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Election Night In America Continued; McCarthy Says He Has The Votes For House Majority And Speakership; Healey Will Be First Elected Female Governor Of Massachusetts; Election Night In America Continued. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 09, 2022 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:32]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We are live in Washington on a second night of vote counting and suspense. We're awaiting a new round of votes to be counted in Arizona. That could impact the final outcome of this historic midterm elections.

I'm Jake Tapper with our special coverage of "Election Night in America" continued. We are standing by to see if we can make any new projections in any key races that could tilt the balance of power in the House or the Senate.

Let's take a look at the fight for control of the House and Senate at this moment. In the Senate, Democrats currently hold 48 seats. Republicans currently hold 49 seats. Republicans need to pick up two more seats in order to get to the 51 required to retake Senate control.

Three key Senate races remain undecided. Those are in Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Georgia could ultimately determine Senate control as the contest between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is headed to a December runoff.

In the House, 218 seats are needed to control that chamber. Democrats are trailing. They only have 187 seats right now. Republicans have in- stepped to 206. The magic number, 218. Forty-two races remain uncalled. Both parties on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens next as the votes are counted.

We are expecting a significant number of new vote numbers tonight in Arizona where CNN senior national correspondent Sara Sidner is live in Phoenix for us right now.

Sara, what are you picking up there?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In just about an hour, we will get another bunch of votes that have been counted, and the public will see who those votes went for. We've got several tight races here.

And as you know in Arizona, you know, just like anywhere, you really have to wait until the end when these tight races are going forward. And one of the tightest races is for the governorship with Kari Lake

and Katie Hobbs. They are neck and neck. And we are watching that race very closely. There is also a very significant race nationally and that is the Senate race. And that's been fairly close or not as close as the governor's race.

I do also want to mention we are just getting new numbers in from another county. Now, Maricopa is the largest county, the most populous county as well. And they have just under 400,000 votes that have to be counted.

And we also know that the second largest county, Pima County, has just reported they have 159,000 votes that still need to be counted. And they do not think they will get all of those counted until November 14th or 15th.

That took a few people by surprise. But this is because they are looked through very carefully to make sure everything is verified. And then they will count those ballots. That's where we are right now.

We are looking at the two most populous counties. One of them where we'll start getting some more numbers coming down in about an hour. The other one we may not hear until November 14th, 15th, the actual final vote count from that county, Pima County -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. That is surprising that that's going to take that long. Let's go to the battleground desk where we find David Chalian.

David, tell us more about this because that's -- we have to wait until the 14th or 15th?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We may. I do want to explain sort of what we're seeing broken out by method of vote in Arizona right now. So if you look here, among the mail vote, Mark Kelly, the Democratic incumbent, has an 18.3 percent lead in that vote. Among the Election Day vote, Blake Masters has a 40.1 percent vote.

Now, let me show you what we know about what is left uncounted. So, 38.7 percent of the mail vote is left uncounted right now. And that is a Kelly advantage group perhaps I'm going to explain that in one second.

There's almost no election-day vote left. While this is a big category for Blake Masters, only 1 percent remains to be counted. Here is the catch that I want folks to understand. Late arriving mail, even though it's mail vote, may be politically different than the early arriving mail. We saw this happen in 2020.

Just as an example at 5:00 p.m. Eastern today, we got a batch of 22,000 votes out of Pima County. You just heard Sara Sidner talking about Pima County. It is currently a county that Kelly has a 23 percentage point lead in the vote.

[19:05:00]

But in that batch of votes because it was late mail, 63 percent went for Masters, 35 percent went for Kelly. Complete reversal.

So, we have to watch carefully if this number up here 18.3 percent, that lead starts shrinking for Kelly as more late-arriving mail gets counted, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. That's what they call the late earlies, meaning early voting, but arrives late. The late earlies, as if this couldn't get confusing enough.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You make a key point because it's a huge challenge for our business. We know it's confusing to some of you watching at home. It's a giant challenge for campaigns because the character of how we vote has changed so much.

It was changing anyway. Early voting, mail-in voting, especially. Washington state, for example, went to that years ago. But in most of the country, early and mail-in voting was just starting to get traction and spreading in popularity, and then COVID hit.

And so, now, we're in the first COVID cycle and we're going through it again. So David makes a key point. We can look at what happened in 2020. If you just looked at that, then Mark Kelly is going to hold this lead. This is just Pima County. If you just look at 2020.

But David makes a key point, the late earlies, right? Are those Republicans who traditionally vote on Election Day who said, I don't want to vote in a line? So here's my ballot, I'm going to mail it at the last second.Is that an Election Day vote or is that an early vote? Are we going to redefine this over the next five, ten years of American as this character of voting and how people vote changes?

So, the point now is, what does it tell you? It's confusing. We need to count. So we need to be patient. We need to count and we need to trust the officials who did a very good job in Arizona two years ago, it took a while. Nevada took even longer so we're in two states that took a while in 2020, and we're doing it again, and it matters big time.

Eighty-three thousand, you rather be Mark Kelly than Katie Hobbs right now. I'll show you in just a second. The Democratic senator with an 83,000-vote lead as we wait for more votes. In the governor's race, it's just a 4,000, just shy of 4,000-vote lead.

TAPPER: That's been knocked down, if you will, right?

KING: That has come down a little bit, as David noted, when the Pima County votes came in, they were, quote, unquote, mail ballots. But they're late earlies.

TAPPER: Late earlies.

KING: They're late earlies, and they were more Republican. And so we're going to sort this out as we get more of them, we'll be able to do some math and figure out if we need to adjust the percentages and the great work that David is doing in the battleground desk. And we'll go from there. But what it just tells you is be careful and be patient, which is very

hard if you're a partisan watching at home and you have skin in the game, if you will, it's hard, and I understand that completely.

But so, we wait for more votes and you look at this. Look, so, we've talked about this, right? This is not the red wave or the blood bath that Republicans had hoped for.

That does not mean in the end, it still won't be a decent year for Republicans. They're in a path to probably get a narrow house majority. They could still very well win the Senate. We'll do that math in a minute, it's up for grabs. And they could have one of the new rising Republicans could still be the governor of a very important battleground state in America.

So we need to wait until we get to the end before we decide the midterms told us X, right? We need to lead that blank right now.

It's still inconclusive. So let's come back to the Senate race because this is now monumental. We're waiting for this count to come in. We might be waiting, it depends what we get today and what we get tomorrow, and maybe Friday. So then you have the question do the votes that we might have to wait until November 14th or 15th, do they matter, right?

How many of them are left and what is the lead at this point? So, you pull this out, and let's switch maps. This is where we are. You mentioned at the top of the hour, the presentation that we still don't know.

We still really don't know the complete verdict on the midterms and this is why. We do know this is going to a runoff. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, that's December 6th.

Do we have to wait until December 6th? Do we have to wait for another Georgia runoff to learn who controls the Senate? That's why these matter so much.

TAPPER: Well, not necessarily, right.

KING: That's why they matter so much, and that's why the late vote count. At the moment, the Republican is leading here. Still a lot of votes to be counted.

Let's put it up right there. As we just noted, the Democrat is leading here. Still a lot of votes to be counted.

So where does it leave us -- where does that leave us right now? It leaves us at 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats, right? So, that would be a swap if it stayed right there. The Democrats pick up Pennsylvania, the Republicans pick up Nevada if nothing changed from where we are right now.

Then, Georgia decides, can Democrats get back to 50 and then the vice president breaks the tie or do Republicans get to 51? Which is why these votes count so much because there's a possibility if the vote count there, if the incumbent Democrat Cortez Masto comes back in the race, just wants to, just play a little bit on day two, it's possible Democrats get to 51 right there. Kelly holds this lead. Cortes Masto comes back. This is just to decide whether it's 50/50 again and the Democrats, because of the Vice President rule, or the Democrats get to 51.

Or the flip side of that is I think what you were getting to, if Laxalt holds this lead --

TAPPER: Right.

KING: -- and then in Arizona, Masters comes back because there are plenty of votes. That is still a very -- it's a mathematical possibility.

TAPPER: Then, Georgia doesn't matter as much.

[19:10:01]

KING: Then Georgia only matters to the margin, not to who controls. So, we have not written the final chapter of this midterm election yet, whether it comes to the Senate or not.

TAPPER: And look at that.

Still ahead, those new votes from Arizona are coming in soon. We're crunching all the numbers as they come in, in the fight for control of Congress. This as "Election Night in America" continued.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back.

We just got some new votes counted from several undecided House races we're watching.

Here is a key race alert. In Montana, the former secretary of interior under Donald Trump, Republican Ryan Zinke, is currently leading Democrat Monica Tranel, the former Olympic rower. He's up 50.5 percent to 45.7 percent. Too early to call.

In deep blue Connecticut, Democratic incumbent Jahana Hayes leads Republican George Logan by less than a percentage point, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent. Still too early to call.

In Arizona, Republican Juan Ciscomani, a Mexican immigrant and former aide to Republican Governor Doug Ducey is currently leading former state lawmaker and environmental lawyer, Democrat Kirsten Engel, 51.9 percent to 48 percent. But still too early to call.

Going over to the magic wall right now, or we're doing the balance of power?

OK, going over to the magic wall. John King, so, tell me where we are when it comes to control of the House of Representatives.

KING: We're not quite there yet. This is where we are right now in ahead, races where the candidates are ahead. Many of them are not called yet. I'll break that down in a minute.

But if you just -- if the count ended now and everything stayed put, Republicans would get a two-seat majority. Two-seat majority in an election where they thought they were going to win 25 --

TAPPER: Meaning you need 218 votes. They have 220 votes.

KING: But we're not there right now. Cold races, there are 206. So they're on their way, and a betting man would tell you given what's still on the board they have a very good -- almost a probability of getting to a small majority.

But Democrats still mathematically Democrats have a chance still to fight the majority because of these, the uncalled races. So this is the challenge. We were just talking about the Senate math. We have to wait until we know more about Nevada. We have to wait till we know more about Arizona before we understand how important the Georgia Senate runoff is.

We need to wait until these what, 30, 42 races right here, 19 Republican leads in competitive districts, 13 Democratic leads in competitive districts. So this is a fight. This is a district-by- district fight for the margins in the House. And, again, the likelihood is a small Republican majority.

But sometimes you get surprised. The uncalled races, they are coast to coast. We're talking earlier, how long are we going to have to wait on Nevada? How long are we going to have to wait on Arizona? Well, two of these races have rank-choice voting. And Maine and Alaska are going to take quite some time.

If, if, if it came down to the balance of the House weighs on one or two districts, the Democratic incumbent is leading here. He's at 50 percent right now.

TAPPER: So, if he holds that, they don't have to go to rank choice, correct?

KING: Correct. If he holds that, they do not, and he's at 80 percent. So make a long list of potential complications.

TAPPER: Just the point with Jared Golden I just want people to know. Jared golden, he's a Democrat in a Republican seat.

KING: Six points. Donald Trump would've carried that district in these lines by six points.

TAPPER: I believe last time, he fell short of 50 percent and, in fact, I don't even think he was in first place in the plurality of it. And then he became the member of Congress because of the ranked-choice voting.

KING: I believe that's correct. This is a tenacious Democrat who often breaks with his party, he's a tenacious Democrat. How did Democrats defy the national headwinds, if you will? , in part, by good candidates whose personal brand helps them overcome and who knows their district.

And remember the Democratic governor also won against the former Republican Governor Paul LePage. You come back out, where are these other uncalled races? We talked about this race last night in western Connecticut. Jahana Hayes what's losing at one point. Now, she's 1,800 votes ahead. But we're still counting some votes here.

Look at the county levels here. Last night, the votes, a lot of the votes are still -- which Democrat by 20 points. You're looking at the math.

TAPPER: I was just going to say George Logan, who is not -- this is an African American who supports abortion rights, might actually have his politics line up with a lot of people in the western part of Connecticut.

KING: Right, this is one of the races where we talked about last night. House Republicans were smarter in some of these non-MAGA districts. Some of those MAGA candidates lost. But in this particular district this was a pretty good recruit for the Republicans. The Democrat is ahead at the moment.

When are we going to know is Kevin McCarthy the speaker or do Democrats somehow defy history? If Kevin McCarthy is a speaker, by how much? We're going to have to wait until we settle these uncalled races. In 2018, some of these races here took days and days.

TAPPER: Right, and it turned out that Democrats won a lot of them. And we don't know what the mood is going to be like this time.

Coming up next, new comments by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on midterm election. We'll hear what he had to say. That's after this break.

(COMMERIAL BREAK)

[19:23:22]

TAPPER: Welcome back. We have a new projection to make in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican Mark Molinaro is the winner in a sprawling New York district that includes Binghamton and Ithaca. He is currently the Dutchess County executive. That is a pickup for Democrats.

Let's look at the balance of power right now. Right now, Democrats have 187 seats in the house including four pickups. Republicans control 207 seats. That's 15 pickups. That's Molinaro just improved that number 207, 41 seats are outstanding.. The magic number, 218.

Of the competitive seats that are out there, Republicans need to win eight, eight. Democrats need to win 24. A much taller order for Democrats right now.

Let's go to chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju.

And, Manu, you just heard from Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House leader, who hopes to become the next speaker, what did he have to say?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, he has been behind closed doors for much of the day having meetings, talking to Republican members as he's trying to lock down enough support to assume the speakership, assuming that Republicans do take control of the House.

And he was asked by our colleague Kristin Wilson about whether in fact he does have the votes to become speaker. He indicated, he does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTIN WILSON, CNN REPORTER: Do you have the votes for both the majority and the speakership?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Yes.

WILSON: What about the Freedom Caucus? Have you spoken to President Biden today?

MCCARTHY: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So that last part saying, yes, he has spoken to President Biden today. Would not say if he has gotten the support of the House Freedom Caucus. That is a hard-right faction, some of which members are threatening to vote against him.

[19:25:04]

He did meet with one member of that faction, Marjorie Taylor Greene, behind closed doors, for 45 minutes earlier this evening. Greene would not comment about whether she would support him for speaker.

Now, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, also left the Capitol just moments ago. And our colleague Ali Zaslav caught up with him as he was leaving the Capitol. And he indicated that he never predicted that there would be a red wave. He said, well, I don't believe I ever predicted that when asked about the fact that it appears that it has not yet materialized in any of the results here.

He, for a long time, has said this will be a jump-ball election, and indicated that he is still waiting to see the results of Arizona and Nevada, like everybody else. And he was asked about whether or not inflation played into this, instead he pointed to Georgia, and he said we're all waiting for December 6th, of course, that being the key runoff day in Georgia that potentially could determine the Senate majority or could determine the margin, at least. His sights are set on Georgia next month.

TAPPER: All right. Manu, thanks so much.

And, Kasie, do you think that Kevin McCarthy has the votes as of right now? We don't even know who's going to be in the conference.

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Kevin McCarthy, I don't know how he can know, really. I mean, he sort of has to answer the question that way. What else are you going to say?

But the fact that he's not -- I mean, they thought he had all kinds of press lined up last night. They thought he was going to be able to come out and claim victory. And instead he's basically running from the camera.

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Jake, if body language is a real thing, the body language there was not great for Kevin McCarthy. You can overstate it, but he didn't come out there like, hey, guys here I am, the new speaker. He couldn't wait to get through that door and away from reporters.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We got to talk about Mitch McConnell, to Ali Zaslav. He's the king of understatement. I didn't predict a red wave. No, you didn't. You said, candidate quality, which is --

HUNT: Maybe this, maybe that, we'll see.

BASH: Which is note to Donald Trump, thanks a lot, man, for getting involved in all of these primaries, which we begged you not to, and leaving me with candidates who were not viable in purple or even blue states like what we're looking at in Pennsylvania. And he's very, very frustrated.

This is like Charlie Brown and the football. It is over and over this has happened. If you go back to 2010, huge wave in the House of Representatives. He doesn't get a majority. Why? Because of candidate quality. And it's happened again and again.

TAPPER: That was because of the Tea Party, not because of Trump.

BASH: But the Tea Party is more modern version of Trumpism. Or Trumpism is a more modern version of Tea Party.

Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows were the Freedom Caucus chairs and they were Tea Partiers and it's sort of the newer version of that.

WALLACE: I think it's interesting when he was asked how does it play with voters, he talked about December 6th. We can make much too much of this, but if he was more confident that he's going to win Arizona and Nevada, then December 6th is not quite so important. It seems like he's saying we're going to win one, we're going to lose another one and it's going to come down to December 6 and the runoff.

HUNT: Yeah, he's assuming that the Republicans are going to win Nevada and lose in Arizona, I think he's thinking. It's also a dig at Rick Scott who was out on the air waves saying we're going to win 55 seats in the Senate. I think all of us kind of thought that would be a lot.

BASH: There's no love lost.

HUNT: But he spent money on races that I'm sure McConnell thinks was a total waste.

TAPPER: Right.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think anybody believed what Rick Scott was selling and certainly not Mitch McConnell. But I am fascinated by just, in my mind, I see the image of Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell and the two men who probably could not be more different. There is a real scenario on which they are sort of co-leading a Congress for the next couple of years.

And they don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. And I think that that is actually a different dynamic than we have certainly been experiencing in the last couple of years. But it will be a much more difficult dynamic for Republicans than we talk about because McConnell is a very results-oriented type of leader. He doesn't want to play some of these games that McCarthy is going to have to play if he wants to placate his base.

BASH: As John Boehner used to say, unless you have the caucus behind you, you're just a guy taking a walk.

PHILLIP: Many speakers of the House have tripped up on that very issue.

WALLACE: I was going to say there's a difference between McConnell and McCarthy because McCarthy runs the Republican caucus in the Senate and McCarthy runs the Republican caucus in the House and that's, relatively speaking, a zoo.

HUNT: Look, there was also a pretty serious break between McCarthy and McConnell over January 6th. It's not necessarily one that has gotten a lot of ink. It's not something that two men really talk about.

But the way McCarthy went down to Mar-a-Lago and stood for that photograph immediately after, McConnell was very much of the Liz Cheney mindset. We've learned in some of these books how seriously he thought about casting a different vote in impeachment. He ultimately closed his mouth in the attempts to win the Senate back in this midterm election.

But the two of them don't see eye to eye on how to deal with Trump and the party. McConnell sees him clearly as a loser and McConnell sees him as someone -- I'm sorry, McCarthy sees him as someone that he absolutely needs if he wants to --

BASH: McConnell has also been, in recent weeks, the target and his wife of really unseemly and racist attacks by Trump.

PHILLIP: Trump wants to get rid of McConnell. TAPPER: When McCarthy went down to Mar-a-Lago in January 2021, that is interpreted by a lot of house Republicans as McCarthy bringing Donald Trump back onto a boat after they felt like they had pushed him off. And you can argue that if Kevin McCarthy had not done that, that last night would've been a much more successful night for Republicans. Because you would have had a completely different dynamic if you buy the argument that McCarthy brought Trump back.

HUNT: I don't know that I buy that. I know there are some people who have posited that. But if you think about the way that the party was turn -- McCarthy was following the rest of his party's base when he went down to Mar-a-Lago. He was not leading from the front with what he did.

And he made the calculation that if he wanted to achieve -- I mean, he has wanted to be the speaker of the house for years. He keeps missing out on it for various reasons because of mistakes he's made, because of the way elections have broken, because, potentially here, if Donald Trump turns on him in the next couple of months, the speakership race could get really ugly really fast for McCarthy, and he really needs Trump to embrace him to continue to mitigate the problem.

TAPPER: John Bolton has said several times that he thinks Trump is going to go after McCarthy at some point. God knows why, just for fun, for kicks?

WALLACE: Because he can.

HUNT: Why not?

TAPPER: Exactly. Why is he insulting DeSantis right now?

WALLACE: Right.

Anyway, coming up, Massachusetts makes history with its pick for governor. She joins us live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:34]

TAPPER: History was made on several fronts in this midterm election, including in Massachusetts, which now has its first elected female governor, Maura Healey, who is also the country's first openly lesbian governor.

She joins us now from Boston for her very first national television interview as governor-elect.

Congratulations, governor-elect.

Tell us what this moment is like for you personally, as a trailblazer, and what's your message to little girls out there and to the LGBTQ community?

MAURA HEALEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR-ELECT: Well, it's great to be with you, Jake.

For me, this just brings about all these feelings I had as I was running and looking into the eyes of little girls, of young women, talking to young people from the LGBTQ community.

You know, representation matters, and seeing is believing. And I hope that my election will affirm in those young people this idea, so important, that they can be anything they want to be. This afternoon, I got to spend time with young girls in a city just north of Boston in a great after-school program.

And it was just great to be spending time with them, them asking questions, them engaged, them talking about politics, maybe running for office. And, at the end of the day, we're going to be a better state, we will be a better country when more voices are at the table, especially voices that have not been heard historically.

TAPPER: And you're also only the second Democrat to become governor of Massachusetts in the past 30 years, which might surprise some of our viewers, but Charlie Baker, Republican governor, obviously, Mitt Romney at one point, Republican governor.

What do you think the winning message was, especially in a year where Democrats seemed to be facing headwinds?

HEALEY: Well, I have had the privilege of being an attorney general here for the past eight years in Massachusetts.

And I took on some of the big fights, including Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. I stood up for families on a lot of economic issues. And I think they liked my message. At the end of the day, my message was about bringing people together, delivering results, not dividing people.

My opponent in this race was really of the Trump wing of the party. He was an election denier. And he was opposed to abortion. And, here in Massachusetts, I think the voters spoke really clearly that they're beyond the noise. They want people who are going to deliver, bring people together, certainly stand up for reproductive justice.

I also ran a campaign that was really focused on affordability in a time right now where we know so many families are hurting. And I think that's what -- what's really carried us over.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Governor-elect, it's Dana Bash. Congratulations again to you.

You are now going to have to govern. And one of the big issues -- you sort of touched on this a minute ago -- that governors across the country are having to deal with is affordability, is inflation. How are you going to actually tackle that?

What are you going to do to make people's lives in Massachusetts better?

HEALEY: Well, I think from several angles, Dana. And you're absolutely right that that is an issue here in Massachusetts. It's an issue across this country. I put forward plans, including growing housing right now, because, right now, we don't have enough housing. Rents are too expensive. People can't afford mortgages. So, that's one thing we're going to get after right away, also make some changes to your transportation system.

[19:40:01]

We have money coming in, though, here in Massachusetts. And we're going to make smart, strategic investments. I have also proposed tax reform. And that will be my first act day one as governor.

BASH: Tax...

TAPPER: Go ahead, Dana.

BASH: No, I was going to say, tax reform, I mean, obviously, when you're talking about revenue and talking about having to spend money to do some of the things that you're discussing, are you going to be able to do both of those things at the same time?

That's not necessarily easy, at a time with inflation and maybe on the brink of a recession.

HEALEY: Well, it's never easy, of course, Dana.

But I will tell you, here in Massachusetts, we are in good fiscal shape compared to a lot of states. The job, though, of the next governor is to make sure that we are working to make life more affordable for families here, because we don't want residents or employers going elsewhere.

But I am really bullish and optimistic about our state. I had a great meeting today with Governor Baker. I have had a great working relationship with him the last eight years, and I feel so much is possible here. There's a mood of optimism. People are looking for me and my teammate. We also have elected here in Massachusetts the country's first all-female team or one of the first all-female teams in history in my lieutenant governor-elect, Kim Driscoll.

So, we're excited. And people, I feel the energy out there. I feel the optimism. Yes, we have got some headwinds to deal with but I think Massachusetts is in really solid, solid shape to be able to deal with that going forward.

TAPPER: And, governor-elect, you met with the outgoing Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who you just referred to.

You met with him this morning. What advice did he give you?

HEALEY: Well, we have -- we have had many discussions, and we will continue to have discussions.

And I also -- I also know that -- I'm sorry. There was something coming in here. TAPPER: That was just a video of you this morning talking to...

HEALEY: But we've had many discussions. We will continue...

TAPPER: That was just a video of you.

(CROSSTALK)

HEALEY: Oh, got it, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

HEALEY: Forgive me. Forgive me.

TAPPER: No. It's OK.

HEALEY: Well, look, we have a great conversation. And

I think that one of the things that he made clear to me -- and it's also the way I have tried to be as attorney general -- is to really get out around the state, to make sure that, when we are in these positions, when we are elected with the voters' trust and the expectation that we're going to deliver results, it's really about making sure that people across this state know that, whether they voted for me or not, I will listen to them, I will understand them, I will meet them where they are.

And, together, we're going to work to find common ground and to move us forward. And I know that's possible here in this state.

TAPPER: All right.

Well, congratulations again, governor-elect. Appreciate your taking time to talk to us today.

HEALEY: Well, thanks for having me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:41]

TAPPER: Welcome back. New numbers, new votes counted are expected momentarily in one of the key races that will determine control of Congress. We're following all of the contests that remain up in the air tonight as the country awaits the final midterm results.

Let's go to CNN's senior national correspondent Sara Sidner. She's in Phoenix, Arizona, Maricopa County, waiting for new results, election numbers in the high stakes Senate, and gubernatorial races there.

Sara, what's the latest you're hearing?

SIDNER: Look, we have about 15 minutes before we're expecting to see another significant drop that you will see of votes. In other words, these are votes that have been counted. They were early mail-in votes from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that have been counted. Could be anywhere up to 89,000 potential votes that come in.

That isn't a significant number, as you know. About 1.6 million votes in this county. This is the most populated county in all of Arizona.

So, you've got that situation going on here. There are still election workers of course here. They're going to be here for most of the night sorting and counting. We are just waiting for that vote drop. And when it comes down, we'll know exactly where they are in their process.

There were 400,000 votes left to count here in Maricopa County. So, if it's up to 89,000 of these early votes, then that will be a significant number of those 400,000. We are just waiting to hear from officials about that. They are going to give us those latest numbers.

And these could have an effect on the senate. They could have an effect of course on the governor's race because this is the most populated county. We will just have to wait and see what that is. But there is a lot of excitement on basically both sides of the aisle, both Republicans and Democrats hoping that those numbers shape their way because one of the races especially the governor's race is very, very tight at this point, and so both sides waiting to see.

We have learned something about Katie Hobbs, who is now running for governor but is the secretary of state, so the person that certifies these votes. She says if there is a dispute, that she will not have anything to do with touching any of these ballots just to make sure this is fair, this is a fair election. She doesn't want to have her hands anywhere near any of the votes. She is going to wait and see, she says, who wins this election. And we'll have to wait and see, too, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Sara Sidner in Phoenix, Arizona, thanks so much.

Twenty-seven percent of the vote remains uncounted in Arizona. David, have we figured out what percentage of that, the candidates would need to win in order to be triumphant?

CHALIAN: Yeah. So, our colleagues at our decision desk are doing that math constantly. That's what they do to try and get to projection- level competence. So, what we see the vote tally on the left of where it currently stands with 73 percent of the vote in, 51.2 percent of the vote for Mark Kelly, 46.7 percent for Blake Masters.

Now we think -- and these are estimates, Jake. We think approximately 700,000 votes are outstanding, 700,000 votes. So, given the current vote tallies, Blake Masters in our calculation would need a range of 53 to 56 percent of those roughly 700,000 uncounted votes in order to win this race.

Mark Kelly's need number is lower. He would need about 41 to 45 percent of the uncounted votes in order to secure victory in this race. So, we'll be watching closely to see what are the percentage breakdowns for this new batch of votes coming from Maricopa County, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. David, thanks so much. And let's dive into this. We're expecting these votes to come in about ten minutes. Until then, tell us what's going on there.

KING: So, David, makes a key point. Number one, our great decision team is making the best estimate they have based on the information we're getting from Arizona officials. When we get the first release of the newly counted votes, then you take it down and break down the percentages and that will inform us, as we go through the additional votes, assuming it holds. That was the pattern in 2020.

So, what are we looking at? You would rather be Mark Kelly. Blake Masters mathematically, totally.

TAPPER: Absolutely.

KING: Mark Kelly has by Arizona competitive standards, in the Arizona Senate race, we have no idea who will win this race. Let's be clear. Because 700,000 more votes. Then in the governor's race, it is much more of a narrow lead. This is only a 3,000-point lead. The Senate is in place. This is in play in both.

So that's why we need the votes. In both places, it will come here. The biggest basket of votes we'll get is Maricopa County, which sorry to be redundant but this is it, 62 percent of the state population, Phoenix and the fast-growing suburbs around it where close elections are decided. With the exception of the 15 percent that live in Tucson and the suburbs around Tucson, when you get to the south here.

But largely Democratic areas, you see Katie Hobbs with 52 percent. It is interesting watching these come out. We could get all the new ballots and it's possible, one Democrat holds the lead and one Democrat loses the lead. It's closer.

You look at this right now, it is statewide. So, she had the poll numbers. She's at 51 percent. This is almost a dead heat, 3,600 votes and change. He's at 52 percent. You would rather be 83,000 votes with more votes outstanding, 83,000 votes ahead than 3,600 votes ahead. That's simple math.

Now we go through the process and we count and there are a lot of people stirring this up, questioning the integrity. He does it take so long? We have zero reasons to believe that this is anything but there are a lot of votes and they need to count them. And they will. One more key point, when they do this, you say, Sara is standing there. There are representatives of each campaign there. There are neutral observers there, there are lawyers there, there are eyes on all of this.

So, you see people outside, not in the process stirring up all these questions. There are good Republicans and good Democrats and good independents watching.

TAPPER: And also, by the way, why does it take so long? It always takes so long in Arizona. Remember the Senate race, between Sinema and McSally, it took days and days and days. Now, if the Republican, the current Republican governor and the

Republican House and Senate in Arizona want to change that, they can change it. They can be as efficient as Florida is if they want to do it.

KING: And Georgia. And we're waiting on Arizona and Nevada. Roll the clock back two years. What were we waiting on?

TAPPER: Arizona and Nevada.

KING: And Pennsylvania. So let's give some grace. That was COVID. We were in uncharted waters, so many early ballots and all that.

But these two states have been traditionally slower. It is the way they do it and the people in their states elect the local officials in their state. And so, they elect them in free and fair elections. They've traditionally been slow.

They haven't changed the rules. You have to respect the will of the people. If that's the way the people want to do it, we wait.

TAPPER: Yeah.

Coming up, Arizona set to release new round of votes in a few minutes. That could affect the final outcome as election night in America continues.

Stay with us.

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[19:58:30]

TAPPER: Take a look at these live pictures from Arizona where we're expecting new vote totals to be released this hour, any minute, really. Arizona is one of the states with critical races that remain undecided this evening, control of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are hanging in the balance as election night in America continues.

I'm Jake Tapper in the CNN election center. As we wait for those votes from Arizona. Let's take a look at the balance of power in Congress as it stands right this moment in the U.S. Senate. Democrats have 48 Senate seats. Republicans have 49 Senate seats. Republicans need to pick up two more seats in order to get the 51 required to retake Senate control.

Three key Senate races remain undecided. One is in Georgia. One is in Arizona and one is in Nevada.

The Georgia race is heading to a run-off race in December. That could ultimately decide Senate control, depending on what happens in Arizona and Nevada.

Now, let's take a look at the House of Representatives, 218 seats needed there to control the chamber. Democrats hold 187 seats. Republicans are making gains. They have 207 seats as of right now, 11 short of what they need to reclaim the majority.

We have updated that several times this evening, 41 races remain uncalled. President Biden speaking out about the results at a news conference earlier today. He called the election a good day for democracy. He noted with confidence and some relief that the red wave, the red tsunami many Republicans predicted did not pan out.

All eyes on Arizona where we're awaiting a significant number of vote totals. Vote counts from Maricopa predicted did not pan out. All eyes on Arizona where we're awaiting a significant number of vote totals, vote counts from Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona. That will be reported at any moment.