heard from so many republicans going into the race today that president trump was the person, the politician that excited their supporters most. and we're seeing that play out, particularly in that missouri race.

president trump attacked mccaskill hard. he said a vote for mccaskill is a vote for nancy pelosi. and she had to run ads where she said she's not one of those crazy democrats. so, president trump's power on the campaign trail is a huge asset, not just to him personally, but to every republican he's been tying himself to. >> let's go to nevada, where amy robach is there. what are you seeing? >> we just had dean heller take the stage at the gop election headquarters in las vegas. he hadn't been seen since friday. he's really kept this weekend low-key. he was with donald trump jr. on friday, and was thanking president trump on stage in addition to the vice president. but this a very tight race. at one point, this was one of the states that the country was looking at to see whether or not

the senate could swing in one direction or another. because rosen has come out strong. she was campaigning hard today in clark county, which makes up a huge partf the voting bloc in nevada. 3 million people in the state, 2 million in the las vegas area and the county. if she wins, nevada would be making history with two female senators. so, a lot of people waiting to see what will happen. we have no results in just yet. there were very long lines at the polls in nevada today. we heard and saw on twitter, nevada saying we're not going to release any results, no numbers, until we know that every person in this state has cast their vote. so, we're waiting to get our first glimpse about where this race is headed. but heller and his family took the stage to thank supporters, as we wait to see what happens here in this state.

george? >> jon karl, heller is one of the late converts to president trump. >> trump really hit him hard, because he voted against the first effort by republicans to repeal obama care, but he came out for the next effort, and tied himself closely to the president. and he was critical over the "access hollywood" tape. but he had to win re-election in nevada and so he got closer. >> and a lot of senators now owe president trump. >> it will be an interesting dynamic. it changes how the president interacts with the white house. especially if they feel like they owe him one, a big one. >> and republicans would tell you things off the record that

they wouldn't tell you off the record, has that grumbling gone away? >> it has a little bit, and i suspect it will even more so. >> we've heard that the president has called nancy pelosi to congratulate her. he will be working with mitch mcconnell, who he is closer to, and who owes him, but he has to work with a democratic house, with nancy pelosi, somebody who he's had a tough relationship at times, and also a warm relationship in the past. >> we'll see if they can work together. a lot more to discuss when we come back. (vo) gopi's found a way to keep her receipts tidy, even when nothing else is.

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and good evening once again. thank you for joining us on this midterm election night. i'm dan ashley. >> and i'm ama daetz. the polls have been closed almost an hour, so we want to get right to the results. >> republican john cox faces democrat gavin newsom for governor. right now with 13% of the precincts reporting, gavin newsom has 54% of the vote over john cox with 46%, but based on exit polling, abc news is projecting that gavin newsom will win. >> and let's take a look at the

u.s. senate. senator dianne feinstein is seeking a sixth term. she has seen her lead grow as well as shrink against former state senate president, kevin de leon. she has 56% of the vote with 13% of the precincts reporting and abc news is also projecting her to win, based on exit polls. you're voting on 11 different propositions in the state. let's take a look at proposition 1, which would provide $4 billion for construction and home loans. right now with 12% of the precincts reporting, yes on prop 1 has 51% of the vote. very close. >> and on to proposition 6, if passed, it would repeal the gas tax, which one year ago was raised 12 cents a gallon. right now, you can see no votes are winning, 54% of the vote with 12% of the precincts reporting. >> prop 10 calls for changing the way that local governments enact rent control. "no" has 65% of the vote to 35 fact more "yes," 12% of the precincts reporting. >> moving on now to prop 12,

which calls for setting minimum cage and pen sizes for livestock and egg-laying birds in california. right now, 57% of the votes are saying "yes," 43% "no." 11% of precincts reporting. >> now to the race for mayor in oakland. incumbent libby shaft is expected to win, candidates pamela price and cat brooks are leaders in that ranke so, let's talk about conference calls. there's always a certain amount of fumbling. a lot of times it doesn't work. we have problems.

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live from new york city, and across the country, this is "abc news: election night 2018." now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> back at election headquarters in new york city, midnight in the east, 9:00 p.m. in the west. that's the house you're looking at right there. democrats have already picked up 21 seats. they're going to win the house. that's what we project tonight. republicans are going to keep control of the senate. they've already picked up three seats, several seats still outstanding, we'll get to that in a minute. right now, nancy pelosi, the democratic leader in the house. democrats have this victory tonight. she spoke about it moments ago. >> today is more than about democrats and republicans. it's about restoring constitution's checks and balances to the trump administration. it's about stopping the gop -- >> nancy pelosi right there, martha. mary bruce, let me begin with you. we've been talking about the

call from president trump to nancy pelosi. is it guaranteed that she's going to be speaker of the house? because so many of these democrats are running, did say they wouldn't support her. does she have the margin, enough cushion, to guarantee she has the speakership? >> right now, eight of the new democrats are democrats who have said that they will not vote for pelosi or they believe they need new leadership. that is not that big of a margin. pelosi may have taken the stage to chants of "speaker" but she'll have to work for this a bit. so many democrats said they want new leadership, also they feel they need new blood in there. but don't discount nancy pelosi. she is a fierce force on the hill. she knows how to get things done. and she knows how to wrangle a diverse caucus, which will be important as they pursue all these investigations. >> even if it's close, i would imagine it's pretty difficult to displace the female democratic leader of the house when so many women are part of this new majority.

>> nancy pelosi is responsible for helping to recruit this new generation of leadership. she has raised over $130 million. she has helped to advance the democratic cause, including health care. i know that she's going to face some challenges. but i still bet that nancy pelosi knows how to count the vote. >> cokie roberts, she is a great vote counter. >> she is an incredible vote counter and she knows how to legislate. she can put bills together and put people together who will vote for those bills. she knows how to do that. >> if the democratic presidential candidates in 2020 had a vote, i don't think she'd get one. she is going to be a liability for the democratic party in the 2020 election if she's speaker of the house. >> you're throwing something provocative on the table. i don't know who wants to pick it up. >> i support nancy pelosi for all of the right reasons. she knows how to lengs late, she knows how to count, she knows how to pick winners. >> she also knows when to step

aside, when it's time to step aside. >> absolutely. >> who is really popular and new blood? paul ryan. he's no longer there. so i think that nancy pelosi's going to be just fine. what was the provocative thing you wanted us to talk about? >> no, you solved the problem, mary, go ahead. >> it's important to look at president.elationship with the ly have they been friendly at times in the past, but while the president likes to fancy himself a dealmaker, pelosi is shrewd and she's shown she can get the better of the president in some circumstances. we saw that the past with negotiations over the budget and spending and government funding. so nancy pelosi is a good foe for donald trump. and someone that i think democrats would like to see? that role. and she does not yet have a nickname from president trump. >> pelosi knows this fight's coming. she saw it coming. she suggested not long ago she might only serve one term as the speaker of the house. i could see something like that. i would be shocked if there

would be anybody that could displace nancy pelosi at this time. consider this, 16 incumbent republicans have lost so far tonight on a single incumbent democrat has lost tonight. pelosi was behind the recruitment of a lot of these new democrats that won. >> four hours into the broadcast. i think robert mueller's name has been mentioned exactly once tonight. so far. she didn't come up in the campaign either. quiet during that entire period. pierre thomas, let's go to you. this could break within days after this election. mueller was quiet during the election period. what do we know when her his investigation stands right now? >> many people think his investigation will likely be over by the end of the year. we could see some additional indictments coming within the next week or two. people that have been in his crosshairs, roger stone, for example, someone who's been investigated. i think the most interesting thing about bob mule per is this. in 18 months of investigating,

roughly, he's not uttered a single public word. not one. he is the biggest wild card in the city of washington. the results of his investigation will have a dramatic impact one way or the other. and i think, given the fact that the democrats are now taking over the house, it's more likely that his report will be made public. so we will see what his results will be and we will all be able to assess what he's found out. >> chris kristy, there was some -- six weeks out from the leak it looked like the president might fire rod rosenstein, it didn't happen until after the election. we believe attorney general jeff sessions is going to go, how does the president read these election results in relationo mur?thinking h mov i tnk affleat i think what it does is if we see him hold on in arizona and nevada and win florida as it looks like scott will do, and he needs that 55 senators, i think what it tells him is he can move on from jeff sessions. he can pick the attorney general

he wants to have and not have to worry about getting that person confirmed. i think 55 votes, that's pretty safe. especially as mary was talking about before, you've substituted marsha blackbu marsha blackburn for corker. substituted, perhaps, martha mcsally for jeff flake. those are much more reliable votes for the president than what he had before. the majority is almost super energized at 55 because of substitutes. >> the other votes might have been reliable, the voices weren't reliable. the votes were pretty reliable for the president. >> i don't think he would have gone in, especially on attorney general, with everything else that's happened, and take a risk on somebody. he may have picked somebody he didn't really want but could get confirmed, now he thinks he can pick the person he wanted. >> i do think a lot of people were looking to this election, the result tial we might see a bloodbath in the white house starting first thing tomorrow in terms of staff shakeups and cabinet shakeups and departures. i don't think these results will lead to that. certainly there will be some. jeff sessions is probably at the top of that list.

a full house cleaning in terms of the west wing staff i don't think is going to be. >> it goes back to what mary bruce was saying earlier in the night. the exit polls underscore what she said, which is the democrats are going to have to be very careful about how they gaffe nate this going forward. you saw nancy pelosi moments ago saying, so begins the checks and balances on donald trump. she came out swinging. but look at the exit polls. this is what the voters said today about robert mueller's investigation. he's remained silent, but the longer it lasts, 42% of those polled today say they actually approve of mueller's handling of the russia investigation. 46% said they disapprove. the russia investigation itself, do you support it, is it politically motivated? more than half the voters said it was politically motivated. 41% believe the russia investigation is justified. look at the breakout by party. this is not terribly surprising. 28% of democrats, 82% of republicans, believe it's politically motivated.

52% of independents say politically motivated. a lot of americans went to the polls today who are asking questions about thisusa investigation, they're aware he's been silent this long, and it would appear they're expecting to hear what he has. >> the republican/democrat split is not surprising, but what is surprising is coming into this election, most polls had shown the public had majority support of robert mueller and his integrity. >> what it shows is the president's relentless attacks on mueller, relentless attacks by the president and by his supporters in congress, echoed by fox news, frankly, have had an impact. robert mueller is a life-long republican. he's somebody who served as the fbi director for more than a decade. widely respected by republicans until this moment when this republican president relentlessly, day after day, attacked him. >> and not only relentless attacks on the mueller investigation, the relentless attacks on the media. i've talked to a lot of people out there, a lot of voters, who

ask him, if robert mueller had a startling, stunning indictment, would you believe it? they'll say no. >> the numbers david cited, probably one of the reasons why you may see democrats in the house make a move to try and pass some kind of legislation to protect robert mueller his investigation, which then would force republicans in the senate to have to go on record on this issue. >> george, i don't usually make predictions but i'll make one. mueller won't care about his popularity and his investigation will be what it is. >> and we will know soon enough. more results coming in from the state of iowa. in the house, democrat cindy axny has defeated republican david young, seeking a third term in iowa's third district and the governor's race in the state of iowa, the republican, republican kim reynolds, seeking he first full term in the governor' s house, one of these midwest states we've seen a split. >> yeah, the total of the night, democrats have picked up four.

they might pick up five. we're waiting on a tight race in wisconsin. this is another one of those mixed signs. as i said, democrats have something to cheer about. this is a place that the democrats wanted to do well in. they wanted to win ohio. they wanted to win iowa. they definitely wanted to win florida. and in all those places they failed in the course of this. i'm curious to see if anybody has any sense of humility after tonight. if anybody gets a sense -- from the president to the speaker, new speaker, to any member of congress. do they come to the table -- the president was by 100 million votes, was by 9% margin the country voted against him tonight. but the senate went with him. govern erms' races with him. does anybody say, what do we do? >> you've already said the president's not going to do that. >> i don't think so. >> he'll make deals where he thinks he can make deals that are advantageous to him. >> isn't the infrastructure deal something republicans -- bridges and roads -- >> i think he wants to do that,

something he'll look towards. i think there's the issue of sentencing reform and prison reform, something he's interested in, that may also be able to bring republicans and democrats together. it did in my state when we did it. but one interesting note on wisconsin, i'm getting input from the folks in wisconsin. right now, with about 98% of the vote in governor walker is leading by 5 votes. not 5,000. not 500. 5 votes. i think we're headed to a recount in wisconsin. >> on the criminal justice reform, in florida, there is an amazing result which is they passed restoring rights to felons. by over 60%, which is what it had to do to pass. >> and the republican wins the governor's race. >> that restores the franchise to potentially 1.4 million floridians. can we think about how many people, how many votes trump won by? about 100,000. so some small percentage of restored voting rights could change the entire future of florida as far as the presidential state. >> that goes into effect in

2019. humility, it will take a president to reach out to democrats to raise the debt ceiling. for the farm bill to pass. for comprehensive immigration reform. he's going to have to work with democrats on many of these issues. and maybe he doesn't know how to reach across the aisle, but he's going to be forced to talk to democrats on these big issues. >> legal be clear about this. he's not going to change his tone. >> of course not. >> but he will go and try to make deals. his whole life has been about making deals. >> before we get to that, we've only touched on this. before we get to that, in this lame duck session, they've got to decide whether to fund the government or not. the president's got to decide how hard to fight. we could be facing an actual shutdown in weeks. >> we are barreling towards a brutal immigration fight in the next few weeks. we have seen how this played out before. it will be the first time we'll have a chance to see how the president may be willing to work with democrats going forward. so far i think we remember this has been a very, very difficult

issue to make any headway on. it will be interesting especially in light of the president's closing argument here. >> predated president trump as well. we'll be right back. ato be there... for the good. and not so good. for the mundane. the awe-inspiring. the heart racing. the heart breaking. that's what life is all about... showing up. unless migraine steals your chance to say "i am here." that's why, we created aimovig.. a preventive treatment for migraine in adults. one dose, once a month. aimovig is proven to reduce the number of monthly migraine days. for some, that number can be cut in half or more. the most common side effects are pain, redness,

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back now, abc news lex headquarters in new york. the senate results, so far republicans have picked up three seats in the senate. at least three big states still out there in the balance. let's look at the house. democrats have picked up the 23 seats they need. we project they will have a comfortable majority. we'll see how many more come in

over the course of the night. we've projected the democrats will take the house. we have a new result coming in here from the state of new york. new york 19. antonio delgado has defeated incumbent john faso. what a story, harvard law, rhodes scholar, became famous in this district as a rap singer. >> yeah. first of all, we have a new democratic star here. he's 41 years old. another rhodes scholar. harvard law as you mentioned. he did do some rapping in the day. the republicans tried to tar him as a big-city rapper. that was the attack. but he won in a district that trump carried by 6 points. so this was a big pickup, knocking off an incumbent republican. >> one of the things we're seeing here, terry moran, it makes me think back a long way to what supposedly lyndon johnson said after the passage of the 1964 civil rights act. "we've lost the south forever." we've seen both sides. republicans hollowed out of the

northeast, parts of the midwest, democrats >> happened fast. think of iowa. barack obama won iowa in 2008 by 10 points. then 5 points against romney. then hillary clinton lost it by 12. and now it is very difficult for a statewide democratic candidate to get anywhere. and president trump would be favored. what happened out in those places? what happened in the country to switch it at that speed? >> well, we've seen it before. one of the arguments about the electoral college is you're stuck in a state, the state doesn't signify because it's all blue or all red. but they change. so we've seen illinois change. we've seen new jersey change. we've seen texas change. >> california. >> we've seen california. so they do change. but what we have seen, a broader societal movement of people going to where they see like-minded people. and that does make a big

difference when it comes to these deep divisions. and so we do see states becoming more red or more blue. but even in some places like iowa, two democrats defeated republicans in the house tonight. and one more might. so it's not set in stone. >> barack obama won iowa twice. and that's not that long ago. so i don't think we should overread these results as some national demographic change, particularly where coming out of 2016, where democrats lost the white vote, last white women, those gains, we're gaining those voters back. we shifted a lot in this election. we can't lose sight of that. the results are pretty much on par with what was projected. we're winning the house by a comfortable margin. we had a very, tough map in the senate. defending seats in very, very red districts. red states. the trump base is something that needs to be taken seriously. but beyond that we shouldn't overread these results as a

national democratic change. every election is a snapshot of where the country is at that point. >> a lot will depend what happens in the west. three big senate seats out there in the west. we'll take a look at those right now in arizona, let's pull it up. kristin sinema, dead even there with martha mcsally, 6,000 votes separating them. tara palmieri is in arizona. what are you hearing right now, tara? >> reporter: the mood in the room has improved because of the republican gains in the senate. but there is a lot of anxiety in this room. it is a real nail biter. i heard from mcsally's camp that we likely will not be hearing from her tonight. and you know, mcsally built her campaign on immigration and some of our early exit polls show that arizonans care more about health care, by 41%, compared to 32% who said that immigration was their number one issue. but her camp told me the reason

that they really buckled down on immigration is because they saw that as a motivator, something that would bring people out. but our polls also show that 52% of arizonans prefer to have a republican control the senate over a democrat, and as we know, a democrat hasn't controlled the senate -- a democrat hasn't controlled the arizona seat in over 22 years. >> could be heading to a icount in your state. >> i'd hoped for an answer tonight but maybe we won't. haven't had a democratic senator since 1976. the first woman senator coming out of arizona, exciting for history alone. i will say i'm surprised mcsally, with the endorsements she's had from doug doocy, president trump campaigning for her, i'm surprised she hasn't been able to pull ilover the finish line, especially by this point in the night. it shows arizona is turning purple. it shows she's a really bad retail politician. i should be her main demographic. i'm a young woman who loves veterans, i'm a conservative,

and she really hasn't resonated with me in the way i thought she would will be for those who are still conservative and have questions about trump, her sort of appeal to trump and cozying up to him that she did after the primary really put a bad taste in my mouth. i had so wished for a more maverick-ish senator. >> i wonder where that comes from. >> yeah. definitely could still be a night for sinema, but like i said earlier in the night, the audio that's come out and the videos that have come out comparing arizona to methland democracy, saying really nasty, negative things about arizona, resonated with a lot of people i know. >> we're waiting on results in montana and nevada as well. we'll be right back.

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your voice, your vote live from abc7 news. >> good evening. i'm ama daetz. >> i'm dan ashley. let's get account latest results on the biggest races happening in california. >> the race for governor is between democrat gavin newsom and republican cox. we predict newsome will win with 22% of precincts reporting. > dion lim is following the race and is live in los angeles where the governor be appearing tonight. dion? >> reporter: dan, that's right. we are expecting him to take the stage any minute now months upon

months of confidence, double digit leads despite it shrinking for a time, that culminated to this moment election day. we're at a nightclub in downtown los angeles where we just heard from artist common hon took the stage for a very politically charged set of songs. at one point, using this quote, can you feel the change in the air. and given the crowd of about 1,000 people absolutely. now, moments ago, i did speak with campaign manager and he told me despite being confident for months that yes, we were going to get a win, they say that it's not all over up till he finally takes the stage. take a listen. okay, now even though there is a lot of work to be done, that is what he said. and it's all about the democrats regaining the house. that has yet to be seen. we're still waiting for gavin newsom himself. he is in the building.

security has been ramped up right now. we're waiting for him to take the stage any minute now. i'm dion him, abc7 news. >> thank you. let's look at the race for second in command. lieutenant governor eleni kuhn lack cas, versus ed hernandez. elen citi has manufacture 5% of the votes. >> a pitched battle for state school superintendent pitting tony thurmond against marshall tuck. at this moment, tuck has the lead with the 35% of the rote. >> the race for united states senator dianne feinstein faces kevin de leon. we predict feinstein will keep her seat. you can see right now, 54% of the vote for her, 46% for kevin delayon. >> and 11 propositions on the ballot. one of the most talked about is

proposition 6, the effort to repeal last year's 12 cent gas tax increase per gallon. at this moment, with 22% of the precincts reporting, no on prop 6. 55%. >> the battle for prop set an all-time record for spending. if you watched any tv, you saw the ads. prop 8 would cap revenue for kidney dialysis centers. 62% of voters voted no. 38% saying yes. right now 22% of precincts are reporting. > proposition 10 would change state law to let local jurisdictions inpose their own rent control policies. abc news is projecting it has lost, 22% of the precincts are reporting. based on exit polling abc busy predicts it is lost. >> in san francisco, one of the most hotly contested measures is proposition c which would add a tax to big businesses to fund homeless programs.

marc benioff saying he was definitely for this. you can see that the actually do we have proposition -- we are trying to get you the results for proposition c but twitter was against this. so the businesses were a little bit split in san francisco on whether or not this was the way to go. we'll try to get you the proposition c results as soon as we can get them on for you. >> in the meantime, we'll move from measure c to santa clara could see a new sheriff. laurie smith is in her first general election. >> she is facing it john hirokawa. we'll get you those results as soon as we have them. >> we'll take you back to be abc news election night coverage. a fascinating night here across the country and california. stay here with us. more to come here. ♪ ♪

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abc news headquarters in new york, 12:30 in the east, 9:30 in the west. republican pickups in the senate, they've picked up three seats in the senate so far, extending their majority in the house. democrats will take control of the house. so far they have picked up at least 23 seats. on their way to a majority. and look at this right now. this is one of the big stories of the night. 85 women have won house of representatives races tonight, marking a new high for women in the chamber. just tonight it's 87 now, i'm being corrected in my ear. so far it is 76 democrats, 11, 12 gop tonight. 75 and 12 right there. and quite a night for women in the house. i want to bring in tom perez, the chair of the democratic national committee. chairman peres, congratulations on the house. you lost the senate. what went wrong there? >> well, the map was historically challenging,

george. we knew going into it that it was going to be a tall order. we still have got a couple of races out west in nevada and in arizona that i think we have a real shot at. and that goes to show that we're really -- you're starting to see places like arizona turn purple. because there's a real opportunity there. you saw ann kirkpatrick win that seat in tucson. we've become a 50-state party again. you look at kansas. we've picked up a seat there. we picked up the governor's residence there with laura kelly. four out of the five governors flips from red to blue are also women. so your point about 2018 being the year of the woman, that's also true in statehouses as well. so i'm bullish. because we needed to have a check and balance in washington. we always knew the senate was going to be a tall order but we were confident about the house. california hasn't reported anything yet in terms of their results, and i think we're going too pick up a number of seats

there. >> you just repeated the same phrase we heard from leader pelosi, check and balance. what is the number one thing you want to check about president trump? >> we need accountability. i mean, remember when barack obama was president, the definition of a scandal was when he wore a tan suit. i mean, here how many agencies have had leaders who have either had to leave or frankly should leave because they've been engaged in, at a minimum, ethical misconduct and possibly criminal misconduct? it is a culture of corruption. that engulfed this administration. we need that accountability. but what we're going to be fighting for right at the outset, as leader pelosi pointed out, is infrastructure. protecting people with pre-existing conditions. making sure we can create good jobs across this country that pay a decent wage. making sure we protect our dreamers. we're going to go to work on the issues that matter most to people. i've heard a lot about education from folks. you saw that upset victory in oklahoma.

in the congressional race tonight. we helped flip four statehouse seats there last year. and the big part of the challenge in oklahoma is that there's tens of thousands of schoolkids who go to school four days a week because republicans have cut funding for education through the bone. and so that's why people are willing to take a look at the democratic party because we're fighting for the issues they care about. >> realistically, can anything actually get done, given the fact that republicans have increased their majority in the senate? >> well, i worked for ted kennedy in 1995 through '98. it was divided government. after 1994, they said you're not going to get anything done. and we got a minimum wage increase. there was immigration reform. there was welfare reform. there was a hate crimes bill. there was a lot of things that got done because democrats were willing to work hard in a bipartisan fashion. leader pem lowsy said tonight, we are absolutely willing to do that. it absolutely takes two to

tango. and the question presented is going to be, will this president and will mitch mcconnell be willing to stand up to their far-right flank of the republican party? i hope they will. >> which democratic party won tonight? we saw such diverse candidates. you saw some candidates in the very, very progressive extreme, other candidates trying to go down the middle of the road. can you knit them into a common agenda, into a common party? >> again, getting back to my former boss, ted kennedy, he often said, if somebody asks you what wing of the party you belong to, tell them you belong to the accomplishments wing because you want to get stuff done. everybody who got elected on the democratic side, we want to protect health care for people so if you have a pre-existing condition you can keep your health care. we want to pass an infrastructure bill so that we can put people to work. we want to make sure that people who go to public schools, regardless of where you live, have access to quality public

schools. there are so many things that unite democrats, whether you're the new member from kansas or whether you're the new member from queens. there are so many things that unite us. those are the things we're going to continue to work on. >> it seems like florida's breaking the hearts of democrats again. a republican is going to be governor of ohio. two such key states in a presidential race in 2020 coming up. what's gone wrong for the democrats in florida? >> we've got to keep organizing. ask we came up just short in that governor's race. we put a lot into it. one of the first things i'm going to do, there was a ballot initiative there, i think it was referendum 4 or amendment 4, to allow 1.5 million people who have been permanently disenfranchised from voting because they have a felony conviction to get their rights restored. and it passed. it passed with a solid bipartisan majority. i'm want to pick sure people who have paid their debt to society can vote. we saw that in virginia. terry mcauliffe led the way.

we've got to make sure that we expand those opportunities. we're going to continue to work hard in florida and elsewhere. i'm heartened by the fact that we won five seats, and there's another four or five that are still in play as you and i sit here at 12:30, 12:40 east coast time. that's a pretty good year for democrats. that's a very good year. and again, michigan. huge state. very, very important. illinois. very important. maine, new mexico, kansas. we're still in play. wisconsin's a dead heat right now. so we'll see what happens there. so we've got a lot more work to do and we've made a lot of progress. these are 12-year elections. they'll be in charge of redistricting. i'm heartened by that. and we're going to keep fighting in ohio, in florida. >> and a lot more votes to count. chairman peres, thanks very much. >> pleasure to be with you.

welcome back to our viewers on the east coast, we're here in abc election headquarters in new york for the results of the midterm elections. republicans are going to keep the senate, democrats are going to take the house. a new result from the state of new york, new york 27, chris collins has defeated the democrat, nate mcmurray, in upstate new york. jon karl, he won despite the fact that he was indicted for insider trading this summer. >> just to put in in perspective, we've had three candidates who have -- who are under indictment that have run for congress in this midterm election. so far two of them have won. the third is out in california. we haven't heard. bob menendez is the other. under indictment, somebody that they tried, the republicans tried to get him off the ballot because they thought there was no way he could win. >> suspended his campaign. >> with this insider trading case, really solid insider trading case, but he has won. >> we're going to see what happens in the california race.

we want to look at the senate race in montana. president trump is working hard on that one as well. the democrat, john tester, up against matt rosendale. he has the lead, john tester. one of the president's least favorite democrats in the senate. kayna whitworth is in montana this evening. >> reporter: yeah, george, i think you're right there when you say one of president donald trump's least-favorite senators. he really blames jon tester for blocking his nomination of the veterans administration nominee. and so president donald trump has really taken a personal interest in the senate race here in montana. he has visited montana an unprecedented four times in the last four months. that is more than any other sitting president. but despite all of his support for his republican candidates here, matt rosendale, 54% of voters are saying that trump was not a factor in their votes.

and jon tester is leading this race. he is the incumbent democrat. he is seeking his third term. and in preliminary numbers, he is winning votes from women by 19 points. he's winning votes from people under 30 by a whopping 70%. but one of the numbers that really stood out to me, george, is that tester is winning gun owners. 52% of gun owners actually voted for tester. that's incredibly significant. considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the nra dumped into anti-tester ads here in maryland. also 81% of people that live in the state of montana live in a household where they own guns. and if we talk about the house race as well, it's one that people are keeping a close watch on. it is quite literally neck and neck right now. greg gianforte, the incumbent who made national headlines after body slamming a reporter. he went ahead and had to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault.

he's being taken on by the democrat, kathleen williams. she is hoping to become the first woman to hold that seat for montana in 77 years. she would also be the first democrat to hold that seat for montana in some 24 years. george, she's really hoping to get swept up in that blue wave that's taking over the house right now. problem is, here in montana, most people vote by mail. it's likely we won't see any results until tomorrow, officially. john tester is here in the building. i was told he spent the day working on his '86 chevy. he'll likely have to tell everybody, hey, thanks for coming out go home, we don't know who won yet. >> we don't know who won that, the congressional race. one of the president's trips, he praised the body slam. >> he said he likes people who take on reporters like that. he got some flack but he stood by those comments. when it comes to jon tester, in the senate race, this was very personal for the president. jackson, running ng in the way

veterans afairs. john tester thanked president trump for coming to montana, thanked him for signing bills he'd been part of. exit polls, kayna mentioned a few. 45% of those who voted in montana said health care is the number one issue. it's really interesting. pre-existing conditions. who's the best to handle this? almost evenly split 43-44. john tester lost a couple of fingers in a meat grinder. he talked about having lost those fingers that his parents had to pay for it with their own money because the insurance ended up being junk insurance. he pointed out, i'm one who will protect pre-existing conditions. really interesting race. he's a farmer. working on his chevy today. we'll see if he holds on. he welcomed president trump to town even though president trump has said, this is personal for me, that's why he went out there and campaigned against john tester. >> result from the state of iowa.

congressman steve king, eight-term congressman, has defeated his democratic opponent, j.d. shelton. steve king, who has been criticized for aligning himself with white supremacists, disavowed by the head of the national republican campaign committee, wins. >> king has come under intense criticism from tims and republicans in recent days, the republican party trying to distance themselves from him. he has a long history of inflammatory comments. he's known as a lightning rod on capitol hill. i suspect he will continue to be one. >> continue to be and still holds on. >> yeah, absolutely. i think one thing that was interesting, the role of guns in this. because the nra did go after tester. this was an issue that they tried to raise. but we have seen in race after race across the country the issue of guns come up. we've seen democrats run for commonsense what they call commonsense gull control, and

it's worked. >> this is really something. cokie roberts, you saw the parkland students go out after the massacre in florida. gabby giffords and her super pac. michael bloombergpact. >> it do. and that's a change. we haven't seen the gun issue play this obviously in races as we have this year. michael bloomberg did a big push on this, and his candidates by and large won. i think you've really seen a change on this where people, there have been so many of these mass killings that people are beginning to respond to that. >> i also think the dialogue on this has been opened up a bit. the results in montana remind me, i'm a gun owner, i come from a long line of gun owners. i also believe in commonsense gone control. there's a big difference between gun ownership and belong together nra. the nra has made it clear they

stand for a very small percentage of gun owners. if you can be -- you can be someone who enjoys shooting, who enjoys hunting, and also feels like these shootings of children have gone too far. we have to do something. >> the nra has been outspent. this is the nra -- by one calculation, outspent by 40%, more spent by groups like bloomberg's, gabby giffords, the parkland students. bloomberg has endorsed, his group, every town, endorsed 65 candidates. so far 40 have won. only 10 so far have lost. >> something we haven't really been talking about tonight that this election happened just days after 11 people were killed in pittsburgh. and those pipe bombs that went out all over the country. the explosive devices. i was there in pittsburgh as president trump and the first lady paid the visit to the synagogue, when neighbors just across the street were shouting "your words matter." so many people went to the polls in this election with that on

their minds. with those very real faces of violence and horrific death, that they took with them to the polls. you can't separate that emotion when you go in to vote. >> president trump changed the subject as much as he possibly could. he changed it to the border again by sending the military in there. so as we all know, he's expert at that. >> the one republican that has hung on in pennsylvania in a competitive district is brian fitzpatrick. he is one of three republicans that was endorsed by gabby giffords' group.

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abc news lex headquarters in new york. coming up on 1:00 a.m. in the east. still waiting on the results from the senate race in nevada where jackie rosen is taking on the incumbent dean heller. amy robach in las vegas? >> pretty remarkable. nearly three hours after polls officially closed here in nevada, there are reportedly still people in line waiting to cast their votes. this is in the reno area and parts north of reno.

and that is why we have no poll results right now. we have a ballroom full of people here at the gop watch party waiting for any word if their candidate, incumbent dean heller is going to live to fight another day. this has been an extremely close race from the very beginning with his opponent, jackie rosen, very close in the numbers. too close to call for most pollsters up until tonight. and this has been a very interesting race indeed. certainly we've seen dean heller flip-flop quite a bit. and that has been what jackie rosen has run on. we've been seeing in exit polls that health care has been the main reason why people are voting who they're voting for. heller has a problem with that because he famously in 2017 stood next to the governor of nevada and said that he would not vote to replace the affordable care act, because what it did to people who had pre-existing conditions. then when trump fired back and said, if you do not vote for the

republican bill, i will personally root for somebody, support somebody against you in the primary. so that is when heller flipped and broke his promise, and that has been one of the main things that jackie rosen has been running on. also heller and trump don't exactly have a very solid relationship. very famously in 2016, dean heller saying, i am 100% against hillary clinton, and i'm 99% against president trump. well, in the past two years, he has dramatically changed what he said. and as recently as october stood next to president trump and said, everything you touch turns to gold. so we will see if that's enough for heller to live another day. also of note, very interesting, if jackie rosen wins tonight she will join this state's first female senator to become the second female senator here from nevada, making history tonight potentially. we are still waiting for those

first poll numbers to come in here in the state of nevada, and we'll be here throughout the night and bring you the very latest as that develops. >> thank you, amy. 40% of the vote came in early. i want to go to california right now. we've got some races we're looking at right now in the state of california. democrats have a lot of hopes there. first one, district 45, this is the raw vote. we cannot project a winner right now. that is the democrat katie porter against the incumbent mimi walters. this is a race that has a lot of people paying attention. rodor against rohrabacher. up against donald trump, somewhat intangled in the russia investigation. in california 50, another congressman who has been indicated for campaign finance violations. he appears to be ahead. we'll talk about california more in a minute. abc news can project that the democrats will pick up between 32 and 36 seats in the house. props to nate silver. what was your final number, 34?

>> 36, yeah. we'll take it. >> that's what it looks like it's going to come in right now. the averages have worked out. democrats pick up between 32 and 36 seats in the house. let's go back to california right there. matt gutman, can you hear us right now? you're in costa mesa, what are you hearing? >> hey, george. i want to set the scene. we are at dana rohrabacher's election party. it's actually at an irish pub. that's because upstairs from here is dana rohrabacher's campaign headquarters. two blocks away is his house. it's all very convenient. you guys mentioned it there in new york. there is a lot at stake here in southern california and across the state. seven congressional districts that are up for grabs, that were voted -- that voted for hillary clinton in 2016, but are republican. some of them look like they're turning, not all of them. this one is incredibly close here. and just did give you a sense of the context here, we are just miles away from the cradle of

the reagan revolution. dana rohrabacher himself was an under press secretary for reagan. but this place is turning and largely based on the votes of women, some minorities, also professionals here who are tired of president trump. but nobody is talking about the president, especially here right now. what they are talking about is health care, the high tax burden in california. something that is particularly owed yuls to many people here in the state, and that is the gas tax that many people want to see repealed. take another look behind me. what you see are more members of the media and reporters than supporters of dana rohrabacher. the other thing that people are talking about is incumbents. dana rohrabacher has been in office for 30 years. even some of his supporters with whom i spoke here tonight say, maybe it's time to hang it up. an indication of that has been money here. president trump has not visited to campaign in california, not once during this election cycle. he has been here to talk about

immigration and the border fence but not about the campaign. so a lot of money being poured in here from the democrats, not so much from the republicans. and that's one of the reasons that we can see them losing congressional seats like this one that have been red for decades. >> matt, thank you. some republican leaders may also not be so unhappy to see dana rohrabacher go. they joked about him being on the russian payroll before the 2016 campaign. >> he's been criticized for being cozy with russians. it's something he's come under fire for. i suspect that they would respond in that way. >> one more switch, new jersey 2, democrat jevan drew has defeated republican seth grossman, another pickup for the democrats in the state of new jersey. today, we will steal christma♪ in style. if i'm gonna become santa,

then i need to get in to character. what's santa have that i don't? [ bark ] that's hurtful. go team. [ snow crunching ] [ louder snow crunching ] this is the loudest snow i've ever heard in my life.

your voice, your vote, live from abc7 news. >> good evening on this election night. i'm ama daetz. >> i'm dan ashley. a lot of results coming in that will determine the future of california from the governor's race to key propositions. >> right to the race to lead california, republican john cox is taking on draw the gavin newsom for governor. right now you can see abc news is projecting gavin newsom will win the race, are 56% of the votes to the john cox's 44%. right now the 25% of precincts are reporting. >> onto the one u.s. senate seat

being voted on this california. senator dianne feinstein seeking a sixth term. the incumbent, of course,fation form ter state senate president kevin deleon with 25% of the precincts reporting. she has 54% of the vote but the projected winner by abc news. >> some of the propositions, as well. prop 1 would provide $4 billion for construction as well as home loans. right now you can see the projected winner 52% voting yes. no votes 48%. there are 22% of precincts reporting. > on to proposition 6. we've talked about that tonight. if passed it would repeal the gas tax which one year ago was raised by lawmakers to 12 cents a gallon. this is the first time voters had the chance to have their say on this. at this moment with, 25% of the precincts reporting no has 53% of the vote on proposition 6. >> prop 10 calls for changing the way local governments enact

rent control and abc news is projecting actually that it has lost you. see there, 65% of the vote, 35% voted for it. 25% of precincts are reporting. > we showed you a few minutes ago pictures of mayor libby schaaf in oakland trying to continue as mayor. she is expected to win and the projected winner designate the by the check mark there. but ranked choice voting could delay the outcome for days and candidates pamela price and kat crooks are leader in that race with 16% of the vote and 11% respectively. libby schaaf the projected winner. >> santa clara county could see a new sheriff. lawrie smith is in her first general election in 20 years faits facing retired john hir op kawa. she has 57% to his 43%. 43% of precincts are reporting. > let's talk about

propositionition c that would impose a new tax on hundreds of san francisco businesses to pay for homeless services, that have revenue over $50 million a year. yes has 5% of the vote. it is projected proposition c will pass. >> dr. melinda jackman from san jose state university. we've been talking a lot about the governor's race. it's interesting because everyone expected newsom to win but yet he still had so many ads out there. >> that's true especially in the bay area where he was almost a lock for sure. he wanted his face out to bay area votes are. >> it wasn't a close race. i think he wants to win as big as possible. the bigger his victory, the more power, the more leverage he has in sacramento. >>, quote unquote, mandate? >> exactly. more he can claim an electoral mandate. if the dras win a super majority again in the state legislature, we've really got a democratic coalition going forward.

>> in a lot of ways all these ads you saw on television gavin new sml ran against president trump not so much john cox. >> well, the campaign for 2020 starts tomorrow morning i think so he may be signaling looking ahead. >> do you think that's the case? everyone says. >> there's been a lot of speculation. >> will he run in 2020 or wait till '24. >> i'm sure ellen joy being governor of california. we'll see how his plans evolve. >> stand by, melinda. >> we've been waiting for newsom to speak tonight in los angeles. we hear his wife has taken the podium. >> which is a good sign he's about to come out. let's listen allow same sex couples to marry. more than a decade before the supreme -- and we saw there

again when in the wave of near daily mass shootings, gavin took on the nra and he won. and we have seen his courage to shine throughout his campaign as time and time again he has rallied against division and hate and stood up for love and inclusion. fiercely defending to your california values and all that binds us together. so obviously, i am very proud to call gavin newsom my partner in life, and i truly believe that gavin is the leader that we need in california now more than ever. but i also believe in all of you. and what all of us can do together. so thank you. thank you for believing in gavin and standing by his side.

thank you for being a part of our extended family. [ speaking foreign language ] we are envelope this together, and together, we will rise. and we will help californians achieve all that is possible in life because no matter your gender, no matter who you love or how pray to, and no the matter the circumstances of your birth or your life, you are all welcome in our california family. [ speaking foreign language ] so without further ado, please

welcome, my husband, the father to our four incredible young children and the next governor of the great state of california, gavin newsom. good evening, california. i'm glad you're all still awake. and i'm honored that you took the time to be here. look, the votes it goes without saying, the votes are still being counted and clearly your voices are still being heard. but a few minutes ago, i received a very generous call

from john cox. thank you. we congratulated each other on a hard-fought race. and now i want to congratulate each and every one of you. because you stood for courage. currently for a change. and now i can stand before you knowing i will have the incredible privilege of serving as your next governor. before this victory is really your victory because of you, the future belongs to california. you know, it's been a tough two years but tonight, america's biggest state is making the biggest statement. america. we're saying unmistakably and in unison it's time to roll the credits on the politics of chaos

and the politics of cruelty. now it's time for going far and going together. now is the time for decency, for facts, for trust, are and now is the time for truth. now is the time for leaders to lead. and to those agents of anger, determined to divide us instead of unite us, it's time to pack it up and for you to pack it in. this in every way, shape, or form is california's moment. and to those who wonder whether polarization is permanent, who think today's big dreams are tomorrow's broken promises, who question whether a 40 million person melting pott of different faiths, different families and futures can live and prosper together, california is your answer. the sun is rising in the west and the arc of history is bending in our direction.

because this is not just a state of resistance. california is a state of results. california is america's coming attraction, a rocket fueled engine of human industry and innovation, the nation's greatest job creator and the fifth largest economy in the world. of but the true genius of california isn't the value we work for. it's the values we fight for. this is a state where we don't criminalize diversity. we celebrate diversity. we don't reject, we protect the most vulnerable. we don't put profit and loss ahead of clean air. we don't put profit and loss ahead of clean water and clean coastlines. we don't regulate a woman's body more tewe o s we don't demean, we don't

discriminate and we don't demoralize. we don't separate families and we don't lock kids in cages. at our best, we always step up, step in and fight for what's right. see, lease a reason why california's dream is america's leading brand. california's dream has always been and always will be too big to fail and too powerful to bully. and here's the thing. the california dream it's not binary. every day we show how human endeavor can be both lucrative and incluesive. they aren't mutually exclusive. we don't just want success in the right hands. we want it in everybody's hands. let's be honest, there's doubt about this the dream is still tool distant for too many. we're a land of plenty but we are far from perfect. too many californians are being priced out of housing, of health

care, atomany.workers are feelie ever tightening squeeze of automation and wage stagnation. too many children are growing up in poverty and starting school from behind. in many ways, in many places we are simultaneously the richest and the poorest state. but after, but after traveling california from region to region in a bus fueled by perpetual optimism, i'm more convinced than ever, there's no problem in california that isn't somehow how somewhere being solved by a californian. that's what california's doing. we're the most diverse state in the world's most diverse democracy. californians by birth, californians by choice, every generation overcoming every conceivable border and bias, all part after the same jurisprudencefully to ascend and

succeed together. over our own journey in the course of this campaign, i've seen it in the hopeful faces of many. i've heard it in therrin delable personal stories. i've seen it in the doughnut store owner in garden drove breaming with pride w pride because huth dags the first in their family to attendcollege, i've seen it in miss jackie in lancaster who dedicates her life after you helping other human beings can live their final days in gig dignity. i've seen it in wks back after years of struggle with addiction has found a new path thanks to treatment and job training. and i've seen it in the bravery of elizabeth an 8-year-old girl in fresno who raised her hand at my town hall and asked not about herself but what she will can do to protect her friends in the case of a school shooting.

that's what this campaign is all about. it's about advancing all californians on their journey by making this a place of equality, making california a place after opportunity, safety, and affordability for everyone. we can make their dream real. but only if we have the courage of our convictions. the courage to dream bigger and demand more. the currently to be a state of results and a state of refuge. i've listened and i've learned from californians of every walk of life. t night, i'm just overwhelmed with gratitude. and i'm humbled, i'm humbled to accept this awesome responsibility. because i know what we can accomplish working together. transforming the politically impossible into the practically

inevitable. there are so many stars so many california stars in this room tonight, too many to name, too many to enumerate. i want to take a moment of personal privilege and mention just a few who have shine brightest for me when i needed it the most. starting with my wife jenn, a real-life wonder woman. jenn who is -- who fights pre day for a world where children can live free of stereotype and social inequality while being the to all my friends and family that have been there for me many dating back to the not so distant days as a struggling kid with an undiagnosed kid with a reading disorder and especially bad haircut. i still have dyslexia and the jury is still out on the hair but because of their urging and

unconditional support, he grew up with the audacity to think that i could make a difference and the humility to know i couldn't do it alone. as always, politics is a team sport. and i want to thank my campaign te in the business. thank you guys, as well as the incop parable army of the grassroot supporters, all those texters who were the life blood of this campaign. thank you for your great work. i also because i've seen so many of them i want to salute all the state legislators who are here and every public servant elected across the state tonight. we're going to serve in we share the same california name on front of our jerseys. you know, there's a famous quote all of you know this, we should not go where the path may lead.

don't go there. instead go where there's know path and leave a trail. for literally my entire life, governor jerry brown has been blazing his trail as a pioneer of progress for this state. he's been a role model for me and tonight we all owe him a profound debt of gratitude. thank you, governor jerry brown. remarkable leadership. robert kennedy, i thought always said it best. he said few will have the greatness to bend history itself but each of us can work to change a small portion of events in the total of those acts will be written in the history of this generation. as californians we have been granted the extraordinary opportunity to write history' next chapter and the extraordinary obligation to help every californian write their own california story even from the darkest of circumstances.

just last week, in merced, i met an extraordinary young man by the name of joshua who is writing his own story. he said to me, i can't rote fvo you. i was born in mexico. i watched my mom work three jobs as a cook to support me. i worked as a community service officer it, he said at merced police department to pay his own way he through college and he said, he's be to graduate with a uc degree. >> joshua is also a dreamer ho spent every waking day over the past year worrying if his dream was coming to an end. but he said, gavin, i can't vote for you but i want you to know i'm okay. i'm okay because i'm a californian.

that's what california means to joshua. that's what california means to the world. now it's our turn to spend our waking days protecting that dream for every californian. thank you, california. thank you all very much for being here tonight. god bless you. and the best is yet to come. thank you all very, very much for being here tonight. >> soaring lofty speech from california's next governor, the first democrat to succeed a democrat in california as governor since 1886. the first former san francisco mayor to become governor since 1930. >> you see gavin newsom. you saw his wife jenn who he praised as well as their four kids. wane been watching this election unfold this evening and we will continue to do so. you can find complete election results on our website

abc7news.com/election. >> look for alerts from the abc 7 mobile app. >> i'm dan ash will? >> i'm ama daetz. we will be right back here at 11:00 p.m. for more local coverage. >> we'll see you then. sfx: squeak sfx: stair creak sfx: clink sfx: deep breath sfx: grunt sfx: tinny headphone music sfx: feet shuffling sfx: slice sfx: gasp sfx: inhale. exhale. sfx: lights scraping on roof sfx: metallic scrape sfx: grunt covered california. it's more than just health care. it's life care. well, it's a whole day's worth of love songs. or 300 minutes of baby videos. a gig goes a long way. that's why xfinity mobile lets you pay for data one gig at a time.

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a house race in texas 7, democrat liz zee panel fletcher has defeated culberson, the incumbent. another win for democrats in texas. >> the democrats had to flip several suburban seats like this in order to win there. this is a district that's got a large number of college grads. it's really about shifting dem graphics there. it's a majority minority. talking about the houston suburbs where the key issues in this race were immigration and hurricane reconstruction. this is a nine-term republican incumbent who faced off against a woman who was in her first run for office. >> a pickup for the democrats. jon karl, you're keeping an eye on the senate race in montana. it is close. >> we have a fascinating thing. tester had a big lead for much of the night. it's now 49 votes. he leads -- >> he's behind. >> jon tester is losing by 49 votes to matt rosendale. this was a race that frankly most republicans didn't think they had a chance of knocking him off.

it was on the list but down the list. donald trump went to montana over and over again because he was upset with jon tester and how he treated his doctor. >> what are you seeing there? >> ronnie jackson. >> so when we look at montana, it's a red state. but when tester won this seat in 2012, it looked more of a mosaic. there was more of a mosaic blue and red. we're seeing a lot of red which obviously is not a good sign for tester. in billings, this was really, really close. but tester would have wanted to win this. this is one of the biggest districts. he lost here only by about maybe 600 votes or so. this is a really close race in montana. >> very close. we'll see where the vote is coming in. only 50-something votes separate john tester and matt rosendale.

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1:30 here on the east coast. now results from the senate coming in. so far tonight republicans have picked up three seats in the senate so far. at least three still outstanding. in the house the democrats will take control of the house. they picked up 25 seats so far. waiting for more to come in from the state of california. the president has just weighed in again, second time of the night on twitter. appears to be watching tv quoting somebody that's praised him, said there's been only five times in the last 105 years an incumbent president has won seats in the senate in the off-year election, mr. trump has magic about him. mary bruce, setting aside the mr. trump has magic about him, this is an achievement. >> it is. magic coming out of his ears, i'm not so sure. it is an achievement for the president. so many places the president went out and campaigned in so many of those especially deep red states where you had democrats that were fighting to hold on to their political future. the president was able, it

seems, to have a difference. and that gives him bragging rights in some ways. >> so far in the house, democrats women take control. tom, we set up the checkerboard at the gibeginning of the seasoning. >> this is where we started. this is the red wall. here's where we are tonight. you can see the crack in the red wall right there. that is the blue wave that we're seeing. we still have more than 30 races to go so far. so demes could pick up more seats. a data point, there were 25 clinton districts. districts that she won that republicans were defending. so far tonight they've picked up 14 of those. there are still eight to go. republicans have only been able to protect three seats that hillary clinton won. >> and nate, are you seeing any other changes now? are you pretty locked in on the 32-36? >> locked in, because the races center mostly in california, washington, alaska, a lot of male balloti i-- mail balloting.

33, plus or minus 3 or in aily. nteresnight. i want to get into some of those on the democratic side to begin in connecticut. johanna hayes, former national teacher of the year will be coming to congress. in massachusetts ayanna presley will become the first african-american to serve in the boston area in congress representing district 7. in new york, alexandra ocasio cortez, she defeated the man who wanted to become the democratic leader of the pous, winning handily in her race in a heavily democratic district. >> no surprise, heading into the night a question about whether democrats tomorrow, today, this morning, would have to question the soul of their party. where they were headed. are they the party of nancy pelosi? are they the party of alexandra ocasio cortez? she is an uber progressive. she is the progressive that republicans love to hate. she's got annika 95. she put a knife in the back of

the democratic establishment. she shocked the world when she won that primary. and here she is, will be the youngest member of congress at 29 years old. >> before we went to break last time, you brought up the point saying the democrats were losing in both those -- getting squeezed out on the progressive side, squeeze out in the moderate side. you wanted to respond. >> why would you disagree with that? >> because you're wrong. >> it's just not true. i mean, where -- >> sorry, they didn't lose? >> well, if you look at where they lost, they're losing in very red districts. very red states, rather. and they were running campaigns very specific to those states. where democrats are winning house seats, there are many mainstream democrats, moderate democrats, that are winning. where democrats are winning in blue states, in blue districts, they're running for those districts. so i think the bottom line here is that good candidates are winning in these districts

because they're running good campaigns in these districts. i don't think anything has changed in terms of where the democratic party stands. in fact, you brought up abrahams, gillum, the race that abrams was running, she wasn't for single pair. she wasn't for tax increases. these are -- these people are creating agendas specific to their states. >> david said she was pretty much of a radical progressive going in, and i don't know that she ever overcame that. i disagree with you, i thought they were good candidates. i didn't think that was their problem. >> no, i wasn't -- >> you do. >> no, i think they were great candidates. >> raising the wage is not radical, nor is medicare for all a radical issue. there's cause for celebration. next year we're have the largest number of women in color in the history of our country transfer 38 women of color.

this is a great night to celebrate that because 50 years ago, shirley chism won her seat, 1968. in the democratic caucus, we will see a large number of freshmen for the first time since 1993. and i do think that the democratic party, you will see a sea change. because the pipeline has changed for those candidates who are coming up and running in the future. >> there are more than 1,000 women running for state legislator seats and they're winning. >> look at this strategically today. the democrats have a short-term problem. which the short-term problem they have is that they're not able to win in a vast part of the country. a vast part of the states and a vast part of the country. the republicans, on the other hand, have a long-term problem. the long-term problem is the fastest-growing constituencies in america are voting more democratic. the shrinking constituencies vote mostly republican.

the democrats have did figure out how to fix their short-term problem, the republicans have to figure how to fix their long-term problem. >> the rallying cry for tonight, this was going to be the night that repudiates donald trump and trumpism, but it doesn't feel that way. certainly not in the senate. the big wave didn't crest over the congress. they've done well. perhaps because donald trump brought something into american politics, a nationalism. economic nationalism, cultural nationalism, that needs an answer. and this dispute that's happening within the democratic party has got to be resolved if they're going to win the white house back with some kind of answer. trump goes out there and people hear that song. they hear the poetry in what he's talking about. they respond to it. >> let's keep in mind that we are in an unbelievably good economy, according to most americans. unbelievably good economy, and this president is unpopular. no president with this economy has lost a house. never has a president, in 100

years, has lost a house. so there's been this economy that helped lift him up. i think donald trump has underperformed in his own numbers because of house he's dealt with this. if his numbers were anything normal they'd be at 60% approval. >> chris christie, address that point. the economy is incredibly strong. look at the results and say the president owns the republican party, the party is strongly behind president trump, he's foreclosed any possibility for now of a primary challenge. but that's with an awesome economy. >> i don't think there's any chance of a primary anyway before tonight, now solidifies it even more. about the republican party going forward, they could walk out of tonight having walked in with 33 govern i meanships and walk out with 29, 30. no one thought that was possible. that lays the groundwork for 2020. elections are a binary choice always. donald trump is being looked at by himself in a vacuum. it is not until the 23 democrats

set up against them. >> we'll talk about that in a moment. stacey abrams taking the stage in georgia. >> -- with miles traveled, with prayers prayed to the highest heavens. tonight we have closed the gap between yesterday and tomorrow. but we still have a few more miles to go. but hear me clearly. that too is an opportunity to shoate world who we are. because in georgia, civil rights has always been an act of will and a battle for our souls. and because we have been fighting this fight since our beginnings, we have learned a fundamental truth. democracy only works when we work for it. when we fight for it. when we demand it. and apparently today when we

stand in lines for hours to meet it at the ballot box, that's when democracy works. but i'm here tonight to tell you, votes remain to be counted. there are voices that are waiting to be heard. across our state, folks are opening up the dreams of voters in absentee ballots and we believe our chance for a stronger georgia is just within reach. but we cannot seize it until all voices are heard. and i promise you tonight we are going to make sure that every vote is counted. every single vote. every vote's getting counted. >> stacey abrams saying she's going to stay in the race until all the votes are counted. i want to bring it back to the conversation about 2020. chris christie, were you -- donna brazile, essential potential candidates won including bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, kirsten gillibrand, amy clone achar, 30

democrats looking at the presidential race led in the polls by joe biden. who is the democrat that can bridge the gaps, can tell the story that terry moran is talking about? >> i was thinking that my friend stephanie cutter would help me out on that. so i don't get in trouble. but george, we're going to have a very large group of candidates who are considering 2020. we have a very talented bench. you didn't mention cory booker. chris christie. kamala harris. there's so many people out there. higgin looper who just stepped down from colorado. so i'm looking forward to the type of debate that we need in the democratic party about the future of the country, about the growth of the party. and bringing in new blood. we got a good bench. we need a fighter. >> you're nodding your head. >> i agree with everything my friend donna said. i don't want to get in trouble either but i do think there is one name that i think we can

talk about tonight. and that's sharrod brown who won statewide in ohio. pretty handily. he is one of the original populists. so to speak. and talks about those issues very handily. and i think he hasn't been -- he's been running in a pretty tight race. nobody has been putting him on any short list. i don't know if he's interested. but i think that kind of candidacy would be interesting in opposing donald trump. >> likely to see people, david muir officially announce, certainly by the beginful the year. >> i talked to people leading up to election night to get the temperature within the party, one of the people i talked to was senator kamala harris. she talked about this issue ofo races. the working class that we saw the governor-electricity witmer claiming michigan. she doesn't mind her name comes up, it doesn't distract her, she

says she's not answering a question about it. but she did say it's a false choice in america to decide that you have to either rub as a progressive or run as joe donnelly did in indiana, that there is a way to talk to working-class america with the same argument made all over the country. then i had governor kasich in the office this week. he was coming through he's no longer going to be the governor, term limits. but things, he admitted he talked to joe biden not long ago, he'd love the idea, and i think this is a pipe dream at this moment in time, of a third ticket where a republican and a democrat would join together. >> he talked about that with john hickenlooper as well. to the side of the democratic party, maybe above it, the man who spent hundreds of millions of dollars in this race, tens of millions, a billionaire michael bloomberg, looking hard at this race, has probably decided if he's going to run, it has to be as a democratic. doesn't have a path as an independent. >> i've been told by people close to bloomberg he's both

seriously considering ran running, and if he does, he will run as a democrat. it will be an interesting choice for the democratic party to pick a new york billionaire, i guess it's happened before. but a new york billionaire who was a republican, was an independent, hasn't been a democrat all that long. >> and people close to trump say that is one of the potential candidates that they fear the most. >> i wonder if that's the way a republican looks at the way a democratic primary would be. >> i can't wait for michael bloomberg to go to iowa for the caucuses with that electorate and explain stop and frisk. and what kamala harris does to him and cory booker does to him and all the other progressives who are going to be running. they're going to make michael bloomberg explain how, for 12 years as mayor for new york, he enforced stop and frisk. that wouldn't be hard to explain at the republican primary. i'm guaranteeing it will be impossible to explain to liberals in iowa and the caucuses and liberals in new hampshire.

>> cokie? >> south carolina where he came, and this is one of the early primary states, the democratic party in south carolina doesn't recognize michael bloomberg. i mean, he's a martian. and i think that that's exactly it. >> if they want a mayor, if they want to go for a mayor, which i think going for a mayor is probably a really good idea for the democrats, not pick somebody from the cesspool out of washington that everybody in america seems to dislike. go to mitch landrieu. >> absolutely. >> new orleans. >> can we talk about the message? what message do the democrats have at this point? what is really -- what are they for? not just what they're against. i think that's something democrats really have to work on in this race. because we know they don't like donald trump. they've been campaigning against donald trump. you don't really know what they're for. i know robby mook was asked what the message was -- >> hillary clinton's campaign manager. >> hillary clinton's campaign manager, a couple of weeks ago, asked what the message of the democrats was. he said, you can check it out

online. that's not a really -- that's not an easy message. you're going up against caravans, kavanaugh, promises made, promises kept. the message -- >> you can't have a message -- to me, it's impossible for the democrats who are going to hold the house, they're not going to hold the senate, they're not going to hold a bunch of key governors races. you only can get a message once you have a candidate. democrats won the house in 2006 without really a message. >> a message animus. >> until barack obama showed up on the scene and enunciated what his vision of america was. >> it gets to the question of, was there a barack obama elected in the democratic party tonight, or is there a barack obama in waiting? >> clearly beto o'rourke was somebody we saw as a future barack obama. andrew gillum. stacey abrams. they fell short. but -- and we don't know with stacy, they're looking forward to a runoff, they're still counting the votes.

yes, there is a barack obama in the party. we are going to have that debate. it's going to be a healthy debate. we need to have an opportunity as a party, like the republicans did, when this young man ran -- >> quite an opportunity. >> to really get a chance to see the depth and breadth of this very talented pool. >> somebody who participated in that opportunity, let me just say, if you're going to have 16 or 17 people in a democratic primary and you're going to have to try to figure out in that first debate, like we did in cleveland, who's on the stage, how you're going to determine it, and then when you're doing debate prep your team says to you, max, seven minutes. >> that ended up working for president trump. because he never had a sustained attack from any of his opponents on the stage. what you're saying about the democratic side, you don't think they'd let michael bloomberg get away with that. >> i think we're learning a lot about both parties. for the republican party we see big problems. if you're under 35 years old, why would you like the republican party? going forward?

when republicans met suburbs today, suburbs won. that's a real problem with women going forward. but democrats have a big problem too. they have nothing new. same old, same old. big top-down government from washington. oh, the next program's going to work better than the last. you know, hey, washington's a big manual typewriter, it's not working well keeping up with the world, just get a bigger typewriter. >> alex, alex -- >> that is both parties, i think, have not changed since donald trump crushed both of them. >> two thots. you might have a couple of future barack obamas in the democratic party that were elected in the outside. they're too young to run right now. but abigail spanberger and tony delgado. the resumes are better than a lot of the republicans we've talked about as the 2020 candidates. but i think the message that's going to be a hard sell is investigate, investigate, investigate donald trump.

if you look at the exit polls, i'm sure you got the exact numbers on the impeachment question, vast majority said, no interest in impeaching donald trump. >> that's the same issue reporters talked about after democrats took control in 2006. what did nancy pelosi decide to do? she went back to congress and said, look, we're going to focus on kitchen table issues. right now, democrats are saying we're going to talk about -- >> this is a presidential primary year. democrats are not going to be able to resist. >> democrats are not going to turn a blind eye to donald trump. that's not what we plan to do. >> it's not just the democrats. you talked a little bit about mueller, said he's not going to pay attention to criticism. at the same time you have robert mueller, the southern district of new york investigating the president, the attorney general of new york, it's a real legal investigation circling the president. >> absolutely. you have to remember, some of the people closest to donald trump are now cooperating with

prosecutors both at the state level and also at the federal level. you have rick gates, a former deputy campaign chairman. paul manafort, campaign chairman. michael flynn, former national security adviser. we don't know what they've been telling the special prosecutor all these months. those facts will become clear pretty soon and that will make, i think, a significant mark on the presidency going forward. because once that report is done, we will begin to make some assessments. >> it has been leakproof, the mueller operation so far. we'll be right back. does santa claus himself, need the most trusted battery this holiday season? maybe not.

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you guessed it. more shrimp. steak and unlimited shrimp, starting at $15.99. only at outback. back here at abc news headquarters in new york, coming up on 2:00 a.m. in the east. that is the verdict so far tonight in the house. the democrats have picked up 26 seats, projected to get between 30 and 36. a lot of outstanding seats in california. in the senate republicans retain control of the senate. they have gained three seats so far. but at least three contested races are outstanding. so far the state of nevada where jackie rosen is up against incumbent dean heller. we are finally starting to get some raw votes. a very scant vote coming in. the race is going to be much closer than that. jackie rosen is trailing dean heller, the republican incumbent in the state of nevada. in the state of arizona right now, kyrsten sinema behind martha mcsally.

that's an open seat, the seat of retiring jeff flake. about 12,000 votes separating sinema and mcsally. in the state of montana, right now matt rosendale has pulled ahead now by over 2,000 votes over the incumbent democrat jon tester. so you could see republicans getting as many as four seats as a pickup in the senate right now, as few as two depending on what happens there. and tom llamas, as we take a look at the battlegrounds, what was the big number that struck you? >> it wasn't so much a number as much as it was a pattern. this is where we started the night. and this is where we are right now. and when you look at the clusters where democrats did really well, states like new york, pennsylvania, new jersey, but also virginia, and iowa. we were researching a lot of these races. one trend i noticed, the democrats who won their primaries, the democrats who actually won tonight were outsiders. they were people with military experience. business leaders. someone from the cia as well.

i wonder when we talk about 2020 if what the democrats need, a name we don't have yet, is an outsider. >> not career politicians. tom llamas, thanks. >> you think with the jobs report, 250,000 jobs, unemployment at 3.7%, a pretty strong economy. and look at this number, direction of the country, 54% of voters said wrong track. i was struck bit conversation moments ago, nobody had an answer for the democrats for 2020. and you cannot argue with mary bruce, the tweet from the president, the magic he speaks of, joe donnelly, claire mccaskill, jon tester in the fight of his life, everywhere donald trump went, he had impact. >> jon karl, the president and the democrats can both walk away saying they got a measure of victory. the question is how do they go forward? >> they probably both need a measure of humility. they're going to have to work together to get anything done. the big thing to look at is how does donald trump deal with a democratic house of representatives? because it changed a lot. this was not a big blue wave but

this was a huge sea change in washington. >> huge sea change in washington. the president wakes up to a new washington. cecilia vega, does this put off the talk that inside the white house before tonight of major changes in the white house, or should we still expect it? >> i think we can expect some changes in the white house. perhaps pretty soon. we've been talking about it all night. i think jeff sessions is certainly on that list. i think there will probably be west wing staffers. coming into tonight, there was a headline that really struck me that this midterm election was going to be a rorschach test on president trump. i don't know that we can say right now that it actually was. people were looking to this to either be a rejection or an endorsement of trump's america. i don't know that we've got an answer on which way that goes right now. >> america was divided coming into this election, america is divided coming out of this election. there's division in the house, there's division in the senate. president trump remains in the white house. he can claim victory in the senate tonight. donald trump will pick up seats in the senate for the republicans. democrats will be led, we believe, by nancy pelosi in the

house. brand-new day in washington tomorrow. we're going to cover it all the way. abcnews.com will come on right now, "nightline" for viewers in the west. see you tomorrow on gma.

live from abc7 news. >> now i can stand before you knowing i will have the incredible privilege of serving as your next governor. >> this is such a great country. and it's been factlized and trivialized with rhetoric. we must stop that. we must come together as the great power that we are for the good of the nation, and i think of mankind into thanks to you tomorrow will be a new day in america. >> americans and californians

have voted. good evening, i'm dan ashley. >> welcome to our special coverage of the midterm elections of 2018. >> results are still coming in. . we have reporter all over the bay area and southern california covering all the major races. >> the race to lead california maybe the biggest of all. abc news called the race for gavin newsom over john cox. the results, 57% for governor newsom. 43% for john cox. the projected winner by the "associated press" and abc news, gavin newsom will be our next governor. john cox has already conceded. >> live to news reporter dion lim is at a gavin newsom watch party. hi. >> hey there, even though the crowds dispersed the message was loud and clear. gavin newsom saying an the hard work begins tomorrow. but for now they celebrate. he took the stage and called his wife jennifer a wonder woman after she took the podium and

thanked the crowd. he thanked his campaign and the crowd of 1,000 supporters who gathered here tonight. he didn't use trump's name but spoke directly to him, touting the california dream and importance of inclusiveness. >> the true genius of california isn't the value we work for. it's the values we fight for. this is a state where we don't criminalize diversity. we celebrate diversity. we don't reject, we protect the most vulnerable. we don't put profit and loss ahead of clean air. we don't put profit and loss ahead of clean water and clean coastlines. we don't regulate a woman's body more than we regulate assault weapons on our streets.