Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
Democrats Win the House; GOP Still Holds the Senate. Aired 10- 11p ET
Aired November 06, 2018 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We've got a projection right now in the U.S. Senate. Mitt Romney will be the next United States senator from the state of Utah. He beats Jenny Wilson. Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee, the former governor of Massachusetts. He will be the next U.S. senator from Utah.
In Nevada, too early to call right now. A very competitive race between Jacky Rosen, the Democrat, Dean Heller, the incumbent Republican, too early to call there.
In Montana, similarly, too early to call. The incumbent Democrat Jon Tester facing a very stiff challenge from the Republican Matt Rosendale. Too early to call in Montana.
Let's take a look at the balance of power in the Senate where things stand right now with these projections. Thirty-eight Democrats. They will be in the Senate. Forty-five Republicans in the Senate including one pickup. Seventeen seats right now remain outstanding in the U.S. Senate. We're watching those 17 seats.
Democrats must pick up three Republican seats and not lose any more of their own. Three Republican seats in order to get closer and closer to the majority. It's looking tough for the Democrats right there.
Let's go over to John King and take a closer look because these Senate contests are very significant. The House races very significant. Two different pictures emerging right now.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two very different pictures. I just want to look, I was just peeking at Florida as you were coming over. Just to see 99 percent now in the Senate race. Let's look at the governor's race. Ninety nine percent. The Republicans on top in both of them.
So, your question is when you get to this, let's go back and use the Senate race because this is so key to the battle for control of the Senate. The Democrats need to hold this seat. The Republican Rick Scott ahead.
So, the question is at 99 percent, is there any possibility a, for Bill Nelson to catch up or b, for Bill Nelson to get close enough that it would trigger an automatic recount. It's 0.5., 0.5, so that's .3, .6. So, can he get close enough? Let's just take a look. Let's move this back. Let's come around here.
Ninety five percent. This shows you where there are still votes out. Ninety five percent or less. Well there's still some votes out in these Republican areas. Well, Let's see what's in it. Ninety five percent reporting here. Smaller county but still some Republican votes likely to come in for Rick Scott.
Much smaller county here. But still the possibility of Rick Scott adding a little bit in these red counties. And so, then you come up here. This is what's most important. If you're sitting in the Democratic headquarters, whether it's for the governor's race or the Senate race and you're thinking can we pull this off, most of the vote is in down here. You come down in, 98 percent Miami-Dade. Still some vote to come in, but 98 percent, 100 percent.
So, there's a small amount of Democratic votes there. Larger amount of Democratic votes when you come up here. Just 03 percent, but we're talking 1.5 percent the statewide population. So, it's not a ton of votes.
Then you move up here, even less so. You come up here, 1.3 percent of the statewide population. So, if you're in the Democratic campaigns in the State of Florida right now, excuse me for walking across, just click this off and bring it up.
If you're in the Democratic campaigns the math is looking bleak even though that's not in the state of Florida, that's not a giant number. That's the Senate race. The governor's race, Rick -- Ron DeSantis -- excuse me, has a somewhat bigger lead in the governor's race.
The question is are there enough votes out there to come back? Mark me down as a little skeptical. Are there enough votes out there to get into recount territory? We'll watch those as they play out. A fascinating campaign in the state of Florida. Then you come over into the -- here. You see no pickup opportunities here because we've called these races.
You got something?
BLITZER: Yes. We've got to go to Nia. She got a major projection in the governor's races.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Big, big projection, Wolf. In Kansas, CNN can project that the winner of that governor's race is Laura Kelly, defeating Kris Kobach, who of course was the hand-picked candidate of Donald Trump in that primary. He goes down tonight. This is a pickup for Democrats in a Midwestern state. Again, the winner there, Laura Kelly.
In Colorado, another projection CNN can make. Jared Polis defeats Walker Stapleton in this race. History being made here tonight by Jared Polis. He is now the first openly gay man to be elected to lead a state in the nation.
And now let's go to the races we've been watching all night. Florida. It's pretty much status quo here. Ninety nine percent reporting. Ron DeSantis still in the lead here, 84,000 votes over the Democrat here, Andrew Gillum. Such a closely watched and expensive race. Ron DeSantis hanging on to that lead by about a point. You can see there, 99 percent reporting.
Let's move on to Wisconsin. In the Midwest here, Scott Walker, the incumbent going for his third term over Tony Evers at this point. About 36 percent reporting. He's ahead, and this has been flipping back and forth all night.
In Georgia, down south, Brian Kemp ahead. Sixty five percent reporting ahead of Stacey Abrams at this point. About 250,000 votes. We'll keep an eye on that and we'll take you back to Wolf and Jake.
BLITZER: You know, Jake, as we look closely at these races, some wins for the Democrats but some impressive showings for the Republicans.
[22:04:54] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Absolutely. But let's talk for a second about the Kansas governor's race because what's so interesting there is that there have been, even with Donald Trump's power in certain parts of the country, places like Kansas where he won that state by more than 20 points, Kris Kobach was not able to replicate that.
You had in the Democratic candidate somebody that was able to get endorsements from at least one former Republican governor. And you saw a similar thing play out, although not quite the same, with the Virginia Republican Senate candidate, Corey Stewart.
There are limits to how extreme the Republican candidate can be in certain places, and you saw that with Corey Stewart, who had an interesting relationship, an uncomfortable relationship with a lot of people on the far-right, white nationalists and the like. And so much so that the Republicans pulled out and didn't even support Corey Stewart when he ran against Tim Kaine. He was one of the first people we called.
And then in Kansas we see Kris Kobach, who was part of this silly commission that the president put together to try to justify his ridiculous claim that three to five million illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the last election, this voter fraud commission that was completely disbanded.
And Kris Kobach, who a lot of Republicans were embarrassed by, won the Republican nomination. It was a very close election, but he won it. And now he's defeated. And so that's just an interesting sub-theme going on tonight as well.
BLITZER: Well the Republicans often do that. They get nominate, they somebody who wins a primary who is way too much to the right even for people in some pretty much red states.
TAPPER: Yes, although I've heard that argument made against Ron DeSantis, who currently is leading in the Florida governor's race and against Brian Kemp, who is currently leading in the Georgia governor's race. So there's no hard and fast rule. BLITZER: Right. We got some major projections right now. Take a look
at this. And CNN projects that Sharice Davids will win in Kansas. She is the Democratic candidate. She defeats Kevin Yoder. She is a former martial arts fighter, that Sharice Davids will be the next representative from Kansas. She's one of the first Native-American women that will be in the United States Congress.
Let's go to Pennsylvania right now. Chrissy Houlahan, she will -- she is a U.S. Air Force veteran. She's the winner in the 6th district of Pennsylvania. She defeats Greg McCauley.
Let's go to Minnesota right now. Dean Phillips, another Democrat, he will defeat Eric Paulson. He will be the next representative from the 3rd district in Minnesota.
And in New York, Max Rose defeats Dan Donovan. This is a Staten Island district, but Max Rose, the Democrat, will be the next representative from New York. Those are big numbers for the Democrats. You can see those four projections.
And as a result of that, right now Democrats must pick up 11 more Republican seats in races that are too early to call. But they're leading in 24 of those Republican districts right now. So, they look to be in pretty good shape. Now they're leading in 23 of those Republican districts.
Jake, the Democrats clearly have some serious momentum going on.
TAPPER: They're having a great night when it comes to picking up Republican seats in the house. Absolutely. And as I've been saying all night. They are certainly on track to win the House.
One of the things that Democrats have been able to do so effectively this year is candidate recruitment. Obviously, they've been able to raise a lot of money as well. Republicans finding themselves outraised and outspent two to one in some districts. But they've been able to find really excellent candidates to take, to pick off some of these swing districts. And we see it now.
It's just barely 10.10, 10.08. And we started out, they needed to pick up 23 seats. Now it's down to they only need to pick up 11 more, and we still have the whole west coast to get to. So, we've seen the Democrats' House efforts really paying off tonight.
BLITZER: Because they have plenty of potential to pick up some seats in California.
TAPPER: In California, absolutely. We're seeing, you know, one of the things I believe that Paul Ryan was in Kansas campaigning for Yoder, Kevin Yoder who is the incumbent Republican that we're now predicting will not be re-elected. He will fall to Sharice Davids.
I think Paul Ryan, Speaker Ryan was with Yoder campaigning when all of a sudden President Trump came out and started talking about getting rid of birthright citizenship. And this is one of the things that we heard from Republican house members, which was President Trump all of a sudden was now making it difficult.
Now Paul Ryan had to talk about birthright citizenship. Now Kevin Yoder had to talk about birthright citizenship. That's not what they wanted to be talking about.
BLITZER: yes.
TAPPER: And we see the toxicity of President Trump with these suburban districts although it's only in the urban areas and the suburban areas. He's still very, very popular in the rural areas, which is how we see his candidates winning in Indiana and elsewhere.
[22:10:03] BLITZER: Some very impressive wins for the Democrats. I want to go to Harry Enten. He's taking a look at the forecast right now. harry, you got all sorts of models out there. What do you see?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER & ANALYST: We're seeing that Democrats are in fact going to win back that majority. Right now, our best estimate is they will get up to 230 seats. That's a net gain of 35. They only need a net gain of 23.
I should point out that comes with a little bit of a margin of error. And so, we could in fact see Democrats gain all the way up into the high 230s which of course would be a net gain of over 40 seats which is a big blue wave by any account.
BLITZER: So, you're pretty sure the Democrats are going to take the majority in the House of Representatives. They need 218. They're well on their way. Let's talk a little bit about that, Jake. They're well on their way.
If the Democrat do take the majority in the House then Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate, some more divided government going on with a Republican president of the United States.
TAPPER: Yes, 230 is the projection that Harry just shared. There's a 15-seat margin of victory. They'll take it. It's not a huge number. It's going to mean that the House of Representatives, under a speaker Pelosi theoretically, will have to avoid some of the more controversial votes if they want to win and keep all of what -- years ago Nancy Pelosi, the first time she won speaker, she had these individuals called the majority makers.
These were the moderate Democrats or at least Democrats representing swing districts, and their needs were part of how she decided what the House of Representatives voted on. That is going to have to guide her, I would think, if she wants to keep the house majority, assuming she does ultimately get it.
BLITZER: There's a bunch of Democrats, incumbents and new Democrats who are going to be in the house who say they don't want to vote for Nancy Pelosi.
TAPPER: That's true. That's true. I'm not sure how many of the ones that we've projected already are those Democrats. But ultimately, it's hard to imagine that she will not be the speaker of the house assuming Democrats do win control. But the question is just how tenuous will her control be? How tenuous will any Democrat's control be if it is a 15-seat margin?
BLITZER: Let's go over to John King because there's an interesting development unfolding right now as we speak in Texas. John, update our viewers on what's going on there.
KING: Well, let's look at this Texas Senate race. Ted Cruz is ahead by 142,000, almost 143,000 votes. That has happened as a lot of these smaller rural counties have filled in. So, the question is if you're watching this race, whether you're from Texas or because Beto O'Rourke has become for progressives a bit of a national sensation, Ted Cruz thought he was going to be the president of the United States, ran in 2016.
Obviously, if you're watching this race, you're looking at this map and you're saying, OK, is Texas returning to its DNA? I don't know. I don't know. Advantage Ted Cruz. As these smaller rural areas come in, he's catching up. They're not a lot of votes but there are a lot of them. And so, the math eventually kicks in.
But 16 percent of the vote in Harris County. This is more than 16 percent of the statewide population. Beto O'Rourke running it up at the moment by good numbers. No guarantee when the rest of it comes in. Those numbers will stand. But if it stays close, that's a lot of votes. A lot of votes.
So, you look at that. You come back out. You go up to Dallas. A lot of votes still to come in in Dallas County. You come down here, Austin, Travis County, Democratic area, don't see the percentage here. That's a problem in the feed. We'll get that back. It comes in and kicks out. You come back out. We're still at 78 percent statewide. Cruz is ahead.
That's a lot of votes to make up, let's be clear about that. That's a lot of votes to make up when you're at 78 percent statewide, but this is a big state. Let's come down. San Antonio. If that's right, 13 percent reporting, a lot more votes for Beto O'Rourke to come out of San Antonio and the surrounding areas here.
And then out here where you have some gray still, no votes at all, this is home for Beto O'Rourke. You see he's running up 74 percent there as you watch the vote come in.
So, if you're Ted Cruz, you were behind earlier. You like where you are now that you're ahead. You look at the map and you're looking at the Democratic areas and you're thinking are there enough votes in here. This is the big one.
Again, 16-plus percent of the statewide population. One of the fastest growing areas and more and more increasingly Democratic area where Beto O'Rourke had a big turnout operation. We'll see. If that number is correct, a lot more votes to come out of here so we'll keep counting them as we go.
And as we noted earlier, as you watched this play out in the Senate race, I just want to switch over to the house map. These are house pickup opportunities for the Democrats. Four pickup opportunities just in the state of Texas. Dallas suburbs, south of Dallas, Houston suburbs, there were districts along the border, as you try to get to that math, can the Democrats get to the magic number of 23? They're on their way there. They've already picked up quite a few, more than enough here.
The question is can you close the deal? And if you look at these, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. The New York map has changed somewhat. If you look here, we were talking about the Collins district earlier. He's pulled ahead. It's close, though. We'll keep an eye on that one.
If you come back in here, come into the middle of the state, Claudia Tunney, we showed you this one earlier. Only 12 percent, but the Democrat opening up a big early lead there. We'll see if that one holds up.
[22:14:55] So you see pickup opportunities in the northeast. Again, the redrawn lines, Democrats get to the 23 and more. The court-ordered redrawn lines in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be a big piece of it. You see the opportunity. We've already called a couple races here and you see more opportunities for the Democrats to pick up here.
Then you come down, I just want to check the map and come in here. We've been watching this earlier. Democrats already have won the 10th district up here. Let's check again on this one. Ninety eight percent in. Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat, 2,282 votes ahead over the Republican incumbent Dave Brat.
Again, this is a classic tug-of-war district. Richmond suburbs. President is unpopular. Tea party Evangelical. Areas up here, Trump country, if you will. That's a very close race. We'll keep counting that.
This one, another Republican possibly -- Republican incumbent possibly losing here. Again, 4,395 votes. Ninety six percent of the vote in. A lot of close races, number one. So, we'll keep counting those. Then you pull it out, and you look. OK. Can the Democrats get there? The answer is yes. We'll see if this holds up. This is very early. Only 7 percent.
This is the congressman that President Trump went to Montana and praised for beating up a reporter. He's losing at the moment. It's early, though, in the state of Montana. That's a very narrow lead there but we'll keep an eye on this one, a well.
But as Jake just noted, as you move west, there are even more possibilities for the Democrats. We already flipped the Denver suburban seat of Mike Kaufman. Are the Republicans really going to pick up seats in Utah? We'll see. Fifty eight percent reporting. Mia Love down to the Democratic challenger there in the state of Utah.
Let's move out over here. Republican incumbent Chris Stewart down here 20 percent to his challenger. Only 20 percent there. We'll see how it goes. What's interesting is Democrats have more than enough opportunities. The original magic number was 23. More than enough opportunities to get there.
As we go west, what's the possible universe? That will be the question in the hour ahead as we start to lock up some of these races. The final votes come in. We start counting more as we head this way. What is the -- what's the ceiling, if you will, for the Democrats? Twenty- three? Well within their reach. They still have to close the deal. How much higher can you go over here? That's the big question.
BLITZER: The magic number now is 11 if they win 11--
KING: And you see it, yes.
BLITZER: And we'll see if that happens. We're watching it very closely. Dana, you've got another key race alert.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a number of battleground states that we're looking at right now in the U.S. Senate, starting of course with Texas. Right now, Ted Cruz has pulled ahead. It's been going back and forth all night. He is ahead by just under 150,000 votes. Beto O'Rourke is trailing right now. Eighty percent of the vote in, in Texas.
Boy, are we watching that closely. Same goes for Florida. Early in the night, Bill Nelson was doing well. But right now, Rick Scott, the Republican challenger, is ahead by 51,000 votes and change. Ninety percent of the vote in. It is a tight one. But Rick Scott looks like right now he could put that in the GOP column.
Arizona, this is the first time we're seeing these numbers this evening. It is very interesting because it is an open Republican seat. Right now, the Democrat is ahead just slightly by a percentage point. That's it, against Martha McSally. Again, this is an open Republican seat. McSally is hoping to keep it that way. We'll see how the night goes.
Now let's go to the next contest in Montana. Another state where we haven't seen the numbers yet so far. Right now, Jon Tester, the incumbent Democrat, is ahead by just over 5,000 votes. Matt Rosendale is trying to make what is a Republican state back in the GOP hands in the U.S. Senate. And Jon Tester is trying to keep it in Democratic hands.
Also want to go to North Dakota. This is same kind of story. This is Trump country. There is an incumbent Democrat, and the Republican challenger is winning. Right now, a little over 17,000 votes. That's how much he is beating the Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp. It's fair to say Heidi Heitkamp is considered probably the most vulnerable Democrat in the U.S. Senate. We'll see if that holds up.
Missouri, again, a double-digit state for Donald Trump in 2016. And the Republican he went to campaign many times for is ahead right now, 59.5 percent. Claire McCaskill, the two-term incumbent Democrat is down 37.1 percent. About a third of the vote in, in Missouri. Boy, that is also a close one.
But right now, Wolf and Jake, these are very close contests, and the Republicans in a lot of these states where Trump did very well, tried to help the Republicans, are ahead.
BLITZER: Very interesting what's going on in the Senate. Also very interesting what's going on in the House of Representatives right now. Let's take a closer look at what's happening in the House of Representatives. The Democrats are doing well. The Democrats are leading in 27 Republican districts right now in races that are still too early to call.
Democrats must pick up 11 Republican seats. But look at this. Seven Republicans are leading in Democratic districts right now. But when all is said and done, Jake, it looks like the Democrats are on their way potentially to becoming the majority in the house.
[22:20:00] TAPPER: Yes. I mean as long as they keep up the speed with which they're doing this, Democrats are going to regain the house. I don't think that's going out on a limb to say that. If they win all of these seats, 26 Democrats leading in Republican districts, even if you subtract the seven Republicans leading in Democratic districts and not all of those Republicans are going to win those seats, now it's down to 25.
You still have 18, and they need to pick up 11 more. They're doing what they need to do in these swing districts.
One of the things that's an interesting side effect of this, if you will, is a lot of the Republicans who were critics of President Trump, Carlos Curbelo in Florida, Mike Kaufman in Denver, they are being defeated. So, when the Republican Party regains -- or reconvenes in the house, assuming Democrats have taken over, or not, either way, that will be a more Trumpy Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. The critics will have been picked off quite a bit.
BLITZER: Yes. What do they have in common? They're moderate Republicans going down to defeat because they're associated presumably with the president of the United States. Dana, you've got some projections in the Senate.
BASH: That's right, Wolf. Three projections. Let's start with Nebraska. CNN can project that Deb Fischer, the Republican senator, will go on for another term to serve the people of Nebraska.
Now let's go on to Wyoming. CNN can project that John Barrasso, the incumbent Republican will also go on for another term in Wyoming. And also, let's go to Mississippi, Roger Wicker, the incumbent Republican, again will get another term in Mississippi. These were not contested seats but still very important to keep in the Republican column.
Let's look at what all this means for the balance of power. Right now, 38 Democrats, 48 Republicans. They so far have had one pickup on the GOP side. Fourteen seats remain to be called in the U.S. Senate. Jake and Wolf.
BLITZER: It's still a battle. There's still a bit of a battle in the Senate although it looks like the Republicans are going to maintain their majority in the Senate. The house a very, very different picture, and slowly but surely the Democrats are reducing that magic number to get to the 218 they need to be the majority.
TAPPER: Yes. I mean, we started off and said that the map for the Senate was very, very difficult for the Democrats. And in fact, it looks as though Democrats might even lose seats in the Senate with the map that they had. But the map for the house was the exact opposite. Democrat -- far more Republicans were playing defense and Democrats only needed to win back 23 seats net.
And right now, they're on their track to doing it. Eleven Democratic victories, 11 more flips and Democrats take control of the house. And we anticipate that it will be many more than 11 that we'll be calling in the next few hours.
BLITZER: Yes, especially once California, they close at the top of the hour 11 p.m. Easter, 8 p.m. on the West Coast. There are a bunch of Republican districts in California the Democrats are really, really thinking they can win.
TAPPER: Absolutely. And look, we've only called, for instance, one seat in my home commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We've only called one flip there. There's going to be more than one there. We've only called one flip in Virginia. There's probably going to be more than one in Virginia.
We've only called two in Florida. There's probably going to be more than that. And look at John's obsession with Texas and what's going on in Texas. Whether or not Beto O'Rourke wins the Senate seat, how many Democrats he brought out to vote that are going to fell at least one or two, if not more house Republicans in the lone star state.
BLITZER: Yes. It's a tough, tough fight in the Senate for the Democrats. But looking very good for the Democrats in the House of Representatives. And they are making -- they're scoring some points among governor's races as well.
TAPPER: That was always going to be an area where they picked up a lot because Democrats controlled so few of the governorships. But they are picking up governorship after governorship and that's going to be a real area. At the end of the night, probably the story of the night will be Democrats loss some Senate seats, regain the house and win a lot of governor's offices.
BLITZER: Yes. That's what it looks like. Dana, you've got another major projection in the Senate.
BASH: That's right, Wolf. A big pickup for Republicans in the state of North Dakota. CNN can project that Kevin Cramer, the republican candidate who is now the Republican at large congressman will move over and be the U.S. senator, defeating incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, who people on both sides of the aisle have seen as the most endangered Democrat.
Now CNN is projecting that she has lost and it is going to go into Republican hands. So, what does this mean again for the balance of power in the Senate? Thirty-eight Democrats. Forty-nine Republicans because we now have two pickups, adding North Dakota to that list. Thirteen seats remain to be called in the U.S. Senate.
Democrats were hoping that they would have a miracle in states like North Dakota, but it hasn't happened. Only one of these competitive states has gone the Democrats' way, and that's West Virginia, Wolf and Jake.
[22:25:03] BLITZER: You know, it's very interesting, Jake. The Republicans already have guaranteed 49 seats. They need only one more to get to 50. That's the magic number for them because the vice president would break any tie. They're very close, but they presumably could increase their majority. Right now, it's 51-49.
TAPPER: Yes. That's right. We haven't even called Florida yet. We don't know what's going to happen there.
Let's take a look at the balance of power here in the Senate. Thirty- eight Democrats, 49 Republicans. Thirteen seats remain right now in terms of how many are outstanding. Seven seats remain.
And let's look. OK. So, we have called Menendez in New Jersey and Manchin in West Virginia. They will be re-elected. On the Republican side, Tennessee stays in the Republican column with Masha Blackburn's victory. Indiana with Joe Donnelly losing. North Dakota with Heidi Heitkamp losing. That's now 49 seats.
So, what's left? We have Florida, we have Missouri, we have Montana. Those are three very competitive races. Any one of those Democratic seats could flip to the Republican side whether you want to say Nelson loses and it goes to Rick Scott, Missouri loses -- I mean, Claire McCaskill loses in Missouri and it goes to Josh Hawley.
But let's assume that in the Mississippi election, that they just keep that. Well, that's it. That's all you need, Mississippi. And that's not -- you know, I'm not going out on a limb to say the Republicans are probably going to win the Mississippi Senate race.
So, you know, it's not a -- it's not going to be a challenge for the Republicans to keep the Senate. What's going to be a challenge for the Democrats is to keep these losses to less than right now. They've already lost two Senate seats. They need to keep Florida and right now who knows what's going to happen?
And then there's Claire McCaskill as well we don't know what's going to happen with that, and Jon Tester as well. So that would give 52 seats. You wouldn't need Mike Pence to break any ties.
BLITZER: Yes.
TAPPER: And I'm not even talking -- let's put Texas and Mississippi in here. It's 54 if that happens. We'll put Jon Tester over here just for the sake of it. That's a 53-seat majority based on just the early returns that we have. Again, this is projecting. I'm not basing this on anything other than just extrapolating. But the Republicans are going to pick up seats in the Senate.
BLITZER: You know, but if you take a look at that, there's a difference if the Republicans have a 50-seat majority, 51. But if they get 52 or 53 or 54, they're sitting pretty comfortably in the Senate as far as confirmations of controversial judicial nominees, if there's another Supreme Court nominee, for example. They're looking pretty good.
TAPPER: Well, think about somebody like Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine and all the power she's been able to wield in the last two years because her vote was so crucial, or Lisa Murkowski, the moderate Republican from Alaska. Those two have been able to exact a lot of demands. They were able to -- they did not vote for the repeal of Obamacare. That had huge impact on that. Their concerns were listened to when it came to the Kavanaugh.
BLITZER: We have a major projection right now. CNN projects that Republicans will maintain control of the United States Senate. This is an important win for President Trump and for the Republican Party. Democrats went into the night knowing their chances of reclaiming a Senate majority were slim.
Once again, CNN projects Republicans are holding on to control of the United States Senate. Let's tell you why we are ready to make this projection. Look at this. CNN projects in Texas, Senator Ted Cruz, the incumbent Republican, will beat the Democrat, Beto O'Rourke. Ted Cruz will remain in the Senate for another six years.
Here's the balance of power, where it stands with the Cruz victory in Texas. Thirty-eight Democrats, 50 Republicans. Two pickups for the Republicans. Twelve seats remain outstanding right now.
Remember, in the Senate the Republicans only need 50 to have the majority because the vice president, Mike Pence, is the president of the Senate. He will break a tie. The Republicans maintain the majority in the United States Senate.
Jake, it's not a huge surprise. The Democrats had high hopes for several of these races, including in Texas, but it was always pretty much, I suspect, a long shot.
TAPPER: Yes. There are going to be a lot of very disappointed Democrats who saw the numbers that Beto O'Rourke was able to put on the board early on in this and got their hopes up. He did something that a lot of Democrats have not been able to do, which is make a competitive statewide race.
But ultimately, Texas is a Republican state, and Ted Cruz is a Republican senator. So that's what it was going to be. But no matter what, first of all, Beto O'Rourke, you're going to start to hear people, even though he didn't win, you're going to hear people talk about maybe he should run for president.
And he has done something. He has accomplished something beyond building this support for himself in Texas, which is he has made several house races in Texas very competitive to the point that it's possible, if not likely, that Democrats are going to pick up at least two or three seats in Texas because of the enthusiasm he was able to generate. BLITZER: Yes.
[22:30:01] TAPPER: But I'm sorry to disappoint the Democrats out there that were hoping for good news on the Senate front. They are definitely getting good news on the House front. But they're hoping at least on the Senate front for good news with Beto O'Rourke. It's not going to happen.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, CNN TONIGHT: Yeah, because it's very significant. The Democrats had high hopes. They thought maybe there could be a miracle in the United States Senate. All the experts were suggesting that was going to happen. It won't happen. But they are doing incredibly well in the House of Representatives right now.
TAPPER: Absolutely. They're on track. All they need to do is flip 11 more seats and the Democrats will take control of the House. And we're projecting that they're going to flip many more than 11 seats. They're probably going to have something of a 15-seat majority in the House of Representatives if our projections now -- we're about to make some calls about the House seats.
But, yeah, now we're definitely anticipating they're going to have a victory in the House.
BLITZER: Yeah. Things are moving in the right direction for the Democrats in the House, great disappointment for the Democrats in the Senate, but not a great surprise. We've got a projection in the House of Representatives right now. We've got a bunch of projections in the House of Representatives. Right now let's take a look. In Pennsylvania, CNN projects Susan Wild is the Democratic winner in the 7th district in Pennsylvania.
That's a big win for the Democrats in Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. She's an attorney. In Texas, look at this. Pete Sessions goes down to defeat Colin Allred. He's a former NFL player who decided he wanted to be a member of the United States Congress. He will be the winner in Texas, House 32. In Virginia, Elaine Luria, she defeats Scott Taylor, the incumbent Republican.
She's a retired Navy commander herself. She will be the next Representative from the second district in Virginia. That's a huge win for the Democrats in the commonwealth of Virginia. In Pennsylvania, there is a Republican pickup there. Guy Reschenthaler, he defeats Bibiana Boerio. This is a big win for the Republicans in Pennsylvania. It's a pickup. It is a pickup for the Republicans in Pennsylvania, House 14.
All right, so let's take a look at where things stand right now. Democrats must pick up nine more Republican seats. These are nine more Republican seats. If they do that, they will have the majority in the House of Representatives. They're leading, by the way, in 26. Democrats are leading in 26 Republican districts in races that are too early to call.
But Democrats are looking very, very strong in the House of Representatives. Scott Taylor, that Republican Representative of Virginia going down, just one of several incumbent Republicans losing.
JOHN KING, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: And another solid Republican seat bending over because of the Senate races. There will be a debate. Is it a blue wave? What do you want to call it? What you want to call it right now is advantage Democrats when it comes to -- nine left, nine left. And look at the board. They're leading in 26 seats currently held by Republicans. Republicans are leading in four seats currently held by Democrats.
So Democrats need nine more, plenty of targets of opportunity, and you look at the map. Those targets are from coast to almost coast. We don't -- we're still -- polls are still open out here. We haven't gotten there yet. But if you look at the map, the Democrats are in play, A, to get the magic number of 23, which is the ultimate. And B, the question is looking at this map now, how much higher can they get?
How much higher can they get if they close the deal? So what are we looking at? We come back to the state of New York. We talked about this earlier. Chris Collins under indictment, Republican incumbent, he was behind. Then he pulled ahead. Now he's behind again. It's a close race. This would be a giant. This is a safe Republican seat, his legal problems. Very close, the first Congressman to endorse President Trump.
A prime Trump defender on TV, but if you're an anti-Trump person out there, don't blame this one on the President. This is Chris Collins' legal problems that have him in trouble in this Buffalo area district up here. We'll see how it plays out. It's been going back and forth and we'll see. But again, Democrats look in the northeast, New York, New England, and then Pennsylvania, mid-Atlantic, more than enough to get where they need to go.
We've been watching this race all night long. It's been fairly close, but Anthony Brindisi opening up a bit of a lead here, 31 percent over the Republican incumbent Claudia Tenney here in the central part of the state. Again, 31 percent, we'll keep watching it. But if you're the Democrats, you think, bam. That was on our target list.
That one looks pretty good. You move over here, another Republican incumbent, Todd Faso running behind, 50 percent, 48 percent. So it is close, but the Democrats are looking just at New York, say we need nine more. There are three on the board right there, three possibles, three possibles. We've called some of the races in Pennsylvania, but we're still looking at the possibility Democrats are leading out here in Erie.
They've redrawn the lines. Again, can't compare this year in Pennsylvania to the last House races in Pennsylvania because they've redrawn the lines. But this is a Republican incumbent. Every Democrat, very narrowly ahead here, out here Erie, down the western part of the state, we'll see how that one turns out. But again, if you're Democrats and you need 9, there are your 25 opportunities, give or take whatever the Republicans might -- may or may not pick up.
[22:34:53] We haven't mentioned this race all night. This is up in Maine, the 2nd district up here. The Democrat only five percent, though. So we're counting slowly up there. But we'll watch to see if the Democrat can pull that off. Then you pull it out and you're looking down. We called one Virginia race early. We just called another Virginia race. Is it possible the Democrats pick up three in what was once a red state, now a more blue state of Virginia?
Are the suburbs changing this much, 99 percent, 1892 votes? The Democratic challenger, Abigail Spanberger leading Republican incumbent Dave Brat, again, Dave Brat, when you think back a few years, became a bit of a national name when he knocked off Eric Cantor, who's a member of the House Republican leadership, many thought on track to be Speaker of the House.
So I've been getting texts all night from the Cantor wing of the Republican Party, you might call it. They're not crying over this one. They want to keep the House majority. If it was to come down to one or two seats, they would want Dave Brat to win. There are not a lot of tears, I can tell you among establishment Republicans tonight at those results. We'll keep watching, but it's not final yet.
And we keep watching as we go. And this is just -- Jake just mentioned this. Beto O'Rourke, we've called that race for Ted Cruz now. Just moments ago, Will Hurd had pulled ahead in his race down here. We look at these districts. We just went through some districts President Trump carried like Dave Brat's district. This is a district, Will Hurd's district, Hillary Clinton carried. This was always one of the Democratic targets.
Will Hurd, even Democrats will tell you, ran a good race. So what's going to happen here? We don't know two-thirds of the vote in. It's gone back to Gina Ortiz Jones ahead now by 100 votes. So a lot of close races, those close races are going to matter, because the Democrats need nine more. You look at the map. Pull it up. That's just in Texas. You look at the national map.
They need nine more. They're leading in 26 Republican seats. They're on the path to get what they need to get the House. The question is by how much? Do you win -- at the end of the night, are you net 25? Are you net 30? Can you get up to 35? That's the math, Wolf. We're going to do as we go. And again, the Democrats aren't there yet. They're not there yet. The map looks like there's a path to get there.
BLITZER: (Inaudible) for the Democrats...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Harry Enten, you're doing some statistical models right now. What's the forecast? What are you seeing?
HARRY ENTEN, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST, CNN: So we can't project the House yet. But our forecast is that Democrats will in fact have a net gain of 35 seats. However, it could go even higher than that. We could go all the way up to having a net gain in the low to mid-40s for Democrats, 238 seats, which is far more than they started the evening with, Wolf. BLITZER: It's looking good for the Democrats in the House of
Representatives right now. Harry, we're going to get back to you. And Dana is with us, and Jake, you know let's talk a little bit about the House of Representatives right now.
TAPPER: Yeah.
BLITZER: Assuming the Democrats are the majority and it's looking like almost certainly they will be the majority. What does it mean?
TAPPER: Well, it means a number of things. First of all, let me just talk about how the Democrats are doing this, because we've been talking about this all night, the idea that Democrats really set out to recruit the best candidates they could. And when you look at -- let's just look at the 14 races that we have called having flipped. Of those 14, 10 of them are women, OK?
Of those 14, 6 of them, Crow in Colorado, Sherrill in New Jersey, Rose in New York, Houlahan in Pennsylvania, Lamb in Pennsylvania, and Luria in Virginia. Six of them are veterans, OK, and then one African- American and one Latino. So the recruiting has been let's really find the best people in these districts, and let's make sure that we're not just like leaving this to chance.
So you have to give credit to the Democrats for that, because they have done an excellent job with that. Now what does this mean if the Democrats gain control of the House? It means that there will be oversight of the Trump administration by a branch of Congress. There really hasn't been that in the Senate or the House up until then -- up until now.
It means that sometimes that oversight, those investigations will be considered overreach by Republicans, intrusions by Republicans. Democrats will have subpoena power. That will be very significant. And then, of course, there's the I word that we mentioned earlier, impeachment. This puts it on the table. Does it mean that they're going to do this first thing? No, absolutely not.
But if the Mueller investigation comes down and there are impeachable offenses in there theoretically, or even ones that can be discussed, you now have a branch of Congress that is going to potentially hold hearings, if not actually vote to impeach President Trump.
BLITZER: You know, Dana, the oversight committees in the House of Representatives with Democratic majorities. They're going to go after a lot of stuff that the President doesn't want them to see.
DANA BASH, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Absolutely, because look, let's just be frank. The Republicans, as they have been in charge of the House, they've let a lot of things slide. I would venture to say most things slide.
TAPPER: They've conducted no oversight. There's been no oversight.
(CROSSTALK) BASH: I mean there were some times -- a few instances where they ended up forcing resignations of cabinet members like their former colleague, Secretary Price. But for the most part, you're right. It's been almost nonexistent. The thing that I am thinking about right now is when CNN had a CNN citizen event a couple weeks ago, and Nancy Pelosi said that not only would they have subpoena power, she could use it as leverage for other issues. Remember that.
[22:40:01] BLITZER: Everybody, stand by. Democrats are moving closer and closer into winning control of the House of Representatives, as voting is about to end in five more states out west. California potentially could seal the deal for the Democrats. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Democrats are moving closer and closer to becoming the majority in the House of Representatives. We've got some projections right now, significant projections. More pickups for the Democrats, in Illinois, House 6, Sean Casten is the winner, defeating the longtime Republican incumbent Peter Roskam. Sean Casten, a big supporter of clean energy. He is going to be the next U.S. Representative from Illinois.
In Arizona, another pickup for the Democrats, Ann Kirkpatrick, she is the winner in House 2. She is a big winner. She is a former Congresswoman. She's going to be returning, returning to Arizona. This is the seat that Martha McSally used to have. She still has, but she has been running for the Senate. So look at this. Right now, the magic number for the Democrats has gone down. It started the night at 23, 7 Republican seats.
The Democrats must pick up seven Republican seats. If they do that -- and it's looking like they can, because they're ahead in so many of these Republican districts right now. They will be the majority in the House of Representatives, big night for the Democrats in the House, not so much in the Senate, but very big in the House.
[22:45:01] KING: No question. No question. As Harry Enten just said, now the question seems to be we've got to get them to the magic number of 23. They still need seven. But they're leading in 19. Republicans are leading in two seats currently held by the Democrat. So on the map now with Washington State, Oregon, and more importantly California still to come in, in terms of targets of opportunity for the Democrats.
On the map now, more than enough to get to the magic number, the ultimate number of 23. And then the question is how much can the Democrats build from there once they get there. So you look at the map. And the thing that's striking about this, Jake made the point earlier. There's no blue wave when it comes to the Senate. There's a lot of blue progress when it comes to governors. There is a blue wave when it comes to the House.
And that's going to be the analysis. The suburbs, without a doubt, suburban America is saying sorry, President Trump. We don't like the way you've conducted the first two years in office. And you see that. So more suburban districts, we've taken a lot of them off the map. We've already call them. There is some more right here, even in the state of Utah. Mitt Romney wins big in the Senate race tonight.
Utah, (Inaudible) Democratic House seats, Mia Love's seat, 58 percent in, she's losing quite significantly right now. A woman who became a national Democratic story, if you will, won that seat a couple years ago, spoke at the Republican convention. A lot of Republicans looked at her as a voice of the future. Right now, she's losing. Move over here, Republican incumbent Chris Stewart, losing, now only 25 percent here.
It doesn't mean he's going to lose, but you just see the sweep of the Democratic competitive races, competitive out here in Utah. Let's come back out. We just called the race in Arizona. Iowa, a place -- the Midwest, look at the governors races. Senate races maybe not so much, at least when it comes to Indiana, but Democrats poised to pickup opportunity here. It's only 11 percent, but they believe they can beat Ron Blum here in the eastern part of Iowa.
Let's come over to the southwestern corner of Iowa, 49 percent reporting, the Democratic challenger 54 percent, starting to stretch out a lead. That's 24,000 plus votes. Democrats think a pickup opportunity here. Let's just check on this race. It's not on the list. This is close. Remember, this was not on the Democratic list. Until recently, Steve King got himself in I'll say more trouble with some of the things he says about immigration, white supremacy, and the like.
A close race here, but at the moment, the Republican incumbent Steve King still holding on. We'll keep an eye on that. And you pull it out. Again, the Democrats need seven. They're leading in 19. And they stretch from New York -- let's come down. We've been checking in on this race all night long, 99 percent, which means most of the votes are counted. But again, in a wave year, how do you get there?
You win the close ones. And so are the Democrats going to pick up what should be a reliably Republican seat, a close one there? We'll watch it. That one's not done. But that's what happens in a wave year in competitive, close races. The close ones break to the party that's winning. Come back. I just want to check on this race out here, because this should be a reliably Republican district.
Again, you see here 224 votes. We've got a ways to go out there in Pennsylvania. But if you look at the map and you pull it back out, Democrats need seven. They're leading in 19. Polls are still open out here, more opportunities in California. A couple more out there in Washington State and the like, so the Democrats have it well within their reach, well within their reach. The question is closing the deal.
Let's just look at these seats, to be fair to the Republicans, Republicans trying to do some pickup to make the Democratic math harder. Let's come up here, the 8th congressional district, 35 percent in. This would be the Democratic incumbent leftist seat to run for governor. You see this seat here, Republican running ahead there. That would be a pickup. We'll see if that holds up.
And let's come down here to the bottom part of the state here. In the first congressional district, a little bit closer here at 26 percent, 642 votes. So we'll watch how that one plays out. But some Republican opportunities to pick up, largely rural blue collar areas in Minnesota. The Democratic opportunities stretch from Maine all across, and we haven't gotten to California yet, because the polls are still open.
Let's check on this one. This would be a big upset if this happens. You know, John Tester's leading in the Senate race out here. The Democrat was only ahead by a couple of hundred last time we checked on this. Well, she's now ahead by 7,300 votes. Again, Greg Gianforte, if you don't know him, he was the Republican Congressman who got a lot of national attention when he beat up a reporter who dared to ask him a question.
The President of the United States was just out there praising Greg Gianforte. We will see if the state of Montana decides no thank you. But 23 percent of the reporting there, 7,000 votes, we'll watch how that one plays out. But again, you look at it. The suburbs, number one. You start this victory by looking for the Democrats, assuming they get there. They need seven more, by looking at the suburbs.
And then it is everywhere. Let's just check on what's left on the map in Texas here. We call it the Dallas district. I am stealing this from a friend. Colin Allred who just beat Pete Sessions, former Tennessee Titan, that's two Tennessee victories in Dallas, two successive nights, stealing that from a friend who texted that in. Let's check on John Culberson down here. Again, 52 percent to 47 percent, 77 percent in, you see what's happening.
And again, it's consistent. Suburban areas, reliably Republican suburbs, whether we're talking about Pennsylvania, whether we're talking about New Jersey, whether we're talking about Texas, as you keep moving west, let me check on Illinois as well, because this one has been going back and forth. I am going to come in here to this district.
[22:50:05] It's a pickup opportunity there. It's a pickup opportunity there. So again, from Maine to Illinois to Iowa to Utah to Texas, to possibly Oklahoma, the Democrats have opportunities to pick it up everywhere. It's an interesting night in the sense that if you look at the Senate map, you're seeing a lot of red. Look at the governor map. You're seeing a lot of blue. You come back to the House map.
And again, they need seven more as we move across, more than within their reach, as to Harry Enten's point, projected now to get leading at 17 now. As you go up -- projected to get there, the question is how high can you go. First, let's see if they get to 23. But if so, which appears within reach soon, than that becomes a fascinating conversation, because can Nancy Pelosi navigate staying on in power when so many of the Democrats running have said that's not what I want. The margin will matter in that conversation as we count them up. BLITZER: Yeah. Very, very impressive run so far for the Democrats in
the House of Representatives, we've got a key race alert on the gubernatorial contest. Nia, what do you see?
NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, CNN: That's right, Wolf. We want to look at some of these races in the Midwest. Let's start in Iowa, Fred Hubbell here in Iowa over the incumbent Kim Reynolds, who is the incumbent governor there. You see about 44 percent reporting at this point. This is a state obviously that Donald Trump won in the Democrat at this point, who is a businessman, is out to a pretty good lead.
We'll keep an eye on that. And in Wisconsin, Tony Evers at this point, 4,000 votes spread at this point over the incumbent here, Scott Walker, closely watched race, 64 percent reporting, right now, a very, very slim lead for the Democrat. In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer here out to a pretty good lead here up 300,000 votes at this point over the Republican Bill Schuette. About 61 percent reporting right now, and that's a possible flip for Democrats.
In Ohio, Mike Dewine, a strong lead with 240,000 votes ahead of the Democrat here, Richard Cordray, 91 percent reporting, right now, back to Wolf, Jake, and Dana.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Nia. This is a night that a lot of people are going to remember, especially the President of the United States. He's been watching TV. We're told basically all day getting results in. He's obviously very happy what's happening in the Senate, not so happy what's happening in the House.
TAPPER: Yeah. And the truth of the matter is what happens in the House is going to be much more consequential to his presidency. Because ultimately, it was always going to be a tall order for the Democrats to win the Senate, looks like Republicans are going to pick up a few seats actually. But more important for President Trump, he is now going to have a body of government that opposes him, that has subpoena power, that it has oversight responsibilities.
That is going to conduct investigations of his administration, of him, that's potentially going to try to get his tax returns. The House of Representatives is going to be a major thorn in President Trump's side going forward. And let's be frank. The truth of the matter is that Republicans, for two years now, have just been completely dominant. The conservatives control the Supreme Court.
Republicans controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. And President Trump has had very little checks on his power. The only ones that have really come have been from the media or occasionally from the courts.
BLITZER: We have another projection in the House of Representatives right now, another pickup for the Democrats. Take a look at this, Betsy Londrigan. She is going to be the next Representative of House 13, 13th district in Illinois. She defeats Rodney Davis. Most of her campaign she's focused in on healthcare, wanting to protect healthcare for all sorts of people. She's got a lot off history in that area as well. She will be the
winner. It's another pickup in Illinois for the Democrats in the House. They're moving well on their way. Right now, they must pick up six Republican seats, six more Republican seats. They started the night with 23. They needed to become the majority if they pick up six more. And it's looking very, very good for the Democrats right now.
They will be the majority, because look at this. They are leading the Democrats. Democrats are leading -- 18 Democrats are leading in Republican districts right now. They need to pick up a few more, six more, and they will be the majority. Dana, this is moving in the right direction. And, you know, it's interesting, we were talking about the President of the United States in recent days.
He's been saying I focused all my time on the Senate. I couldn't really get involved in the House. There are so many House seats out there. I really couldn't do much. That's why I wanted to make sure that the Senate stayed Republican.
BASH: We'll he's right. There were and there are a lot of seats. But the missing part of that sentence is that he and every other Republican understood full well what this night was likely going to be for the House, which is very big for the Democrats. In fairness, where he did put his efforts, he seems to have, you know, gotten some fruit from those efforts. So far, Republicans that he campaigned for are doing quite well.
[22:55:05] Some of them we've already called, like in Indiana. We called it for Mike Braun. He helped him. Tennessee for Marsha Blackburn, he helped here. Now, he also went there not just so he can claim victory, but it made the most sense, because he won those states, in some cases by double digits plus, plus. So it was Trump country, and it made sense for him to go and campaign there.
And you know margins do matter. So this is not over. Both in the House and in the Senate, as we've seen in, you know, legislative fight after legislative fight, particularly over the past two years. They can come down to a single vote. And that's why every one of these seats are important.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: I noticed he tried his best to the defeat Joe Manchin in West Virginia. He went to West Virginia several times. He failed in that effort.
TAPPER: Didn't work. We also have to see still what happens with his death wish against John Tester, the Democratic Senator in Montana. We still don't know what's going to happen there. I am still really, really curious as to what happens in Nevada, where there's a competitive Senate race and Arizona, where there's a competitive Senate race, Wolf.
BLITZER: We have another projection in the House of Representatives. New York, the 22nd district, CNN projects that Anthony Brindisi will be the next U.S. Representative from that district in New York, that's another Democratic pickup in New York State. He defeats Claudia Tenney. Another pickup in New York State, Anthony Delgado, he will be the next Representative from that district, the 19th district.
Anthony Delgado, a former Rhodes scholar. He will be the next Representative from New York State. Now that's another big, big pickup for the Democrats. So take a look at this. With these two pickups, the Democrats must now pick up only four more Republican seats. They will be the majority in the House of Representatives. They're well on their way to doing that. Right now, they're ahead. Look at this. They're ahead in 16 Republican districts in races that are still too close to call.
Democrats are moving quickly right now, Jake, to get to that majority in the House of Representatives. You see what's happening in New York State.
TAPPER: Yeah. I mean Tenney and Faso losing is big. I mean, again, I don't think it's a wave, because we still have, you know, Democrats losing Senate seats in Florida. The competition there is still intense. We haven't called either the governor's race or the Senate seat, but the romping that Democrats are doing when it comes to the House is really quite impressive.
And you see Tenney and Faso going in New York. And Tenney was one of President Trump's strongest supporters in Congress, and she's lost. And Faso, I mean he was running against now Congressman-elect Delgado. And the way that Republicans went after Delgado was, even though he's a Rhodes Scholar and an impressive guy, was he's an inner city rapper.
I mean it was a very racially-tinged campaign against him. And it didn't work. It didn't work. He's now the Congressman-elect.
BLITZER: Yeah. And Democrats have picked up 19 Republican seats in the House of Representatives. They needed -- starting the night 23. They need four more. They're well on their way.
BASH: They're well on their way. We have a lot of races that frankly Republicans were looking at as losses that we still haven't called yet. So they are very well on their way. And, you know, the thing also to remember is how we started this night with David Chalian, was telling us about what voters were telling people at the exit polls about what this -- what this election means to them.
And the majority said it means a chance to say that they don't like Donald Trump in these House races. And that is what we seem to be seeing, particularly in the races that are being fought where this entire battle for the House has been fought in the suburbs, with people -- some of them traditionally Republicans who don't like the tone and the tenor, even though their pocketbook is great, their bank account is great.
Their stock market, you know, portfolio is great. And that is what makes this particular election so unlike anything we've...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: We've got another major projection in the gubernatorial projection. Nia, are you seeing?
HENDERSON: Big projection, Wolf, in Florida. A contest we've been watching all night. CNN projects that the winner is Ron DeSantis, defeating Andrew Gillum tonight in that very closely watched race. Ron DeSantis, CNN projects is the winner, back to Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Nia. We've got a huge projection right now. And CNN projects that Democrats will reclaim control of the U.S. House of Representatives, winning new power to take on the President of the United States. This is a very significant defeat for Mr. Trump. A historic accomplishment for the Democrats, even though some House races remain undecided.
