high interest in kentucky as well. in kentucky that senate race between rand paul, the tea party favorite, the son of ron paul, the republican congressman from texas who ran for president in 2008, and jack conway, who has been struggling in kentucky to see if he can beat rand paul. all of this is going to make for a fascinating, fascinating political story in the united states. cnn now projects that rand paul, the republican candidate in kentucky, the tea party favorite will become the next united states senator from kentucky beating jack conway. you see 4% of the vote in kentucky has now been counted, but based on that, based on the exit poll numbers, based on other information, we are projecting rand paul, son of ron

paul, the congressman, is the winner in kentucky. you see that check. we project he will win. we also project in indiana not a huge surprise the former senator dan coats will become the next senator from indiana beating brad ells worth. he can succeed evan bayh. that represents a pickup for the republicans. we project a winner in vermont, patrick leahy re-elected for another six years. this is not a huge surprise. his opponent was widely expected to lose. we also project jim demint who is a favorite of the tea party movement will be re-elected for another six years in south carolina. he beats alvin green. he was the candidate who came out of nowhere to get the

democratic nomination in south carolina. jim demint will win. look at the actual votes that have already come in with 5% of the votes in indiana in. you sedan coats. we project he's the winner. 54% to brad ellsworth. he has only 5% in, but based on the exit poll numbers right now, we project that dan coats will succeed evan bayh in the united states senator from indiana. in kentucky these are actual votes counted in kentucky. rand paul we project will be the next u.s. senator from kentucky. he has 55% to 45% in the early balloting, in the early counting that's going on in kentucky. rand paul will be a big winner in kentucky. let's go over to john king. he's got the latest balance of power, because we see a shift. >> we're starting to see a shift, wolf. let's bring up the senate races. these are all the senate races

on the ballot tonight. you made the kentucky and call in indiana. the red states are head by republicans entering the night. indiana was held by a democrat entering night, and the balance of power shifts. this is where the balance of power stands into the night. 59 democrats and 41 republicans. here's what's on the ballot tonight. as you see, indiana now in the republican column. kentucky will stay in the republican column. we go further in this scenario and project based on the polls and consensus of our analyst that florida will stay republican, arkansas will stay democratic. based on what we know so far and what we project so far, this leaves toss-up states. the democrats led comfortably in california at the end. let's project they hold that seat. the democrats are leading comfortably at connecticut in the end. this is a hypothetical. now what do you have left? one, two, three, four, five,

six, seven toss-ups and the republicans at 44 under the scenario. as confident as they are they get the house tonight, if those two races go the way we think they'll go, republicans have to be perfect. 7 for 7 in the remaining toss-ups to get to 51. that includes president obama's old seat in illinois. if you're in illinois, this is a hypothetical we're having here. wisconsin, same deal. the republicans are confident there, but this is a competitive contest. for this hypothetical we turn this one over. even if the republicans get those two seats, 46-49. one, two, three, four, five big races including harry reid's race in nevada. a close race in the state of colorado. a fascinating race with a popular democratic governor of west virginia, wolf, running neck and neck. even though manchin is popular, people wonder if they want to send him to washington. i can play it so many different

ways. there are even reasonable scenarios, wolf, that get you to 50/50. which means the vice president joe biden will spend a lot of time on capitol hill. >> as vice president, he's president of the united states senate. you can see how the balance of power is changing in washington at the bottom of the screen the republicans needed a pickup. that pickup of 10 for example to become the majority, they picked up one in indiana. they need a net pickup of 39 in the house of representatives. we're getting the results of various house races on the east coast. that number will change over the next minutes and hours. you can always monitor what's going on there and watch and get more information at cnn.com as well. fascinating night, anderson. already starting with a pickup of one for the republicans. it was expected in indiana, but the democrats i'm sure are getting nervous. i don't think they're very happy

evan bayh decided to retire. >> we have more polls closing at 7:30 eastern time in ohio, west virginia, and north carolina. we want to talk to supersize members of the best political team on television here. the gang's all here. what are you looking for, elliott, tonight? what is your cheat sheet here? what should viewers at home look for? >> first of all, turnout. do the angry voters actually show up? do they swamp the polls? those that send a visceral scream of anger to washington saying you do not understand us, our anxieties? what we see in indiana gives us the beginning of a message, the answer is yes. in kentucky rand paul. not a surprise in kentucky. president bush got 59% and john mccain got 57%. that state goes clearly red, but if we see a surge of that angry tide of voters, forget it. the democratic party will not survive in either house. my guess, they hold on by one or two in the senate and lose the house big-time and we have a

fundamental shift of area. >> candy, the polls don't close in nevada until 10:00 p.m. eastern time. we have heard turnout was low. how do you read that? >> the problem is everybody looks at it. you heard jess say they think they're shift workers and after the shift is over, they will vote. you would assume that those union workers would, in fact, vote democratic, but they've -- you know, the reid camp said there were so many democrats who used absentee balloting or went for early voting, but you can't assume that all the democrats went and voted for harry reid. you could assume some of them did. what we've seen over time is that a lot of these democrats are angry. so assuming that just because there was a huge democratic vote going into it, that those are going for reid, is a fairly big assumption. >> you're seeing turnout that's decent from the midterm, the latinos. they're projected it to be a

million more latinos voting this time than the last midterm elections. could help harry reid or have an impact on races where immigration is either on the ballot or has been discussed in the race. >> i want to hear from other folks at this table. what are you watching for? >> 2008, was america ready for a black president and in 20 x we ready for an orange speaker? there's a movement out there. candidates will matter. they will. it is a republican state, but rand paul showed extraordinary resilience as a candidate. he was opposed and had a difficult interview starting out as a general election candidate. then he had the scandal about his college pranks and apparently wins in a landslide. >> bill. >> first of all, i love the music. john adams, isn't it? very tea partyish, good idea for cnn. i'm looking at the numbers.

is it anger? there's some anger. people say when republicans and independents go for republicans, it's anger. when they go for democrats it's change. i think they were angry at bush. i think this is about change as well as anger. these early states will tell us a lot. i agree with john. >> james, what are you watching for? >> i'm watching west virginia. i think connecticut is okay. if either connecticut or west virginia go republican, we're going to have -- the democrats have a long night no matter what. >> joe manchin has been so popular. >> you also are scratching up against losing nine or ten senate seats if you lose west virginia. if you keep west virginia, the mass starts working more in the democratic favor. i don't think the democrats can afford to lose either west virginia or connecticut. those are the two i'll be watching closely. i hope we win pennsylvania. i think in projections you can afford to lose that. washington state is later in the night you're going to be looking closely at. >> polls close in west virginia in 20 minutes eastern time.

i was going to bring you results as soon as we can. mary, what are you watching? >> the indiana results were interesting. obama won that state. that was one of the new blue states, he won it by 1%. the margin coats got should help with the three bellwether seats. they won on conservative principles. they'll swing back to republican, and the state is going to swing back to republican. it's those kinds of dynamics that will change the dynamic in washington, not these individual states if -- i hope we do well in west virginia. there's a governor with 80% approval. that's not a bellwether the way i understand is the bellwether it is presumed to be. >> donna brazile. >> i'm going to watch illinois. i'm going to see if the obama coalition returned to the poll or voted for the republican party. i'll look at the republican parties to see if it's a mandate or a little shift in voters'

preferences. i'll look at the tea party margins in terms of comparing it to the regular republican margins. >> eric. >> look at indiana nine. as soon as that comes up, thats hill's district. he's a democrat in a district that john mccain won with 50% of the vote plus three voters. he voted for health care and the stimulus. he's been awol in the district since then. if the republicans pick him off, irng you'll see the shift and definitely very early tonight you see whether or not the republicans get the house. >> it's like having 13 political rainmen here. >> you just step back, it's such a bad environment for the democrats. the just holding on to the senate tonight will seem like a major victory for them. two years ago barack obama was at 62% in the polls. "time" declared the republican party all but extinct, and look at where we are now. the voters have not gotten what they asked for. >> i'm looking for the first and most important thing. does the house switch sides?

that rarely happening with a first term president. it's very important if the republicans take the house. if they take it in a big way, that's more important. it's a story. >> is that a question whether they'll take it? >> i don't think we know yet. >> i think we know. >> so far the two senate races we've seen, indiana and kentucky, have fit the polls if anything republicans have done better. so it does suggest a wave is coming, but i don't think we ought to lose sight of how important it is that the house switches sides. >> i think we kind of know that it's going to be -- that the house is going to the republicans. i think that's pretty clear. i think what's interesting is it going with the tea party republicans or establishment? >> or both? >> what we see with randz paul, obviously, this is a tea party victory. actually, demint is a tee party victory. he switched and aligned himself with the tea party folks himself. dan coats is very much an

establishment figure, even though he's sort of slipping in with what "the new york times" called an honorary virgin, meaning not -- he's not an incumbent. he has lots of experience in the senate, in the house. there's several of these who will be elected most likely but who are used to working within washington and used to being -- know how the deals are made. tharnt going to necessarily have to deal with the tea party to the extent that i think people have thought. >> is anybody else curious to see how many votes alvin green gets. >> i went to the state fair and he wasn't campaigning. >> let's put out another number, 60% of the public says the nation is going in the wrong direction. that's your most critical bellwether measure. the public is and i know bill doesn't like the word angry. the public is angry. they're saying we're fundamentally upset with the way this nation is going, economics,

politics, foreign affairs at every level. i think the house will go and be a seismic shift. >> we have a lot more ahead. obviously north carolina, ohio and west virginia, polls closing in about 20 minutes. we'll bring it to you live. be right ba being. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975.

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in from florida for the u.s. senate. let's take a look. with only 1% of the vote in florida in, marco rubio is way ahead with 68%. charlie crist with 19%, and kendrick meek, the democratic candidate, only 12%. this is very, very early, as you can see. only 1% of the vote in for the governor's race in florida, only 1% in. rick scott the republican is ahead by 2,900 votes, 5,380 to 2,408. 67 to 30%. it's very early in florida. all the polls in that state don't close until the top of the hour. we've already projected that rand paul is the winner in kentucky, 13% of the vote has now been counted in kentucky. he's got 56% so far to jack conway, the democrat, 44%. in indiana we've also projected that dan coats, the republican, former senator and now future

senator, 8% of the vote is in. 56% for dan coats and only 39% for brad ellsworth. it looks like an uphill struggle for the democrats tonight. >> it's uphill when it comes to the house. most republicans and most democrats have told you the house is gone. the battle for control of the senate. as we watch the results, here's something i want everyone to watch at home. this is the presidential map from 2008. the blue states are the obama states and the red states are the mccain state. remember this area in here, from pennsylvania, ohio, across the midwest. the rust belt has been good to the democrats in recent years. the democrats expect to take a pounding including in house contests tonight. take another step. let's erase this a little bit. we go to current. here's the state of play into the night in terms of house races. i'll bring up pennsylvania for a minute. the key republican targets are the blue democratic districts right there.

remember that one and this one up here. let me go back in time now. watch these districts right here. we go back in time to 2008 to the democrat primary. these are hillary clinton areas. one of the reasons republicans are confident tonight is they believe president obama and the democrats have lost the faith of white, blue collar working people. they backed hillary clinton in the primaries. let's fa fward to 2010. let's go to the state of ohio. a similar dynamic plays out. let's bring up the races here. this is where we are entering the night. democratic district here and another democratic district here. all targeted by republicans tonight in the state of ohio. again, we'll turn off the telestrator and go back in time to 2008. what happened in those areas in the democratic primaries? i turned them off. i'm sorry. i go back to them here, they're here, and they're here. obama did carry down here in the cincinnati area, but again, right across this swath right here where you have smaller town, rural white collar workers, hillary clinton

territory. one of the things the republicans are targeting tonight are the areas where john mccain did well in the presidential election but also where hillary clinton did well in the presidential primaries in 2008. that's a weakness of this president. wolf, that's where they believe the anti-health care and anti-spending and essentially too much liberalism in washington is a message that sells. we watch it it as the polls close early in early states. >> nine minutes when the polls close. some more states 7:30 p.m. on the east coast. north carolina, ohio and west virginia. west virginia, john, is going to be a critically important state for the democrats if they're going to hold john onto their majority in the united states senate. they need joe manchin to win in west virginia. >> it's a touch race for joe manchin. this is a state had al gore won west virginia in 2000, he would have been the president of united states. he did not carry west virginia. that's when it started the

shift. joe manchin was a popular governor and was a popular candidate. people say i love joe manchin. i don't want him with the liberal big spenders in washington. it could be the crucial race. if joe manchin holds onto west virginia tonight then the republican math of getting a majority in the senate, is not impossible, wolf, but almost. >> stand by. we'll come right back to you. i want to put more results that are coming in right now from indiana. take a look at this. in the second district in indiana right now 8% of the vote is in. and the republican candidate, jackie walorski is ahead by 56% against joe donnelley, the democratic incumbent. we'll see if that's a pickup in indiana for the republicans. these are the -- part of the cnn 100 most competitive races we're watching. 91 of whom are controlled by democrats right now. also in indiana we're watching

this contest in the eighth district, larry buchson and trent van haaften is ahead. in this race, this is a really important race. it could showed us a trend. 15% of the vote in indiana, baron hill the long time incumbent congressman from the ninth district in indiana. right now he's behind to todd young, 54% to 41% for baron hill. if hill loses and that vote changed -- 19% of the vote now in 55% for todd young, the republican challenger. the incumbent democrat baron hill with 40%. it's early, but john, it's showing a trend that these democrats are in trouble right now in terms of the house of representatives. >> exactly right, wolf. this is a defining state, a defining early state in the fight for the house. this is the results coming in so far. except for the capital,

indianapolis, you see a lot of red on the map. this is early. all three of the house races are key targets. this is the district that left vacated by brad ellsworth. he just lost the senate race. it's a conservative area here. this is the baron hill district right here. 54-41. republicans consider this a bellwether. if they get this district, they're on the path to getting 45, 50 or more seats nationally. if they lose this sdrikdistricts a tougher night. this is a handful of races republicans are watching around the country. this is a test for us. if we win this district in indiana, we'll have big numbers across the state and across the country. the other one is up here. this is the donnelley district. this is the district right here, congressional district two. joe had a relatively easy race last time, but the republican candidate in the early count right now, 56% to 39%. we want to emphasize these are

early. you see the county data filling in the map. in these early states we see data come in, wolf. those indiana races are targeted by republicans. the hill district considered their bellwether district there. watch the results come in. it's not that they're just in indiana, it's the small towns and rural areas and past election campaigns. the republicans know they close early and are studying those. if they pick up three in indiana, they're on their way to a huge night. >> less than five minutes now until the polls close in three more states, north carolina, ohio and west virginia. he'll see if we can make projections. we have coverage continuing of this special day in the united states. we'll be right back. he [ beeping ]

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you're looking at live pictures from broward county in florida. they're actually counting ballots right now. they're counting absentee ballots and early voting ballots and ballots cast today. all of us remember what happened in broward county back in 2000 and in palm beach county and miami-dade county. there were serious problems in the gore versus bush race, but they're going through methodically counting those ballots in broward county. it's fort lauderdale, hollywood, florida and other communities in south florida. we're watching that very, very closely. we're only about 45 seconds or so away from 7:30 p.m. on the east coast where polls will close in three more states. in north carolina, in ohio, and in west virginia. we're going to see what's going in those three states.

remember, we never make projections until the polls are closed throughout the state. we don't make projections if there are polls open in the state. at the bottom of the hour in a few seconds i think we can make a projection, maybe more, we'll see what's going on specifically in ohio. this is a state the president has already visited 12 times since he came to the white house. stand by. we're getting ready to make a projection. all right. we can project that rob portman will become the next united states senator from the state of ohio. he beats lee fisher. he's the lieutenant-governor. this is the seat that georthe republican has held. he's retiring after two terms, so it will stay in the republican column. this is not a republican pickup, but rob portman, he was the budget director under president

bush, special trade representative as well. he's coming back to washington as the united states senator from ohio. another republican wins in ohio. we cannot at this point make projections in north carolina or in west virginia. north carolina and west virginia, we're still going through numbers, going through exit polls, going through other information. we're watching west virginia, a very closely -- some of the raw exit poll data -- i want to explain carefully what this is. we together with the other television news networks and the associated press, we went to all -- a lot of these polls across the country, polling stations and asked people as they were emerging after they actually voted a series of questions. there's a long questionnaire. one of the questions being who did you vote for, and it's not precise by any means. it's still, very, very early but it shows a little bit of a trend. based on early, raw exit poll data information, we can get a better appreciation of what's

going on right now, and this is the first time we're showing this raw exit poll data on cnn. joe manchin, who is the governor, the governor of west virginia, he's ahead 52% to 45% over the businessman john raese. this could easily change. this isn't all the exit poll data. it's some of the exit poll data that has come in. it shows a 52% to 45% lead for joe manchin. he's been a very popular democratic governor of west virginia. this is the seat that's long been held by the late robert byrd. if joe manchin does manage to hold on and keep it for the democrats, it would be significant that it would not be a net gain for the republicans. let's go to anderson cooper with the best political team on television. i want to stress, anderson, this is raw exit poll data. it could clearly change. it gives us an indication of what's going on, but it's not conclusive and can clearly change. >> we're only showing it because the polls there have showed. >> joe manchin is extremely

popular, but as a united states senator elt not help the white house get the agenda through. he's run against the white house on energy, on coal, on health care. he's suppose who -- >> who hasn't? >> he shot the bills. he put out a campaign commercial in which he shot with a rifle. >> it's one thing to win as a democrat, and it's another thing to legislate like a democrat from the white house. very different. >> if joe manchin were to lose, this would be evidence of a huge, huge wave, because barack obama is so unpopular in the state of west virginia. he may not. it looks like he may not. >> if manchin should win, it's not evidence there won't be a wave. >> exactly. >> i think the other thing that comes up with manchin's position on some things, is when you talk to republicans, how do you deal with the pea party people? aren't they their own inside the republican party? listen, the democrats coming

back have been running against some of this stuff, to there are coalition possibilities when they come back in january. >> if manchin wins, to go back to james carville's point, it's significant. it it means the republican don't have a chance to pick up the senate. it is a significant race. if you look overall at what we've seen so far, the wave seems to be bigger in indiana than we anticipated. rand paul is running above the polls. those three congressional races that john king looked at were running well in the republicans' favor. it it lolooks like you could ha big wave and not get -- >> it may mean people are voting straight republican in that state, right? >> president obama only won indiana by 1%. what was the driving issue in indiana in 2008? the economy. it's no shock in 2010 it's the issue there. he spent time going there talking about manufacturing jobs and how to bring jobs back to that kind of state. it's not surprising you would see if the economy is the most

important issue you would see this vote take place in indiana. >> look, i think in history if every time the house changed the senate changes with it. there's been no instance where somebody picks up 10 senate seats, which the republicans have to do. we have a historical conflict going on here tonight. but, you know, if the democrats lose six, even seven senate seats, then it's going to translate into not the 70 house seats but more like 50. it's going to be some correlation here between the two. it is interesting, because we have two historical facts that are at odds with each other here. >> do you put much faith in the exit polls you saw in west virginia? >> the exit polls honestly have been very pro hich democratic in the last cycles. every time we get xil polls, the democrats gets excited. >> as one democrat who experienced the exit poll blues

back in 2000, do not put hope in the exit polls. >> they claim they've gotten better at it. when you look in the paper to understand this, when you see the exit poll tomorrow, it's 100% accurate because it is adjusted for the actual turnout and the actual vote. so the exit polls at 6:00 or 7:00 may not be. >> how many of these joe manchin democrats are there running against president obama? >> i think you've seen probably more -- you've seen more ads of democrats campaigning with pictureses of george bush than barack obama here across the nation. >> it's not about -- >> it's barack obama's policies. they're repudiation of barack obama's policies. >> it's a repudiation of an economy that is not growing jobs. >> i understand the economy is the most important issue, but why do people not want to be associated for nancy pelosi? because she's responsible for the economy? they don't think so will. an even number of americans

think george bush is responsible for the economy as barack obama. it's the policies they don't like. i hope democrats keep missing that point because we'll get more in 2012. >> 53% of voters dislike republicans as well as democrats. i think republicans are once again overreads the results and not looking at that people want jobs. >> the media tries to make this about barack obama because he's famous and we know his name and all that. as mary pointed out, he carried indiana by less than 1%. looks like the republican will win there. he lost by 14 in kentucky and the republican wins there. he lost west virginia by 16. they hate barack obama. he lost a general election in a landslide, and it may be that the democrat wins there. he broke with obama on cap and trade, but he didn't run as the most anti-obama guy in west virginia. that was the republicans' job. >> bobby brighton in alabama

made it clear he's not voting for speaker nancy pelly. he's highly critical. he thought black voters would turn out from him. dissing the president not doing well with black voters here, but this is what happens when you have conservative democrats and trying to get them re-elected. it's difficult in this climate to think you'll win. it's no surprise you see them running away from the president and speaker pelosi. >> the issue is you have a number of races around the country where you have democrats distancing themselves from pelosi and barack obama. were this 2006, paul would say it's a referendum on george w. bush. this year it's not a referendum on barack obama. when you look at the exit polls, this is a referendum on everybody. people hate washington, d.c. right now they dislike it. >> in 1994 you earned a spot and everything was a spot. every democratic candidate

morphed into bill clinton. now he's the most desired person on the campaign trail. i understand after 1994 the democrats won the popular vote in three out of the next four presidential elections. this is one election that has an electric right. it's a time when the economy is not good. i would be careful about reading too much into it in who gets morphed into what. >> remember the prediction of 40 years of unbroken democratic rule? remember that prediction? somebody made that prediction. >> we've won the popular vote in three out of the last four elections, four out of the last five. i think if you took the 2012 election, we'll do pretty good. by the way, the republicans are less popular in exit polls than the democrats. >> wolf, take it right now. >> at the top of the hour in 20 minutes or so, 15 states plus the district of columbia will close, including all of these sta

states from alabama down to tennessee with a lot of states in between. all the polls will be closed in florida, massachusetts. big part of the country will already have their voting done at the top of the hour in 20 minutes or so. let's look at florida right now. what's coming in. we can't project any winners in florida yet. all the polls in that state won't close they say until the top of the hour. but for the florida senate race with 17% of the vote now in, 17% of the vote in florida in, you see marco rubio with 50%, charlie krist with 29% and kendrick meek with 20%. marco rubio with 17% of the vote in. he's ahead. for the florida's governor race it's much closer. rick scott the republican with 51%, and alex sink the democratic with 46%. a difference of 38,600 votes.

you can see about 700,000 ballots have been counted in florida. we're watching the counting going on in broward county right now. you can see some of the new he technology that was brought in. we hope they fix the balloting, the counting in florida. it's very, very important that they get it right. a lot of us remember what happened back in 2000. let's hope no more hanging chads in florida this time. much more of our coverage coming up. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility

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the house democratic leader shim there in washington. nancy pelosi the speaker, chris van how lynn is trying to get democrats elected to the house of representatives. we expect to hear from nancy pelosi the speaker of the house. once she speaks, we'll bring you the remarks live. we're getting closer and closer to the top of the hour. jim demint has been re-elected beating alvin green. he will speak shortly and we'll monitor what he's saying. he's one of the leaders of the tea party movement across the country, increasingly influential in republican circles. we're only 14 minutes and 40 seconds or so away from the polls closing in 15 states plus the district of columbia. we're waiting to see will we be able to make a projection in connecticut, for example.

richard bloomen that will and linda mcmahon. can we make a prediction in delaware? in pennsylvania we're anxious to see if we can make a prediction there, joe sestak and toomey. there's a lot of states closing at the top of the hour. we'll know if this is a wave, tidal wave, tsunami or nothing? >> we're watching results out of west virginia. >> i want to get back to the question of whether this is a referendum on president obama. nobody wants to say anything critical about him, so we'll say we love president obama. >> wait a minute. >> it is a referendum on his agenda. it is clearly a referendum on his agenda. if you look at his approval rating, in january of '09 he was -- had a 75% approval rating. people loved him. if you watch as his approval rating declines, every inverted peak corresponds to a specific

agenda item. to the stimulus, to health care. i think this is very clearly -- >> this is an exit poll question. who is most to blame for the current economic problems. here's the answer? number one, wall street bankers at 34%. number two, george bush at 29%. >> the question is do you like barack obama doing, not who is to blame for it? you vote on is he doing the right thing to correct it? >> they don't blame obama for the economy. they blame him for everything else. >> that's not the point. >> it's sort of off the point. it's true people blame the wall street bankers and george bush, but how do you get out of it? barack obama has come forward with a series of proposals which the public hates. they don't like them. conservatives don't like them and republicans don't like him and independents don't like them. cnn's last poll on health care, you had 47% of the american people saying get rid of it, repeal it. 27% are happy with it. this was forced down our throats. >> do you think president obama

gets that message, paul? >> we'll know tomorrow when he has the press conference. the you-6 ratiu-6 rating for un is 17%. 1 in 6 americans are out of work entirely or barely hanging onto a job or have given up entirely. that's what's driving this. they may or may not like health care. when one out of six americans is looking for a job, they're mad at the party in power. >> they don't think his way is going to make more jobs. >> they also don't think the republican way. here's the deal. what they're voting on, hey, flip at coin. anybody can fix this. >> i think it's better. >> i want to show the viewers what's going on right now in washington. nancy pelosi is about to speak. >> we cannot go back to the same failed policy that is got us into this mess, and we cannot turn the congress back over to the special interests. that's what the speaker has been fighting for and what the president has been fighting for

and that's what the volunteers right now all over this couldn't have be country have been fighting for and that's what steny hoyer has been fighting for on issue after issue after issue. i'm very proud to call him my friend. >> we're going to wait until nancy pelosi starts to speak. >> i want to pick up on what george was saying. when barack obama took over we're lugsing 700,000 jobs a month. we're now creating job. the public is so angry until that rate -- paul was right. when luyou look at the real numbers, it's 17%. the policies of george bush drove us into this. >> they understand that. >> what the president is doing is, in fact, fixing it. it takes four or six years. >> they understand that. i think the american public does not blame barack obama for the economy. they're angry at him for everything else.

they didn't like the stimulus package. they didn't like health care reform. they understand that the economy was bad. >> every republican, every conservative who is running against the stimulus, go to them and say name the dollars going to your state or district, the project you want to cut. their answer is nada, nothing, zip. that is the hypocrisy of the republican party here. >> voter, you don't understand. >> there are other views here. listen, eliot, it is true. you can argue the economics. but this is about what's happening in this election. what's driving voters. and if you think that they're not driven by the fact that the stimulus program -- we spent over $800 billion. we were promised 8% unemployment. we are well over 9% and have been stuck there. if you can passing health care in the teeth of public opposition didn't fuel -- >> david, that's why -- and i will say it. i said to david axelrod in the

middle of the campaign, do not bring in larry summers or tim geithner. you'll doom your presidency. you'll look like the status quo. and that's what they look like. >> we have to get in a break. >> they passed financial reform. >> we have to take a break. our coverage continues. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ cadillac cts sports sedan. top-tier status edmunds.com. right now get this attractive lease offer on a cadillac cts sport sedan. ♪ cadillac. the new standard of the world. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it.

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under six minutes now until the polls close in 15 states and the district of columbia, including in connecticut, delaware, florida, all the polls in florida will be closed. pennsylvania, missouri, we're watching all of this. we'll see if we can make projections at the top of the hour. let's go to florida right now because we're going to take a look at actual votes that are coming in from the state of florida. actually before we go to florida, we'll listen to nancy pelosi.

she's speaking in washington, d.c. i think she's still speaking. let's been in briefly. >> i thank all of you for what you have done. these hundreds of thousands of volunteers are our vips, our volunteers in politics. they are the guardians of our democracy. they are saying that this election will not be bought by special interests, but will be earned by convincing the american people and convince them they will that we are -- have taken the country in a new direction under the leadership of our great president, barack obama, we have taken the country in a new direction. we are not going back to the failed policies of the past. we are fighting for the middle class. thank you for being part of that fight. i join our distinguished majority leader, steny hoyer, in

calling upon people to get out and vote. he has been so much a part of advancing this agenda as people are walking precincts, every step they take, advances agenda to improve the lives of america's working families. let's go out there and continue to fight for great democratic victory. thank all of you. onward to victory. >> that's nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, at least for now. we'll see if she's still the speaker of the house when the new congress is sworn in. right now, the democrats face an enormous struggle in maintaining that majority in the house of representatives. the republicans need a net gain of 3 o9 out of the over 400. if they get that 39, nancy pelosi will be the former speaker of the house. john boehner will be the next speaker of the house. the long-term republican congressman from ohio. let's take a look at some of the votes still coming in.

all the polling stations in florida will be closed at the top of the hour. but right now with 25% of the vote in, many of the polls closed in parts of the state at 7:00 p.m. eastern and almost an hour ago. right now, marco rubio is significantly ahead with 25% of the vote. he's got 51.1% to charlie crist, 28.4%. kendrick meek, the democratic candidate, 19%. you see marco rubio doing very, very well in florida right now. on the gubernatorial side, this is a much closer race between rick scott, the republican, alex sink, the democrat. with 22% of the vote in in florida, rick scott has 51.5%. alex sink, 45%. scott is ahead by 82,827 votes. it's just changed. scott, 55.1 to 45% for alex sink. almost 85,000 votes ahead for

the republican candidate. relatively early. we don't know which precincts, which parts of the states the percent of the ballots counted are coming in from. 2 1/2 minutes -- less than 2 1/2 minutes until the top of the hour. maybe we'll be able to make some projections. anderson, it's going to be exciting at the top of the hour. >> no doubt, a lot of exciting states to come up. at 8:00, what are you hoping to see? >> we're flowing past some important things going to this previous conversation about blaming bush and all of that. rob portman winning in ohio, a state that obama won by 4 1/2 points, a big bellwether state, the anti-bush narrative would have applied to him. that race was 50/50 going into it. blaming bush, it was a significant victory.

and that, i think, will be -- that and the indiana seats are more telling than the west virginia seat or even the exit polls at this point. >> especially by the fact that the president has spent a lot of time in ohio. >> we're looking at pictures of jim demint. obviously victorious tonight. >> that was a tiny race. >> let's listen in for about a minute. >> thanks for coming out. i really don't know what to say. but, folks, thanks so much for not just tonight. so many of you have been with me for a number of years now, been behind me. so many of you have told me, keep fighting, we've got your back. it's just exciting to be with you here tonight and see what's happening not just in south carolina but all over the country. i want to first thank my wife and family, debby is here with me. debby is here. tim and marcy and craig and

ginger and the rest of the family, the grandkids are out in the audience here. those are the ones we're fighting for. gresham and natalie, thank you so much. hopefully you can take over when i'm gone if you're still interested in the job. i appreciate a lot of my finance chairs here who helped raise money all over the country. it's been really, really important. and, folks, i've had some great staff, i don't know you know them all -- >> at the top of the hour, cnn can now make projections in important race. let's go to delaware first. cnn projects that the democratic candidate, chris coons will be the next u.s. senator from the state of delaware beating christine o'donnell. everyone remembers christine o'donnell, the candidate who said she was not a witch, she is not going to be a united states senator, at least for now either. chris coons, we project the winner in delaware.

in florida, cnn projects marco rubio will become the next united states senator from florida. marco rubio coming from out of nowhere beating charlie crist. marco rubio will be the next united states senator from florida beating kendrick meek and charlie crist. in new hampshire, the republican candidate kelly ayotte beats the democratic congressman from new hampshire. this is an important race for the republicans. they wanted new hampshire. they will now have new hampshire. this is a significant race. we cannot make projections in these states as of now, important races under way. we don't have enough information on exit poll numbers or on actual ballots counted. connecticut, illinois, missouri, oklahoma and that key battleground state of pennsylvania. we're watching all of that.

we can project in the state of maryland right now as expected, barbara mikulski will be reelected easily in the state of maryland. coming back to washington for another six years. and in alabama, richard shelby, easily reelected in the state of alabama. richard shelby will get another six years in washington. let's take a closer look at some exit poll data. these are raw numbers, raw exit poll data. we'll start in connecticut. remember, this is not determinative. it gives us a sense of what's going on. in connecticut, richard bloomen that will, the democratic candidate, 57%. 42% for linda mcmahon. raw exit poll data. in illinois right now, look at how close it is based on this raw exit poll data. alexi giannoulias, 47%ment mark kirk, 47% in illinois as well.

doesn't get any closer than that. this is the seat that president obama held until he became president. in missouri right now, the long-time congressman roy blunt is ahead in the raw exit poll data 53% to 43%, robin carnahan, the democratic candidate. pat toomey, the republican congressman from pennsylvania, 51%. joe sestak, the current congressman, the retired u.s. navy admiral, 49%. these are numbers that we get as a result of questionnaires we give people who actually emerge from the voting booths. we ask them a whole bunch of questions about their background and everything else. one of the questions we ask is simply, who did you vote for? and they tell us. let's go to cnn's john king. he's over looking at what's going on. john, give us a little sense of these projection we've just made and the bigger picture. >> i want to give you one more

projection as well. cnn ready to project that a democrat will win that house seat in delaware. john carney is the democrat held by republican mike castle. we have said all along it is a plus 39 for the republicans tonight. now it is a plus 40 in the sense that they just lost that seat. they need a net gain of 39. they've lost that seat. they need to pick up 40 democratic held seat. i want to show you a couple of very interesting things. we pop out the state of virginia, you see all this red right now. watch this red, excuse me for stepping across. i'll show you where we began the night in the state of virginia. the blue are democratic districts. i'm going to take this off. right now in that district, tom perriello is losing. this is a key republican target. if those numbers hold up, the republicans will be pleased. rick voucher, a veteran democratic congressman now losing as well with about half

of the vote counted. if those numbers count up, over to indiana, this is how we're counting the vote right now. these are the congressional districts as we started the night. you see the democratic districts down here. republicans are leading in two of them. those are the big targets. if you look as this so far as we count this out, look at virginia, indiana, what we're seeing early in new hampshire, you see the building blocks of the republicans on their way to a majority. we're beginning to see the map fill in in a way that makes the republicans more and more happy. a lot of counting left to do, though. >> john, thanks very much. soledad, you were talking about the latino organizations in florida. >> they're polling how latino voters are voting. 62% of latinos supported rubio. when you look at the numbers of latinos who supported barack obama the last election, that's a very interesting switch. republicans have put a lot of money and effort into getting out the latino votes.

democrats as well, but they've realized that their failed immigration reform efforts have hurt them with latinos. so it's interesting to see how that really paid off for rubio. >> interesting to see nationally how latino voters go in this election. >> absolutely. >> out of florida, would it have been different had this deal been done -- would charlie crist have won if meek had dropped out? >> no, i don't know. it's hard to say. i think older voters have turned against democrats, barack obama, as a result of health care reform. they're afraid of medicare cuts. there's a big voting bloc in the state of florida. so it's really hard to say. also, it was quite late. and the response to that is backroom deals. voters don't want backroom deals. they don't want it. i don't think it would have helped. >> i don't think the dynamics in that race changed very much because of that. i think it was a done deal before that. i think charlie crist might have survived had he not hugged

obama. that symbolically became that moment that was captured later on. but to go back to soledad's point, for the republicans to have a hispanic -- a latino leader coming in, this kind of star power is a big coup for them. they have to try to win more of the latino vote and rubio is going in that direction. >> if you look at 2004, george bush won 56% latino vote. then it went to obama 57%. >> paul and bill? >> he's already -- if the exit polls are right, he becomes the united states senator, he'll be on everybody's short list for the republican vice president. if they can cut into that, it's enormous. he's got a great story to tell. >> he's a star and there's more to come. if brian sandoval gets in, susanna martinez gets in.

it's a different kind of republican party. >> the interesting thing, notice what soledad said. the democratic party is being held accountable for not passing immigration reform absolutely correct. the reason it couldn't get through the senate, the republican party wouldn't let it go anywhere near the florida. i think the tension is going to be, will the republican party modulate on that issue. it will have to to hold any of the latino base for 2012. >> that's where republicans are going to have to deal with this whole notion of immigration reform because, look, you can say rubio goes out there. but if you have more republicans from a policy standpoint take the same position they've taken for the last four years, they're not going to get those voters. >> i would caution against reading too much into returns because the latino vote in florida is heavy cuban which tends to be much, much more

republican than other latinos. i would be careful about extrapolating -- >> florida to florida -- >> i wanted to mention as a democrat that tonight south carolina is making history. they will send the first african-american, tim scott, to the congress. the first african-american republican since reconstruction. i wanted to give the republicans -- republican, south carolina -- i'm giving republicans just a little shoutout. i'm not giving a lot of love tonight. >> they don't know we're going till 3:00 a.m. you're bursting with energy now. but patience, patience. we want to check in with what's happening in delaware. chris coons beating christine o'donnell. wolf? >> let's check out the situation in delaware right now. we projected that chris coons,

the democratic candidate, will be the next u.s. senator from delaware. this is the seat that was held by joe biden for a long time till he became vice president of the united states. christine, o'donnell, the tea party favorite, loses in delaware. gary tuchman is our man in delaware right now. he's over at christine o'donnell's headquarters where it's probably pretty sad and somber over there, gary. >> reporter: it's a very interesting scenario. we don't think most of the people who are here in this ballroom at the dover downs hotel and casino know about the projections. the projections flashed across the screen here. but the audio was down. some people saw the screen. most of the people don't seem to know just yet. what we can say is christine o'donnell has certainly done better than she did in her two previous tries. she won the primary surprisingly

over michael castle, the republican who is currently the congressman here who is now out of public office after three decades. now she's lost to chris coons. we anticipate people here will know pretty soon. but it's not our job to tell them. they'll find out from some of the speakers and christine o'donnell will take the stage and will deliver what we anticipate will be a speech. >> we'll speak with the chairman of the democratic national committee. and much more of our coverage right after this. [ k. tyrone ] i'm an engineer. my kids say i speak a different language. but i love math and math and science develop new ideas. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough

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we'll see if blanche lincoln, the incumbent democrat, can hold on and get herself reelected. the polls in the past few weeks said she was in obviously deep trouble. let's take a look at some of the races that we have, taking a closer look at. some gubernatorial governors' races across the country, we haven't made any projections yet. in ohio, ted strickland, the incumbent, is ahead with 8% of the vote in. 53% to 43 wers over john kasich. in florida, a close contest. 36% of the vote has been counted. the republican, rick scott, ahead of alex sink, the democrat, 50% to 46%. in south carolina, only 3% of the voet vote in. vincent sheheen slightly ahead by 105 votes over nikki haley, the republican gubernatorial candidate.

30,000 votes have been counted so far. in texas, rick perry, the incumbent, with 7% of the vote in. 64%. bill white, the former mayor of houston, 34%. still early in texas. the polls throughout the state there don't close until the top of the hour, 9:00 p.m. but they've closed in parts of texas already. let's talk about what's going on right now with the chairman of the democratic national committee, the former virginia governor, tim kaine. governor, thanks very much for coming in. >> you bet, wolf. glad to be with you. >> are you happy, sad, disappointed, thrilled? describe your emotions for us right now. it's still very early in the night. >> yeah, it sure is. the main thing is voting is still taking place all over the country, especially west. and we think we're going to have close races all the way out to hawaii. so the main thing i'm still doing is encouraging anybody who hasn't voted to turn out because what we're seeing, there's still a lot of races we think are going to be razor thing both

statewide races and congressional district races certainly. so it's really important for folks who still have the opportunity to vote to get out. and then in terms of results, we just saw the first democratic pick-up in the house, a projected win in delaware for lieutenant governor john carney winning the seat vacated by mike castle to run for senate. that is a positive for us. and that is our scenario, wolf, while most are saying it's doom and gloom for the democrat, our scenario all along has been the republicans are going to win a number of seats. but there are a number of seats we think dems will pick up. delaware, one or two in florida. louisiana, hawaii, illinois, suburbs of chicago we've got a great shot. that delaware race is one we were watching very closely. >> we're looking closely at three congressional races in your home state of virginia. three democratic incumbents, tom perriello, voucher and conley.

i know you're looking at these three races. this could be potentially in virginia three republican pick-ups. >> those could be tough. but right before i got on the air, i was looking at the county-by-county breakdowns in those districts. in the voucher district, i noticed the county with the biggest population, montgomery county, which traditionally performs pretty strong for democrat, had not shown up with any reported numbers yet. in gerry conley's district, the numbers there are very early. these could be close races. but we feel like where the votes are coming in, charlottesville still to report in tom perriello's district which will be strong for him. we think each of those three are going to win. >> what about florida? marco rubio, we've projected he's the winner in florida beating the democratic nominee, kendrick meek, the congressman from florida, and the governor of florida charlie crist running

as an independent. >> that was a race that once it was a three-way race, it was obviously a very challenging race for us. and kendrick meek, who was our nominee, has done a super job as a congressman and ran a textbook campaign. but in the three-way race, it was very difficult. what we think in florida, bigger picture, is there will probably not be a lot of charlie crist/rick scott voters. the crist voters, we think, will go alex sink's way. while that is very early in the governor's race, i think only 30% reporting, we think that is a race -- a governor's mansion that's been very difficult for democrats to win in the last 25 years. we think we've got a real good shot at it. >> four democratic congressman in florida -- we've decided that they're in very, very tight races right now including congressman ron kline, facing a tea party favorite, alan west. what do you think about those races? >> i was down in florida the weekend before last and had a chance to visit with some of

those members. those are close races. there's also a race that's a potential pick-up in florida for us, a seat left open that our candidate, joe garcia, is running a very good race in in the southern part of the state, miami and others. so there are close races on our side. there's at least one or two pick-up opportunities in florida and a lot of that will depend on how this governor's race shakes outful we'll be watching that one very closely. >> i want to talk a little bit about florida 24 for a moment, the democratic congresswoman. we are getting ready to make a projection on that race. presumably you won't be surprised. we are projecting that sandy adams will be the new republican congresswoman from the 24th district and florida. so that number of 40 of the net pick-up the republicans need, now goes down back to 39, governor. >> yeah, that's very, very

disappointing, suzanne won a big race two years ago. that's a very tough race. we're going to keep our fingers crossed on that one and on the other florida races, again, as more of the votes come in. >> i want to show what's happening -- the latest in your opinions coming in from these three districts we were talking about in your home state of virginia. all of these races are critical if the republicans want to become the majority. in virginia, right now, 65% of the vote has been counted. robert hurt, the republican is ahead 53% to 45% over tom perriello. the president of the united states last friday night went to perriello's district to try to help him. 65% of the vote in. 70% of the vote is in in the ninth district in virginia. morgan griffith, the republican, ahead of rick boucher, 53% to

45%. and in virginia right now, 55% for the republican candidate keith fiman against the democratic candidate. >> those are challenging numbers. right before i came in, i looked at the ninth district numbers. we noticed one of the counties, the most populous jurisdiction in the entire ninth hadn't reported any numbers. that's a strong democratic county and one likely to close a significant gap. we still feel like we have a great shot to win those races. charlottesville is going to be very helpful. in the 11th, with 9% in, it's hard to say. but fairfax county is the largest jurisdiction in virginia gerly conley used to represent it. >> governor, thanks very much

for coming in. going to be a long night for all of us. let's check in with anderson cooper right now. he's got the best political team on television. you want to be the chairman of the democratic party tonight? >> obviously not a great night for him and try to put the best face on it. what are you looking for next, candy? >> well, i think it's the size of the wave, what we've been looking for for the last three months. it really has not changed dramatically what we were looking for. and that is, we all figure the republicans were going to have a very good night. we still want to know how good a night they're going to have. those races in virginia are pretty key. it does point to a very good night on the house side but not as good in the senate. however, when we say that, for republicans, seven, eight-seat pick-up, that's not nothing. >> i wanted to add something to donna's comment about tim scott. not only is he an african-american republican going to the congress, but he

defeated stram thurman's son in the district. and the governor's race with nikolai haley, i'm from south carolina, so we are rarely proud these days. but it's a wonderful thing that we've got nikki haley who's an indian american, first generation. her parents immigrated from india. south carolina deserves some applause for some of these new candidates that are pushing forward. whether nikki haley wins remains to be seen. but tim scott is a phenomenon. >> when you look at the gop, the diversity in the gop, what is it? 38 african-americans running for congressional seats from the gop. that is -- >> that's one of the points i made. if you look at the washington republican establishment of the candidates they've picked,

universally they've been old white guys or females. the tea party candidates have been african-american, of indian descent, hispanic. if these republican candidates who are ahead in these congressional districts win, you're going to have one of the most diverse republican caucuses in the house since reconstruction. >> 61 african-americans running for federal office, 13 republicans, 40 democrats. clearly the democrats will have a good night with african-american candidates. but i want to give a shoutout for the state of alabama. alabama will send its first black female to congress this year, terri sewell. i'm trying to give good news wherever i can find it. >> some people call that clutching at straws. >> i'm used to that. >> first of all, we talk about the african-americans who are running for the gop side. i sort of compare it to african-americans who run democrat statewide. the question is, can they win? that's really what you're going to look at. you have thurman in georgia, harris in california.

one of the issues has always been, folks can run but can they win? running is one thing. winning at the end of the day is a different issue. >> we'll find out in a few hours. i think scott's going to win. i think ryan frazier is going to win. and i believe alan west is going to win. but we'll find out. >> we know the republicans are going to pick up a bucket-load of house seats. the range you get coming in was somewhere between 59 and 70. the interesting thing is going to be in some of these races that are shown to be very competitive, pennsylvania, illinois, wisconsin, colorado, nevada, are the democrats going to be able to pick up -- usually in a big wave election, all of these elections tilt one way. the close elections always go to the party getting the wave. those are going to be the fascinating for our viewers to look for tonight, to see if the democrats are able to pick off a close election. if they win it close, it's going to be significant.

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cnn can now make projections in the senate race, this is a pick-up for the republicans. cnn projects that john boozman will be the next u.s. senator from arkansas beating blanche lincoln, the incumbent democrat.

boozman wins in arkansas. the democrats will be happy as far as the governor is concerned. mike beebe beats jim keet, the republican challenger. the democrats stay on top of the governor's race in arkansas. but blanche lincoln loses, we project blanche lincoln loses to john boozman. this means that the number now goes down one more. the republicans initially needed ten to become the majority in the senate. dan coat wins in indiana. that's a pick-up for the republicans because evan bayh is still the incumbent. blanche lincoln loses in arkansas. as a result, the number goes down to eight, the number they need. here are some other numbers coming in from some races out there. pals in massachusetts closed at the 8:00 p.m. eastern. 2% of the vote is in. duval patrick, the incumbent governor.

the incumbent democrat is ahead over charlie baker. tim cahill with 7%. still very early in massachusetts. in south carolina, 7% of the vote is now in. nikki haley, the republican at 52%. vincent sheheen, 46%. still only 7% of the vote. 44% counted now in florida. the republican rick scott with 50%. alex sink, she's the democrat, 47%. rick scott is ahead by 83,767 votes. but only 44%. there's still time for her to catch up. and in ohio, ted strickland, the incumbent governor, with 13% of the vote in. he's got 51% of the vote to john kasich, a difference of about 33,000 votes for strickland. but it's still very, very early. only 13% of the vote counted in ohio.

we have more projections for you right now. richard blumenthal, the attorney general in connecticut, the democratic candidate, we now project he will become the next united states senator from connecticut, succeeding chris dodd. we project he beats linda mcmahon, the republican, the self-financed, the professional wrestling executive. richard blumenthal, we project will win in connecticut. in north carolina, we projected that richard burr, that he will win as well. richard burr beating elaine marshall, the democratic candidate. richard burr will be reelected 44% of the vote is actually in in north carolina. but richard burr stays in for another six years. anderson, blumenthal's win in connecticut wasn't by any means a done deal. but he will win.

>> this might start a trend. the blue turned is stopping the red wave. yes. let's wait for the debris to clear before we determine what kind of night this will be. >> what do you think went wrong for linda mcmahon? >> mcmahon and meg whitman and carly fiorina, they knew richard blumenthal. he stumbled badly when he falsely claimed he served in vietnam. this is where experience and being a lifelong politician has helped. >> and being in a blue state. >> that would have been a catastrophe, a disaster. the thing that i keep looking at is i'm waiting to hear from west virginia. that's the most important one to hear from.

there was a little nervousness about connecticut. but if that would have gone, it would have been an utter disaster. >>e >> you're looking at the governor race in ohio? >> you had a republican pick-up in the senate race over somebody who had been in the bush administration had been from washington. so were they able to overcome the anti-washington fervor. you have ted strickland, a democrat in the same state, incumbent, not terribly popular recently, but a good, solid governor, pulling it out apparently early in terms of numbers. the public is still respecting people like dick blumenthal who have been there, who's served, whose judgment they trust, who they like. >> only 13% of the vote in ohio. >> if you look at the governors' races particularly in states like ohio and florida, your mind moves ahead to 2012 because barack obama would certainly

like to have democrats as governors in those states. it certainly helped george w. bush when his brother was governor of the state of florida. and i think that if he loses those, it's going to be -- it's not going to be fun. new mexico is also another state. >> there's all the congressional lines get redrawn after the -- the governors have an enormous role to play. holding on to those governors seats are important for both parties. >> you tend to see a different dynamic play in the governors' races. it's not so much washington. it's about the quality of the candidates. i think you're right. in ohio, if you look at the two candidates, kasich and strickland, they were both strong candidates. but strickland has had time in office. what most of us are looking for, what happens in the congressional districts in ohio. that's really what's going to determine what happens back in washington. those are going to be really big, important races. >> don't forget, obama went back

to ohio for strickland. he's got a lot at stake here -- >> doesn't seem to have worked in the senate race. >> no. >> a lot of local races in ohio and these other places across the country. what we forget about midterm mexs is it's driving voter turnout, enthusiasm and the results we're seeing at the statewide level. >> what other states are you looking at? >> i'm like james. i'm west virginia. but illinois, of course i would also like to wait and see what happens in colorado, nevada and washington state as well. >> illinois is critical because republicans do not hold a single statewide office in that state and they have the possibility of not only winning the governor's mansion but also the u.s. senate race. that is huge for a resurgence with that party in the state where they hold nothing. >> with linda mcmahon in connecticut, did the whole wwe, the way they've treated some of their employees, did that play a role, do you think? >> i think it did. i went up there for a campaign,

the voters there all knew about it. they didn't much like it. she got a lot of air time when she theatrically kicked a guy in the crotch. it hurt in a state like connecticut. worked great in texas. they'd love that. but she made tens of millions of dollars but didn't provide health care to those guys who were break their bodies in the ring. you hear that a lot in connecticut. >> blumenthal was the golden state in connecticut. if we would have lost that, that would have been really, really bad. he won but it's not overly significant. i think west virginia is important. and i think out of illinois, wisconsin, colorado and nevada, the democrats should -- they have to win at least one. >> we have another projection we can make. wolf? >> in indiana right now, the

eighth congressional district of indiana, it's a pick-up for the republicans, larry bucshon will be the next congressman meeting trent van haaften. 56% for bucshon. it was a drnlt democratically held seat. now going to be a republican held seat. dana bash has a special guest, the chairman of the republican party. dana? >> reporter: [ no audio ] >> all right. dana, stand by. we're going to make another projection. cnn now projects -- this is a huge win for the democrats -- in west virginia joe manchin, the governor of west virginia, cnn now projects he will be the next

u.s. senator from west virginia filling the seat of robert byrd who was in the senate for decades. john accuracy will lose. joe manchin wins. the actual votes we see right now, only 19% of the ballots have been counted. 54% for manchin. 43 ferris for john accuracy. 2% for the independent candidate jesse johnson. this is a huge win for the democrats. if the democrats lost in west virginia, it could have been a total disaster. and the republicans could have been on their way to capturing the ten set, the ten net gain seats they need to be the majority in the senate. but manchin is the winner, we project, in west virginia. i hope we've fixed the audio for dana bash and michael steele. you can get michael steele's reaction in west virginia, assuming we've fixed the audio. he's not going to be happy that the republican, john raese, loses in west virginia.

>> reporter: this is a race that you really thought you were going to be able to pick up. >> we wanted to be very competitive and i think we are. who knows what's going to happen. i know the projections and all of that. but we've always said from the beginning the senate was going to be a tough road for the party tonight. just by the numbers. the house, as far as the republican national committee was concerned was the real focus. my job, i had a big bus, that made it very clear, fire pelosi. that goal was very much a part of the agenda. we want to pick up as many as seats as we can. and i think that we're going to have a good night in the senate. the majority is just going to be tough to get. >> reporter: what's your prediction looking at the numbers on the house? >> on the house, i think we're probably going to see something between the 50s and the 60s. my numbers are around 55. but what do i know? >> reporter: i want to ask you, you talk to some republicans who are working very hard both for the senate and the house and even in the governors' races. they say that they're going to

maybe do very well tonight despite of you, not because of you. >> that's just foolishness. we provided the ground game for every governor who's running, every senator who's running, every congressman who's running, every state legislator of over 360 victories across the country. i'm sure those governor candidates and senatorial and congressional candidates used those. i think all of that's silly talk. the people who talk like that need to check themselves and focus on republicans being unified and victorious tonight. and everything else will take care of itself. the bottom line is, we invested $175 million beginning with the two races that governor barbour wanted us to participate in new jersey and virginia, $13 million, which launched us to tonight where tonight we're going to see additional seats. but more importantly state legislative races. >> reporter: you started the cycle with $23 million in

surplus. are you going to have any debt right now? what are you ending up -- >> we're going to have -- of course, everybody's going to have a little bit of debt. >> reporter: it's not because you had trouble raising money? >> no, not at all. we didn't. i just told you, $175 million. you think that's prebl trouble? i don't think that's trouble. we did very well. the dollars are on the table. we invested them in the states early. and that was the difference. we put the money on the ground so we could get the victory offices out there, so we could make over 40 million voter contacts between january and tonight to turn out that vote that's going to allow a lot of people in this town smile whereas a year ago, we weren't smiling. two years ago, we weren't smiling. this is the first time the rnc has competed in all 50 states and it's been great. >> reporter: one more question. there's another election coming up for the rnc chairman. are you going to run? >> i haven't made up my mind. >> reporter: all right. are you sure about that? >> i haven't made up my mind.

>> reporter: people think you're campaigning for it. >> god bless them. >> reporter: we'll hear from michael steele later on tonight in downtown washington. >> thanks very much for that. we have two more important projections to make right now. let's go first to virginia in the ninth district in virginia, this is a pick-up for the republicans. cnn now projects that morgan griffith will beat the incumbent, democrat rick boucher. he'll be the next u.s. congressman for virginia. that's a pick-up for the republicans, 86% of the vote is now in. and in florida, in the eighth district, alan grayson, the lib gral democrat loses, we project, to daniel webster, 67% of the vote is now in. grayson will go down. he's been outspoken as a progressive liberal. daniel webster, at one point grayson even called him taliban daniel webster. but daniel webster will win --

the number now goes down -- originally the republicans needed a net gain of 39. now we project they need a net gain of 36 as a result of these two projected winners. we'll take a quick break. much more of our coverage, including analysis of joe manchin, the democratic candidate for senate in west virginia. we project he wins. retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. in a space this small

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mayor win for the democrats tonight in west virginia, cnn projects that joe manchin, the incumbent governor will become the next u.s. senator from west virginia. he was in a tight, tight battle with john raese, a businessman. but joe manchin wins. let's go over to john king. originally, john, the republicans needed ten -- a pick-up -- net pick-up of ten seats in order to win the majority in the senate. they're down to eight right now. they've had two pick-ups. but this loss for them in west

virginia is a serious blow. >> losing west virginia makes it nearly impossible -- not impossible, but nearly impossible for republicans to get the net ten. if it's a red state, it was republican coming into the night. a blue state, democrat coming into thestate night. let's look at the balance of power and why the west virginia race is so important. 59 democrats to 41 republicans. but these are the seats at stake tonight. all of the 37 right up there. we've assigned most of them already based on races we've projected tonight or in some races, like in north dakota, the republicans have a huge lead. we've recently called the connecticut race. give that one to the democrats. and we just called that west virginia race, john raese, the republicans needed to win that one. as we assign that one to joe manchin and the democrats, look at this map. now we have the democrats at 49 and the republicans at 44 in the senate. how many left? they would need 51. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 left, right?

the republicans had 44. they would need all seven to get to 41. we'll see what happens in california let's hypothetically -- if barbara boxer wins in california, that would leave the republicans at a best case scenario of getting to 50. 44 in this scenario, six. the republicans are confident about wisconsin. that could go their way. the republicans are confident about illinois, barack obama's old seat. that could go their way. even there, you get them to 46. they'd have to run the board, pennsylvania, washington, colorado, nevada, not out of the question, by any means. but essentially, they needed west virginia because california is so tough. washington state also a tough battleground for the republicans. they need to be perfect in running the senate board the way out tonight. one more quick point for you. i want to come back and show you the house right here. come back to the national map and bring you over to the house races. you've got a projection or two and then we'll come back to the

map. >> stand by. we're ready to make an important projection in virginia in the house of representatives, cnn now project that is robert hurt, the republican will beat tom perriello for the fifth district in virginia. right now, 86% of the vote is in. 52% for hurt. 46% for perriello. but this is another republican pick-up right now in virginia. and remember, john, only last friday night, the president went to perriello's district to campaign for him. perriello had voted for the president's health care reform legislation. he is about to lose in that district in virginia, another net pick-up for the republicans. >> that's two of the four targeted seats in the state of virginia. we haven't called the other ones yet. that's 2 for 2 for the republicans. let's put knit context by looking at the map. this is the house coming into ton. what i want to do for you, i want to take this off. that's the incumbent button.

these are the results coming in right now, okay? we see you look up here in new hampshire. we haven't called these races yet but the republicans are leading. look in pennsylvania, you see all this red. look out in ohio and you see all this red. here's what i want to show you right here. watch this right here. watch inside that circle. everybody take a good look at that. i'm going to step across the camera again, excuse me. take a close look at that. that is the results right now as they come in. watch this red. this is the house of representatives as we started the.net night. see how blue we are? if this holds up right here and they continue to make these gains in virginia, in ohio, in pennsylvania, up here in new hampshire and right across into indiana, this is the foundation right here, the republicans at this moment need 35 to get to a house majority. there are 20 seats right in this swath right here. they could get well on their way more than halfway there just here. and look at what is still to be counted out here. >> john, stand by.

we're getting ready at the top of the hour, 7 1/2 minutes from now or so, another 14 states will close, including colorado, louisiana, wisconsin, new york, texas. we hope to make some more projections at the top of the hour. stand by. you can see the republicans now need a net gain of 35 as opposed to 39 at the beginning of the night to become the majority in the house. the republicans need a net gain of eight to become a majority in the senate. we'll see what's going on. our coverage continues after this.

major poll closings in about 3 1/2 minutes. we'll bring them to you live.

a number of states there, important results coming up shortly. big announcements already out of virginia. tom perriello, rick boucher going down. alan grayson in florida going down. >> i don't think any surprise on the grayson thing. that's actually a favor for the democratic party. nobody wants that guy in their party, i wouldn't think. but boucher going down is a big deal for the democrats. i want to say a word about manchin. john's absolutely right about this making it harder for the republicans to get to ten. but look how manchin ran. i never ran a political campaign. i'm not a campaign strategist. i'm a philosopher and i paid attention to what he said. he said, i want reform of health care, i want to shoot a hole through cap and trade, pro life. i'm happy with more democrats like that. it's interesting how he had to run to win that senate seat. >> you were talking about the importance of joe manchen in west virginia also. >> yeah, every time the

republican -- they have to win ten democratic seats to get to the majority. they only lack 11 that they had a chance -- when you don't win one, it magnifies itself. we're going to go to -- in the central time zone, you're going to go to wisconsin, you're going to go to illinois, to colorado, to nevada, washington state. assuming the democrats should be safe in california, it's going to be interesting to see. but had you not had west virginia, the math would have been just awful. >> bill made the point that he likes democrats like manchin, the way he ran. but it also shows you the difference between two parties. you could not have a republican run as a moderate. democrats can run as conservatives. but it also shows the problem we have in terms of, you're losing people who are able to communicate on both sides, that is moderate republicans, conservative democrats. also on the grayson point, somebody tweeted, i'll take grayson losing if michelle

bachmann loses, take the trade any day -- >> do you think alan grayson went too far with the ad? >> i like nutty politicians. but they usually come out of safe districts. a nutty politician in a swing district is really exciting but now he's a former politician. i want to go back to james' point about west virginia. joe manchin is winning tonight when barack obama is unpopular in his state. when barack obama was popular nationally, he lost joe manchin's state by 14 points. he lost in a landslide. when he was popular two years ago. so to stand against that tide, yeah, he shot a hole in the bill and ran away on this or that issue, he's still a democrat in a state -- >> we have a number of projections -- polls closing in a few seconds and a number of states. let's go back to wolf. >> anderson, thank you. 14 states at the top of the hour are getting ready to close. the polling stations, including colorado where there's a key senate race a key governor's race. louisiana, we're watching that

very closely. the senate race, david vitter against the democratic challenger. in wisconsin, we're taking a close look at russ feingold. can ron johnson, the republican challenger, beat him in wisconsin? there will be races that we're watching in new york and elsewhere. north dakota, rhode island, 14 states getting ready to close. states getting ready to close. we're about to make projections. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com in new york state, cnn projects kirsten gillibrand wins in new york state. she beats the republican challenger, not a surprise. this will be a four-year term for her, by the way, because she took over for hillary clinton when she became secretary of state. she's filling out hillary clinton's four years that were remaining. chuck schumer reelected easily in new york state.

all of us remember chuck schumer running for the senate in new york. he will get a six-year term. the question will be for chuck schumer, if harry reid loses in nevada, does chuck schumer become the democratic leader in the u.s. senate? there's been some speculation about that. this is something we could have projected a long time ago but we didn't because all the polls weren't closed in south dakota. but john thune is reelected. he did not have an opponent. he did not have a democratic challenger. he ran unopposed. john thune, whose name has been mentioned as a potential republican vice presidential candidate. he gets reelected in south carolina -- in north dakota right now, north dakota, the governor john hoeven, we project he is the winner beating tracy potter. that is a senate pick-up right now as an open democratic seat.

that's another pick-up, an important pick-up for the republicans in north dakota. and in kansas, gn projects that the winner will be the republican, jerry moran versus lisa johnston. jerry moran will take over sam brownback's seat, that was an open seat but it will stay in republican hands in kansas. there's more information coming as well in texas. this is a big one for the republicans. we project rick perry will be reelected as the governor of texas. rick perry with 50% of the vote now in beats bill white, former mayor of houston. a big win for rick perry in texas. not a big surprise in new york, andrew cuomo, the attorney general will be the next governor of new york. he beats carl paladino as fully expected. and in kansas, sam brownback gave up his senate seat to

become governor of kansas, we project sam brownback wins in kansas. that is not a surprise either. everybody expected him to. we have exit poll information that we want to share with you as well. these are raw exit poll numbers. this is not necessarily the end result but it shows a trend in the state. these are questionnaires that we and the other television news networks and the "associated press" ask people as they emerge from the voting booths. david vitter, the louisiana senator, the republican, 53% in that raw exit poll data to charlie melancon, the democrat, 44%. look how close it is in wisconsin right now. this is an exit poll data result. russ feingold, the incumbent with 49%. ron johnson, the republican challenger, 50%. but there's a big margin of error in these raw exit poll data. so this is a lot closer than

some of the earlier polls going into wisconsin showed. we'll see if russ feingold, the long-time senator from wisconsin, can hold on. here's raw exit poll data from colorado right now. michael bennet, the appointed senator. the democrat, 49%. ken buck, 47%. it's very, very close in colorado as well. don't want to put too much emphasis on this. but these are trends that we're seeing and we're showing you these numbers as we get these numbers in. this is the raw exit poll numbers. we'll take a closer look at the actual numbers coming in, other information where the numbers are coming in from and eventually we'll be able to make a projection. but we see a very close senate race in colorado and a very close senate race in wisconsin right now as well. let's take a look at rand paul headquarters right now in kentucky. they're getting ready for rand paul to come in. we've projected a while ago that rand paul will be the next u.s.

senator from kentucky, beating jack conway, the democratic senator. there you see rand paul right now with his wife and his family. let's listen in a little bit to rand paul, the tea party favorite who will be the next u.s. senator from kentucky. he's the son of ron paul, the long-time republican congressman from texas. the former presidential candidate back in 2008. let's listen to rand paul. >> thank you, thank you. what a crowd! i'd like to thank my wife, kelly. i couldn't have done it without her. and my boys, william and duncan and robert. and for the great music, thank you, guys.

i have a message! a message from the people of kentucky, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. we've come to take our government back! they say that the u.s. senate is the world's most deliberative body. well, i'm going to ask them to deliberate upon this -- the american people are unhappy with what's going on in washington. 11% of the people approve of

what's going on in congress. but tonight, there's a tea party tidal wave and we're sending a message to them. it's a message that i will carry with me on day one. it's a message of fiscal sanity. it's a message of limited constitutional government and balanced budgets. when i arrive in washington, i will ask them respectfully to deliberate upon this -- we are in the midst of a debt crisis and the american people want to know why we have to balance our budget and they don't.

i will ask them respectfully to deliberate upon this -- government does not create jobs. individual entrepreneurs, businessmen and women create job, but not the government. i will ask them respectfully to deliberate upon this -- why is america great? why are we the greatest, richest and freest country ever known to m man? america is exceptional, but it is not inherently so. america is exceptional because

we embraced freedom, because we enshrined it in our documents and because we have lived and fought for the principles of freedom. america will remain great if we remain proud of america, if we remain proud of the american system, the system that is enshrined in our founding documents, the system that protects and promotes the free exchange of goods, the system that protects capitalism that has made this country great. america will remain great if and when we understand, if and when

we understand that government cannot create prosperity. we have to understand that it comes from ourselves. it does not come from government. we are the creators of that prosperi prosperity. until we understand that, we cannot truly protect and defend our liberties. i have great confidence in the american system. we must believe in ourselves and not believe that somehow some benevolent leader in a distant capital will take care of us, will save us from ourselves. we must once again believe in ourselves. i will ask the senate respectfully to deliberate upon this -- do we wish to live free

or be enslaved by debt? do we believe in the individual or do we believe in the state? thomas jefferson wrote that government is best that governs least. likewise, freedom is best when enjoyed by the most. america can rise up and surmount these problems if we just get government out of our way. i am humbled by the honor bestowed upon me by the voters of kentucky. i will do everything within my power to live up to that trust. america's best days lie ahead of

her. if we can once again unleash the creative genius, the entrepreneurial spirit, the faith in ourselves that is the american dream. thank you and god bless america. >> there he is, the next united states senator from kentucky, rand paul, obviously very, very happy, thanking the tea party movement for his win in kentucky, a win that he worked very hard to achieve. we're going to be speaking, by the way, with rand paul, that's coming up, we believe late they are hour. we'll let you know exactly when. but we'll be speaking with him. we're going to take a quick break. but we're standing by. i think we're going to have a major projection when we come back. hey, lawrence, my parents want to talk to you.

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it chucking my wd!ang woodk, enroll starting november 15. host: could switching to or m insuranceu fifteen percent cnn is now ready to make a major projection. the republicans will take control of the house of representatives based on a statistical analysis of key seats, key races all over the country, cnn can now project the republicans will gain, have a net gain of 39 seats, at least 39 seats. they will become the majority in the house of representatives. john boehner, the congressman from ohio, the minority leader, will become the next speaker of the house of representatives. nancy pelosi will not be the

speaker of the house of representatives. this is a major, major projection right now. it's something the republicans had been working on for a long time, something the democrats had dreaded even as late as today, the democrats were predicting they would manage to hold on to the house of representatives. but based on all of the information we're now getting at cnn, the actual ballots that have been counted, the exit polls, the statistical review of all these key battleground race, there are about 100 that were up in the air, we thought, out of the 435 seats in the house of representatives, we now project the republicans in the next congress will be the majority. anderson cooper, this is obviously a big, big deal and it's something the republicans were thinking about. i dare say two years ago when the president of the united states was elected they didn't think this would happen. but it goes to show you how fast things can change in the political world of the united states. >> and based on our estimate, our projections right now, we believe they're going to win at least 50 seats, at least 50 seats in the house.

bill, a big moment for republicans. >> yeah, it's a great moment for us. good-bye, speaker pelosi, good-bye, chairman frank. maybe the one that catches it for me most dramatically is the gavel goes from charles rangel to paul ryan. you talk about a transition, you talk about philosophical differences, that's philosophical difference. this is a conservative house, by the way. it will have moderates in the party -- >> two. >> more than that. >> three. >> but it will be a conservative republican house and that will be interesting. but this is a dramatic shift of power. >> erick erickson? >> when you look at the races the republicans are picking up, you are seeing them shift to the right, which is what the tea party movement largely wanted. you're seeing house republicans shift to the right. you'll now have republicans -- remember the polling has shown all along that the tea party movement and the american people don't like the republicans or the democrats. will the republicans make some

institutional changes when they get in? will they put a guy like flake on the appropriations committee? the next campaign begins today because you now must overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster. they never wanted you here in the first place. a lot of them are going to the house and senate thinking that. >> there has been a lot made of the schism in the republican party. do you think it is a real schism? >> no, johnbo boehner -- the republicans lost before because they let go of those values and those principles. johnbone ser going to be a sp k john boehner has a great staff, barry jackson. i hope he stays on there. he's going to know how to work. make all these guys work together.

paul ryan is an intellectual powerhouse. and being in that position -- when we say conservative, we don't mean what james and paul and roland mean. we mean constitutional free market reform. that's what's going to drive the house. and boehner will really will able to herd these cats. >> paul ryan will indeed be head of -- >> joe manchin is about to speak in west virginia. he obviously now is the projected winner. let's listen in. >> such an honor and privilege for gail and i both to be able to serve you for six years as governor and first lady. we made tremendous strides as a state. and the reason we did that is because we trusted one another. we worked together. we put our state first. and it worked so well for us. and we're going to continue to fight for west virginia every day of our life.

i can only say that i want to thank all the people of west virginia for believing in me. i really truly appreciate every one of them. we never thought we would ever lose our beloved senator byrd. but the good lord had other plans. and leaving the governor's office was one of the toughest decisions i had to make. and we achieved so much as a state working together. but i can tell you, i'm proud of what we've been able to do. i am proud of every one of our accomplishments. but when i look at what challenges we have ahead of us in washington, i know it's time to take that fight there. >> obviously a big relief for them. wolf, let's check in with you. >> this is a lot of news that we want to digest right now. we project the republicans will be the majority in the house of

representatives in the new congress. we project that they will get at least a net gain of 39, maybe even more than 50. john king is over here at what we call our election matrix. we thought there were 100 competitive seats. 91 of those seats were held by democrats. the republicans are doing well. >> the republicans are doing well. you see the races flashing behind me. those are the ones that have changed power. the check marks are races we have called. if you look up, i want to look at one we have called. virginia '05, tom perriello, you mentioned the president of the united states was just there. this is why this matters. tom perriello voted for the obama health care plan, he voted for the obama stimulus plan. he voted for that cap and trade energy legislation. robert hurt ran saying he would go to washington and vote to repeal the health care plan, oppose any further stimulus money and fight the president if he came up with a similar energy policy. across the board to all these republican winners and the other

places we're looking at, the bredst and the depth of this is important. republicans are making gains in the northeast where they have struggled for more than a decade. republicans are winning in the suburbs. they're winning in virginia and indiana, states the president thought he had pulled back from red to blue in the last election cycle. here's a couple of others. we haven't called these yet. but up to new hampshire, republicans are leading in both of these races. republicans will tell you that an kuster ran a perfect campaign. but charlie bass is leading. leading 51% to 45%. we have to watch that one. but right now, two democratic congressmen, president obama carried that district two years ago with 56% of the vote. i know the panel's been debated. is this a repudiation of the president. it is of the president's agenda and the direction that washington has been taken that in states where he's done so well, we see things changing.

we'll watch other races as we go here. this is another fascinating race to watch in colorado. john salazar, just starting to count the results out there. another big republican target. i bring this race up because of this, 50% for john mccain. this is one of the 40 districts in our cnn 100 where john mccain actually carried the district running for president. the republicans are beginning in the early results we have, even as we've made our projection as we watch these races, their targeting started this way, the seats won by john mccain and then the seats won by barack obama where he was under 52% of the vote and beginning to expand beyond that as we run up the numbers. it matters not just because of the math but because these republican candidates say they want to go to washington and fight the president. many of these democrats we see in our cnn 100 took very, very tough votes to support the president and his agenda. >> the republicans capture some of those seats in new england. they haven't had any republican congressmen in new england for a while. >> they're going to get two in new hampshire tonight. xetive in one race in

massachusetts. they're xetive in other races. you mention that. it's not just in new england. they've had a hard time in the state of new york. this one's about an hour away from here. we can drive up. john hall, you might remember that name. he left music, went into politics. he's a very tough race right here in the suburbs. go back in time, president obama carried that district. you're watching in places -- when we go over to the map later, i'll show you -- places the president turned blue, reliably blue for quite some time, in doubt tonight. why? independents in the suburbs beginning to move away. the white working class starting to move away. we've projected a republican majority. as you look at these race and as you look at the map fill-in, a lot of red filling in, you can see the republicans getting to 50 and looking to go higher. >> it was mostly blue at the beginning of the night, 91 out of those 100 seat, blue seats. but it's going to get redder and redder and redder as the night

goes on. we're now projecting a net gain for the republicans of 50 seats. >> and you see it now. a lot of this red you see on the map are the seats -- all the red you see up on the matrix, you see the switches and they're going to get more and more as we fill them in. watch these seats in pennsylvania. you have a governor's race there, a tough senate race there, a battle for the suburbs, a battle for the scranton area, joe biden's original home. up in the erie area, a battle for a seat up there. it goes south, kentucky, louisiana and on we go. right now, the republicans are building substantially all across the map. >> john, i want to go to florida right now because marco rubio is speaking. he's walking in. you see him right there. he'll be the next united states senator from florida. marco rubio beating charlie crist, the independent, the former republican, kendrick meek, the democratic congressman. marco rubio, a rising star in the republican party. he ran a very, very smooth campaign. he's clearly been very effective there. you see how excited he is.

he's young and he's dynamic. that's jeb bush, the former governor of florida, the brother of the former president -- two former presidents. marco rubio is going to speak. the crowd is excited there. as they should be, because he is a rising star in the republican party. there you see him with his family. our own don lemon is on the scene for us. let's listen in to the -- if he's not going to speak yet -- there he is with his wife and his family. let's listen to marco rubio. >> thank you, thank you. thank you so much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. glad you didn't say polo. that would have thrown us all off. thank you so much. thank you. about an hour and a half ago, i

received two very gracious phone call, governor crist called me to congratulate. i thank him for that gracious phone call. congressman meek called to congratulate and i told him he has given us a lesson in dignity and in strength. and i thank both of them for being worthy opponents in a difficult campaign. and toiptd thank all of you for all the help you've given me as well. i want to acknowledge a simple but profound troouchlt we are all children of a powerful and great god. of a god who isn't always going to -- things are not always going to end up the way you want them. his will is not always going to be yours. but i promise you this. no matter what you face in life, he will give you the strength to go through it. i bear witness to that tonight as so many of you do in your own lives and must be acknowledged in everything we do and everywhere we go.

he likes the microphones. i don't even know how to begin how to describe this journey but to thank so many of you that have been a part of this. we'll talk about tidbits of that in a moment. clearly i'm grateful to my family. to my wife, jeanette, who's made this possible. raising children under any circumstances is a two-person job but she has done it alone for the last two years. i owe her a debt of gratitude i will never be able to repay. i am blessed to be able to have her as my wife and i am grateful she is with us today. i am also blessed with four children who remind me every day of what's important in life but also give me the strength even throughout this campaign. there was a moment early in this campaign where i didn't know how i was going to raise the money to be competitive.

i'll never forget the next morning my children showed up, they had collected their allowance which was largely quarters and single dollar bills and handed it to me. i didn't tell them that. they overheard me. it was in that moment that i was reminded what this race and this election was really all about. not about any of our individual ambitions but it was about the future, as represented by them and their generation. and that lesson is profound. it's one that i will not soon forget. tomorrow and even now, the stories are being written about what this election is about. what does it mean? and we don't -- we still don't know all the results from around this country. but we know that tonight, the power in the united states house of representatives will change hands. we know tonight that a growing number of republicans will now serve in the senate as well. and we make a grave mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace

of the republican party. what they are is a second chance. a second chance for republicans to be what they said they were going to be, not so long ago. you see, i learned early on in this campaign, in fact it's what propelled me to enter it, that what this race was about was about the great future that lies ahead for our country, a future that americans know is there for the taking. but it requires actions on our part. americans believe with all their heart the vast majority of them, and the vast majority of floridians, that the united states of america is simply the single greatest nation in all of human history. a place without equal. what americans are looking for

desperately are people that will go to washington, d.c. and stand up to this agenda that is taking us in the wrong direction and offer a clear and genuine alternative. and that's what this race was about early on for me. and that's what it's about tonight. it is about the future of this country and what it will look like when our children are our age. let me tell you, there's those out there who doubt about the greatness of

i will always be the son of exiles. >> marco rubio, his acceptance speech, a very, very impressive win for the cuban american. he's very proud of his cuban ancestry. take a look at these number, 63% of the vote in. he's got 51%, 1,852,000.

charlie crist, the independent, former republican, 29%. kendrick meek, 19%. even if marco rubio had only one opponent, he's already got 51%. so he's doing very, very well. he'll be the next united states senator from the state of florida, a very attractive and impressive young man who's got a huge future in the republican party probably in the nation as well. we'll take a quick break. we'll continue our coverage right after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's luxury with fire in its veins. bold. daring. capable of moving your soul. ♪ and that's even before you drop your foot on the pedal. ♪ the new 2011 cts coupe from cadillac.

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>> this is christine o'donnell in her losing speech right now. she loses to chris coons. she's making the concession speech. let's listen in. >> my joking big brother goes, we won, did we miss something? you know what i meant. we were victorious because the delaware political system will never be the same. that's a great thing.

the republican party will never be the same. and that's a good thing. our voices were heard and we're not going to be quiet now. this is just the beginning. we've got a lot of work to do. i just got off the phone with my opponent. and i reminded him that he is now in a position to help the people of delaware who are suffering. i reminded him of victor rodriguez and donald and his family and the many small business owners who are very concerned about these tax hikes. and if he does raise them on the

top 2%, they'll be forced to close their doors. i asked him to watch that 30-minute commercial that we did so that he can see what's going on in delaware the way i have. and i asked him if he would talk to you and if he would take up my promise to, in this lame duck session, fight to stop the death tax from being reinstated this january 1st. so hopefully he will. and he's going to be up against his party leadership, but i asked him if he would sit down with some of the families who are very concerned about that and realize the difference he can make. so we can only hope and pray that he chooses to go against his party leadership and do what's right for the people of delaware.

but we're not going to stop fighting either. because there's a lot of work to be done, a lot of work to be done. as i've said, this whole campaign is about putting the political process back into your hands. and that is where it is now. the leadership of our party is going to be drastically different this next year. the leadership in delaware will be drastically different from now on. our elected officials will be held accountable by their constituents, like it or not. so although the outcome isn't what we all worked so hard for, our voice was heard. we'll continue to be heard.

so i hope and pray that you are as encouraged as i am. and we've got a lot of food. we've got the room all night. so god bless you. so let's party. >> christine o'donnell, the republican candidate for the u.s. senate from delaware, conceding. she lost to chris coons. let's go over to cnn's ali velshi. you've been studying with your team, ali, some of the exit polls that are coming in and it's fascinating to see what people are telling us as they emerge from the voting booths. >> right. when they vote, you only know what they voted for. when they talk to us, they tell us why they voted a certain way. we started with those who voted in house elections. how did the independents who we've been talking about for so long, how did they end up voting? let me show you how those votes broke down. independents in this nation broke for the republicans, 55% of them independents, ended up casting their ballot for the

republican candidate for the house. 40% ended up voting for the democratic candidate for house. this is interesting because if you go back to 1994, you'll find that the breakdown was similar. back then, it was 55% to 41%. let me tell you now about their feelings about the economy. we asked people as they voted for house members what their feelings were about the economy. 51% said that they were extremely worried about the economy, very worried about the economy. 36% wor were rid about the economy. 10% were somewhat worried about the economy and only 3% were not worried at all about the economy. then we wanted to talk about the state of the national economy, how you think it's going right now. and here is where it becomes pretty interesting. 10% of the respondents said that things are good or excellent. look at this -- i can't even get behind that because it's too big. 89% of respondents say that the economy is not so good or poor. you just heard marco rubio in

florida talking about being in the wrong d on the wrong track. we asked respondents the same question. do you think things in this country are going in the right direction? 35% of respondents said that they are going in the right direction. take a look at this, 62% say that they are seriously in the wrong direction or on the wrong track. this is what marco rubio and what a lot of other people have ended up saying. we have one more i want to show you. it is about how do you feel that the federal government is working right now? 24% think that the federal government is working okay. 74% say that it's not working. they were negative about how the federal government is working. this gives you a sense of why those votes ended up the way they did and why the house ended up breaking republican. >> fascinating numbers. i know you and your team have a lot more of their numbers. i love our new technology. you look good behind those walls. >> thank you. but it is slimming.

>> a very nice image, ali. stand by. i know you've got a lot more. we're getting close tore the top of the hour. five more states are going to be closing, including nevada. that's where harry reid is fighting for his political life right now. stay with us. our coverage is only just beginning. we'll also speak with the new senator, he's going to be the new senator from kentucky, rand paul, when we come back. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles,

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not all that close in kentucky, rand paul beating jack conway 87% of the actual vote has been counted. 56% for rand paul, 44% for jack conway. rand paul is joining us now.

congratulations, dr. paul. i'm sure you're thrilled. >> thank you, wolf. yeah, we're all smiles down here in kentucky. everything's good. >> did you hear from jack conway? did he call you to concede? >> he did. he was very gracious and he wished me luck and i wished him luck also. >> so no more hard feelings, because it was a bitter campaign. there were some ugly name-calling going on. i assume you're over that? >> i think a little distance and time will make us forget that. >> at one point you even didn't want to shake his hand. you're coming to washington, d.c. what will be your top priority as a united states senator from kentucky? >> i think the number one priority is we need some fiscal sanity in washington. the budget's out of control. we cannot sustain $2 trillion debts, $2 trillion deficits. even the federal reverse

chairman, bernanke, says $2 trillion in a year is an unsustainable debt. so we really have to tackle this. and i think it's going to take a serious adult conversation. and we need to be willing to look at the entire budget. but i think we also need some new budgetary rules. i'm in favor of having a balanced budget amendment. i think both parties have proven themselves untrustworthy when it comes to balancing the budget. >> some democrats are saying, if you eliminate the bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for everyone, go back to the tax rates that existed during the clinton years, you'll save over the next ten years $4 trillion, be able to reduce the deficit and the budget and the debt by $4 trillion. what do you say to those folks who say, go back to the higher tax rates? >> i would say that they must be in favor of a second american depression because if you raise taxes to that consequence, that's what will happen in this

country. raising taxes in the midst of a recession would be a disaster for our economy. and anybody who proposes such a policy really is, i think, unfit to be making decisions. >> what if they just raised taxes on the richest, those making more than $250,000 a year? >> well, the thing is, we're all interconnected. there are no rich, there are no middle class, there are no poor. we all are interconnected in the economy. you remember a few years ago when they tried to tax the yachts. that didn't work. you know who lost their jobs? the people making the boats. the guys making $50,000 and $60,000 a year lost their jobs. we all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people. so just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone. let's not punish anyone. let's keep taxes low and let's cut spending. >> is there going to be a tea party caucus in the u.s. senate? >> if i have my way, yes, there

will. that's one of the things i'll begin working on tomorrow morning. >> what about your dad? is he there, the congressman from texas? is he celebrating with you tonight? >> he was here electronically. he had his own party in texas, and we have talked. and i told my mom told my mom this evening that i'd like to have a joint swearing in party, so we'll let the house and senate come together for a day. >> i've spoken to your dad, ron paul, on many occasions, he is very proud of you. once again, dr. rand paul, the next united states senator from kentucky. appreciate it very much. let's go over to john king, because he's taking a closer look at this tea party phenomenon, rand paul an example. he's beloved by the tea party members and he won. >> and one of the interesting things we're doing tonight, we watch the results come in coast to coast, we're doing something unique, what we call sentiment

analysis. we're using our friends to analyze thousands and thousands of tweets in the twitterverse. camera, come in close. see the beige here, the lighter yellow, this is anti-tea party tweets. in the states you see lit up with that color, that means the plurality of the tweets were anti-tea party. if you come down to the state of texas, you see more of a protea party. that's for the tea party and anti-washington. over here as well, for the tea party in general. this is rand paul's home state of kentucky. even there, 28%, a plurality of the tweets about the tea party today were negative. obviously he just won that election, so there's a protea party sentiment in the state of kentucky. what that tells you is those active in the twitter verse talking about this race may be seeing the results were paul opponents or tea party opponents venting their views. but it's fascinating as you pull back to the national map and look at the conversation in the twitterverse. this is about the tea party. one more, this to me is a little personally depressing as someone

who's covered politics for a quarter century. if it's orange you're voting against a person or against a policy, and you see for maine to southern california, coast to coast with only the state of vermont saying it's voting for a person or policy tonight. as you watch the twitterverse come in, a clear plurality, over 37% of americans say they're voting against somebody or a policy when they go to the polls. the white states mean we just don't have enough data yet to add them in. >> fascinating in a whole new world of the social networking and how we're drawing some political conclusions from that. let's take a look at some votes that are actually coming in in wisconsin right now. 10% of the vote is in. ron johnson, the businessman, the republican challenger to the incumbent, russ feingold, 58% to 41%. only 10% of the vote counted. the polls closed 9:00 p.m. eastern. in illinois now, almost half of the vote has been counted. the democrat, alexi giannoulias with 51%, mark kirk, 44%.

the third party candidate, the green party candidate, lealan jones 3%. that's with 45% of the vote in. in pennsylvania, about a third of the vote has now been counted. joe sestak, the democrat, with 54%. pat toomey, the republican, 46%. still got two-thirds of the vote that needs to be counted. look at this, in colorado right now, about a quarter of the vote is now in. michael bennet the democrat, he's the incumbent. the appointed senator took over for ken salazar when he became secretary of the interior. 54%, ken buck, 41%. ken buck, the tea party favorite in colorado. so you can see democrats in three of these races right now, illinois, pennsylvania and colorado, had at least of right now and wisconsin, russ feingold not doing necessarily well, but only 10% in wisconsin counted. we'll take a break. exit polls are coming up right after this.

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cnn now projects devalue patrick the incumbent governor of massachusetts, he wins. he is re-elected. take a look at this, these are the actual votes with 56% of the vote now in, deval patrick. deval patrick, re-elected. ali, you're looking at exit polls. >> health care has played a very big role this entire election. let's see how this has worked out for seniors. seniors at this point in the election have represented 24% of the vote. okay? and this year they were 24%. i need to show you previous elections, previous midterms. in 2006, 19% of the electorate. in 2008, 15%. in 2010, more like 24%. how did they break for the

democrats? let's look at that first. in this election, 39% of the electorate voted -- let dozen's that one more time. there we go. okay. 39% of seniors voted for the democrats in this election. let's start in 1994. it was 48%. in 2006, another midterm, 49%. 2008, 48% broke for the democrats. this time, 39% of seniors broke for democrats. how'd they do for republicans? let's take a look at that. the republicans in this election, we saw, let's again start from 1994, 51% back in '94 supported republicans. then 49% in 2006. by 2008, it was 48%. look at this, 2010. 58% of senior citizens broke for republicans. in many cases, that had to do with concerns about health care, wolf. the idea that they didn't see in

this health care bill something that necessarily helped them more than they were afraid that it would take money out of medicare and medicaid and end up perhaps helping other groups. that might be one of the areas of concern, wolf, that allowed seniors to make a decision to vote for republicans in the house races over democrats. >> and we know that the older americans get the more likely they are to vote, older people vote in much higher percentages than younger people, so if the democrats are losing, these seniors, the older vote, that's not going to be good news for the democrat. >> that's exactly right. they came out, 24% in the electorate were senior citizens. >> ali, thanks very, very much. we're getting very close, less than a minute to the top of the hour. we're getting ready for more poll closing at the 10:00 p.m. eastern, at the top of the hour. the polls will close in these states. arizona, iowa, montana, nevada, and utah. all of these states important, but nevada, critically important

in this midterm election, because harry reid, the majority leader of the united states senate, he's in the fight of his life against sharron angle. and we're going to be watching this very, very closely. harry reid, we'll see if he does get re-elected in nevada or he doesn't. we're getting close to the top of the hour. so let's get ready as we get closer to the top of the hour, i believe we will make some believe we will make some projections. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and we can make these projections, in missouri, roy blunt, the congressman, long-time congressman from missouri, he wins. roy blunt will become the next united states senator from missouri. in louisiana, david vitter, a controversial incumbent, republican, we project he will be re-elected. he beats charlie melancon, the congressman from louisiana. david vitter will come back for another six years in washington.

no great surprise in arizona, john mccain, he had a tough primary battle, but he easily gets re-elected in arizona for another six years. congratulations to john mccain as well. we project he wins, and the same for chuck grassley in iowa. not a huge surprise, we suspected he would easily be re-elected and he is easily re-elected in iowa. these are projections we're making right now. let's take a closer look at the raw data that's coming in, these exit poll information. in arizona, for example, this is raw exit poll data, and it could change, obviously, as we take a closer look. it's a fierce battle for governor of arizona, and jan brewer, the incumbent, 53%. terry goddard, the democrat, 44%. but that's a raw data coming in. as far as nevada is concerned, look at how close this is. these are the raw exit poll

numbers that we're getting. we ask people as they emerged from voting how they feel, where they're going. harry reid, with 48% of the raw exit poll numbers, 47% for sharron angle. it doesn't get a whole lot closer than that. it's very, very close in nevada, obviously right now. it will be a while before we can make a projection, i assume, but this is a close race. and, anderson, the stakes for the democrats and the republicans are enormous, sharron angle, a huge favorite of the tea party movement. >> it's been a fascinating race to watch, though we've heard from some tea party candidates that have won, marco rubio and rand paul. candy, you in particular wanted to talk about what marco rubio said. both he and rand paul kind of going broad and talking about this was not a republican or democratic win and the message republicans should take from this as well. >> i think you will be hearing the rubio message from some of the leaders later tonight, the existing leaders on capitol hill, which was basically we understand this is not an embrace of republicans. this is a second chance.

to be what they thought we were. i mean, i think that is the exact right tone, and i think it's a tone that they've been signaling on capitol hill, john boehner and the rest, that they wanted to take tonight. this is not a big, let's all get up and party night. this is a, you know, now -- >> although christine o'donnell said they have the room for the night. >> but that's kind of the loser party, right? because she -- >> i think candy's exactly right. and it's real important, too, i think, that the american people understand that the republicans do not take this as a mandate or a popularity contest for them. they know very well that they've -- they're fairly disliked, along with the democrats. so i have an e-mail from john boehner's command center tonight, and they're saying that their tone is going to be one of seriousness. >> of humility. >> humility. no big balloon drops. exactly. >> marco rubio had the perfect, really, model for anybody else getting up for a speech, very calm, very thoughtful, and ended

it nightly with a little shout out to his parents who left their country of cuba, and he ended it. >> but rand paul was a little more separatist, i'd have to say, from the republican party. essentially putting the republican party on notice, as did jim demint, who is separating from the establishment and the republican party saying, if you don't do what we want to do, we need to cut the budget, we need to cut spending, we need to cut government. and candidates like rand paul if the republican party establishment doesn't work with them, they will run separately in 2012. that's what sarah palin's all about. >> i don't know -- listen. the night is yet young when it comes to the tea party. we don't know what's going to happen in nevada. we don't know what is going to happen in colorado. we don't know what is going to happen in alaska. and we may be here at christmas wondering what happened in alaska. but nonetheless, those tea party candidates have yet to be tested against statewide voters. >> my sense is there are conflicting lessons in this. different lessons for each

party. the republicans look like they're going to come up well short of ten in the senate. right now, you know, in a raw vote, we'll have to wait and see. but pennsylvania, illinois and colorado, the democrats are running very strongly in those three states for the senate. which says, to republicans, you've got to put up some reasonable candidates if you want to win these big races. on the other hand, in the house, what we're seeing is very important historically. you have this young president come in, people said conservativism was dead. the democrats were going to form -- build a majority that was going to go on for some decades, and two years later we've got this huge loss in the house. it's a serious wounding to the president, and this has only happened, a new first-term president has only lost the house twice in 60 years. >> do you remember the talk about the e-mail list that president obama had that was going to change everything moving forward, that they would be able to rally folks behind any initiative they had and get young voters out. clearly it doesn't seem like -- >> the young voters graduated

from college. that's the problem, and they couldn't find a job. >> if you look at barack obama, young voters disappointed in him and older voters are disappointed in him. >> this is a schizophrenic night. the senate, clearly not going to change hands and the sort of far right tea party republican candidates basically got washed out with a few exceptions. the more important question, and i want to come back to our philosopher, bill bennett's point, there is going to be a change in philosophy in the house. congressman ryan and bill bennett focused on him, he wants to raise taxes. he has an 8.5% value added tax, a sales tax, that is going to hit the middle class and the poor, and that's the republican agenda. they want to -- >> no, no, no. >> i want to get some -- wait. stop. i want some republicans to respond but jim demint is standing by. guys, let's go to wolf. >> all right, guys. i'll ask senator jim demint to

respond. senator, thanks very much for joining us. congratulations on your re-election. i don't think it's a big surprise. do you have any idea how many votes your opponent, alvin greene, actually got in south carolina? >> well, it concerns me that i think he got about 29%, at least the last i looked. but i do need to correct what was just said. paul ryan's not raising taxes. if we adopted his roadmap to the future, america would be the best place in the world to do business. we would fix social security. we would fix our health care system. folks need to take a look at what he's done. he's probably one of the brightest minds in the congress today. >> and he's going to be a leader, we've projected the republicans will be the majority in the house of representatives. it's much more difficult for the republicans to be the majority in your body, in the senate, in the chamber that you represent. the tea party, i just spoke to rand paul. he's just been elected in kentucky. he's going to be coming to washington as a senator. he says he wants there to be a tea party caucus in the u.s. senate. he wants to be a key member. what about you?

are you in favor of some sort of tea party caucus now in the senate? >> well, i'm chairman of the conservative caucus already. and i think -- one mistake we're making in this election is to suggest that it's all about the official tea party movement. for everyone who goes out to a rally, there are often hundreds, even thousands of people who feel the same way, who don't consider themselves a part of the tea party movement. i think there is an awakening going on in our country. there's a beginning of a process. it's not finalized tonight. i mean, you still see some states struggling. you see the republican party struggling to select candidates that reflect a limited government philosophy. so this is the beginning of a process and i think you're going to see grow between now and 2012. >> so do you think there will be a real tea party caucus in the senate? or are you opposed to that? >> well, no, if there is one, i'll join it. but i think what we'll probably do in the senate is just expand

the conservative caucus and reflect the tea party ideas. the good thing about the tea party is 40% of those who call themselves tea party members are democrats and independents. and what's happened in washington has really united america around a simple platform of less spending, less borrowing, less debt, let government takeover. that's what we need. and if we can bring those ideas to washington, i think we can turn our country away from a cliff. but, wolf, the big problem we have in washington right now is the democrats are so tied into union bosses and some special interests, they cannot move back to the center. they can't work with us. we can't work together on ideas of how to cut the budget, how to cut spending. they're dissatisfied with what obama has done because he hasn't spent enough money. so we've got a problem now that we don't have a functional two-party system. the republicans are trying to regain their senses, their principles, but we don't have a democratic party to actually

work with. so i'm not sure how this is going to sort out. but fortunately, with the republicans in charge in the house, they can initiate legislation that we can say yes to, that we can debate in the senate, even if we can't pass it. i don't want to spend six more years saying no to everything that's coming through. fortunately now i think we can say yes to a lot of good legislation. >> one final question, senator. are you thinking about running for the republican presidential nomination? >> no, i'm not. >> all right. well, it's a direct answer. maybe you will one of these days, because as they used to say, every senator wakes up every morning, looks in the mirror and sees a future president of the united states, but you're saying you don't necessarily see that. >> i haven't seen that reflection yet. >> all right. congratulations on your win in south carolina. we'll stay in close touch. senator demint, thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. we've got a lot more coming up, we're going to go back to john king, he's over at cnn election matrix.

we're taking a closer look at some of these house races. the polls have closed in nevada. sharron angle and harry reid. it's close. it's neck and neck. you try to lie low, get the lay of the land. but then autoblog.com calls your interior lexus quiet. and automobile magazine goes comparing you to a cadillac. ♪ so much for the new kid fitting in with the rest of the class. the all new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. ♪ we removed the alcohol and made it less intense. ♪ it still kills bad breath germs for a whole-mouth clean. and it's never felt so good. new less intense listerine® zero™.

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we think it probably helps teachers be their best too. quaker instant oatmeal. does your breakfast make you amazing? former professional wrestling executive linda mcmahon conceding, losing her bid to richard bloomeblumenthal. she's smiling, she spent millions of dollars of her own money trying to capture this senate seat in connecticut. but she loses. right now with 25% of the actual vote counted in connecticut, blumenthal with 52%, mcmahon with 46%. but we project she loses, blumenthal wins. he'll replace chris dodd in the united natio

united states senate. let goes over to john king. the house we've projected already will become the republican majority, the house of representatives. they needed 39. they're probably going to wind up getting a net gain of more than 50. in the senate, a different story right now. but it's a very dramatic win for the republicans in the house of representatives. >> it looks like a significant and huge win for the republicans in the house. you just mentioned that connecticut senate race, that's one of the ones the republicans need to get to ten. if you've been with us throughout the night, this is cnn 100, the most competitive house races. we started the night, 91 of the slates were blue. you're seeing more and more red. if it's flashing at home, that's because the seat changed hands. how deep so far the republican victory is, here's florida. this is alan boyd, he will be a former congressman. he'll be a congressman until january but he will now be a former congressman.

he was elected in 1996. this is not a new democrat that just came to washington. if you look at his race in 2008, got 61% of the vote in a presidential year, but tonight he's losing 55% to 40%. that's the class of 1996. let's come over to these other classes. 2002, 2006, this is the class that made nancy pelosi speaker in 2006. the huge democratic win, last midterm of the george w. bush presidency. you look at what is p hahappeni you get over here to these indiana races, you see them flashing because they've changed. this was a bellwether race for the republicans all night. baron hill will soon be former congressman hill. this is the shift that's happening in the country. do not underestimate the shift where he's now getting 42% of the vote that. is a dramatic shift.

one of the reasons is this was a district carried by john mccain, one of the top targets for republicans. where look at map. where did john mccain win or where did barack obama just barely win and in this tough unemployment especially in the rust belt state, you saw republican gains. in the midwest like indiana, republican gains. if you keep going through this technology, these races, you see some pennsylvania races we have called here. this is a seat up in erie, pennsylvania. it is tom ridge's old district. he went on to be the homeland security secretary. go back in time, 2008, she won pretty handily, 51%. not hugely. but this is a classic swing, again, a working class area. i'll go to the map to show you some of the breadth of this. i was having a conversation with paul begala with this. one of the thing that's will worry this white house, wolf, if

you look at these republican wins tonight and go back on the map and look at those areas in 2008, most of them barack obama carried in the general election. that's why those democrats came to washington with him, especially this class, 2008. but if you go back to the democratic primaries, a lot of the places democratic house candidates are losing tonight are places barack obama struggled during the democratic primaries. it will be something the white house will be watching as they try to peace together, what whacked us tonight and what lessons. >> when you say what whacked the democrats in the house of representatives, let me point out to you, john, and our viewers, our experts are going through all these 435 house races and cnn now projects that the republicans will actually carry more seats, have a net gain of more than 52. that's the number that the republicans won back, as you and i remember, 1994, when newt gingrich became the speaker. right now we're projecting not only the 39 net gain that they needed to become the majority, not only 50, but more than the

52 that the republicans won in 1994. >> and that comparison is a very important point. because president clinton, took him a while, but he moved to the center. he found out how to deal on some issues with the republicans and learned to square off vehemently and fight them off on others and positioned himself for re-election. the question is how will this president react, and the big question, how do republicans act? all of these house members, the republican winners, they want to repeal the obama health care plan. guess what? even if they win those 52-plus seats, they'll be able to pass repeal maybe in the house but they can't get it through the senate which is probably going to be a democratic majority. the president has a veto pencil. how does this new majority in the house deal with frustration and setback. that will be a question for them soon. but tomorrow it's a question ff the president of the united states. >> we'll see what democrats do about nancy pelosi, will she be the minority leader in the house or not. stand by, a lot more to go through. john's going to be back here,

we're going through all these numbers. anderson cooper is here with the best political team on television. we're watching nevada closely. the polls have closed in nevada. will harry reid win or sharron angle? stand by. our coverage continues after this. [ k. tyrone ] i'm an engineer. my kids say i speak a different language. but i love math and math and science develop new ideas. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough to produce and use hydrogen right on board a car, as part of a hydrogen system." this could significantly reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by as much as 80%.

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we're back in the cnn election center. just to recap, we've projected the republicans will become the majority in the united states house of representatives. they needed a net gain of 39. we project now they will have more than 52, a net gain of more than 52. the senate, more problematic for the republicans.

they need another seven. win, net gain of seven right now in order to bump tecome the maj. as far as the governor's races are concerned, there's some tight ones out there right now n florida, for example, 77% of the vote is now in. the republican, rick scott, with 50%. amex sink, the democrat, she has 46%. 175,000-vote difference. 77% of the vote in. rick scott ahead as of now in florida but we cannot yet project a winner. in south carolina, 68% of the vote is in. nikki haley, the republican with 51%. vincent sheheen, 48%. we can't project a winner in south carolina yet, either. in colorado, look at this. john hickenlooper with 53%. the republican, dan maes with 9%. only 9%. tom tancredo, the former republican congressman, only 36%, a third of the vote in.

by the way, if republicans don't get 10% of the vote in this governor's race, they're not going to be certified as the major party next time around, so they need to get 10% in order to be certified as a major party in colorado. in ohio, it's a very, very close race right now, 60% of the vote has been counted. john kasich, the republican and former congressman with 49%. ted strickland, 47%. it's a difference of about 67,235 right now. but once again, 40% of the vote has not yet been counted. these governors races, very important looking towards 2012 and the presidential race, especially in ohio, a key battle ground state. let goes back to anderson and the best political team on television. lots to assess right now. the tea party, the republicans, the democrats, go ahead. >> and we're obviously watching the situation in nevada closely, between harry reid and sharron angle. kind of embarrassing for republican it's they don't get

certified as a party in colorado. >> pat schroeder complained about him every single day. also who worked for me, paul ryan. he'll be the focus of a lost attention. people should read "the rothe r. dramatic cuts in spending, he calms for dramatic cuts in taxes, such as the elimination of the corporate tax. but let's have a good debate on it. but i wanted to make a civics lesson if i could. with all these gains for republicans, very important, big, significant, there are three branches of government. there's the courts, we're not talking about that. there's the presidency and the congress. it has two houses, the house and the senate. they will control one sixth of the government. they won't have majority control of anything except the house of representatives and that's not a majority of government. but inside of that, before we start talking too much about riffs inside the republican

party, no one i know inside this party is -- is not for cutting spending, balancing the budget, and trying to get some reform on this obama care, trying to repeal some of that obama care. those will be the three dominant issues and you'll have virtual unanimity about it. >> rand paul talks about cuts across the board, i assume that includes defense spending. >> among some republicans it won't be popular, but exactly right. these things, they'll have to work out. but it is on those thing that's there is deep and broad consensus. i think there will be less disagreement than you think on the big and broad issues that the people are saying are of top priority. >> but will things get accomplished in washington, if you have -- you have these folks coming in now who talked about no compromise whatsoever -- >> well, it depends. first of all the system is designed for gridlock. that's what the founding fathers wanted. that's why the senate is so hard to pass anything through.

but also, these folks are very unwilling to compromise, huge percentages of the republican base, huge, like a third, who believes the president is an anti-christ, believe me, they really hate him, and it's hard. but he's going to have to move to them as well. and i think they could. i mean, if it was me, i'd move right away on things like a pay roll tax holiday. not big spending programs like democrats like. they've got to move the needle on jobs, frankly both sides. hopefully you'll see from my party's side, lots of new ideas on creating jobs that can have republican appeal. >> you saw a ton of bills passed by the house. house democrats often complain, they did a lot of work and it went to the senate and it absolutely died. so you tell me. if you have 51, 52 democrats in the senate as opposed to 59 edd whatever they pass do you think it's going to get through the

senate? so you have democrats complaining about the same problem republicans are likely to face, which is it will stop at the senate. plus the president has the veto power. pass it all you want to. you can forget the president signing anything. you can't get to two-thirds. it's not going to happen. >> will this president move. >> he did a couple of things, which is this is the art of leadership. you knew when to -- when the republicans wanted to shut down the government in order to cut medicare, he said no, and he stopped them. and he won. so it's a difference between when to compromise and when not. that is the art of leadership. >> shutting down the issue, you've got to decide whether to raise the ceiling on the debt some time this spring, and the question is going to be whether republicans are going to do that. you also have another thing coming up, which is a budget. president obama has to send a budget up to the congress. right? and the republicans are going to

say in the house, that's dead on arrival. so what are they going to offer? will it be paul ryan? and i might say, paul ryan is a brilliant thinker, but he got 18 republican co-sponsors on his budget. right? on his road map. so it's not like he -- >> do you see president obama and what bill clinton did in '94? >> we haven't talked about it much tonight, the governors' races. when we started tonight, eight of the ten swing governors were held by democrats. we're going to come out of this night, nine out of those ten being held by republicans. significantly it matters on health care. we're talking about repealing it and who -- where does it go, to the senate, not a stitch of health care, obama care, can be instituted without the signature of governor. so that's going to have -- the policy implications of the victories of the governors is going to be very significant.

and not just on reportionment in 2012, but on real policy. but these governors, chris christie in new jersey and others, they're making the changes people want. so if washington continues to be dysfunctional, the governors are going to get the job done. >> erick? >> there's a benchmark for republicans. in 1994, they proposed cutting 94 specific agencies, departments or other entities within the federal government. by 2000, those 94 agencies were more than 100% larger, none of them had been cut. there's a real benchmark for the republicans this time around, as to whether or not they actually go in and can work with the democrats to cut agencies that both sides say are duplicative, repetitive. they're not afraid of a shutdown, when you ask them about shutting down government, their response is, yeah, bob

dole lost but we still kept congress. >> but your major budgetary changes will not come as a result of cutting agencies. >> it's a start. >> you can call it a start, but if you don't deal with the reality of social security, medicare and the defense, you're not going to have a real conversation about cutting. so the question, will they go after those three issues? and i say they won't. >> james? i want james to come in. >> i'm such a political guy, we've got all these races that we don't know the results of and everybody's going to talk about what's going to happen in january, what's going to happen in march. i'm kind of curious what's going to happen in the next couple of hours. i guess, you know, i'm not a government guy, i'm a politics guy. we've got some big races. >> we're going to lose bill bennett in a few minutes. as a former drug czar, proposition 19, what do you think? >> i heard they ran out of ballots at the university of california. >> they were rolling them and

smoking it. >> what do people pay for cnn's correspondent at hoekstra, this is still a joke to some people, except those who have had marijuana problems in their family. kids treated for marijuana, it's a serious drug, 20 times more powerful than the stuff in the '60s. it's a serious matter. california does not need to get dopeyer. >> i will say this, people watching, the democrats are kind of optimistic about the illinois senate race in nevada. we'll see if that optimism -- >> that's what you're hearing. >> that's what i'm hearing. >> i see you on your cell phone back and forth. i always wonder what you're doing. we've got to take a break. more coverage, and be right back. following the nevada race very closely. [ female announcer ] any hair shines in the spotlight.

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welcome back. we now have four more projections to make. governors races, important governors races. let's go through them. susana martinez, she will be the next governor of new mexico, succeeding bill richardson, it's a republican pickup. she's a latina, so this is historic in new mexico right now. in pennsylvania, tom corbett, another republican. he'll -- he's the attorney general, he'll become the next governor of pennsylvania. tom corbett will win that race. republican governor of pennsylvania. rick snyder, another republican, he comes, will become the next governor of michigan. it's another pickup for the republicans in these gubernatorial races. very interesting. in maryland, martin o'malley, the incumbent democrat, he is re-elected, he beats bob

erhlich. let's like at some other races we're looking at very closely. we'll go back to illinois right now. we haven't been able to make a projection in the senate race in illinois, but 65% of the vote in. look how close it is between the democrat, alexi giannoulias and the republican, mark kirk. it's -- giannoulias is ahead by 34,438 votes. so that's not much when you think about more than 2 million votes have already been cast. and counted in illinois. 35% of the vote still outstanding. so that's a close race, we have not yet been able to make a projection. illinois, that's the seat that barack obama held before he became president of the united states. and look at how close it is in pennsylvania right now. 73% of the vote has been counted. the democrat, joe sestak, slightly out of the republican, pat toomey. 3 million votes have been counted already, and sestak is

ahead by 18,092. look at how close it is. so they still have another 27% of the vote to count, but it is exceedingly close. let's get some more results coming in right now. colorado, look how close it is here in colorado. 42% of the vote counted, the incumbent, michael bennet, appointed to fill ken salazar's seat, 49.8% to ken buck, the tea party favorite, 45%. it's a difference of 37,000 votes out of what, about nearly 80,000 counts. and wisconsin, russ feingold not doing so well with 29% of the vote counted, 42%, ron johnson, the businessman, 56.7%. it's almost 92,000-plus difference. 29% of the vote counted. not necessarily looking all that great so far for russ feingold. let's go back to john king. he's taking a closer look at the

state of pennsylvania, john, and what are you seeing there? >> it's fascinating. now it's back to 50/50, sestak/toomey. if you look across the state, you see all this race, you say why isn't toomey, the republican, winning more? there are more votes in the philadelphia area, look at this. this is the philadelphia county, which is essentially center city, philadelphia, 95% of vote counted. 84% for joe sestak, 16% for pat toomey. if sestak wins this race, and we're not saying that, we're still counting the vote, this is still 50/50, but if he wins, he will owe mayor michael nutter a big thank you. it suggests all the effort by the president, by the mayor and by others to gin up african-american turnout in the center, in recent days, had some success. that is a huge thing there. if you go to the more rural areas, you see pat toomey is winning in the more rural republican areas but not by such

a huge margin and there are a lot more people. if you click around, this looks like a 50/50 race in pennsylvania. the democrats need to win in philadelphia. you have many people at the table who know this state well. if you go to allegheny county, sestak, a little more than 10 points, and the republicans win huge in the middle of the state. this is a classic. one more quick thing, wolf, i want to go to the house races. i want to show the national map. we know the republicans will take the house tonight. this is where we started the night in america. look at all this blue here. look at the blue through the midwest. down through the heartland. remember all this blue. up here, wisconsin and michigan, look at all this blue. we haven't called all these races yet, but we do know the republicans will win, and win more than 50 seatsf. when i take away from before the night began to now, there is a blood bath in the industrial heartland america and many being

toppled tonight who are losing. this is a hugely significant shift in the house of representatives in some incredibly important states when it comes to the manufacturing economy, the heartland states, and the governors races, about 2012 politics. >> it's fascinating stuff, and we've projected that the republicans will more than gain, the net gain of 39, they need to become the majority in the house, even more than the 52 the republicans got in 1994. look at this pennsylvania race, how close it is between joe sestak and pat toomey. more than 3 million votes counted already, 76% of the vote has been counted. toomey is now ahead by 2,171. it's 50.0% to 50.0%. this is about as close as it can get. this is going to be a night, they're going to be counting and counting these results in the state of pennsylvania. sestak, slightly behind by 2,171 votes, to pat toomey, 24% of the

vote still needs to be counted. we're watching pennsylvania closely. we're watching nevada closely. there are a bunch of states that are about to close, including california, oregon and washington state. at the top of the hour, much more of our coverage right after this. we asked people all over america where the best potatoes come from.

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i knew that. i knew that. look for the grown in idaho seal.

all right. we have another projection. governor of colorado, john hickenlooper, the mayor of denver, we project he will be the next governor of colorado. right now with 44% of the vote in 53% for hickenlooper.

look at the republican nominee, dan maes, only 9%. tom tancredo, running as an independent with 36%. a lot of our viewers will remember him, very, very fiercely opposed to illegal immigration in the country, but he does not win. hickenlooper, we project, will be the next governor of colorado. ali velshi is here with more numbers, exit poll numbers, telling us what the american people are thinking on this day. >> we know that the tea party has been a major influence on this election. how much of an influence has the tea party been? we have asked that question in our exit polls, including one reason for your vote today was to send a message to the tea party. 23% said that they were trying to send a message to the tea party. 18% said they cast their ballot against the tea party to take a message, that they were against the tea party. 56% of respond ants said the tea party was not a factor in their

decision, when they were casting a ballot. now, one of the things we've talked about as well, wolf, to what degree have independents played a role in -- how did they break, basically. that's what we're looking for. 45% of independents broke toward the republicans. 45% of independents support the republicans. take a look at this. 24% are neutral toward the tea party. 28% of independents oppose the tea party in this election. now, who are these people who are supporting the tea party? let me give you a sense of how they break down with respect to age. a little while ago we were talking about where older voters are going. well, look at this. 28%, 26% of 18 to 29-year-olds say they support the tea party. 38% of 30 to 59-year-olds say they support the tea party. 47% of those 60 and older say they support the tea party. so very clearly in our exit polls, the older you get, wolf,

the more likely you are to cast your ballot for the tea party. but the question about where independents went in this election, very clearly they broke for the republican party as opposed to the democrats. >> and you heard rand paul tell us just a little while ago, the newly elected senator from kentucky, if there's a tea party caucus, he wants a tea party caucus in the senate and you heard jim demint, re-elected, he'll be a member of that tea party caucus a well. the tea party a factor on this day in the united states. all right. it's 11 minutes before the top of the hour, and states will be closing their polls at the top of the hour, including california, oregon, washington state. anderson, we're going to be watching those very closely, especially washington state, that battle for the u.s. senate is very, very close. >> and we continue to follow the race in nevada, probably one of the most interesting racing we've been covering. what impact does the tea party have in the coming year? >> it's going to come out of this election, yes they've taken some losses tonight but also had a number of significant wins. i don't think there's any

question that if it were not for the tea party the republican margin in the house of representatives would not be as high as it's going to be. they gave a lot of enthusiasm and fuel to the republican party. now, when they come to washington, try to figure out the agenda, i think bill bennett had a point, and that is that the republicans are largely supportive of much of the tea party agenda, especially when it comes to cutting spending, and when it comes to hopefully cutting taxes from their point of view. we're trying to get the deficit under control. we clearly see throughout the country now a concern about where we are on deficits and the debt, and the tea party has -- you know -- >> but there's those who say the republican establishment will try to co-opt the tea party. >> but they'll have to give them some seats on key committees. it looks like the vote, looks very much like the ross perot vote. remember, he got 19%? looks like they had 23% of people supporting them, and -- >> you said they already have co-opted. >> the tea party is going to be

enveloped in the republican party. yes, you know, as david says, they're going to have to have some key appointments, but i think one of the things that will come out of this is the tea party has been -- i'm going to get killed for this, but a little bit naive about what they can accomplish once they get to washington. a couple of the candidates have to be reminded there are other branches that have to be dealt with. john boehner is going to run a fairly orderly ship in the house and incorporate some of these people. >> you about i think they have to make a splash, don't you? they have to come in and say, this is what we were elected to do. we were elected to cut the budget deficit. we were elected to make government smaller. so maybe we want to cross the board, 2% freeze, maybe we want to shut down the department of education. we want to play guerilla warfare on health care reform. we don't want to fund health care reform. they'll try to repeal it but won't be able to. they need to take a stand. and in the end if the republican

establishment doesn't go along with them, i think they split off. you know? >> the republican establishment spoke in the weeks leading up to this election. mitch mcconnell said defeating president obama was mission number one. every other republican said no compromise on any issue. we asked leading republican after leading republican, where will you cut the budget? nobody had a specific, meaningful answer. they came up we'll cut the national endowment of the arts. nobody said anything about medicare, medicaid, defense, social security, nada, nothing. their answers have been meaningless. so unless they come -- >> that's what they do, you really -- >> they said we will raise the age of retirement, we have had meaningful answers from private sector voices, from leading democrats so, the republicans need to come to the table -- >> let me get erick erickson. >> the issue is by in large the tea party movement has banked on the republicans being the party of no. and it's worked quite well for the republicans this year. i've heard a lot of people say

the republicans could not win. in fact i read the transcript from this night in 2008 in every single person at 1:00 in the morning, other than yourself, said the republicans were going to have to work with the democrats or they were going to have greater losses in 2010. they've benefited from being the party of no. the tea party activists really don't care when they get to washington what they cut as long as they start cutting something. the big fight is going to be about for the tea party activists, believe it or not, because it's not a sexy issue, is earmarks and whether or not republicans will block earmarks because they view earmarks as the guy wait to bigger government. every piece of major legislation they've passed in the past ten years has been loaded up with earmarks to get the vote to various members of congress. that will be the fight they have with the senate republicans more than the house republicans, because the house republicans are already signaling, okay, this is going to be a bigger fight for the tea party. >> you think they'll do that early on. >> i think they'll do it before january. >> i would like to see all those tea partiers go to senator thad cochran say, since you're the

biggest receiver of earmarks, give them back. watch. >> you're going to see people like cork get challenged if they don't do anything about it. >> earmarks don't cause the federal budget deficit. almost nothing to do with it. let me go back to the tea party politically tonight. they're limiting republican gains in the senate. they nominated candidates in some of these states, obviously delaware was one of them, perhaps in nevada, colorado, they're in tough races in lots of places that they should be winning pretty easily in a wave election when they've taken back the house. and in colorado, in the governor's race, if in fact dan maes, the republican, falls below 10% because of the constitution party, which is sort of tea party type, tom tancredo candidate, then 2012, and 2014, republicans will not be at the top of the ballot. you know, in colorado, usually it's republican, democrat, democrat, republican, and then

all the other kalther cats and . it will be american and constitution party and then way down there with the rent's too damn high party is the republican nomination for president. >> when you look at republicans across the country, particularly in the statewide races, what you're seeing are the republicans in washington saying, we like this guy, and you're seeing in the state level republican activists saying, but we don't. and they have these fights. if you look in wisconsin with ron johnson or, they're dictating who the guy should be. that's where we are seeing these fight. >> we have another projection we're going to make. we'll go to wolf for that. wolf? >> major projection, major pickup for the republicans in the united states senate, cnn now projects ron johnson, the republican challenger to russ feingold, the long-time democratic senator from the state of wisconsin, ron johnson will be the next senator from

wisconsin. russ feingold will lose. right now, we're 39% of the actual vote in, johnson has 54%, to fine gold's 45%. nearly 1 million votes cast, but still, based on the exit polls, based on all the information we're getting, this is a big, big loss for russ feingold. he hoped to come back and to win this contest, even though polls in wisconsin showed him behind. he was refusing to accept outside pac money. he did have a record of voting independently on many issues, but he did vote with the president on health care reform. that probably hurt him in wisconsin right now. feingold will not be returning to washington as a united states senator. ron johnson will be coming to washington. that means there's another net pickup for the republicans. they now need six more, a net gain of six more in order to bump the majority in the senate. that's very, very difficult for them.

let's go to dana bash, our senior congressional correspondent. dana, you're in washington, you're watching this unfold over at the republican headquarters there. i'm sure they're thrilled that feingold loses to ron johnson. >> reporter: they are. they're absolutely thrilled. they heard the news and there was cheering here. there's no question about it. and it really is, this is somebody who covers the senate, wolf, it is stunning to see that. it wasn't unexpected, but it is still stunning to see. watching russ feingold, he was legitimately somebody who could tell voters back home that he told both parties to take a hike, that he was independent, yet it doesn't matter and it didn't matter for him in this overwhelming atmosphere against democrats, and against incumbent democrats like him. one other thing i just wanted to tell you, wolf, and that is about the discussion about the tea party and the tea party's effect and influence particularly in the new house majority. we were told john boehner, who is in the building and making calls, he did a skype call with tea party activists in his home

district in liberty township, and we're told from a boehner aide, they gave him a standing ovation and he said to the ptea party activists on that call, i'll never let you down. very note worthy, i think, that the boehner staff made sure that we knew about this call early on, that he was reaching out to tea party activists, making very clear that he hears them and he's going to be with them when he goes forward in his agenda. >> all right, dana, thanks very much. we'll check back with you. i want to check in with shannon travis, our cnn producer. he's with tea party activists in washington, d.c. shannon, i assume they're happy, even though some of their candidates lost. >> reporter: they're absolutely happy. we're here with the tea party patriots here at the hyatt regioncy on capitol hill, and the republicans are obviously celebrating the republican wins, but get this, they are telling republicans not so fast. don't party so fast, that you are on probation. i spoke with mark meckler.

he said, listen, republicans, if you think you can skate for the next two years, you can't. we'll be watching you. and their victories tonight should sound a resounding message to the republican establishment, that, either get on board with the tea party message or possibly face targeting yourself in the next two years. >> shannon, shannon travis over with these tea party activists. we're watching closely with you, let me just reset what's going on. the republicans, we project, will be the majority in the united states senate in the new congress. not only that, not only will they have the net gain of more than 39 seats that they needed to become the majority, but they will have more than that. we are even projecting more than the 52 net gain that the republicans had back in 1994, when newt gingrich and the contract with america, when they became the majority in the house of representatives. the senate, a very different story. but the republicans are making gains in the united states senate.

they needed a net gain of ten in order to become the majority in the senate. so far, they have not gotten that close. there are still some very close races out there. they did get a net gain in wisconsin, as we just projected, when russ feingold, we project, will lose. and that will be a net gain for the republicans in the senate. ron johnson will be the next u.s. senator from wisconsin. let's make some more projections. all right, at the top of the hour, it's 11:00 p.m. on the east coast. ron wyden will be re-elected from oregon. we expected this, ron wyden beating the republican, jim hoffman, he'll come back for another six years in the united states senate. similarly for mike crapo, the idaho senator, mike crapo beating the democrat, easily

re-elected in the reliably-red state of idaho. those are -- those are two projections we're making right now. so there's no net gain or net loss for the democrats or the republicans. lets take a look at some raw exit poll data, i'll start in california. the governor's race, right now, these are raw exit poll numbers based on interviews we do together with the network, television networks and the associated press. doesn't necessarily mean this is what's going to happen. but right now, based on the raw exit poll data, we have jerry brown with 53%, meg whitman with 43%. it looks like jerry brown is in good shape but we're not ready to make a projection on the california governor's race. the california senate race, very similar numbers, based on the raw exit poll data, we're getting barbara boxer, the incumbent senator, 53%, carly fiorina, the challenger, the republican businesswoman, 43%. interestingly, both carly

fiorina and meg whitman spent tens of millions of their own money trying to defeat these democrats. they're behind in the raw exit poll data, but these are not necessarily the final numbers by any means. in washington state right now, patty murray, the incumbent democrat with 52%, dina rossi, the republican challenger with 46%. these are raw exit poll data. i want to be precise, it's not necessarily final numbers, but it's showing you a trend of what's going on. we have another projection, a major projection, the governor of south carolina race, nikki haley we project will become the next governor of south carolina, beating vincent sheheen, 52% to 46%. she had the strong support of sarah palin, the tea party movement. she is a first-generation american. her parents are indians from

india, nikki haley will be the next governor of south carolina. big win for the republicans. a big win for the tea party movement in south carolina right now. anderson, it's after 11:00 p.m. on the west coast, we're watching all these races closely, california, in particular. >> obviously nikki haley had been pinpointed by sarah palin for some early support in that state. >> but her indian support across the country really built a base of support i think for a national race as well. i mean, she has now the first indian-american female governor in u.s. history, the first female governor of south carolina and bobby jindal would be the first, not counting gender. big for a lot of first. >> sarah palin certainly put nikki on the map in a big way, but nikki haley was nicky haley

before sarah palin came on the scene. she was mark san ford in a dress is how she was referred to. so sarah gets credit for making us all aware of her in a larger way, but nikki haley was already nikki haley. >> could she have won without sarah palin? >> i don't think she could have, because when sarah palin came to town, she shot up from bottom to top. and lots of people went after her and tried to bring her down, and you don't have -- when you go after a woman candidate the way some people did in that state, a couple of men came out and said, really horrible things, and at that point nikki haley was in. >> it seems to me the most effective campaign we've seen over the past couple of months, i hate to say it, was fire nancy pelosi. that seems to be the message that resonated through the republican party and what led to this tidal wave on the congressional side. i think sarah palin, who is the one who has been driving this, comes out a huge winner tonight. i don't know how far the tea party will be integrated into

the republican party -- >> eliot is always pushing sarah palin. >> you also have to gave sarah palin credit for taking risk to hand-pick candidates who long before other people were. she wasn't making safe choices, she was really going out there and picking some people who she really elevated. >> that's right. and even though she may not be the candidate in 2012, she could well be the king maker for the republican nomination. she has put herself in a position where her endorsement, her enthusiasm, what she can rally, actually makes a difference. >> can i point out her candidate in new hampshire won. right? new hampshire, important, early stage. >> but i think it's also interesting, the number of women who have won, ten years ago if this many women had won, we'd all be saying, wow. but it's just part of -- >> wow. >> and more women have run than ever before. >> you've got new hampshire, maryland, it's just -- it's

would have be woven into the fabric now. >> and carly fiorina, linda mcmahon -- >> carl paladino -- let's listen. >> you're not going to separate us, you can try it somewhere else, but you're not going to sell that in new york. we are one. we are united. we believe in community. we believe in finding the similarities among people. and we're not going to let you separate us. yes, we have challenges. yes, we have to clean up albany. yes, we have to get the economy running. yes, we have to rebuild trust with the people. we're going to do all of that. because we faced worse than this before. but we're going to do it together. we are going to be united. that's what made this day this

day. and that's what's going to make this state the empire state once again. and tonight, tonight, my friends, the campaign is over, and the politics are over. and it's not about being a democrat, it's not about being a republican, it's not about being an independent. we are new yorkers first, and we're going to leave here today as new yorkers. and we are going to be more united than we ever have been before, committed to reinventing this government, and giving this state a government it can be proud of. confidence, performance, integrity, that's the government they deserve, that's the government they're going to get, that's what you made possible. we're going to have a great lieutenant governor, we're going to have a great team. thank you, thank you, thank you. for making it possible.

let's go do it. thank you, and god bless you. thank you. >> andrew cuomo saying the politics are over, is he right about that, eliot spitzer? >> at least until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> but obviously a very substantial win for andrew cuomo. not a surprise that karl paladino wasn't able to do anything. >> paladino was fun to watch, wasn't he? >> what's been interesting, though, the democrats seem to have a really strong hold on the west coast where we've seen both major republican candidates went down. it's very hard to penetrate the west coast, and the democrats have a strong lock on sort of new york, deval patrick winning night, along with cuomo. so that's still a republican challenge. they've made some headway in some of the congressional races. >> it's two coasts clearly democratic and then the huge swath in the middle, it is much less so. >> if you -- i don't think paladino was a serious

candidate, honestly, but if you look in upstate new york in house races, in the northeast, you're going to see some serious gains for republicans. >> you're right. but the numbers i'm getting are shown in some the upstate swing seats, democrats, as per the rest of the house, are going to be losing john paul in the hudson valley and perhaps a little farther upstate, look like they're losing and that i think will be a symbol of what's coming. >> paul, do you think we're going to be able to call nevada tonight? >> hopefully, but no. it's so close there. and both running against the only person they could beat, sharron angle and harry reid. if anybody else was nominated by either party, they would win. this is the night to look for rising stars. i think marco rubio, plaeninly rising star. nikki haley, a rising star in

her party. but cuomo, watch him. he's more familiar to the political press, he won a big victory against a not very great opponent, but this say rising star in my party. >> i should point out, no votes in from nevada, so no sense. we saw the exit polls but we're watching obviously that closely. our coverage continues in a moment. 3q if you have osteoporosis, and you take once-monthly boniva,

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it's a european shoulder bag. it was a gift. mm-hmm. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. for those of you just tuning in, the republicans we project will be the majority in the next session of the united states house of representatives. nancy pelosi will no longer be the speaker of the house.

john boehner will become the speaker. not only will republicans have a net gain of at least 39, we project they'll have a net gain of more than 52. more than 52 in the house of representatives, even more than the republicans gained back in 1994 when newt gingrich hand contract with americans became the majority in the house of representatives. lots of senate races are still undecided at this point, including in california. these are very early results coming in, 2% of the vote is now in very early. barbara boxer with 50%, she is the democratic incumbent. carly fiorina with 44%. but it's still very early. the gubernatorial contest, look how close it is with 1% of the vote counted, 47% to 47%, jerry brown and meg whitman. we'll see how those votes come in and then we'll be able to at some point make a projection. john, you're over at the cnn, we call it the election matrix. beginning of the night it was largely, largely blue.

because the democrats were in control. but now we're beginning to see that shift towards red. >> and take a look around me. as you see the class of 2006, the class of 2008 n 2006 and 2008, change was blue. america was becoming more democratic. tonight change is red. as america, especially in the house of representatives, becomes more republican. what you see flashing right there, that is a seat that has changed hands. two dozen of our cnn 100. we started the night with the 100 most competitive house races, 91 now held by democrats, two dozen have already in these 100 races switched over to republicans and it is everywhere in the country, wolf. let me give you a few examples. illinois, 17. this is the president's home state. in january, he will be replaced by bobby shilling. why is this so stunning? the president carried this district with 56% of the vote, just two years ago. and phil hare unopposed. loses two years later.

virginia '05, tom perriello, one of the patrick democrats, that's what the republicans called him, voted yes on health care, yes on stimulus, yes on cap and trade. he will be a former congressman in january. this was a district john mccain carried, a key target for republican tonight. if you watch the pickups, a lot are coming in those districts. we just did virginia, we did the president's home state of illinois. now you look here, liberal -- you talked about this earlier. alan grayson ran what many democrats called a reprehensible ad against daniel webster. daniel webster not only wins it, but win it's handily. wolf, i don't want to totally depress the democrats at home. you see a lot of flashing red there, but if you come over here and look right down here, mary matalin's hometown, now heavy democrat congressman. said krik richard mond

cedrick rich mond richmond did t there. again, that is one brief bit of good news from the democrats. but just look. just look as we swing through the classes. you see all that red, you see all that flashing at home, those are republican pickups and we are nowhere near finished. we do know the republicans will win most likely 60 seats, and, wolf, it is north, south, east, west. liberals and moderates are being beat. it is a shellacking when it comes to the house. >> some of the democrats, some of the chairmen of powerful committees, ike skelton, these guy that's have been in the house for a long time. they are challenged, serious challenges by republicans. do we have projected winners in those districts? >> i was at the map earlier, john dingell no longer a chairman, but longest serving member of the house, i was looking at his results and he was leading and only slightly. we're not ready to call that race but we'll check on spratt

in missouri, those guys are in the cnn 100. we have not called those races. the dingell race, some surprising ones out there. you're losing new members but you're absolutely right, by the end of the night, we're likely to lose more veteran democrats as well. >> john dingell has been in the house for decades, if he goes down that would be a huge setback for the democrats. check on barney frank. >> barney frank is winning. i don't know if we called that yet, the last time i looked he was comfortably ahead. he did have a bit of a scare. the interesting thing about that, is barney frank brought bill clinton to massachusetts, he had a little bit of a scare of giving his money away to other democrats, john spratt just lost, i'm told. the man who is the house budget committee chairman has lost his race in south carolina. >> wow. >> that's another sign, veteran democrats going down. allies of nancy pelosi, allies of the president of the united states, targeted in this campaign. we've talked quite a bit about the president tonight. the republicans have succeeded in making nancy pelosi a national villain, if you look at

all this red behind us. >> it's an interesting phenomenon, what's going on. stand by, john. i want to check out some more of those house races. let's look at what's happening in pennsylvania right now. it's very, very close. 84% of the votes have been counted in pennsylvania, pat toomey, the republican, with 50.5%. joe sestak, the democrat, 49.5%. it's a difference of 36,402 votes. they've still got 16% of the vote left to count in pennsylvania, but this is really, really close. pat toomey slightly ahead, joe sestak, the incumbent congressman, a retired u.s. navy admiral, pat toomey a former congressman. but we'll see what happens when they finish counting the votes. i suspect we'll need to wait for this to be resolved the old-fashioned way with the votes being counted. eric cantor is one of the top

leaders on the republican side in the house of representatives. he's joining us now, let's get some reaction from him. congressman, thanks very much for coming in. >> wolf, good to be with you. >> what's your immediate reaction? you've won some, you've lost some, but you're going to be in the majority in the house of representatives. we at cnn project you'll have at least a 52-seat net gain. you needed 39, so that's considerably more than you needed, but what is your estimate right now? how many seats will you have as a net gain in the next congress? >> wolf, i've learned not to go into the crystal ball business. i'm very excited, as are most in our republican conference, to be given this second chance. we've got a golden opportunity as republicans to set the record straight, to actually say we're going to listen to the people, which is what the vote tonight is about. the american people felt they've been ignored, they looked at the policies of the last 20 months, the policies being put in place by the obama administration and

said enough. we want a check on that. we want to get back to focusing on cutting spending and to put a priority on getting people back to work. and that's what we're going to be about. >> you're definitely going to have the majority in the house of representatives, buff t but you going to get anything done with a split in the house and the senate and with the president of the united states having veto power as the leader of the executive branch of the u.s. government? >> you know, this is not a game here in washington. this is about being a government that's responsive to the people. and what people have said tonight is they want their government focused on job creation. they also understand we can't keep spending money we don't have. so the mandate tonight, wolf, is really about rejecting the policies of the other side, because they haven't worked. the american people want results. they want us to get back to work, and they actually say, you

know what? we do want the opportunity to succeed again. and i think the american people are willing to take responsibility if they have that chance again. i'm hopeful that the president is going to reassess and come and meet nus in terms of an agenda, focus on small businesses, they're the ones that need to create jobs. >> give us an example of a major program, we're talking about billions and billions of dollars you would immediately cut if you had the power. >> well, again, we have as republicans, an approach to say we start by saying bring spending back down to '08 levels. you know what? you think about it, wolf, it wasn't that long ago, the sun rose and set in 2008, and we've got to begin to take those kinds of steps, put the federal government on a diet and reflect on the fact that's what most people in america have been doing over the last couple years. it's time for government to live

within its means. so we've got that approach first, which will save $100 billion in the first year alone and can get us almost to $1 trillion in the budget window, and that's the kind of spirit i think you're going to see the new republican conference be about. this is not to be -- >> can you give us a specific program, congressman, that you would immediately cut? some tea party activists say eliminate the department of education. eliminate the department of energy. you'll save billions of dollars. what program would you cut to save a significant sum, amount of money? >> first of all, $100 billion in the first year alone is pretty significant if you go to the discretiononary levels of '08. we as republicans have put proposals of the you cut program. we take, for instance, the expanded welfare program that was put in place under the stimulus bill. this was a program that will save over $1 billion right up front, and this is a program

that is welfare without the work requirement. it has gone back on the incentives put in place during the clinton years that we actually saw some success. you know, we've got other programs in the you cut program that make a lot of sense. you know, we look at trying to make sure that we accomplish some savings through revamping the gses. this is the fannie mae and freddie mac situation where you know that the taxpayers are on the hook for tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, of dollars. so we've got some proposals out there. we have posited them, we have already voted on them. and these are the things you'll see a republican majority bring forward right away so we can get this economy going again and rein in the very unfriendly regulatory environment that the obama administration has put into place and has stifled business hiring. >> you're going to be in the majority now, you're going to have more responsibility, congressman eric cantor, republican of virginia, we'll be

in close touch with you. thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. >> eric cantor of virginia. let's take a look at some numbers that are coming in right now from california. the senate race, 8% of the vote is now in. it's close with 8%, 47% for barbara boxer. the republican carly fiorina with 46%. the governor's race, 3% of the vote is in in california. jerry brown, 50%, meg whitman, 45%. and look at this. this is proposition 19, to legalize marijuana use for recreational purposes, only 2% of the vote for this referendum has been counted, but 43% say yes, legalize marijuana, 57% say no. don't legalize marijuana. but only 2% of the vote has actually been counted. we'll stay on top of all of these races in california. remember, go to cnn.com, you can get a lot more information.

can you drill deeper in all the house races, the senate races, the governors races, can you actually do what john king is doing with our data wall, with our election matrix. cnn.com. watch us with your laptop. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] introducing splenda® no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

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all right. we're getting more than 50% of the vote now having been counted in nevada. look at this, harry reid, the majority leader with 53%, sharron angle, the tea party favorite, 43%. 2% for none of these candidates or none of the above. they can vote for none of these candidates in nevada. 51%, that's a lead of about 37,000 for harry reid. we're not yet ready to make any projection in nevada, but 51% of the vote was counted already. in washington state, the senate race very close. take a look at this, 34% of the

vote in, dino rossi, the challenger to patty murray, the incumbent, 54% to 46%. he's ahead by 58,000 votes or so, but that's only a third of the vote has actually been counted in california. let's take a closer look at colorado right now, 47% of the vote has been counted. michael bennet, the democrat, he was appointed to the senate with 50%, ken buck, the tea party favorite, the republican, 45%. again, less than half of the vote counted, but bennet, slightly ahead of buck so far. in pennsylvania, 84% of the vote now has been counted, pat toomey building up a slight lead of 131,000, 52% over joe sestak's 48%. that's with 84% of the vote counted. sestak slightly behind pat toomey. it's close. we're not yet ready to make any projections. but let's go back over to cnn's

john king. he's taking a look at the balance of power in the united states senate. what are you seeing right now? >> here's why the results you're just giving us are so significant. if one more race goes to the democrats tonight, just one more, they will maintain their senate majority. let me show you why. this is how we started the night right here. there's the 37 races we know in the country. now let's flip them over and assign them based on what we've called so far and let me add this. a few moments ago we call this had wisconsin race for ron johnson. let me give that one to the republicans. here's where we stand right now. 49 democratic seats, 45 in republican hands, so there will be more republicans in the united states senate without a doubt after tonight. the question is can they get to 51 in one, two, three, four, five, six. six left. the illinois seat. that's barack obama's old seat. the nevada seat you just mentioned, harry reid, california and barbara boxer, colorado, bennet, murray and the

sestak/toomey race. republicans need to run the board. it's like drawing an inside straight, they would have to win every one of these six left to get to 51 and a senate majority. that's perfection, wolf, as we head on out. that's why this pennsylvania race is so important. you just mentioned how important it was, sestak/toomey, incredibly close. just as you were speaking, rossi goes ahead, we've got see saws there. and democrats were favored in this one, we haven't calm it'd yet, but that's all it would take right there. bar brother boxer winning and that would mean mitch mcconnell would be the republican leader but not the majority leader in the next senate. this is fascinating chess being played. and where we are right now, republicans essentially need to win every outstanding united states senate race to get to 51. there will be more republicans in washington, without a doubt. conceivably still 50/50, but they've got to win them all if they want to be the majority. >> for the democrats it's a far

cry from the 60 which was a filibuster-proof majority in the senate. a lopsided majority if they get down to 51 or 52. >> and a great point. even if the democrats retain control or even if the republicans somehow magically get to that 51, it's going to be very difficult to do serious business in the senate. whoever wins is going to have a very, very small majority. >> john, stand by. we'll get back to you. much more of our coverage coming up. anderson cooper is standing by with the best political team on television. we'll be right back. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters.

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political team on television has gorged themselves on pizza and ready to resume discussion. alex castellanos, what do you think of what's going on tonight? >> why aren't republicans doing a little bit better in senate race than house races? we can still win pennsylvania and illinois, but colorado, california, don't look so good. and i think it's the weakness in the republican party we're seeing tonight. america decided to put a brake pedal on barack obama's car tonight, stop spending, stop the health care, the expansion is of government, but you only need one brake pedal. so the republicans are still the party of no, stop what obama's doing, our -- what we need to do for the next two years, how would we lead, how would we govern, show me what american would be like if republicans led. >> interesting to hear eric cantor saying what marco rubio said, thank you for giving us a second chance. >> in '06 when the democrats took back the senate, one of the things carville and i were saying is we have not been given a mandate, just a chance.

i think that's what's happening with the republicans here. since that day, democrats gained, in '06 and '08, 55 seats in the house. they may lose them all tonight. we may be pretty close to status quo circa november 2006. >> i was just going to say, the other thing he said when you asked him about the cuts, he said he had $100 billion, $100 billion in a deficit of $11 trillion over ten years, he wants to extend tax cut that's will add $4 trillion to the deficit there. is simply not an answer from the republican side about how they're going to close that deficit. >> do away with the myth that it's hard to balance the budget. government's been growing at 7.3% a year. if you freeze it at 0% growth, you balance in 2016. 2% growth, which would allow for inflation, you balance the budget in 2020. it's not that hard, you just have to get off the habit.

kick the habit. >> what should be the highest priority of the next congress, cutting taxes, 19%. reducing the deficit? 39%. spending to create jobs, 37%. >> what does that tell but the conflict going on in the united states? >> it tells me the republicans need to manage expectations. >> we need to talk about the new -- >> the point, i'm intrigued tonight looking across the country at the races, statewide races versus district level races where the republicans are performing. i'm sure there will be a lot of blame back and forth, the republicans in washington, the nrse i'm sure will blame tea party candidates in some of those states, but we're seeing in iowa, the judges who legalize same-sex marriages, looks like they'll get trounced. we're seeing legislatures flipping to the republican party. this isn't just the federal level, it's all levels of government. if you remember in 1994, not only did we see this trouncing across the nation, we saw dozens and dozens of democratic officials suddenly become republican. i don't know there are any left who would become republican, but

this is something that's happening not just at the federal level today. >> and also, a critical issue. president obama wins 2008. the question came up, are we talking about an obama movement or is it an obama moment. and the reality is you're seeing it is the moment. look at his home state. pat quinn, barely leading in the governor's race. alexi giannoulias, behind in the u.s. senate race. incumbent democrat losing, incumbent democrat, losing. so when you have an issue where you're the sitting president and you're having fundamental problems in your home state, in a state where democrats -- excuse me, republicans don't hold a single statewide race, there are some critical issues for the democratic party. >> john boehner is about to speak in washington, d.c., at the rnc headquarters. big night for him. let's listen. >> tireless leadership that he exhibited over at the nrcc along with his sidekick, they have

done a marvelous job on behalf of our team. and i want to thank all of our candidates, our supporters, our volunteers who are have worked so hard to make this moment possible. let me just say this. it's clear tonight who the winners really are, and that's the american people. it was the american people's voice heard at the ballot box. the american people's voice. and, listen, i'm going to be brief because we've got real work to do, and frankly this is not a time for celebration. not when one out of ten of our fellow citizens is out of work, not when we've buried our children under a empty of debt, and not when our congress is held in such low esteem. this is a time to roll up our sleeves. a time to look forward with determination and to take the first steps toward building a

better future for our kids and our grandkids. across the country right now, we're witnessing a repudiation of washington. a repudiation of big government and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the american people. of course, this campaign's not over yet. until the folks out west where the polls may still be open, this is the time to seize that moment to make sure your voice is heard. to reject the spending sprees, the bailouts, the back room deals, the takeovers and all the nonsense, and to join your fellow americans in putting washington on notice. because for far too long, washington's been doing what's best for washington, not what's best for the american people. and tonight, that begins to change.

with their voices, the american people are demanding a new way forward in washington. now, i'm here to tell you tonight that our new majority will be prepared to do things differently, to take a new approach that hasn't been tried in washington before by either party. it starts with cutting spending instead of increasing it. reducing the size of government instead of increasing it. and reforming the way congress works in giving the government back to the american people. and for all those families who were asking, where are the jobs, it means ending the uncertainty in our economy and helping small businesses get back to work. the people's priorities will be our priorities.

and the people's agenda will be our agenda. this is our pledge to america, and this is our pledge to you. while our new majority will serve as your voice in the people's house, we must remember, it's the president who sets the agenda for our government. the american people have sent an unmistakable message to him tonight, and that message is, change course. we hope president obama will now respect the will of the people, change course, and to commit to making changes that they are demanding. and to the extent he's willing to do that, we're ready to work with him. but make no mistake, the president will find in our new majority the voice of the american people as they've expressed it tonight. standing on principle, checking

washington's power, and leading the drive to a smaller, less costly, and more accountable government here in washington, d.c. these are the principles our new majority will stand for. and we hope that, mr. president, you'll stand with us in the hard work that lies ahead. because we are humbled by the trust that the american people have placed in us, and we recognize that with this comes the responsibility to listen, and listen we will. let's start right now by recognizing that this is not a time for celebration, it's a time to roll up our sleeves and go to work. we can celebrate when small businesses begin hiring again. we can celebrate when the spending binge here in washington has stopped. and we can celebrate when we

have a government that has earned the trust of the people that it serves. when we have a government that honors the constitution and stands up for the values that have made america america. things like economic freedom, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. listen, i hold these values dear because i've lived them. i spent my whole life chasing the american dream. >> usa! usa! usa! >> all right.

listen, i started out mopping floors, waiting tables and tending bar at my dad's tavern. i put myself through school. working every rotten job there was. and every night shift i could find. and i poured my heart and soul into running a small business. and when i saw how out of touch washington had become with the core values of this great nation, i put my name forward and ran for office. so i want to thank my wife, debbie, my girls, lindsay and tricia, my 11 brothers and sisters, and all my friends and neighbors in ohio for giving me

the chance to serve and the opportunity to stand before you ready to lead. i thank all of you. god bless you, and god bless our great country. thank you. >> john boehner, an emotional speech from him, as next speaker of the house. mary, what did you think of that? >> he's awesome. i mean, he is america. one of 12 kids, worked in his daddy's bar, did mop, what you see is what you get. and he is -- he will be able to run that place as i said earlier, the likes of which we haven't seen since tip o'neal. he really is the real deal. he has a great step, and while we're on greats, the nrcc, do you know, they went out and recruited all these candidates when obama was at 67%. it was hard to recruit then. they got good candidates, they

supported them, mentored them, they're smart candidates coming from all walks of life, just like john boehner. and that dynamic in the house is going to answer the call that the american people put out. whatever -- whatever the margins are. >> clearly, they wanted to send a message tonight, though, not of celebrating some victory, but of sort of a night of humility. >> they very much wanted to. i think he hit the right note. as paul and mary have both said, his background, john boehner's story really is one of rising himself up out of poverty to a degree. very, very hard childhood, with his family. and you know, the interesting thing to me in all of this is that when you look at the night, and i've made this point before, when you look at what the senatorial committee did versus the congressional committee in the house, the nrcc did not go in and really dictate, saying, this is going to be the guy we're going to back. and the the nrcc is going to have a better night, because they went into districts and

really recruited from within the district people who related to the grassroots. and we're seeing that. >> there is this fissure, between the elites and the insurgents. if i were in the white house advising president obama, i'd say let's put a wedge in there. and that wedge is anti-corruption, anti-lobbyist. i think they could find common cause with the zealous reformer in barack obama if he were to take that up as his second party. first is jobs, but the second one there, because mr. boehner, great speech, and very emotio l emotional. his most famous quote will be, i am cozy with lobbyists and democrats should use that coziness to make these insurgent republicans very uncomfortable. >> it is easier for you to find candidates who will be able to win a congressional race, that's set up, solely based upon can you get out your hardcore

supporters as opposed to running the statewide races. soy thin so i think that makes sense. >> i agree with you on that part. >> we'll see in nevada. but statewide, you can appeal to your base, like christine o'donnell in a primary, then you get crushed in the general because all of a sudden it doesn't apply. the rules change. >> david gergen? >> first of all, i think we saw a very different side of john boehner tonight. one that if he could continue having showing some vulnerability and some emotional connection to the country in coming out of the mainstream, that's something that president obama has spectacularly had a problem with since he's become president for reasons none of us can fully understand. but i disagree with paul begala on this one point. i don't think this is the time to figure out how to drive wedges in the opposition. this is really a time for serious people, when the country is so clearly hurting, so clearly sent a negative message, we don't like what's going on there, to see if you can't find some common ground across these bridges and see if we can get jobs going and get this economy

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we're not ready to make a projection in nevada, but look at this. 57% of the vote is now in, harry reid, the majority leader, he has 51.6% to sharron angle, the republican, 43.9%. none of the above, none of these candidates, 2%. 59% of the vote in. he's ahead by 33,645 votes. still almost -- more than 40% of the vote still to come. so we're watching nevada very, very closely. let's bring in ali velshi, he's watching nevada for us as well. what are you seeing? >> nevada is interesting because there are a lot of economic issues, but what we asked people

in the exit poll, do you think harry reid has been in washington for too long? and let me show you what they said to us when we asked them that question. the first -- hang on, let me get these running. there we go. here's what people told us. 55% of respondants thought harry reid had been serving too long. 41% said no. that breaks down, according to candidate, if you think harry reid's been there too long, you are likely to vote for sharron angle. let's look at this, do you think sharron angle's position on the issues are too far to the right? 44% say she's too conservative. 13% say she's not conservative enough. 31% say she is about right. sharron angle is about in the right place. i want to show you one more. this is something that interests me particularly, and it's about foreclosures. nevada is a big foreclosure state. we asked people specifically, are you worried that you or a relative will lose a home to

foreclosure? look at this, wolf. 53% of voters said they are worried that they or a relative could lose a home to foreclosure. 46% are not worried. nevada has, by the way, the highest unemployment rate in the country. we've been getting a lot of tweets about this new technology. my favorite is someone who said perhaps i should challenge anderson to a wicked game of pong right here. >> a wicked game. thanks very much. we have a major projection. all right. cnn now projects the democrats will in fact retain congress control of the united states senate. the republicans needed to win ten, a net gain of ten in the senate. they are not going to get ten seats, a net gain of ten seats in the united states cincinnase. the democrats will retain control of the senate. irrespective of what happens to

harry reid in nevada. we have not made a projection in nevada yet. harry reid facing a tough challenge from sharron angle. whether or not he is elected, the democrats will be in the majority in the senate. a very different story in the house of representatives. we projected a while ago the republicans would be the majority in the house of representatives. not only would they have a gain of the 39 seats that they needed, the net gain that they needed, they will have more than 52. that's what the republicans gained back in 1994 when bill clinton was president of the united states. the republicans under newt gingrich and the contract with america won 52 seats then. but right now we can project that the republicans will be the majority in the house, but not in the cincinnatsenate. barbara boxer will be re-elected, she will beat carly fiorina in that senate contest in california, with 24% of the

actual vote in. she is ahead 48% to 46%. but based on exit polling, based on other information that our experts are getting, we project that barbara boxer will be re-elected. and that explains why the democrats will retain the majority in the senate t may not be a huge majority. certainly won't be the 59-41 majority they've had in the current u.s. senate. remember, they started off with 60-40 until scott brown, the republican, won in massachusetts, bringing it down to 59. but they will retain the majority in the united states senate. it's a big win for the democrats. they were very, very nervous that they would lose the majority in the senate, as they are doing in the house of representatives. but because barbara boxer will win in california, we project the democrats will retain the majority. anderson, so the democrats barely will be the majority in the senate, the republicans will be in the majority in the house of representatives.

we're talking a little bit about a divided legislative branch of the u.s. government. >> you missed it because you weren't looking, we let donna brazile have sort of a church moment here, i thought i saw her palms raise to the skies. >> absolutely. barbara boxer can of my favorite members of the united states senate, and you know, as a woman, i shouldn't cry because that shows a sign of weakness -- >> john boehner cried. >> john boehner can do it. >> right. >> and he was crying last week he had a different attitude so i'm not going to cry right now but i'm happy but you know what being in a parent in the economic downturn is tough. there's a significant headwind. we knew they were going into this electoral cycle and yet i do believe that you know, judging by some of the results that we're seeing especially in the senate, democrats, at least, held their own in some these key states. >> alex? >> again, another myth that somehow it's the economy's fault and the democrats had nothing to do with it. it's just a bad economy. there's a dead body on the ground. >> you say, listen to the

people -- >> excuse me. >> i'm not finished. you interrupted a lady. [ laughter ] >> oh, oh. >> alex -- >> you have to show up now. >> let alex finish her out? >> okay, well i will give this man a moment. >> i concede my time. >> go ahead now. >> you know the republican women say that not us democrats, but anyway, when you ask the american people who's the brala for the economy? they blame wall street, they blame george w. bush. and then barack obama. >> neither is running and neither is george w. bush last i checked. >> but i'm telling you -- you told me. you told me the american people that's all. >> the issue is not who's going to be blamed because you know what they're blaming everybody. they hate the republicans, the democrats. my favorite survey results this year from cnn that came up in three different surveys is that the republicans hate the republican parents more than the republicans hate the republican party. that says something with this election and they're not looking to blame anymore they're looking for solutions

>> one things that i have picked up tonight eric doesn't like the elites at national republican senate committee. no but i think for good cause. they invested the republican senate campaign committee $8 million to try to beat barbara boxer in california. >> exactly. >> the most democratic big state in america and she's a very able politician. i did a little work for her, our viewers should know so i have a professional bias, but that was foolish, that was good money after bad. $8 million they could have spent on some these other close races. >> still going to be a very close race and if you could take california that changes everything. a candidate there -- >> have a moustache she'd be my uncle. >> there is another issue though, alex? >> wait, wait, stop. >> there's another issue, look at what's going on in colorado right now, it's a very tough race over at kent buck. the nrc thought that buck had this in the bag several week ago and basically took his money and gave it out to california. the result is the democrats went up on the air it had pound him for weeks and weeks.

>> but, eric, let's just correct one thing there. >> the same people who ran off with the conservative republican -- >> you know what, though, the issue with buck he's been winning until the end in these polls and the democrats went after him with a very, very hard erape ad. and the nrc did not aggressively respond to this because they looked at these polling numbers. >> just correct one thing. the nrc poured six million bucks in colorado at the tail end so i don't think that they pulled it anything back. we may fix that. the point about the economy there's a dead body on the ground it's called the economy. somebody's standing over it, either a policeman that will find you know who did this thing or they're an innocent bystander, or -- or they're the guilty party. and america's making a judgment right now that this dead -- there's morbideconomy.

>> the american public didn't get all of the great thanks he's done. >> no, no, i don't think so. >> he better not. >> because that seems to be what they have said that it's a communication problem. >> it's a communication's problem. >> but he's been communicating more than any other president that i've ever seen. he's been out there on just about everybody's show. >> i saw truckers, rachael ray and on every show. >> he was. that may be about the only show. >> he has an economic problem. particularly inf a jobs problem. >> right. >> and some of it, a little bit, yeah i wish that he would say jobs instead of a stimulus and these kind of more elegant words that he uses but fundamentally he has to move the needle, create jobs and that's the most important thing. he has to create jobs. >> gloria? >> there's a question to me, we talk about whether barack obama can change now, whether he's going to show the humility that the republicans showed tonight. >> and whether he would do what bill clinton did in '94. >> right. >> we both read this article ron brownstein wrote. comparing their different

reactions to it. >> right and the question that i have about barack obama is whether temporarily he's suited to the kind of strategy that bill clinton had. it took bill clinton a year to pass welfare reform. he gave a press conference and said, i'm relevant. i don't think that we're going to hear barack obama feel that he has to say that tomorrow but bill clinton felt really, really terrible about what had occurred. these guys over there know much more about how bill clinton reacted, but my question is, can obama go from seeing himself as transformational to narrowing his sights a little bit and being more incremental like bill clinton was and does he decide that it's in his own best interest to do something on the deficit and then hope the republicans kill each other off, you know? >> bill clinton went through a lot of interest speculation after losing in 2004. i was there and asked him this. what did i do wrong, need correct, asked a lot of people that. i've seen no evidence that

barack obama feels that he need says to go through that kind of inspection and much less to the dealmaking. >> and it's also interesting that this president has gone around country, saying, the reason why we're having so many problems is because we're not getting our message out on health care, and so on. and yet he's the greatest messenger of all for the democratic party and he's out there constantly, so that tells me that this president is not looking at this through the prism that everybody else is. >> but a big loss can refocus everyone certainly. >> it can. >> taken might and it hasn't happened yet and we'll get through election night and then tomorrow morning everyone will sit around and say, what do we do with this new reality? at this point people who are not particularly introarlen spectored -- intro s pec ted. >> the republicans look at it and say that the president can look back in history and find two examples of presidents who got clocked in midterms. he can be bill clinton and go

back and pass some big things, you know the whole triangulate thing or harry truman and run against congress. >> or both. >> now he can do both, he can find some sort of hybrid but if i had to make my bet on it it would probably be to run against congress because that's what he's done. >> but it's good for him because he has an enemy, right? >> that work for him. >> talk about president barack obama's history, okay? you talk about introspection. he had one political loss. congressman bobby rush. and what did he do when he loss tot bobby rush? he had to go and salve himself what did i say, where did i go wrong? when you lose that's typically what you do but you typically do that after you lose and so to sit here and act as if he's not going do that, you have to do that. >> we don't know. >> his own history says that and what happened, he changed how he ran, he understood. got himself out of the race and what did he do won the state senate, won the u.s. senate, won the president's seat soap i would say looking at his track record versus what bill clinton did or harry truman did he'll do

exactly what we're talking about. figure out where did i go wrong. >> another projection to make. let's go to wolf. wolf? >> thanks very much, anderson. a major projection in california. jerry brown, he will be the elected the governor of california. he was the governor, 30 years ago. he's going to be the governor, once again, he beats meg whitman, the former ebay ceo, self-finance. she spent probably $140 or $150 million of her own money, but she's not going to be the governor of california. jerry brown, right now by the way with 26% of the actual vote counted, he has 49%. meg whitman 46%. but based on exit polling and other information, we project jerry brown will win. earlier we projected by the way that barbara boxer would be re-elected. she beat carly fiorina, the former hewlett-packard, the ceo. so both of these women, these republicans who spent millions of their own dollars to try to

get elected in california, both of them lose. linda mcmahon by the way who spent millions of her own money in connecticuty tof she lost to the democrat richard blumenthal as well. so money doesn't necessarily talk, anderson. you've got tens of millions of dollars to spend. you can't necessarily buy an election. it certainly didn't know in california, or connecticut. >> well, you can imagine the pain of a candidate not only losing but waking up the next day and realizing that you've lost and spent $150 million. >> i could have loss that race for only $80 million. >> yeah, should have hired alex. might have saved $20 million. >> but you know, california has changed. it's a tougher state now. a lot of republican voters and taxpayers look at the next 20 years in california and they've moved to colorado, they've moved to new mexico, they've moved to other places. also, the housekeeper problem i think hurt meg whitman. i think they -- it changed the race. well you know it changed the race because they saw a tougher meg whitman there than they perhaps expected. somebody said, someone's been in

your house nine years and you've just cut them off like that? that might had been a moment. also you know what that did, it disconnected the race from the national wave. all of a sudden it became about meg whitman and housekeepers and not about this big wave out there. send a message to sacramento or washington. so oven -- even a tangelichal issue changed. >> jerry brown ran a commercial with meg whitman in it saying that the reason she'd come to california were off. great opportunities under jerry brown back with he was first governor. >> gosh, ii. >> and had a kumbaya moment to campaign for them as well. i cracked up the whole time when you had somebody basically never voted all of their life and all of a sudden wanted to become governor. you couldn't find time to vote and now you want to run for something. may want show show up at a poll at some time. >> can i say something. >> the campaign ad that's my absolutely favorite campaign ad

this entire year is jerry brown's campaign ad where he had arnold schwarzenegger and meg whitman together saying the same exact thing and then at the end say is this the path that we'll continue now. >> yeah exactly. >> i think that's the point because all politics is a reaction to comes before you. california just there a governor, arnold schwarzenegger, who came from a completely nonpolitical background, it didn't work out so well and he's leaving them with a bigger deficit and economic debacle, whether he's to blame or not of course. so they're saying you know what, maybe someone who's been in government is a good model. >> our first latino woman governor in the united states in new mexico. did he mention that? no no, no, no. and nikki haley first -- >> go on, girlfriend. let's hear it. >> her first indian american woman. >> say who it is in new mexico. >> susan martinez. and in south carolina of course another republican, nikki haley. >> right another projection actually that we can make another governor's race, wolf?

>> arizona, jan brewer, the incumbent governor of arizona is re-elected. she beats terry goddard in the state of arizona. a lot of viewers remember jan brewer she helped push that anti-immigration law in arizona. she's been rewarded, i guess in part, because of that. the voters in arizona liked her enough to get her re-elected with 61% of the vote. now counted in arizona. she has 56%, terry goddard 41% so jan brewer re-elected governor of arizona. let's take a look at some senate races that are still outstanding right now. and we'll put them up for you. in nevada, we have not projected i a winner nevada. 61% of the vote has been counted. harry reid, the majority leader, the democrat, with 51.5%. sharron angle, the republican, 44%. harry reid's ahead by 35,494

votes. they still have 35% of the vote outstanding. in pennsylvania, right now, very close, but 90% of the vote is counted in pennsylvania and pat toomey, the republican, has 51%, to 49% for joe sestak. toomey's ahead by 74,109 votes. they still have 10% more to go. i don't know what part of the state hasn't yet been counted but we're watching, pennsylvania close -- close low. it's still very close there. illinois, we have not projected a winner illinois either. even though 92% of the vote has been counted. alexi giannoulias with 46%. he was the democrat. mark kirk the republican with 48.4%. so we're watching this race quickly. kirk is ahead by 83,238 votes. but still 8% of the vote outstanding. in colorado, 59% are of the vote is in. we've not been able to make a projection because look at how close it is. the incum bint senator michael

bennet with 47.6%. ken buck, the republican, with 47.1%. bennet is ahead right now, more than a million votes have been counted. these ahead by 6,086. they still have 41% of the vote outstanding. so we're watching this very carefully. there's still a lot of drama. there's still a lot of excitement out there. we're waiting to see what happens in nevada and colorado and elsewhere, alaska as well, they're getting ready to close the polls in alaska. we'll check in there. stay with us. much more coverage right after this. [ wind howling ]

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>> i want to thank state senator shaheen. he is a senator, i certainly look forward to working with. he's a senator that deserves our respect for running and his family deserves all of the respect in what they've done. so thank you, senator shaheen and thank you for your comments. >> this is nikki haley, he's just been elected governor of south carolina. the first woman of indian anvestry to a governor's position. she becomes the second american indian to be a governor. bobby jindal of louisiana is the governor -- is of indian ancestry, when i say indian, i mean of india, not american indian. let's go back up to john king. we sarpted the night here with 100 seats, basically, at play. most of them held by democrats, 91 of them held by democrats. the wall was basically blue but it's now turning increasingly

red. >> if you look at this and you remember from that starting point, wolf just left you with 91 of these 100 were blue when we started the night, just in the little bit you can see, you know what has happened in america tonight. now, more than 40 of these have turned red and i'm going to take you through. had is the class of 2008, barack obama's coattails. the class of 2006, this is the class that made nancy pelosi speaker of the house. back to the class of 2004, and you see, look at the flashing lights and look at the states they're from, georgia, tennessee, pennsylvania, louisiana, you keep coming this way you'll see pennsylvania, wisconsin, new hampshire, new yos yos york, ohio. north, south, east, west, wolf. the democrats came their first two claes of 2006. do you remember rahm emanuel, the close that he included. nancy pelosi, many of those who are leaving tonight. those who are coming on the president's coattails, there will be more rode this board as we go through. and now projected they're way above the 39 they needed and now they're going on and on and on and i want to show you what

this, this looks like on our map oour matrix. 91 of these were blue to start the night. they're more and more turning red. now let's show you the map to show you the breadth of this across the country. here's how we began the night when it comes to house races. in was house districts 435 of them, all across the united states. the blue are democratic incumbents. the red are republican incumbents. watch this, watch this very closely. this is where we began the night. this is where we stand right now. look at all that red. i'm going to go back one more time. this is where we began the night. look again, this time, focus over here the northeast, see all of that blue up here out here in the industrial midwest down through here as we go through the midwest -- wisconsin, michigan, and the likes. watch this again where we began the night this is what is happening. we talked about this a lot in 2008 how barack obama turned so many red states blue, tonight in the house of representatives, we began blue and we are in a sea of red. this, wolf, when it comes to the house level is just -- we're not sure on the west coast yet. but we are from east to the

mountain west seeing a shalacking. >> and not just those newly elected democrats who won in 2006 or 2008. some veteran democrats, chairman, of powerful committees, have apparently lost as well. >> in south carolina, john spratt. i was looking earlier, i want to take a peek how john dingell is doing in michigan. this is his district. he's winning narrowly there but that's a tough race for a veteran incumbent there. ike skelton in missouri had a tough race as welt. that one's out here. you see more and more of these districts as you go through. >> that's what's going on. a big night for the republicans. especially when it comes to the house of representatives. a big night for them in the senate, although we project the democrats will retain the majority in the senate. all right, let's go on. we have two more major projections to make right now. >> all right cnn now projects that john kasich will be the

next governor of ohio. john kasich, we project, he is the winner in ohio, but take a look at this, the pennsylvania race. pat toomey, we project, he will be the next u.s. senator from pennsylvania. pat toomey -- pat toomey is a former congressman from pennsylvania, but he will beat joe sestak who was the democratic candidate. that's a big win for the republicans in pennsylvania. this is a state that democrats desperately need if they want to retain the white house in 2012, but certainly a big win for the republicans in what traditionally has been a relatively blue state of pennsylvania. look at this. there is sestak speaking right now and there is toomey speaking right now. sestak getting ready to speak. let's listen in briefly to toomey and hear what he has to say. >> and i am grateful. [ applause ]

and -- and i've got to -- i do have to single out the guy who managed the whole process, who oversaw everything and paid attention to every single detail without ever losing sight of the big picture and that is the brilliant mark harris. mark, thank you for your leadership. [ applause ] >> all right, let's listen in to sestak, joe sestak, the retired u.s. navy admiral, a congressman. he's losing in pennsylvania. >> and you know my pop's up there and his hand osthat tiller, so thank you very much to my family. [ applause ] . >> daddy, you mentioned -- >> and my brother. >> all right, so sestak loses. toomey wins. anderson, pennsylvania goes republican in the united states senate. ohio, a key battleground state, looking ahead to 2012, the republican wins the governor's race in ohio. the republican wins the

senatefate race in ohio. these two contests, the white house worked hard in pennsylvania. the president went there several times. joe biden went there several times. they both went to ohio a lot. didn't do much good because in the end the republicans win. >> numerous trips by president obama and this is a big loss for the democrats. >> it's a huge deal. i mean biden and obama put a huge amount of capital in ohio for the governor's race because of redistricting, because of its influence on the next presidential election. kasich's pulled that out. trailing portman, but a very convincing win. toomey had been ahead significantly, most of this election cycle. and this last-minute surge by sestak's really significant. not enough at the end of the day. the fact that corbett, the republican governor of pennsylvania, won much more handedly and that toomey i think that it speaks to the strengths and the weaknesses. >> this is a state in which democrats outnumber republicans by 1.2 million voters. so the fact that sestak couldn't pull it out and -- with obama's

support doesn't bode pel. also you know you look at ohio, also we don't know the reports of the florida governor's race, but if you lose the governorships in -- in a state like ohio and a state like florida and you're running for president in 2012 it's not good. those were states that were really important, swing battleground states. and losing the senate seat in pennsylvania's not too good either. >> and it's not just a republican took a senate seat in pennsylvania, it's a very conservative republican who took the seat in pennsylvania. this is not tom ridge, this is not arlen specter. this is a very conservative club for growth, very fiscally conservative-backed candidate. so it's even bigger than it sounds. >> socially conservative, too. >> yes, yes. >> he really is. >> one of the interesting things that i've always felt about pat toomey is with he was in the house he was unapologetically conservative in a district that leaned democrat by a think four points. and so that he was able to pull this off, it's closer than what i'm talking to people in the toomey campaign. closer than what they thought it

was going to be. but it is somewhat surprising to me that a guy that conservative is going to win a state like pennsylvania, kasich and portman in ohio, both of whom were connected to bush with obama going into ohio regularly for ted strickland, more so than lee fisher, really didn't run a good race and we're not just seeing it here at the federal level. again we're seeing it now at state level. it looks like north carolina's legislature may go completely republican for the first time since 1870. >> anderson, earlier you were talking to the folks there at the table in terms about president obama's coalition in 2008. and the reality -- one of the things that they did not do is that they simply did not truly activate them. you spoke about the mailing list but it really went beyond the mailing list. they put organizing more ferc into the dnc but one of the things that i constantly heard on the ground, people were saying what do i do, where do i go, how do i get involved? health care, a student loan bill, they never move their people to action. they never targeted folks. they never got them involved and

all of a sudden, hereby you are in the election year, over the summer, he releases a video, tim kaine releases a video and they were saying, wait a minute, where have you guys been for the past year? if you talk about ronald reagan and the ronald reagan revolution. ronald reagan revolutionized those students in '80 and '84, kept them involved and active for four years. you can't ignore those folks and think they will show up. >> this is a big night for us because we have future stars for us and this is the key thing. it's not about washington, obviously it will play a very important role. we don't have to be invited to the table. we're in the room -- >> future stars for you, marco rubio. >> some these governors. you know -- and i've always felt the governor's obviously are the ones that basically are the ones that good presidential candidates come out of it and in my sense we've got very washington oriented, some tired -- john mccain was tired, what have you, we now have a whole new group of people who can prove in states that they can be successful, and fingthey do that then i think we have very significant -- >> the democrats invented,

transformed themselves, the new democrat. what's happening tonight this is the beginning of the new republicans. do you have nikki haleys. you have marco rubios, you have susan martinez. you have sandoval running against harry reid's son in nevada. you have -- but bob mcdonald, chris christie, this thing that's happening to the republican party is much bigger than just tea party candidates. >> but alex -- >> finally we're seeing a new generation of republicans emerge from the bush shadow foo. >> i no, no the new democrats. >> and be around for the next 20 years. >> hillary. >> you do see the new republicans at the gubernatorial level. i think what we're going to end up seeing in the senate, you know, witness pat toomey, and in the house, witness leaders of john boehner is a clash between sort of the new republicans that are really much more focused and much more ideological on fiscal issues and the old mainstream republicans which are much more tied to big business and the people who've kept them there, and i think ultimately that's going to be a huge challenge for

the republican party. >> quick comment from elliott and then i have to go. >> and clash. >> i have to view this from 10,000 people. elected presidents with progressive agendas. bill clinton, barack obama, both times within two years, both had their agendas completely rejected by the public. but i think that you have to step back and recognize, twice the public looked as these presidents and said no that's not what we want. we'll take a short break. our coverage continues. we'll be right brack. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels.

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all right cnn's ready to make another major projection right now. let's put it up on the board.

in illinois, look at this, mark kirk, the republican, we project will be the next united states senator from illinois. mark kirk, he was a five-term republican congressman. he beats aelksi giannoulias. he was the democratic state treasur treasurer. a friend of the president's. this is the seat that president obama used to hold. roland burris is the current u.s. senator from illinois. but mark kirk will become the next u.s. senator. there will not be even one african-american in the united states senate. mark kirk will be the next u.s. senator from illinois, an embarrassment for the democrats and for president obama, since that was the seat that he used to hold. let's take a look at some numbers coming in. we have not projected a winner yet in nevada. with 70% of the vote in, harry reid, the majority leader, is still ahead, 51% to 45% for sharron angle. the republican and tea party candidate. 30% of the votes still outstanding.

we have not projected a winner colorado, because it's so close. michael bennet, the incumbent-appointed senator, 48% to ken buck other the republican tea party favorite, 47%. bennet's ahead by 8,453 votes. more than a million have been counted already. it's close in washington state, as well. 54% of the vote has now been counted. 51% for the incumbent, patty murray. and 49% for the republican challenger, dino rossi. it's close in washington state. i think we have another race that we want to update our viewers on right now. let's get another number up there -- actually we don't have that number up there, but we'll bring it up in california soon. but let's talk to ali velshi, going through exit poll numbers. >> yeah. >> and you're specifically looking at what voters, people who actually went to the polls, told our people as they emerged about what's going on in california. >> a very sophisticated set of questions that we ask along with other networks that get really down to the roost things.

you're just talking about california, let me pick up where i left off. why did jermy brown win? well, there's some very, very sophisticated dynamics going on in california. two very prominent women, former ceos running for office, let's talk about jerry brown versus meg whitman and what that race looked like. where did women go in that race? let me tell you a little bit about this. 56% of women voted for jerry brown. 56% of women catch theed their ballot for jerry brown, only 40% of women in california vote for meg whitman. this is kind of interesting according to our exit polls. as you know, california has a very large hispanic population. how did that break for the two major candidates? we decided to take a look at that. 65% of hispanics and latinos echbded up casting their ballot for the democratic candidate jerry brown. 31% for meg whitman. go back to when arnold schwarzenegger won in california. he got a pretty low hispanic latino turnout but it was still 40%. jerry brown did substantially

better than arnold schwarzenegger did. meg whitman got far less know that the hispanic latino vote and, one, as you know earlier in this campaign she got into some hot water about whether or not she had hired somebody who didn't have their papers. so she did not end up getting very much of the hispanic latino vote out in california and the woman vote. >> that explains why the democrats won the governor's race. thank you very much. check in with ed henry. you're getting new information. the president of the united states is speaking on the phone with a top republican, tell us what you know. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we're learning first that the president has now called the house republican leader, john boehner, the incoming speaker of the house. even though it's not official, all of the projections are showing that. the white house behind me inside, there are several top aides still here, david axelrod, robert gibbs, other, watching these returns. they know what we know, which is that the republicans will take over the house. i'm told in about the last half

hour or so the president reached out to john boehner and they spoke briefly. and i'm also told the president is reaching out to the current speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, out of respect to talk to her. i don't know if they've connected just yet. i'm also told the president has been watching these returns very closely. he's been working the phones. he's called several other democratic candidates. some who have won. some who have lost. and, look, there are -- you just mentioned, illinois' senate. the president's own former seat in the senate, now has gone into republican hands. another bitter pill for this white house to swallow is the ohio governor, ted strickland, now conceding to republican john kasich. that is big because of the fact that this president has traveled to ohio, 12 times, including just this past sunday in cleveland. his last rally of the campaign season, trying to bring ted strict land across t strickland. so the president trying to reach out to the republican leader john boehner and he's also going to have this news conference as you know tomorrow 1:00 p.m.

eastern here at the east room here at bloups on thursday the president's also expected to make a statement where he's likely to reporters and to the nation where he's likely to talk about reaching out to republicans. maybe even talk about having some sort of a summit with the republicans after he returns from asia. so they're trying to project an image of reaching out, going across the aisle very quickly here, wolf. >> has the white house actually put out a statement, has robert gibbs said anything on behalf of the white house as a result of these dramatic results tonight? >> reporter: they have not said anything publicly. i've been emaiming with robert gibbs, other top white house aides. they've been obviously in fairness earlier tonight they were trying to make sure the polls in california, other states, closed before there was any comment and even networks like ours projecting that the republicans were going to take over the house. even now that a lot of the polls have closed, and all these results are coming in, they still have not commented in publicly. they're going to let the president do that tomorrow at the news conference, though. we expect some sort of statement between now and in the morning, obviously, something from the

white house. but in private, they're watching this very closely. keeping a close eye on everything. and as you know, the house republican leader, the incoming speaker, john boehner's having a news conference with mitch mcconnell tomorrow about 90 minutes before the president has his news conference in the east room, so the back and forth will start right away, wolf. >> and the president's news conference is at 1:00 p.m. eastern. we'll, of course, have live coverage here on cnn. ed, standby. we're getting ready to make another major projection. and cnn projects that harry reid, the democratic leader, the majority leadered in the senate, will be re-elected beating the republican challenger sharron angle in the state of nevada. right now with 70% of the vote in, harry reid has 51% to sharron angle's 45%. but based on those numbers, exit polling numbers, other information that we're getting, harry reid will stay in the united states senate, and he will be -- continue to be, we assume, the majority leader.

even though that majority is going down and down and down. we have projected the democrats will retain the majority in the senate. as opposed to the house of representatives, where the republicans will be in the majority, in the new congress. harry reid is re-elected in nevada. it's been a bitter fight out in nevada for harry reid, but when all is said and done, we project he will win. it's a huge win for harry reid. a huge win for the democrats in nevada. right now, it would had been very embarrassing if their majority leader had loss. the jessica yellin is over there in las vegas right now watching this. you're at the harry reid headquarter. the balloons are behind you. there's a love excitement. we've projected, jessica, that reid wins. >> reporter: wolf, the room has been going nuts for the last five minutes. you just missed them, shouting "harry, harry" over and over. of all the wins tonight that the democrats can say they just eked out this is the one that so many

thought would never happen. harry reid is not just another incumbent, he is the face of the democratic party in the u.s. senate. and somebody that democrats thought the republicans were gunning for above all. the fact that he's been able to pull it out is mostly a testament to the fact that he has an enormous ground game here in nevada. he has -- [ applause ] i have to pause. you can hear them. wolf, these people expected to lose. they didn't know they were going to win tonight. and so they are just so elated. harry reid was lucky in that they drew an opponent who was rather unusual. she was not a practiced politician. she was unusual candidate. this tea party backed woman sharron angle. having drawn another one of those candidates you might not have had this victory tonight but you've also got to acknowledge that harry reid has an enormously strong operation across the state, and he knew,

he kicked it into gear, and got his people out to the polls, wolf. this crowd is astonished right now, i'll tell you that. >> it's interesting, jessica, the tea party express had setup their headquarters in the same hotel where harry reid is right now. they were expecting to sort of rub it in, they thought that sharron angle would win. she is not going to win. she's going to lose. harry reid will be re-elected. >> reporter: that's right. and this will come as a really sting -- a stinging shock to not just the tea party express but a number of those third party groups that really poured money into this race. they wanted a symbolic victory of taking down the head of the democratic party in the senate. so many these conservative groups poured money here to defeat reid, as you say the tea party express is here in this hotel. i visited them a short while ago. they were predicting it would be a great night for them. of course, it looks like it did not work out that way. i'll find out what they're

saying now. but i'm sure they'll say, they'll fight popthis one, though, will sting for them. this will sting, wolf. >> all right, jessica, standby. we're going to diagram back to you. we're checking it in, but breaking news, harry reid wins his bid for re-election in nevada. sharron angle loses. she's the republican, the tea party favorite. we'll take another quick break. but there's a lot pleasure to come. john king is standing by, he's getting new information on -- from the world of twitter. what could we learn from this -- the latest tweets that have been sent out? standbooip. hostcould switchingi really save you 15% or more car insurance?

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♪ ♪ only in america >> live pictures from new mexico, susannah martinez will be the next governor of new mexico taking over for bill richardson who is retiring.

she's a republican. the first latina republican senator -- excuse me, governor. she's going to be take over as governor of new mexico. you can see the confetti that's flying ing iing in new mexico . lots of happy republicans in new mexico. lots of happy republicans all over the country. we're watching all of these races very, very closely. john king is here. zahn, you got some stuff about twitter that's going on right now. and i see tweets and i see twitter. but tell our viewers what we know. >> this is one of the interesting ways we use the technology to look at how politic's playing across country. we've shown you the matrix. we'll get back there in a minute, we use our maps here. but we want to show you this one race in particular. the reid/angle race. harry reid now projected to win re-election the state of nevada. one the hotly-contested race in the country and because of that. in the course, of this race we've analyzed more than a half million tweets, 545,000 tweets in this race. and if you go back in time, above the black, those are positive tweets.

the dark green is angle, the lighter green is harry reid. below the orange here is harry reid. the yellow here is sharron angle. the black is neutral. so if it's up on top it's a positive tweet. if it's down on the bottom it's a negative tweet. all the way back to april and you watch this play out and watch out on the left you can see the numbers, the percentages of the positives and the negatives going up and down and so you come through, you come through the race now. we're into the heat of the race. i want to stop down here, when you get into late september, so what are people saying about this, when you get down in here? and you see some of the tweets up here. well, if you come over and see, what are people saying a ing anti about harry reid. i will get it to work i promise you. you come over here what are people saying negative about harry reid. in the final days the campaign, harry reid's going to raise your taxes. harry reid is a liar. hey, ho, harry reid's got to go. playing out on the twitter verse. and of course saying negative things about sharron angle as well. i'm still slightly in denial that sharron angle and christine o'donnell are serious candidates.

obviously an anti-tea party voice there. talking about the financing. so just one way, wolf, to track and this is a unique way, sentiment analysis, we call it. you can see the positive, the negative. and in this race this that is remarkable more than a half million tweets because so many people not only talking about this in nevada, but across country, because of the national profile. let me go up here and join you. that's one take on an important senate race. wolf, as we've talked throughout the night remember when we started this is the cnn 100 you see around here around the matrix. 100 hotly contested house races. the most competitive across the country. 91 of these slates were blue as we started the night and as you can see as we go through this a lot of red up here. going back into the class of 2004, 2002 and beyond. why is there so much red? because republicans are now projected to be on a path. we know they will win the house majority. they need eed a get gain of 39. they will gain at least 60 seats in the house of representatives. at least 60 seats to make it a new republican majority, that is

the highest number, one, since the democrats gained 75 back in 1948. and from 1948 until today it was the 1994 year when the republicans gained 52 in their last sweep. that had been the high watermark since 1948. 75 then, 52 in 1994, we know all of these red slates, all of those flashing lights that you see at home, the republicans will eclipse 60 tonight. we'll see where the ceiling is in the hours ahead. >> i think it's fair to say the house of representatives, that's a landslide, more than the 52 that the republicans won as you say in '94. the most since 1948. a republican net gain in the house of representatives, at least 60 seats and we'll see if how high it winds up going because there's still plenty of races out there. >> we were around for 1994. i think that we slightly missed the 1948 one. >> that was a big contest. that's right. we brad it in our history books. let's go to dana bash, she's up on capitol hill right now. dana, we heard that the president called john boehner to

i guess congratulate him on the republicans taking the majority in the next session of the u.s. house of representatives. you're speaking to sources close to boehner. what are you hearing? >> reporter: that's right, we're getting the boehner's side of that phone conversation, wolf. and basically what the boehner aides are telling us is that they had what they're calling a straightforward and honest conversation, like he said -- like they say, the president and john boehner generally do in the past. and said they discussed working together and focused on top priorities for the american people, and boehner said to the president, according to his aides, that he identified creating jobs and cutting spending, and that's what they expect. they, meaning the voters who were out there. that was the boehner's side of that equation. and you know, i'm here at republican headquarters, which is pretty much breaking down at this point. but very, very interesting, i think, to note that on the democratics' side of this equation right now the current house speaker, nancy pelosi, i'm

told, is still over at democratic headquarters as we speak. closing in on 1:00 a.m. eastern, wolf, i'm told she's still pouring over the results. outstanding numbers. maybe the numbers that already came in. to get a sense of what really has gone on in the field and out there in the country on this very, very bad election night for nancy pelosi and for her party. i'm also told that you know one of the outstanding questions for her is what will she do? will she stay in the house? will she stay in her position of what will be house minority leader? we're told that we're not going to find that out tonight. perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in the coming weeks. but at least not until they get a full picture of what the house will really look like after this election, wolf. >> dana, thanks very much. it's going to be a whole new house of representatives for you to cover in the new session in january, when the ncaa the new members are sworn in as we've been sayi ing at least a net ga of 60 seats for the republicans in the house of representatives. they needed 39 to become the majority. they're going to get at least

60, we now project. we're only a little more than seven minutes away from the top of the hour. that's when they close all the polls in the state of alaska. standby. we have more projections, more information. we're only just beginning. [ woman ] alright, so this tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours.

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all right we've got some more projections right now, on propositions in california. marijuana is not going to be legal for recreational use. cnn now projects that proposition 19 will go down to defeat no, 56% yes, 44%, 20% of

the vote is counted in california. but based on our exit polling and other information and the actual voting so far, proposition 19 will go down to defeat marijuana for recreational use in california will not happen at least not now. in rhode island, there was a proposition, it was called question one, to change the name of the state. the official name of rhode island is rhode island. and providence plantations. there was a motion to change the name, just to rhode island. they say no. 78% with 100% of the vote in, didn't want to change the name, 22% yes. so rhode island stays as rhode island and providence plantations, that's the official name of the state. rhode island has a new governor, an independent, the former republican, lincoln chafee, the former senator from rhode island. he will become the next governor of rhode island. he beats frank caprio who was the democratic nominee, john robitaille the republican nominee. lincoln chafee, the independent,

the friend of president obama. remember, president obama only the other day, he went to rhode island. he didn't endorse anybody but he didn't endorse the democratic nominee, frank caprio that irritated a lot of democrats, it certainly irritated frank caprio who uttered those famous words the president can take his endorsement and really shove it, something to that effect. i'm sort of paraphrasing but you get the point of what frank caprio said. right now, lincoln chafee will be the next governor of rhode island. i don't think that a lot of people in rhode island, john, you went to the university of rhode island. you than state. it's a democratic state. i don't think they like the fact that the democratic nominee told the president to take his endorsement and really shove it. >> no, so there's two big things. number one, i won't have to take a sharpie and cross out rhode island/providence plantations on my college degree that's a good thing for me. to that point that's one of the things that we've debated after the elections. a lot of people saying, did the president fail as his step as the leadership party despite his

past relationship with chaff peep here's a post election debate. 59 per the democrats. 41 for the republicans. now we know that's going to change and change dramatically. right now, let me bring up -- here we go. right now, we have it at 51-47 and by our projection the democrats will keep control of the senate because harry reid we just called that race for harry reid. already what is happening in republican circles, they're saying what, if what if harry reid had the tea parent candidate sharron angle, many republicans are already asking tonight what if a mainstream republican had won that race and that had happened? instead, and you could tip that over to the republicans. and they're also revisiting this race in delaware, one, you mod rated the debate saying mike castle the congressman had won that republican nomination not the tea party candidate christine o'donnell and then perhaps we'd be looking at this tonight and then you would be looking at 49-49 with washington state and colorado to go. so already tonight, as we know

the democrats will keep a very narrow senate majority. one of the post-election questions that republicans are already saying, has the tea party, that yes, brought so much, in to the party, perhaps cost a couple of very, very important senate races. and anderson, recriminations are always a fun part of politics. >> no doubt. do you think that, john avalon you write a lot about the tea party do you think there will be a lot of recriminations? >> there should be some reckoning. the reality is they would have likely won delaware if christine o'donnell had not beat mike castle. that could make off. difference in control of the senate so there should be some self-analysis some of these candidates represented their republican party best. but i wanted to take a second and talk about lincoln chafee. the nearly 40% of us. this is the first independent governor in the 1990s and in a states where independents outnumber republicans and democrats and this is a big deal. independent candidate for

governor is going neck and neck so that's an extraordinary thing and i think it speaks to the independent shift that's going on. >> i spoke to one republican strategist tonight he's admittedly -- a strategist, who said what the lesson of this election is particularly in the senate is that no matter what else you still have to put out good candidates who pass the test of reasonable with the voters particularly if the voters are just now being introduced to them. so they say that's the reason why republicans haven't done as well in the senate as they have in the house. >> it's also an issue of experience, which is kind of interesting, because so many of these candidates had absolutely no political experience. we thought barack obama didn't have a lot of experience before it became president but if you had any political experience you put it on your resume it was suddenly a negative and so the candidate -- it worked against you and so the candidates that you saw that lost were bad candidates. they didn't know how to run. and their campaigns didn't know

how to organize and they were running against some democrats who actually, like harry reid, for example, who had labor, who knew you had to get out the vote and who got out the vote. >> and tremendous latino support. harry reid in a state that has 26% latinos, harry reid was able to count on the latino vote because sharron angle did a couple of things wrong. one supporting sb-1070 a big no-no with latino voters and even more outside of the state of arizona than the outside of arizona. and then ran that ad about how latinos were going to -- what did she say, something like -- waves of illegal aliens will be stalking you down at night and i'm paraphrasing but something like that with like dark-skinned people running through the streets and it sent people over the edge. it was that issue that motivated latinos to go to the polls and when they did a poll, one of the latino polling groups said, when they would ask latinos, why are you voting? the number one answer was, in order to give voice to our community. the number two answer was to support the democratic candidate, the number three answer was to support the

republican candidate. that means latinos felt attacked and wanted to get out there and show their voice. >> there are a couple of issues on this one. number one when you look at a lot of the republican candidates who -- there will be recr recriminatirecrimatio recrimations and things like that. more republicans have disliked the republican party than independent and when it's the republicans voting in republican primes they're not going to go for the nimthey dislike or saying that you should go for these guys. they're not. rightly or wrongly, they were perfectly happy many of them to sacrifice delaware. because they not like the nrc saying this is the guy that shugo to. and you know what, again, as ed rollins' said before, we're talk intelligent voters in a state saying you know what, you people shouldn't have picked the guy you picked in your democratic vote which is somewhat of a silly argument in a half. to the point of latinos in nevada, i would say that i spoke to the sharron angle campaign

last month and they pretty much wrote off the latino vote last month and their attacks on harry reid. in fact, if we look at what we're seeing coming out of nevada, they actually are getting a higher percentage of the latino vote than they thought they were going to get. and had other issues. they really thought they were going to get about 5% and it looks like more than that. >> stuck with the asian vote. so -- >> yeah, there you go. >> i now understand my unexplicable love for chinese food afterasm these years but let's keep this in perspective tonight. only a 1/three the senate's up, right. >> not have a and seven possible republican pickups that's 21%. in the house we're talking about a 60-seat swing, that's only about 14%. it actually is very impressive gains in the senate tonight historically. >> absolutely. >> and for the record, reagan won 20 in '80 in a landslide. eight is a big number. if you go back in the last 60, 70 years, either side winning seven or eight senate seats is a big, big pickup.

>> i'm trying to figu out how they will get business done in the senate. as goridlocked as it was before. including some like joe manchin who are so conservative they'll be more likely to vote with the republican agenda. it's going to be dicey to get anything through the senate at all. >> and nelson. >> and a big picture point though because there is this sort of general sense while the republicans have taken over washington now, but when you have a gridlocked senate and the republicans in charge of the house, it is very difficult for the congress to set the agenda. because no matter how much the house tries to pass their legislation and push it through, getting it stuck in the sen sat quite -- is, you know, likely -- beyond belief. and so you -- and then it's up to the president essentially to respond in control and i think that's what you're going to see. >> but the republican -- >> 53 republicans in the senate and he set an agenda for a couple of years. >> i think that the republicans now have a responsibility. because people judge you when

you're a governing party very differently from when you're in an opposing party. if you run the house and president obama coming up with a budget you now have to come up with an alternative budget. we were talking before about specifics and across-the-board cuts and all of the rest, republicans will have to deliver a specific alternative. and then people can see, okay, what are they cutting? how do they want to do it? and maybe they end up as eric says, shutting the government down. because they don't want to vote to extend the dead sailing and then you have another issue, and obama can run against that. >> and we haven't heard much about social issues tonight or we haven't talked much about the social issues. we saw a little bit about the prop 19 loss there. you, jeffrey, you've been looking at what's happened to the supreme court justices in the state of iowa. >> the state of iowa. as i'm sure many people remember, last year the supreme court ruled unanimously, all seven justices voted that same-sex marriage was a right guaranteed under the iowa

constitution. under the iowa law, three of those justices were up for what's called retentional elections. three of the seven. appears all three have lost in the republican conservative landslide in in iowa and as much as we're talking about budget and tax issues, the ascendency of conservative candidates also will be on social issues. you are going to see don't ask, don't tell probably survive now in the congress. same-sex marriage is going to fall off of the agenda for a lot of elected officials now. so gay rights has suffered a major defeat today and that's what happens when conservatives -- >> and january on some this stuff. i mean there's a lame-duck session and it's possible that you're going to have another republican senator sworn in in a couple of weeks who could sort of change the math in the senate immediately on gay marriage when it's attached to the defense bill. >> yeah. >> don't ask, don't tell. >> right i'm sorry. >> on the social issues it's

important to say it in perspective. six of the republican senate candidates this year were opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. now contrast that with only three senate candidates who are -- republican candidates who are pro-choice. that's a very significant shift. on the other side of republicans though in a positive direction you know they now have four governors who are -- who are minority. two -- it looks like in new mexico and i think nevada, brian sandoval and then the indian americans in nikki haley and bobby jindal. that's a sea change as well in terms of much greater diversity for republicans, in fact greater diversity for republican governors than democrats. >> openly gay candidates this year. last year that number was 111. that's a big increase and now go back and crunch numbers. see who won where. an but still that's a big increase in running over last year. >> we've got -- we're following a number of close races. still our coverage continues. we'll be right back.

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let's take a look at some very, very close races we're watching right now. we have not been able to project winners in colorado, 73% of the vote has been counted. look at how close it is between the incumbent democrat michael bennet and the republican challenger ken buck. 47.2% for michael bennet. 47.5% for ken buck. there's been 1,200,000 votes counted already. the difference between these two candidates, look at this, 4,039.

they still have 27% of the vote but it's very, very close in colorado. in washington state, also very, very close right now. patty murray the incumbent democrat with 50.6%. dino rossi the republican challenger, 49.4%. patty murray's ahead right now by 16,535 votes out of about 1.3 -- 1.3 million votes that have already been counted. it's very close in washington state. we have not been able to project a winner. let's take a look at some governor's races right now as well, and i'll start in illinois right now. look at this, it's 93% of the vote is in. look at how close it is, between the democrat pat quinn, the incumbent, and bill brady, the republican challenger, 46.5% to 46.3%. more than 3 million votes have been counted already and the difference, pat quinn is a head

by 7,576 votes. every vote counts, look at how close it is in illinois right now. the democrats slightly ahead and in florida, it's very close as well. look at this, 89% of the vote has been counted. rick scott, the republican, has 48.9%. alex sink, the democrat, she has 47.7%. scott is ahead by 57,342 votes, 11% of the votes still need to be counted. very, very close. let me go to anderson. anderson, there could be some recounts, they're going to have to wait for some absentee ballots, military ballots it looks like it's close in nease races and important races. >> and a little later while we'll speak to legal analyst jeffrey toobin about the rules on the recounts did that's what we saw in illinois and florida. before we do that, though, ted rowlands nuclear weapon california where we've been

following proposition 19, which has been defeated which would have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. what did the ballot initially call for. >> reporter: it would have legalized marijuana in the state of california for recreational use. and voters came out and said no to it. the poll -- the polling was going back and forth really over the last couple of months and just in the last three or four days, the no on proposition 19 started to pick up steam and then tonight we saw that indeed california was not ready to legalize marijuana for recreational use. we're at oaksterdam university in oakland which is buy. a school that trains people to work in the cannabis industry, the medical marijuana industry, and there's been a party here all night long. it's starting to thin out right now. you could see a lot of empty chairs. a lot of people have moved on because of the deteet. stephen is part of the pro-19 group that put together this. your reaction.

it seemed to be a lot of momentum but in the end california was not ready to legalize marijuana. >> well, we always knew that this would be an uphill battle, particularly in a midterm election cycle with a smaller, older, more conservative electorate but even in defeat, proposition 19 has clearly moved marijuana legalization into the mainstream of american politic. >> reporter: but did it bring it into the mainstream and did the mainstream spit it back out and say no way? >> i don't think so. i think that you're going to see in 2012 a very big presidential election year. a number of prop 19s in a couple of states that are going to be determined in next year. probably western states and california is definitely in the mix. >> reporter: so it'll be back on the ballot here and here in other states, at least that's the plan, anderson, but right flow at least californians are saying, no, to legalizing pot for everybody, of course, medical mar marijuana's still l here. >> the white house put out a statement saying that they're happy about this -- about this election choice made by the

voters in california. saying that it wouldn't make californian's healthier and it wouldn't solve the budget problems, but ted, was that person with a lasagna standing next to you and that was the weirdest live shot that i've ever seen. what was that. >> thank you. >> is that pot brownies, what is that. >> yeah, that's bach lava. look this is a marijuana-based back lava for your enjoyment. i don't know how good it looks but they're passing it out as sort of a party favor here a treat for the folks here a lot of smoking as well as you might imagine but that is baclava or a version of it. >> there has been a talk of a high youth turnout especially in the area of where you, ted, but clearly that wasn't enough to get this thing passed. >> reporter: yeah, and that was the big strategy or at least the focus of the campaign. they went to universities across the state and early on today there were stories that the university of san diego, they had run out of provisional ballots and the students had overrun the polling places, but obviously that didn't turn out. they didn't come out in the

numbers that would had been needed to get this passed. exit polling did show a tremendous divide, older people against prop 19. younger people overwhelmingly for 19. >> ted rowlands, appreciate it, ted, thanks very much. enjoy the bachlava, or not, i don't know. i'm not sure. i wasn't quite clear if that was pot baclava or not or such a menu. i don't know how that works. >> brownies was the customary -- it was the customary way to serve marijuana. >> do you think that in the man who supports the 19 there was right that this has kind of entered this into the international conversation that will not go away. >> it has but really this is a big defeat. this was a substantial defeat and california if any state was going to -- was going to legalize pot or try to legalize pot. remember, the obama administration like the bush administration before it, had said even if this passed, they would continue to enforce

federal law against marijuana use. so i think, yes, it put it on the agenda, but it is a long way from legalization or even decriminalization at the federal level. there is no substantial movement, particularly in this new congress, to legalize marijuana. >> just the potential to make a mess, though, didn't it? if it had been passed. >> it did and remember marijuana is legal for medical use in california now. and medical use there is very broadly defined. a lot of people get prescriptions for pot in marijuana -- in california. and that doesn't seem to have had a tremendously disruptive effect. i mean, but as for full-scale legalization where it sold like lucky strikes that's many years away i think. >> have you been able to look at some of the recount issues? >> yes. in colorado -- >> the races in illinois, in florida, elsewhere. >> well, colorado, where there's now a very close senate race, it's an automatic recount if the

margin is less than half a percent. and clearly, currently, the margin is less than half a percent. washington, where the other -- where the -- patty murray/rossi race is very close, that's a more complicated rule. i think the simplest way to say it is if the margin is under 2,000, there's a recount there. but remember washington often takes long to count its ballots because it's very heavily a mail-in state, and anything postmarked today or earlier gets counted and obviously if something is postmarked today it means that they haven't even received it yet. so i think we'll be counting votes i can't imagine any way that we're going to call the washington race tonight. but it's 2,000 votes or closer. >> all right, and obviously the polls are closed in alaska but we're still waiting results on that, probably it is going to be quite some time. >> waiting. >> waiting. >> all right and i'm being told that we can see some votes now in alaska. wolf, do you want to take it.

>> let's take a closer look, anderson. 26% of the vote's actually been counted in alaska, and take a look at this. lisa murkowski, the incumbent republican senator from alaska, she's actually ahead. they've got to write her name in 27,000 votes, 142. she got 40%. joe miller, he was the republican nominee with 34%. scott mcadams, the democratic nominee, 25%. but lisa murkowski, with the write-ins is ahead by -- by 3,638 votes this alaska, once again these are only 26% of the votes are in. but she's -- but she's ahead. it's a little complicated out there burks we're going to take a quick break. hold on, one second. let's take a quick break. you can see murkowski's headquarters over there. we'll assess what's going on in alas alaska. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 absolutely. i mean, these financial services companies

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all right the polls have

closed in alaska. and i want to update our viewers on what we know right now. 26% of the vote in alaska has been counted. and look at this. the write-ins are winning right now with 40% of the votes. these are all the write-in ballots. most of them presumably for lisa murkowski, the incumbent republican senator in alaska, but there are a few other write-in candidates. we assume she got most of these 27,142 write-in ballots. joe miller, the republican nominee with 34%. scott mcadams, the democrat, with 25%. if joe miller, for example, were to get more than the write-ins, they wouldn't necessarily even have to open up the write-ins because all those write-ins wouldn't necessarily even be specifically counted. but if the write-ins come in first, then they're going to go through. they're going to read all of the write-ins to see who got those write-ins and then they'll vey sense of who the next senator of

alaska's going, to whether lisa murkows murkowski's going to be re-elected. let's go to murkowski's headquarters there. drew griffin is there for us. we see lisa murkowski in that shot, drew. but there is 26% of the vote that is in, and the write-ins, including mostly for lisa murkowski, the write-ins are doing very well. >> reporter: yeah and let me tell you why they're so happy in this room. the inside baseball here is that anything that says write-ins are getting 35% and above, they feel will force them to read the ballots. anything that is 40% or above for write-ins, the murkowski folks, that they will win this perhaps although it's early and although we have 34% of the vote in and they're hanging about 39.66%, they are very happy. they think, not only will they get the votes counted, but at this point, they think, they may had actually done it. wolf? >> and, and we see her back to

the camera right there. she's wearing the pink jacket. are there any other serious write-in candidates that have a significant number of votes, do you think, drew, besides lisa murkowski? >> reporter: there really aren't. you know the question is, would anybody of those 161 write-in names, a lot of them just kind of got into -- to muddy the waters, create any kind of a serious dent in the write-ins. you know the fact of the matter is, wolf, honestly, we will not know until they actually open up the ballots see them filled out correctly and see lisa murkowski's name but feeling again in this room is that the write-in's ahead and the write-in's near or at 40%. they feel murkowski is going to be the winner and anything 35% or above at least gets those ballots counted and that's why you see a smile on her face right. >> you yeah she looks pretty happy and what's the final ruling in alaska of how precise, drew, those write-ins have to

be? do they have to spell murkowski perfectly correct or could they misspell it, can they put lisa murk? what are the ruling over there, at least as of now? >> reporter: you know, we're all waiting to see what that ruling will be, and most likely if it's close it's going to be challenged. but there's been a lot of speculation. if you just get close, if the intent is dollar, if you fill it out correctly, i think anything with three syllables that begin with the letter "m" is probably going to count. but we'll have to wait and see. but earlier, earlier candy said you know we may not know until christmas and certainly may not know until thanksgiving because they're not going to do this write-in ballot count until november 18th. that is according to the alaska division elections. november 18th before they even see what's on those write-in ballots. >> all right, drew, thanks very much. we'll check back with you. and just to be precise, lisa murkowski, even though she

didn't win the republican nomination, she says she is a republican. she will caucus with the republicans, if in fact, she's re-elected. she's running now as an independent. joe miller's got the republican nomination, but this presumably, assuming she wins, or if joe miller wins, it won't be a change for the democrat scott mcadams at least as of now coming in third. we'll take a quick break. much more of our coverage right after. in [ k. tyrone ] i'm an engineer. my kids say i speak a different language. but i love math and math and science develop new ideas. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough to produce and use hydrogen right on board a car,

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we're taking a closer look at sarah palin right now, the former governor of alaska, the

former republican vice presidential nominee. she was very busy in this campaign, campaigning for republicans across the country. we've put up some of her wins and some of her losses for people that that she campaigned for in new hampshire. among her wins kelly ayotte will be the next u.s. senator from -- in from new hampshire. rand paul wins in kentucky. mary fallon's going to be it the next governor of oaklahoma oc. sarah palin campaign forward her. nikki haley will be the next governor from south carolina. susana martinez for new mexico. and rick perry. she campaigned for all them. among some her losses though we know that she campaigned for christine o'donne christine o'donnell for the delaware u.s. senate seat. carly fiorina in california, she lots tot barbara boerngs so some wins and some losses for sarah palin. let's bring in ali velshi right now. you know, it's never too early,

ali, for those of us who are political news junkes. >> for the next presidential election. >> to start looking at 2012. you know when that race begins. >> right about now. palin wins, palin losses, we're talking to people in early primary and early caucus states about what they're going to do in 2012. how these candidates are doing. let's take look at iowa, which is the first caucus state right there. former arkansas governor, mike huckabee and former massachusetts governor mitt romney are tied at 21% amongst voters who cast their ballots today. that's who they are looking at voting for in 2012. 2011-2012 when that thing starts. governor -- former alaska governor, sarah palin pulling in second or third depending on how you want to look at it. 18%. and newt gingrich only polling 7% in iowa. let's take it over to new hampshire. now you were just talking about a new governor, a new senator in new hampshire, who got sarah

palin's support. in new hampshire, mitt romney, a neighboring state to where he was governor, is polling 39% for 2012. sarah palin coming in at 18% against, same as in iowa. mike huckabee polling 11%. newt gingrich, again, bringing up the rear at 8% amongst decided voters in -- in new hampshire. let me take a look at south carolina, that'll be the first southern primary in there. sarah palin doing well in south carolina. she's polling at 25%. huckabee following at 24%. mitt romney coming in at 20%. and finally, newt gingrich, again, bringing up the rear at 10%. so these are going to be early primary snats 2012. hard to know at this point how this is going to play out but we asked those questions in the exit polls and this is what people are telling us. when you look at those palin wins and palin losses some of this may actually come back to help her in 2012 because she's got more wins than losses, more people who might turn their support toward her. >> and these are the first three

republican contests. >> that's right. >> in the presidential race from the republican nomination. these are republicans who voted today and expressed their opinion as they emerged. >> that's right. >> from the voting booth. >> who they would like to see in those contests. >> very interesting stuff. let's go to anderson. you saw anderson. she's doing well, sarah palin, among those republicans in these three critical states. >> and among her senate pick, three losses, two wins in the senate. hill rear rosen, you said you didn't think that this was a good night for sarah palin. >> west virginia isn't up there, too. she's endorsed raese, right? against manchin. but look, you know, we could argue about whether these endorsements mean something. >> they don't. >> when we look at where she really spent a lot of time she spent a lot of time with carly fiorina in california. she spent a lot of visible energy with christine o'donnell. you know, so the good news for the republicans i think that is that there are actually a lot of

new women. on the horizon. and i think they've done a good job actually recruiting women this, this cycle. that doesn't mean that sarah palin's not the front-runner. >> sarah palin -- >> but women -- but are there other people who now are going to -- >> sorry, anderson. she did a lot of good for conservative candidates who are already in conservative states, getting a conservative governor of oaklahoma -- of oklahoma but it shows that she couldn't flip seats in california, in delaware in west virginia where there was a democrat she wasn't able to sort of put forward a tea party candidate who could flip the switch. >> what she did do, she dominated one more time. every week we've bon this show we've been talking about sarah palin, sheu know, wherever she was we're talking about sarah palin. >> wait a minute. >> she's a factor no question about it. >> she's a big factor if she chooses to be. she's basically not made that decision yet but did she wants to be, starting in iowa.

>> that energy. >> that energy that captured 60 republican house seat, a lot of that came from her. >> absolutely but for the first time republicans always turn to the last guy, right? that may not be the case this time. there's a brand new crowd of republican candidates. lots of women. lots of fresh faces. lots of new conservatives. there once was this young state senator that came out of nowhere on the democratic side who's president now. this may be the time that this happens on the republicans' side. >> she's dominating the conversation because we're sitting saying here this is what she did. that list means nothing. where is the mitt romney list. >> he endorsed a lot of people as well. you sat here, went out and got the votes, okay? also sarah palin, had nothing to do with rick perry winning in texas, okay? nothing. so try to credit her with that but it makes no sense. she -- she gets elevated because we sit here and put her above everybody else but there were other republicans who were out

there endorsing. where was pawlenty? where was romney and that's what it boils down to. endorsements mean nothing. >> exactly why christine o'donnell is legitimately, honestly my hero of this election season because we've been forced since september to talk about nothing but christine o'donnell. >> who was down 20 points. >> because she's dominated the news, never mind alvin green in south carolina, but because we've pent so much time talking about christine o'donnell, there are a lot of candidates tonight who were elected because they didn't get any air time. they didn't get the vetting that christine o'donnell did. >> no, no, no. >> i actually think so. >> i think that's probably true. >> yeah. >> because we're not talking -- i mean a difference between the national media, i can assure you that in nevada, they were talking about sharon achel. i can assure you that they were talking about in california they were talking about meg whitman. just because we're talking about sarah palin, in those states. >> but if we're talking about somebody who is down 20 points in the polls but then when you look at a pennsylvania race that was tight, the washington state race that was tight. >> no talk about that. >> i no, no, no. you can't even remotely compare

the amount of coverage of the national media to o'donnell's race and all of the other races combined. >> can we get back to sarah palin? >> she's down 20 points. >> can we get back to sarah palin. >> and lost by 16. >> can we get back to sarah palin, because we're talking about christine don again and she lost, right? sarah palin has positioned herself brilliantly i think. >> yes. >> she has become the kingmaker here. she is somebody who has set herself up as the antiestablishment candidate for, what? we don't -- we don't know, maybe nothing. maybe just to rule the world among antiestablishment people. but she's the one who said tonight you know we have to try to figure out a way to work with the republican establishment but when somebody's going to hold republicans and congress accountable for whether they cut the budget or whether they shutdown the government as eric seems to think they ought to do, it's going to be sarah palin. >> is sarah palin, then, to blame for not winning the senate. >> no, no, no. >> well -- >> that's a good question. >> that is not -- that is not --

that is not fair. i promise you, if sarah palin the first meeting of the republican conference if she was the guest she would get a standing ovation and every single one of those guys would want to line her up for fund-raising. >> this was a day of incredible republican triumph. >> absolutely. >> and sarah palin is the most prominent republican in the united states. so the idea that she deserves blame for anything or there should be recriminations for anything i think it is preposterous. this is a day of republican celebration. >> yep. >> and i think she is the symbol of the contemporary republican party. >> but afraid of her. privately they don't like her. >> and just a bunch of people -- >> afraid of at her power. >> at the palm in washington are afraid of her. who cares what they think. >> i don't know if afraid of her, they don't like her. >> hold on sorry, eric, what. >> a lot of people who are scared of sarah palin and who hate sarah palin because they're all previously affiliated to future 2012 candidates not named sarah palin. >> can we just all agree, though

that this election was not won by republicans. it was won by independents, shifting their -- >> no, no no, no. >> shifting their loyalty from democrats in 2008. >> the democrats lost and the independents won it. >> maybe that, too. we lost a lot of enthusiasm on the democratic side. turnout was a lot lower than expected but independent shichtd here and i think it's pretty important to think about sarah palin as ed talks about her, which is, she is a republican. she will continue to help lead republicans and where people are really going to be held accountable to gloria's point i think is it's the independents, it's dissatisfied unemployed voter who is -- doesn't care about either party. who is going to hold the congress accountable. >> remember what -- where sarah palin was a year ago after the mccain campaign. her base in alaska was crumbling. some of her investigations. she was on the governor's salry. >> still is. >> her political contributions

were going downhill. she's the biggest fish in the pond. she energizeless the republican party. >> without a political organization. >> and like a consultant friend of mine once said i'm occasional responsive but never responsible. she now has power without responsibility it's a great job. it's a great job. it all ends if she runs for president. but it also fends she ever says she won't run for president. >> do you think that -- >> in that the republicans spent this entire year campaigning against nancy pelosi. democrats spent a whole lot of time talking about sarah palin. a woman who doesn't do anything in washington. and are they going to continue for the next two years talking about sarah palin as opposed to john boehner or a mitch mcconnell? >> it's amazing to me that we're spending a night of huge election in which republicans have made historic gains in the house talking about someone who is not on the ballot. sarah palin is a powerful figure in the republican base. she's popular among populist conservati

conservatives. she has negative capability when it comes to independents but she's a media fascination. she's a celebrity. she's a power broker with conservative populists but she's not on the ballot. she's not the story tonight. >> give the people credit who actually sfwhun so let's stop talking. take a quick break. i know, chan. you never considered making bluetooth, remote keyless entry and turn-by-turn navigation available in every model. so it must be hard for you to hear autoweek.com say our interior raises the small-car bar. if you want to talk about it, call me... that is you know when you get home... since you don't have bluetooth in every model. the all new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. ♪

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>> it's an extremely, extremely close race for the u.s. sen freight colorado right now. these are the latest numbers with 77% of the vote now in. michael bennet is the incumbent senator, he was appointed -- he's got 47.2%. to ken buck, the republican challenger, 47.5%. as of right now, buck is ahead by nearly 5,000 votes out of 1.3 million votes that have already been counted. it's very, very close in

colorado right now. still 27% of the vote needs to be counted. cnn's mary snow's over at buck headquarters in colorado, watching all of this right now. it's been going back and forth, mary, but it's about as close as it gets rights now and we're certainly not ready to make any projection. >> reporter: yeah, and you know we're approaching five hours since the polls closed here in colorado, wolf, you could see behind me the crowd still hanging in. a little bit of drama in the past hour. republicans here thought that there -- they had been pulling ahead. but it turned out that it was a mistake in the polling. but crowd's really come to life in this past hour just as this race has tightened. we'd talked to ken buck, the republican backed by the tea party, he had been predicting that he would win by a comfortable lead. the democrats have been saying these past couple of days, they thought this was going to be a razor thin margin in this race.

and democrats had been preparing for the possibility of a potential recount. republicans say they don't -- they're not looking at that possibility right now. just hanging in. ken buck is upstairs watching these returns with his family. wolf? >> a long night in colorado right now. mary, thanks very much. harry reid, the senate majority leader, we've projected that he has won his bid for re-election. there is harry reid's headquarters now the las vegas right now. he's about to speak to some of his supporters. they're very excited. it was a close race with sharron angle but in the end harry reid wins >> thank you, everybody. >> let's listen in briefly. >> thank you. >> to the senate majority leader. [ applause ] [ crowd chanting ] >> thank you, everybody. thank you, thank you, thank you.

yes, we did. [ applause ] today nevada chose hope over fear. [ applause ] nevada chose to move forward, not backwards. [ applause ] nevada made this choice because we know it's not about us versus them. it's about every nevadan, all of us, in this together. today you made possible what many called impossible. and i'm grateful you did. not for me, but for the future we all share as nevadans.

first, let me thank my wife. [ applause ] my wife and my best friend. i wanted you by my side since the first time i saw you. and you've been there ever since, every step of the way. to my family, my tireless staff, and all my generous volunteers -- [ applause ] -- i wish my voice could convey what's in my heart.

that's, thank you, thank you, thank you. you never gave up. you never gave up. because you know nevadans never give up. i know how hard you worked and i appreciate each minute you spent, each hour, days, weeks, months and years, and i thank the people of nevada. it's always been my honor to represent the state, to serve the state, and to fight for the state and to fight for each of you. [ applause ] and friends, i'm not finished fighting. in fact, tonight, i'm more determined than ever. [ cheers and applause ]

you see i've been in some pretty tough fights in my day, they've been in the street, they've been in a boxing ring and they've been in the united states senate. but i have to admit, this has been one of the toughest. but it's nothing compared to the fights families are facing all over nevada right now. this race's been called, but the fight is far from over. the bell that just rang isn't the end of the fight, it's the start of the next round. [ cheers and applause ] i know a lot of nevadans feel like they've been counted out. but you know i know what that's like. i've taken on powerful forces, no one dare to challenge them.

and i've ran in some tough elections that no one thought that i could win so i know what it's like to have the odd stacked against you, i know what it's like to take a tunch, i've taken a few, but more importantly i know what it's like to get back on your feet. my story, my story and this night proved that difficult isn't synonymous with impossible. and we're proof that a test is tough final you're not tough. my kpreer and in campaign have been driven by a simple belief. if a poor kid from searchlight can make it, anybody can make it. every one in nevada deserves a chance, everyone in america deserves a chance.

nevada's going to recover, nevada's going to recover. nevada's going to prosper and nevada's going to lead. [ cheers and applause ] we're going to bounce back stronger than ever. i've never accounted nevin ocou and i'm not whether to start right now. i think that you know that about me, you also know the balloons and the ballrooms aren't my style. they're not my thing. so everybody enjoy tonight. [ applause ] but remember -- but remember tomorrow, it's back to work for the people of nevada. [ cheers and applause ] you see, you see, tomorrow morning there will still be too

few jobs for too many people. there will still be too many foreclosure signs in too many front yards there will still be too many kids in crowded classrooms and too many students wondering how can they afford college? but your hard work has been really hard has given nevada the chance to believe again that tomorrow isn't impossible. so before i finish here tonight, i want to -- on stage just a handful of those who made tonight possible. my family -- [ cheers and applause ] my friends, my friends, my staff. they all made tonight possible.

[ cheers and applause ] because of you, because of you tonight -- because of you we didn't just make history, we made a better a lot of futures, because of you we did it. thank you! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ tonight's the night let's live it up ♪ ♪ i've got my money ♪ go out and smash it >> all right, so -- so you could see her ay reid obviously relieved, very excited. very happy that he won in his home state of nevada. he's the majority leader. sharron angle who put up a very, very strong fight, loses in nevada. the democrats will retain the majority probably just barely in the u.s. senate. they're going to go down from their significant majority, 59 seats. we don't know exactly.

there's still some outstanding races out there that are very close, but harry reid comes back for another six years in washington. there you see him celebrating with his family and his friends, his staff, harry reid wins in -- in nevada. let's go back to cnn's john king. he's over at our election matrix. huge night, huge night for the republicans in the u.s. senate. at least a net gain of 60 seats in the house of representatives. >> it is remarkable when you look at this you know in 2006 in 2008 it was blue that represented change in america. democrats gaining more of these districts, turning blue. more states turning blue. look at all of this red tonight and if they're flashing that means that they have changed tonight. look at all of these states. go back through the class of 2006, the class of 2008. these two classes are most significant because it was that 2006 class that made nancy pelosi the speaker. that came in on the presidential coattails tonight as you can see the significant numbers of those democrats being washed out. we started tonight in the cnn 1

whun 91 democrats in the 100 most contested house races across the country. and you are seeing them lose by the dozens here assy you see -- look at all. red, so much blue here when we began the night. wolf it started mostly 2006, in 2008. but look at when you go back in time. it's not just the new democrats. are there democrats who have been in washington for years, for 15 years, 20 years or more, losing tonight. all flashing red. look at this. that's tennessee and mississippi there. go back in way here, texas, michigan, north dakota. you see them holding one in rhode island, but arkansas going red. kansas going red. just all control the country. north, south, east and west, liberal democrats losing, moderate democrats losing. it's just stunning the sweep of this. we now say the house republicans will win at least 60 seats. at least 60 seats. the they needed 39, they're