This election night broadcast from MS NOW follows the returns from the 2026 midterms, as hosts and correspondents track Democratic gains in Senate, House and gubernatorial races. Segments cover key calls in South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa, along with close contests still being counted in Michigan, Maine and Nebraska.
Guests and hosts discuss what the results might mean for control of Congress, the 2028 map and Black voters in the South after redistricting. Commentators offer their own interpretations of the results, which listeners should weigh as analysis rather than settled fact.
The episode also includes live reporting from campaign headquarters and the White House, showing how the networks confirmed or characterized races as the night unfolded. Listeners will hear how projections are made, why some results were called before others, and how officials reacted to a night many described as a major shift in American politics.
In this episode Rachel Maddow, Alicia Menendez, Antonia Hilton, Chris Hayes, Chris Jansen, Jacob Soboroff, Paula Reed, Peter Alexander, Rosa Flores
This episode's transcript on the 2026 midterm election night coverage was made with HappyScribe's human and AI transcription technology, the same technology the company uses across its podcast archive.
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It's getting harder for not yelling right now.
Looking back now at— I'm sorry, I was just—
We were talking. That was us. That was our fault.
Where were you?
Where were you guys talking?
We were talk—
I thought you were talking about food, which got me very excited.
Well, I am.
We weren't eating.
We were—
We are eating.
We're probably—
We're eating, but you go ahead.
Gummy bears over there.
We are eating candy, so we are all sugar and gummy.
Michael has these gummy bears that you can stuff in.
So let me just— let me just love a wiki people. The biggest divide in America is now Republicans versus Democrats, or urban versus rural, or young versus old. It's savory versus sweet. And I'm sitting here really close to the sweet thing, which is actually the miasma of sugar coming off you guys, which is actually, like, kind of giving me weird—
I'm happy to share.
No, we are—
I mean, we've got cups of sweets for you guys.
It's like a force field of energetic corruption. That's the real corrupted decision.
I feel like they are not—
Yeah, I feel the same.
Yeah. We're going to work on our comeback. But we were talking when you were supposed to be angry.
I'm sorry. Can we talk about Alabama too?
Yeah.
Thank you.
This is redistricted district. I mean, there's— I don't even— I'm running— I'm like Christopher Hayes. I'm running out of words to express how unusual this is. 86% in the second district in Alabama. Shomari Figgers, the incumbent, was most definitely going to, you know, was expected to lose this because of redistricting. Let me show you what this looks like with a redistricted— with the redistricting. All right? This is a 57-42 under redistricting. There was not that much hope that Shomari Figgers was going to work this out.
Right now, he's got 86— 86% of the vote in. It's 55 to 44. Let's see what Rhett Marcus needs. Rhett Marcus needs 82% of the remaining vote to win this. That looks highly, highly unlikely. So this is— this goes on Chris Hayes' list of Jerry Mander, watch, didn't work again.
I need to cut you off for a second. We have an important call to make in an important United States Senate race. The Associated Press has called the race in South Carolina. The Democrat, Annie Andrews, has defeated the Republican candidate, Darlene Graham, in South Carolina and South Carolina's United States Senate seat, recently vacated by the death of longstanding Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, will go to the Democratic Party.
Annie Andrews has won that seat. This is— this is something that we've talked a lot about, things like— imagine 12 months ago John Ossoff winning this early in the night. Imagine 12 months ago the Texas Senate race being this hotly contested. Imagine three weeks ago talking about a South Carolina United States Senate race going to the Democrat— and not going to the Democrat in three weeks, but going to the Democrat tonight.
This is a live shot of Annie Andrews' headquarters in South Carolina. We will go live there momentarily, as soon as we can get somebody to a microphone who can conceivably hear from us. But, Chris Hayes, I'd just like to get your reaction here.
It's seismic. It's— it's inconceivable. I'm reminded of the tweet from the late Lindsey Graham that resurfaces all the time during the 2016 election and the primary. We said, "If we nominate Donald Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it." And he traveled a very different journey after that about his relationship to Donald Trump. And here is his sister running for this seat solely because of Donald Trump, saying that she should be the nominee, losing a state that Donald Trump won by 16 points two years ago in just an inconceivable turn of events, not a special election.
That is a six-year term. Annie Andrews, pediatrician, a woman who worked in a children's hospital, which she told me the other night on election eve is the best place a person can work to understand what's going on in a society is a children's hospital, and that line really stuck with me. She is going to be the U.S. Senator for the state of South Carolina for six years. The only thing I can compare this to is that Scott Brown election after Ted Kennedy passed away and he won that special election, which was not a full six-year term, but was like, wait, Ted Kennedy's seat is going to a— this is the inverse of that, but not a special election.
Let's remember, that was a special election. That happened on a random day in the middle of winter. This is a six-year term in the middle of a midterm in a high turnout race with everyone paying attention, not some small weird subset that's fired up. In the state of South Carolina, which has, as long as this country has been around, been one of the most conservative states in this union, electing Annie Andrews, pediatrician, to the U.S. Senate for six years, it's an unbelievable turn of events.
And it signifies a reckoning for the Democratic Party and for the Republican Party with Black voters in the South.
Yes.
And if you try to tell African-American voters that thanks to the United States Supreme Court, we can unwire the achievements of the Civil Rights Act, we can unwire the achievements of the Voting Rights Act, we can take away every majority Black congressional district in the old Confederacy, and nobody's going to have anything to say about it because we got permission in the Donald Trump era to do that, well, Black voters are going to say something about that. And Black Democratic-based voters in states like South Carolina and states like Georgia and states like Mississippi and states like Alabama are going to have something to say about it, and they are not going to be put at the back of this.
And it is— it's just— it is unbelievably inspiring to me.
And a complete and total miscalculation. I'm very curious and will be curious, the conversation between the Senator-elect and Tim Scott on that very point, when she raises this issue with the voters and the country about how the civil rights and the voting rights of the African-American community that helped elect her, how now do we respond to that?
Yeah.
And I think that's going to be an important takeaway tonight, given what happened in Georgia and given what's happening— what happened here and elsewhere across the country where the African-American vote has sort of weighed in on its choices, and there's still some to come, and African-American candidates will now occupy governorships, United States Senate seats, et cetera.
Yep. Yeah, no, the entire plan was, as Rachel said, to undermine democracy in America. We saw that violently in the insurrection, but we also saw it piece by piece with all these moves. We'll just gerrymander whenever we want. What are you going to do about it? We're going to intimidate at the voting booth. What are you going to do about it? Well, it was the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court relied on and supported in actually saying, "No, you can't go out," and the Friday ruling that they didn't overturn, and do voter intimidation, right? That protected it. We didn't see ICE agents at the polls today, but partly because of the fight.
And then when you look at the rich and important tradition of Black people, primarily in the Democratic Party in the modern era, sometimes elsewhere, but primarily within the instrument of the Democratic Party, fighting back and using the peaceful power of the vote. So sometimes when we talk about democracy, it almost sounds abstract. It's not abstract tonight. It's a huge change. It's a sea wave. And then you say, would Trump brainwash or convince some cowardly people to do in the Republican Party was think you always have to run on Trump. That was the plan in South Carolina.
It turns out this year running on Trump in the Deep South doesn't work. That's right.
Well, the thing about— oh, I'm sorry, go.
No, you go. You go.
Was that the thing about running on democracy being abstract, that was true until he came back, right? It was sort of mushy until he came back and then did undemocratic things like pardon violent insurrectionists who'd been convicted by juries of their peers, who had nothing to do with Donald Trump's perceived deep state, to shred voting rights, to take the immunity decision by the Supreme Court as a free pass to carry out crimes in full view. I mean, democracy was abstract until 24 months ago when Donald Trump made it abundantly clear what destroying democracy looked like.
And the rebuke is as much about that as anything else.
We have a couple of calls to make, and these are both flips. Talking about corruption, here's the story of corruption. In Pennsylvania 8, the congressional district there, the mayor of Sprint in Pennsylvania is Paige Cognetti. She is a Democrat. She is going to flip the seat currently held by Republican Congressman Rob Bresnahan. Again, this is the eighth congressional district in Pennsylvania. She is the mayor of Sprint, and the last mayor of Sprint is still in prison for what he did when he was mayor of Sprint.
Paige Cognetti came into Sprint to say, "We have a corruption problem that is nonpartisan in this corner of Pennsylvania, and I am here as a technocratic, good government, clean government, anti-corruption Democrat, and I'm going to get it done in Sprint." And she's wildly popular as the Sprint mayor, and she will now be the new member of Congress ousting freshman Republican Congressman and amateur ghost hunter Rob Bresnahan. We also have another call in Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district.
Again, another flip. Scott Perry, who as Ali said earlier this hour, is the most election denialist of all the election denialists in the House of Representatives, an unindicted co-conspirator in the insurrection case. Scott Perry has just lost his seat. He has lost his seat to Democrat longtime local news anchor Janelle Stelson with 97% of the vote, and Scott Perry absolutely got his handed to him.
This is not him losing narrowly. This is losing his seat by a mile. And he will be replaced in Pennsylvania just as at least two other Republican incumbent members of Congress will be as well.
Paige Cognetti is someone I worked with in the Obama administration. She has experience in the Treasury Department. And I say this because this is the makeup of who's going to be in the House and people who are coming to it with different kinds of experience and in the Senate too. And she is a technocrat, and I think that's going to be very valuable. Also, she had the greatest campaign motto. Do you remember what it was?
Mm-mm.
"Page against the machine." Back in the day. Back in the day, which she certainly could take that motto to Congress too, but she'll be a really, really interesting addition.
You know.
You know what's really interesting, though? This is a continuation of a narrative that began 18 or so months ago, because what is telling— and you said it just now, Rachel— that the Democrats in this instance are winning by a mile. They're winning these seats in most cases by double digits, which is what was the narrative coming into this cycle when they— in the special elections, in the 37 out of 38 special elections that they won at the beginning of this cycle, they were cleaning clocks.
Something.
Yes. And so that says as much about where we are now than anything else because it's a continuation of that story.
Yeah.
Not only is the country saying, "We don't want any more of that," but they're making it very clear by how much they don't want it.
You got— you also got this, you know, the structural conditions of the country and candidate quality and sort of when they come together. I mean.
Yeah.
We just showed that the Iowa governor— it's 50% of the vote in. Rob's hand in Iowa is up 15 points.
Yeah.
He's up 50— now, 50% in. But, like, Rob's hand's a good candidate, and he's standing for election on a night where people are tick the heck off about Republican incumbents.
We have a big election alert for you. This is a governor's race very closely watched for all sorts of reasons. In the Ohio governor's race, the Associated Press has called it. Democrat Amy Acton has defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to become the next governor of Ohio. This is a flip. Republican Mike DeWine is the current incumbent governor of Ohio. He will be replaced by Democrat Amy Acton, and Vivek Ramaswamy will go back to wherever Vivek Ramaswamy goes when he's not on television.
He distinguished himself in this campaign with some of the most, I think, morally egregious— I would even describe it as morally reckless— campaigning that we've ever seen, I think, in American politics at any level. And we've seen some pretty dirty pool in American politics. But even in the absence of the Epstein era and what we know about the Epstein class, as they say, to have sided effectively with the mother of Amy Acton, who stood by her then-husband when he was criminally charged with having raped then-12-year-old Amy Acton, and to have made an ad about that, essentially siding with those accused of rape against a child in this case.
It was something that resonated across the country in a way that I actually don't think we had very many political words for.
Totally.
It was a wave of revulsion that I think everybody who it hit was touched by except for Vivek Ramaswamy, J.D. Vance, and Donald Trump, who were the three political figures who defended it and encouraged it. And I don't know how Donald Trump and J.D. Vance feel about these election results tonight, but Vivek Ramaswamy will not be elected to anything tonight.
I remember, as I'm sure we all did, when I first saw that ad, and I was so horrified by it, but the political cynic in me thought, "What if people across Ohio just see this ad and don't know the story? And what if this helps Vivek?" This was my initial reaction, which I'm just acknowledging right now. I was obviously very wrong. The reaction has actually been so heartwarmingly encouraging to me about humanity and society, but I also sensed something about Amy Acton too. I talked to her last week, and we all tried not to get emotional when we're talking to people, but sometimes it's hard.
And I asked her just about, you know, we were talking about the ad, and she said basically, "I looked at my mother, and I was worried that they were taking advantage of her."
Yes.
And I was worried how she was doing. And if that doesn't tell you about the empathy, like, pulsing through the veins of the person who's going to be the governor of Ohio, I really don't know what does. And yeah, go ahead.
Well, she also— I mean, the role she played in that state as the public health director during COVID, you know, two things. One, that state did some of the best COVID response of any state, particularly of Republican states, A, and B, just a reminder of how quickly politics changes and how you can't take two dots and draw a line. If you told me that the Democratic head of the public health response to COVID was going to win Ohio statewide in the wake of all the school-closing backlash and all the messages we got about how people were so sick of all you people telling us what to do and where we can go and how to get vaccines, she's going to be the governor of Ohio where the biggest bio line is that she was the public health director running the COVID response.
Well, because there are still moral moments in politics. So often politics feels like this tactical endless fight, and that exhausts people, and as we all know, turns off good people. And how many nights have we sat at this desk and talked about where is the bottom, and aren't people outraged, and didn't this do it? But of course, people are busy living their lives, trying to make ends meet, especially in this kind of economy. But when things get painful enough, people look up and say, "Wait, who's in charge? Are these our leaders?
In what way are any of these people what Rachel just described in Ohio and obviously the vice president and president of the United States co-signing that with all known facts?" Because either they like to say nothing matters because everything's a joke, right? This wasn't a joke to the people involved. It's clearly not a joke to the people in Ohio tonight. There are moral moments, and I don't think every politician in every local race runs on them, but we've had quite a few already this cycle. And it seems that what we're watching tonight, we're well past, like, a raincoat and a little precipitation and, you know, I'll leave it to the people who make the calls about when they call it a tsunami.
But there is water and precipitation and rain, and people are saying apparently a lot of folks in the country woke up and want their moral moment.
We have one election alert for you in Ohio 15. This is a race that I was watching because I think this Democratic candidate is very, very talented. His name is Don Leonard. And Don Leonard, the Democrat, has just flipped a seat in Ohio 15. Republican Congressman, Republican incumbent Mike Carrey, this is a seat that Trump won by roughly 10 points in 2024. Democrat Don Leonard has just flipped it. And again, it does not look close. Remarkable outcome there in Ohio District 15.
Now, I have perhaps bigger news for you. We have not a call, but a change in characterization in a Senate race, in the Texas Senate race. With 64% of the vote in in Texas, MS NOW now characterizes this race. We had previously characterized it as lean Democrat. It is now likely Democrat. That just reflects there's no call here yet, but that is increased confidence that this is trending in Democrats' directions. You see James Tallarico there with a 20-point lead with 64% of the vote in.
Let's go to Peter Alexander, who's in the We The People studio.
Rachel, the water levels continue to rise right now, and it looks like Texas may be a part of this Democratic swamp. Let's get to the ground. Alicia Menendez is there in our MS NOW Members' Lounge. I'll be loud, Alicia, because I can hear the cheering as they see the same boards right now. How are people reacting to Tallarico now likely Dem? It's leading toward likely Dem that he wins this Senate seat.
Peter Alexander, say hello to all of my newest friends in Houston, Texas. They are very excited tonight. Every time one of those races change, you hear a big squeal inside this room, but they are bracing themselves. I want you to walk with me because I want to introduce you to someone that I have been talking with. We're on a little bit of a delay. Backwards and heels, Jacob Soboroff could never. Where is my friend? Hello. Look what she brought with her for tonight. Our MS NOW bingo card. How's that card looking?
It's looking like it's a blue wave.
Carol, you are a schoolteacher here in Texas. What would it mean for you for Tallarico and Innohosa to win tonight?
Oh, my goodness. It would mean better schools for our kids, higher pay for our teachers, getting rid of STAR, just paying us what we're entitled to because we're already doing the work. We're already helping our kids. We just need a little bit of help to fully fund our schools.
We have watched all of these other races get called, and my friends here in Texas, they are waiting for the Tallarico race. They are waiting for the Innohosa race. And I know, Peter, we'll see you very shortly on the other side.
Alicia, those folks have been very patient, not just for us to come visit them, but for a Democrat to win the Senate seat, not since Lloyd Benson. It's happened there. We'll see what happens. We're not there yet. Thank you. Let's get to MS NOW's Chris Jansen. She is at the Michigan Democrats' headquarters right now. This is another close one. Abdul Al-Sayed, of course, looking to defeat Mike Rogers to retain a Democratic seat. What are you seeing?
A lot of excitement here, a lot of dance party as the announcements are made about control of the House, about all the flips that are happening. But I've been in touch with Democratic Party officials and campaign officials all across the state. They give me three reasons that they're optimistic. Number one, huge turnout on college campuses, University of Michigan, Michigan State. The polls had to stay open because there were so many people in line. And of course, it was young people that fueled Abdul Al-Sayed's win in the primary.
Second reason, overperformance in majority Black districts. And now I just heard from another state official saying, as everybody is cheering, "Ah, that we're here. That's why that the Supreme Court candidates here won." And so they feel the early signs are good. But then the state party chair came out, Peter, and said, I quote, "Pace yourself."
Those folks better pace themselves because there may be a lot more celebrating in Michigan for the Democrats if things continue this direction. Chris Jansen, thank you. We'll see you along the way. Rachel, this is something else. We still got Kansas. We're keeping eyes on. Texas is not done yet. Michigan, as we just noted, we got a long way to go, but this thing is looking it's looking increasingly exciting for a lot of the Democrats that we've seen around the country.
That's right. And the House races, as we continue to watch them flip one by one, each one of those is a Shakespearean drama in its own right, and it's its own universe of import and significance. And so it just there's a ton still to get to. Peter, thank you very much. As we're coming up on the top of the hour, we just got about 30 seconds here. Can we check in on Tennessee governor?
Yeah. Tennessee governor, let's take a quick look at that. In Tennessee, you've got Marcia Blackburn with 86% in. Very, very close. Got a 25,000-vote lead. What Jerry Green needs is 48% of the outstanding vote to win. It's still possible. I want to show you one quick thing in Tennessee, though, with one second left to do this. Justin Pearson, this was not supposed to be anything like this. Justin Pearson was redistricted. It wasn't his district, but this was gerrymandered. This was Steve Cohen's old district, guaranteed to not have a Democrat win with 83% in.
Justin Pearson is in the lead.
Wow. Percent of the vote in in Tennessee District 9. All right. It is 11 o'clock on the East Coast right now. That means we have poll closings up and down the West Coast, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State. As we look to those poll closings to see if we have additional calls, we will continue to update you through the course of the night, both in terms of Senate and in terms of governor's races as we've got them. But let's start first in California in the governor's race.
I believe yes, we do. We have an election alert. We have excuse me. In the Oregon Senate race, we have a winner. The Associated Press has called the Oregon Senate race for Democratic incumbent Senator Jeff Merkley. He has defeated his Republican challenger, David Brock Smith. Now, I believe we also have a call to make in the California governor's race.
My assignment is to find the truth, follow the story, and to bring people with me, whether I'm here in the studio and in the chair or I'm traveling all the way down on the border. I want people to see that journalism, good storytelling, good reporting, even when it makes us uncomfortable, actually gives us tools and power.
The Assignment with Antonia Hilton. Weekends at 1:00 p.m. Eastern on MS NOW.
We do. The Associated Press has made this call. The winner of the California governor's race, this is a historic win. California's new governor will be Democrat Javier Becerra. He has defeated Republican Steve Hilton. The polls in this case gave us not much mystery. Prospects that Javier Becerra would win seemed quite sure because of that polling, but this is nevertheless an historic achievement for California Democrats and for California Latinos.
California with the huge Latino population in that state. There has never before been a Latino governor of California, and tonight there will be. Let's go to Rosa Flores, who is at Gina Innohosa's election night headquarters in Austin, Texas. Rosa, what have you got for us? What are you hearing from the Innohosa campaign tonight in Texas?
Well, Rachel, what
we're hearing from the Gina Innohosa campaign is that Governor Greg Abbott has called Gina Innohosa to concede. That is what we're hearing from a source here in the campaign. Now, you're hearing the crowd go wild right now because of another Texas race that MS NOW has not called yet. And as a matter of fact, the crowd does not know what I am reporting to you right now, that indeed Governor Greg Abbott has called Gina Innohosa to concede this campaign.
Now, Rachel, you have to just take in that moment for a second. I have been talking to a lot of Gina Innohosa supporters here in this room, and I can tell you that they have been anxious. They have been at the verge of tears. There is just so much emotion in this room because they know what this means. They know that a Gina Innohosa win in this state is historic. This would make her the first Latina, the first Mexican-American governor of the state of Texas.
And this would send ripples. And that is indeed what the crowd here is celebrating. I just want to walk around and try to talk to some people to get their reaction. Hi, ladies. I'm live on MS NOW. How are you feeling right now?
I'm so fucking happy. I'm so excited.
How are you feeling?
We won. We won too.
Tell me what's going through your mind right now.
Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
Can you believe the moment that you're living right now?
I can't believe it. I was just telling my son. Oh, and from the valley.
You're from the Rio Grande Valley?
Yeah. And her dad is my attorney. He's my attorney. And I called him today, and then I said, "I'm so excited." He says, "We just need to pray."
Now, she's from the Rio Grande Valley, just like Gina Innohosa. Thank you so much for sharing. You can hear that the crowd is yelling, "Gina Innohosa, Gina Innohosa." Hi. I'm so all right, Rachel. I'll send it back to you.
Rosa, we will be back to you. And protect your hearing. We will be back to you. But we have an important call to make here from the studio. We have an election alert in a very important Senate race. The Associated Press has called it. In the Texas Senate race, Democrat James Tallarico has defeated Republican Ken Paxton. This is a flip of a U.S. Senate race. This was the Senate seat that was held by John Cornyn.
John Cornyn did not want to retire. He was essentially forced out of this seat after Donald Trump, President of the United States, decided that he would prefer Ken Paxton to John Cornyn as the candidate to defend this seat. And James Tallarico, the Democrat, has now wiped the floor with Ken Paxton and has won this seat for the Democratic Party. Now, you are taking this information in along with what we just heard from Rosa Flores at Gina Innohosa campaign headquarters in Texas, in Austin, Texas.
Again, what we just heard from Rosa and I just want to be clear about this. We have not called the Texas governor's race. Rosa gave us reporting here on our air that Greg Abbott had called, according to one source, had called to concede the governor's race to Gina Innohosa. That is a single-source report. That is something that Rosa Flores has reported on our air, but that is not the same as us calling that race. We are, however, calling the race. The Associated Press has declared the winner in the Texas Senate race, which is James Tallarico.
Jen.
I mean, I just want to say something about Gina Innohosa. She ran an incredible race and was an undervalued underdog through the course of this campaign. I know we have not called the race.
We have not called the race.
And we are watching the race. But before we move on to James Tallarico, I just wanted to say, I mean, she grew up near the border. She got into politics, and this is such a beautiful story because of her kids and her schools, and she wanted to be on the school board. She's just a beautiful American story. And I know we haven't called it yet, but I didn't want the moment to pass us by and run over her race.
I'm just going to break the wall here a little bit and just say to the control room because if I start typing, events are going to overtake me. We just had Rosa Flores report that concession call from Greg Abbott to Gina Innohosa on the basis of a single source. And she said that on our air. Now, okay, that's what I was asking for. Our control room confirms to me that we have two sources on that story, which makes it officially, as far as we are concerned, reportable, which means that what you just heard from Rosa Flores in that Gina Innohosa race is now reportable that, according to two sources, Greg Abbott, the sitting incumbent Republican governor of Texas, has called Democrat Gina Innohosa to concede that race.
But again, we have not called that race formally. But let's stay very close to the ground in Texas, shall we? Let's go to Alicia Menendez, who's at our watch party at the rooftop cinema club in Houston. Alicia, what do you know and what are you seeing?
Rachel, I have never heard, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, so many times in one room in my entire life. I know that we have not called Innohosa yet, but this crowd is enormously excited about James Tallarico. This state has elected a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. What does that mean to you?
I can't even describe how exciting that is for me. I came here to witness something historic, and I did. I can't believe it. I just I am so happy.
There have been so many elections where Democrats have been promised the possibility of flipping this state blue. The fact that we are finally here emotional for a lot of people in this room. How are you feeling as you learn this news?
I am so excited. It is time for a change. I felt the change coming, and I almost can't believe it's happened, but I'm delighted.
You know, there are a lot of people who said that Texas was fool's gold, that said it was the state that cried blue. There's a lot of organizing that has happened in this state to get to this moment. What is the message that Texas is sending the country?
We don't want corruption. We want decent people in office that care about all the people, not just the top half percent. And health care matters. Education matters. Our future matters for the entire country. And we're moving forward.
All right. We're going to continue to watch and see what happens in the governor's race here. But, Rachel, back to you. Alicia Menendez for us in Texas. Alicia, thank you. Let's stick with Texas. Let's go to Jacob Soboroff. He is at James Tallarico's election night headquarters in Austin, Texas, where everybody there at this point, Jacob, knows that he won. Yeah?
It is, Rachel, it is an unbelievable moment to be here inside the Long Center. Let me just give you the lay of the land to show you what's happening inside here right now. Behind me, you can see people who have assembled. I heard them cheering backstage when they heard the news. These are people who are going to be standing behind James Tallarico in just a minute. This is a 2,400-seat capacity Performing Arts Center in the center of Austin, Texas. Take a look. It's just filling in right now. Everyone had been outside at that party. It was coming to you from earlier tonight. And I honestly think that people are still processing the news in here.
You can see people actually looking up to me and asking me, "Is it really true? Did this really happen?" As a colleague of ours said to me, "This is the elusive white whale of Texas politics in many ways." I remember in 2018 when Chris Hayes was standing inside that ballpark covering Beto O'Rourke and so many people in Texas Democratic politics thought perhaps that there was a chance. And, of course, it didn't happen, not even in the wake of the family separation policy that Donald Trump carried out, primarily epicentered here, that galvanized the nation, that led to a big Democratic surge in 2018.
But it did not result in the Senate flipping here in the state of Texas. And now, according to our projections, James Tallarico is the winner of the Senate race here. He has been in Austin, Texas, over the course of the last two days. He spoke to a crowd last night at the Stubbs Auditorium outside with Gina Innohosa. And the fact that both of them have won, I'll just say it again, it is something I think that this crowd in this auditorium at this minute is still processing. I think so many of them did not believe that this day would come.
I saw both Secretary Castro and Congressman Castro outside, the twin brothers. And both of them said, "We've been waiting for this day for 40 years. We've been waiting for this day for 40 years. We cannot believe it." And they better believe it because he's about to come out here and address this crowd. And we're waiting for it. We'll bring it to you as soon as it happens.
We're going to try to get to that as soon as it happens. And, Jacob, I'm sorry to cut you short, but I have another important election alert in another United States Senate race. The AP has now called the Ohio Senate race. Democrat Sherrod Brown has won the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, defeating incumbent Republican Senator John Husted. John Husted has lost his seat, and Sherrod Brown will be returning to the United States Senate.
This is another flip in the United States Senate. This is just turning out to be a remarkable night for Democrats. This means that there thus far have been four Democratic flips in the U.S. Senate. Seat in South Carolina, formerly held by Lindsey Graham. The seat in Ohio, formerly held by John Husted. The seat in North Carolina, formerly held by Tom Tillis. The seat in Texas, formerly held by John Cornyn. All of those seats will go to Democratic United States Senators.
Now, we still have 14 uncalled seats. But right now, at this hour, Democrats stand at 49 U.S. Senate seats. We have another call for you. This is in an important governor's race. We go to the Midwest to Iowa. The governor's race in Iowa is won by Democrat Rob Sand. This is a flip in the governor's race in Iowa. Rob Sand, with 76 percent of the vote in, has defeated his Republican challenger, Rob Sand, an immense, immense Democratic talent from the state of Iowa.
He's currently a statewide officeholder in the state. He's the state auditor. He ran essentially an impeccable campaign for governor. We are still waiting on results in the Iowa Senate race. But at the top of the ticket, the Iowa governor's race, that will be held by Democrat Rob Sand. This is the governor's standings at this hour. 13 Democratic governors wins tonight, 3 for the Republicans.
Can we just talk about what we're seeing here? I mean.
I can't.
The Texas look at those Texas numbers. Now, we don't have them all in. But like.
Unbelievable.
They're getting this is not an eke out 11,000-vote margin or a 20,000-vote margin. This is not a this is a total shelacking that is happening in Texas. We're looking at the possibility, I think, of one of the state legislative houses flipping, which has also been inconceivable. This state has been run as a one-party state for a generation, for 30 years. All politics that have happened in Texas have been factional disputes within the Texas Republican Party.
That has been the main axis of conflict in Texas politics for an entire generation. There's been all this talk about the white whale of blue Texas, to make some color metaphors. And I think, you know, James Tallarico might win that state by seven, eight, or nine points when all is said and done. That's not it's not close. They're getting their clocks cleaned.
You think about Texas, too. It's the first state that passes the vigilante abortion enforcement, right, where neighbors can accuse women and Uber drivers who drive them. It's the first state to sort of be the site of an epic tragedy in Uvalde. And the governor basically says, "Well, we'll do stuff on mental health to not even go through any charade on gun violence." It's a place where the ICE raids have been the source of some of the most compelling print journalism about towns ripped apart from the early days of Trump's second term.
And it's a place where the guy was so corrupt that Republicans broke with him. And to me, it's about where this line is. Like, this is some Republican saying, like, "I will not be made a fool of." I mean, Joe Rogan and Doris Tallarico embraced him - I don't know what the word is - over a year ago when he said, "Why don't you run for president? We need a good person to do it." It was sort of the first pin in the much ballyhooed farce that was the manosphere. And this is just the culmination or the cumulative whatever words we're using, middle finger to all those excesses and all those abuses.
And huge loss for the tech billionaires. Oh, my god. Oh my god. In Ohio and Texas is where they is where Elon Musk put all the money on the table. And that money has been defeated by better candidates than that money.
But less money.
See, when you think about Texas voters tonight, you have to be well over 50 years old to remember a Democrat being elected to the Senate from Texas or a Democrat being elected governor in Texas. Lloyd Benson, the last Senate election, 1988. Ann Richards, the last governor election, 1990. So if you were 12 years old then, maybe you remember it. And now you're 50. But that's how long it is. And South Carolina, it's similar. It's 28 years ago. Ernest Hollings the last time he won.
But what's important about these names I'm mentioning is what you're seeing tonight in this voting pattern is we are actually returning to the early 1990s in the United States Senate and in American politics. When Bill Clinton became president in 1993, he had a Senate with Democrats in Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, both Dakotas, on and on. And, oh, by the way, there were Republican senators in New York, Rhode Island, places like that.
And what that meant was that the country was not automatically going for one party or the other. Republican senators could still get elected in Massachusetts. Republican governors could still get elected in Massachusetts then, as Mitt Romney did. And so this is actually a return to what America was politically. And we may be seeing, by the time this is all cleared, just an amazing distribution of Democrats around this country.
I have a call to make. I'm sorry to interrupt. The Associated Press has called the race in Texas in the governor's race.
Wow.
The Associated Press declares that Gina Innohosa will be the next Democratic governor of the state of Texas. I'm saying it so loud so you can hear it over the crackling of the burning piles of hundreds of millions of dollars set alight by Elon Musk to ensure that Gina Innohosa and James Tallarico would not achieve what they achieved tonight. But Gina Innohosa has defeated incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott in Texas as James Tallarico has defeated Ken Paxton for that United States Senate seat.
I mean, a hundred yeah.
It is just remarkable. And, actually, I need to give you another update. This is not a call, but we have an update in the characterization in the Senate race in Iowa. In the Senate race in Iowa, again, we are not making a call at this point, but MS Now can now characterize this race as leaning Democrat. Josh Turric, the Democratic candidate in the Iowa Senate race, right now leading Ashley Hinson, the Republican candidate for this Iowa Senate race.
This is Joni Ernst's Senate race in Senate seat in Iowa, currently held by a Republican, Ashley Hinson, a very able Republican candidate. She's not a Ken Paxton. She's a person who knows how to speak. Josh Turric, the Democratic candidate, this is now a lean Democratic race with 85 percent of the vote in. And this is not a new characterization, but I will also just tell you and ask them to put up on screen the Kansas Senate characterization. Again, this is not a new characterization.
This has been true for some time now. But with 89 percent of the vote in, the Kansas Senate race is also this is also characterized as a lean Democratic race. Democrat Adam Hamilton, you see there, leading Republican incumbent Roger Marshall. I believe we do have a projected winner in the Alabama Senate race. Alabama's Republican candidate, Barry Moore, is projected to win the Alabama Senate race.
There's no surprise there. He was up against Democratic candidate Everett Wes. And so the Alabama Senate race, this is the race that is being sorry, this is the seat that is being vacated by Tommy Tuberville, making a run for Alabama governor tonight. But here's where we stand with the Senate at this hour. Again, 49 Democratic seats filled. That includes four seats flipped from the Republicans, with 13 seats yet to be called.
Can I just say.
Yes. We're going to go to Paula Reed at the White House in just a second, but you can.
Just as that's exactly what I was going to say. As we're processing what we're seeing, I just want to as we're making meaning of tonight, yes, people are concerned about affordability and prices being high. Democrats hammered home that message. The results are not commensurate with just frustration with inflation and prices. They just are not. There is more that we are seeing. When we are winning Texas by these margins, it is not just that prices are high. People are that is number one.
The rot that is coming from the top of the country is very, very, very clearly on voters' minds in every demographic, in every geography, in every region of the country, in every corner.
Let's go to Paula Reed. MS Now chief White House reporter Paula Reed is at the White House with some of the response that we're hearing tonight from Washington. Paula, thanks very much for being with us. What are you hearing tonight?
Of course. Well, Rachel, the president just told The New York Times that he will accept the results of tonight's election. I will note, though, he made those remarks before the results have all come in. Now, look for days. Officials here have been bracing for losses, but we're told they're really surprised by the margins, one official calling it a, quote, "worst-case scenario." All through the night, the mood here has been pretty downcast. One top Trump advisor told me earlier he wasn't even sure he was going to attend the president's election night watch party.
Now, the president and the White House have tried to distance Trump from these results, suggesting this is all because he wasn't on the ballot, even though he's been asking people to pretend he was on the ballot. They also said there were problems with candidate quality, despite the fact that Trump personally selected the GOP Senate candidates in key states like South Carolina, North Carolina, and, of course, most notably in Texas. We know from our polling that Trump was top of mind for voters. Rachel, I also know here officials at the White House, what is really top of mind for them right now is what the fallout will be from this election.
What does this mean for Susie Wiles? A lot of officials believe she is the last person standing between the current situation and Stephen Miller becoming the second most powerful person in the White House. So that's where a lot of the folks, the sources that I've been speaking with, that's where their attention is turned right now, the fallout over the next few days.
Let me just ask you to clarify what you just said about Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller's position is not seen as at risk, but Susie Wiles is? And part of the calculus there is, can she keep Stephen Miller from amassing even more power?
Exactly. Many of the sources that I've told, there is a concern that if there were to be massive losses, that there could be a shake-up. I know that Susie Wiles did have some bumps in her tenure over the summer. Her standing was uncertain. There were concerns that she might leave. Our reporting does not indicate or assure that she will, but there was a concern, if she does, that Stephen Miller might become chief of staff and he would have sort of higher fire, not total power, but certainly a say in what President Trump does. And in speaking with sources, multiple sources over the past several days, that is what has been top of mind for them, not how to convert key voters in Michigan or Texas, but what will happen inside the administration over the next few days as they brace for those losses.
The phrase "pit of vipers" springs to mind, but I'm not sure why. Paula Reed for us at the White House tonight. Paula, thank you. And please keep us surprised. As you learn more tonight, as your reporting develops, please let us know. We'll get you back on the air as soon as you've got anything for us. Thank you. We thank you for spending election night with us here on MS Now. We have so much more still to come at this hour on this night of what is very clearly a blue wave. We are waiting on news from the Senate race in Maine. We are waiting on news from the Senate race in Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, Alaska, where polls have not yet closed.
We have so much still to get to, so many House races, again, each of which is a Shakespearean drama of its own, a whole world of political drama unto itself. Our coverage continues with so much left to unfold. As we go to break here, here's a little bit of what Keisha Lance Bottoms had to say to her supporters. Oh, wait. Nope. I'm told we can't go to break. We have another call. I am sorry. We are about to go to break. But we have an election alert for you in a Senate race in Kansas.
Wow. I just I can't quite believe it. The Associated Press has called the race in Kansas, the United States Senate seat in Kansas, wow, will be won tonight by Democrat Adam Hamilton. This is a remarkable result. This is an incumbent Republican senator, Roger Marshall, losing his seat to Democrat Adam Hamilton in Kansas. As Jen Psaki noted earlier this hour, Kansas hasn't sent a Democrat to the United States Senate since 1932.
But this puts Democrats at 50. This puts Democrats at having flipped five seats already, with more results yet to come tonight. We had thought, I think, heading into tonight, had you been watching a lot of MS Now in recent weeks, that we'd spend the whole night talking about Michigan. But we've spent the whole night talking about.
The night is young, my friend.
And we've spent the whole night talking about just about everything else. And, yeah, we're still waiting on Michigan, and we're still waiting on Maine, and we're still waiting on Alaska and lots of other things still to come in. But Democrats have flipped five Senate seats, and they hold 50 seats in the Senate minimum, and they have flipped the House of Representatives. It's just a remarkable night. I know this is out of order, and this is not the way I'm supposed to do this. But please, can we play that Keisha Lance Bottoms clip? I'd love to hear what she said to her supporters earlier tonight. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the newly elected Democratic governor of the state of Georgia.
Watch.
So, Georgia, I have said over the past few days, if I were your woman, well, now I am your woman. And here is what I will do. I will never, ever, ever stop loving you.
In big and small ways, you've shown that no amount of money will ever, never, ever, ever overcome the power of the people.
Keisha Lance Bottoms is the newly elected Democratic governor of the state of Georgia. All right. We are going to take a quick break, unless somebody jumps in again and stops me from doing it.
Oh.
We're going to take a very quick break. We still have Michigan Senate. We still have a lot to get to. Ellie, don't make meaningful eye contact with me. We are going to take a break. Go to commercial right now. We'll be right back. We have to stop at some point.
Oh, do we?
People have to pee. People have to pee. We'll be right back.
For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics.
From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story. Connect with Jacob Soboroff, weekends at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on MS Now.
It is just after 11:30 p.m. East Coast time, and we can make a new call. This is in an important governor's race in the Midwest. The Associated Press has now called the race in Wisconsin for governor. Democrat David Crowley has won the governorship in Wisconsin. He has defeated Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany. This was a roller coaster for Democrats, a surprising primary, David Crowley consolidating support.
This was something that they went through a lot of drama early on in the Wisconsin's governor's race, and then he just ran an excellent campaign. He is the third Black governor elected tonight, Westmore in Maryland, Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, and Mr. Crowley now in Wisconsin, plus Republican Byron Donalds in Florida. There are four, excuse me, four African-American governors elected tonight, an absolutely historic night along those lines.
All right. Ellie, we're going to put you through some paces.
Yeah.
Will you please talk to us about the Michigan Senate race?
Yeah. Michigan counts its votes the way I prepare for exams, not with any sense of urgency. We are 35 percent in right now. It's moving really, really slowly. And of Michigan, counting its votes slowly, Wayne County, which is the most populous county by a long shot in Michigan, is only 8 percent in right now. So it's hard to glean because in these counties that have very little vote in, Abdul Sayyed is doing very well. The area is right around Detroit. But in the counties that have counted more votes, there aren't that many of them, but Mike Rogers is actually faring well.
So it's very hard to glean what has to happen here. At the moment, Mike Rogers, to win this, only needs 50 percent of the outstanding vote. Again, very, very possible. It's very close. Take a look at the governor's race, though. 34 percent in, just a little bit more. Jocelyn Benson has a slightly healthier lead against John James. Again, Jocelyn Benson identified with a leadership of that state which fought back against an effort to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election as secretary of state. John James is a guy who can't tell you who won the 2020 election.
So there's a little bit of that at play that isn't at play with Mike Rogers. But, boy, that's a whole topic that we'll have a lot of time to talk about, Mike Rogers and the campaign he's been running. What else do you want to see?
Let's talk about other governor's races.
Okay. I want to just.
Kansas governor. Oh, no.
Right. I just want to get you to Pennsylvania for a second because we've been following these House races, these flips, right? There's three of the four that they wanted to flip. Three are flipped. And the Democrat, Bob Harvey, is winning for now with 73 percent in the fourth one. Part of this is about the juggernaut that Josh Shapiro is tonight, right? So they're all eyes on 2028 candidates. Josh Shapiro is a guy. John Ossoff is a guy people are talking about. Look at that, 60 percent to Stacey Gerardy's 38.6. And Stacey Gerardy is a much better candidate than he ran against the last time around.
All right. You wanted to talk about.
Kansas governor.
Kansas governor. Let's take a look at that. Cindy Holscher, 91 percent in, very, very tight race. This one's tight. She's got a 20.
Oh, wow.
20 and a half thousand vote lead for Ty Masterson to win. That's an uphill battle because there's not that much left in terms of outstanding vote. This is going to be a little tough for him, especially given the news that you just had about the Kansas Senate. At the moment, Cindy Holscher is in the lead. Let's take a look at Arizona governor. This is an interesting story, 67 percent.
Ellie. I'm sorry. I have to interrupt you for a really big one. We have a projection to make. We have a call to make in a Senate race, in the Senate race in Iowa. The Associated Press has called the Senate race in Iowa. The Democrat, Josh Turok, will win the Iowa Senate race. This is Joni Ernst's Senate seat right now. She is a Republican. That means it is a flip. Josh Turok has defeated Ashley Hinson in the Iowa Senate race. And what this means is not just that Josh Turok will take a U.S.
Senate seat in Washington. It means that the Democratic Party will control the United States Senate. We earlier this evening projected that the Democratic Party will take control of the United States House. With this win in Iowa, we can now project that Democrats hold 51 seats. And that means that the Democratic Party will control the Senate. For the party that is not the president's party, to take one House of Congress in a presidential midterm is not at all uncommon.
It is exceedingly, exquisitely rare for the opposition party to take two Houses of Congress in the midterms. As we've been talking about tonight, it has happened three times since World War II. It happened in 1946. It happened in 1994. And it happened in 2006. Now it has happened again. The Democratic Party has taken full control of the legislative branch of government with this win in Iowa.
And, Ellie, we will get back to what you were talking about there just a moment ago.
I'm here.
Because that's a really big deal. But I just need to get a reaction here. Lawrence, I'd like to get your reaction.
So this means the Trump reign of terror is over. The Trump reign of terror in Washington, in which he controlled Mike Johnson's every breath and every thought and everything that happened in the United States Senate controlled by Republicans, that's completely over now. Mike Johnson's out of a job. He's available to be the next White House chief of staff if you need him. This changes everything. This means that Donald Trump could not get a Supreme Court justice confirmed if a vacancy occurs in the remainder of his presidency.
This means that there's absolutely nothing Donald Trump can do about the budget of the United States of America without the Democrats in the House and the Democrats in the Senate. The governing of the country has now just shifted out of the White House. He's left with his executive orders, most of which from this point on will be wildly illegal and will be dragged into court immediately. This is as powerless a presidency as we will have seen in our lifetimes from this point forward.
It also means nominees. There's no more Pete Hegseth-like figures who are going to be confirmed through the Senate. I mean, justices, Supreme Court justices, but any nominees to the Cabinet.
Right.
Over.
Right. Yeah. It'll all be if someone leaves the Cabinet, it's going to be an acting for as long as the acting can serve because none of the Trump kind of choices could ever be confirmed now in the United States Senate.
I just want to take a moment and just look at my party in the eye and go, this is what you have wrought. You decided to follow one man instead of the American people. A year ago on my show, I said the Senate would fall. Democrats would take the Senate. Why? Because I know my peeps. And I know if they followed one person and did not go with what the people at that time were telling them, that this was the only outcome available.
To your very important point, and I don't think it should be lost on people, one house, okay, that'll flip. Okay, we get it, right? Depends on the cycle. Could have been the Senate. But for both, that is a repudiation by the American people of profound importance. I have been following Texas since I was a state party chairman in 2000. At that time, I came back to Maryland and had a conversation with some politicos and said, folks had better watch Texas because there's something on the ground.
This is 2000. That's going to take time, but the Democrats are beginning to figure out a few things. Tonight, I'm here to tell you, 2028, the state of Texas is a battleground state.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the reality for Republicans is you can win Ohio, baby. You can win Michigan. You can win Arizona. You can win Nevada. You don't win Texas. There's not a number in the electoral college that will get you the White House, period. You've lost the governorship. You've lost the Senate. You've lost the people. And so welcome to new America.
Let me also say on that Texas issue, we are going to have a United States census in 2030. And the way population shifts are happening in this country right now, Texas is likely to get a big boost in terms of the number of congressional districts it has and a big boost in the number of electoral votes that it has after the 2030 census.
Go ahead.
And if the Democratic Party is winning statewide in Texas now, what we thought of as the electoral college map, the electoral college landscape, if Texas moves in the electoral college, the whole country is a different landscape.
Very much.
The national politics is a totally different ballgame. And as exciting as it is to see for Democrats to see Gina Inahosa and to see James Tallarica winning in Texas tonight, had especially Tallarica not been able to win tonight in essentially ideal conditions with a president who is less popular than toenail fungus, with a candidate who.
My brain is like, who's toenail fungus?
With a candidate he was running against who nobody can look at without seeing his mugshot, with a candidate in the form of James Tallarica who is crafted from birth to be a nonpartisan, appealing, seminarian-type centrist candidate with progressive credentials. I mean, had Democrats not been able to pull off a statewide win tonight in the most ideal circumstances, I would have been talking about 2030 in the electoral college as something that was going to be a very different scenario for the Democrats ever having the chance of winning the presidency again.
But this puts the electoral college in a totally different light heading into 2028 and especially 2032.
I just want to say one other thing about Texas and about the general thing that you just said. There's a lot of implications. One of them is I was really upset by the grossness and the cruelty of the closing message of Republicans in Michigan about the things they said about Abdullah Sayyed, but also the attack on trans folks that has just become so toxic and so common and so cruel and so ceaseless. And it was every ad, every ad. You watch a Sunday football game and it was, these people are the reason.
This is the problem. This is the thing you have to think about. And they jumped hundreds of millions of dollars. And I saw Republicans, hardcore Republicans, when asked in Man on the Street interviews, what are you voting for? It's, I want to get boys out of girls' sports. And to see the repudiation of that approach specifically, when that pollution was pumped into the discourse with hundreds of millions of dollars, that people were like, I don't care about that. And I reject that. And that there's some salvaging of decency for people that are our neighbors and our friends and our loved ones who are a tiny minority of this population who somehow have become the ritualized scapegoat for an entire political party that spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to make everyone fear and hate them.
I'm just very, very grateful that that did not work.
Well, the other piece of that, though, is that the age of looking for former politicos to say something and waiting for them to do is over, right? This all started when the people of Minneapolis and the people of Chicago took to the streets. And they were way ahead of politicians, of cultural leaders. Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello followed. But this is a completely citizen-driven revolt. And whatever we've used repudiation, this is now a revolt. And it had nothing to do with any former presidents, with any leaders, with any the CEOs are all in league with Donald Trump.
The Democratic law firms are all working for Boris Epstein at the freaking Commerce Department. This has nothing to do with elites. This has nothing to do with anyone in power. This has nothing to do with corporations. There are no good companies in terms of fighting for democracy that want to come on any of our shows that I'm aware of. This is the people of this country, Democrats, Republicans, independents, saying these are our neighbors, seeing ICE saying these are my kids' baseball teammates. This is just the American people saying, this is not at all what I wanted. And I don't think people have to answer to or defer to people with prominent places in society because they did nothing.
They stayed quiet. They did nothing.
And every one of those institutions, particularly the law firms, that decided that they would go along with the Boris Epstein gang.
Jamie Raskin online, too.
Exactly. Guess what? You're going to have to actually answer for what you're going to be for what you're going to be doing for your own conflicts of interest or for the kinds of deals that you made with the Senate and the Trump.
Well, and the companies that helped to destroy the East Wing. I mean, I think chunks of the East Wing will be sold off like pieces of the Berlin Wall. This has this memento of corruption and of when everyone lost their freaking mind.
And every company that took part in that is going to have to pay for it.
Yes. And where does Elon Musk move to now? He moved out of California.
Mars.
He moved out of California.
Mars. Mars.
Mars is available. Not yet. But he's going to have to find a place before Mars. He left California because he hated Democratic governance in California. He's now in a state, Texas, that is going to be governed by Democrats. I guess there's Idaho. I guess that's going to hold out for a while. And also, what does it mean to all these tech billionaires who just got defeated tonight in what they wanted and what they did with their money and how their money was beaten by candidates instead of just money?
Democrats tonight have flipped at least five U.S. Senate seats. They have obtained control of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. And we are still waiting on Senate results from Kansas and Michigan and Maine and Alaska. Let's throw Mississippi in there. We got a excuse me, not from Kansas. From Michigan, Maine, Alaska, Mississippi, we've got a lot still to come. When we come back, we are going to check in on some very close races for Senate and more, including a bunch of those gubernatorial races that I so rudely interrupted Ally about moments ago.
Stay with us on MS NOW as our coverage of this very big blue wave continues.
We here in South Carolina sent a clear message that this Senate seat does not belong to one family, one party, or to Washington, DC. And I know that the work ahead won't be easy, but after 18 months and 46 counties and everything we've been through together, I've never been more certain of one thing. South Carolina's best days are still ahead of us.
Democrats have won control of the House, and Democrats have won control of the Senate. What remains to be determined are the margins and a number of governors' races, some very interesting House races still outstanding, including a lot of big names. Let's start with the Nebraska Senate race, Ally. What do you got for us there? Ally, Nebraska Senate.
Oh, I'm sorry, Nebraska. I was just getting some information about New York 17, which I'm asking my team to confirm right now. Nebraska Senate right now, 53% is in. So we have a lot to count here. Dan Osborne, the independent who is backed by Democrats, is in the lead at the moment by 7,000 votes. But this is tricky because there's enough vote outstanding around in large population centers. Very hard to tell how this goes in Nebraska, right? Dan Osborne has said until now that he's not caucusing with he's caucusing with everybody.
He sort of changed that tune in the last few days and says he's not caucusing with anybody. So it sort of becomes interesting. He's got that populist thing, but not really a Democratic thing. For Pete Rickards to win right now, he just needs 48% of the outstanding vote. The way this is going is quite possible. It's a slight underperformance by Pete Rickards at the moment. So if one had to make a decision right now, you'd probably favor Dan Osborne for this. But we don't have to make a decision right now. So we're going to watch that very closely.
The governor's race there, Lynn Walz, again, 53%. So it's the same 53% that's in. She's leading Jim Pillon, but it's less than one percentage point. So Nebraska is going to be one that we watch for the next few hours. Let me take you to Colorado for a second and just show you a couple of interesting House races that are going on right now. This is Lauren Boebert's old district. Dwayne Romero is in the lead right now with 71% in. Jeff Hurd, the incumbent, is behind, but he only needs 50% of the outstanding votes to win.
So I'm going to watch this very closely. And there's still a good chance that he pulls it out. This is Lauren Boebert's new district, 77% in there. Eileen Laubacher has got 49.7, half a point separating these two to Lauren Boebert. It's, again, just 7,260 votes. But when you look at the outstanding vote and you see the centers that they're coming from, there's actually enough for her to make this work if it works. She just needs 52% of the outstanding vote to win. Again, very interesting that both of these are not working out as easily and as smoothly for the Republican members.
But I'm going to wait a little while before we make any determinations about the race in Colorado.
Can I ask you about staying in Colorado about five and eight?
Yeah.
Five is incumbent Republican Congressman Jeff Crank. This is a Trump plus nine district. And the Democrat there is Jessica Killon.
That's correct. So take a look at how this went. I'm going to give you both the 2024 presidential where Trump won with 53.2. Jeff Crank outperformed him at 54.7. Right now, he's running at 45.2 with 70% of the vote in right now. In order for him to win, this is a little trickier because he's getting 45.2% of the vote and needs 56% of the outstanding vote that hasn't been counted. Remember, in a country, in a state that does a lot of voting by mail and in advance. So this is not looking fantastic for Jeff Crank at the moment.
And the other one you wanted to talk about was eight?
Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about eight. Gabe Evans.
Yes. Gabe Evans.
75% in. Manny Routinelle has been called as the winner here. Manny Routinelle really leaning into this whole affordability, cost of living thing. This is a guy whose parents had their house foreclosed on. And he was one of those people you read about who sold plasma to make ends meet. So he's really, really resonating with constituents who say cost of living is a big deal. Manny Routinelle has won there. And I've been looking at this one for a little while because it's been taking time to get the vote in. And as you can see, there's still stuff missing here. But this is Texas 15.
This is the Bobby Polito race, 71% in. Look at that. Bobby Polito at 67% over Monica Dela Cruz, who's got 32.9%. Again, look at that. Monica Dela Cruz has to get 92% of the outstanding vote in order to preserve her seat here. Clearly, we have to count some more vote because but if you were choosing to be one of these two right now, you'd rather be Bobby Polito. Another one that I'm looking at very closely right now. We're just keeping an eye on it because this was meant to give you a sense of how much of a sweep this would be.
All of eastern Pennsylvania and southeastern Pennsylvania has gone blue with the exception of this one that we're still waiting on, 78% in. This is Brian Fitzpatrick, right? He's the guy who wants to paint himself as the most moderate or a moderate Republican who is prepared to separate from Trump from time to time. That isn't really true. And Bob Harvey's been out there telling people it's not really true. Bob Harvey's a commissioner in Bucks County. And where you can see, it's a tighter lead. It's tighter in Bucks County, 52.7.
This is Montgomery County. It's the northeastern part of Montgomery County, a little bit more liberal. He's got a much healthier lead there. But we're watching this closely because, again, to the Josh Shapiro point, if his coattails are big enough, the Democrats can do a clean sweep of southeastern and eastern Pennsylvania. Can we go to Iowa while we're talking about House districts? I have some congressional districts I want to ask you about in Iowa. They are conveniently numbered one, two, and three.
Let's do it. All right. One, Christina Bohannon. This is third time, might be the charm for her. This is literally the third time she's run against Marionette Miller-Meeks. The spreads in these have been kind of crazy. It was 20,000 one year. It was 799 votes. This is my major argument for why everybody has to go out and vote because you don't know if your district is actually going to be close. So right now, it's a 32,000 vote lead. That's a bigger lead than this district has seen in the last three elections, 84% in. Christina Bohannon is in the lead.
Marionette Miller-Meeks needs 78% of the outstanding votes to catch up. That's going to be a little tough for her to do. Let's go to two. This is Lindsey James versus John Mitchell. This is actually very close to being done. 93% in. I think the only issue is that less than it's a 10% margin at the moment. So it's 5% margin, but she's winning by only 16,000 votes. So I think everybody's just crossing their.
That's a Trump plus 10 district.
Well, that's a good point to make. Let's just look at what this looked like before. This was exactly Trump plus 10. Now, for the moment, with 93% in, it's a Democrat plus five district. And then you wanted to take a look at three. This is a very interesting race. Sarah Trone Garriott running almost 10 full points ahead of Zach Nunn with 90% of the vote in. Again, this is just a matter of seeing where these votes are and how much is needed because look at this. Zach Nunn would need 92% of the estimated remaining vote in order to win this.
98% of the vote in Polk County, which is where Sarah Trone Garriott was going to do the best, is already in. Let's take a look at Madison County. That's missing at the moment, but that's likely to favor Sarah Trone Garriott. So at this point, these three are looking like fairly safe bets for Democrats. But for reasons of getting this right, the data nerds back there are saying, "Hold on for a minute until we've counted a few more votes."
I am going to continue nerding out with you unless you tell me to stop.
No, no, please.
You invoked New York 17. Mike Lawler, Republican incumbent, one of the most endangered and high-profile Republicans.
I'm going to tell my team if they have information to give me based on what Armand and Ren were telling me a few minutes ago, please give it to me while I'm talking to you. 57% of the vote is in. Now, typically, this is a tight race. So one wouldn't call this with 57% of the vote in. But Kate Connelly is a real sort of significant challenger to Mike Lawler. Again, Mike Lawler, like Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania won, sells himself as an independent. He's not really all that Trumpy. And Kate Connelly likes to point out that you're actually Trumpier than you want to be, right?
People are starting to pull themselves away from Donald Trump, may not be working for Mike Lawler all that well. The issue in this district, by the way, is Westchester County is split between New York 16 and New York 17. Westchester had a big voting problem today, and 250,000 votes were affected. People had to put their votes into like an emergency bag that was going to get counted later. So this is taking a little extra time to count.
Ally, I can add one piece of information to this. Just we have reporting that Mike Lawler has contacted Kate Connelly.
That's what I've been hearing.
And reportedly conceded to her. But again, as you see, the Associated Press has not made a call.
I've heard that too. And I only want to check because it's an unusual there's enough of a cushion here that I'm kind of puzzled that he would actually do that, if that's true, because he only needs 53% of the outstanding vote. And he has shown a propensity to be able to win in this district, the only one, by the way, in this part of New York. I mean, literally all the way through to southern Manhattan until you get to Staten Island or the far parts of Long Island, this is all blue. So Mike Lawler has shown an ability to withstand this. We'll confirm that information and come back to you if we learn that Mike Lawler has actually conceded this race or that the Associated Press calls it for Kate Connelly.
Ally, I have an election alert to do. When I come back on the other side of this, I want to ask you about Maine Senate. So I'll just give you advance notice on that. But I do have to tell you that we do have a call and a very interesting House race. This is in Nebraska. In Nebraska's second congressional district, Democrat Denise Powell has been named the winner by the Associated Press. This is a flip. This is a Republican-held seat, but Denise Powell has defeated Republican Brinker Harding. This was the seat held by retiring Republican incumbent Congressman Don Bacon.
Don Bacon's seat will now be held by Democrat Denise Powell in Nebraska. Very, very interesting. All right, let's talk about some of these outstanding Senate races. We've got outstanding Senate races in Maine, Alaska, Mississippi, Michigan. Let's talk about Maine.
All right. The way to think about Maine, because it's got 10 million towns, very northeast United States, very hard to figure out all these little places that go all the way up to the Canadian border where both Susan Collins and Troy Jackson are from. This is what you have to think about in Maine, right? These are the population centers that you have to think about. And I was talking to Troy Jackson the other day. He was talking about the fact that they would have to do well in these counties. So almost the closer you get to the shore, the more populous they are. There's a lot of vote outstanding in certain places.
So Augusta, for instance, I don't think we've got that. Let me get out to there. We don't have it, so we can't really tell you. But Lewiston, for instance, Troy Jackson, 99% in. Troy Jackson's got 53% there, 53% in Auburn. If you go down to Portland, Troy Jackson has got 84.4. So let's take a look at what this looks like compared to Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris is running 80% in Portland. Troy Jackson's running ahead of that. That's the population center here. So again, it's because there are so many little places in Maine.
But what you're seeing on the map here, if you look at this, look at all the blue in this area. This is what is going to matter to Troy Jackson. So when you look at the statewide numbers, 59% in, it is awfully close. It's awfully close. So it is quite possible that Susan Collins can pull this out, but she'd need 53% of the estimated remaining votes. And in places like this, once you get up here, there may be a lot of white squares around, but they don't have a lot of people in them. The further you get closer to the Canadian border, the population centers are smaller.
So this is looking like a bit of an uphill battle at the moment for Susan Collins, but it is far too early to tell because it's only 60% of the vote in right now.
Let me just ask, before we come back to you, Ally, and a couple of the other outstanding Senate races here at the table, are you guys hearing any intel in terms of Democratic operatives or in terms of pollsters or in terms of anything else in terms of what's happening in Maine? The Maine Senate race, obviously, we're watching that vote very, very, very slowly come in, and we see that it's very, very close. Are you guys getting any intel?
No.
Not yet. We can work on it, though.
I mean, people are watching what we're watching and cautiously optimistic, but more due to national trends than things that they see that we don't see.
Okay. Ally, can I come back to you on the Senate on Mississippi?
And I just have one other piece of information on this. The issue in New York 17 is that the outstanding vote in let's go to the House. The outstanding vote in Mike Lawler's district is this Westchester stuff that hasn't been fully counted. And he knows that that is overwhelmingly Democratic. So his internal math seems to be that they can't make up that number. Sorry about that, Rachel. Where do you want to go?
Mississippi Senate, please.
Mississippi Senate. Let's do that. Okay. This is interesting. 91% of the vote is in, and they are very, very close. Scott Caloum is 100% not a name that most people knew, right? Simone's not here right now, but Simone's been talking about this for a long time. And people have made the argument that the Democrats had put a little bit more money, and people had gotten to know Scott Caloum. He definitely, from a candidate quality perspective, knocks people's socks off compared to Cindy Hyde-Smith. But it's close. It's hard for him to make this up.
There are pockets of vote, including here in the upper part of the state. There are bits of vote all over that he can get. There are only 85,000 votes outstanding, and he would need to capture 57% of the outstanding vote in order to win Mississippi. That's not all that likely. But again, we're talking about Mississippi. We're actually talking about the fact that Mississippi might be in play, or maybe it's in play next time for Scott Caloum. And Cindy Hyde-Smith really didn't have to she's not a good campaigner. She is the one who said you can switch your proteins if your protein is too expensive, like she just discovered that idea as opposed to people who actually struggle with paying for this stuff.
So this is very telling, even if Cindy Hyde-Smith ends up keeping her seat. It's not done because it's 91% in. I think a few of you have made this point that we're talking about states that should have been called pretty much close to the close, and they're still in play.
Let me ask you, Ally, as long as we're still doing, let's stay in the Deep South. We had checked in earlier on a House race in Alabama, Shomari Figures.
Yes, this is a remarkable story, an absolutely remarkable story.
He is supposed to have been gerrymandered out of that show.
Let's show you. Look at that. Yeah, he's winning. He's won. Let me show you what this was supposed to this gerrymander was supposed to create this spread, 57 to 42. That's what was supposed to happen because they took the base of his district away from him. He runs, and he wins. This is the message. And by the way, this is happening through the South of people who are just mad about redistricting, about Calais, about this pressure that has been put, this downward pressure that has been applied to voters, and in particular, Black voters.
Nicole said this the other day, that if you push voters too far down, they will push back up. And what you are looking at in Alabama right now in the second district is voters pushing back up. This is remarkable that Shomari Figures has won this tonight.
That is incredible. I have one other House race to ask you about, Ally, and then I'm going to want to talk Minnesota Senate. But the House race I want to talk about first is in Ohio. Ohio 7.
All right. Let's go to Ohio. Let's go to Ohio.
Max Miller.
7, yes. So this one, for most thinking people in a normal world, you wouldn't think is a surprise, right? In a normal world, Max Miller wouldn't be running, right? He'd have stepped out of the race after his father-in-law, Bernie Moreno, and his ex-wife, and a whole lot of people said crazy stuff is happening. This was, of course, before Viveka Ramaswamy came up with that ridiculous ad. So there's some bad apples running in Ohio politics, and Max Miller was one of those bad apples. Brian Poindexter is pulling this off. 74% of the vote is in.
What does Max Miller have to do? Let's see where the vote is outstanding. All right, Cuyahoga County. That's what it is. It's 81,000 votes that are still outstanding there. So it becomes Poindexter, like Democrats tonight, got the overwhelming percentage of the advance vote. Look at that. He's also got the majority of the day-of vote. So again, this becomes challenging, but the only reason this isn't called is because it's 57%. At 67, 77, we'd probably see something here. But Max Miller, this isn't even close at this point.
Ally, I need to interrupt you. I was going to just ask you about the Minnesota Senate, but we have a call in the Minnesota Senate. The Associated Press has called the Minnesota Senate race. The winner of the Minnesota Senate race is Democrat Peggy Flanagan. Peggy Flanagan is Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota. She will now be the Democratic United States Senator for Minnesota, defeating Republican Michelle Tafoya. What this means is that the Democrats' minimum number of seats in the United States Senate has just hit 52, which means John Fetterman has just receded to irrelevance in terms of his political affiliation and the possibility that he might switch to the Republicans in order to throw control of the Senate.
John Fetterman doing that would not affect control of the Senate if he chose to do it. Democrats have at least 52 seats in the United States Senate, with Peggy Flanagan taking the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. We have an additional call in Minnesota in the governor's race. The Associated Press has called this race. Democrat Amy Klobuchar will be the new Democratic Governor of Minnesota. This is the governorship being vacated by Tim Walz. Amy Klobuchar giving up her seat in the United States Senate in order to become the governor of Minnesota.
Amy Klobuchar defeating Republican Lisa DuMuth in Minnesota. She will be that state's next governor. Democrats securing 18 governorships tonight to Republicans' five. Democrats just hit 52 in the Senate, y'all.
That's pretty big.
Yeah.
Huge.
Huge. We are still waiting on Michigan. We are still waiting on Maine. We are still waiting on Alaska, where some polls are still open. We are still waiting on Mississippi, although we saw difficult math there for Scott Caloum in Mississippi. What do you got for us?
We have just moved Maine into lean Democrat. This has just happened now. This is an MS Now decision based on this that I was telling you about, where the vote has come in and where the vote is still outstanding.
Again, that's just our characterization.
That's our characterization.
We now characterize the Maine U.S. Senate race as lean Democratic.
That is correct. That is our characterization. Minnesota, of course, the interesting thing here, Peggy Flanagan becoming the first Native American woman elected to the United States Senate. So that continues to be an interesting race to watch. So there's very little left. But if you start to look at how we this is it. We're waiting for Alaska. We're going to wait, by the way, for a while for Michigan. That's okay. We're waiting for Nebraska to see what happens in the Senate there. And we're waiting on Maine. I colored that in blue, but that's not actually blue.
This is a hell of a night.
Can we look at the do you mind if I do the?
No, go ahead.
Can I jump in with one main thing that's kind of a big deal?
Yeah.
I have from the Jackson campaign that Susan Collins has called him to concede the race.
So let's just hold on. Let's just underscore that for a second. You've been in contact directly with the Troy Jackson campaign, and they're telling you a single source in the campaign?
But it's been approved through our standards process, I should note, that she has called to concede in that race.
Wow.
It is.
That's a very, very big deal. Again, this is not our call of the race in Maine. The Associated Press has not called the race in Maine. We are characterizing the race in Maine as lean Democratic, but it is approved within our network standards. And based on Jen Psaki's reporting with the Troy Jackson campaign, that Susan Collins has conceded that she will not be returning to the United States Senate and that Troy Jackson will be taking that Senate seat.
Can I just quickly say hello to you? For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. Why are you holding this sign? Have you ever been to a protest before? He's safe. People that we cover who allow us to enter their lives. How's everybody doing? Everybody doing okay? How long have you been in line? I love human beings. To spend time connecting with them is the biggest blessing that I could ask for.
From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story. Connect with Jacob Soboroff, weekends at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on MS Now.
November 3, 2026; 10pm: Election night coverage tracks a major Democratic wave, with projected Senate and gubernatorial flips in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and other states reshaping control of Congress and key governorships.
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