is next. this morning on a special election edition of "america this morning" -- >> tonight is a victory for the people of texas. >> this resistance began with women, and it is being led by women tonight. >> neither a blue wave nor a crimson tide as the house goes blue, but the senate gets redder. pelosi declares victory. >> today is more than about democrats and republicans, it's about restoring the ba to the trump administration. while trump sings success. overnight some races down to the wire, undecided after america's voting system is put to the test with a historic crush of midterm voters. >> i have been here an hour and a half.

i think there's probably another half an hour ahead of me too. this hour, the message voters on both sides of the aisle are sending to the president and the congress. the impact on statehouses coast to coast, the historic ballot questions from election reform to marijuana. and a night of firsts for women, muslims and native americans as we ask what it means for the issues most important to americans. >> we are not a nation of red states or blue states. we are a nation of red, white and blue states. that's america. >> plus, expert analysis from our powerhouse political team. abc news election night coverage, your vote, your vote continues right now. and it is morning in america, and good morning, everybody. i'm kendis gibson. >> i'm marci gonzalez. we begin our special election coverage with the split decision

on congress. democrats have won control of the house for the first time in eight years, but the senate remains in the hands of republicans. >> firmly in the hands of republicans. here's a breakdown at this hour, in the house democrats now have at least 222 seats. only 201 was needed for control. and now the new makeup of the senate, so far it's 43-51 in favor of republicans who have gained two seats so far. red firmly in control there. one high-profile senate contest remains undecided this morning. it's in florida between the democratic incumbent bill nelson and the state's current republican governor rick scott. >> meanwhile, the race to replace rick scott as florida's governor has been won by republican ron desantis. abc's whit johnson is in florida for us this morning. >> reporter: kendis and marci, i'm here in tallahassee outside what was andrew gillum's headquarters on election night. he conceded the race to republican ron desantis, his challenger.

desantis, essentially a president trump pick, he's been all in on trump and the trump agenda, voters basically said when they were voting in this election, they were voting to either support or reject president trump's policies. well, it turns out by a razor thin margin they sided with the president. they sided with the republican ron desantis, and i can tell you here at andrew gillum headquarters, the crowd was surprised. hundreds of people were waiting for him to come out. perhaps give a victory speech. at the point when he came out on the stage, abc news was not projecting a winner because the race was too close to call but andrew gillum came out and said that he conceded the race, called desantis and congratulated him on a hard fought victory. >> i still believe that there is more of us who believe in what is common and decent and right, and i believe in the long run good always wins out over evil. >> reporter: talking about the senate now, that race again

still too close to call, however, republican rick scott, the current governor here in the state of florida already declared victory. the republican party here in florida already declared victory. senator bill nelson, who is hoping for a fourth term, has not technically conceded the race, however, his spokesperson came out and said that they were disappointed in the results. he said that the senator would speak publicly and thank his supporters on wednesday. so, it remains to be seen how this will all play out, but for governor rick scott, this is a third razor thin victory in the state of florida. kendis and marci, back to you. >> our thanks to whit johnson there in florida. and the incumbent democrats have been defeated in several hotly contested senate races, but they picked up a key senate seat in the west. jacky rosen defeated republican dean heller in a hard fought battle in nevada. >> in tennessee republican marsha blackburn beat former democratic governor phil

bredesen to keep the seat in gop hands. she'll become tennessee's first female senator. and texas senator ted cruz managed to hang on to his seat with a narrow victory fending off a fierce challenge from democrat congressman beto o'rourke. abc's paula faris has more from el paso. >> reporter: hi, kendis and marci. well, congressman beto o'rourke gave senator cruz a run for his money. this was a close race. he was trying to become the first democrat elected to that seat since 1988, but it didn't happen. you know, at the end of the day their personality and their policies just couldn't be any more different. ted cruz, his platform was jobs, security and freedom and beto o'rourke's platform was health care, unity, it was dreamers and just this morning he talked about the borders not being a threat. there's going to be a lot of talk about whether or not his platform was too progressive. in fact, when i sat down with him a couple of weeks ago i asked if his platform was so progressive that he had his eye

on a bigger prize, maybe the presidency and i asked him if there's any scenario he runs for president in 2020. he said no. but cruz believes he will probably run one day. >> and i also want to take a moment to congratulate beto o'rourke. he poured his heart into this campaign. millions across this state were inspired by his campaign. >> i want to thank this amazing campaign of people. i'm so [ bleep ] proud of you guys. >> reporter: the state is as close to purple as it's ever been. four in ten texans are hispanics. every other baby born is a hispanic. the voters are younger and more diverse and the cities are getting bluer, and you can't i the state with early voting, and

also 500,000 registered to vote for the first time. that's a wrap from el paso, you guys. we'll send it back to you. >> beto dropping the "f" bomb on live tv. >> got to love a bleep on election night. >> yeah, except they didn't bleep it. all right, well, we had to. a democrat also suffered a devastating defeat in the deep red state of indiana. >> the republican businessman mike braun unseated joe donnelly. abc's linsey davis filed this report from indianapolis. >> reporter: for quite some time now this race is indiana has been billed as a hotly contested senate race, and in the end that's not what we got. we didn't see the nail-biter between the democratic incumbent joe donnelly and republican businessman mike braun. mike braun was actually able to oust him fairly easily and proving the reputation of indiana to be true, that this is one of the reddest states in the midwest, and it has been said indiana is as red as the red

barns that dot the corn line countryside, and this election here appears to make that true once again. you know, in the thank you speech, the victory speech from braun, it was a big thank you to president trump who visited here four times campaigning on his behalf in indiana including on election eve where he showed up in ft. wayne on his behalf. but in the contrast, donnelly had a very short and somber speech. you know, one interesting exit poll here showed that more than half of hoosiers felt that donnelly's decision to vote against supreme court justice brett kavanaugh was important in their vote and asked the senator if he felt that would be favorable to him or unfavorable. he said he didn't know but in the end he felt that it was a decision that just had to be made and in the end hoosiers deciding to vote him out of the senate. i'm linsey davis in indianapolis for abc news.

>> and the senate race in arizona has been up in the air overnight. democrat kyrsten sinema and republican martha mcsally are neck and neck. >> they're battling to replace the republican jeff flake, who chose not to seek re-election. whoever wins will be the first female senator from arizona. and the senate race in missouri has gone republican. josh hawley defeated two-term democratic incumbent claire mccaskill. >> hawley touted his support for president trump during the campaign. abc's deborah roberts has more. >> reporter: democrat claire mccaskill's loss here says as much about the president as it does about the state of missouri. >> i want you to keep that fire burning because there is justice around the corner. >> reporter: the two-term senator lightly positioned herself as somebody willing to work with the president even distancing herself from her democratic party in some ways. but in the end it was not enough to overcome a republican challenger who had the backing

of the president. in fact, president trump was just here visiting just a couple of days ago throwing his support. the president is wildly popular in this area. he carried missouri by nearly 20 points, so it was a very difficult uphill battle. she knew that this would be tough and she said so today while she went to cast her ballot, that it might be a nail-biter but no one expected her to lose by such a large margin. the two-term senator denied a third term. coming up, the governors' races including that key race in georgia that is still undecided this morning. also our powerhouse political team joins us to analyze the results and later the big ballot

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constitu tthp ore than about administration. that is house minority leader nancy pelosi reacting to the democrats flipping the house. now that democrats have the majority, pelosi could become speaker once again. >> and outside of the many house races there were plenty of surprises. >> our political director rick klein and deputy director maryalice parks told us the results are a story in contrast. >> it's amazing one country could have two different verdicts on the same night. 100 million people estimated to vote and ratified the decisions to have this totally different makeup of the house and the senate. at one time you're rejecting president trump and at another point you're saying we kind of like what he's doing. >> the victories the democrats won were in a diverse number of

districts. a lot of those suburbs that we were tracking from the beginning where democrats have been pouring money into some of those suburban districts in new jersey, pennsylvania, new york, but they also had a big night in iowa and kansas and some unusual places for them so, again, i think rick is right. kind of a mixed bag. >> but the surprises that i thought that stood out for me, oklahoma. >> right. >> a congressional seat got turned around. >> we were tracking 100 races, had it all covered and one race we did not have on our map, oklahoma. oklahoma 5th democrats were able to switch that one. like we said there hadn't been any democrats in the kansas delegation and yet democrats picked up two there. they picked up two in iowa so kind of a heartland story for democrats which is really interesting. iowa, surprised that they were also able to take the kansas governor house. >> i think if you look at races outside kansas city, outside oklahoma and dallas and houston, all of america's major cities seem to have a republican stronghold that flipped back to

the blue. >> that kansas city, kansas, area really came up big. what about the makeup of the candidates? what's the story line there? >> such a big night for women. >> absolutely. a historic night for women any way you shake it. for the first time ever there will be more than 100 women in the u.s. congress, in the house specifically. unbelievable. possible with all the house races still to be projected it could be closer to 130 and just a lot of firsts. a lot of historic firsts. two muslim women that will be going to congress, two native american women. those are firsts in the nation's history. so we're going to have a lot of people waking up feeling like they have a real new sense of representation going to washington. >> the first ever 20 something women elected to congress as well. historically young, diverse, the military background. i also think there's probably a superstar in there. we just don't know who he or she right now. the biggest names on the democratic ticket overnight are

people that fell short. look in texas, beto o'rourke didn't win. we know what happened with andrew gillum in florida. stacey abrams, they're still counting votes but doesn't look like she'll be the top name on the top of the ticket so someone else, there is a diamond in the rough that the democrats have to figure out what happens next. >> a lot of the women that did well were new to politics and were successful in this pitch that they could be outsiders. veterans like rick said, a former cia officer, small business owners, teachers, doctors who said they want to help rebuild the democratic party running on a message of being brand-new and new to washington. they found success there. all right, coming up, the races for governor including the breaking news from georgia. >> also ahead, how florida just expanded the number of eligible voters by more than a million people. all of them convicted felons. all of them convicted felons. pey five hundred years, right? fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting.

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country. democrats were able to flip control of at least six statehouses in illinois, kansas, michigan, nevada, new mexico and wisconsin with several states still undecided overnight. >> in the florida governor's race, ron desantis defeated democrat andrew gillum. desantis campaigned as a close ally of president trump. also in the southeast the contentious georgia governor's race between the republican brian kemp and democrat stacey abrams still too close to call. abrams saying overnight she's not giving up until every vote is counted. abc's steve osunsami in atlanta. >> reporter: kendis and marci, stacey abrams just finished speaking and the crowd is leaving. this is not over according to the abrams campaign. they are still by their count if you crunch the numbers within the margin of error to take this into a runoff. >> no one would be unseen, no one is unheard and no one is uninspired.

a vow, a vow takes effort. it takes commitment to hold truth. reaching out, reaching across is hard work, but as i told you then, hard work is in our bones. [ applause ] but we still have a few more miles to go. >> reporter: on the other side of this race at the kemp campaign -- >> what an amazing night that we have had with incredible support in all four corners of our state. there are votes left to be counted, but we have a very strong lead, and, folks -- [ applause ] and, folks, make no mistake, the math is on our side to win this election. [ applause ] we are waiting on the final results, but i'm confident that victory is near, and together we will continue to work to put hard working georgians first and

keep our state moving in the right direction. >> reporter: it is still too early, of course, to call this race. one of the candidates needs to get to 50% plus 1 to make it to actually win this outright. otherwise, this goes into a runoff. this election would be held in december, december 4th, i believe. back to you. >> our thanks to steve osunsami. up next, red or blue, how stickers could end up being the one thing that unites voters nationwide. than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once daily pill for psoriatic arthritis. taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain... ...swelling and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection.

tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests, and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. we really pride ourselvesglass, on making it easy don't let another morning go by without to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safe if these packs have the same number of bladder leak pads, i bet you think bigger is better. actually, it's bulkier. always discreet quickly turns liquid to gel, for drier protection that's a lot less bulky. always discreet.

because it's the foundation for white teeth. it's important to look after your enamel i believe dentists will recommend pronamel strong and bright because it strengthens your enamel, but then also it polishes away stains for whiter teeth. we're back with that cover of "the new york daily news" this morning. uncle sam with the caption, split happens. play on words. >> well, florida just passed the largest expansion of voting rights since the voting age was lowered to 18.

>> yep, they've agreed to restore voting rights to most convicted felons who have served their sentences not including murderers. this will add 1.5 million people t rth data proposal went up in smoke. and election day social media craze is gaining momentum. >> those "i voted" stickers are being embraced by voters of all political stripes as a symbol of democracy in action. democracy in action.

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we will start with meteorologist mike nicco. >> we have red on the map in the form of a red flag warning. gusting up to 60 miles per hour. bone dry air. down to 8% relative humidity. fires could ignite and spread rapidly. take a look at your day and how it unfolds. a whole lot of sunshine.

grab the sunglasses. neighborhoods in the 30s. mid-40s to 50s around 7:00. mid-50s to low 60s at 7:00. here's alexis. good morning, mike. heading out heavy in the central valley. no surprise there. westbound 205 to 580 averaging 6 miles per hour. yeah, it is not great. that is several miles of slow crawl there. keeping a close eye on that this morning. a stack up at the cash lanes on either side of the bay bridge toll plaza. next traffic update in just a few minutes. a victory for lieutenant governor gavin newsom. >> come january, he will be sworn in as governor of california. the former mayor beat republican john cox, 59% to 41%.

overnight, newsom tweeted he is honored and privileged to serve as california's next governor. he took the stage in los angeles saying the hard work begins today. last night it was all for celeat called his wife jennifer "wonder woman", thanked his campaign. he didn't use president trump's name touting the california dream and the importance of inclusiveness. >> we don't demean. we don't discriminate. and we don't demoralize. we don't separate families. and we don't lock kids in cages. meanwhile, his opponent wished newsom success but said that would not come unless he deals with special interests in sacramento. now to the u.s. senate.

this was a democrat versus a democrat contest. as you can see, senator dianne feinstein easily winning against kevin de leon. 65% to 35%. she will now serve a fifth term. she said there is a lot of work to do still in washington. >> ywe need to do an immigratio bill, a health care bill to provide a public option and to enable people to buy into medicare at age 55. and i believe to allow medicare to negotiate the price of drugs. deleon lost despite the endorsement which was a clear message. new overnight democrats pick up a key seat in the senate. it appears jacky rosen will defeat dean heller in nevada.