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 on the democrats'

side. you look at the house seats they've turned, women have been at the center of it. there's a developing story about the resurgence of military candidates coming out and making a difference in this race, as well. let's start with the senate. come over to dana here. there's some races that we have been watching. the numbers haven't been changing as much but haven't been called yet. this is the margin of change in the senate. >> that's so important. we want to look at four of the key battleground states that are outstanding. let's start in the state of arizona. this is an open republican seat. martha mcsally is trying to keep it in gop hands. it is very, very close. right now, she is ahead by a little more than 11,000 votes. the democrat, kyrsten sinema, trailing. florida, the republican, rick scott, the challenger, is hoping he can make it official and put this democratic seat in

republican hands and take it away from bill nelson, the three-term democratic incumbent of florida. 99% reporting, we're going to watch that closely. now, let's go on to montana. we haven't looked at this state in a while. this is another one of those republican turf states. a trump state. one that has become personal to the president. he went out there several times to campaign against the democratic incumbent, jon tester. so far, pretty much all night, he has been ahead. it's a narrow lead. a little more than 3,000 votes, but he is ahead of his challenger, matt rosendale. let's go to maine. maine is an interesting case because angus king is an independent. he caucuses with the democrats in the democratic column. he's ahead by a wide margin but only 17% of the vote is in, which is why we're waiting to see if it's going to stay in

angus king's column. i should say, nevada is out there. we haven't gotten any votes back from nevada. that is one of the seats that the republicans, dean heller, is trying to hold on to. i want to go down to nia to talk about the governors' races. >> let's look at wisconsin, a race we were eyeing all night. it's still, tight, tight, tight. 6,200 votes separating the democrat, tony evers, from the republican, incumbent, scott walker. 93% reporting, a really, really close race. in connecticut, some good news, and a possible flip here for republicans. bob stefanowski is up 28,000 votes over ned lamont. still some votes to be counted there. that could be a pickup for republicans. in georgia, another race we're watching, brian kemp up 100,000 votes at this point, 51% to 48%.

stacey abrams, a candidate so closely watched here. oprah campaigned for her. president obama campaigned for her. she, at this point, is trying to make some history tonight to become the first african-american woman governor. 99% reporting, pretty wide lead for the republican, brian kemp, at this point. they are still counting votes in georgia. this has been a contentious race. we'll keep an eye on it and bring you votes as we get them in. we'll hand you over to chris. >> thank you very much. let's talk about what the big takeaways are so far. you were right, guys. you said, especially you, david, it's going to be a long night. we have to see which way it goes. we're waiting on some things. to bring people up just starting to get into the coverage now on the west coast, what do you see as the big headlines so far tonight? >> well, i think the big headline, obviously, one of the houses of congress has gone, now, to the democratic party.

and trump is waking up to a new world order in washington and for his presidency. how that happened is as baig he big a headline, which we saw, in the suburbs across this country and independent voters across this country, two parts of trump's winning 2016 coalition have abandoned him with gusto. >> which two? which two they are. >> suburbs and independents, those two groups. and obviously, this is such a female-powered victory for the democrats, in terms of the candidates and in terms of female voters who delivered this majority, in many ways, for the democrats. >> we're seeing that the party, the republican party, has transitioned fully under president trump. to david's point, to build it out for people, it will be a surprising narrative, you switched collars, you have gone from white to blue. you have switched college. you are trading college-educated

people to noncollege educated. you're going from cities. they lost 67% of people 18 to 29. that's a big bloc. all of the areas of the country that is growing, the republican party is moving away from. >> we're seeing the republican party transform under trump from the traditional, we saw the values they had, to now. even on trade, so many different aspects of what the republican party used to be is changing. one big question and thing we focused on is what it's going to be, how much of a pain it's going to be for trump to have democrats in control of the house. it's a risk for conservatives. president trump could abandon them and make a deal with democrats. we saw that when he met with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer last year. that is something that is a risk for them, i think. they have transformed their party to fit donald trump.

and he could abandon them in a heartbeat. it's not that so far out to say, with when the democrats are here, that president trump could make a deal with them. >> anything is possible in the new normal. nancy pelosi said the american people want peace and bipartisanship. eliza cummings said, we want his taxes. he won't sit on that committee with authority. on one side there's an open question of concern. on the other hand, there's a question of comfort. this cushion that's developing in the senate, dana, that means confirmations areprocess. they don't have to worry about murkowski and collins in the same way. >> that cushion is huge. it absolutely is huge because not only is it going to give the president a lot more breathing room, and mitch mcconnell more running room, on confirmations, not just for his cabinet but

other judicial nominations that could be coming for the next two years. we don't know. the federal bunch below the supreme court is one thing. that's a huge thing. it takes away the power of the moderates. not only on the republican side because susan collins and lisa murkowski are not going to be the kingmakers. but also what you've seen is a loss -- loss after loss after loss of moderate democrats. so, there's going to be even more partisanship, even more gridlock, potentially, in the u.s. senate because the middle is shrinking even more, in a place where you need those centrists to make deals to get anything done. >> a strong point. it's interesting to see what's happening with king up in maine. obviously, that's one of the states that you put it at the disaster kit to have here in the notebook for what to do. king is one of the figures you're talking about.

somebody who can breach both sides. we'll see if he makes the cut tonight. >> politically that pad in the senate, represented something we learned tonight, also. trump, has the ability to get his folked jazzed up in his base. that's not norman rockefeller's party. >> not at all. >> he has an attachment to his supporters, where he went to hang on to the senate or pad it, he was able to do so successfully, even while he was bleeding the voters that creates a democratic house. >> is that trade-off worth it? is it worth it to go and focus on the senate because the democrats did win the house, as he was being hold by white house officials, this is likely this is going to happen. he didn't want it to be seen as a rebuke of him. he made that clear in the last few weeks, saying i'm focused on

the senate. is that focus on the senate going to be worth the trade-off in the house, having adam schiff as the chairman, the subpoenas. the party he's demonized for weeks has the party to subpoena. so many problems they are going to be facing in the next few months. >> the president was working on having called convenience. he had a shot in the house, he concentrated in the white house. you're going to see a sharp focus from the new people in charge of the house. what that means, we'll have to see, that's a calculation from the democrats, as well. is the party wanting one thing? a lot of questions follow from tonight. we're still in decision mode. let's get over to nia. you have a projection in a governor's race. what is it? >> that's right, chris. history in south dakota. kristi noem the first woman

elected in south dakota, defeating billy sutton. about 16 women ran tonight, she's one of the winners. we go to the map here. you see democrats have four pickups tonight. they came into the night at a deficit in terms of the governorships. republicans were very much at an advantage. you see tonight some republican holds. in florida, princfor instance, republican hold. in ohio, a republican hold. you have a map here that looks good for republicans in some key battleground states. and you have flips, as well, for democrats. michigan, for instance, that was a pickup and a flip for democrats. you look at illinois, that was a pickup and a flip for democrats. pennsylvania, that was a hold for democrats. but listen, they came into the night, democrats did, really wanting to have six pickups. they got four so far. now, we go to georgia. this is a race we've been watching all night long. brian kemp still up, about a similar margin, about 115,000

votes ahead of stacy abrams eyn that closely-watched race. and tony evers, about 3,000 votes over scott walker, the incumbe incumbent. such a closely-watched race. it's 0.1%. 94% reporting. we're going to keep an eye on this one. back to chris. >> thank you very much. we just got a projection in a governor's race, and the house races, as well. what do we have? >> one of the fascinating things, you mentioned this at the beginning, what we're seeing in the house, is the number of women. and it is now at record numbers, absolute record numbers. let's look at a couple of examples. abigail spanberger, she is a fascinating character. she was in the cia. she beat the republican, dave

br brat, that took down eric cantor. she is an interesting female character. and also, let's go next to abby fink finkenauer. she is going to be one of the youngest representatives from the state of iowa. what we've seen in the past several months, alexandria ocas ocasio-cortez. she beat a long-serving member of congress. in this case, it was a fellow democrat, joe crowley. she is 29 years old. she is going to be in the new class of young women serving in the house of representatives. and here's another new face that we're going to see in the halls of congress, sharice davids. she is the first native american to serve in the u.s. house, female, and that's pretty remarkable, given the history of this country, that it's taken this long for that to happen.

>> and you're seeing, checking so many different boxes. obviously, gender as women, coming forward, really bailing out the democrats in this. if they don't have the women in these races, you don't see the results you have tonight. the age is really relevant. some of them are first, historically, within their own state. when you're talking about finkenauer, and spanberger, in iowa, they have jodi ernest. finally now, iowa, the heartland, they have their first female congresswoman. now, you have to figure out what kind of democrat they're going to be. that's going to be a developing narrative. there's no reason to rush through the implications when we don't know the projections. but what is the democratic party with the new flush of talent that they owe a lot to for winning these races? it's going to be a developing narrative. let's go over to the board and john king to see how this shapes up. we're all looking how the democrats would take over the house, what it would mean. but this woman wave for them

mattered in a lot of different places. >> matters in a big way. let's look at the big picture. election night 2016. hillary clinton wins the popular vote and donald trump wins the presidency. this is a blue wave, when it comes to the house. the democrats on the ballpark, 35 seats, maybe more, as we get the west coast results. 40 was considered the ceiling. democrats, just want to show this. that's a blue wave when it comes to the house, right? look at this red wall when it comes to the senate. one, two, three, four flips. that one is not finalized. rick scott is ahead down there. these three are done. four flips. at the moment -- at the moment, they're holding arizona narrowly. and the first results, while you were talking, the first results came in. no results in nevada for a long time. they had lines and they didn't want to release results until they were done. these are republican areas coming in. democrats are desperate, looking at the western senate seats,

where they have female candidates, as well. they're desperate, hoping the senate math gets better. that would be a plus four if that holds. now, another disappointment, nia just talked about this. democrats came into the night thinking they could pick up six, maybe eight. some democrats thought even more governorships. republicans are leading in connecticut. republicans won ohio. republicans won iowa. this is a disappointment for the democrats. they're plus five right now. that's a disappointment. >> let's talk about why for a second. i was watching the coverage. excellent, as always. it was interesting to see, when the governors came up, why are we doing this? i care in my own state. the districting that happens at the state level within legislatures, the presumption being that the governor has sway. they have to deal with the legislature, and in the weeks to come will play out the processing of legislatures across the country. how big a difference, john, has it made, that republicans made those gains, flipping thousands

of state legislatures? >> during the obama years over 1,000, state senate seats flipped when republicans had 30-plus governors. they had republican legislatures and the ones that didn't, used the veto pen or said they would. one of the reasons the democrats, we talk about them winning seats, 40 was about the ceiling. you see all of the seats lost, 66 in this year, 60 in that year, 50 in that year. you can't compare it to the clinton map or the george w. bush 2006 map. you can't do that because there's so many more clearly republican-drawn districts. to your point, this is a disappointment without a doubt. democrats will be happy if they hold wisconsin. they pick up illinois, a blue state with a republican governor. imagine this is your neck of the woods, connecticut. if the republican holds on and wins for connecticut, that's a surprise for democrats. >> bridgeport is not in for

connecticut. it has a different set of demographics. >> absolutely. i want to get back to what you were talking with dana about. democrats on the ballpark of 35 seats in the house of representatives. you say what's the factor to the women? let's put this away for a minute. this is the 2016 map. let's come out here and go through our things here. 61 democrats, 23 republicans. let's come down to 2018. leading, 83 democrats, 17 republicans. these races are not all done. but looks like the number of women in the house on the republican said, go down, the democrats go up. that's one way to look at it. your democratic numbers coming up, some of the districts are democratic districts. but the female democratic candidates are coming in with new blood. let me add in the races that flipped. democrats needed 23. of the 21 races, 21 of the races they're flipping tonight, that could go as high as 35.

but you need 23 to come into the night. these aren't done. >> you have women in play out there. >> women in play. you have -- you're going to get close to what you needed just with the younger women, new candidates. no question. there's a year of the woman dynamic. can you find a few missed opportunities? of course, you can. if you're nancy pelosi, this is what you've worked for for a long time. this is a big part of the democratic story. disappointment of the senate, and disappointment in the governors' races. they're happy because of candidate recruitment, to a large degree, focused on women military veterans. >> we're processing how much and how many and who does it across the country, focusing mainly on the left. you look at this map and you see the red and the blue. it seems from 2016, confirmed in 2018, our electorate is a story of divergent americans and they're moving in opposite directions. that seems solidified of what we're seeing tonight.

i don't see a coalescing of norms. i see the opposite, from the house and the senate to moving in different directions. to why and where, we're moving apart. >> we're moving apart and redrawing the map. you mentioned this in your conversation with david. this house map is a rebuke of president trump in the american suburbs. that's how george h.w. bush, george w. bush, and ronald reagan, they won the suburbs, and not anymore. that's where the democrats have a stronghold. republicans, the rural states, that's republican. the map is changing. a realignment of voting groups if you look at the map. i want to show you something. focus on the blue here. democrats are coming back some, if you look at the house map. go all the way back. here's the last democratic majority, after obama wins big. democrats get 257 seats. look at the blue. it's everywhere. the democrats are winning just about everywhere. here's what happened in the tea

party election. the blue disappears. you have the next tea party election, more of it disappears. you have the area where the democrats have it on the coasts and the demographics. look at the areas very red. some comeback. some pieces of comeback for the democrats. still largely happening on the coasts, democrats will be happy about the midwest tonight. not with the governors' races. they'll be happy with pickups here. you have to catwatch, there's a couple of stunners here. how are the democrats winning on nobody's map. you look at the democratic map, at least now, you have some representation from some parts of the country, where yesterday, you had known. >> people are looking like they're not there yet. let's bring in harry. you're looking forward for us. what do you see?

>> my polling is showing that democrats will pick up 228 seats for 270 republicans. it can go higher than that. we can look at the best case for the democrats. that will work. that is winning up to 239 seats, which would be a net gain of 40 on the evening. one historical fact, the last time we had this configuration, a republican president, a democratic house, and a republican senate, was tall way back in 1986. >> okay. montana senate. all right. harry, thank you very much. i'm listening to you, i'm listening to more information coming in. we have the montana senate. >> it's flipped. it has flipped. 59 votes. >> 59 votes. >> that's 55% reporting. you see a lot of rural areas for the state of montana. again, this is the democrats were trying to hold on to this. i was showing you, could they get to 55, that would be the plus-four.

of all senate races, this is the most personal to the president of the united states. let's see if it helps. tester has been leading throughout the night. matt rosendale pulls ahead. you are starting to watch this. tester won a close race. not a lot of change in the map. the question is, you pick democratic areas here. jon tester how is he doing? 53%. go back six years, about the same. just start to go through this. as you go through the map, you see tester underperforming or is rosendale overperforming. tester at 64. go back in time. tester at 64. it's filling in. he had a close race last time, all three-points. 3 1/2 points. now, trailing. this, again, you look at this

map, this is one of the democratic incumbents. the president won the state by 20-plus points. this is a tough state for any democrats, white rural voters becoming more and more republican. the president becoming more popular. we'll see again. so many close races tonight. montana, 59 votes. check in on arizona, 11,000 votes. but still, 60%. we'll see what happens there. if this map holds um, this is very early. arizona is moving along. montana is moving along. what is america saying when the democrats take the house, when 35, maybe 40 seats. the ballpark, 35, 38 seats. and republicans pick up three, four, maybe five. >> okay. >> that is a mixed message from a divided country. >> all right. we've had developments in georgia. watching that governors race.

the campaign managers came out and gave new information. let's get that. what did they tell us? >> chris, this is not ending soon. that was a declarative statement that stacey abrams' campaign manager made on the stage we hind behind me. this is headed for a runoff. the scenario meaning that neither abrams or brian kemp could take a majority. neither would get the 50 plus 1 they would need to win outright. there's three factors that would leave them to believe this at the late stage of the race. nearly all votes are outstanding, the votes that haven't been counted, they believe to be in democratic strongholds. they believe that absentee ballots, tens of thousands of them, have not yet been counted. they believe more of those votes, cast by abrams' voters. they have received reports of

20,000 absentee ballots in gwinnett county and 25,000 in kolb county that have not been counted. they believe an unknown number of provisional ballots were supposed to be counted today, by georgia voters. shoddy election administration, by brian kemp, their republican opponent, who as we know, is the sitting secretary of state. the controversy over his perceived conflict of interest has been at the center of this campaign. the top election official, running for the top job. stacey abrams called for him to resign. there was a lawsuit in federal court to put a temporary restraining order on him to bar him from staying in that role. should there be reason of further oversight of that election. the abrams campaign saying they believe this election is headed for a runoff. >> we have two issues that have come up.

the first one is just the ugliness of the politics there. it's just not easy to have the person in control of the election in a state, which is almost always the secretary of state, running in that race, as well. we saw that with chris kovac in kansas. he lost to brian kemp. was there voter suppression or not? that's having a shadow over that race. now, the provisional ballots, that is argued by abrams as an outgrowth of arguments by kemp and how this race was handled. that was getting ugly. let's test the theory that the campaign manager has, this is going to a runoff. what's the threshold for a runoff? 50% plus one vote. >> you have to get him to 50. some of the math we can do here. but there's an important distinction. provisional ballots, they're not going to be here. that's someone who shows up, this is not your polling place, you say, it is.

fill out this provisional ballot, we'll fight about it later. if the race is so close, the two parties come in with the overseers and they rule them in, rule them out. there's usually lawyers involved. number two, there's missing absentee ballots. they're not going to show up here because this only gets the count. this is where the lawyers will be involved because kemp is the secretary of state. is there still votes out yet to be counted? votes cast in voting machines. fulton county, the biggest democratic base in the state, 83%. there's ballots out here. and stacey abrams is here, winning convincing in fulton county. she's winning with 72%. are there enough ballots to knock him down with ballots? if you're talking about provisional ballots or absentee ballots they haven't counted, hanky panky, that's a courtroom.

that's a courtroom. automatic recount would come -- a runoff would come -- but even then, if he falls below, there's going to be ballots out there, too. the first challenge is knock him below 50%. abrams campaign says that's not right. there's some ballots that haven't been counts or absentee ballots they can't track down. that's what they say. in terms of the secretary of state is saying, even though stacey abrams wins big here, the state is saying, we're done here. that's a lawyer issue. over here, 83% of fulton, just want to go quickly. 100, 99, 100. i look at this, because i've done this once or twice before, that's going to be a lawyer issue in the morning. >> if you go on the straight map effect of, we only know what we show, that will be a legal fight. >> how many? what are we talking about here?

are there enough votes just there to knock them underneath, lawyers. >> we're not going to decide a legal battle tonight. let's take a quick break here, control of the house and control of the senate, have been decided, but by how much? there's so many high-profile races that are too close to call. we have president trump facing a new day, here in washington. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪

welcome back, election night here in america, or election morning. we're paying attention to a lot of the races. a lot of them have not been decided. we're looking at wisconsin, the governor's race. you can see tony evers holding on to a very slight lead there. neck and neck. and then, actually, the arizona senate race, martha mcsally, 12,000 votes ahead of her opponent. we know a couple things here. we know that democrats will take control of the house and republicans will take control of the senate. you can call it a blue wave or a red wall if you want to. a lot of folks here talking about that, raring to go here on the set. i want to get your impressions. let's be honest here, this was the night, i think, of the woman. am i wrong about that? >> no. you're totally right.

a record of women in congress. women will be one-third of the democratic caucus. and the previous record was in 1992. there were 24 new women in the house. right now, we're at 26. we can get more women than that. it's all kinds of women. we have the first muslim-american women, first native american woman. we have people who served in the military. it's a big, big night for women. >> mark, you know, we talked about this earlier when we weren't on the air, a win is a win. if you look at georgia, look at florida, and you look at texas. you have a young person in texas, a woman of color in georgia and a man of color in florida. three red states where they almost flipped those states. what does that say to you? >> i think it says that democrats have dynamic candidates. they had a strong field there. i look at the overall picture, there has to be an appreciation

of how historic a figure nancy pelosi is. to be on the precipice of the speakership is monumental to her, too. >> did you just give her props? you were a long time beating up on speaker pelosi. leader pelosi. >> she's not the speaker. >> there's 11 incumbent democrats who would not vote for her for speaker. and 45 nominees that said they would not vote for her. i'm acknowledging i think it's historic. to the question you said here, today, as you keep asking, that trump has driven the suburban voters away, the best way to bring them back is the least popular political figure is nancy pelosi. >> here's the thing. the nrcc ran 15 ads in swing

states and 14 of them targeted pelosi. you turned her into this boogieman but she's still standing and the democrats have taken over the house. >> stacey abrams is coming up behind me. she's coming up to the mic. there she is. we want to listen in to stacey abrams. let's listen. >> love you, too. [ crowd chanting ] >> thank you. thank you so much. love you, too. when you chose me as your democratic nominee, i made you a vow. in our georgia, no one would be unseen, no one is unheard and no one is uninspired. [ cheers and applause ]

but we know a vow takes effort. it takes commitment to hold truth. reaching out, reaching across is hard work. as i told you then, hard work is in our bones. and we are proving this every day, georgia, with doors knocked, with miles traveled, with prayers prayed to the highest heavens. and tonight, we have closed the gap between yesterday and tomorrow. [ cheers ] but we still have a few more miles to go. hear me clearly, that, too, is an opportunity to show the world who we are. in georgia, civil rights has always been an act of will and a battle for our souls.

[ cheers and applause ] and because we have been fighting this fight since our beginnings, we have learned a fundamental truth, democracy only works when we work for it. when we fight for it. when we demand it. and apparently today, when we stand in lines for hours, to ma meet it at the ballot box. that's when democracy works. i'm here tonight to tell you votes remain to be counted. there's voices that are waiting to be heard. across our state, folks are opening up the dreams of voters in absentee ballots and we believe our chance for a stronger georgia is just within reach. but we cannot seize it until all voices are heard. and i promise you tonight, we're going to make shoo that every vote is counted. every, single vote. every vote is getting counted.

i'll tell you this, in a civilized nation, the machinery of democracy should work for everyone everywhere, not just in certain places and not just on the certain day. but what lies on the other side of our efforts, our best lives are within reach. fully funded public education in the state of georgia. medicaid expansion. and raising family incomes without raising taxes. every georgian that we have touched along the way understands the power of the vote. and i will tell you, this election has tested our faith. i'm not going to name names, but some have worked hard to take our voices away. to scare us away, to distract

us. but our vision is clear and we see the finish line. you have inspired me every, single day of this campaign. i know what you sacrifice to make your way to the polls, to volunteer after work on lunch breaks. and i know that you put your faith in me. you'll do it again. [ cheers and applause ] georgia, you put your faith in me. but i want you to know tonight, the feeling is mutual. and i want you to look around. tonight should be all the proof you need, that when we put our faith in the great people of the state, there is nothing we can't accomplish together. this fundamental truth is why we fight on. georgia still has a decision to

make. a decision between division and trickery. or a leadership that defends your rights, your kids, your career, your community and your right to vote in america. that's what's on the ballot. now, to all of georgia's voters, including the 1.2 million who haven't shown up before, welcome aboard. but i want to say this, if i wasn't your first choice, or if you made no choice at all, you're going to have a chance to do a do-over. [ cheers and applause ] i need you to know that it is my mission to serve you, to serve georgia, to make you proud. and those that didn't pick me the first time, to change your mind about me and what we can accomplish together. you see, i learned a long time,

we don't need to agree on everything. but i will always respect you. and i will do everything i can to keep you safe and help you live your best lives. that's what leadership requires at this moment. and it is how we breathe life back into our republic when it seems to be shallow of breath. to everyone who has already poured your precious time and energy and hard-earned dollars and your love into this campaign, i say thank you. and i urge you to stay with us. because georgia -- [ applause ] friends, friends, we are still on the verge of history. and the best is yet to come. [ cheers and applause ] because this is not about me. it's about us.

it's about our voices. say our voices. >> our voices. >> it's about our votes. say our votes. >> our votes. >> it's about our time. say our time. >> i our time. >> our voices. >> our voices. >> our votes. >> our votes. >> our time. >> our time. >> we are georgia. we are georgia. we are georgia. say it with me. say we are georgia. >> we are georgia. >> we are georgia. >> we are georgia. >> we are georgia. >> we are georgia. >> so, let's get it done. thank you so much. [ cheers and applause ] >> stacey abrams, down in atlanta, georgia, a city i know too well, after living there for seven years. it's an odd mixture of -- it seems an acceptance speech and a closing argument. we have the analysts here and will talk about that. an interesting thing. she is refusing to concede. we'll talk about that after the break.

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election night in america, and we are back. you saw stacey abrams in atlanta, refusing, refusing to concede, and saying these are the factors they believe are outstanding. outstanding votes, provisional ballots, and given the three issues, they say this is headed to a runoff. symone sanders, a good strategy?

>> i think it's a great strategy. look, in order to win the g's race you have to be at 50 plus one. when it's this close, a little over 115,000 votes ahead, if i was stacey abrams' strategic communication director, absolutely this is what we would be doing. you also saw stacey go out and fire up the crowd. april was saying she is taking them to church. when this does go to a runoff, stacey abrams is going to need these folks that got so fired up that they came out in droves, stood in long lineses in the rain to turn around on december 4th and do this again. and she needs this exact same level of turnout and a little bit more if she wants to eek this out. this has to be the strategy, because there have been so many irregularities, given that brian kemp, who is the current secretary of state, has been overseeing this process, and it falling on him that there are not enough ballots a the polls that the machines weren't ready. this is what you do. >> she is down 150,000 votes. there enough votes to do that? what is it, 50 plus one?

>> it remains to be seen. what we just saw her do, she had to do, for a couple of reasons. one, you can't give up, as symone says when you are that close. but even for the democratic party when we've seen such an outpouring of support from african americans, from hispanic candidates, for her to go out and concede, especially when we just saw andrew gillum just a couple of hours ago really go down in a race that most people thought he was going to win. so i think stacey abrams had to come out and give that speech there is a lot of questions about the secretary of state and his actions in office. and, look, she's going to live to have another day and to see if these votes -- >> but she only has to get him down to under 50%. >> it has to be 50 plus one. so if it's 50 and not 50.23, if it's 50, there is a runoff. >> go ahead. >> thing is such a -- it's such an important night in terms of the diversity of voters that came out across the country, just looking a the exit polls.

and i think that especially the young voter, all of the young voters she was speaking about for the first time, it's historic that it potentially go on. >> it's beyond history. let's look at the issues that happened today. stacey abrams is one of those who had to tell people, stay at the polls. there were long lines there was not adequate equipment there. things were happening. the naacp. >> right, right. >> kemp. >> kemp had a problem when he was voting. >> yes. but the vast majority problems were happening in the black communities. and the naacp had to even step in to ask for extended time, et cetera. this does not bode well when your opponent is in charge of the elections process and did not recuse himself. so she has a right to do this. we are now sitting in a time where we are not having voting rights enforced. we don't have voting rights anymore. it's gone. >> considering all the

consternation, congresswoman, are you surprised to see this? because voter suppression, there were accusations of that. there were several lawsuits there was even one filed tonight. are you surprised that this is the outcome? >> i'm not at all surprised there is litigation. i predicted that. >> but refusing to concede. >> i don't blame her for not conceding, but i don't think the outcome is going to change. with the absentee ballots and the mail-in ballots, they tend to break the same way as the machines. she has to get a lot more votes in order to change this outcome. i don't see it changing, although i think she is right not to concede. they should count them all. >> but can you imagine, though, let's just imagine the scenario. there is a runoff in georgia. now what? >> one more month. >> a lot of money. >> she is smart -- the congressman's point, she is smart to buy herself a little bit of time. >> there is no clock that says you have to concede by x tile. >> absolutely. wait. see what happens. see what the absentee, see what some of the provisionals look

like. but symone makes this important point, the runoff is not far away if it does happen. so you have the run through a two-tier stretch. we have to try to get as many votes as we can. but in the event that we get what we want, we got to be ready. two and a half months from now, it's less than a month from now. so i'm with the congressman. i still think it's hard. barring large scale irregularities, places not counting them finding a lot of votes, which is always a possibility, i think it's hard. it's not as hards that number necessarily presents, because to your point earlier, don, it doesn't have to go from 51-48 to 50-49 for her. she just has to bring him down. but these things, she is right and well within her rights to take her time and not concede. i'm skeptical based on the history of stuff like these provisionals, absentees. usually they tend to break, broadly speaking, similar to the vote that you see.

>> what's been usual about this? >> that's true. >> unprecedented attempts to suppress the vote here in georgia. i mean, i think so much has happened over the last couple days. but brian kemp accused the georgia democratic party of hacking the voting -- of hacking the database. just not what, two days ago. so i think there is also something to be said here about the lawsuit was filed this evening that brian kemp needs to recuse himself and step down from his position as secretary of state. the integrity of this election isn't in question in georgia. this is not fair to the voter, regardless of the side of the aisle you sit on. >> what do you think of the possibility given now that she is refusing to concede that he actually recuses himself that brian kemp recuses himself? >> that is hard to believe. i don't think that happens. she has every right to allow the process to play out, and she should. you have almost 4 million votes. to get a 1% means a 40,000 net

vote change. not 40,000, but a 40,000 net difference which is substantial. >> don't you think her story, kirsten encapsulates what we see throughout the country here? you see in suburban areas, in rural areas it is a story for the republicans. most of the votes that she got, and i assume she had to get some white votes. but it's pretty close. she encapsulates what's happening in the country. >> but i also think even let's just say this is where we end up with these numbers, it's a victory of sorts for her, because this is kind of incredible that she's even gotten this close. so let's remember this is georgia after of all, and this is an african american woman whose pretty progressive running in georgia. so i think that she has run an incredible race. she's worked really hard on turning people out and was very successful in that. >> can i just go just quickly -- >> i got to go. >> very quickly, i want to do, this because it's the point of the suburbs. in the exit poll, 62% of the

vote in the georgia governor's race came from the suburbs. kemp, 57. abrams, 42. she won urban areas 68-37. she lost rural areas by 17. >> republicans are ahead, but democrats still may have some hope here. we'll explain, coming up. this place isn't for me.

that last place was pretty nice. i don't like this whole thing. i think we can do better. change is hard. try to keep an open mind. come on, dad. this is for me, son? principal. we can help you plan for that. [ disa[ gulping ]unts ] uhh. how much emotional eating have i been doing? [ wimpers ]

that's hurtful.

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welcome to our continuing coverage of election night. some really big headlines tonight. the democrats have regained control of the house. you have the republicans extending their lead in the senate. how much on either side? we don't know. i'll take you through one at a time. on the house side, if we put out the numbers, we're 209-195 right there. the most important number is the one at the bottom of the screen. 31 seats remain, okay? and those are mostly out west. some of the races are just too close to call. we'll be staying on them. what could that ultimately mean? you can see the democrats up another 15, 16 seats. what do you want to call the wave? what do you want to call the red wall on the senate side? a lot of that is semantics and political spin. the reality is the picture of this country is pretty clear. we have divergent groups. that's the headline not to be cynic cynical. it's just the reality. on the senate side, we're