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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN's Projection On The State Of New York; CNN Projection: Donald Trump Will Win The State Of South Carolina; CNN's Projection On The Senate Race In Colorado. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired November 03, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're watching six key battleground states, from Arizona in the West to Michigan and Wisconsin in the Midwest.
We have a projection right now. CNN projects that Joe Biden will win the State of New York and win its 29 electoral votes, Biden beats Trump in New York State.
We cannot make projections, at this hour, in these states, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Take a look at the Electoral College map where it stands right now with Biden winning New York State. Biden is now ahead. He has 59 electoral votes to Trump's 42 electoral votes. You need 270 to be elected President of the United States.
Let's get a key race alert right now, see where things stand. First of all, let's go to North Carolina right now, 15 electoral votes. 74 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is still ahead by about 170,000 votes. 51.4 percent to 47.5 percent in North Carolina.
Let's go to Ohio right now. More than half of the vote is now in. Biden is ahead there, an impressive 281,000 vote lead over Trump, 53.6 percent to 45.1 percent in Ohio.
In Pennsylvania, only 14 percent of the vote is in, but Biden has what looks like a comfortable lead right now, 350,000 - 353,000 vote lead over Trump, 66.8 percent to 32.4 percent in Pennsylvania.
In Texas right now, look at this, 65 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden still maintains a lead. It's close in Texas. He has a lead of about 84,000 votes. 49.8 percent to 48.7 percent in Texas.
In New Hampshire, 13 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden has a 8,600 vote lead over Trump, 53.2 percent to 45.7 percent.
Trump, on the other hand, is leading in these four states. In Florida, 92 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump has a pretty comfortable 271,000 vote lead over Biden, in Florida, 50.8 percent to 48.2 percent.
In Michigan, only 15 percent of the vote is in. Trump is ahead. It's early there, a 183,000 vote lead over Biden. It's early in Michigan, 59.3 percent to 38.4 percent.
Almost a third of the vote is in Georgia. Trump has a relatively comfortable lead, 248,000 vote lead, over Biden, 57.2 percent to 41.8 percent.
In Virginia, more than a third of the vote is in. Trump has a nearly 300,000 vote lead in Virginia over Biden, 57.7 percent to 40.2 percent.
Let's go back to John King. He's looking at the Magic Wall for us. It's a lot of stuff going on. You see a lot of red.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Yes.
BLITZER: But you see a lot of blue as well.
KING: It's an interesting map right now.
So, I'm going to go through - I'm going to go through some of the big ones that we're going to watch, as we play out right now. And we'll start in Ohio. But then, I just want to explain some of these other states that look a little different right now. And we'll see. We could have a different election that we'll see.
This is the big one for me, Ohio. And that more of this - more of this is starting to fill in, right? I just wanted to show you 2016. You see all this red in here. That's what you're looking for. Those are the small counties where the President runs it up.
But as they fill in, as they fill in, Joe Biden is holding on to that lead. But we still have a way to go, about 53 percent here. But again, this is impressive.
And it's somewhat, you know, the Democrats thought this was in play. Joe Biden went there on Monday. Some Democrats were worried, should that time be spent somewhere else? But he went here. He went to Cleveland, to turn out the vote. Right now, and again, we still have some more votes to come from Cuyahoga County. So, if you're a Democrat, that's impressive.
The question is when the later votes come in, do you keep that margin? How much do you - can you grow it? Can you maintain it? Because it's absolutely critical, by far, this is your number one vote center in the State of Ohio. You want to run up the vote.
Again, I keep watching the suburbs, here, we're up to 61 percent of the vote. It's close. It's close. It's a moral victory, but it's also a little bit of the math, right? The Democrats want to expand in the suburbs. If you can pick up a 1,000 votes anywhere, in a place tight - as tight as Ohio, you try to do it. So, let's move out of Ohio.
One place that's been red for a long time, people from home probably asking, what's going on in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it has become more of a Blue state. But look, President has a healthy lead right now, 57 percent. That's not insignificant at all. However, I just want to make the point, this is where the votes are in
Virginia. You come up here, Fairfax County, by far, the largest county in the state, only about 15 percent of the vote in so far. So, we're waiting on that. You come over here to Alexandria, also waiting for votes.
So, Virginia, red at the moment, Wolf, lot of places where Democratic votes are, that we haven't received them yet. We'll keep an eye on it though. It's an interesting night.
BLITZER: Yes, Northern Virginia, very, very critical in the State of Virginia.
We have two more projections right now. CNN now projects that Joe Biden will win the State of New Jersey, will win its 14 electoral votes, Biden beats Trump in New Jersey.
We have a projection in Arkansas. President Trump beats Biden in Arkansas. He will win Arkansas's six electoral votes. Trump wins in Arkansas.
Let's take a look at the Electoral College map, where things stand right now. Biden is still ahead. He has 73 electoral votes as of right now. Trump has 48. Remember, you need 270 needed to win the Presidency, 73-48, right now.
[21:05:00]
The electoral map is obviously the most important.
KING: It is. And, at the moment, it is filling in, as expected, in the sense that nothing that's happened so far on this map, these were all solid states.
The red states, you see for the President, whether it's Oklahoma, or Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, we had those solid Trump coming in, so no surprises here.
Over here, where we're counting votes, potential surprises. You look at these states up here. Again, no surprises here. Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York, those were solid Biden states coming in, so, 73 for Biden, 48 for the President.
The question is where do the big prizes go right? So, let's go - if - remember this map, right? It's as - it's as it was, which is - means, it is as it was. We go back four years ago. This was the Trump map. So, nothing has changed so far.
But remember what we're seeing on the other map, just for now, we're not done yet. We're not done yet. But if that changes, and that changes, right there gets Trump down to 273. So imagine that, right?
So then, if you're looking around, Joe Biden, you have a chance in Arizona. We're not there yet. We got a long way to go before we get West, right? If you keep looking at this map, Joe Biden had a healthy lead, at the end of the campaign, in Michigan. He had a decent lead, at the end of the campaign, in Wisconsin. He thinks he can win Pennsylvania, although we'll see how that one goes. But it just tells you the menu. That gets Joe Biden to 322.
We don't know if that's the way it's going to turn out. But it just tells you that he has more options any way. And if you can add Ohio to that, then it's just - it's just a buffet. I mean it's a buffet of possibility to run it up and to take away the President's map.
So, if you're the President, and you're looking at this right now, you had 306, right? So, you're trying to figure out, "What am I going to lose?" right? If you're in the President's campaign, "What am I going to lose?"
Well again, that was a double-digit lead, right? We don't know. We're going to count votes in Michigan. He's overcome deficits before. Not quite that big in 2016 though. It's a big real deficit. But if you're in the President's campaign, and you think you may lose those two, look where you are now. You're already at 280.
And so, at Joe Biden, if he can get Michigan and Wisconsin, and we're just starting up here, there are other options. He has so many menu options, but those two coming in look like they were there.
This is why, if you're the Trump campaign, you're - at this point, you're getting nervous, because that means you can't afford to lose that, right? And Joe Biden's leading there right now. And even if you hold that, there is just no way, you can lose that. That would do it.
And again, we're not done with Florida yet, although Trump's lead there seems pretty comfortable. We're not done with Georgia yet. Joe Biden is competitive in Arizona. Texas, we're still early in the night on.
The idea is that the menu options are more plentiful for Joe Biden to get there, doesn't mean he gets there. But if you're sitting in the Trump campaign, right now, the state you're watching most nervously, well I'll give you two, number one is Ohio, number two is North Carolina.
BLITZER: Well let's look at that, right?
KING: Let's - let's come on over.
BLITZER: And take viewers right now.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: Let's start with Ohio.
KING: Let's come on over. Ohio, right here, in the middle, again, Michigan is red right now. It's a very early vote, doesn't mean it won't end up that way. It certainly did four years ago. That was one of the big Trump surprises.
But up here, when you see Pennsylvania blue, Michigan red, we're very, very early. We'll come back to them, when we have a significant amount of votes. If we're not spending time on them, that means we don't have any significant votes yet. So, we're not ready to do that.
We do have significant votes here. And again, it's cliche but true. No Republican has won the White House, in modern times, without Ohio. So, that's why we're going to spend a lot of time on this. And if you look at this right now, again, 55 percent, 52 percent to 46 percent, that's where you want to be. You want to be on top whenever. But we do have a ways to go.
But if you watch this map play out, I just want to go back, doesn't look a lot different, right? But just watch - just watch where you see a little bit more blue, when you come back in here. You see it up here in the suburbs. You see it up here along the lake. Again, suburbs outside of Toledo, this is where the Democrats are doing it.
I haven't come over here at all tonight. Let me just take a look. Lucas County, look at this, it's only - and, again, here's your opportunity, right? Is this early vote? Joe Biden, 73 percent to 26 percent, at 39 percent. So, watch when that number is higher, later in the night, are the margins still like that percentage-wise?
Where does that math go? We go back four years ago. Yes. Hillary Clinton won here, 56-38. Just to see - see where you are now. 73 percent to 26 percent, that matters. That matters. Those margins matter, in places where there are votes.
And you come across again, we did Cuyahoga - Cuyahoga County, excuse me, earlier.
This is Summit County here. You're dropping down south of Cleveland into Akron. This is a place where Donald Trump made inroads, 67 percent to 31 percent right now. You go back four years ago, 52 percent to 43 percent. That's a big difference. That's a big difference. And if Joe Biden can hold that, again, that gives you your cushion.
And this was the central argument of the Biden campaign, "Scrappy kid from Scranton, middle-class Joe," pick however you want to describe it that "I can go into these places, not only win them, but outperform Hillary Clinton, make them like they used to be," when Democrats were more competitive in the State of Ohio.
Moving over here again, you come along the river, and the valley here, 61 percent to 31 (ph) percent. Again, we're only halfway there. So, let's just see. This is a place where the President has votes. We'll see if they turn out this time. He had votes last time. We'll see if they turn out this time, but had votes last time.
I just want to show you, 46 percent, right? This was very close last time. It's the 10th - 10th of the 88 counties in Ohio, it's the 10th largest, so this matters in terms of the votes. And it matters not only here.
[21:10:00] You go across the border then you're in Pennsylvania. These two come together, in these blue-collar communities. This was the fight of 2016. Ohio was comfortable, but Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, it's the same people, the same people who swung it.
So, let's pull back up, and take a look at it. Let's come back to 2020. And look, where else are you looking? You look down here.
Hamilton County is Cincinnati, again, Joe Biden running it up, 69 percent, about halfway there, again. So, when you're halfway you're looking at it, you're placing a marker, you say that's - that's where you want to be. That's actually outside where you want to be.
Let's go back and look, 52 percent then, almost 70 percent - 69 percent now. That's a wow! If that stays there, that's a wow. But you're only halfway there. So, you're thinking this early vote here, the question is what happens to the Election Day turnout?
This used to be a Republican area. This is, again, a changing community because of the suburbs. And as Joe Biden tries to win Ohio tonight and that would be a statement right there, game over. There's also a House seat right down in that same area. So, you're watching the Democratic vote, you're watching how things play out as well.
You come up here to Franklin County, again. This is the capital, Democratic area right in Columbus, labor unions, African-American vote. This is Democrat. We'll run it up here.
But it's when you get out here, and you get out into the suburbs, if you're running 75 percent, you come back in time, 60 percent. That's a huge difference. I mean that's quite, you know, some of this math is difficult. Some of it's not.
But look at that. You're at 60 percent then, 351,000 votes. You're at 74 percent now. We're only about halfway. So, watch the vote total. If that percentage stays there, as we go up, but again, we have Election Day votes to come in, so don't get ahead of yourself.
But if you're looking at the building blocks, and you're Joe Biden, you're looking at that, and you're happy, but you also know 57 percent is not 90 percent. You want to get up there before you start feeling more comfortable about it. But that's huge. It's huge, and we watch.
And again, whether that changes or not, the fact that it is so competitive, the fact that Ohio was so competitive, tells you, Joe Biden is going to be stronger in Pennsylvania. He's going to be stronger in Michigan. He's likely to be stronger across the Midwest because there are so many places that are a lot alike in those states.
There are some differences, but the similarities tell you if Joe Biden is doing that well here, especially in the Eastern part of Ohio that carries over into Western Pennsylvania. If it does, it makes Biden a stronger candidate in a part of Pennsylvania. We don't have enough votes here yet. But Joe Biden needs to do well out here. You've got to win Allegheny County. The early votes there have President ahead. But if you go back to 2016, you see all this red out here, right?
Let's just pick Westmoreland County here. Joe Biden does not need to win West - excuse me, Westmoreland County, but you see the 64 percent right there. When this comes in, and we don't have anything right now, if Joe Biden can make it 55 percent to 45 percent, if he can make it 60 percent to 40 percent, it's better. It's better.
This is where we'll watch the debate come out. But the fact that Joe Biden is performing so well right now in these parts of Ohio bodes well for this part of Pennsylvania. But again, we'll count them as they come in.
And just, if you pull out again, North Carolina is still blue that Ohio and North Carolina - the later in the night we get, if Ohio and North Carolina stay blue, that is a warning shot straight into the Trump campaign headquarters, the President's at the White House tonight, up to 78 percent right now.
It's come down some. It's a 126,000 now. It was 160,000 earlier. It's starting to come down a little bit. That's the Election Day vote coming out. But you're up to 78 percent. And you see it's 50 percent to 48 percent. That's closer too. That's closer too. This is why we wait. This is why we count.
If the early vote had Biden ahead, it's closer, but we're still watching as we - I just want to see where we are. 82 percent, Wake County, we have more vote to come. Again, does it get closer? 65 percent to 33 percent, 58 percent to 38 percent, you see the difference there.
The question is, as we get the rest of it, can the President narrow this gap? He's not going to win Wake County. That's not the point. The point is can he get closer? And those will be Republican votes out here, in the suburbs.
Same, when you get up to Durham County, that's nuts, 82 percent to 17 percent. Again, Secretary Clinton won this big too, 80 percent to 18 percent. President needs to narrow that gap. That is a repudiation in the suburbs there.
And you come back in. I just want to check down here in Mecklenburg County, number one, that's the largest by number one, I mean, most populous county. This is where the most votes are, Charlotte and the suburbs, 68 percent to 31 percent, when you round it up. You come back again, again, Joe Biden over-performing here.
We have a ways to go in North Carolina. That's 2016. We come to 2020. Got a little ways to go, Wolf, but it's getting interesting.
BLITZER: Very interesting indeed! All right, we have two more projections right now. All right, take a look at this.
CNN now projects that Joe Biden will win the State of Connecticut. He beats Trump in Connecticut. He wins Connecticut's seven electoral votes. Trump, on the other hand, wins South Dakota. He beats Biden in South Dakota, three electoral votes in South Dakota. Trump is the winner there.
Let's take a look at the Electoral College map, where it stands right now. Biden has 80 Electoral College votes. Trump has 51. You need 270 to be elected President of the United States.
Let's go back to John King. John, I'm really anxious and take a look at Georgia, right now, see where things stand in Georgia. Update our viewers.
[21:15:00]
KING: So, we're looking at Georgia 2020 right here. Healthy lead for the President right now, 322,000 votes, 58 percent to 40 percent, little more than a third of the estimated vote in.
Democrats thought this was a state where they can be competitive. There are two Senate races at play here. One could be settled tonight, one likely to go into a runoff. We'll see how those play out as well.
But that's what makes this State even more important. You have a Presidential race. The balance of power in the Senate could also hinge on those two races in Georgia. So, where are we right now?
If you look at that, 36 percent in, that's a pretty comfortable lead for the President. The question is what is still to come in this night that's a little different than previous election nights because of the mail-in voting, early in-person voting, and Election Day voting. But we'll watch it play out.
So, let's look one of the things we have been looking at, throughout the night, is the President outperforming. He is, in some counties, right there. This one tells you - this one is important, when you look at them. They're all important obviously. You like every vote you can get.
But right here, in this DeKalb County, outside of Atlanta, the President, he's getting, you know, you see, oh well, it's very early, so I say it's important. It's important if it stays that way. You see that vote count right there is pretty low. It's important if it stays that way.
Is the President underperforming anywhere in Georgia? Well early on, I suspect I'm going to find the same thing. But I'm going to look in these counties here. The question is how much of the vote is in? Not much.
Fulton County is Atlanta, one of the reasons, you know, so Donald Trump has a comfortable lead, right now, in Georgia. Well we don't have many votes out of the single largest county in Georgia. So, that's one of the reasons we're going to keep looking at this State.
The Democrats believe it's much more competitive than these numbers tell you, you are, right now. So, I say the President's underperforming there. Let's check in later in the night. There's not that many votes there right now. So, we don't know enough. Let's see, is Biden over-perform - is Biden outperforming Clinton
anywhere? Again, it says he is, up here. Very preliminary vote count, so I don't want to jump to any conclusions. We come down here, and let's see, it's also really preliminary, if you look at the vote count. So, we have a long way to go in Georgia.
You just go back and look at the count now. She won that - she won that County with 62,000 - almost 63,000 - 62,290 votes. And we're at 23 right now. We know turnout is up everywhere.
So, that tells me, when you go through it, you were over-performing, under-performing, we'll check in on it later in the night. Right now, the vote counts are pretty small, so it's hard to know whether it's significant or not that it tell - we got a long way to go.
This is where - this is where most of the votes are right here. It's a big state. It's an important, you know, I'm not saying the other places are unimportant, but this is where most of the votes in Georgia are, right up here, in Atlanta and the suburbs.
So, you start in Fulton County. You pull it out. I'm going to get rid of the telestration, so it doesn't distract anybody. This right here, 10 percent of the vote, we don't have much in yet, all right?
Then you move over here, Cobb County, about 30 percent of the vote in. That's good for Joe Biden, if you're winning by that margin out there in the suburbs. You come back there. It was much more competitive. Again, suburbs, one of the biggest stories, in America, right now, American politics, as they shift.
Move over back to Fulton. You come back to the suburbs to the East, Gwinnett, 15 percent, again, a long way to go. So, you see this, a lot of this is early vote, tends to be disproportionate, Democrat.
So, you look there. You switch back. 51 percent, if it holds up, that's significant. You're over-performing Clinton there, but we're very preliminary, when it comes to Georgia, so we want to wait and see how that plays out.
I just want to pull out the map again, just to see what else has changed. Texas has gone red. Remember, earlier, we had Texas blue for a while. Starting to fill in some counties here, 66 percent, 1,300 votes in a state like Texas. So, it's very competitive.
Everything - a lot of these states are more competitive this time. And again, that's part of the story. This was not a close state four years ago. Almost a 10-point race there, 807,000 votes, 4.6 million won it. Come back here, just to look where we are, 3.8 million, we know turnout is up, so we have a ways to go in the State of Texas, as we count through it.
Just want to pull out, look at some more, again, we don't expect Kansas to be blue at the end of the night, but there's a Senate race out there. Let's just watch. About 40 percent of the vote in, where is it right now, it's coming most from here, you can see, Riley County, Manhattan, Kansas. Fantastic military base out there. You come out here, you pull out. I want to check in here again, because this one, this is it right now. I mean, no offense to any other state, if Ohio stays that would be the ball game. But we're still at 58 percent there.
Just want to pull back out as we look, just check down here to see, if we've gotten any higher. We're up to 93 percent in Florida. By Florida standards, if this holds, a three-point race, that's a big win, by Florida standards, not in many states, perhaps, but we'll see. We have a ways to go still in Florida as well.
Just pulling out and looking, again, these are the two that jump out at you right now. I know Pennsylvania blue, Michigan red, people looking, the votes are early there. We don't know enough about them.
Let's just look - here are some - I suspect this is very early vote out in Colorado. You see that coming in there, Joe Biden up comfortably. We expect that one to stay blue.
So Wolf, I'm a broken record, while you see, you just had some votes pop up in Wisconsin, but very few. So, you see President Trump, 2,300 vote lead, early in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, all places where we expect to get sort of distorted results. Some states only election votes, some counties only Election Day votes then early votes.
BLITZER: Yes.
KING: We'll figure it all out. These ones are going to take a while. But again, North Carolina blue, Ohio blue, this time of the night. That makes it interesting.
BLITZER: Michigan and Wisconsin pretty early right now.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: We have seen the red.
KING: Yes.
[21:20:00]
BLITZER: But what, 17 percent of the vote is in, in Michigan, Trump is ahead by 200,000 votes.
KING: 17 percent of the vote is in, and you have the President of the United States leading Wayne County right now. But that's not going to happen. We don't know what the--
BLITZER: 3 percent of the vote in.
KING: Yes, right, right, we don't know what the margin is going to be in the end. But the President of the United States is not going to win Wayne County. No offense to the President of the United States, but that's just not going to happen. So, that's how you - you just know, this is one of those nights, where
because of the different ways people voted, mail-in, in-person early, Election Day, there's going to be some distortions, if you will, some disruptions in the force.
The main point is look - we'll look early on because they're all votes. We'll look at them early on. But the key is we're already a couple of hours from now? And in some of these states, where are we tomorrow, and the day after? And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
By the end of the night tonight, we could have some people saying we should be done. No. Legally cast ballots can be counted whether it's tomorrow, whether it's Wednesday, if necessary, Thursday. We have good people doing this in every state across the country. So, when anyone says "We're done," listen to your Secretary of State, listen to your County Election officials, they'll tell you, when we're done.
Coming back to this again, just because I'm fascinated by it, this is - this is a statement right now. Again, win or lose, Joe Biden is making Ohio competitive, and making Republicans in Ohio nervous tonight, and making people at the Trump campaign nervous tonight.
I know you've spoken to him frequently during the COVID crisis. Governor DeWine was on earlier today, saying he thought the President would squeak it out. There's still time. There's time. There's time to squeak it out. But that would be - that would be the ultimate statement right there.
I just want to check in on Virginia again, because if you're in the Trump campaign headquarters, which is in Northern Virginia, you're looking at this, and you're thinking, "Can that be real? I suspect!"
You know, this is a state, when I started doing this, it was a Republican state, then it became a purple state, it's considered a blue state now. Again, we're waiting. This is the biggest dump of votes right here.
And we've seen this in previous campaigns, including the presidential election in 2016, Senate races in Virginia, governors' races in Virginia. The Republican candidate gets ahead, and then in Northern Virginia, and down here, the Democratic vote comes in late. But we'll watch. It's interesting to watch.
North Carolina is interesting. Maybe Virginia is interesting as well. That's why we count them. We'll go through - we're up to 80 percent here - 79 percent. Again, we're waiting for more of that Election Day, right? This is why the President did all these rallies late, waiting for the Election Day surge.
But if you're in the Trump campaign headquarters, let me come back out to the map, you're happy. The red's down here. North Carolina, blue, Ohio blue, at this hour, makes you nervous, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, there's much more ahead. As more polling places close, at the top of the hour, two more important battleground states are on the line, Iowa, and Nevada.
"Election Night in America" continues in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:25:00]
BLITZER: As we stand by, for the next poll closings, right at the top of the hour, here's an update on the race to 270 Electoral College votes. Right now, Biden has 80. Trump has 51. You need 270 to be elected President of the United States.
Let's get a key race alert, and see where things stand, right now, in these states. Let's start in North Carolina, right now. Look at this. 79 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead by almost 100,000 votes. 50.5 percent to 48.4 percent in North Carolina, 15 electoral votes at stake.
In Ohio, right now, 59 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead there by about 132,000 votes. 51.1 percent to 47.6 percent. 18 electoral votes at stake in Ohio right now.
Let's take a look at Pennsylvania. Only 11 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden has a lead of about 200,000, right now, 62.2 percent to 36.7 percent, in Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes at stake.
70 percent - 70 percent of the vote in Texas is in, look at how close it is. Biden is ahead, but he's ahead by only 5,200 votes. 49.3 percent to 49.3 percent. Look at how close it is in Texas right now, huge prize, 38 electoral votes in Texas.
Let's take a look at some more states right now.
In Pennsylvania, a 11 percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead, once again, by 200,000 votes in Pennsylvania. In Colorado, Biden is ahead. 32 percent of the vote is in in Colorado. 235,000 vote lead in Colorado. In New Hampshire, right now, only 17 percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead by some 15,000 votes. 54.4 percent to 44.3 percent in New Hampshire.
We have five more races we want to update you on right now. Let's start off in Florida. Right now, 93 percent of the vote is in. Trump has a pretty comfortable lead of more than 327,000 votes, 51 percent to Biden's 48 percent in Florida, 29 electoral votes at stake in Florida. Take a look at that.
Let's move on to Michigan right now. 18 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump is ahead by about 213,000 votes. 59.2 percent to 38.5 percent in Michigan, still relatively early in Michigan.
In Virginia, 41 percent of the vote is in. Trump has a lead on, very impressive lead of 332,000 votes right now in the State of Virginia, 57.7 percent to 40.4 percent in Virginia, 13 electoral votes at stake.
In Georgia, more than a third of the vote is in, 39 percent. Trump is ahead by more than 300,000 votes in Georgia, right now, 56.9 percent to Biden's 42 percent.
In Wisconsin, only 3 percent of the vote is in, very, very early in the State of Wisconsin. Trump is up by about 11,000 votes, 54.3 percent to 44.1 percent.
Let's take a look at the balance of power, what's going on in the U.S. Congress. Dana Bash is looking very closely at the U.S. Senate.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.
We have eight projections to make in U.S. Senate races, starting with the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And that is the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell CNN can project that he will go on for another term, same with Arkansas' Tom Cotton, keeps that seat, going on for another term there.
And in South Dakota, CNN can project that Mike Rounds will go back to Washington for a second term. Tennessee, this is an open seat. Lamar Alexander is retiring. CNN can project that Bill Hagerty will win a first term there.
In West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito is going on for another term, according to CNN projections. And in Delaware, CNN is projecting that Chris Coons is going to go back to Washington. Representing that state, it was Joe Biden's old seat.
New Hampshire, CNN is projecting Jeanne Shaheen is keeping her seat as well. And same goes for New Jersey, Cory Booker is going back to Washington, representing New Jersey.
Now let's look at some of the really important races we are watching right now.
Colorado, right now, the Democratic challenger, John Hickenlooper is ahead by little more than 200,000 votes, 60.3 percent. The incumbent, Republican Cory Gardner, is at 38 percent, about 30 percent of the estimated vote in there.
And North Carolina, the Democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham is ahead by just a little bit more than 57,000 votes, at 48.5 percent. The incumbent Republican Thom Tillis at 47.3 percent.
And in South Carolina, this is one that people across the country have been watching. Right now, the incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham is ahead pretty significantly.
Now, let's look at what this all means in the big picture right now. Democrats are leading in three Republican seats. Democrats must pick up four Republican seats to flip the balance of power. And what is the balance of power right now? 39 Democrats, 36 Republicans. 25 seats remain to be called.
Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, Dana. We'll get back to you.
[21:30:00]
Let's have another projection right now. CNN projects that Joe Biden will win the State of Colorado, will win its nine electoral votes. He beats - he beats Trump in Colorado.
Trump, on the other hand, wins in North Dakota, CNN projects Trump will win in North Dakota, pick up its three electoral votes. Trump is the winner in North Dakota.
Here is the Electoral College map, where it stands right now, as a result of these projections. Biden is up to 89 Electoral College votes. Trump has 54. 270 needed to win the presidency.
Let's go back to John King at the Magic Wall.
We're looking at all these races. 89, right now, Electoral College, this is the most important, 89 for Biden, 54 for Trump.
KING: Right. Starting to get the building blocks, right?
And again, a lot of unpredictability in counting votes on some of the other maps. Lot of states in play like Ohio and North Carolina that would be flips for Joe Biden. This map, so far, filling in, in a predictable way, but that's because we haven't called the battleground states, and we'll see where we go.
But 89 and 54, 270 is the goal. You see the Joe Biden lead. This is why you look at the big states. The big states are what get you the lead. Joe Biden has New York, right?
That's why Florida, Texas - California will be blue at the end of the night, so that's why battlegrounds like Florida, Texas, this year, Ohio, that's why they're so important because they're big chunks.
You want to, you know, that's the big - the best way to get there is to build big. Pennsylvania, the biggest of the blue wall state. So, if you're looking at this map right now, there are no surprises, so far, on this map.
Again, if you come over here, I just want to pull out one second. Ask Brian (ph) and take a peek here. You look at the 2020 map right now. We have Ohio blue right now. We have North Carolina blue right now.
So, let's come back over here and explain the significance of that, because we're at 89-54. You come back to the Trump map four years ago, right, nothing has changed so far in the blue states. So far, Joe Biden is winning the Clinton states.
The red states we've given to the President are states we expected him to win. But if you look at the map, where we have it right now, and if that stays, and if that stays, right there, you get Donald Trump down to 273, and Joe Biden up to 265.
So, you're thinking, you have a scenario here, where with just one more state, right, just pick a state - there's two congressional districts here and here, that could get Joe Biden to 267. But you could get to 270 with just Michigan, right, if Donald Trump
somehow holds on to Michigan, you could get to 270 with just Wisconsin. If Donald Trump somehow held on to Wisconsin, from 2016, you could get, if you're Joe Biden, to 270 by flipping Arizona, as we move west, later in the night.
This is the dynamic of the night. Joe Biden has more options. The menu to him gives him more options, especially if Ohio is competitive, and North Carolina is competitive, and he's leading in those states, right now. That is the challenge. President Trump has a much more narrow path to re-election, as he tries to defend this map.
And the Ohio and North Carolina, early results, we're not there yet. They're all the more significant because we do know, heading into the final days. And again, 2016, President was behind. He roared back. Election Day turnout overwhelmed Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls.
Joe Biden's lead in the polls was bigger this time. It was bigger in Michigan. It was bigger in Wisconsin. It was bigger in Pennsylvania. So, there was a path for Joe Biden to win, without Ohio, without North Carolina, without Georgia or Arizona.
Joe Biden has more options on the map, which is why in the Trump campaign headquarters, right now, you're looking at Florida. You're happy. We're not done yet.
When you're looking at Florida, and you think, "OK, we're doing pretty well," but you're looking at Ohio and you're looking at North Carolina, and I'll just move over here, and do it, and that's what you're looking at, because you can't afford to lose. You don't want to give up anything from your 2016 map.
But if you're going to give up anything from your 2016 map, you certainly don't want to give up two of your bigger prizes, which would be Ohio and North Carolina. Again, we're not there yet.
And again, right now, Trump is leading in Virginia. So, there are - if there are tradeoffs, if you give something up, if you lose in North Carolina, you get it back by taking Virginia.
I just want to say though. People watching at home, look at that, look at that, right? Virginia is a state that has been trending blue, but, and here is the "But," and this is the anomaly of tonight, we're getting different results at different times, in these different states.
So, we have a lot of Democratic votes still to come in. Fairfax County is the biggest. I was looking at some of the other ones early. Lot of Democratic votes still to come in. We'll watch it.
It's interesting, right? Maybe it's going to be closer than we thought. Maybe there's a Trump surprise there. We'll keep looking at it. But there's a lot of Democratic votes out still. So, I suspect Virginia may change in a little bit.
So, we come down to North Carolina. Look at that lead, 85,000 now. What was the question earlier? We were at 140,000 at one point, down to 113,000, now we're down to 85,000 - 85,644.
We told you, early on, the Biden big lead early was based on early votes. We know Democrats disproportionately voted early for COVID protection reasons. Democrats encouraged them to do so.
And then Trump, all his rallies, what was the goal, impressive, overwhelming Election Day turnout. That's what the President wanted. Is he getting it? We're up to 80 percent. We shall see, right? 50.3 percent to 48.5 percent, a much closer race, in a state, that is a 50- 50 battleground.
North Carolina may be the most competitive state in American politics. Maybe Florida is a close second. But when you look at the demographics of North Carolina, it is perhaps the most competitive state in American politics right now.
[21:35:00]
Cumberland County, 57 percent. 90 percent, if you get to this point, 90 percent of the estimated vote, if you're a Democrat, you're thinking "How much more can I get out of this?" If you're a Republican, you're thinking, "Can I just narrow the margins a little bit?"
57.5 percent, let's go back in time, 56.7 percent, right? So, you don't think that's a lot, right? 71,000 votes then, 16-point race, you come back here, 17-point race. Look at the turnout everywhere in America. And this is a good thing, whether you're a Democrat, or Republican, or Independent, look at that number right there, right?
In every county we're looking at - almost every county we're looking at, a higher vote total winning this time. That's a good thing. No matter who wins the election tonight, that's a good thing. More Americans came out and participated in the election. So that's - we'll come there.
Let's look at Wake County. That's Hillary Clinton then. That's Joe Biden now, from 58 percent to 65 percent. That's a big deal, 355,000 votes, 302,000 votes, 53,000 more votes in the Democratic column there. Let's look at the President's numbers from 2016, 196, we come forward, 179. So, a higher turnout in this County, the President's not - he's got a ways to go. 80 percent there, we'll see if he can narrow the gap.
And again, you're looking at these blue areas. You see the dots in the middle. These are your urban areas. This is all around America. Democrats run it up in the urban areas. The question then is how do the Republicans do in the suburbs, he's getting shellacked, the President's getting shellacked there, as he did four years ago, right? He's getting beat here.
Wolf, just one more, I just want to look quickly. Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, in the suburbs, this is the most populous county in the state, 68 percent to 31 percent. When you round up, 63 percent to 33 percent. Again, doesn't seem like a lot. In a place that has the most votes in the state that matters. BLITZER: Yes, 87 percent of the vote in that County out there.
KING: Yes, yes.
BLITZER: Let's check in with David Chalian, who's taking a very close look at North Carolina as well.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN VICE PRESIDENT OF POLITICAL COVERAGE, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I am indeed, Wolf.
First, I just want to show you this board here. These are the states that Joe Biden is leading in that Donald Trump won four years ago.
So, in North Carolina, as you were just discussing with John, he's got a 1.77 percentage point lead over Donald Trump. In Ohio, he's just under a 2 percentage point lead over Donald Trump. And in Wisconsin, he's got just over a 2 percentage point lead, over Donald Trump. Three states that Donald Trump won four years ago.
Let's look at North Carolina, and look at what's going on there. You see the state of play right now. You see that Joe Biden has 2.385 million votes compared to Donald Trump's 2.301 million. He's ahead with 80 percent of the estimated vote in.
But here's what we have to look out for. All those big Democratic counties John was just talking about, it is mostly early vote. So, look, of this 80 percent of the vote that's in, 90 percent of it right now, in North Carolina, statewide, is early vote. We think that's going to come down.
We think that, at the end of the night, 75 percent of the total North Carolina vote will be early vote. So, right now, the early vote is helping Joe Biden. But as more Election Day vote comes in, in North Carolina, Donald Trump may be able to benefit from that. So, we just got to keep watching, as those votes come in to North Carolina, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, David, thank you very much. North Carolina, it's really important right now.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: Look at it, 80 percent of the vote is in. Biden's lead has gone down from a 150,000--
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: --to now 84,000.
KING: And David was just outlining the challenge for Joe Biden in North Carolina, in Ohio, in any of the battleground states, which is the Democrats were happy with their early voting.
In many of the states, if you looked at the data, disproportionately, for the Democrats, so they got a couple laps in, if you will, on the Republicans. That's great. It's great to be leading the race. But you have to finish the race. And you finish the race today, on
Election Day, and that was the challenge for the Democrats. And that was the concern, as they saw the President going around.
How many rallies did he have in Pennsylvania? How many rallies did he have in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan? The President retracing his 2016 map, trying to get voters out of the woodwork to vote today.
And so, as David makes the point here, you've gone from 120,000- something to 111,000, now to 84,000 votes ahead. You want to be in the lead. You'd rather be in the lead always, of course. But now we're going to keep counting these Election Day votes.
And so, in some of these places, you're in more rural counties, I keep coming back out to here. 95 percent in, if you're Joe Biden, you're happy, because this is one of these Trump super-counties. This is where he had a rally the other day. You hope that there's not many more votes to come here, because you just see the margin, right? 30,000, just shy of 30,000 votes, the margin here.
You come back, four years ago, same idea, the President ran it up there by about 27,000, and he loosely run it up. This is - this is one of the places I call Trump super-counties, where they go there for a reason, because they know they have voters that they can turn out on Election Day, and that was the challenge. So now we're going to see.
The Democrats don't have to beat President Trump today, in the Election Day vote. They don't have to beat him. But they have to be competitive. They can't get - if they get shellacked today, you lose the - you lose what you gained with the early vote.
And so, we're going to keep watching, as this comes in. And we have some places where we still have no votes, right? So, you're watching those as well. Let's just - we're waiting for people to report.
This was a big Trump county. Not a ton of votes, but again, if you're down, right now, you're down 84,000 votes.
[21:40:00]
Four years ago, in this County, look at the difference, it was 24,000 votes more than that, 26,000 votes. So, you can get them, in the places we're missing, when you come back in here, some of the places we're missing are places where the President did quite well in 2016.
So, that's the concern, if you're in the Biden campaign headquarters. You like how this looks. But you know there's more to come. And so, what every campaign does right now, they know what's missing. They know which counties, they know which precincts, within those precincts, they know what their data tells them about who lives there, and how they're doing.
BLITZER: Let's go to Ohio.
KING: So, Durham County there, 86 percent. Again, just one quick point before we do it. Before we leave, this is a place where they ran it up four years ago, so that's not quite as significant.
I want to move over here. This is the thing. We'll come back here to Raleigh, to Wake County in the suburbs. Does - does the math change and does the margin change, as that Election Day vote comes in. So, we'll use that as a marker.
Now, you want to go back to Ohio, and you come back here, 64 percent. It's been sort of a - we got some good votes early on. But it's been a slug since. And look how close that is, 13,461 votes, they call them battleground states, for a reason, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent, with 64 percent in.
And, again, you have the same dynamics at play, especially in some of these smaller rural places. It doesn't look like a lot. You don't think this is a lot, right, because it's 8,000 votes, in a giant state like Ohio.
But you're halfway in, you're getting 8,700, to the other guy's 2,900 that matters, right? That margin matters, when you do it here, and then you do it here, and then you do it here, and then you do it here, that's how it adds up.
And so, again, you'd rather be leading than trailing, but you're watching those leads shrink, as Election Day vote comes in, and you're trying to figure out, is it enough to hold or do we have trouble?
BLITZER: Let's go back to David Chalian.
David, take a look at Ohio right now. How much of the vote is very close? Only a 13,000 vote lead for Biden in Ohio right now. How much is the early vote as opposed to the today vote?
CHALIAN: Yes, you're noting Joe Biden's very, very close lead over Donald Trump. That's with 64 percent of the vote in. But let me show you that, right now, of that vote that's in, 41 percent of it is early vote. That's helping Joe Biden.
But unlike North Carolina, we expect the early vote share to grow here in Ohio. At the end of the night, we think we estimated it should be about 53 percent of the overall vote. So, there's the potential, as more - as more early vote comes in, Joe Biden could potentially pave (ph) that lead. It's something to watch. Obviously those rural counties can help Trump as well.
Jake?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thanks, David.
We're looking at the race having tightened up quite a bit from what some pundits were projecting. And, right now, it really does look like President Trump has narrowed or even - broken even in Florida, and North Carolina and Georgia.
So really, it is all coming down to what we said months and months ago, the blue wall of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin--
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: --and Michigan, the states that Hillary Clinton thought she had in the bag that Donald Trump tore down. Joe Biden trying to build it back up.
BASH: That's right. And look, those states that you just talked about it is not over. We are still watching them.
But the whole M.O. of the Biden campaign, from the beginning, was to rebuild that blue wall, and there's also another state that's going to come in later, which is Arizona, and that is still one that the Biden campaign is really hoping to finally flip from red to blue.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think that we also are looking at a situation, in which Biden is not maybe expanding the map, as much as they might have hoped that they would.
The states that they thought that he had a good chance, maybe because of turnout, maybe because of demographics, are tight, which is fine, but it's Election Day, and you have to actually win the state in order for it to matter.
So, we don't know what's going to happen yet, but this is a map that, as you just said, is probably just going to come down to what we always thought it would come down to, that blue wall up there that Biden really, really at this point, must hold on to in order to get to 270.
TAPPER: Although the Biden people, we should say, have not conceded any Florida or Georgia--
PHILLIP: No.
TAPPER: --or North Carolina, and they feel very good - they still feel good about North Carolina, they still feel very positive about Arizona and the blue wall. But it's just not going to be, as some Democrats were hoping for. They thought it was going to be an early landslide--
BASH: No.
TAPPER: --which was really always a pipe dream.
BASH: Yes. I mean, there is no landslide that we're looking at. No way, given the numbers that we've seen, particularly when you start the night in Florida when it's as tight as Florida tends to be, and it's even - maybe even less so right now, as they continue to count the votes.
What is interesting is Florida, one of the reasons, why the Biden campaign thinks that they're doing not as well as they had hoped is because they're really underperforming with Latino voters.
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: They're hoping to change that dynamic in a big way when Arizona starts to count the votes, that they're hoping that that is what helps to buoy them in Arizona.
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: And then - and then - we talked about this earlier.
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: The Latino voters in Florida, a great deal of them, are Cuban- American and Venezuela-American, in Southern Florida, very different from the Mexican-American, Central American voters, Latino voters, in Nevada and Arizona.
[21:45:00]
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean I'm hearing the same thing from Democrats, who are saying, "Wait and see," because in Arizona, we might see a completely different story. Even in a state like North Carolina, we might see a different story, where a smaller population of Latino voters could be very important for Biden, if he is able to turn them out.
But that being said, what is happening in Florida, I can tell you, Democrats are not happy about it. At the end of the day, the situation in Miami-Dade is something that in the autopsy of this election--
BASH: Definitely.
PHILLIP: --they will be looking back at and trying to figure out what went wrong.
BASH: And I'll tell you what they think went wrong is the Trump attacks have worked.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: Calling the Democrats "Socialists" worked with people in that area, in particular, in that--
TAPPER: And a lot of the--
BASH: --segment of the population.
TAPPER: --lot of - and a lot of disinformation campaigns going on down there--
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: --as well that we've covered on this air.
Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, Jake.
John, let's take a look at Michigan and Virginia right now. What are we seeing? KING: Well we're seeing red, number one. Michigan and Virginia - Virginia certainly, we thought would be blue. And it's increasingly become a blue state.
Let's start at Michigan, because Michigan of course was critical to the Trump win in 2016. You see a lot of red on the map, right now. But again, 20 percent estimated reporting. We expect red up here.
Let's give you a little 2016 flashback, lot of red in this state, right? The question is can Joe Biden flip it back? So, let's come back to 2020. Remember the blue down here. That's from 2016. You don't have it down here right now.
And again, so you look at Wayne County. That is Detroit, and the suburbs around Detroit, Donald Trump leading right now. It's 3 percent of the vote. So, this is a tiny amount of the vote here.
We come up to Macomb County, 35 percent of the vote. If that holds, that's a big deal. But again, it's 35 percent of the vote. Macomb County 2020, legendary home of the Reagan Democrats, if you go back to the '80s, who were the blue-collar workers, disaffected from the Democrats, supported Ronald Reagan.
This is where the studies, Stan Greenberg, the Democratic pollster did a lot of studies there. If you look at 2016, Hillary Clinton lost Macomb County by 10 points and change, 11 points there. And so, this number here, if that holds up, that's a huge deal.
That's Michigan. But this is very, very early. I just want to pull out again, because I know people are watching at home. We've told you, there's going to be a lot of anomalies in the map tonight. There might also be surprises. That's why we continue to count them.
This is one here, 56 percent to 41 percent in the Commonwealth of Virginia. You might expect Trump to pull ahead there, at some point, that's a huge lead, above 45 percent. I just noticed earlier tonight, I just wanted to check one more time, Fairfax County, the largest county in the state, fast-growing, hugely Democratic base, 27 percent.
So, there are votes to come in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But again, on a night where we expect maybe the unexpected in some places, we'll keep an eye on that.
BLITZER: Let's check in with David Chalian.
Give us some context on these two states, what we're talking about. We're talking about Michigan and Virginia.
CHALIAN: Still early in Michigan, obviously, but that Donald Trump lead, 657,000 votes, to Joe Biden's 436,000, that is with 20 percent of the estimated vote in Michigan in.
So, we want to know, well how much of this is early vote right now? And take a look here. Only a 11 percent of the vote that's in, in Michigan is early vote right now. We know that Joe Biden voters are the ones that tended to vote early. We expect that to go up to 55 percent.
We think a slim majority of voters in Michigan will have voted before Election Day by mail, early voting. That could benefit Biden since he's doing better in the early vote in Michigan. He could overtake Donald Trump.
Look at Virginia. John was just talking about some of those Democratic areas that are out in Virginia. Here's the current state of play. Donald Trump has a healthy lead there, in Virginia, with 45 percent of the vote in.
What is the story of the early vote? Currently, of that vote, that's in, 28 percent of it is early vote. And we know Joe Biden is doing better with early vote. We expect that to go up to 66 percent.
So, a huge swath of the early vote that is going to be a pro-Biden vote could help Joe Biden overtake Donald Trump's lead in Virginia, specifically we see almost no early vote in some of the really heavy Democratic counties of Fairfax and Alexandria, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much.
We've got two more projections right now. All right, take a look at this. CNN now projects that Donald Trump will win the State of South Carolina. He's the winner in South Carolina, will win its nine electoral votes.
CNN also projects Donald Trump will win in Alabama, will win its nine electoral votes, in the State of Alabama as well.
Here's where the Electoral College map stands right now. It's close. Biden now has 89 Electoral College votes. Trump has 72 Electoral College votes. 270, of course, needed to win the presidency.
We're getting deeper into the night, and another round of results. We're counting down to the top of the hour, 10:00 P.M. Eastern. That's when polls will close in Iowa, Montana, Nevada, and Utah. Together, those states have 21 electoral votes. Every vote is vital to get to the winning total of 270.
[21:50:00]
Iowa and Nevada are the battlegrounds to watch in the next hour, Joe Biden looking to hold on to Nevada for the Democrats, while the President is hoping to hold on to Iowa, after winning it handily four years ago.
Let's get a key race alert right now.
Let's start with Ohio, a critical battleground state right now. 64 percent of the estimated vote is in. Look at how close it is in Ohio right now. Only a 13,000-vote lead for Biden over Trump in Ohio, 49.5 percent for Biden, look at that, how close it is.
In North Carolina, 82 percent of the vote is in. Biden does have a 60,000 - almost 65,000-vote lead over Trump, 50.1 percent over there. In Pennsylvania, only 16 percent of the vote is in. They're taking their time counting the votes in Pennsylvania. Biden has a 73,000-vote lead over Trump. 52.5 percent, as you can see.
In Wisconsin, right now, 19 percent of the vote is in. Biden's lead is narrow, only 22,000-vote lead. 50.7 percent to 47.4 percent in Wisconsin.
In Minnesota, right now, a quarter of the vote is in. Biden has an impressive nearly 300,000-vote lead in Minnesota. 66.1 percent he's got there.
In New Hampshire, right now, 22 percent of the vote is in. Biden's lead has increased a bit to nearly 20,000. 54.3 percent to 44.4 percent.
Let's take a look at three more states right now. Let's - actually five more states right now. Florida right now, 93 percent of the vote is in. Trump has a pretty comfortable lead, 379,000-vote lead over Biden in Florida.
In Michigan right now, 20 percent of the vote is in. Trump has an impressive 224,000-vote lead over Biden right now in Michigan, right there.
In Georgia, almost half of the vote is in. Trump has a pretty impressive lead there as well, nearly three - more than 364,000-vote lead over Biden in Georgia, 16 electoral votes there.
In Texas, 76 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump has a lead of 170,000 votes over Biden in the State of Texas, a huge prize, 38 electoral votes.
In Virginia, 45 percent of the estimated vote is in. And look at this. Trump still has a pretty impressive lead of more than 311,000 votes in Virginia, 56.4 percent to 41.7 percent.
Let's go back to John King at the Magic Wall.
So, remind us, big picture, where we are right now in this race to 270.
KING: Well you're getting the building blocks, right? The building blocks are the solids, the states that you depend on. The Democrats depend on certain states. The Republicans depend on certain states.
And the way this map is filling in, right now, nothing here is a surprise. So both campaigns doing the building blocks to try to get you into contention to get to 270, you got to pass the 100 first. We're getting close, 89 for Joe Biden, 72 for the President of the United States.
And, again, everything we see filled in, all these reds, we had them solid Trump coming in, all these blues, we had them Biden coming in. So, we don't have any surprises right now, as we look at the map. The question is where are we going? And I'm going to ask you, Brian (ph), again, just to swing around, we'll do a little choreography here.
Texas, red at the moment. We haven't called that one. Donald Trump has to hold it. Virginia, red at the moment. That would be a shock. That would be a Clinton state that was taken away. But again, we're waiting for Democratic votes there, we're very early on.
The map is going to be different tonight, as we go through these different scenarios of mail-in votes, in-person early, Election Day, different states counting them in different order. So, it's going to be different as we go through.
But you just mentioned Joe Biden opening a lead in Minnesota, and opening a lead in New Hampshire. Come back over here, and I'll show you why that's important. Hillary Clinton won both of those states, so people would say "No big deal."
The Trump campaign understands. It understands. We'll go back to his map. It understands, if we come back to the 306-232, this was four years ago, the Trump campaign fully understands that Joe Biden is more competitive here than Hillary Clinton, led in the polls. Joe Biden is more competitive here than Hillary Clinton, led in the polls.
So, even if you just take Wisconsin, right, even if you just took Wisconsin away from the President here, if you take away this, right, so you're down, that's going away. And you take away this, right, so you're down some more here. And if you - then you're worried about if that goes away, then you're underneath.
So, the Trump campaign, knowing that Joe Biden was more competitive in the blue wall states, was thinking, "What can we get?" So, they were looking at states they just lost, right? They just lost.
Minnesota was very close. Republicans make a run at it. I remember George W. Bush making a run at it. Republicans always make a run, they don't quite get there. But Trump thought he could get there. Trump thought he could pick this one up.
I got to switch this here. Sorry about that.
Trump thought he could pick this up, and then he thought maybe "I can come here and get this," right? It's just - if you're going to subtract, you have to add. And so, we're not done on those states. We're just counting the early votes.
But you saw Mike Pence, and the President, both campaigning, in those states, in the final days of the campaign. When you know there's going to be subtraction, you look for addition. At the moment, we'll keep counting them, but at the moment, if those stay blue, that's a setback for Trump.
BLITZER: I want to go back to Dana Bash. She's got a significant projection in the balance of power of the U.S. Senate.
BASH: That's right, Wolf.
[21:55:00]
In Colorado, CNN can project that John Hickenlooper, the former Governor, the Democratic challenger, will be the next Senator representing Colorado, defeating the incumbent Republican Cory Gardner.
It's the first Democratic pickup of the night in the Senate. Democrats now must pick up three Republican seats. And right now, the balance of power is 40 Democrats, 36 Republicans, but 24 seats remain to be called tonight, Wolf.
BLITZER: Big pickup for the Democrats there, thanks very much, Dana.
So, John, we're looking at the big picture right now. The popular vote, not that it's all that important, but it's still significant.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: Trump has a significant lead right now. But we're not - we're really focused on the Electoral College.
KING: We are. But it is interesting to watch it play out. Again, we're early in this chapter.
And so, whether the states look a little funny or different, whether some of those states are in play to change, and as you watch that play out, let's remember, we're early, right? We're still here. We're counting votes as we go. Some people are still voting out on the West Coast and everything.
But - but, one of the - one of the givens, if you will, was that Donald Trump would lose the popular vote again. He lost to Hillary Clinton four years ago. At the moment, he's ahead. That's not a surprise.
The red states have come in first. But we're going to - let's watch that as it plays out. If Joe Biden passes him, then the question is how does it stretch out? So, that's one way to look at it.
And some people out there I know, lot of Democrats, having lived through Bush v. Gore, and then Clinton versus Trump, you think we don't want the Electoral College. Well we have it. That's the way we pick Presidents right now. And so, we'll watch that popular vote play out.
But, more importantly, we're going to watch these states. And again, as you noted, we were just talking about this a minute ago. We're early here with Joe Biden pulling out to an early lead in Minnesota.
It's one of those states each campaign looks at the last guy's map, and says "What can I do to try to change it?" The Trump campaign wanted Minnesota. They wanted New Hampshire. The Biden lead, early on, we'll see if it changes. This one here, these are the fascinating, they're just - this is - this is why we do this, Wolf. This is why it's exciting and fun. 13,000 votes now in Ohio, 64 percent for some time, so we're waiting. We're waiting for more votes to be counted.
And again, we should all appreciate the challenge of these election officials all across the country, Democrats, Republicans, small county, big cities. It's a huge challenge. Turnout is up. You have the mix of voting, mail-in voting, in-person, early.
But right now, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent in a state the President must win. Joe Biden does not need this. He leads right now by just shy of 14,000 votes - 13,461. He does not need this. But he would like it.
Just want to check to see where we are in the percentages. David Chalian talked a little bit about this earlier. We have to watch which vote is which. But 55 percent, still, you have a lot of votes to count here, in a deep blue county, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland and the surrounding areas. If you're a Democrat, you think "We'll do OK there."
58 percent here, so more votes to be counted in Summit County. You're running well ahead. If you're in the Biden campaign, where as you say "OK, we got a ways to go here."
Just want to move over here, about half of the votes counted. I'm just following the blue to see what's left to come in. So, if you're Joe Biden, the question is do you hold these margins?
Or when more Election Day vote comes in, this is a place the President ran pretty strong four years ago, does he get the Election Day turnout to bring it back? That is the dynamic of the night, in state after state after state. And we're going to have to watch it.
But Ohio is a great battleground state. It's been a while. It was not a battleground last time. President won it quite comfortably.
North Carolina, you look at the margin now, 29,000 votes. It was above a 100,000. It was a close to 125,000 not that long ago. It is down. But 84 percent right now. 49.7 percent to 49.1 percent.
Just want to go back, four years ago. This was a three-point race, if you round up there, four years ago, just look how close this is. And again, we're missing some counties. We're missing completely.
See how many votes are here four years ago, 30 - there's about 1,000- vote difference there, a little more than that, little less than that, four years ago. So, you're looking to see what's missing in these counties and the main place, just come check in here, up to 92 percent.
The question is, again, what's missing? Is it they're counting early votes? Then you think Joe Biden will get more than his fair share of those. If it's all Election Day votes, that's where the President's campaign team thinks he'll do his advantage. So, this is what our people are doing, and it's what all the campaigns are doing, calling into the places where we're still missing votes, and figuring out what's missing, which votes are there.
Let's come back up here to county number two, Wake County, up to 83 percent. Again, if you're Joe Biden, normally, normally, in a normal election you see this. You have a huge margin, 83 percent. You think you're going to build, right, because you've been running it up all night. You have more votes to come in.
The challenge this year is the mail-in, in-person early, Election Day vote. They're different, right? We know Republicans were more likely to come out today. Democrats were more likely to vote early. So, the normal rules don't always apply. You have to find out what's missing, what's missing.
So, let's pull it out a little bit more, and come on the map, and look at it, see if anything's changed, while we've been here. I just want to check on the size of the President's lead here, 179,000 votes in Texas and some change, so we're going to wait in Texas as well.
Just want to see how we're doing down here, in Harris County. This is the largest county in the state, 82 percent of the vote in, so we'll continue to watch that. Joe Biden making it closer, the question is can he find a way to the finish line?
And we just pull out, and look at the map. We're starting to fill it in. 50 percent to 48 percent in the popular vote. That's not how we pick a president though, Wolf. And we'll keep counting.
BLITZER: We certainly will. And we're only moments away, John, from another round of poll closings. Voting is about to end in four states, including the key battlegrounds of Iowa and Nevada, total of 21 electoral votes are on the line right now.
All right, we got a key race alert right now. We believe it's too early to call in Iowa, for example, six electoral votes right there.
