♪ for what it's worth ♪ [ cheers and applause ] tonight, millions of americans casting their votes. the issues that mattered. inflation. abears. crime. the results from the battlegrounds. >> i will never forget the great people of ohio. thank you for this honor to serve you. i'll fight for you every day. >> we bet on the people of pennsylvania, and you didn't let us down. >> plus what's at stake. the balance of power. who will control congress? and the historic firsts. this is a special edition of "nightline," "your voice, your vote: election 2022."

now reporting from abc news election headquartrs in new york, byron pitts. >> good evening. thank you for joining us. the stakes could not be higher at a time of economic uncertainty and deep division across the country. americans went to the polls to cast their ballots in races for the senate, the house, and dozens of governors races. exit polls show the most important issue for voters was inflation, followed by abortion. as we come on the air in the west, here's what question do know about the big question of the night. the balance of power in congress. at the moment, the makeup of the senate is undecided. democrats have a projected 48 seats, republicans have 47, and need 51 to take control from the democrats. in the house, democrats have a projected 188 seats and republicans 207. 218 are needed for republicans to take control there. we begin tonight in pennsylvania where democrats have scored a

major victory. lieutenant governor john fetterman is projected to win the senate contest against tv's dr. oz. abc's eva pilgrim is at fetterman's headquarters in pittsburgh. >> reporter: a big win for democrats. pennsylvania, the first flip, electing a democrat, john g fetterman, to the senate. this is a result we were not expecting to get right away, officials preparing people for the fact that this count could take several days. but enough votes were in that they were able to call this race for john fetterman just a short time ago. fetterman getting on stage behind me and talking to his supporters and his staff, saying that he was humbled. again, repeating that same line we've heard so much from him in recent days, that he is fighting for any man who has ever been knocked down and had to get back up again. byron? >> eva pilgrim, thank you so much. to georgia. incumbent governor brian kemp is

projected to win a second term over stacey abrams. and georgia officials say there will likely be a runoff in the senate race given democrat raphael warnock and republican herschel walker. abc's sieve osunsami is in atlanta. >> reporter: the rematch between brian kemp and stacey abrams, brian kemp won again, beating stacy abrams with a significant lead that started early in the evening and he never let up. stacey abrams has conceded, called brian kemp. he will be the governor for the next four years. the u.s. senate race, it's a slightly different story. if you're looking at the most current vote totals, they put the incumbent senator democrat, raphael warnock, ahead. his party is still going on behind me, his supporters are still here, hoping that there are enough outstanding votes that they might, i underline might, be able to eke out a victory here. even though that looks unlikely.

what looks more likely is that he will head to a runoff election against republican nominee herschel walker four weeks from tonight. byron? >> steve osunsami, thank you so much. we move to arizona where democratic senator mark kelly leads republican blake masters in the governor race, pitting the trump-endorsed kari lake against the democratic secretary of state, katie hobbs. here's whit johnson from scottsdale. >> reporter: in the battleground state of arizona, two pivotal races with national implications that we're watching closely. in the senate, democrat mark kelly fighting to keep his seat. he's going up against republican blake masters. that race had been neck and neck for a period of time. masters was part of this gop wave of candidates endorsed by donald trump in this state. also among them, republican kari lake, who is running for governor with her election denialism becoming really a

central part of her campaign. she's taking on democrat katie hobbs who is the secretary of state and actually made a name for herself by defending the election results of 2020. still so much at stake in these races as the ballots are still being counted. >> thank you so much, whit. we turn to florida where governor ron desantis is projected to handily win a second term. in new york, kathy hochul took over after andrew cuomo resigned, projected to become the first woman elected to lead that state. in michigan, incumbent get when whitmer is projected to win re-election after a hard-fought race for governor in michigan. abortion was also on the ballot in michigan. my "nightline" coanchor juju chang is there. >> reporter: good evening to you, byron. we've been listening to our share of motown here at the motor city casino in detroit. it's gretchen whitmer's election night headquarters.

she just took to the stage to say that she's feeling damn good about tonight. there's been a blue wave throughout michigan what's been a big night for governor whitmer. and proposal 3, which was codifying abortion into the ballot, also passed. it's lifting the tide of democratic candidates all down-ballot here in michigan. unlike across the country where inflation, pocketbook issues like gas prices and the economy, was top of mind. here in michigan, it was one of the few states where abortion was the number one topic on voters' minds. and tonight here in michigan, it seems that abortion has played a heavy role and may be providing a roadmap for democrats moving forward. >> juju, thanks so much, safe travels home back to new york. before we go, a little bit of history made tonight. for the first time ever, a g

gen-z'er is projected to win a heat in the house. 25-year-old maxwell frost, who represents florida's 10th district. abc news projects massachusetts democrat maura healey will be the first openly gay woman elected governor of that state. and in maryland, democrat wes moore is projected to win the governor's race. moore will be the first person the color to lead that state and only the third black governor in our nation's history.

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all for $50 a month with a 2 year internet rate guarantee and no annual contract when you add xfinity mobile with unlimited data. switch today! "nightline," "your voice, your vote, election 2022" coverage continues. we return to our roundtable, donna brazile, chris christie. we were expecting a red wave, it didn't happen, why not? >> historically, parties in

power lose a seat. we knew there was a significant headwind. biden wanted this to be a choice, not a referendum. he knew if democratic candidates go out there, make the case, demonstrate they are listening to the american people, they heard their complaints about inflation, he knew this could be a better day and better night. what you saw across the country was that democrats are holding their own. we lost some ground, but we also picked up some ground. while all votes are not in, democrats tonight are probably breathing a sigh of relief. >> chris, you were cautious all evening about this whole red wave thing. but you still think there's some good signs there for the republican party? >> sure, look. depends how it all turns out. if it turns out we take the majority in the house, then on december 5th, now that we know we're going to have a runoff in georgia, if majorities at stake there and we win that, then it's a successful night. and the other thing, we did win 20 seats in 2020. and so the ability to be able to

pick up 40 or 50 seats was probably never on the table. but all that being said, it still is a disappointment for republicans that we didn't win some of those seats. the biggest cause for the disappointment are the donald trump-endorsed candidates. because they pretty universally did poorly tonight. >> i want to get back to trump a little later. chris, we talked about the potential of a runoff in georgia. you were saying that if it depends on who controls the senate, republicans will be all-in. if they've already won it or lost the senate, then herschel walker's on his own? >> yeah, i think it's a much tougher race for herschel if all the chips aren't at the center of the table. right? say we've got nevada, wisconsin left still to decide. if republicans don't win both of those, then control's not going to be at stake in georgia. >> what do you say? you know georgia, you know

warnock. he has a strong ground game in georgia. >> you know, that was the first state i won statewide when i was a young lawyer, know it very, very well. here's what i do know. in the state of georgia, from november 3rd to january 5th, democrats increased the percentage of people voting because they went out and they knocked on the doors of people who did not vote in the 2020 election on november 3rd. they got them out on january 5th. the question is, who are the voters that did not come out today? who failed to vote? will they be able to target those voters? if you look at the map, there's some room that raphael warnock, he can grow in the metro atlanta area. turnout was down 3% versus what we saw in 2018 and also 2020. he can grow with minority voters. black, latino, asian americans. the question i have tonight is whether or not stacey abrams, who put together that big ground

operation, will be back at the table to bring her team out, and likewise a question i have, will governor kemp send all of his troops or all his volunteers out to help? it's going to be a ground operation, i totally agree with you. this is not about dropping another $5 million, $10 million. >> the other factor is, we saw this near end of the night tonight. the libertarian candidate got 80,000 votes. so are those people going to vote? if they're going to vote, who are they going to vote for? ideologically, you would assume a good chunk of those voters, a majority or more, would be walker voters if they're libertarians. although they may have voted for the libertarian as a protest vote, we don't know. 80,000 voters are in play. the ones who did vote. now their candidate's not here. the other thing at play is going to be who does kemp decide that it is in his interests to fully

get behind herschel walker now that he's been re-elected as governor? it will be interesting to see what governor kemp does. >> as my late grandmother would say, he's treated herschel walker with a long-handled spoon to this point. >> let's remember this. when herschel walker was asked in the primary was he voting for brian kemp or david perdue, he said, "i'm not voting for either." >> that's right. >> let me tell you, as somebody who was an incumbent governor, when you're running for election and somebody says they're not sure they're going to vote for you in the primary, that's not something you forget. >> i'm from baltimore, i know we're petty, politicians can be petty as well. >> yeah. >> let's end on this. he was on the ballot in many states. it would seem at this point it was not a good night for our former president? >> well, let me say this. he had the pick of the litter when it came down to choosing candidates across the country. and as you well know, he picked a lot of the congressional candidates, a lot of the

federal. but he didn't have to pick a lot of the state candidates. so a republican governor, by and large, did far better than some of the senatorial candidates. here's the point with donald trump. is donald trump a driver or a chaser? is he going to drive people away from the republican party like independents and independent-leaning women, suburban women? or will people start chasing him? >> governor, ten seconds. >> it wasn't a good night for donald trump. whether he wants to admit it or not, which he won't, it was a bad night for him and republicans got a choice. party of me or party of us. >> you both are on "gma" in the morning. sleep fast. we're so grateful. thank you so much. we'll be back with the final thought.

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"your voice, your vote: election 2022" continues. >> that will do it for this special edition of "nightline." for many of you, more midterm election coverage right now on a special edition of ""america this morning."" and later on "good morning america." that's it for tonight. thanks for the company, america. good night and good morning.

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now open in northern california. right. now in america this morning. also this morning, bracing for nicole mandatory evacuations in florida ahead of what's expected to be a rare november hurricane said to hit late tonight, schools closed a major airport set to suspend operations, making a decision about its multibillion dollar moon rocket on the launch pad. and later the new powerball mystery after that, $2 billion jackpot drawing delayed by 10 hours what we're learning about the winning ticket. from abc news in new york.