or call during business hours. so good to be with you this morning. welcome to "early today's" special election coverage. i'm frances rivera from and i'm phillip mena. you're waking up to a new day in america as speaker-elect nancy pelosiut it last night after a major shift in power. the nation waking up more divided than ever this morning as seen here on front pages all across the country. a record-breaking number of americans cast their ballots in one of the most consequential midterm elections in history. >> a wave of democrats is now making their way to congress, seizing control of the house of representatives and bringing an

unprecedented number of women to power to serve as a check on the president. >> this resistance began with women, and it is being led by women tonight. they refused to let anyone shut them up or stand in their way, and that is how real change begins. >> and it wasn't just women who went left. african-americans, hispanics, and asian-americans also went for the democrats, joining those consequential female voters. >> while that coalition may have been enough to propel democrats to power in the house, it was an entirely different matter across the capitol where republicans held on to their majority in the senate. they flipped a handful of democratically controlled seats as voters delivered a government said to shall at odds with itself over the next few years. the texas senate race pitting

cruz and o'rourke. >> and while the president sought to put immigration front and center in election, warning that a caravan of migrants are making their way up from central america, it was health care that won out as a top issue facing most americans with 41% of those polled putting it as first with immigration coming in as a distant second. in fact, nearly 50% of voters claim the president's immigration policies were, quote, too tough. >> still when it was all said and done, the president got exactly what he wanted after he told americans to vote as if he were on the ballot with two-thirds of voters saying the president was a factor in how they voted, ultimately handing him accountability via the house. >> but it was women who made all the difference this midterm, making history along the way. at least 95 women have won seats in the house, breaking the current session record. more than two dozen of them are going to washington for the very first time. as our clean jane tim writes, women didn't just break records.

they set the political playbook on fire. from the first muslim woman taking power, ra she that tlaib winning her seat in michigan, and ilhan omar getting elected in minnesota. veronica es co-bar from el paso. and the youngest candidate ever, new york's alexandria ocasio-cortez entering congress at 29 years old. >> we launched this campaign because in the absence of anyone giving a clear voice on the moral issues of our time, then it is up to us to voice them. >> another notable female newcomers, charisse davids, the first native american woman and first lesbian native american woman elected to congress. she's also a former mma fighter. then there's mikey sherrill, a former navy pilot who flipped a republican seat. abigail spanberger, the parent winner in virginia who wrestled the seat away from conservative david brat.

and minnesota's angie craig who gave democrats the 23rd seat they needed in order to win control of the house. many of the democratic women ran because of president trump. his presidency igniting a resurgence in democratic activism as they seek a check on his power. it looks like the dems will get exactly that come january with lawmakers set to use their powerful committees to investigate the administration. this morning a source tells nbc news one leading democratic lawmaker already intends to formally request president trump's tax returns. meanwhile on the senate side, no blue wave there. democrats had an uphill battle defending 26 seats to the republicans nine. the gop picked up three of those, giving a big boost to president trump. indiana democratic senator joe donnelly lost to businessman mike braun. in north dakota, senator heidi heitkamp fell to republican challenger kevin cramer. in missouri, josh hawley surged past democratic incumbent claire

mccaskill. senator ted cruz fended off beto o'rourke who smashed fund-raising records in his bid to turn texas blue. >> we saw a $100 million race, but all the money in the world was no match for the good people of texas and the hard-working men and women across our state. >> i am forever grateful to every single one of you for making this possible. i believe in you. i believe in texas. i believe in this country. >> looking to florida where the race there, it is still too close to call at this hour. incumbent senator bill nelson and rick scott currently separated by less than 1%. now, if the final results have them separated by 0.5% or less, that will trigger an automatic recount. still, that didn't stop scott from celebrating a victory last night. he told the crowd he's not going to d.c. to make friends but to get things done. a statement from nelson is expected later today.

out in utah, former presidential candidate mitt romney handily won his bid for senator, promising to work with lawmakers on both sides. >> the victory tonight is more than a victory of a candidate for the united states senate. i believe it's a call for greater dignity and respect. i believe it's an affirmation that regardless of one's gender or ethnicity or sexual orientation or race or place of birth, that we are all equal. >> in new jersey, democrat bob menendez managed to hold on to his seat despite backlash over his federal corruption trial. still up in the air, the race for retiring senator thad cook ran's seat in mississippi. the special election there will go to a runoff after neither candidate got more than 50% of the vote. that runoff will happen on november 27th. and in arizona, that historic race also still too close to call. democrat kyrsten sinema and

martha mcsally are vowing for jeff flake a seat. whichever candidate wins will serve as the state first ever female senator. >> by taking control of the house, democrats will have their first check of president trump since he took office, and possible leadership is already taking shape. according to south carolina congressman james clyburn, he expects nancy pelosi to retake the speakership, and sonny hoyer to serve as majority leader. clyburn would be majority whip. how will democrats wield their newfound power. >> here is "usa today" congressional reporter eliza collins. a broad question. what do you make of what we saw overnight? >> well, it's really fascinating because it's basically three very different maps. the democrats made historic gains in the house. they were able to -- maybe not a blue wave but definitely a blue ripple. they swept suburban districts. women were swept in. but that map was more favorable to democrats. in the senate, the map was certainly more favorable to republicans, and that's exactly

what happened. republicans took out some democratic incumbents by pretty large margins. and then the governor's race, there were definitely some surprises. kansas went to a democrat. but it was sort of a mixed bag. so it's just three really different races. >> when you look at the issues at stake here, our nbc news exit polling showed that it was health care that was the biggest driver for voters the at the polls. talk about how that translated to democrats. and on the republican side, what that meant when you have a president just driving and pounding so hard the issue of immigration. >> yeah. so health care is absolutely no surprise, and democrats particularly in the house knew that, and they were very successful with that. republicans ran on repealing and replacing obamacare. they basically had that vote in 2017 and were unable to do it, but they were on the record as voting to do that, which would allow pre-existing conditions to cost more. and democrats hammered them on that, they were really on the

defense. republican sources told me that was sort of the biggest problem for them, and it clearly was true in the house. immigration, president trump did that. he knew exactly who he was speaking to on that, which was his base. that was really helpful in the senate in these ruby red states. but it did probably hurt him in the house in some of these suburban districts where that might have turned off some voters. >> this election was also a referendum on president trump. exit polling show two-thirds of americans said they cast their vote based on president trump, whether they supported him or opposed him. and he was really doubling down on immigration towards the end here. going forward, how big of an issue do you think that will still be, or was that just something that he may have been playing up, fearmongering just for the election to get sides to vote there? >> well, president trump won on immigration in 2016. he's going to say he won on immigration in 2018. after tonight's results came in, he called it a tremendous night even though republicans lost the

house. knowing trump, he will probably continue to go with that. but we'll really have to see. >> especially with 2020 now in sight, now with the midterms behind us, we'll see what happens after that. >> lot going on there. thanks for joining us. let's get a check of our weather with bill karins. >> we're no longer really tracking any rain or severe storms. now we're turning to cold and snowy type weather. we actually have winter weather advisories for areas of nebraska and kansas. this is the beginning of a chillier air mass coming down from the north. we think we're going to get some accumulating snowfall in areas of nebraska and a little bit in kansas. we have rain this morning around little rock. rainy weather around louisiana through mississippi into georgia and the carolinas late tonight into early tomorrow morning. finally a dry day in the northeast. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. here's a closer look at your day ahead. we're all watching the chance of some showers and thunderstorms along that front. it's not going to pour all day. most areas will get an inch or

less. i'm not too concerned of flooding concerns throughout the south. how about this cold air mass coming down from canada? only 24 today in bismarck and 28 in fargo. the chilly november is going to be a theme, guys. >> we'll be ready for it. bill, thank you. candidates were not the only thing on the ballot this year. the public also got a chance to decide on policy. americans voted on dozens of referendums that could have a huge impact on not just the state, but the country. so forget about red or blue, voters in michigan, well, they went green, voting to legalize recreational marijuana. it's now the tenth state in the country to legalize it. the measure will allow adults over the age of 21 to possess, grow, and use small amounts of it. >> more than 600,000 workers in missouri are getting a raise after voters there approved proposition b. it will gradually hike up the minimum wage to $12 an hour. you see clear skin. cosentyx can help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're

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all do good. and we can do good by doing good, that if we all put our oars in the water and row in the same direction, that we can all get further than by ourselves. i still believe that to be true this evening, even in defeat, i believe that to be true. the question is, we have a choice to make tomorrow morning. are we going to wake up and bask in sorrow and defeat, or are we going to get up and reassert ourselves to the mission at hand? are we going to get up and fight for the things we believe in? are we going to get up and say that we still deserve our seat at the table? >> that's florida democrat andrew gillum, who conceded the governor's race to ron ron desantis. the governor's race often courted controversy, notably with a charge that desantis used racially insensitive language against gillum. if he had won, gillum would have become florida's first black governor. but it was an historic night for female governors.

democrat janet mills became the first female governor of maine after defeating republican shawn moody in a tight race. mills replaces republican paul lepage, who refused to expand medicaid coverage to some 70,000 people in his state. mills has pledged to implement that expansion immediately. >> and republican kristi noem was elected the first woman governor of south dakota over democrat billie sutton. noem will succeed dennis daugaard, also a republican. voters in iowa also elected their first female governor in state history. republican kim reynolds won a tight race against democrat fred hubble after campaigning on reforming medicaid and funding planned parenthood. and one other milestone to note. jared polis in colorado became the first openly gay man ever elected governor in america. the five-term congressman who spoke of inclusivity and diversity beat out republican walker stapleton. >> florida is getting a whole lot of attention for its

governor's race and some key house and senate races. as the largest battleground state in the country, these elections could provide valuable insight into how voters are reacting to the president after narrowly voting him in office two years ago. let's turn now to nbc news political reporter alley ba tally live in naples. she's been on the road following all of these races closely. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frances and phillip. i think the one thing that you need to look at in florida -- and you're right that it got outsized attention. but florida is one of the swingiest of swing states and it tells us a lot about where the nation is right now two years into president trump's term. you're right that they elected him narrowly by about one point in 2016. the margins that we saw toptd both in the bill nelson-rick scott race and the desantis-gillum race mibmicked that. you have 0.6 percentage points divides those two campaigns. we'll be watching that for sure. i think the lesson here for

republicans is that you can run two ways and still end up with a victory. for ran desantis, he ran in the image of trump, really running in the president's shadow and bear hugging him as tightly as he could at every turn, trying to pick up that trump base, trump voter who powered the president to victory in florida in 2016. then on the other side you had rick scott, who was a big trump 2016 backer himself. but now is running as his own man, repeatedly telling republicans here in the state that he was independent and speaking his own mind. so he was looking to target that moderate centrist voter. in the end, both pats came back and both won as republicans in florida. it gave people a pretty good sense of what could come in 2020 when the president seems to be or expects to be on the ballot once again. >> ali, thank you. no matter what's up for a vote in florida, it always seems like a coin flip, right? just ahead, more election coverage. but first after casting their ballots yesterday, dozens of voters flocked to susan b. anthony's grave in upstate new york and placed their "i voted"

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getting you up to date with the other headlines, a jury found a man from bangladesh guilty on federal terrorism charges for setting off a pipe bomb in new york's busiest

subway in december. after the verdict was read, he said he was motivated by anger at president trump. he now faces life in prison. a colorado man has cut a plea deal for the shocking murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters. chris watts agreed to plead guilty to nine counts to avoid the death penalty. watts had gone on television to issue a public plea after his family disappeared in august, only to be arrested a short time later. the girl scouts are taking a claim to the scouts name. the group has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming the boy scouts proposed name to scouts bsa could marginalize the girl scouts and cause confuse. the boy scouts responded by saying there is an opportunity for both organizations to serve girls and boys in their communities. just ahead, our midterm election coverage here continues. plus powerful storms slam into tennessee and leaving behind a trail of destruction in the wake. you are watching "early today."

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♪ introducing the all-new corolla hatchback. toyota. let's go places. well, we did have one tornado that definitely was a deadly tornado in tennessee yesterday. even flipped a house in one case. no such things going on like that today. we have cold air coming down from the north and we're going to have a chilly air mass in play. 28 in billings. memphis at 57. then the cold air continues to push to the south as we go into thursday. by friday and saturday, to the east coast. stay tuned for more.

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in one of the closest senate races across the country, democratic incumbent claire mccaskill, the senator of missouri, has conceded to her republican challenger, 38-year-old attorney general josh hawley. here at the mccaskill watch party, the room began feeling very confident. then they moved to cautious optimism. ultimately they ended the night disappointed. claire mccaskill acknowledged it was difficult to bring in some of those more suburban voters who typically are hawley or republican supporters. she said she is still fighting for the people here in missouri. frances, phillip. >> good morning from el paso, texas, where a lot of democrats went home disappointed last nights. beto o'rourke falling short in

his bid to unseat texas senator ted cruz. o'rourke's going to end up with about 48% of the vote when it's all said and done. that dramatically beats most of the polling in this state, putting together a coalition of new voters, younger voters, diverse voters, but not enough to defeat the texas senator here in a state that has been republican for 25 years and will stay republican for at least two more here in the u.s. senate. guys, back to you. >> good morning. the hotly contested race for florida governor ended here tonight in orlando with ron desantis giving his victory speech. now, desantis had the full support of president trump, who made multiple visits to florida over the course of this campaign, and desantis in his victory speech thanking the president for his support and telling him that he'll probably be hearing from him a lot, asking for help for the sunshine state. back to you, phillip and frances. >> katie, thank you. thanks to all of our nbc road warriors who have been pounding the trail. >> oh, yeah. >> they'll continue to do so

this morning. >> a lot of work. it was a night that met expectations for some and delivered huge surprises for others with republicans holding on to the senate and beating out several democrats that tightened their grip on the chamber for the next two years. with liberals unable to cobble enough of a coalition. >> female, minority, and young voters propelled the democrats into power, likely putting the speaker's gavel back into nancy pelosi's hands and delivering a referendum on the president. >> thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in america. today is more than about democrats and republicans. it's about restoring the constitution's checks and balances to the trump administration. >> two-thirds of voters said president trump was a factor in how they voted. still when asked, a majority put health care as their top issue. still surprising to some when it comes to health care because

especially on the president's side, we heard so much when it comes to immigration and the other factors there. >> we can't forget the voter turnout. that was big here. the more americans we can get participating in our democracy, the bett. the bett. keer whepether you were borne for moe dance-offs... more travels... or more touchdowns. get the immune support that gives you more. airborne gummies have 50% more vitamin-c than emergen-c... plus our crafted blend of vitamins, minerals and herbs. airborne.

a live look at capitol hill right now at 4:30, the morning after the midterms. live look at capitol hill. democrats have regaped the house, while republicans are in control of the senate. big night last night. now, big morning, giving you the latest in results. good morning to you and thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. we'll break down the important races but first a check of your weather and traffic. we start with weather, and kari, pretty consistent with the weather this week. >> yes, it will continue today. cool mornings and very warm afternoons. live look in palo alto, where we'll feel upper 40s and low 50s starting throughout the day and reaching into