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Democrats Won House Race; Florida to take an Automatic Recount; Republicans Still Hold Senate Seats. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 07, 2018 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is huge. I mean, it is absolutely huge.
You know, we've been talking since the day and the day after the 2016 election, about a record number of women from the congressional level all the way down to the micro local level coming out by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, saying they want to get involved, saying that they want to run for office. And at least tonight the snapshot is historic.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Right. And it's a plus-minus. Because on the plus side what we're talking about right now. And not just Democrats, you have women on the Republican side as well. A lot of the races--
(CROSSTALK)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Marsha Blackburn.
CUOMO: Yes. Winning at the Senate.
COLLINS: Winning the Senate seat in Tennessee.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes.
CUOMO: Two women in races. We saw a lot of that tonight.
HENDERSON: Yes, Arizona.
CUOMO: A diversity of politics, of ethnicity, we may see the first Korean-American woman Republican to win a house race. We're still tracking that. On the negative side in terms of looking at the Republican picture, voter turnout. Sixty percent of suburban college educated women went against the GOP. That's going to be a big headline in terms of the progress to that party.
COLLINS: Right. And the big question about that inevitably will be what happens in the next presidential election. A lot of these women who ran as Democrats did so is either because of the Me Too movement or because of the election of Donald Trump. It is a bigger rebuke of him. And that comes as we are seeing the gender gap continue to grow and grow.
So those are the questions that not only going to shape, you know, what happens now but what happens going forward. Right now, President Trump is saying this is a success. He is saying look at what's happening all we did was lose the house. But that's a big loss.
Not only that. But Kris Kobach, potentially Scott Walker, all of these things going on that are not really wins for the president. And I think when he wakes up in a couple of hours -- he may not even be asleep yet -- he's going to go to the front page of the Washington Post, he's going to see the front page of the New York Times which he gets every single morning and it's going to say Democrat seize the house. Democrats win big, XYZ.
He's not going to like those headlines. And he's going to have a little bit tougher time spinning those into a positive message and if Scott Walker loses, what does that say about the states that sent President Trump to the White House? They are going to have all lost their governor races to the Democrats. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and those three are really critical to the reason why Donald Trump is in the White House right now.
HENDERSON: Yes.
COLLINS: So, what does that mean going forward?
HENDERSON: And we saw some records as well in terms of -- you're talking about the governor's races there. You talk about Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer that sending her to the governor's mansion there. Sixteen women ran for governor this time. That was a record.
And if you look at the way Democrats have flipped some of these states, women were the ones that flipped them. I mentioned Gretchen Whitmer, Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico and Laura Kelly in Kansas. A big shocker tonight with Kris Kobach going down to defeat to Laura Kelly.
So, a story there of women, sort of, to the extent that the Democrats do well in the House. To the extent they did well in governor's races too. Powered by women.
CUOMO: He's going to have two big questions he is going to have to answer about the House. And we all know that him focusing on the Senate, he didn't really care about the House. He expects -- that spin that's all it is, and he is going to have to deal with it on three fronts.
The first front is going to be, they are going to be in charge of the committees right now and the Democrats are going to have to make a choice, how hard do they want to go after the president? It's not that easy a choice. I know a lot of you Democrats out there who are saying we've been waiting for this. Have you really?
There's a reason that Nancy Pelosi didn't want to talk about the I word, impeachment. There's a reason that they're worried about more protracted, you know, just straight-up structure. That you know, it's a concern. It's not a done deal. So, we see which way they go.
But there are two other fronts. One, the women vote going against him, 60 percent of white college women, 43 percent white no college women. You know, those are not good trends and metrics for the Republican Party.
And then the third part is going to be the issue. Healthcare was big for the Democrats.
BASH: Right.
CUOMO: The immigration was top for Republicans, how much of that was because of the president pushing it, you know, is an open question. But it also could have hurt them in House races. That's going to be recalibration that's going to be Trump focused as well. There's going to be a lot of homework after this.
BASH: Chris, even before we started to get the results, Republicans I've been talking to for days who are looking at crunching the numbers, sweating big time, when it came to the House, were not happy with the closing message from the White House and from Senate candidates on immigration.
Because what these Republican sources were telling me is, we are not giving Republicans these exact voters you're talking about, particularly women in the suburbs, and independents a reason to vote for the Republicans.
We're only giving them reasons to dislike the tone and tenor of Washington. You're giving the people who are, sort of the -- the people who are hungry for the red meat a reason to vote Republican but not these key swing voters in the swing districts that race after race tonight have gone to them.
[03:05:03] HENDERSON: Yes. And we saw Trump tried to sort of, in the closing hours of the campaign bring Ivanka on stage.
BASH: Exactly.
HENDERSON: And Sarah Huckabee-Sanders there, as well, Kellyanne Conway, but even in that mode he couldn't help but sort of play the culture warrior. When he was saying I can't really say that my daughter is beautiful because people can't say that. Women can't call their girlfriends and wives and daughters, and in this case beautiful at this point.
So, how they move forward at this point in trying to close this gender gap, does he really care? He gave this sort of halfhearted effort near the end. He talked about maybe he should change his tone a little bit.
CUOMO: Yes.
HENDERSON: But my goodness, we'll die after--
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: And then he said, so he says, I have to change my tone, right? And that automatically read is a little bit of opportunism for anybody who has been following him for any amount of time. And then he says, I really do want to unify.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CUOMO: Eventually. Eventually I want to unify.
BASH: Let's be optimist.
CUOMO: Yes.
BASH: I mean, it's three in the morning, so let's be optimist. He did call Nancy Pelosi.
CUOMO: He did.
BASH: They talked about things that they can do together. Nancy Pelosi certainly has so much more power. Her party has so much power to investigate, to do the checks and balances.
CUOMO: Yes.
BASH: But she also has been very aggressive about talking about common ground, about infrastructure, about, you know, prescription drug prices. Things where they can work together. So, it's very easy and obvious based on recent history like, I don't know, five minutes ago to fall to the fact that there's going to be division but may be there can be hope.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: But that can also be a big year for Republicans. Because as we saw that call to Nancy Pelosi, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders came out spoke with reporters said he had, essentially implied he had no intention of calling Nancy Pelosi.
CUOMO: Yes.
COLLINS: She said, why does he need to call her because some members of her own party don't even want her as a speaker. And then he called her.
BASH: Yes.
COLLINS: That is a sign of what President Trump could do going forward with these conservatives who have tied in these Republicans who have to reshape their party to fit President Trump. Will he break with them, will he abandon them now that they've modeled themselves after him to agree with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Democrats on something? I still think that's a really big possibility, but also will the president regret not trying to expand his support over the last few weeks.
Because over the last two weeks during this blitz we saw them go to states he won comfortably in 2016. He didn't try to go anywhere else and when his arguments were all about immigration not about the economy not trying to reach out to those suburban women that he's going to likely need in the next election, those are the big questions that we're going to walk--
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: And how does Nancy Pelosi deal with the influx of progressives, many of whom don't even want to see her as speaker and probably don't necessarily want to give Donald Trump any way going into 2020. It's going to be a real calculus for her going forward how she works with this president and how she keeps that restless base of progressives who can't stand this president. How does she balance both those actions?
CUOMO: Well, but also, look, you're right about optimism that's why we want to see big turnout. We wanted people to take the power back in this process because, you know, we know a couple of things axiomatically about politics. Is that politicians fear consequence and acted up more than they do out of conscience.
BASH: Absolutely.
CUOMO: And if they don't have to fear the many all of you. They will then cater to the few into money and special interest, so one feeds the other.
However, what we see tonight is also we are divergent society. All right. The reality is if you look what happened in the Senate, if you look at the row of votes that are going to come out tomorrow morning and the next couple of days, when you look at how the Republicans dominated rural areas with non-college-educated people.
Look, I know a lot of you find that to be an insulting description. So, do I. But that's the way they do the demographics, OK? And if you look at those parts of the country, we're going to see 55, 59, 60 percent of the vote going to Republicans. That's one direction of policy and of talking rhetoric.
Then you are going to see what happened on the House side where the Democrats won and you are going to see it's suburban. It's educated, it's young, it's more ethnic. You are going to see that these different groups of parties are clinging and moving away and that's where we are right now.
So, we have an update for you. Dana, do you hear on what's going on right now?
BASH: Yes. So, we're looking at the votes coming in from Florida. The Senate race, and the big question has been, why haven't we called it. Look at the margin. Look how tight that is 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent. What I'm told that this could be and this is been an open question is recount territory.
Automatic recount for in Florida. According to Florida law. It is automatic recount if it is under .5 percent.
CUOMO: Right.
BASH: And that's where it is right now. So, it is not over, we're still waiting for votes to come in but that is where these incredibly tight races. I know probably people are getting hives at home when I say Florida and recount but that could be where we are right now.
[03:09:57] CUOMO: All right. So, look, do you see a little number on the bottom 99 percent, you know what that means. Over the wall we go. We go to Phil Mattingly. So, 99 percent is in. We're looking for one more percent. What do you see in terms of the different boxes of counties there. Where that vote could be.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. it's not necessarily what you see right now is the fact that there's absentee ballots could come in. And in past races as many as .5, .6 percent of the total has shifted based on those absentee ballots.
And so, you want to explain, Dana kind of hits the key point here. We've been hearing it why haven't you called Florida, why haven't you called Florida. Our decision desk is very cautious and careful for a reason right now. And that's because there is outstanding vote. There's outstanding vote that could put you into recount territory.
And as Dana just laid out right now .4 percent separates them, that triggers an automatic recount. Add that with the absentee vote and the reality is, so long as there is an outstanding vote and a possibility of a recount which they're in the territory of right now, there are going to call a race right now even though people very much want them to in some cases.
CUOMO: Right. Now I don't know. I don't know if you know on the control, you tell us if neither of us knows in terms of when the absentee ballots had to be mailed in, right, that becomes part of the calculus. Because how do they know they have absentee ballot. Well, you know how many were requested. How do you know? Well, they are different filing mechanisms from request mechanisms, but they had to be postmarked by today.
MATTINGLY: Right.
CUOMO: So that means they may not have them.
MATTINGLY: And it says it's in the past has taken days as much as a week--
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Right. So, you just -- you will not know tonight. You may not know tomorrow.
MATTINGLY: That right now I think that's the calculation. So long as it's within recount trigger territory. Our people are going to be very careful. And for that reason, we have seen -- we have seen things change before in the past and when you -- and I think that caution is merited. Given everything that we've seen coming up to this point right now.
If you take a look right now, zoning in right now keep going to the gold coast where Democrats tend to bring in a lot of vote, a 100 percent in right now. CUOMO: What about Panhandle, and the places that were really hit by the storm territory in terms of what that does for, you know, turnout and delayed turnout, do we know anything?
MATTINGLY: Well, I mean, keep messing around trying to see if there's any outstanding vote that you can kind of tie into it.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Sure. I love to see you work the wall. I can't do it but I love to watch.
MATTINGLY: Look, Panhandle was going to come in like we expected to come i, right. It was going to be red. It was just a matter of to what extent was it going to be red. Rick Scott running up an 18-point margin in Escambia. That's a good design for Rick Scott.
I think the bigger question for Rick Scott, look we always talk with the Panhandle, but Southwest is extraordinarily important for Republicans. If you want to know why Donald Trump won in 2016, everybody talks about the Panhandle and you could hear it that night Republicans were stunned with the numbers they're seeing turnout was.
But it was in the southwest, particularly in places like Collier County was really kind of changed the game for everything. You look at what Rick Scott is doing in Collier -- did in Collier County and opening a 31-point margin. That's going to make a pretty huge difference in the race.
I do think, though, just to pull back a little bit, particularly because you don't get a good sense right now of if there's any outstanding vote. As it currently stands, again, the rationale for doing this, the caution is merited. In the past, in past races, one, right now it's .4 percent right now, the differential. That if it sticks ends up triggering an automatic recount.
However, what we have now is with the absentee ballots, as you noted that had to be postmarked today it could take a couple of days to come in, it could fall out of that .5 percent range. Rick Scott could be declared the winner but it also could tighten up as well. And that caution is merited given that both history and the numbers right now.
CUOMO: All right. So, we'll keep an eye on this. This is not something where we're going to figure it out in the next hour or so. Because you're hearing why there could be ballots, they even haven't gotten yet. They'd be postmarked today. We'd be following this.
Similarly, up in Georgia contest in that governor's contest you're seeing different dynamics that may not play out today or tomorrow or maybe even for a week. It may turn into litigation.
So, let's take a break. There are still outstanding races on the Senate side and the House. We are figuring out in America right now who we are. And that's going to tell us where we will go with this new change of power. Stay with CNN.
[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: All right. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of election night. We have something to project. Let's get to Nia-Malika Henderson who's got the governor's race. What do we know?
HENDERSON: That's right, Chris. In Nevada, CNN can project that Steve Sisolak is the winner in this governor's race, defeating Adam Laxalt. This is a pick up or Democrat. I think now we're at five pickups for Democrats. So, a winner there Steve Sisolak. CNN can project that he has defeated Adam Laxalt in Nevada, that swing state.
So, yes. Good news for Democrats who had sort of mixed bad with governor's races so far.
CUOMO: Well, I cannot tell you how happy I am because this gives me an opportunity to play with this tablet in front of me where they've been telling me not to touch all night but now I can.
All right. Let's look where the state of play was with governors at the beginning of the night, all right. Thirty-three, sixteen, and why does this matter. The simple reason is congressional districts. States decide how districts are drawn and as we all know that can be a funny business so this matters.
Now here's where we are. All right? The gold ones are still outstanding, you see Wisconsin there and Nevada we just turned blue because of the projection that Nia just gave us.
So now we're at 20, 24, right, five pickups, six races to go. There's only one through independent out there, right, which was Alaska that's outstanding he dropped out. So now if Wisconsin which is Walker and as Phil was saying earlier, maybe it's just a matter of electoral fatigue up there, you know, not that he's done anything wrong necessarily. But the electorate the voters there are ready for someone else.
If that goes in favor of the Democrats then you are going to be 21, 24. It's going to be a very different board in this state to play. All right. So that's on the governor's side. We are going to keep watching these other races. Some may come in, some may not. Some of them have a little bit of funny electoral policies. But, it's a big deal.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CUOMO: It's a big deal. Are there some missed opportunities that are going to be discussed tomorrow for Democrats? Yes.
HENDERSON: Plenty heartburn for Democrats.
CUOMO: A 100 percent.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CUOMO: A 100 percent. But 33, 16 was a real hole and it was are reflective of poor planning by Democrats. The Republicans have been eating their lunch for like the last decade putting money into state legislative seats, literally like a thousand they won during the Obama years and people wrote that off like, so what, they do the districts that change the face of Congress.
BASH: Yes.
[03:19:57] CUOMO: It makes races less competitive or more, you know, more to the advantage of the party that draws the district. So, this will create some parity.
COLLINS: And Ron DeSantis is going to be a big win for President Trump when all is said and done looking at this, because in 2020--
BASH: Yes.
COLLINS: -- he is going to have a good friend down in Florida as he's going into that presidential race and that is someone he handpicked against the advice of his Republican friends.
BASH: Yes.
COLLINS: Who said, do not go here. That had a lot of heartburn and grief from people going into the state. They think he made a big mistake. Not only that but in Kansas with that really embarrassing loss with Kris Kobach, that is something that people in the White House just groaned about essentially when President Trump endorsed him. They said he shouldn't do that.
Brian Kemp was someone else they were worried about but that could work out for President Trump in the end. But DeSantis is going to be a big win for President Trump because that is someone, he handpicked DeSantis has tout himself about President Trump but now he's got a pretty good friend down in Florida for all of this.
BASH: And DeSantis owes him, not just for handpicking him--
COLLINS: Yes, exactly.
BASH: -- but for helping pull him across the finish line.
COLLINS: Campaigning.
BASH: Campaigning hard and getting all these people down. He, meaning the president--
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Going after Gillum.
BASH: -- and his people down to Florida to really help him. And as we know from 18 years ago if that's really tied in a presidential it certainly helps to have somebody maybe not a brother but somebody very close and--
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: Yes. I mean, DeSantis is almost like a brother to draw at this point.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Yes. He is certainly closer to Trump than his own brother.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CUOMO: That's for sure. I mean, the commercial with him with his kid screaming.
BASH: That's right.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CUOMO: So, it can't be anything, you can't ask for better than that. Kaitlyn is making a strong point. All right. So those are the governors. Let's now take a look at the state of play here with the House and the Senate. Yu see on the wall there, you got 218 to 198, 19 seats remaining, 26 pickups already.
The huge story for the night for the Democrats, women. Women have owned almost all of the pickups that they had that have mattered so far. And they -- we've seen them across the ideological spectrum. We've seen it's going to create opportunities and challenges for Democrats. That's the story of the night for then.
They've got a lot of seats that they picked up tonight. There are 19 remaining. We'll be tracking them throughout. What will this mean? It's up to the Democrats. What leadership do they choose, who do they put in charge of the different committees and what direction do they take based on who won?
Eight Democrats are leading in Republican districts. What does that tell you? A simple math, 218 plus eight, 226 the Democrats could be looking at. What does that mean? Well, operatively not that much, right, once you have a majority you have one.
However, the bigger the majority you have, the more votes you can shed on any particular issue and still wind up getting what you want by your agenda. You see there are one Republican leading Democratic district we'll keep an eye on it.
Let's go over the wall, Phil Mattingly figure out what it's like on the map. So, all those numbers on the map look like what, and tell us what.
MATTINGLY: Yes. So, you hit the top one. Right now, 36 Democrats are leading in GOP districts who have already been called that would give a number 227, so let's go find them and see what the story tells us.
I'm actually most interested right now, go down called pickups, you see right now eight Democrats are leading in races where they could flip districts. What I'm most interested about is the state of California. Take a look at California right now. You see two blue districts that are lit up right now. Going into this night there were considered four, maybe five, and maybe even six Democratic pickups in the state. Right now, only leading in two districts. Now the votes are still coming in. But I think it's interesting when
you start to track it down. Now we've been talking about Orange County in these types of races here. Mike Levin was considered a bankable seat. This was Darrell Issa's district. He retired 49th district. This is considered where Democrats are expected to be won that was in the bag right now, Mike Levin up by 5,000 votes. It looks like it's heading in that direction.
Let's in again on Dana Rohrabacher. Ninety percent reporting. Dana Rohrabacher about 2,000 votes down to Harley Rouda. It looks like he could be in trouble there but there's still some votes to come in. What I'm actually more interested in are the races that haven't come in yet.
And that's when you move over Mimi Walters. Eighty percent reporting. This was a Republican and the Democrats thought was very much on the brink of getting bounced.
This was one-word Republicans thought they were in big trouble in this district. Katie Porter raised a ton of money, the Democratic challenger. Take a look right now. Mimi Walters up by 7,000.
And I think the point I'm trying to make here we already talked about the 39th district. There was a Republican star in this district that what we're seeing right now is that she's actually coming to fruition on that point.
But I want to move up to a couple of other races too. Because these were places where Democrats were extraordinarily high on their candidates. Look at this one. Steve Knight, the incumbent Republican. This is Los Angeles County, Katie Hill from the area. Right now, Steve Knight is 68 votes ahead.
The broader point I'm making here is Democrats thought they had pick up opportunities in top-tier candidates, star like candidates to come in and make an immediate impact. That might still happen tonight.
CUOMO: What kind of district is the 25th?
MATTINGLY: It's northern L.A. county. And then Steve Knight was a former L.A. police officer represents the district. He is well known in the district, but I think the interesting part is Steve Knight is also a conservative. And this is a district that--
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Is that a conservative district?
MATTINGLY: -- the demographics have changed. The demographics have started to change. It's suburban to some degree, not entirely but the demographics started to shift heavily. And I think you point this one out. But I also want to move up here because this makes some of the point that I think you're trying to make right now.
[03:24:52] Jeff Denham. This district is 40 percent Latino. This district is a district the Democrats have been eyeing for a long time. Hillary Clinton won this district pretty handedly. Jeff Denham has obviously worked to be a moderate on immigration, he tried to figure out a solution on DACA, he tried to be kind of dealmaker on that.
Josh Harder raised $7 million. He's raised a ton of money in this race. Democrats thought this was a pickup they could have. Still could get it. Tight now 750 votes ahead. Jeff Denham is with 86 percent reporting a lot of time there. But I think what I'm most interested about we knew these races would be close but Democrats thought they had real opportunities in this these races. And I think there still are real opportunities in these races.
But the fact of the matter is, these Republican incumbents are still holding on right now. And so, you talk about what's the e margin going to be when Nancy Pelosi or whoever is the speaker takes over and takes the gavel. These are races that could bounce that up a little bit and as of now, only two of the four, five or six that they thought they might have an opportunity to pick up have come to fruition.
Now if you're a Democrat, you're saying we won the house.
CUOMO: Right.
MATTINGLY: Cool it a little bit. But I think the bigger point is you look at the money that went into these races.
CUOMO: Yes.
MATTINGLY: And you look at the intensity of obviously California in general, the resistance in general of the statewide races in general, and more importantly, I think you look at the candidates. These were candidates the Democrats were very high on, they wanted all of them to come to Congress if they could. And right now, I think it is still very much up in the air how that's going to end up.
CUOMO: Arizona Senate. We've been watching that. It has been very tight. Two women going on head-to-head there. Either way, you are going to have a really good story line coming out of it. You are going to have it first. So, what do you see here, how many votes are left?
MATTINGLY: Seventy one percent reporting right now. Martha McSally 22,000 votes ahead. We haven't seen this move much recently and I think and that's a concern here in terms of how you late you want get into the night. Where's the outstanding vote right now.
Well, let's go Maricopa County, 87 percent reporting that has mostly been static over the course over the last couple of hours. I think there's some talk that you're not going to get the full Maricopa resort -- results for another day or two going into this.
What I'm kind of struck by at this moment is Krysten Sinema is winning Maricopa County. This is a County that Democrats have close the gap on. Hillary Clinton lose this County by two, three, maybe a little four points.
But Krysten Sinema winning this County that's a huge deal for Democrats. And John laid out earlier, you have the Phoenix area. You have Phoenix suburbs that's Democrat country but you moved down a little bit and this is clear Republican country. Republicans traditionally hold Maricopa.
Krysten Sinema is winning Maricopa County, and yet, Krysten Sinema is losing overall, and I think that's got to be a little bit of a concern. But I think the interesting element is when you talk about where is the votes still outstanding at this point in time (AUDIO GAP) has come in. Maricopa is still at 87 percent. Everything else in this area for the most part is--
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Is tax.
MATTINGLY: -- is tapped out and for the most part it's also Republican.
CUOMO: All right. So, there are still a lot on the board that we have to watch and that's why I got you here.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTINGLY: Look, the bottom line with both Arizona and Montana, it's going to take a while.
CUOMO: We got some time.
MATTINGLY: We got some time.
CUOMO: All right. Well, good, then let's take a break. Get yourself a beverage. We come back, we're going to check in with all the races. We have outstanding races that haven't been projected. Many too close on the Senate side, and the House. So, please, stay with CNN.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, AMERICA'S CHOICE 2018 SHOW HOST: And were back now. Let's talk about these two gentlemen, one of New York one in California. Both of them under federal facing federal indictment right now, I am talking about Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter and I want to bring it now to the panel here. They both face federal indictments, but they both won, both endorse -- it is like jumping out of our chair over there.
MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, for Duncan Hunter. This is a district that Donald Trump won by 15 points, OK. So the margin that we are seeing is actually closer and then a lot of people are expecting, even though it is a 60 count indictment. He and his wife were accused of misusing a quarter million dollars on the campaign credit card, there are charges of wire fraud, conspiracy a heat his next court date is I believe December 3rd, but when I went out in his district and talk to voters as much as they could not stand Duncan Hunter behavior and the fact that he blamed his wife for a lot of this.
LEMON: He blamed his wife and opponent. Everyone, but himself. RESTON: They said a lot of the Republicans voters that I spoke to
said I am still going to cast a ballot for him, because I consider it to be a ballot cast for Donald Trump.
LEMON: You open the door. What does it say? People were sort of closing down.
(CROSSTALK)
RESTON: He is in a sense and will fight the charges all the way to the end. Just for the record.
MARK PRESTON, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: It is very simply. I will make this very short. It is worth noting, we talk about how great democracy is, it is great, this is the greatest nation on earth and our government is the greatest government, but it has flaws. This is example of flaws. And this is an example of a flaw. We see, Duncan Hunter reelected, 60 counts against him right now. Chris Collins who wanted to leave, because he was indicted and yet he couldn't and now he has been re-elected.
LEMON: Collins the first to endorse Trump in 2016 and he is been charged with security fraud, wire fraud, false statements stemming from allege insider trading.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have seen indicted members of Congress elected before. Michael Grim may I remind you. I believe William Jefferson was indicted I think. And cold hard cash. Predict it.
(CROSSTALK)
Frozen assets tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then there was -- there was -- and not -- not convicted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indicted. And I believe if memory serves it correctly, I think Shak was under indicted when he won election as I recall. And that I am just saying it happen before and it is happening again. It is happening tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is tribalism. These districts, Collins and Hunter, they were elected, they were drawn to elect Republicans and -- people -- more people lose, because the districts are drawn that even -- I used to say, unless you get indicted you're going to win in the district. The truth of the matter in some of this districts, even if as this shows, you do get indicted you're probably OK, no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is why the gubernatorial, the governor's races matter so much. The Democratic -- the DGA they defended all of the incumbents and we pick and Democrats pick up a lot of governors seats.
[03:35:04] That will matter when it is time to draw the maps, when it is time for the 2020. Something like, there are real live implications for what happened today beyond the house.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In that regard Democratic Party that controls California and drew these maps. Let's just be clear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pennsylvania too. I mean, look, gerrymandering is not unique to one side or the other, but I will say. Florida and Ohio were -- were --
LEMON: Hold on. It is not unique to one side or the other. But you look at all the -- let's be honest, look at -- look, it is worse on the Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democrats have to win a lot more seats.
(CROSSTALK)
They're looking for this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats control the House of Representatives, was it for 54 years? Are you trying to tell me that Democrats didn't have everything gerrymandered?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody is saying we never -- we never gave to gerrymandering. But I think what folks are saying is that currently under what we see right now today, it is Republicans that have -- have benefited from that surgical cuts to benefit Republicans.
LEMON: I got to get to the (inaudible), who has the major projection of the governors right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Easy to carry on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks Don, we do have a major projection here. CNN projects that the winner in that Wisconsin race is the Democrats. Tony Evers defeating Scott Walker who has been a top target for Democrats for a number of years. He finally losing in this race. He was going for his third term. Tony Evers on top here in this race. In the Midwest state, of course, Donald Trump won by a hair. So this is a pick-up, I am going to pass it on to you.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN TONIGHT NEWS GUEST HOST: All right. So let's talk about that race real quick on what might had happen. Scott Walker didn't have any huge blemish. There was no scandal. We don't even really see a Trump factor there one way or the other. So what do we explain it as? A simple fatigue, because Evers, he didn't come in there in some kind of a flaw attached or kind of, you know big stardust stump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're right. In some ways people sort of describe this race as bland versus bland, both candidates, bland, essentially.
CUOMO: That is the word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You saw in these race really a debate about healthcare, and about education. And some of the cuts that Scott Walker made in that state, some of the promises he made around Medicaid and you have this candidate in Tony Ever, somebody who is a really able to rally a lot of those Democrats. Who had sought the defeat of Scott Walker for years? Remember, he was recalled in 2012. There was an attempt to recall him in 2012. He beat that back. And in most of his races, you know, he gave 53 percent of the vote or something. And so, yes, they rally saw a target here. He was going for the third term. So, I think it was a sort of combination of both fatigue and just a candidate who was just right for this state. Doesn't necessary alike of flashy folks. And so here's this guy who was a folksy grandpa figure in that state.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And the other interesting question is now that you have the Democrats, winning as governor, Wisconsin, the Democratic Senator winning re-election and Wisconsin was one of those huge surprise OMG moments for the Democrats when Donald Trump won there in 2016. So, one question is whether the Democrats are coming back?
CUOMO: In Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Trump won all of those. And now they all have Democrat governors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
BASH: Exactly. That is a question. The blue wall is being built back up a little bit.
CUOMO: All right. So let's take a look at the map here. All right and if we look at what is still outstanding, if we cross off Wisconsin, we now have five races that we're looking at. Here is what we see, four out of five are breaking Republican right now. All right so, you have in Maine we believe that is happening there, right. If they get that race, I'm sorry, Maine is a Democrat, let's get it straight. All right.
So, if in Maine it goes the way it is looking right now which is that you have a Democrat leading. All right, if that stays like that, that is one. In Alaska you have Republican leading, right? Connecticut, that is a little bit of surprise race. But right now Republican doing well there. That state has its own unique set of issues that they are dealing with. They had been very progressive when it came to gun control and dealing with crime. They have a big property value and property tax issue there that they are dealing with and that is something that the Republicans have been playing to well. Now, Georgia, look, I got to touch it red here right now, because even though Stacey Abrams is saying they are outstanding issues we didn't see going by the model, you only know what you show in terms of votes left on the map.
[03:40:00] I don't know how she gets to 50 percent and triggers an automatic recount. She said there's absentee ballots, she says there are provisional ballots. Maybe, that could turn into litigation. We don't know if they get to a recount there. So, fugitively I am just putting it Republican right now. Then, New Hampshire, and New Hampshire also, right now, going Republican. They're in the lead. What do we see in the picture? 28-22, Republican advantage, some hard break for Democrats in some of those races, but look at what it was, 33-16. So an unqualified good night for Democrats there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that is right. And they went in to this race feeling like if they got six pick-ups that would be a good night. There were all sorts of was predictions about the night would be. Three would be this bare minimum they would get. Some predictions up to 10 or 12. And they landed at six, so they feel pretty good. Listen. Heartbreak over Florida, of course. Heartbreak over Ohio. They went in those contests thinking that they could win Democrats did and we obviously called those the other way. Big important states for 2020 and beyond. But listen, yes, they got wiped out, Democratic governors did during the Obama years. So this is bit of a comeback story for Democrats tonight in the governor's race.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And the view inside the White House is really, they couldn't help it because -- because of that number was so large. They thought they of course would lose seats. Whether wasn't anything they could do? But they also -- there was a sense that they didn't focus enough on the governor's races, because that is so crucial for going forward. As you know, arguably longer lasting implications in some of these house in Senate races that we had been talking about.
So they could walk away from this and say we're going to be OK. But it is going to be really painful for them with these losses in Michigan, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Who knows what is going to happen with Georgia? They were expecting Florida not to go their way. They really thought, the White House was really concerned about that this morning. That Kansas and of course, Georgia were their big concerns. The Michigan and Pennsylvania, those are going to be really painful for them to deal with going forward.
CUOMO: All right. So Georgia we have a little bit of update. So what is going on there? Stacey Abrams has not conceded. OK. She gave a speech and she was rallying her troops and saying this was not over yet. We believe there are more votes, there are absentee votes, the provisional votes. So, Brian Kemp, the Secretary of State. I'll talk to about him in a second. He has moved down a couple of tenths of points. But he is not at the range of 50 percent where it would have to be to trigger an automatic recount.
So, for this to be continued, there's going to have to be something that happens with absentee ballots. And what do we know about those. They had to be postmarked by today. That means that they may not be there yet. They haven't been delivered. So, they can't be counted. If they get to 50 percent, the state law there is that you would have an automatic runoff in that situation. But we are not there, so that is that. We are going to have to keep watching a little bit.
Brian Kemp, he is a nationwide. He is the Secretary of State. That means he oversees the election. He is also running for governor. So he is running his own election. Even appearance of conflict obviously and on top of that there had been layers of controversy, there has been talk about voter suppression. There has been talk about from Brian Kemp that there was an attempted hacking by the Democrats. There will be no meat on the bones of that allegations so there has been some drama and it is continuing and so will our coverage. We are seeing the pictures start to change with governors. Many of you online are saying, is that our way to guessing who will run for President? No, it is our way of knowing who gets to draw up the congressional districts in those states and boy, that has implications for who wins in Congress as we know all too well. So we are going to be following these races that still remain in the Senate and in the house. What will the state of play be when we all wake up tomorrow morning? We don't know. So stay with us.
[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: And you cannot deny what happened with women tonight. Women will be -- I think it is a historic night for women. Let us talk about this, because 96 women projected. CNN projected 96 women would win the house races. 31 newly elected to the house. 65 female incumbents. That is really big Maeve.
RESTON: It is really big and (inaudible) which has been falling as well that so far 38 women of color have been elected to house seats, previously the highest number of women of color serving simultaneously in the house was 34. So, a diverse crop of women. I think that -- that an important point of this, is you know, in the year of "metoo" is how much of this was driven by women? So many of these female candidates were inspired to run by the "metoo" movement. By some of Donald Trump's rhetoric during the campaign. And a lot of them won tonight. It is really going to change the conversation in Washington. And potentially the 2020 conversation in a big way.
LEMON: This is another way that Trump is on the ballot tonight?
APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALIST: Yes, President Trump was definitely on the ballot. And particularly when you were talking about women of color and women of color who are now in position in office, also those who voted for women of color are just women, or just voted for blue this time. I talked to the NAACP and they said you know, particularly black women were excited to go to the polls. They had a surge of excitement for women. And when you think black women, particularly black women, they're rising in numbers, head of household and the bread winner in these nation. So a lot depends on them. When you have issues that affect their pocketbook or affect their health, affect their homes, they're going to go out and say, look, we are here. And this is -- this kind of goes to the stats that were just delivered.
LEMON: 11 women wins Senate seat, two newly elected women and joining nine female incumbents. I just want to get to you, Marc, because women across the political spectrum, it is not just Democrats, mostly Democratic women, but --
MARC SHORT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that is right. I think Marsha Blackburn is the first female Senator from Tennessee. I think he'll -- I think Martha McSally is well positioned right now. I think also, Yang Kim is obviously rising Korean member for house Republicans. We did lose Mia Love in tonight's race. An Asian- American who was a Republican from Utah. But sure, it is exciting to see the diversity coming to Congress. Congress needs it.
LEMON: Night of firsts.
KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The women front. What is interesting about the Trump effect is that -- yes, a lot of women reacted to Trump's winning the presidency and wanted to run.
[03:50:08] But another thing that is interesting about it, this time around, more women stepped up who were not recruited. Typically women have to be recruited. Men wake up in the morning and say I think I should be President. Women they don't do that, you know they have to be recruited. What we saw this time around was a lot of women just stepping up and saying, I don't care if I don't have experience, I am just going to run. Why is that? Because they saw Donald Trump do that.
PRESTON: We talk about this being a day of firsts in historic days. This is day of seconds. Let us not forget that. Nancy Pelosi is only to be the Speaker of the House, she made history back in 2006. With 2007 when she was sworn in. She is going to lead a very divided caucus and you may not like Nancy Pelosi. Our polling shows that a lot of people don't like Nancy Pelosi, by this way you can say about Nancy Pelosi, she kept that Democratic caucus together when you know, 50 wanted to impeach Trump and if they were successful in doing that, Democrats would not be winning the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember, to Marsh Blackburn, I remember after 2010, I wrote a piece saying, now Nancy Pelosi, now that they're in the minority, so she'll probably step away. In 2014, I wrote another piece, Nancy Pelosi, of at Republicans -- after Democrats lose, she'll be and now people say about the speaker. I say I'm done betting against her. It is a remarkable story. It is not the historic moment of the first female speaker that she was, but about perseverance and persistence, this eight years in the wilderness and look, -- you can ask the Congress woman, the worst thing in the world is the minority Party in the house, because you can't do anything. You don't get anything done. The Senate you could do some stuff. She spent eight years grinding away, proving people like me who said, it is probably -- new generation and new people in here and she -- she raised a massive amount of money. I believe she will be speaker, because I think you don't beat something with nothing.
LEMON: You know all that saying that says, at the end of the world it is going to be whoever share -- we should add Nancy Pelosi to that, right?
RESTON: Let's just remember also that she was a huge drag on some of these Democrats who were -- who are looking good tonight. I mean, Ben McAdam's is a perfect example of that. He did not want to get anywhere near the question about whether he would support Pelosi as speaker on the campaign trail. He is in position tonight to defeat Mia Love who we talked about. But I think that, you know, this is such an important moment for these younger Democratic members who ran on saying that times for fresh blood in the Democratic Party, new leadership. Someone like Jason Crow in Colorado's six also saying, you know, that it is time for someone else to lead the party, a different phase. That is going to be a really fascinating discussion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to have somebody. I just don't see who --
(CROSSTALK)
POWERS: I want to -- to give, I know this is not the opinion everyone has. But I think people should be careful what they wish for. I mean, Nancy Pelosi has done incredible job. I mean she is one -- maybe one of the most powerful speaker of the house in history. I mean, she is held together a very fractured caucus and the Republicans have gone after her I think because they know how effective she and that she ended caricatured her. She is actually nothing like what they said. She actually -- you know allows a lot of diversity within the caucus and encourages it and keeps people in line from going off on these like tangents.
LEMON: Well, OK. Good point. Because two things. Remember the interviews, this past week when she said we are going to win, because of the data shows that. She was criticized about that. Remember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she said let's not get excited everybody. It is one win. She keeps people in line. And he is right.
SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She keeps people in line and is right. I will continue to say and -- when we talk about the speaker, you could say what you want about Nancy Pelosi, but she is been effective. Somebody would like to unseat her, they have to demonstrate one that can raise the kind of money she is able to raise for other candidates, not just herself. And two, that they can keep folks together in a way that she has able to do that. If someone could demonstrate even just an ounce of that I think they'll have a path to the speakership. I currently don't know who that person is.
SHORT: We started tonight, I said, this is a very historic night and re-elect Nany Pelosi speaker and she deserve a lot of credit. And I am a 100 percent curious instead. She is too often vilified. Always very courteous and gracious, but we talked about new young generations and you say Nancy Pelosi is staying (inaudible) 78, 79, 79 years old. Those are the top figures Democrats --
[03:55:00] LEMON: There are all folks on both sides here, right. Especially if you watch the Kavanaugh hearing. Young people are like -- how can I relate to that?
RYAN: It is about the message.
LEMON: Lots of races. Lots of races. Haven't been count. There's still things out there that we don't really know about that is very close. We are going to continue to talk about it. It is still election night in America right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: All right. Welcome back. We have another projection to make we started the night in the governor races. 33 to 16 and advantage to GOP, but that has been changing and now we have another race to call. Nia, what do we know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So in New Hampshire, CNN can project that the incumbent Chris Sununu re-elected here in New Hampshire, Democrats near the end of this race thought it was closing obviously it did not close Chis Sununu re-elected defeating Molly Kelly in this race.
CUOMO: Now this is interesting. I actually worked on a documentary a governor was involve in it. Opioids is a huge problem in New Hampshire, Manchester specifically. The governor got behind it. Worked with the communities. Worked across party lines in order to develop a program of diversion to deal with a scourge that is happening all over the country. In general, a lot of good will across party lines there and helped kind of cloud over some other physical issues that they are dealing and he got the win. But it was a tough haul for him tonight.
