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CNN Live Event/Special
Biden Wins DE, DC, MD, MA, VT; Trump Wins IN, KY, TN, OK. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 03, 2020 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: . Voting is about to end in 16 states and the District of Columbia. The biggest round of poll closings tonight, a whopping 172 electoral votes are at stake in the next hour.
We've got some CNN projections right now. Let's start in Massachusetts. CNN projects Joe Biden will win the State of Massachusetts. It will win its 11 electoral votes. CNN projects Joe Biden will win the State of Maryland and win its 10 electoral votes, another win for Biden in Maryland.
Joe Biden will win his home state of Delaware with three electoral votes, a win in Delaware for Biden and Joe Biden will win the District of Columbia, which has three electoral votes as well.
Trump -- we have a projection for Trump right now, as well, Oklahoma, CNN projects that Donald Trump will win the State of Oklahoma with seven electoral votes, that goes to Trump. Right now, we could not make projections in the States. Take a look: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri and New Hampshire, also New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Tennessee. We cannot make projections in those states.
Let's take a look at the Electoral College count as it stands right now. Biden has 30 Electoral College votes, Trump has 18. Remember 270 needed to win the presidency.
Let's get a key race alert right now. Biden is leading in these states right now. In Ohio, that's a key battleground, 28 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead by almost 370,000 votes, 59.7 percent to 39.1 percent; 18 electoral votes. Biden is also ahead in Georgia right now, 10 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is up -- it is very close -- by about 5,300 votes, 50 percent to 49 percent. In Georgia, a tight battle underway.
In New Hampshire right now, only five percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead there by about 6,700 votes, 57.3 percent to 41.9 percent, four electoral votes in New Hampshire. Trump is ahead in these two states. Let's take a look right now. Right now, Trump is ahead in Florida, 82 percent of the estimated vote in Florida is in, but he is ahead by about 11,000 votes. Look at how close it is in Florida right now, 49.6 percent to 49.4 percent -- a tight battle in Florida underway right now. Trump is ahead in Virginia right now, 18 percent of the estimated vote
is in, Trump has 151,000 vote lead over Biden, 58 percent to 40.1 percent. Let's go back to John King at the magic wall.
We're looking at these states right now, but let's take a look at the big picture first, John give us a sense of what we're seeing.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Texas is blue. Look at that. Florida is blue. Look at that. South Carolina is blue. Look at that. Georgia is blue. Ohio is blue. West Virginia is blue.
Again, if you're a Democrat at home, pick up your phone. Take a picture. This is a map you love, right. It's not going to stay that way. But we'll see how many do though. Texas, the Democrats think it's in play. West Virginia, I would be shocked. South Carolina, I would be shocked.
Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Texas. This is a very different election. We are looking at competitive races in states that have been red for a long time --
BLITZER: So explain Texas, what's going on now?
KING: Well, I don't think we're going to have a lot of vote there and we don't, see -- so that's why. We have 700,000 -- you know, 1.1 million votes. Joe Biden is ahead because of this though, again, I'm going to say this repeatedly throughout the night. This is part of the change in Texas. Dallas and the suburbs around it, flipped a House seat there two years ago, 81 percent there Joe Biden leading in Dallas County, 66 percent of that.
BLITZER: I want to just point out a lot of this vote in Texas is early voting, which we anticipated would be --
KING: Right. Early vote. Yes, it is early vote. Yes, a lot of the blue you're seeing is because we're in -- we're early. I mean, this is again, a lot of early votes here. So again, you don't expect that to hold up.
This is very competitive. This is very competitive. We know Democrats voted disproportionally early. They wanted to vote by mail, coronavirus safety concerns. They were encouraged by Democrats early on.
So we're looking at a map right now, we talked about this earlier. We're going to be talking about this all night long. Some states are reporting in a different way this year because of all the mail-in voting, because of absentee and early, and then you have in-person Election Day voting.
Different states are reporting in different ways, in some states within those states, they are reporting it in different ways. Some states are giving you the early vote first. That's why you're seeing a lot of blue in places that are traditionally red because we know Democrats disproportionately voted early, other states are giving it to us in reverse. We're trying to be as transparent as we can be throughout the night to tell you what we know about what we're getting.
But it makes for an interesting and somewhat unpredictable night.
Now that doesn't mean we won't be watching votes in Texas to see how competitive it is. Democrats do believe it will be a lot more competitive. Will we end the night blue? Stay with us. Brew some coffee.
BLITZER: Look at the popular vote by nationwide, 10 percent of the estimated vote is in, Biden is ahead by only 4,000 votes, 49.5 percent to 49.4 percent.
KING: And remember, we've been -- you know Hillary Clinton won the Popular Vote by a large margin. We can go back and look at it, right, more than two million votes, close to three million votes, you know four years ago. The expectation is that Joe Biden will win the Popular Vote this time, but we have to see and we're going to watch it as it plays out.
[20:05:07]
KING: So let's come back to the states where we know Florida, I want to just start here because it has been a seesaw back and forth all night long. Donald Trump ahead right now by 22,170 votes in a state where we are approaching 10 million votes cast. We are just shy of that. That is a tiny lead, 49.6 to 49.4.
And if you're looking at it, we're still waiting. You're starting to see the panhandle. Pensacola filling in here, Escambia County, this is the Panhandle. This is where President Trump gets his votes. We're going to watch this play out, 22,000 votes, Wolf, Florida, we're still counting and some others as well.
BLITZER: All right. We have another projection right now. CNN projects that President Trump will win the State of Kentucky. If he will Kentucky with its eight electoral votes. That's a win for Trump in Kentucky over Biden. This is where it stands right now. And the race to 270.
Biden has 30, Trump has 26. Once again, 270 needed to win the presidency.
Let's get a key race alert right now. All right, here are five battleground states right now where Biden is ahead. Let's start with Pennsylvania right now, only less than one percent of the vote is in, but Biden is ahead nearly 40,000 votes, 79.9 percent to 18.8 percent for Trump.
In Texas right now, 10 percent of the vote is in, Biden is ahead by about 226,000 votes, 58.7 percent to 40 percent for Trump.
Let's go to Georgia right now, 10 percent of the vote is in. Look at how close it is. Only 453 vote lead for Biden over Trump 49.5 percent to 49.5 percent.
In Ohio, almost a third of the vote is in. Biden is ahead by 348,000 votes, 58.5 percent to 40.4 percent for Trump in Ohio.
In New Hampshire right now, five percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead by about 6,700 votes, 57.1 percent to 42.2 percent in New Hampshire right now. We've got some more states right now.
Trump is ahead in these states right now beginning in Florida, 86 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump is ahead by some 65,000 votes, 49.8 percent to 49.2 percent. Very, very close in Florida, 29 electoral votes.
In Virginia, a quarter of the vote is now in. Trump is still ahead in the Commonwealth of Virginia by more than 214,000 votes, 58.9 percent to 39.3 percent in Virginia. All of these races, so, so significant, John King, you're looking at all of this as closely as anyone is looking at it. What do you see?
KING: I see some unpredictability. I see a lot of swings back and forth. And again, that's the nature of the night, we need to remind everybody. You had early mail-in voting, early in-person voting and Election Day voting. Three different challenges for every state, every county in America and every election agency as they pull all of this together, and some states are doing it, some states are doing it different ways, even within the same state.
So you see states that are blue, like in South Carolina, we're looking at it right now. It's only five percent of the statewide reporting. If it ends up that way, that's dramatic breaking news. We just don't expect it. We need you to be patient at home and we just need you to remember, different states are doing things in different ways.
West Virginia is blue at the moment, early votes. We know Democrats disproportionately wanted to vote early by mail. So when states are counting those first, you're going to see blue in some places that are traditionally red. It's okay, they are votes. They are real. They're real. They're just not complete. It's just not contextual. We just don't have everything.
And so again, you see it in Texas here. It looks big and blue on the map. When you zoom in on the state, it's not much, right? We don't have much yet. A small county here, a small county here, the most significant vote center here is Dallas. So Joe Biden is leading in the State of Texas right now, because we have some votes out of Dallas.
I just want to remind you, the history here though, that alone doesn't mean Joe Biden is not competitive in Texas tonight, we're going to be at this for a few hours. But one little blue spot there is not enough to overcome what usually happens in Texas, which is this.
So strap in at home, brew extra coffee, we're going to have to go through all this as we do it.
But we'll watch it. Those are real votes. Those are all real votes. Everything you see on this map are real votes. It's just we get them in different orders from different states. We need to be careful and calmly walk through it. In the states where we're going though, Ohio is blue right now, we're
up to about a third of the vote. That's significant. That means Joe Biden, we don't know if he is going to win Ohio, but we know he is competitive in Ohio. And we know that Donald Trump -- right now Joe Biden is at 57 to 42. We know that Donald Trump won Ohio pretty comfortably four years ago.
So again, win or lose Ohio, there is a lesson in this that Joe Biden is more competitive than Hillary Clinton in these industrial states, and this would be a big one. No Republican has won the presidency in modern times without winning Ohio. So Joe Biden is competitive here is a source of angst right now at the Trump campaign headquarters.
Now they know more about this and they know that these grays are going to fill in, but more of these small grays are going to fill in red, but more of them have been just in the last few minutes and Joe Biden's still in a lead.
This is what I mean. This is what Donald Trump does in small town America, 78 percent, right, 62 to 1,600 not a ton of votes. But if you do it here, and here and here and you start running it up, that's what happens. Right? Especially in the ones where you're getting 70s and more. You come over here and you come over here, getting 68 to 70 percent, you start to run up the votes, but, but Democrats, Joe Biden in the in the Biden campaign number one, this is a must. Democrats always win Cuyahoga County, but look how much he is winning it by about four.
[20:10:17]
KING: Again, we've been waiting for a while, we're at 42 percent here, and we'll see if it evens out. You have Cleveland, African- American turnout in the city and then the suburbs around it. The encouraging part at this moment, and we'll see if it sticks is not just the Cuyahoga County, Cleveland is blue. But that Lake County to the northeast is blue, suburban Cleveland right there close, but still, you're winning in the suburbs. And then you move over here to Lorain County as well.
You go back in time here, you see Hillary Clinton carries this, but it's essentially a split, 47 to 47, a split there. Joe Biden right now on top by a more significant margin. These are the suburbs. There are more people, it is the ninth largest county, there is 88 in the State of Ohio.
This is also encouraging to the Biden campaign when you come over here, not just that you're winning. Democrats are supposed to win here. But again, with about half the vote counted, we'll see if it changes.
Again, you get early votes, you get in-person voting. They come in in different ways. Sometimes you get a big dump and it changes everything. But 62 percent right there, you come back, a pretty close split in this sky.
This is blue collar, work with your hands America. It used to be reliable with Democratic votes. This is where Trump cutting deeply to the Democratic Party right here.
So now you come out here, you're going to -- we're going to watch Ohio come back to 2020. It's a great race. This tells you -- this tells you no matter how this ends, this tells you that this is a very different campaign than we had four years ago, and that Joe Biden is more competitive than Hillary Clinton.
You see Michigan votes. You see Pennsylvania votes. That's it right there. Joe Biden can be President if he just changes what happened four years ago in the Industrial Midwest, but it's everywhere. He is in play everywhere.
Let's pull up the red down here, 11,028 -- one hundred seventeen thousand, I'm sorry, Trump vote lead right now, 50 percent to 49 percent. If you round up there, and we're starting to get the Panhandle, right? So you come all the way to the west, Escambia County, Pensacola 53, so 54 to 44.
You go back in time, that's a little -- Trump is underperforming a little bit there percentagewise, 88,000 votes and 69,000 votes. So that could be significant. This is the most populous county here along the panhandle right here. You keep an eye on that. It is red for Trump as it should be. But remember Joe Biden is underperforming in Miami Dade, or at least he was. We'll check on it in a minute
If you're underperforming places, you need to do better elsewhere. Could be. Could be some votes there to be made up there. And you start moving across the panhandle. And again, this is what the President does in smaller counties and this one is a medium sized county. It's 30 -- it is in the middle of Florida, 67 counties in Florida. This one is 30 if you keep coming across.
This is what the President does, and you rack up the votes here. And if you pull it out into context, there are a lot of them, right? So you come across here. This is Alabama. This is Georgia. This part of Florida, but it's like the South except for the cities.
Now, we were waiting earlier for Leon County. This is Tallahassee, the State Capital, the suburbs around it, you see blue right here, 63 percent for Biden, 60 percent. You might say that's not a big deal. In a state as tight as Florida, those little margins, if you can perform again, especially if you're struggling in one place, you have to over perform somewhere else. So you see, you're watching that play out there.
Again, though the President still 112,000 to 113,000. If you round them up.
Earlier I was talking about this is 2016, I'm sorry, I'm looking at the 2016 map. This is Duval County here. It was red four years ago. It is blue right now. You come back up, by looking at the 2016 total thinking it was this year's total because that's the way it always is in Florida. It's that close. Ten million votes are about to be cast. We're really close to 10 million votes and 131,000 separates them right now. But Duval County is still blue for the Democrats, 51 to 47. That's the
suburbs. Donald Trump makes it up in the rural areas. And then we're going to come across here, I just want to see where the margins are.
One of the things you get with this point, Florida is returning so quickly, you're starting to figure out what's still out? Where can you find more votes? If you're going to make 100,000, which is the lead right now, where can you get it? Orange County, growing, a lot of votes here, but about 93 percent of the estimate in, we'll see what the numbers are. We'll see what more votes come in 383,000 here for Joe Biden right now, 329 -- so that's 50,000 votes. He is running ahead -- running ahead of Hillary Clinton, 50,000 plus from four years ago.
The turnout is up everywhere, though, so the President's numbers are up, too. You're in -- you're going county by county in the campaign war room. This is significant as you come across, again, Hillsborough County, Tampa in the suburbs, Pinellas County, St. Pete and the suburbs along the coast. This is a -- this was blue. I mean, this was read four years ago, very close 49.5 to 49.2, two thousand votes, 2,000 votes there. Two thousand votes matter in a close state.
And again, I want to do this again in reverse order this time. Palm Beach County, almost all counted. 56 for Joe Biden, come back in time, 56 for Hillary Clinton, so you're matching it up. It might not be good enough, Hillary Clinton lost the state.
Come back to 2020, you come down here, 66 percent, second largest population center, second largest county in terms of people in Florida, 66. Come back in time, 66. You're essentially matching what happened four years ago. The vote count 553 to 562 turnout is up a little bit, but you're essentially matching the percentages there.
Then you move down here and this is the trouble sign. Again, we're not done. We're not done counting in Florida. Joe Biden can make it up somewhere else.
[20:15:09]
KING: The 54 percent, Miami Dade, 579,000 to 486,000. If you look at it there, number one, this is your biggest county in Florida. This is where the most votes are. We will wait for more. But Hillary Clinton won this in a landslide. She walked out of here 624 to 333.
Hillary Clinton built up a huge lead in Miami Dade and she still lost the state. So Joe Biden is looking -- they're looking at that and the Biden campaign headquarters wondering what's left. We will see what else comes in, you can make it up. It's a big population center. A lot of votes can come in, you can change the math, but you're not going to get back to that percentage.
Again, 63 percent there, 54 percent there. If Joe Biden loses Florida narrowly tonight, this will be why, but we're not done yet. We're not done counting yet. You come back out, all of that lead now, 163,000. Just in the course of this conversation, President Trump has stretched it out. He stretched it out as it starts to fill in here. And as we get more of the votes here, this is this is what he does.
And again, this is the Trump coalition. These smaller places, not a ton of people live here, but the President is above 80 percent in these places, he racks it up, 163,000, Wolf, 574 votes -- 10 million now. We are past 10 million votes in the State of Florida, remarkably close, 50.3 to 49 if you round that up.
BLITZER: Eighty nine percent of the estimated vote in Florida has already reported. We're standing by for the first results from Arkansas just minutes from now, as well as the second biggest round of poll closings right at the top of the hour. That's when a slew of battleground states are on the line.
Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and Texas, as well as Michigan and Wisconsin, the next hour could go a long way toward deciding who ultimately wins the White House. We'll be back in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We have another projection right now. CNN projects President Trump will win the State of Tennessee, he will win Tennessee's 11 electoral votes. A win for Trump in Tennessee. Here's where race to 270 electoral votes stands right now.
Trump is now on top. He has 37 electoral votes, Biden has 30 electoral votes. Remember, once again 270 needed to win the White House.
Let's get a key race alert and see where things stand in several of the critically important battleground states.
In Ohio right now, 42 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead of Trump by some 312,000 votes, 55.3 percent to 43.5 percent for Trump in Ohio.
In Pennsylvania, only three percent of the estimated vote is in, but Biden has a 143,000-vote lead over Trump 82.2 percent to 16.9 percent in Pennsylvania.
In Michigan right now, very, very early. Less than one percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead up by some 10,000 votes, 58.9 percent to 39.7 percent in Michigan right now.
Let's go back to John King at the magic wall. He's a busy guy tonight. Got a lot going on. You've got to look at all these battleground states and give us a sense of the latest.
KING: It's a lot of fun. Joe Biden leads in the Popular Vote if you care about that at home. I know some people out there aren't fans of the Electoral College. You see 12,000 -- twelve million, I'm sorry, 12.4 million there. North Carolina starting to come in. It's shaded blue right now.
Again, one of those states, Donald Trump has to win to recreate his path from 2016. He doesn't have to win them all, but North Carolina is a big one. You see 56 if you round up to 43 right now. About half of the vote says 55 percent, so what are you looking at here? Number one, you start here, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, this is the biggest area of the state. And look at that number. Look at that number.
Biden 84 percent of the estimated vote in again on a night like this; sometimes that swings a little bit because we have mail-in, in-person and early and then Election Day votes, but you go back in time and look.
Everywhere we are looking here right is Joe Biden over performing Hillary Clinton in the cities and the suburbs around them. That's what's happening right here in Charlotte, the suburbs right now, the biggest part of the state, 63 percent for Secretary Clinton four years ago, 69 percent if you round that up for Joe Biden. So that's a big building block to keeping North Carolina more competitive.
Remember Obama for '08, record African-American turnout back to Mitt Romney in 2012 to President Trump in 2016. You start in Mecklenburg and then you come up here to Wake County. This is Raleigh. Again, one of the fastest growing areas of the state. It's changing. It's diverse.
There are new voters here. They tend to be college educated, younger voters as well. There's a lot of diversity, not Donald Trump's vote. The new vote here is not Donald Trump's vote, 65 to 66 percent. If you round it up, it is 33 percent. Again, it's the second largest county in the state, it's about 10 percent of the state's voting population, 58 percent for Secretary Clinton, 66 percent for Joe Biden.
So over performing here. You just move over. This the Research Triangle. Again, college educated voters suburbs turned away from President Trump during his presidency, 82 percent right now in Durham County here. Look at that. That's a big number, 82 percent, you go back in time 79 percent.
So you think that's only a little bit on the margins in a closed state. That's what matters. Because again, this is another one of these states and we see this all across America. We're watching it play out in Florida. We're going to watch it play out in Georgia. We'll see it in Central Ohio.
The President runs it up in the small town, 67 percent here. He had a rally here just the other day. This will be interesting to watch. There are Trump's super counties, if you will, around the country. The President went to certain places to do his rallies because he knew he was losing in the early voting, and they are all designed to turn people out.
So you want to watch this here, 67 percent Trump and Clinton, right, Catawba County. Let's come back here to go see where we are. It's about the same. Right? Is that enough? Forty five thousand votes now and some change, 48,000 four years ago, that could be a key test. We will watch this play out.
That 75 percent, let's watch. The President had a deliberate travel plan. He went to certain places where they knew their voters are, where they thought they could turn, at least match 2016 hopefully exceed 2016. So let's watch this when we get closer to the final. He was there for just a rally the other night, you pull it back out. Again, if you're the Democrats, you've got to run it up in the cities, Asheville, suburbs around at 63 percent.
Now, 55 percent, 56 percent if you round up four years ago. Those are the building blocks. Go to the places where your candidate did well, four years ago, but grow and build especially in places where the population is changing like it is in North Carolina.
Let's pull back out again and just take a look. Just want to wander through all this. You come down to the coast here in Wilmington, not as big. It's the ninth -- nine of 100 counties in terms of the population. But you're down along the coast here. This is where you find Republicans in the suburbs, right? Fifty two percent and 47 percent is where we have it right now.
Donald Trump carried this county. He was 50 percent. Again, there's three or four points swing, you think that's not a huge deal. It is when you're 55,000 votes for the President four years ago, 52,000 votes now in a very close day, 2,000 or 3000 votes could matter. The Democrat getting 58 plus for Joe Biden there, compared to 50. So 8,000 votes, 8,000 votes can make a difference in a close state when you're racking them up.
Now, turnout is up everywhere. So everything -- you're not making a direct comparison. We have to be careful about that. Let's come in here to Fayetteville. Both campaigns spent a lot of time here. The President had a rally here as well. Senator Harris was here, 60 percent for Joe Biden, 38 percent for the President.
Let's go back in time 57 percent. Again, Joe Biden over performing. Let's actually pull that out and see if we can see how significant the over performing is as we come into the thing. Let's see where he is over performing here. Sorry, I'm in the wrong map. Thank you.
Let me come back out here, back up, and we hit -- where is he over performing? Right. And so he is over performing. You see these counties where he is over performing, where the two biggest places for a Democrat for anybody, but for Democrats in North Carolina. They are Mecklenburg County and they are Wake County and you see here, he is over performing Hillary Clinton by five percentage points here. The biggest most populous county in the state. That's the building block of a smart campaign.
[20:25:11]
KING: Then you come over here to Wake County, second largest county in the state, again, changing population. You know what happened in the suburbs during the four years of Donald Trump, this is where you go. You turn out your African-American base, you try to get young people on those college campuses.
Here in the Research Triangle, a lot of new voters with college degrees, professionals in the suburbs. That's what you try to do. And you see Joe Biden and you come out here, this is significant as well. These are counties President Trump is going to win. But Joe Biden is over performing Hillary Clinton by five percentage points or more. What's that mean? Shrinking the President's margins in these smaller places where the President tends to run it up. Shrink the President's margins there, you expand your margin in a
place like this. Let's check in on Winston Salem as well. I don't want it to feel forgotten. Important to the Democrats here. Again, 59 percent just shy of a hundred thousand votes for Joe Biden, that's 5,000 votes, 5,000 votes matter in a close state when you're coming through.
So you come back to 2020. Here, we're not done in North Carolina. I'm not saying by any means we're done. We're going to keep counting votes. But let's turn this off and look at the entire state, 54 to 48. That's a nice lead for the former Vice President right there, 60 percent in.
You know, in a lot of these places here, the President is going to get his votes. But if you're the Democrats, and you look at the early North Carolina map, you are encouraged, especially when you compare in the suburbs and in the cities. Did you turn out the Democratic base? Did you make inroads in the suburbs? That's what that looks like so far. We've got a ways to go.
And I say when we have a ways to go we are looking at a South Carolina right now that is blue, which reminds us, go slow, be cautious. Don't think anything we see now is absolutely definitive about where we're going to end the night.
However, however, this just that it's closer, it's only nine percent of the vote, just that some of these red states are going to be closer does tell you something. There's a competitive Senate race there. We'll see how it plays out as we get more votes.
Let's keep going down. Ohio is still blue. I was going to go south to Florida, but Ohio is still blue, I just want to check on it, about 40 percent. That's where we were last time, 55. There's a lot of -- not as many though, rural counties to fill in here and Wolf, we'll just pull out to the map and we look just really quick. Florida still close. But the President holding that lead there. Georgia still close, ways to go. A long way to go and the vote count in Florida, not as -- I mean, in Georgia, not as much to go in Florida. If you're the President, you're looking at 189,000 in Florida, and you're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable.
BLITZER: Two hundred and six thousand right now, 90 percent of the vote in Florida is in. Let's check in with Jake, Dana, and Abby.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, Wolf, thanks so much. So there's a lot of blue on the map right now. But of course, it's still very, very early. What are you looking for?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, you're exactly right. The fact that Georgia, in particular seems to be so competitive, when four years ago, if anybody would have told us, you know, watch Georgia, we would have said, no, that's a very red state. And it seems to be really giving Donald Trump a run for his money.
And it is, as we talked about, and which is similar in a lot of other battleground states, the changing demographics and the suburbs. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I do think
that we might see tonight, a little bit of a distinction. I mean, when we talk about demographics, we often sort of talk about it with just sort of -- in a way that we were saying all demographics benefits the depth of the Democrats, but that's not always the case.
In Florida, Joe Biden is struggling because he is struggling with Latino voters in Florida in particular, but we might see him benefiting from non-white voters coming out for him in places like Georgia, and places like Ohio, in places like North Carolina as well.
So we'll see what happens, but it's not going to be necessarily an even story all across the map because of these different populations acting in different ways.
BASH: And you said non-white voters, I think the other thing that's interesting that we're seeing is that white voters, which you know, either college educated or not, you kind of think of more historically, for Donald Trump, it seems to be changing, at least in the exit polls that were seeing so far.
TAPPER: Well, there are in some of these states, there are -- it is a smaller percentage of voters that are white.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: And Donald Trump is not doing as well with them, even if he is winning them. It's those different kinds of margins that will determine this election ultimately. And of course, there's also different kinds of Latino voters, for example, there's Latino voters, who are largely Cuban-American and Venezuelan-American in Southern Florida.
And then there's Latino voters who are largely Mexican-American in Arizona, and it's a very diverse group politically, and in addition to where their ancestors are from.
The other thing that's very interesting is how Biden is even though he is doing worse with some of these groups, like Latino voters, he is doing better with suburban voters, and we're seeing that across the board.
PHILLIP: And I think this is where we need to put on our 2020 hats and allow 2020 to be what it is, which is that Biden may put together a coalition that is different than what we've seen from other Democrats, particularly Barack Obama, who was the last Democrat to win the White House. The Obama coalition was something fairly specific. It involved younger voters, involved a lot of black voters, a lot of Hispanic voters, Joe Biden might need to do something different tonight, he might need to cobble together more older voters, more suburban women. More non-college educated men, in order to win in some of the places he needs to win like a Pennsylvania --
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- in order to get (INAUDIBLE). BASH: Which is exactly what the Biden campaign was telling me. And I'm sure both of you as well coming into this, which is why they have felt better in the northern states, in the northern Midwestern states, because his coalition isn't the same as the guy who was the President when he was the vice president for eight years. It's just different.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: No, he's middle class, Joe. That's what he calls himself.
BASH: Scrappy kid with friends.
PHILLIP: But he got to perform. I mean, this is where the rubber meets the road. I think. When we talk about what's going on in Florida, this is where Democrats were not able to turn out their voters, they have to turn them out elsewhere on the map.
TAPPER: Of course, we're all still waiting for those big three Midwestern states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much. We have another projection right now. CNN projects that President Trump will win the state of West Virginia with its five electoral votes. Trump wins West Virginia, five electoral votes too early to call in the state of Arkansas, which has six electoral votes, too early to call there. Let's take a look at the race for 270. Let's take a look at where it stands right now. Trump right now has 42 Electoral College votes. Biden has 30, once again 270 needed to win the presidency.
Let's get a key race alert right now. Here are some of the latest numbers, North Carolina right now. Take a look at this, 62% of the estimated vote in North Carolina is in, that's a lot. Trump is losing a Biden right now by some 329,000 votes. Biden is ahead 53.9% or 44.9% in North Carolina. In the key battleground state of Ohio, 44% of the estimated vote is in, Biden is ahead there by an impressive 284,000 votes, 54.5% to Trump's 44.3% 18 electoral votes in Ohio. In the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, only 6% of the estimated vote is in but Biden is ahead by about 70 almost 79,000 votes, 58.7% to 40.7% 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania. In Texas right now, almost half of the vote is in 45%. Biden is ahead of Texas right now by 250,000 votes, 51.7% for Biden in Texas, Trump has 46.9%. A huge number of electoral votes at stake in Texas, 38, 38 electoral votes in Texas. In New Hampshire right now, 10% of the vote is now and Biden is ahead thereby about 7,500 votes, 53.7% for Biden, 45.3% for Trump for electoral votes in New Hampshire right now.
Too early to call in several of these states. We're monitoring right now once again, Florida, Michigan, Georgia and Virginia. We cannot make any projections in those states right now. Too early to call right now. But let's take a look at the vote in those states right now. In Florida right now, 90% of the vote is in, in Florida, Trump is ahead by about 226,000 votes 50.5% to Biden's 48.4% in Florida. In Michigan right now, only 4% of the vote is in, Trump is ahead by 39,000 votes 57.5% to 40.6%. In Georgia, the numbers are increasing 22% of the estimated voters in, Trump is ahead by an impressive 154,000 votes right out 56.2% to 42.8%. In Virginia right now, 30% of the vote is in, Trump is ahead also impressive 260,000 vote lead in Virginia, over Biden 58.3% to 39.6%.
Let's go back to John King at the magic wall. I'm really curious to see what we're seeing in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting that we have a lot of places on the map that at this moment in time and remember this was going to be that night because of the combination mail-in voting, early in-person voting, Election Day voting, different states handling those ballots in different ways. The map looks a little different than we expected. Now, we'll see where it ends up. That's what makes tonight exciting, makes it exciting. But you're looking at a map right now that has Kansas in blue, Virginia in red, where I started my career Rhode Island in red. I don't expect it to end that way. Michigan is in red at the moment, but again, a lot we're waiting for votes to be counted. We're very preliminary in some of these states. And on the flip side, I just circled some states that you'd be surprised by.
You look right down here Texas is blue, Mississippi is blue, South Carolina is blue, which tells you what, a we're having an unusual night because of the pandemic election and the different ways people are voting and the different ways states are counting everybody needs to be patient.
[20:35:02]
Number two, it's just without a doubt though even as I say that and even as we have a long way to go, we are seeing a very different map. We are seeing in a place like Ohio where Hillary Clinton was not competitive four years ago. We don't know how it's going to end tonight. We know Joe Biden is more competitive in this race. And across the industrial Midwest with blue collar Americans who voted for Trump, we know Joe Biden is more competitive. And we know that because just look at that. That's a 10-point lead in Ohio, only 40% of the vote as long way to go. Ohio is a traditionally Republican state. It's the more Republican if you're going through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, this is more Republican than those states. So we'll see how it ends up. But the fact that Joe Biden is competitive, and the fact that he is doing what a Democrat needs to do, at least so far, we're not at the finish line.
But so far, the building blocks of a Democratic win in a state as fiercely competitive Republican leaning even is Ohio is you got to run it up in the cities. This is the biggest one of all Cleveland Cuyahoga County 75% of the vote right there. You go back four years ago. Again, 66% over performing Hillary Clinton, Lake County in 2016 went for Donald Trump. This is the suburbs to the northeast of Cleveland. Right now, right now, 61% of the vote in those suburbs going for Joe Biden. Remember what happened in 2018.
In 2016, Donald Trump narrowly was the suburbs, he's President. 2018, the Suburbs revote. Nancy Pelosi the speaker. Test tonight, does that last, does that accelerate, does it stay the same Lake County right now? We'll see we're not at the finish line tells us that the suburban revote and rejection of President Trump continues. Isn't enough in Ohio? We don't know yet. But Lorain County, again, to the west of Cleveland, Joe Biden 57% when you round up, you go back in time, almost 10 points, running almost 10 points ahead of Hillary Clinton. Again, look at the vote totals turnouts up everywhere. So this makes the math a little different this year, 66,000, just short of 67,000 there, Joe Biden running behind that right now. But we still have 60% of the vote. We're going to watch as it plays out.
Again, you come back to battleground Ohio. Why are we spending so much time on it? Joe Biden flips this state blue, Donald Trump has no path to reelection, if Joe Biden flips this state blue, Donald Trump has no path to reelection. That's why we're going to spend some time on this. And we're watching it right now. But halfway through, though about halfway through means things can change. So let's keep an eye on it. Let's come back out. You see, Pennsylvania is blue. I just want to stop here very quickly to see we don't have anything yet. So it's blue at the moment with early votes will stay with this one. We're told, you know, Pennsylvania, could be tomorrow could be a couple days after that. We'll watch as it fills in. Joe Biden has a lead early on that looks blue on the map. You're happy if you're a Democrat, but that's not, you know, we're not there yet.
So you come down here, I said, if Joe Biden wins Ohio, Donald Trump's path to reelection is blocked. If Joe Biden wins North Carolina, Donald Trump's path to reelection is almost blocked. You can come up with some other scenarios, but it's really hard. And so, you're looking at this one right now, 66, two-thirds of the vote in Wolf, 53 to 46 when you round up 275,000 votes lead that gets hard to overcome at some point.
BLITZER: You know, 66% of the vote in North Carolina is in, Biden has a 275,000 vote lead. I want to check in with David Chalian right now. So, we have a sense, David, how much of this vote is early vote, how much of it is today vote?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We do have that sense, as John was just showing you. What you see here now is a Joe Biden lead. He's got 2 million votes to Donald Trump's 1.7 million. This is 66% of the estimated vote that is in North Carolina right now. But Wolf, I want to show you what percentage of that is early vote, 97% of the current vote that you're looking at in North Carolina is early vote, that's benefiting Joe Biden, in fact, in the big Democratic counties, in Charlotte, in Wake County, and in Raleigh area, it's almost all early vote those big Democratic counties. And we expect the share of the early vote to go down to 75% of the total vote at the end of the night. That could benefit Donald Trump as more Election Day vote comes in. So, it's just a note of caution that right now, the vast majority of the vote that's in North Carolina is early vote, and that is benefiting Joe Biden at the moment. So there's still more Election Day vote to be counted.
BLITZER: What about Ohio? Do we know Ohio?
CHALIAN: Well, you know, Ohio, I don't think I mean, I think what we see here is that Joe Biden's also benefiting from early vote there. But there's more early vote to come in there. So -- oh, take a look. Here we have 49% of the total estimated vote in 29% of it right now is early vote. We think that's going to climb. OK. That 53% is our estimate of the Ohio vote that will be early vote. So, it's an opportunity actually Joe Biden as the lead now for him to actually grow his lead in Ohio perhaps, Wolf.
BLITZER: That's very interesting, you know. And John as, you and I, well know, no Republican has ever and you've pointed this out, has ever won the White House without caring Ohio.
KING: Right. And it was so critical, Obama took it back from George W. Bush. Remember the 2004 election, people forget how close 2004 was 2004 came down to one state, Ohio. That was the first election after 9/11 it was a very close day. But let's come back down to 2020. We can do history and other day because we have history unfolding before us right now.
[20:40:03]
And 2020 right now, this is a very important point that David just made. This is why we said throughout the night we need you to be patient at home. This is all real. These are real votes. However, the context is we're waiting. Right. So, a lot of this is early vote. We know Democrats voted disproportionately in some states more than others. North Carolina is one of the states where we know Democrats disproportionately voted early, Democrats returned their ballots early in the mail-in voting. So, now we watch to see the election, the Election Day vote. And again, that's why the President was traveling the country in the last week in places like North Carolina trying to get his people to show up today, because he knew coming into today he was behind. This tells us that was in fact, correct.
And so, you're looking here in Mecklenburg County, which is the largest county in the state, and you bring it up. The challenge is, we think this is about 84% of the vote can Joe Biden will win Mecklenburg County? Hillary Clinton one Mecklenburg County, it's Charlotte and the suburbs around it. The question is, can Donald Trump get up close that gap? Close that gap? It's all about margins when you're in a close race, right? In the places you see on this map that are blue right now, Joe Biden's leads are enormous. That's Charlotte. This is Winston Salem, again, 59 to 40. Right. So almost a 20-point lead there, Kenny, let's just go back and take a look 59 to 40. You come back here 53 to 43. So a 10-point race, 10 points in change here four years ago, Donald Trump carries the state. With the early vote, Joe Biden has a much bigger advantage.
Now we have to count the rest. We have to finish we have to finish we might be two-thirds, three-quarters even away around the track. We're not finished. And we have to wait for those votes to come in before we can tell. Joe Biden is doing what he needs to do impressively, actually, when you look at these places, but we're not at the finish line yet. So, you come up here to Durham County. Again, 83% in let's see, when that Election Day vote comes in. Does President Trump narrow this gap? That's ouch, right at two to 17. If you look at it that way, you go back in time, it was out four years ago 80 to 18. Right. But again, in a race on the margins, can he get it just a little bit closer, a little bit closer, even in a place you're not going to win, you got to get in a little bit closer, and then it's pulled back out again. Number two, this is it. The Democrats spent a lot of time here. Wake County, second largest county in the state, one of the places that is growing again, is starting the city, you move out to the suburbs 65-33, 58-38. If you round up for the president.
Again, this is why it matters. But again, we have to see if it sticks. But we have to see if it sticks. The Democrats got around the track with the early voting. Now we'll wait for the rest of the Election Day vote to come in. And one of the things you county. You see the open spots, the gray spots, right? These are the smaller, more rural counties. Let's just go back in time, we don't have anything there. This is where Hillary Clinton actually won Chatham County. So that's an opportunity there for the Democrats. If it comes in, we have nothing there so far, in a place. Let's come back to 2020. Here again, you come over here, you start getting between Asheville and Winston Salem, right. This is an interesting area, the President tends to run it up in places like this. We don't have anything yet. You come back in time. This was a 68% county four years ago.
So, this is what you want to watch when the rest of it comes in. These are smaller counties. So it's hard to overcome a big leap 250,000 votes, when you're at 67%, you're starting to get into the gets into the danger zone. But there's room, there's room on this map for the President to certainly narrow and I want to check one more down here in Fayetteville and bring this out Cumberland County, again President did rally here just the other night 60 to 38, 56 to 40. Got to get up a little bit more. Again, you say oh, that's not that much. It can matter in a very close race to narrow those margins. So, let's wait to see if the President can get his vote total up narrow the margins a little bit as we go through it. And again, you're spending extra time on these states because Joe Biden does not need this. Joe Biden can win the presidency without North Carolina. If Joe Biden wins North Carolina, the President's math gets near impossible.
And let's pull back out because in other place, if President lost this, it would be near impossible, but they're feeling pretty good. We're not ready yet. Florida's hard, we wait, we count every last vote. They're feeling pretty good at Trump headquarters about that one. Let me just check up here on Georgia, still very early here to see where Georgia goes again, you want to build a lead. You want it you always want to build a lead. But we're nowhere near done here yet.
BLITZER: I want to show two maps. The map where we see some of these blue states right now, that could easily change. But show us the electoral college map where things stand right now, as far as the projections we've already done.
KING: OK. So, this looking at this map before I walk over to this map here, Texas, Kansas, Missouri blue.
BLITZER: Right.
KING: That would be something. In a few hours when we're -- a few more espressos in, that would be something. But again, please bear with us and bear with these election officials because they're all doing their job, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, large county, small county, these are amazing people. And so they're counting they have mail-in votes, they have in person early voting, they have Election Day turnout, turnout is up everywhere. So these volunteers, they're always stressed. And guess what, this year with more people voting, which is a good thing, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, it's a work as hard.
So some of these votes, I'm sure that's early vote, Democrats tend to devote early. We'll watch what happens. Maybe watch some surprises, fine, that's good too. But what you're seeing right here is preliminary. I just want to come over here now, just look at this map because the idea is to get to 270. And again, we're waiting to fund Florida to finish. We're waiting for more Election Day votes in North Carolina. This is what we know.
[20:45:08]
What we know so far on the way to 270. Donald Trump has 42, Joe Biden has 30, which tells us what we have a long way to go. Nothing on this map so far, there are surprises over here. Right. We don't know if they're going to hold. As I said, some of these states are reporting early. So you have red states that are blue states. This is not a surprise so far. This map is filling in as we expected. The challenge for Joe Biden is to flip. Right. This is the President's map four years ago, Joe Biden would love to flip this, this, this, and this, if he flips two of those three, and holds the Clinton states, he's the next president of the United States and he's competitive Joe Biden is in a whole lot of other places, including Arizona, maybe in Texas, we're going to watch.
So, I just come back over here. And again, this map looks -- if you're a Democrat, you're celebrating this map. Because you're leading in Texas, you're leading in Kansas, you're leading in Missouri, you're leading in Ohio, those words have not been spoken in a very long time on a presidential election night. And that is just be patient at home, though they're unlikely to, so we just it's unlikely to stand just pull out Missouri, for example. It's one of the more conservative states in the country. Joe Biden's ahead right now. But that's early voting. You come down to Texas, this one's more real. This one is more real. We're up to about 60% of the estimated vote. We have a ways to go. We know Texas is going to be more competitive this year. Can Joe Biden win it? Stay with us? We'll get through this.
But so, as you look at this map, fill in of Joe Biden ahead by 216,000 votes in a giant state like Texas. And so, you're looking at the map. Again, I just want to go back in time, most of this. Most of this is going to fill in red. Most of them have small counties, but it just adds up after a while. So, the challenge for the Democrats is where you see the dots where you see major urban areas. Democrats have to run it up in the cities, the suburbs around him a lot of growing suburbs in Texas, you look at Dallas, again, Democrats flipped a House seat here two years ago, they hope to build, they think they can even pick up more House seats here down in the Austin area as well. 66% for Joe Biden right now, you go back in time, 61% for Secretary Clinton. That's where people live. That's what you want to do. Expand what the last Democrat did and grow. So that's it. So far, a building block there.
Let's come back to 2020. Move down largest county in the state is right here. It's the size of Rhode Island. It would be the 25th largest state if it were a state by itself. Harris County, Houston and the sprawling suburbs. More than 16% of the vote comes right here. Right. There's been a lot of voting here. We know turnout was off the charts here. 789,000 votes for 56% in Harris County, Texas. You go back in time, 707,000 votes 54%. So turnout is up Joe Biden's percentages up. Again, you're nowhere near the finish line in Texas. But those are the building blocks to be competitive. And there may be when Democrats think there's a House seat down here, they could flip as well. So, then you come down here you come to the other major urban areas. San Antonio, the Latino vote matters here. It's here in the city. Then you go to the suburbs, 59% for Joe by this time you go back in time 54%, 55 if you round it up for Secretary Clinton. For me the vote totals matters, turnout is up 319,000. Then come up to now Joe Biden already approaching 400,000 votes. Turnout is up everywhere, which is a great thing no matter who wins tonight, turnout is up which is a great thing. And we hope that continues.
You come down here. This is where Beto O'Rourke and others in Texas told the Democrats you want to win the state. Yes. You have to be competitive in Dallas, in Houston. Please come down here. Try to turn out votes here. Well, let's see Joe Biden. Here's the 19th largest county, Webb County 59% go back in time, 74%. So, let's see this could be a place where you're looking at the end of the night. Is this a place where Joe Biden underperforms Hillary Clinton? We'll watch that as we go through it. In Texas again, a lot of votes to count Wolf are looking at Austin as well. Williamson County above it and Travis County here. Joe Biden running it up where a Democrat needs to but a long way to go to count in Texas and remember it's not just about the presidency, there's a Senate race. There are a couple of House races there. Democrats think they have a chance to take back the House. The Texas State House will see a lot of business to do so.
BLITZER: We certainly will. We're standing by for the second largest wave of poll closings just minutes from now at 9:00 Eastern when the last polls in 14 states Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming all close. 156 electoral votes are at stake in this coming hour. Remember 270 are needed to win the presidency. We're watching key races and multiple battlegrounds in the next hour. Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and Texas along with two of the most coveted prizes tonight, Michigan and Wisconsin battlegrounds that may hold the keys to the White House. Those states seal President Trump's victory in 2016. And Joe Biden is hoping to win them back for the Democrats.
Let's get a key race alert. Five states where Biden is leading right now. Let's start in North Carolina, 70% of the estimated vote is in. Biden has nearly 220,000 vote lead right now over Trump's 52.1% to 46.8. And once again 70% of the estimated vote in North Carolina is in.
[20:50:14]
In Ohio, half of the vote is now in. Biden has an impressive 341,000 vote lead over Trump 54.9% to 43.9% 18 electoral votes in Ohio. In Pennsylvania only 10% of the voters in but Biden as a 210,000 vote lead wherein 13,000 vote lead over Trump, 65% to 34.3%, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania. Texas a huge price 38 electoral votes 62% of the estimated vote is in. Biden has a lead of 189,000 over Trump 50.6% to 48%. In New Hampshire, 30% of the estimated vote is now in. Biden has a 7,600 vote lead over Trump 53% to 46%.
Trump is leading in these four states. Let's show you the states he's leading right now in Florida, 91% of the estimated vote in Florida is in. Trump has an impressive 260,000 vote lead over Biden in Florida 50.7% to 48.3%. In Michigan right now, only 9% of the estimated voters in. Trump has a 107,000 vote lead over Biden 59.7% to 38.2%. In Georgia, a quarter of the vote is now in. Trump is ahead by almost 177,000 votes right now, 55.9% to 43.1%. More than a third of the vote is in Virginia right now. And Trump has a 285,000 vote lead over Biden 57.7% to 40.2%, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Let's focus in a little bit on North Carolina and Ohio right now, John, because if Biden wins those two states potentially that could be the ballgame.
KING: Those would be the ballgame. Those are two states absolutely critical President got 306 electoral votes. Four years ago, you take away Ohio, you take away North Carolina, Joe Biden holds the Clinton states, he's an ex-pres (ph) United States without. So, even -- without even taking back all the blue wall. So let's focus on Ohio. Let's just focus on this just for a second and look at this right now. Ohio is blue. Right? That's a big deal. North Carolina is blue. There are some other anomalies on the math. And again, I know I'm a broken record, just want to keep everybody at home, especially for those tuning in later in the night. Mail-in voting early in person voting, Election Day voting, the combination of those things that counts going to come in, in different ways tonight, and things are going to be different and things are going to be different, the map is going to bounce around a little bit. And we just this is real. These are votes, we're counting them. They're important. It could change. It's not where we are in the middle. It's where we get in the end, and it's for out here, we haven't even begun yet.
So let's just get to Ohio, because we're in the middle here, 50% of the estimated vote count right there. And whatever you were, however, this ends, this is already a statement tonight about how Joe Biden is performing differently than Hillary Clinton, outperforming Hillary Clinton in the industrial Midwest. Look at this 54.5 to 44.3. It's almost a flip of four years ago, the President carry the state 52 to 44. That was a handy win, the easy way, almost an easy win for Donald Trump four years ago. And so, now you come forward here, we're not done. We have a way to go here. We have a way to go here. But I just want to look at this in Cleveland, you bring this out, that's what you want to do as a building block. That's one way to look at it. You go through the building blocks of the state.
Let's look at it another way. Right. One of the challenges is, you know why Joe Biden, not Hillary Clinton, right? We've said consistently, Joe Biden is that Hillary Clinton, that's not meant as a criticism of anybody. It's meant as a performance metric. Look at this, this is Joe Biden, outperforming Clinton by five percentage points or more, look at all of these counties. And yes, in the blue counties where Democrats need votes, that's important. You're getting more of your people, you're outperforming in places Democratic basis in the cities into the suburbs. That's critical. But, you know, it's just as critical. Look at all the red in all these small places where Donald Trump runs it up. That's why he's president runs it up in Pennsylvania, ran it up in Wisconsin, ran it up in Michigan, ran it up in Florida, ran it up in North Carolina. That's why he's president.
BLITZER: It's very impressive were Biden is over. Where's Trump overperform?
KING: So, you come out, that's where you want to come out. Right. So take that off. Is the President overperforming himself? Look at this in Ohio, one county?
BLITZER: Wow.
KING: One county, right. So you come up and you say, well, OK, what about overperforming? Let's turn that off. Whereas the underperforming a lot of places. So Donald -- Joe Biden is overperforming in Democratic areas. And in Trump counties, the President is underperforming by five points, or more importantly. Number one, the smaller counties, that's where he tends to run it up. He gets 70%, he gets 65%, he gets 82%. You know, it's a couple hundred votes here. A couple thousand votes here. That's how you win a state. He won this one convincingly. But remember, Donald Trump, I am your voice, right? Trade deals, trade. Sanders voters come to me. They live here. They live here, right. 61 to 37, right now. You come back four years ago, 49 to 47. This is the story of Ohio right now. Well, we'll get there to the finish line. We don't know.
But Joe Biden is overperforming Hillary claims Donald Trump is underperforming himself if you will, which is why the state is competitive right now we just turn this off and come back to where we are about halfway through.
[20:55:09]
BLITZER: Is Biden underperforming any place in Ohio.
KING: Let's bring it out. And we'll take a look, you asked a question. I'll try to get you an answer. Is Biden underperforming anywhere? The answer to that is no. At the moment, the answer to that is no. And again, that was right. Remember back in Joe Biden said this today, when he was talking to reporters, the beginning of the primaries, everybody said, you're not the guy. You're not the fit. You're not what we want. You're not in touch with the movement of the Democratic Party, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden's message was, I can win these guys. Joe Biden's message was I can do better than Hillary Clinton here and here and here. Toledo, Akron, Youngstown. If a Democrat is doing better than Donald Trump in those places, Democrats are expected to win them. The question is the margins. That's how you win.
BLITZER: And Biden is ahead by 300,000 votes right now in Ohio. Let's do the same thing in North Carolina right now.
KING: Let's come over North -- again, North Carolina blue at the moment, we're not at the finish line, Democrats would see this and celebrate. Republicans would see this and get nervous. Just we're not done yet. We're still in the middle chapters here. But we're up to about 70% of the estimated vote. Those numbers will swing a little bit too with the combination of the voting early votes came in first. We're waiting to see -- we knew a lot of this early Joe Biden's early lead was because of the early vote. Right. The question is the President was rallying there all week long. The Vice President when there as well. Can you turn out today on Election Day, the Trump army to overcome the early voting? Well, 51 rounded up it's 52 to 47. Just to go back for comparison, again, 50 to 47, three-point race for the president four years ago, right now, Joe Biden. And so, Joe Biden, let's do -- you want to do the performance metrics? Let's look at it. Where is the President overperforming Hillary Clinton? Well, a lot of places and a lot of places that matter.
Again, that's Biden -- I'm sorry, Biden, overperforming Hillary Clinton, by a lot of places, including the places you need votes the most, most populous county in the state Mecklenburg, Biden now performing Clinton by 5%, or more 68.4, 63. This was a good county, this was a good county for Hillary Clinton four years ago. She did. That's a very good job, right? You're looking at that. But Joe Biden is doing it even more so. You know, in this case, some of that's Joe Biden, some of that we can fully flip it and look at the President, some of that's Donald Trump because of the suburbs around without a doubt. So you come up here to Wake County, number two county in the state. This is about math in the end, right? Number one county run up to vote, number two, county by population, run up the vote. That's what Joe Biden's doing 65 to 33, 58 to 37. That's where it matters, get the votes where the people are and try to run it up.
So this is where you pull it out this way. This is where Biden is overperforming. Right. Is Biden underperforming anywhere? Let's check on that one first. Again, one county, one Republican county. That's pretty good record. So now we're going to flip it this way. Where's the President underperforming? Several counties so far? Not a ton. Not a lot. It's a very competitive state. So, if he's a Trump campaign, that's not horrible. You don't want underperform anywhere? Let's see if the President is over performing anywhere, which is a key, can you do better than you did in a couple of these smaller counties down here. That's what makes it a battleground state. But the key here was the first metric we showed you. The key metric if you're the Democrats, you live the last campaign. Those are a lot of important places. And again, when you see Winston Salem, Charlotte, Raleigh, those were the Democratic votes are. Cities, surrounded by suburbs, the farther out the suburbs, you can go, that's what Democrats are trying to do.
And so, if Joe Biden and especially again, down here along the coast, you're looking for places that flip, New Hanover County or along the coast, Wilmington, 52-47, four years ago, was the other way, 52-46. You're flipping counties, because you're overperforming these are suburban voters. This again, the Republican revote, women will watch that women votes numbered the gender gap at the end of the night. But if you're coming in here, now, let me just turn this off as we go and look, here's where we are 193,000 votes that's a little closer, that's a little closer that the Election Day vote is starting to come in. The lead is shrinking a little bit. And again, it's the Election Day vote comes in, you're watching places like this tiny counties, right? There's 100 counties in North Carolina, this is number 21. This is where the President does it, 70%, things like that you come back in time, 72%. Right.
So, this is where he does it here in North Carolina, we're going to watch this play out, I just want to pull out the map just to see if anything else has changed. Come back to 2020. And take a look. Texas is still blue. Let's just take a peek still at 65%. But again, see the smaller here, most of that's going to fill in red, most of that's going to fill in red. But if you're Joe Biden, you're looking at that you're encouraged, we got a long way to go, though. Long way to go. Let's just move around Oklahoma is as it should be. We see that one coming in red. I want to come back over here and look again at Georgia. We haven't had any votes from Georgia in a while, the vote count is not going up that much. It's a comfortable lead for the president right now. But we got a long way to go here.
Let's just come back to Ohio. The state that could decide at all. Again the president needs this one, absolutely needs this one, without a doubt. We're at 52% 54 to 45 battleground Ohio, map starting to fill in. So long way to go, Wolf.
BLITZER: Certainly is. Voting John is about to end in 14 states. That's the second biggest wave of results tonight. 156 electoral votes up for grabs. We're watching six key battleground states from Arizona in the west to Michigan and Wisconsin in the Midwest.
