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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Election Night 2025. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 04, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And then, Jake, another big question tonight is this you have all these other Republican candidates who are trying to run like Donald Trump. Remember what Donald Trump does in rural America, right? Can they not only win those counties with the percentages that they need, but can they get voters to come out of the woodwork in rural America, including rural Virginia, like Donald Trump does?
[19:00:09]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Fascinating stuff.
And voting is about to end in the first big race of the night, the commonwealth of Virgini and the governor's race. Will Democrats win back the commonwealth's governor's mansion or will Republicans buck history and hang on to it?
We have a key race alert for you now. And it is too early to call. The polls just close so we do not know exactly what to make of things.
But David Chalian has some new exit polls looking at how key demographics in Virginia are feeling tonight, and that could provide us with some clues -- David.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It could indeed, Jake.
Take a look here, among female voters in Virginia now that polls have closed, we can show that Spanberger is walloping Earle-Sears among female voters. She's getting 61 percent of female voters, according to these preliminary exit polls. And these numbers can shift as the night goes on and we get more information from voters.
Earle-Sears only getting 37 percent of female voters. This is a much wider margin than McAuliffe had over Youngkin four years ago, with female voters, independent voters. Youngkin won independent voters by nine points four years ago. Look at this, Spanberger is winning independent voters by 15 percentage points, and they make up a third of the electorate in Virginia, critical voting bloc.
Suburban voters, you were just talking at the wall with John about those critical northern Virginia suburbs, 57 percent of the electorate comes from the suburbs. Spanberger is winning them by 13 points, 56 to 43. Again, Youngkin was winning them by seven four years ago.
And the split among federal worker households, this is critical with DOGE, with the shutdown, real impact, 22 percent of the electorate comes from federal worker households, Spanberger 61 percent to Earle- Sears' 37 percent -- Jake.
TAPPER: Those are some pretty stark numbers, David Chalian.
I mean, Dana Bash if I'm with the Spanberger headquarters, I'm like, all right.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, just looking at that. Yeah, at the last one, 61 percent of federal workers say they are voting for Spanberger. As John was saying, it's what, like 150,000 federal workers in Virginia.
But we're in the middle of a shutdown and people have not gotten paychecks in a month. And they're going to vote. What do you expect them to be doing?
I talked earlier to a Republican who has done a ton of work for decades in Virginia who said, you cannot express in a more profound way how much shutdowns hurt Republicans. No matter what happens, hurt Republicans. When Virginians go to vote during a shutdown, it's just the historical trend.
KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it's also worth pointing out, Jake, that Abigail Spanberger did not draw the strongest Republican candidate that we have ever seen run for governor in Virginia. And strength of candidate really matters here. I mean, this was to the point that President Trump didn't even endorse here in this race, even though its right in his backyard. Right.
So, I think Spanberger benefited from being a strong candidate herself, but also in facing someone who doesn't have the typical strength that you see here.
TAPPER: Well, I have a lot of thoughts on everything that you said. Well, let me -- let's go back to the issue about the government shutdown.
BASH: Yeah.
TAPPER: Historically, Republicans have been the ones that have caused the shutdowns, right? I mean, they're the ones and I'm only specifically talking about whether or not they vote to fund the government when it goes to the House, when it goes to the Senate, Democrats are the ones that are not voting to fund the government.
Now, I understand why they're doing so. They're doing so because of health care. And they want to fight, and they want Republicans to negotiate, et cetera, et cetera. The messaging by Democrats around this shutdown has been sharper than I've seen Democrats on any issue in a long time.
They have convinced voters, Democratic voters and independent voters that it's the Republicans fault. And just on the numbers, that might not be actually accurate.
BASH: Well.
TAPPER: In terms of who's voting to open the government and who isn't. Again --
BASH: Right, no, you're absolutely right.
TAPPER: Why they're doing it. They're doing it because of health care policy. And some really big issues that voters have. But it's just interesting to me.
BASH: And what tends to happen is a pox on all their houses.
But again, if you are a voter and you haven't gotten a paycheck and you understand that maybe it is the Democrats because people are very savvy about everything you just talked about who aren't voting yes, you're still angry at the incumbent party, and the incumbent party is the guy in the White House.
TAPPER: And also you're angry at the incumbent party bringing in Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency --
BASH: Exactly, and that's the underlying part here.
TAPPER: -- to cut, cut, cut the federal workforce. And I'm guessing federal workers, generally speaking, think that the Democratic Party is fighting for them while Republicans are fighting to reduce the size of government.
[19:05:05]
HUNT: Look, I would say this is a little bit of anecdata, but obviously, these federal workers in the DMV area are our friends and neighbors. And for many of them, there is a sense -- and we're seeing this also in polling -- that they want people to fight for them.
TAPPER: Right.
HUNT: Even if it is that Democrats are the ones that are preventing the government from reopening right now, they are seeing that Democrats are fighting. Right. And that has been the demand. That has been the pressure that has caused Democrats to, as you point out, you know, essentially abandon the argument they've been making for the last couple of decades, which is that you don't shut the government down over a policy dispute, right?
I mean, Democrats always said that. But in this case, you know, it may be this perception of fight might be more important.
TAPPER: Yeah.
All right. Let's hand it over to CNN's Erin Burnett in New York -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right. Jake, thank you very much.
And -- all right, so, Rahm, when you look through the as were getting these numbers in, as jake said, those numbers are pretty stunning. When you look at the state of Virginia, what do you see there when you see the suburban breakdown, when you see the federal workers breakdown? It goes on and on.
RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Look, there's two things that are coming out of this election that's going to tell you a lot about a year from now, because its one year after the president won. And obviously the midterm.
One is around message affordability and opportunity are the central message Democrats. And that's going to and that's winning.
The second is the construct of the electorate in a -- in an off-year election when one party controls both ends of Pennsylvania avenue, there's a law of physics.
Right now, Democratic turnout is exceeding Republican turnout by a significant margin. And independents are breaking kind of 57/43, 56/41. That number tells you in swing districts that will determine the majority in the House, where the electorate is.
And so if that sets and you've got to see it, California, New Jersey, Virginia, et cetera, if it's -- and Pennsylvania, if it becomes a pattern, then you have the constructs of what is going to make up and explain why the president is trying to redistrict his way out of a verdict by the American people.
BURNETT: Congresswoman Malliotakis, obviously, you know, New York and also nationally, though looking at it as a congressperson, when you see these results from Virginia and those polls are closed, we could get this any second here. But obviously, the breakdown here, even when you look at independents, right, 56 percent of the independents exit polls are saying that they went for the Democrat Abigail Spanberger only 41 percent for Winsome Earle-Sears.
What does that say to you? Is that sort of a ding red light?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): Look, I think it's -- honestly, I think it's a personality, right? I think that you had Glenn Youngkin, who was a very personal person. He came in at an interesting time where people were very upset about the education system in Virginia. I think that Winsome Earle-Sears is just simply a different type of candidate that maybe didn't have that same type of personal connection with the voters.
And I know Abigail Spanberger and quite frankly, she's a moderate Democrat. She's not somebody who's extreme to the left or somebody who may be electing tonight in New York City. And I think that she probably had a better connection.
What I am surprised about is. The fact that, you know, somebody like Abigail Spanberger or you saw the New Jersey candidate, Mikie Sherrill, these are two individuals that actually voted to shut down the down the government, and yet that didn't seem to have an impact, at least in Virginia. So we'll see how the numbers come in, but I think the other -- the other thing you got to consider is that you have a lot of federal employees who live in Virginia, and they were impacted. BURNETT: Yeah. So, hold on one second. I just want to go to Brian
Todd, since the polls are closed in Virginia, he's in Aldie, obviously, swing -- center of a swing county.
Brian, what are the latest numbers here that we're getting?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Okay, so, Erin, these this is where the numbers are actually being tabulated in real time as we speak. The -- all the votes that were entered by paper ballot are now being -- have now come out on these pieces of tape that were signed by bipartisan election officials that that these numbers on these pieces of tape will now be entered into an electronic tablet.
And Belinda Matengo (ph), the chief of the precinct, the lady in blue here, she's going to take these numbers, enter them into an electronic tablet that she's booting up right now. This is called a communication tablet. She's doing that. She's starting to enter these numbers, okay?
When she's -- when she's -- completes that task, they will send the numbers, the actual vote tally from this electronic tablet to the central office in Leesburg, Virginia. That is the election board office of Loudoun County. So you're seeing this in real time.
What's really cool about this, Erin, is that in years past, we have not gotten access to this room. We couldn't show voters voting in real time because they had to keep us -- they just wanted to keep us outside the room.
Today, we've had amazing access. Weve been able to show the voters coming in, checking in all day, casting their ballots, entering these ballots that look like this into a counter which is behind us. Right. And then as soon as the polls closed just minutes ago, the counter put out these three pieces of tape.
[19:10:02]
And these have the, the all the numbers from this precinct today where they have had more than 1,000 voters come in.
So that you're just watching. It's just great to be able to watch this in real time. They're about to enter these numbers into the tablet. Send the numbers from this precinct back to the central voting office in Loudoun County.
BURNETT: All right. Brian, and as we get those coming in, we're going to be bringing everyone those final numbers. We just have those exit polls right now.
I will just say, Ken Cuccinelli, obviously, you've run for Virginia. Governor of Virginia. And, you know, politics there better than anyone. I just say, as an American, it's great to see this process and to see more transparency as you want to build confidence.
But when you look there at Aldie in Loudoun County, two names that mean a lot to you, what do you see so far coming out of this? And obviously we were going to get the formal announcement here. You think pretty quickly?
KEN CUCCINELLI (D), FORMER VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Votes will come in pretty quickly from a lot of parts of Virginia. Well, I don't like 45 days of open voting. I think we could survive with two weeks. We have had that. We crossed the million-voter threshold, maybe in the third or fourth week of October. And you'll see maybe 2.5 million, roughly voting tonight.
Well, in the total for the election, and those tab -- tabs, you see there aren't the official ballots in case anybody is freaking out about that. Those are tabulations of the official ballots that went through counters, and now they're going to enter them into an also unofficial tablet to get them.
So, you know, but the transparency point you made and that you're portraying, right on the money, I think every American should be able to see how this system works up close and personal. Everything except how your neighbors mark their ballots. We should be able to see it all.
BURNETT: Right, and in terms of the breakdown, I know I want to get back to you, Rahm, but I know you also were talking about the breakdown.
(CROSSTALK)
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST, THE ASSIGNMENT WITH AUDIE CORNISH PODCAST: -- of the congresswoman said, I think people are not looking at the government shutdown and its length specifically in saying, this is the chapter I am mad at there. For months this has been going on, right, between DOGE and these other cuts. If you look at the community of Black women, 300,000 Black women are pushed out of the workforce in the last couple of months.
BURNETT: Audie, I'm sorry to interrupt. I just want to get to jake because we do have a key race alert -- Jake.
TAPPER: We do indeed. A key race alert right now.
And we have some actual votes coming in from the commonwealth of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat, with 5,722 votes. That's 64.7 percent of the vote. The Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, 35.2 percent of the vote. Spanberger is 2,609 votes ahead.
Obviously, just a fraction of the votes have come in from the Commonwealth of Virginia. But they are votes. And let's see where they're coming from.
John King enlighten us. Where are these votes coming in for Spanberger?
KING: And central to southwest Virginia, rural areas, as Ken Cuccinelli, former elected official in the commonwealth, knows full well they do have the early voting. They do tend to move pretty quickly. So as we're having the conversation, you just saw some right here. Richmond, the first votes in Richmond, let's just bring them up. This is obviously -- this is the capital of Virginia. It's a big
Democratic town. She needs to run up the score. It's only 1 percent. So, let's be careful. Let's not jump anywhere yet. But this is the -- this is the great part of democracy. We start to count votes here. She's at 76 percent.
Let's go back. This will do this throughout the night. You go back. Terry McAuliffe lost. Terry McAuliffe lost this race in 2021. He got 77 percent at the end of the night, you know.
So that's one of the things one of the things we do is look at the last race, the Republican won. So how did it happen? We reconstructed.
So, we'll watch this. It's 1 percent. So, we don't know where its going. But you come back out and 133 counties across the great Commonwealth of Virginia, these are very small. Not what we've seen so far. Not very populous. This is 89, Buckingham County is 133. It's 89th in terms of population. So it's pretty far down.
You know, you're looking at 54 percent again just as we start our conversation tonight, we go through our comparison. The current governor, Glenn Youngkin, is a Republican. He got 63 percent.
So, this is one of the things you're going to watch. Again, that's not a final number. It's the first votes in. So don't say -- oh, she's underperforming Glenn Youngkin. We don't know that yet.
But one of the things we'll watch as the night goes on is he got 63 percent. You know she's right now at 55. One of the things Abigail Spanberger did try to do is to get out more into rural Virginia, where Trump and Republicans in the last 25 years, even pre-Trump Republicans have been doing better. Trump has put that on steroids. To his credit, and getting support in rural America.
She did try to go back to some of these small communities where people work with their hands, who used to vote Democratic. When you and I started doing this way back in the day, they don't anymore.
So let's see if that plays out. This is, you know, that's about 33 percent of the vote. We'll see if that if that holds on.
But we talked a lot about can Earle-Sears match Governor Youngkin in the suburbs. Another question is can Abigail Spanberger prove that Democrats can do better? Even if you're losing in close elections doing better, it matters.
So we'll look at these rural areas as they come in.
[19:15:01]
These are all very small towns. Bland County is 127th in terms of population of 133 counties in the state of Virginia. That's what she needs to do, though. Any Republican in these small rural counties needs to run it up. We'll see if that holds.
And then just one, you see a very tiny blue dot right here. This is actually a decent size Virginia community. Lynchburg. If you head out this way, 26th. So, it's in the top third, top above that in the things -- she's getting 75 percent of the vote.
And again, just for comparison, you go back, Glenn Youngkin carried Lynchburg in 2021. So, we'll watch this again. This is preliminary votes to Ken Cuccinelli's point. The first votes that are counted are released are often the early votes. Democrats do tend to vote more early than Republicans.
That's changing. It's changing a little bit. But over here, we've seen in the last few elections, Democrats tend to do a little bit more. So, we'll see if that holds up. If it does, that bodes very well for the Democratic candidate. But you're watching. This is what we're looking for mostly. You know, again, 30 to 40 percent of the population of Virginia.
The votes will come in up here. We don't have those yet, but it's nice to see votes. It's nice to have an election night.
TAPPER: All right, John.
We're watching closely the commonwealth of Virginia as these first votes come in as we await poll closing in our other big races of the night, the governor's race in New Jersey and for mayor in New York City. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:39]
TAPPER: And we have another key race alert for you out of the commonwealth of Virginia, where polls have closed. If you look at the board here, the Democrat Abigail Spanberger is leading with 56.3 percent of the vote. The Republican Winsome Earle-Sears has 43.5 percent of the vote. Spanberger is in the lead with roughly 7,800 votes.
That's with only 2 percent of the estimated vote in. But as of right now, with many, many more votes to count, Spanberger is in the lead.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins is at the White House for us right now.
And, Kaitlan, you're learning some new details about President Trump's endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for mayor in New York City.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, that is certainly the race that the president has been paying the most attention to, as we have been leading up to this day here. And actually, his endorsement of Andrew Cuomo yesterday is something that I was told had actually been weeks in the making. The president had been tiptoeing around it in his public comments, and he had made quite clear that he did not want Zohran Mamdani to be the next mayor of his former hometown of New York City.
But, Jake, behind the scenes, some people had said that one, maybe the president shouldn't endorse Andrew Cuomo outright because they thought it would actually hurt his bid to defeat Mamdani and actually help Zohran Mamdani in this race. And others, Jake, had reminded him of their dueling appearances they used to have back during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Trump was here at the White House, and Andrew Cuomo, of course, was the governor of New York. And often he would come out on camera, respond to things that the president had said, his own briefings. They have a long history that dates back way before that, back to the time when they were both in New York City, Jake.
But none of that stopped the president from coming out outright yesterday. He had his aides draft that post that went up on truth social yesterday evening, outright endorsing Andrew Cuomo in this race. And one thing that people have suggested here, Jake, is that maybe the president is playing, you know, some kind of 3D chess here that he actually does want Zohran Mamdani to win the New York City mayor's race, because hell prove to be a good foil for him and for Republicans. And certainly, we've seen Republicans try to use that and to invoke him from Capitol Hill during the shutdown.
But that is not the case here, Jake. The president genuinely does not want Zohran Mamdani to win this race, which is why he has been so outspoken about this leading up to tonight.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.
Let's hand things over. Back to Erin Burnett in New York. Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Jake.
And we are sitting here as were awaiting the formal announcements for Virginia of winner and loser for both governor as well as attorney general. Going through some of the numbers. And there is a lot to see here, Audie, you're specifically looking at just in these exit polls, one of the things that is sort of obvious, but let's just say it very clearly. You had a woman running against a woman in Virginia. So, you can look at the female vote in a unique way there.
CORNISH: Yeah. And I think that what I'm interested in is animating issue. When you think about Youngkin performing well with women, and we think about that whole sort of school board issue and how that was helpful, whereas now you have Spanberger who is able to make a lot of progress on not just the government shutdown, but DOGE cuts, these have had severe ripple effects through the Virginia economy, because its not just the workers themselves, it's the contractors. It's their communities.
And so, people are feeling it in a way that maybe people in other states are not.
BURNETT: And, Ken, when we're looking at what do we read into the exit polls so far, which seem to be very good for Spanberger, but when, John King was looking specifically at Buckingham County and you were saying, okay, I know it's early, I know there's only some numbers in from there, but something stands out to you there.
CUCCINELLI: Yeah. Winsome wasn't getting -- she was winning Buckingham County, but she was not winning it by enough. And it is early. It is early numbers. We were, you know, in the -- in the upper hundreds if I remember the numbers correctly.
But that's not going to be enough. She needs to spread those margins in rural Virginia to win.
BURNETT: And then, Rahm, what you're looking at is the underperformance of Earle Sears versus Glenn Youngkin when he was running.
EMANUEL: Both underperformance for Spanberger, over performance. But take just one fact. Governor Youngkin won independence by seven. Spanberger is winning by 15. That's a 22-point swing.
When you go through control of the House, that's going to be where a preponderance of independents and unaffiliated voters in these unaffiliated swing districts, that is the most important measure.
[19:25:00]
Energy among Democrats, how independents are breaking, they're breaking now to tell you that 2026 is in the outlines, a year to go. The construct of the electorate is predominately got wind at the back for Democrats.
Doesn't mean that's how it plays out. But if New Jersey, you get that same kind of swing among independents, go by 15 points for Democrats, that's going to tell you a lot.
BURNETT: Everything for midterms.
Now, okay, we've been talking about the top issues. And you see it for exit polls in Virginia where you've got polls closed. And in New Jersey, clearly, it's economic issues, not social issues. And yet there was an exit poll question in Virginia about trans rights. Okay?
And 52 percent of Virginians in the exit polls said they believe trans rights, however, that is defined by an individual answering the question have gone too far, 78 percent of the people who said that voted for Earle Sears, as you would expect.
But does that say that cultural issues still have legs?
BILL DE BLASIO (D), FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I think it does not. I think what we're seeing here, this is the ultimate confirmation that people are voting on the economy because they are struggling so deeply. And we have to remember this, this started before COVID, the great recession had a huge lingering impact. Then COVID put everyone back on their heels. Literally every family across the country was affected, and were still feeling the effects.
So what's happening here is with the economy being the leading issue, the incumbent in the White House has not been able to produce. Donald Trump said he would -- he would do something about inflation. It's been the other way around. People are hurting more.
And so, he can't -- he can't go out and campaign in these states. He can't go out and campaign because he hasn't been able to fulfill his basic promise. And the Trump also, here's an amazing thing, Erin, Trump, White House did not mount an effort to speak of in New Jersey. And he endorsed in New York. He's probably going to lose badly because of that. I mean, with that endorsement.
Something's wrong when you're an incumbent president and you're getting killed in the first election, that's a referendum on your administration.
EMANUEL: The cultural issue on the economics bill is right. I would just say this. There's a difference between Kamala Harris and Spartanburg -- Abigail Spanberger in the sense of that attack working.
I wouldn't say that cultural issues are totally gone. They haven't lost their potency. But Abigail shows that that does not work with her. She has a shield and that's her background and her profile.
BURNETT: All right. We're all -- we're all here. And we are just over 30 minutes away from polls closing in New Jersey. We'll get more.
And when we come back, Democratic Senator Cory Booker, of course, of New Jersey will join us live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:10]
TAPPER: And we're back with another key race alert for you. And yes, it is still in the commonwealth of Virginia, in the governor's race.
Abigail Spanberger the Democrat is leading with 56 percent of the vote. The Republican Winsome Earle-Sears has 43.8 percent of the vote. Spanberger is leading by more than 41,000 votes with an estimated 10 percent of the vote in.
But I want to bring your attention to the attorney generals race because this is really interesting. As you may or may not know, there was a controversy involving the Democrat Jay Jones, involving some rather violent text messages he sent several years ago. It's really rocked the entire Virginia race.
And if you look here, the incumbent Republican attorney general, Jason Miyares, is right now with only 6 percent of the vote in. He's right now in the lead with 52.1 percent of the vote. Jay Jones, the Democrat, has 47.5 percent of the vote. That means that Spanberger is well, right now -- oh, look at that. Jay Jones just jumped ahead.
Jay Jones has now 50 percent of the vote, 50.7 percent of the vote. Jason Miyares, 49 percent of the vote. In any case, what's interesting is that Jay Jones is roughly five points behind Abigail Spanberger. So however well Spanberger does, it does seem as though Jay Jones is trailing her by five percentage points.
And the question, I guess, is will she bring him up enough that if she wins by eight points, 11 points, she could be pulling Jay Jones with her past the finish line? But if she only ekes it out by like four points, that might be not enough for Jay Jones. KING: It's a fascinating question, as you watch it play out. And
again, the conversation we're having with about 11 percent of the vote in statewide or commonwealth wide could be a very different conversation when were later in the night when we have 60, 70 percent and more, which is when it matters most. But this is what we're going to watch because its a fascinating question.
You have a candidate who appears to be on her way to a victory. We're not there yet, but based on the exit polling and based on what I'll show you in just a second, putting up the votes where she needs to put up the votes. And then you have a candidate mired in a controversy scandal. Call it what you will. Can she pull him along, or does he lose the race?
You make an interesting point because let's look right here. Loudoun County, one of the biggest suburban counties outside of Washington, becoming increasingly blue. That's where Brian Todd is in Aldie near here.
She's getting 63 percent of the vote. About 75 percent of the vote. They say in right now that can fluctuate a little bit. Sometimes you get early votes and the number changes, but that's a good size vote, 82,000, 48,000.
The Democratic candidate for governor is getting 63 percent. If you round that up, the Democratic candidate for attorney general is getting 57 percent. A healthy win. But way below her. Well --
TAPPER: Five or six behind.
KING: Five points down. So that's Loudoun County.
Then you come back out here, let's just pick another one.
[19:35:01]
Let's come down. Let's come down to Norfolk, a very important place for Democrats to turn out their vote and African American base for the Democrats in Norfolk City.
Jay Jones, that looks great. It's 25 percent of the vote. He's getting 73 percent if you round that up. But let's come to the governor's race and look at that -- Abigail Spanberger getting 76 percent around that.
It's a smaller -- it's only three -- it's only 3 or 4 there. But you know, does this matter in the end, it's a key question. Is he right now is underperforming her at the top of the ticket? The question by the end of the night is, is it enough as you go through?
So let's just come back out. Obviously, the governor's race, the votes are coming in pretty quick. We're up to 12 percent now statewide, 55 to 45, ten points. If you round her Abigail Spanberger is up.
We're still waiting for Fairfax. Fairfax County is the most populous county in the state. You learn a lot when you get to Fairfax, but an early surprise. Well see if it stays this way. Is Prince William County again, though. Only 1 percent of the vote,
right? So we're watching this right now.
If this stays red when we get into double digits and higher for this county, then you've got an interesting race. Because if you look at it as you come on in here, we've just got some more. Oh, we got Fairfax. So, let's just stop and go to Fairfax.
OK. Fairfax just reported -- that's a huge slice of the vote. That's early voting. So, they have those tabulations, they count them. They're done now. They've confirmed their count and they put them out.
So last race was won by a Republican. So, Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat at 73. Let's just go back and look. Terry McAuliffe got 65 in losing. So, this year's candidate is running well ahead of the Democrat who lost this race four years ago in the most populous county in the state, which happens to be a key test of suburban voters that you can take across the country.
This is a place where in 2018, for example, we saw the revolt against Donald Trump in the suburbs, places like that. So let's come back to where we are today. Up to 17 percent. Now, during this conversation, the votes are coming in.
So I'm going to keep an eye on Prince William, which is still red, and lets just go out. We talked earlier about some of these rural counties. This is right along the West Virginia border, right? Forty percent of the vote in the Republican candidate, 78 percent. That's a big, healthy number in Bath County.
I just want to go back in time, 78 percent for the Republican candidate, now 79 percent. So that's about matching, right? So, this is what you're going to look at.
So out in this rural county. The question in the end will also become turnout, right? Fifteen hundred votes for Glenn Youngkin. Then 1,500 ad change, 600 now. So, her percentage is good. The question is, does she get the overall turnout in these rural counties?
Let's just pick another one to look at it. You move over here.
TAPPER: Hold that thought one second, John. I'm sorry, but the other, John, John Berman, who is at the Mikie Sherrill -- Mikie Sherrill campaign headquarters in East Brunswick, New Jersey, he has the senior senator from New Jersey, a guy I've known since he was a city councilman, Cory Booker. John, it's all yours.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. That's right, Jake. I am here with the senior senator from the state of New Jersey, Cory Booker.
Nice to see you, Senator.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): It's great to see you on an exciting night.
BERMAN: And of course, you were the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and the Sherrill campaign is pointing out the fact that turnout has already exceeded 2021 levels in many urban centers, Newark, in Jersey City, in Elizabeth, in Union City.
What does that tell you?
BOOKER: It tells me the energy, the excitement is with the Democrats and really, it's even bigger than that. I think all around New Jersey, people are hurting right now, and this is their first opportunity not only to speak to Mikie Sherrill's qualifications, but to speak against what Donald Trump is doing to our state, where he's widely unpopular.
BERMAN: Right. The way you talked about that is interesting for Democrats in terms of what lessons may be learned from this campaign, because Mikie Sherrill is out on the trail talking about Donald Trump, but largely she does it in terms of the economy and affordability. What do you take from that?
BOOKER: Well, that's exactly what I heard crisscrossing the state, people are outraged at their grocery prices are up, energy costs are up, healthcare prices are now seeing are going to be skyrocketing. New Jersey is a pocketbook state. And Donald Trump has been hurting our pocketbook.
And one guy, Ciattarelli, said, I'm 100 percent MAGA, which is almost an insult to a lot of the people that are struggling in this presidency. And Mikie Sherrill says, I'm going to stand up to him and fight for Jersey and to fight to lower these costs.
BERMAN: How is that different materially than, say, a No Kings rally and saying Donald Trump, threat to democracy, because that does feel like a subtly different message.
BOOKER: Look, there's a base voters in New Jersey that is worried about a lot of things. We're seeing masked agents come out of unmarked cars and drag people away from schools and churches and the like. So there's a lot of things, a president that seems unrestrained by the Constitution, who's frozen so many millions and millions of dollars worth of grants to New Jersey.
So, all of those things are out there. But number one, first and foremost, New Jerseyans are upset. The cost of living is skyrocketing under a president who promised to do something differently. He seems to be targeting New Jersey. Our jobs and more. And Ciattarelli seems to be in line with him. And Mikie Sherrill says, I'm going to be in line with New Jersey.
BERMAN: So, you famously spoke for 25 hours. I'm not selling you short, 25 hours on the Senate floor?
BOOKER: Yes, sir.
BERMAN: All right. You talked about a time of crisis in this country again. What might you take from this election going forward back to the Senate when you head back there tomorrow, there's a government shutdown going on.
[19:40:03]
Might that come to an end soon?
BOOKER; Yeah. Look, I'm going to tell you right now, I think Republican congresspeople should be watching these races all across America where Democrats are going to do well because Donald Trump -- I think he is corrupt. He is chaotic. He's cruel.
But now we see for the Republican Party, he's cancerous. A lot of folks are going to start seeing that tying their stars, hitching to his candidacy, his brand, he's going to hurt them. So, I think you might see some Republicans waking up and saying, wait a minute, I should be more afraid of the people than I am of Donald Trump and start standing up to lower health care costs to work with Democrats, to come together and negotiate with us, to do something to lower costs for Americans.
BERMAN: Senator Cory Booker, the senior senator from New Jersey, we do appreciate your time tonight. Thanks very much.
BOOKER: Thank you very much. Thank you.
BERMAN: All right -- Jake.
TAPPER: John Berman, thank you so much.
And, John King, let's look at the Garden State of New Jersey. What are you going to be looking for when the votes come in in 20 minutes?
KING: Twenty minutes or so, 19 minutes of voting stuff.
So, again, this is a blue state. So, a lot of Republicans around the country say so what if the Democrat wins? Well, it's a blue state where Donald Trump did a lot better in 2024 than he did in 2020. Republicans were saying, were making progress.
The question is, now that Trump is back in the White House, does that progress continue or do voters decide never mind, and go the other way? So you just saw the conversation there, you know, so you start here in Hudson County, which is just across -- this is Jersey City. This is Manhattan right here. So you're just across -- this is a suburb of New York in many ways.
And so, Democrats this morning were nervous about turnout. Tonight, they feel a lot better about it. They think their voters came out here.
Then you move over here to Essex County, which is third in population. That's Newark. That's where Cory Booker was mayor again, big Democratic base right there.
But a place where Donald Trump did a little better last time. Democrats this morning, a little nervous with their voters come out. They say their voters are coming out. And they say, and well see in 18 minutes or so, if they're correct, they say that they have managed, it's an off year. It's not a presidential year. It's hard to get people to vote for president, but maybe don't vote
other times to come out. Democrats say they did a better job than Republicans and turning out what we call low propensity voters. We will see it pretty soon.
And then just one last place, I would say we're going to look at a lot tonight is Passaic County. This is where Donald Trump -- flipped this. Donald Trump in 2020 won this county after -- in 2024, excuse me, after losing it in 2020. Why? This is a plurality Latino, about 43, 44 percent Latino County. And Donald Trump flipped it.
So, what happens in the governor's race? Again, flipped it in part because of high costs and inflation, said Joe Biden and Kamala Harris weren't the answer. Well, costs are still high. The question is, do these voters stick with Trump and Republicans thinking, give them more time? Or do they say no? Now you're in charge, your party is in charge, and we're mad.
So, it's a fascinating thing to watch as we go forward. Again, a blue state, but an incumbent -- when people are mad and people are mad right now, sometimes they just kick the guys in power. That would be the Democrats in New Jersey. So being able to hold on, especially after the race was closer last time, would be an achievement. But we'll see.
And again, we're looking at this for tonight, but then were also looking at this for, okay, what did the voters in New Jersey do and in Virginia do. And where do voters like them live in the key midterm battlegrounds, when the house will be at stake and so on and so forth.
And so, we're waiting on New Jersey, and I just want to check, we're up to 22 percent on the other big governor's race. That's the commonwealth of Virginia.
TAPPER: Wow. Spanberger is really in the lead now. It's only 22 percent.
KING: And remember earlier I said, we'll keep an eye on Prince William County. It was red last time we checked again. That was at one or two percent. Now, we're up to 11 percent. But that's a giant flip right there.
Again, this is a Washington, D.C. right here.
TAPPER: Yeah.
KING: Very liberal right over the border, blue suburbs not 25 years ago, but they are now. And as you move farther away, think about dropping out of any urban area. First you see the suburbs, then all of a sudden, there are a lot of fields. Maybe it's still a couple of farms. That's where you see the big box stores. That's what Prince William County is out here as you go.
And a lot in Virginia right now. It's going to be a big issue for years to come, data centers.
TAPPER: Data centers.
KING: Like them.
TAPPER: Yeah. Well, because they suck up a lot of energy and a lot of water.
I want to check in on our other big race of the night, of course, in New York, the mayor's race and polls closed there in a little more than an hour.
CNN's Abby Phillip is at Mamdani headquarters at the Paramount theater in Brooklyn, New York.
Abby, I'm guessing that the sentiment there is fairly positive.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is, Jake. I mean, they are feeling pretty confident going into this, but just like John King is doing at the magic wall, the Mamdani aides are also looking very closely at the maps here in New York. They're particularly looking at the geography that we are actually in right now in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is an important place for the campaign. It's become an important political center for New York City. And my colleague Gloria Pazmino is here with me now, and she's got some reporting about what else is significant about Brooklyn.
Gloria, this is a part of the city that has a lot of black voters in particular. And it was a place where Cuomo showed strength. What are the Mamdani aides looking for tonight?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is not Mamdani's district.
[19:45:01]
He represented Queens in the state assembly, but Mamdani's campaign views Brooklyn as very much Mamdani country.
The reason for that is because the electorate in Brooklyn has changed so significantly over the last few years. So, they're watching Brooklyn closely because the turnout has been so significantly high. More than 400,000 people in Brooklyn alone have voted in the Mamdani campaign, thinks that that is only good news for them.
Now, there are parts of Brooklyn, as you said, where Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, actually performed pretty well during the primary. And part of the reason for that is because his historical base, black New Yorkers, came out and supported him.
But in the last few months, the Mamdani campaign has been doing a lot of work to try and drive up those numbers, reaching out to those communities to try and close that gap between the two of them.
PHILLIP: This will be an important test for Mamdani, because one of the knocks on him coming out of the primary was that it was younger voters, even actually more affluent voters. You saw upper east side and upper west side, where wealthier voters are overrepresented in his support. Can he appeal to more conservative black voters who, frankly, might have been a little bit uncertain about whether he had the qualifications to be the mayor of this city?
And one of the things tonight, as they are as confident as they are, it's a debate raging inside the campaign about whether or not he needs to have a mandate. And what would a mandate look like here in New York, Gloria?
PAZMINO: Absolutely. I think that there's two really important points there, and that the first one that you made is the significance of the Black vote here in New York City. Never before had a primary mayoral candidate won an election without securing the entirety of the city's Black vote.
That is just a huge, sort of change in how people are voting in New York city. And it says a lot about what New York city looks like in these past few years. We know that Black families, Black people, Black New Yorkers have left New York City in droves in the last few years. In terms of that 50 percent, they want to cross that threshold.
There's a few aides inside the campaign who are focused on making sure that they can cross, because they think that will give them a strong mandate and a solid win. But there are others who just want to win. They just want to be able to say, they got to win tonight.
PHILLIP: And, Jake, of course there is right now, incredible amount of interest in this race. And turnout is very high. We're not quite at historic levels, but it is certainly trending as if it could be a little bit more time for New Yorkers to go to a vote. And we'll keep you updated as that goes on.
TAPPER: That sounds great, Gloria and Abby Phillip.
We're in the final countdown to polls closing in the Garden State of New Jersey. Will the Democrats hold on to the governorship? Will Republicans get their first big win of the night?
Plus, we're looking at the race to lead New York, New York, and California's push to redistrict.
Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.
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[19:52:45]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We are just minutes away from the end of voting in our. Other major governors race of the night, New Jersey, and we are just over an hour away from the night's most high profile contest, this New York mayor's race.
As we watch this big election night in America on CNN, I'm Anderson Cooper in New York.
TAPPER: And I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital.
Polls close across the state of New Jersey in just minutes. The Democrat Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is a former Navy helicopter pilot. She is facing off against former Republican State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli.
We expect the very first votes in this race to come in very soon after polls close. Our reporters are stationed across the state ready to bring you campaign reaction as these votes come in.
Let's start off with CNN's John Berman at the Sherrill campaign headquarters in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
I told you, by the way, John, Colonial Diner, they have a great cheese fries. What's the mood in campaign headquarters right now?
BERMAN: I think hungry, not for cheese fries, Jake, but for these polls to close in about five minutes. Why? Because they like what they've seen in terms of turnout in urban centers. Heavily Democratic cities like Newark and Jersey City and Passaic and Hoboken.
They say they've seen turnout well higher than 2021, the last gubernatorial race. And they say they're frankly surprised how high the turnout is for a non-presidential election. Of course, Donald Trump's not on the ballot, but boy, is his presence felt here in this campaign. Mikie Sherrill the Democrat talks about him all the time in terms of the economy, in terms of not delivering on the promises that she says he made on the economy, and she tries to tie him in whenever she can.
Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican joke sometimes that if there's a pothole, Mikie Sherrill will blame Donald Trump for it. But you know, the Sherrill campaign says they're frankly almost confused by Ciattarelli's criticism and also his embrace, they say, of Donald Trump, given how unpopular he is in this state of New Jersey, as seen by the exit polls with David Chalian has been weighing out, given how unpopular he is, the Sherrill campaign thinks it was a mistake for the Republican to run close to the sitting president -- Jake.
[19:55:00]
TAPPER: All right. John Berman in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Bridgewater, New Jersey, at the Ciattarelli campaign headquarters.
Arlette, what are you hearing from the campaign, just ahead of the polls closing in about five minutes?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli and his campaign are bracing for a close race, with one GOP official telling me they expect this will be as tight as a tick. Now what he is hoping to do here is really eke out a win in the state after President Donald Trump made significant gains here back in 2024.
One senior campaign official told me that they were really looking for a strong push in these final hours of voting tonight. They are hoping to run up Republican numbers in places like Ocean County and Monmouth County, as well as other parts of southern New Jersey.
TAPPER: But interrupt you, I apologize, Arlette.
We can now make a major projection in the Virginia governor's race. CNN projects that former Democratic congresswoman and CIA case officer Abigail Spanberger will be elected the governor of Virginia, defeating the commonwealth's sitting lieutenant governor, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears.
Abigail Spanberger will become the very first woman governor in the history of the commonwealth of Virginia. Again, CNN projects that Abigail Spanberger will be elected governor of Virginia.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the Spanberger campaign headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia.
And, Jeff, it must be pretty jubilant there, as far as I can see behind you.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jake, it definitely was. This crowd here just learned moments ago that that the projections are calling this race for Abigail Spanberger.
Now, that is not necessarily a surprise because they were confident going into this. But what they are seeing in the particular counties is really giving them a bit of a lift.
Loudoun County, for example, right outside Washington, D.C., that is going very strong for her. And you can hear the crowd behind me now as they see more of these numbers come in.
Abigail Spanberger represented the Richmond area when she was elected to Congress back in 2018. She won a red seat. She used this moderate Democratic message, but also had some tough medicine for Democrats who she believed were leading the party astray.
So, what is going to be very fascinating here as Abigail Spanberger begins her governorship here, it's a historic one, when she takes office in January, how does she lead Virginia? What type of path does she make? But there's no doubt she talked very little about Donald Trump in the final days of this race.
But Donald Trump was on the mind of many voters. So, I just talked to a schoolteacher here, Jake, who brought her two-year-old daughter to this party to watch history being made. And indeed, now it has. Virginia is -- was one of 18 states that had never elected a woman governor. Now it certainly has. But even more than that, Democrats have been looking for a bit of a revival, if you will. They've been looking for a bit of a injection of energy after that punishing defeat a year ago. So now they have it here.
The question is, will Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, who was her roommate on Capitol Hill, will she fare the same as Spanberger did? Well find out when polls close now in New Jersey -- Jake. TAPPER: All right. Jeff Zeleny at Spanberger campaign headquarters in
Richmond, Virginia.
I mean, the polls didn't even close an hour ago. That is quite a big moment for Democrats who have had not a lot to be happy about in the last year.
BASH: Candidates matter and I'm sure that you both had the same experience in talking to Republicans, particularly those who have been very focused on Virginia and they have been less than thrilled with Winsome Earle-Sears and her campaign and Abigail Spanberger is a Democrat with the credentials of a military background. She is not a lefty. She's a moderate Democrat who has experience in in Congress.
And that was the right message. She was the right candidate for the time, particularly when she was up against somebody who clearly was not on the Republican side.
HUNT: Her trajectory onto the national stage was as a national security mom. Right. The CIA case officer who, after Trump gets elected in 2016, is inspired to run for the House in 2018, she becomes part of that wave, many of whom were women at the time. And now, of course, the question is going to be how does she govern? And also, how does she how does the party embrace her as they continue to try to fight back against Donald Trump? Jake?
