because he worked incredibly hard alongside with the president. and that's a storyline that is quite different from the way the president worked or didn't work with the house republican leaders, particularly the current speaker of the house paul ryan. worked very hard to get the right candidates in there. josh hawley is a perfect example. he's currently the attorney general. he won only two years ago. he made a pledge not to run for anything else until his term was up. until he was convinced by mitch mcconnell and the president, republicans in washington, please run because they thought he was their best bet to take the seat. and they were right. >> yeah. good recruiting but also nothing succeeds like having a good map. and the fact is democrats were fated with a horrible map. they had a whole bunch of trump seats -- trump states where they had democratic senators that they had to hold on to. they were playing defense all night. and you know -- >> you mentioned something i

think that's really important that we haven't talked a lot about tonight, which is brett kavanaugh. i was in north dakota. i was in missouri. and the republicans there and even the democrats admitted that the fact that the democrats, incumbent democrats voted against brett kavanaugh, that was a huge boost for republicans in those states because it really got the republican base going and it was hard to turn it back. particularly the case of josh hawley in missouri. it was something that clair e mccaskill couldn't get over. >> a lot of republicans who perhaps weren't the biggest fans of president trump, had felt demoralized and then they felt a lot of democrats were unfair to brett kavanaugh. they felt the democrats really piled on. and it really allowed people to come together. never trump republicans and pro-trump republicans and everyone in between to rally around brett kavanaugh. and that did in some cases, it's pretty clear, solidify the

party. >> no question. >> and get them -- >> when it comes to the senate, a huge success for the president of the united states. he's already gloating. i assume he's gloating about the senate. not the house of representatives. tremendous success tonight. thank you to all. he just tweeted that -- >> let's just cut through that for a second. he just lost the house. >> but he did manage to hold on to the senate. >> i know. and mazel tov. but the bottom line is like this is not a good night for president trump. the democrats have just retaken the house and they're going to have subpoena power and they're going to make his life a living hell. that's the bottom line. >> that's an absolutely fair assessment because you listen to all -- you take a look at who are going to be the chairmen of these various committees, these oversight committees in the house of representatives and they're going to certainly make the president's life pretty miserable. >> elijah cummings is going to be in charge of house oversight and government reform? that's going to be very difficult for him. maxine waters is going to be in charge of house -- >> adam schiff. >> adam schiff in charge of intel. that's quite a difference from

devin nunes. not to mention the fact you're going to have a bunch of democrats running committees who are going to be -- >> jerry nadler is going to be chairman of the judiciary committee. >> who are going to get president trump's tax returns. they're going to get them. they're going to subpoena them. they're going to get them. and that is not something president -- president trump has done everything he could to prevent that from happening. >> so that's a different dynamic. what isn't a different dynamic and people might be gulping very hard when i say this, but what is likely to get worse is gridlock because another thing that i heard from a lot of these moderate democrats when i was out watching them campaign is you don't want to defeat me because there will be more gridlock because what we've seen, losing heidi heitkamp in north dakota, claire mccaskill in missouri, joe donnelley in indiana, three moderate democrats. they were painted as liberals, but they're moderate democrats. and with those democrats gone and reliably republican votes in their place it means that

there's less discussion in the middle. >> so president trump we're told from cnn's senior white house correspondent jim acosta has spoken on the phone with the likely next speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. jim acosta, tell us what you know. >> reporter: that's right, jake. the president did call nancy pelosi to congratulate her on the democrats winning over control of the house. as you said, she's the likely incoming speaker. we don't know for sure. but the fact the president called nancy pelosi is a strong suggestion he knows where things are going. we should also point out, jake, in just the last few minutes you were having the conversation just a second ago about what would happen when the democrats officially take control of the house. kellyanne conway, the white house counselor, was out here briefing reporters just a few moments ago and i pressed kellyanne conway on what's going to happen. how is this white house going to respond. does the white house have a plan for what will happen when democrats take control of all of those committees, have subpoena power and ask for those tax returns, conduct other

investigations? she did not answer that question. but she did say when i pressed her on this and what they're going to do, what the president will do, if democrats ask for those tax returns, she said, "i guess they could try." jake, as you were just saying a few moments ago, they're going do more than just try. they're going to push this white house, and it could cause a very big clash between two big branches of government. one other thing i should point out, i talked to a senior republican source close to the white house, close to capitol hill who said that the expectation is on the republican side up on capitol hill is that all of this is going to be a "major headache" not only for republicans in congress but for this white house when democrats take control of that house. this is something, jake, as you know, during the campaign president trump refused to release those tax returns. over the last two years as president of the united states he has refused to release those tax returns. this is a major battle, a major fight to come between the white house and a newly democratic house of representatives come this january, jake. >> and thank you so much, jim

acosta. and let's not forget that still hovering out there and who knows what his schedule is, but perhaps he was waiting for the midterms to be over, is robert mueller. the special counsel investigating whatever happened or didn't happen with regards to obstruction of justice, any possible conspiracy with the russian government. and now there is a body in washington, d.c., a house -- the house of representatives, a chamber in congress, that is eager to hear what he has to say. >> and potentially make all that information public as well. >> absolutely. and take action. so you know, it's nice for president trump to tweet a tremendous success. it's not a tremendous success, and he'll see that in the next few days. >> very soon. i want to go back to anderson. >> jake, wolf, thank you very much. abby, are we basically headed for just the next two years of complete gridlock? i mean the president congratulated pelosi, acknowledging her call for bipartisanship, but does that

seem less likely now? >> are we headed for complete gridlock? probably. i'm old enough to remember when president trump wanted to work with moderate democrats on infrastructure. and that lasted for maybe five minutes. and part of the reason for that was because the president realize realized pretty quickly that it was more beneficial for him to fight democrats. his supporters are motivated by that. they like to see him fighting for what he ran on. they like to see him going after these people who he has villainized on the campaign -- >> the same could probably be said of democrats, it benefits them to be seen -- >> that's exactly right. but from the president's perspective is he going to want to compromise? i'm not sure that he will. i think he gets as much out of not compromising as he might get from compromising if not more. as we're going into a period of

a lot of investigations and a lot of conflict from the investigative side on the democratic side the president's going to do what he does best, which is take it under -- he has people, as gloria knows, that have signed up to kind of run the fighting back part of this. but the president is going to be the one doing that. we saw it with mueller. we saw it with the midterms. he takes it upon himself, and he's going to do it -- he's going to do it by creating the foil out of the -- >> obviously the presidential race begins, you know. >> yes. and that will -- well, probably there are a few hours before it starts. but very soon. let me posit something, though, which is in an odd way there is an advantage here for him on the whole i think it would be better for him to have the house, but one thing that having a democratic house will do for him is prevent the republican base from pushing him into taking positions that might make it

even more difficult for him -- i think about the -- i don't know how you guys feel about this. i actually think john mccain when he turned his thumb down may have spared him some problems here because you look at how health care motivated democrats. imagine if they had taken the -- imagine if the affordable care act had gone down and the chaos that would have reigned after that. he has an excuse now for not doing some of the things that the base wants him to do if he wants to go that route. >> i'll give you a couple things i think the president is going to try to do to attract democratic votes. i think he's going to try to push for a paid family leave bill. that's something that is very high on his priorities, something he would have trouble getting through a republican house. that he can now get through a republican house. and will have sympathy in the republican senate. so look for that as one bipartisan thing he can do. i wouldn't be surprised knowing this president, he pushes for some sort of minimum wage increase. again -- >> infrastructure. >> it would be tied to something

else like an infrastructure bill. but there are plenty of opportunities. donald trump is not an ideologue. donald trump is for things dmd likes. they just don't like him. >> to make the point quickly, rick, that assumes that all the folks who just got elected to these house seats, progressive, people of color to the far left of the speaker are going to want to go along with it. >> can i say a couple of things about those people? a new generation of people is now a part of the american political process. a lot of younger people, a lot of women, a lot of people think hey, hillary clinton's going to win, everything's going to be fine, they didn't work that hard. they spent the past two years in shock and upset and they decided to get involved. and they didn't get everything they wanted but they got a lot done. and i think that those forces now have been unleashed in the country. and i think they're more

positive than negative. so on issues like criminal justice reform, which is a big issue among this new mobilized base, they care about criminal justice, that's something this president has said some positive things about. there could be something there. i think you're seeing people, there's a new labor movement that is emerging out of the service sector, domestic workers, this idea of paid family leave. there could be some common ground. i don't want us to assume that this movement is only the resistance. they are not just the resistance -- >> but you're not going to walk away and be happy with an infrastructure bill. >> i do think the democrats have to show if they're rung the house that there are things they want to do. and whether they can get donald trump to go along with it or not remains to be seen because we've seen him on both sides. but the president has to be able to, say, work with them maybe on infrastructure or criminal justice reform, et cetera, and draw a line because they are going to do everything they can

to subpoena him and to push him up against the wall on all kinds of things like puerto rico, hurricane, what happened in puerto rico. what happened with your border policy? we want to know how that unfolded. so they're going to be pushing him on one side. and i don't know that he's able to do both of those things at the same time. >> yeah, i think he is. and i think you're going to see the big problems the democrats are going to have is the same problem that paul ryan has. you're going to have your version of the freedom caucus. you're going to call them the radical caucus or whatever you -- the socialist caucus, whatever it is. >> i doubt that. >> who are going to be dog mattic and who are going to insist upon family leave has to -- >> if you look at the map, a lot of these democrats who won won in places that weren't terribly ideological and aren't going to necessarily go down that road. there's no doubt there are some who -- >> but there's a huge part of this caucus that is very -- >> i think it's more complex than that.

i don't think it's going to be the democratic version of the tea party. i think you're going to find it's much more complex. there are new members who just got elected in districts that are newly democratic districts -- >> sow think there's going to be a resurgence and the blue dog caucus is coming back? >> i think what david is saying is really important to pay attention to to your point, anderson, about the presidential election begins right away because there is an immediate conversation happening inside the democratic party off of these results tonight. so when van was talking before about the emotional pain he was feeling by not having gillum or potentially abrams or beto o'rourke, these were the folks that were touching the zones in the base that was getting them really excited about reshaping what the future leadership of the party looked like. but actually, the people that won tonight, that created the democratic majority, they won on republican turf. that's where this majority is coming from. not necessarily a blue dog --

>> but that's not the majority in the caucus. conor lamb -- >> let him finish. >> if you are joe biden you are waking up tomorrow morning feeling much better about what you learned tonight about the democratic party than you were necessarily a couple months ago when you thought maybe it was going to be the elizabeth warren party. >> and this is why i think why having somebody with the experience of nancy pelosi at the helm, who knows how to garner votes and count them, is going to be really important. if there is going to be something done. i think she knows how to corral -- >> deal with those young whipper snappers. >> she will. she knows how to do it. she's got the seniority and the experience at this time to be able to do it. i know she's controversial. and she's going to take all those incoming barbs and the others are going to probably be glad that she's the one who's doing that. but she can corral votes. >> the reality is the democratic caucus before this election was a hard left caucus.

that's just the reality. there may be people coming in who won in republican districts -- >> let him finish. >> i've been here. i've been here when we took the majority and we came in here and we wanted to pass things and we wanted to do things, we won on democratic turf, and we found out there's a hardcore base within our caucus who said we want to do this. and that's what's going to -- they're going to run into this in the democratic caucus in the house. i guarantee it. >> i just -- >> it doesn't matter who came in. it's who's there. >> only thing i want to say -- >> the hardcore left. >> only thing i want to say in the defense of the people you're calling hardcore left is that i think there's a misunderstanding, that these are people who are just wild-eyed crazy people who are mad for no reason. and sometimes what gets erased is how awful donald trump has been, the things that he has said, snatching babies from moms, you know, closing the door to refugees. he's done things that -- i don't like what he's brought out in a

lot of democrats, but i understand the pain. and i understand the frustration. and the idea that people are now supposed to kind of compromise with this person who did that is emotionally -- >> you're making my point. >> no, i'm saying -- >> let him finish. >> it's emotionally difficult for folks. so it will take an extraordinary amount of leadership to get people back on the constructive side. but don't make it seem like these are just some crazy people. they're responding to a crazy president. >> they're not crazy people but they are committed -- look, i have great respect for people who have ideological certainty and believe in a certain way of doing things. i felt that way, and i was going to go out and fight for things. some of the folks i got along with the best on the democratic side were 100% opposite of me because i believed they believed what they -- >> here's what we have. we have john lewis. we have people who have the moral authority, i believe, to help us get things done for people where we can and fight where we have to. that's what i believe about this party. we'll see if it's true.

but i hate the way that these young people get dismissed. they're mad for a reason. >> i think what jennifer said is important, though. you know, nancy pelosi may be a liability and there's a reason why a bunch of candidates said they wouldn't support her. she may be a liability outward facing. within those four walls she is a genius at bringing a very fractious caucus together. she's a master at it. she's done it before. my guess is she will either know that she doesn't have the votes and orchestrate something here or she will have the votes, put together what she needs to put the caucus together, but i actually think there's a pretty good argument that she may be the only person who can actually bring coherence to this new caucus and lead it through what is a very strategically tricky -- >> do you think there are -- is there common ground that can be

had between this new house and the president? >> and the president? >> yeah. >> or republicans in general. >> i mean, there are things, there are issues like infrastructure that people have an interest in. the devil is in the details. and you know, what the president considers a good infrastructure bill may not be what the house democrats do. i think van is right on issues like criminal justice reform. that's been sitting there waiting to get done. and there may be some opportunity there. i'm not suggesting there's going to be this new era of, you know -- >> good feeling. >> the sun is not going to shine on the capitol tomorrow morning. but i wouldn't put it past the president, who is not an ideologue and who is fundamentally self-interested and practical about his own interests to say, well, let me see what i can do here. >> i'm going to violently agree with you. in that the principal problem we have had in this town for a long time now, and it comes with

presidents and it comes with leaders, the speakers and the leaders, is we have not had good leadership. we have not had people who have been able to get their caucus and to put aside all of the things, whether it's ideological or political or otherwise, and actually legislate. and you have to have a strong leader to do it. i can tell you with all due respect to the leaders who have been around for the last ten years or so, they have not been strong leaders. they have not been effective leaders. and that means the president, no offense to your old boss, and to this president. they have not effectively led. because you've got -- when you're a leader you are going to be incredibly unpopular. because you're cutting deals and everybody hates the deal cutter. and so you've got to be willing to do those unpopular things and hold your people together. and for ten years we haven't seen that happen here. if you think nancy's possible doing that god bless you. >> let me point out on immigration reform the president put forth a plan that was wildly

unpopular with the republicans. >> he didn't -- >> but i'm saying it was wildly unpopular. >> but david, he never followed through with it. this is actually a perfect example of this. a perfect example of the failure of this president to follow through on compromise. he sat down with chuck and nancy at the white house and he cut a deal on daca. and then he got innumerable phone calls from people in his own party saying this is a bad deal for us. and instead of following through on that deal he said oh, you're right, this is what happens when you have a non-ideological president. it is possible that he can compromise and he can create novel deals but it is also possible he can be swayed very easily by whoever is talking to him. >> i agree. >> making a deal on some crazy things. >> the open question here is also whether or not president trump, not just whether or not nancy pelosi can do it but

whether president trump has the willingness to do what he decided not to do over the last two years. >> you said that joe biden wakes up tomorrow morning with a better sense of either his chances or where he is on the spectrum. but just in terms of the democratic party writ large there is still this debate of people call themselves progressives. what is the lesson of tonight? >> that debate is going to play out in technicolor for everyone -- >> you can look at beto o'rourke and say he didn't do anything to reach out to republicans who didn't like ted cruz and he didn't need to run so far left some people would say. >> and maybe beto o'rourke will take his run that failed in texas and get on a plane to iowa and start talking to potential caucusgoers and say let's try it this way. there's no doubt that the party's going to have that debate. they're going to be candidates in the lane that are going to

get a lot of energy and represent the left wing of the party, and i'm just saying that had a lot of the bolder progressives that van talked about running as bold progressives, not afraid in a state like florida or a state like georgia to just not dot let me try to get to the middle thing but just run as the progressives they are, if they had been victorious tonight i think you would have seen that wing of the party just explode as we head into 2020 and really not leave a ton of oxygen for the joe bidens or terry mcauliffes to say i can win in purple or red areas. i think tonight these results say it is still important for democrats to think about as they go through this process about who can win in some of these moderate areas or purple areas or areas of independents. it's going to be a tug of war. >> i think republicans had a worse time with the tea party to be honest. the tea party came, in you had the freedom caucus, and they

were off on the right and paul ryan, paul ryan could not get a thing done. and it was because of of the tea party. so i think that was more of a problem. i think the people who came in tonight are not going to be the tea party caucus. they're just not. >> i do think this is going to be tough and there's going to be some indigestion. i have a couple of ideas. one is i don't think dish think that you are 100% correct, that had five of these five won you would have taken all the oxygen away from the moderates and it would just be a progressive party. i think now the debate continues. but i do think that andrew gillum coming so close is a -- gives a strong case saying we can go farther than we thought. stacey abrams is still down there fighting. they just stopped voting down there. if that gets very, very close we're going to have a conversation with voter suppression and how much of that was just stolen or hacked or whatever. that's not going to digest well. we get a mixed result.

>> it's completely dispiriting for the progressive wing of the party. >> you lost the ball. >> no, here's the deal. we just ended one-party rule in this country, and we're going to do everything we can with it. it hurt to have our hopes -- >> but you deal with people who said they weren't going to vote for nancy pelosi. >> oh, they will. >> can i talk about beto o'rourke for a second? because one of the things that interested me about him was yes, he staked out some positions on the left. but what was distinctive about his candidacy was the style in which he campaigned. and we can talk about the fact he lost. i don't think many of us actually believed he was going to win. and he did better in texas than democrats generally have. and he did it in part because he was not -- he was open, he treated voters with respect whether they were republicans or democrats. i think there was actually a lesson in the way he campaigned. >> authen advertisety.

>> he's a good authentic candidate. >> 80 million bucks helps. >> beto and stacey and andrew gillum and the ones who are in the middle show i think democrats that you can do both, you can reach out to new groups and you can appeal to moderates because we want to create a broad coalition. i think that's the lesson. >> if you're elizabeth warren tonight or senator bernie sanders, what is the message you've taken away? >> i think the message is that they too have to listen to the blue-collar workers as well as the progressive wing. it has to be a broad coalition. and it's not like one hates the other. it just needs to be a message that's broad enough to appeal to both. >> they would argue their politics actually speaks to blue-collar groups. the problem is there's this suburban base of the republican party -- of the democratic party and the question is how do you weave that, how do you weave that base together. i think it's challenging.

>> socialism scares rich people. >> here's the thing. we've gotten to the point where democrats who want to fix market failures in education and market failures in the health care system are called socialists -- >> no, no. >> obamacare. you've got to fix obamacare. >> single payer -- >> you've lost that argument. the country now -- i mean, the bottom line is there are concerns about health care in this country. that was clearly an issue on the ballot today. >> agreed. >> people feel strongly about it. and the candidate who addresses that i think is going to do well. i think there's evidence of that. so i don't -- >> do you think we'll hear the president start talking more about health care, which is not something we've really heard -- >> obamacare was to fix the health care system. you don't see any democrat out there running on obamacare. no democrat -- let me just predict this. no democrat running for president will run on obamacare.

they will run on medicare for all or some sort of single payer system. >> which is socialism. >> which means they believe obamacare has failed and they are going to try something else. >> you can't talk about affordable -- >> they're going to talk about changing the health care system again. >> yes. >> from obamacare. >> you guys took a wrecking ball to it. >> guys, one at a time. >> almost every candidate who won tonight won on one issue. >> let's talk about pre-existing conditions. >> david, you know that that is one paragraph in a 2,000-page bill. they ran on one -- the one popular thing in obamacare they ran on. the rest of it has been a disaster and the democrats are running away from tefr sievery single -- >> let's not rehash obamacare. >> i'm telling you what's going to happen. >> i think what everybody is maybe talking around is the idea that what voters are really saying when they talk about pre-existing conditions is that they feel a sense of economic insecurity when they think about the prospect of going bankrupt

as a result of having a pre-existing condition. now, that's a real -- i think that's a real issue and it's more than a line in a bill. that's a whole page. that's people's entire lives. that's when they think about -- it's a value argument. that's what i think could be potentially -- >> i hear you. but donald trump, when he campaigned for president, said he would never sign a bill without protecting for pre-existing conditions. he has never supported anything that eliminates -- >> wait a minute. >> you can say that other republicans -- >> his attorney general is refusing to defend the affordable care act in court. >> but it's a much bigger -- >> in terms of investigations from the democrats, i mean, where do you see them going? >> i don't see them going to health care. >> i mean tax returns. there's a lot of people that do care. "the new york times" put out this enormous year and a half long expose on the history of the trump family -- >> that speaks to the

cacophonous system, our media environment is so loud and noisy all the time with different trump headlines, and that didn't sort of cut through in a long-lasting way, which is why i'm skeptical about if his tax returns are released that somehow that's going to be a devastating blow to him. i think the bigger concern for the president is robert mueller may have his tax returns relating something to his investigation rather than the democrats in congress being able to get his tax returns and reveal them publicly. >> i also think there's going to be a fight if bob mueller does issue a report, and i think this could become a very important fight about whether that report is public. >> right. >> and whether the president will claim privilege on what is in that report because -- he's reserved the right to claim privilege for a lot of testimony although he didn't claim it at the outset for people who were working in the white house with him. and i think that's going to be a huge fight.

>> it doesn't require it to be completely -- >> you've been studying that. and they have a working group, by the way. >> but to the point that senator santorum made before, isn't there a danger for democrats that they just see this as payback opportunity and spend -- they blow a lot of capital and turn a lot of people off? >> i think there is the danger of going overboard. there's no question about it. but there's also a responsibility to play an oversight role. and they have to find -- they have to find the right tone, the sweet spot, and so on. they also have agencies beyond this issue which is going to take up a lot of space. but what is the epa doing? what are the relationships between that agency and some of the industries that are involved? in every area there are things going on that have just been unexamined that i think are properly subjects for congress to examine. >> a historic shift in congress. democrats taking control of the house as we've been discussing.

while republicans hold of course on to the senate. stay with us as we follow the outstanding races. there are still votes being counted that will decide the final balance of power and new projections ahead. oh good, you're awake! finally.

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welcome back. democrats, they take control of the house of representatives. republicans maintain control of the u.s. senate.

there are critical governor's races we're getting some projections on. nia, what do you see? >> that's right, wolf. we can start in iowa. the winner cnn projects here is kim reynolds. she of course is the incumbent, now winning a first full term, defeating fred hubble in that midwestern state. in idaho cnn projects the winner in that state is brad little, defeating paulette jordan in idaho. we can move on to? other projections for democrats. in new mexico cnn project the winner in that race is michelle lujan grisham defeating steve pierce. this is a pickup for democrats at this point. so some good news for democrats in that state, in new mexico. in minnesota cnn can project that the winner in this governor's race is tim walz defeating jeff johnson. and another projection cnn can make, the winner in oregon's governor's race is kate brown, defeating newt bueller there in oregon. now let's look at this. we talked about the pickups for democrats. four pickups so far tonight.

they of course came into tonight at a real deficit in terms of the number of governorships they had. they had 16. so four pickups tonight. but there are other outstanding races that we can look at. so let's go to those boards here. in a couple of states we've been watching so far. in wisconsin tony evers ahead still. this is tight, tight, tight, tight race. scott walker of course has been something of a teflon candidate. he's the incumbent in this race. about 89% reporting. tony evers clinging to a very slim lead at this point. in georgia another race we've been watching. brian kemp has had this steady lead, about 140,000 votes at this point. 99% reporting. hard to see stacey abrams making up that gap at this point. and we're going to take you back to wolf and dana. >> all right, guys. thanks very much indeed. it's very interesting. democrats will be in charge of the house. the republicans will be in charge of the senate. we don't know the final numbers yet. and that could be significant. >> it could be significant. first of all, how big the

republican majority in the senate is is going to determine how much they feel like they need to governor towards at least a nod toward the center. as we discussed earlier, the fact that susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska had slightly centrist views on some issues made it so republicans had to listen to them on occasion whether it had to do with delaying the vote on kavanaugh's confirmation, whether it had to do with the defeat of their effort to repeal and replace obamacare. but right now, with republicans picking up seats in the senate, they are not going to have to do that as much. if you want to call it a moderating influence, it is no longer going to be required. i don't know if we want to look at the senate board here. but right now if you look democrats -- of the key races we were keeping an eye on, kept west virginia. joe manchin re-elected. kept new jersey. menendez re-elected. republicans kept tennessee in

the republican file. kept texas in the republican category. and then picked up three democratic senate seats. missouri, claire mccaskill loses to josh hawley. north dakota heidi heitkamp loses to kevin cramer. and braun in indiana defeats donnelley. that's 51. let's posit that mississippi ultimately will likely go republican. who knows what will happen, but for the purpose of this exercise let's say that happens. florida, let's posit that the republican who is in the lead there wins and let's say arizona and the republican in the lead there wins. that's 54 seats. 54 seats. and that assumes that jackie rosen wins a very competitive race in nevada and jon tester wins a very competitive race in nevada. theoretically -- this is worst case scenario for democrats. but theoretically, republicans could win 56 seats. >> you know, nevada we still haven't seen any results.

>> not one vote. >> not one vote yet. and polls have been closed for a while. we're still waiting to see what happens. >> just to be clear i'm not politicking the republicans are going to win 56 seats, but everything now is gravy. and right now that's the strong end of where they are. just a bad night for democrats when it comes to the senate. great night when it comes to the house. >> it's interesting, dana, because republicans do fairly well in the senate, not so well in the house. >> exactly. you said gravy. it is gravy in some ways but in other ways not. every single one of these votes we've seen in the u.s. senate is so incredibly critical. and i think your point about the fact that the moderates in the senate on the republican side will have less power is really important. speaking of power, though, in the house we were just looking at the -- sort of the democrats who are likely to get gavels in the house. maxine waters, who has been a regular rhetorical target of the president's on the campaign trail over the past few weeks,

she's going to have one of those gavels. financial services committee. and one of the things she can do is use her power of subpoena, which she has, to get information from and about the president and from and about the president's cabinet that have not yet been looked at at all as republicans have been in charge of the house. >> look at this list. i just want to bring one name to the attention of our viewers, and that is congressman -- >> richard neal. >> richard neal at the end. >> richie neal from massachusetts who's been in there for decades. you've maybe never heard of him before. he is likely, likely to be the next chairman of the house ways and means committee. and why is that important? because that is the one house committee that will be able to get president's tax returns if he wants them. if he wants them. and if the committee votes to get the president's tax returns. richie neal. you maybe have never heard of him until now. that's a name you're going to know in the next few months. >> it's one of those -- it's an

example for those of us who roam the halls and you did for years as well of congress. you see him. you know him. he's been there for 30 years. he was elected in 1988, before you were born, jake. >> not quite. but okay. thank you. >> you're welcome. and he's the veteran -- the head of the massachusetts delegation because he's been there for so long. but he's not on tv. at least on national tv. he doesn't go out and sort of make a name for himself in that way. but he is a hard worker. and he's worked his way up the ranks in that incredibly important committee that is ways and means, the tax writing committee. and he's going to have a lot of power. >> he keeps getting re-elected from the state of massachusetts. >> access to the president's tax returns. let's put up that graphic again because i want to bring people's attention to a few of the other chairmen. so obviously this is just -- we're just projecting. we don't know this is what's

going to happen. but in all likelihood nancy pelosi will be speaker. jerrold nadler, very, very feisty democrat from manhattan, will be the chairman of the house judiciary committee. we assume. congressman elijah cummings, who's been the ranking democrat on the house oversight and government reform committee, he's been through republicans controlling that committee, darrell issa's tenure, trey gowdy's tenure, the benghazi -- >> so contentious. >> the benghazi investigation and all the like. now finally he will be able to be the chairman of that committee. and look right next to richie neal at the bottom right. adam schiff. zplun like richard neal he is on tv a lot. >> adam schiff is on tv a lot and he will be the chairman of the house intelligence committee, which used to be a very successfully bipartisan committee, and under devin nunes, who is now going to be in all likelihood the ranking republican, has completely devolved. and adam schiff is going to have a choice. is he going to try to bring the

committee back to what it used to be where it was bipartisan, where democrats and republicans would sign off on investigations together, what it was like under mike rogers, former republican congressman, or is he going to be as partisan for the democrats as devin nunes has -- was for the republicans? that's a choice the congressman, soon to be chairman adam schiff will have in front of him. >> you know elliot engle is going to be chair of the house foreign affairs committee. he's a feisty democrat as well from new york. >> he is. >> and adam smith, he's going to be chairman of the armed services committee. pretty feisty as well. >> that's right. but again, kind of going back to the future a little bit, on those national security committees both of those democrats have a history of working in a bipartisan way. elliott engel does, adam smith does on important issue. foreign policy and of national security. and it's hard to imagine them not doing that now. particularly eliott engel who's

been around a long time and has been waiting to get the gavel of a committee. but your adam schiff note is very important. it's going to be a question of whether he puts his money where his mouth is because he's been understandably very upset about how partisan the committee is. and it's still incredibly important, that intelligence committee. >> and obviously, the mueller investigation continues, and that's been something that soon to be chairman schiff has talked about quite a bit, wolf. >> i think we'll be getting some developments on that in the days ahead. how divided will the congress be with democrats in charge of the house, republicans leading the senate? coming up, new results in key race that's are still undecided. (vo) this is not a video game.

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democrats win control of the house of representatives. republicans maintain control of the u.s. senate. it's sort of a split decision over there. democrats pretty happy, though, right now about the house of representatives. >> certainly when you look at this map, in 2010, remember, the republicans took over the house in the first obama midterm. here in the first trump midterm the democrats take it back. you do see -- let's go back and see where we started the night. here's where we started the night. republicans at 235. democrats at 193. here's where we are now. we don't have the final numbers here yet. but we know the democrats will have the majority. right now they picked up 25 seats and they have, if you look at some of the uncalled races as we look at some of the races across the board, still opportunities, races here in maine that will pull away for us. races in maine, races in michigan, races in iowa, races in utah.

we're still waiting for california to fill in. republican incumbent rossi trailing in washington state. democrats have an opportunity. 25 or so now. to go higher. the question is how higher? they get to 35. can they start to approach 40? we'll see that as it fills in. there is a blue wave when it comes to the house of representatives. the counterbalance is a red wall when it comes to the united states senate. that is the mixed verdict of america tonight. the house going democratic. the senate getting more republican. the question is how much more. at the moment republicans leading there. they have flipped here. they have flipped here. and they have flipped here. now the question, after you go through all that, is can they hold here? this is jeff flake's seat. he is retiring. martha mcsally holding on to a narrow lead right now. just at 60% reporting. so we have a ways to go here. mcsally's been leading consistently. but you watch this one play out and you'll notice this one state on the map with absolutely no votes. they kept some polling places open late in nevada because of some long lines. they won't release any of the

results they already have in until that is all done and everybody has voted. any second now we should see some results here. again, republican incumbent, the most vulnerable republican senate incumbent is dean heller. the democrats are hoping, they're just hoping they have nevada and arizona. it has been a very they are hoping out west to get different news. otherwise, the republicans will gain, the question is how much will they gain? you can't see it on this race because it's a special election. i can get it for you here. this race is headed to a runoff. that's my guess, would be the democrat, you need 50 plus 1 in mississippi. this one is going to a runoff. everyone will tell you she will be heavily favored in mississippi. doug jones won in alabama, it's possible. the republicans will be favored there. you come back to the full senate map. i will bring you out of here. a blue wave in the house. a red wall when it comes here. and we go to the governors'

races. democrats are going to pick up governships tonight. they're disappointed they're not picking up that one. and they're not picking up that one. and they thought very much they would pick up that one. you have democratic gains in the governors races. we don't know how many just yet. we will count as it goes across. the democrats will be happy. wisconsin, they're ahead. picked up michigan. picked up illinois. that's going to sting. that's going to sting a lot. that's going to sting a ton. >> wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. those are three states that president trump won two years ago. >> the president likes to tell people, looking at the senate races, he will do more of this. i trust my instincts. when he flipped in 2016, he flipped this, he flipped this, and he flipped this. now, pennsylvania had a democratic governor. now that you have democratic governors across the board, it does matter when it comes to 2020. it comes to control of the state that is running it.

the democrats believed -- this is very significant, crishris kc losing in kansas. nobody is going to say kansas is going to go clu in 2020. it's good for the democrats as they try to rebuild at the state level. if you're democrats, you're thrilled. these have been republican states. even illinois had a republican governor. you're thrilled to change those. if you're talking about how big was the wave? did you leave any opportunities on the board? losing the ohio governors race, and losing it to mike dewine. >> i noticed that connecticut is red over there. >> see how that's turning out. that's been a close race. you watch it go through. 86% reporting. this is a big one for republicans, if this load holds. we'll see if it does play out. this is one of the races late in the campaign. republicans said, watch connecticut governor, see if we get surprised there. that would be a big deal, too. you think of new england is

blue, democratic, charlie baker, the governor of massachusetts, winning easily tonight. new hampshire, vermont, you do have -- >> republican larry hogan, as well. how did he do over there? >> 56% to 43%. you start seeing -- larry hogan, charlie baker, not trump republicans. trump republicans can't win up here. but there's a moderate wing of the republican party that's having success tonight. >> even in democratic states. >> and you have the moderate house members in the same region, getting blown out tonight. you get the house republican minority, in an odd way, will be more trumpy, than the house republican majority, because they're losing the moderates. >> yeah. the democrats are making some inroads among the governors. let's go back to the house right now. they have more than 218. >> they do. >> will they have 230 or 240?

>> here's the uncalled races that are potential pickups. they're uncalled and if they switch, would be switching parties. two republicans leading in districts held by democrats. this one would be interesting. there's surprises in midterms. but the democrats are winning big in the senate race. the former secretary of state in california losing at the moment. only 23% of the vote in. we have to wait and see as the vote comes in. that would be a stunner, given what's happening in the state-wide races in california. let's look. you're looking down here. one of the interesting things is, i watch this, 56 votes. i checked in on this a little while ago. this would be a democratic pickup, hill against knight, neck and neck, big target of opportunity. the interesting part down here, i'll stretch this map out a little bit is what you don't see. you are going to see, this is potentially democratic pickup

here. now, the democrat has pulled ahead in this race. veteran republican, been there for a long time. republicans are critical of him. 249 votes with 28% reporting. duncan hunter, who is under indictment, is leading in his race. democrats thought that could be a target of opportunity, even though it's a safe republican district. in san diego, duncan hunter, two republican members of congress under indictment at the moment. if you figure out how high can the democrats go, there's no question, democrats will be the majority. we're going to watch out here. we're watching the races out here. this is the love district out here, losing 71% of the vote, convincingly there. and you come out and look for more. we have no results in nevada yet. another interesting thing here, democrats are on track -- these are just the pickup opportunities. democrats are on track, if this holds, to pick up, if you pull out the full map, let's turn

this off to the house. one, two, three, of the four districts in iowa, which means a couple of flips. steve king, though, leading, in a race very late. the democrats sent some money thinking, can we flip this, after steve king's tongue got him into more trouble about immigration and the like. >> stand by for a moment. coming up, what will democrats do with their new power now that they're taking charge of the house of representatives? we're getting more on that as we stand by for late results and uncalled races. our election coverage continues.

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welcome back to our continuing coverage of "election night in america." i'm chris cuomo. look how much we've gotten through tonight and there's so far to go. what are the big headlines? you see right behind me, the democrats are in control of the house of representatives. by how many seats? we still don't know and we won't know for some time. the west coast is just starting to come in. john king is taking us through areas of opportunity on both sides. the senate, a big story there, as well. you see the gop making gains. how many? we don't know that, as well. we're going to check in with dana in a moment on that. one big headline that's 100% certain, what a night for women, especially