11/09/22 11/09/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we bet on the people of pennsylvania and you did not let us down. and my promised to all of you is i will never let you down. thank you, pennsylvania. thank you so much. amy: democrats are hoping they can retain control of the senate after pennsylvania's lt.

governor john fetterman defeated emmett oz, leaving four key senate races still undecided -- arizona, georgia, nevada, and wisconsin. republicans were hoping to coast -- were hoping to see a red wave, but even control of the house is still up in the air as democrats outperformed expectations across the country. we will go to wisconsin and georgia for the latest and look at how voters in vermont, california, and michigan have enshrined abortion rights into their state constitutions. >> history has been made in vermont in war they -- in more ways than one. results coming in that vermont has enshrined not just the right to an abortion, but the right to personal reproductive autonomy into the constitution. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the balance of power in congress is still up in the air after democratic candidates outperformed expectations in much of the country in tuesday's midterm election. with ballots still being counted in many key races, it remains unclear which party will control the senate or the house. in one of the mostly closely watched senate races, pennsylvania democrat john fetterman has declared victory over his trump-backed challenger dr. mehmet oz to fill the senate seat held by republican pat toomey. fetterman's election victory came six months after suffering a stroke just before the democratic primary. he addressed supporters early this morning. >> i am proud of what we ran on, protecting a woman's right to choose, raising our minimum wage

, fighting the union way of life , health care as a fundamental human right. it saved my life and it should all be there for you should you need it. amy: control of the senate now rests on four states -- wisconsin, georgia, arizona, and new mexico. in georgia, it appears increasingly likely the race between democratic senator rafael warnock and republican herschel walker race will go to a runoff. with 95% of the vote counted, warnock is leading with 49.4% of the vote, just shy of the 50% needed in georgia to win the election outright. walker has 48.5% of the vote. warnock spoke to supporters early this morning. >> well. good evening, georgia. or maybe i should say good

morning. here is where we are. we are not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there is still a little work yet to do. but here's what we do know. we know when they are finished counting the votes from today's election, we are going to have received more votes than my opponent. we know that. and a co-control of the senate now rests in four states, wisconsin, arizona, and nevada. in wisconsin, republican senator ron johnson is in the lead over democratic mandela barnes but the race is still too close to call. in nevada's senate race, republican adam laxalt is leading democratic senator catherine cortez masto with 75% of the vote counted. in arizona, democratic senator mark kelly has a six-point lead

over his trump-backed challenger blake masters with two-thirds of the vote counted. in other key senate races, in ohio, republican j.d. vance defeated democrat tim ryan, while in new hampshire, maggie hassan beat her far-right challenger general don bolduc. as for the house, more than 70 races have yet to be called but many analysts are predicting republicans will flip the house but just by a small margin. one prominent republican incumbent who might lose her seat is lauren boebert in colorado. early this morning, house speaker nancy pelosi said house democratic candidates are "outperforming expectations." in other key races, florida governor and possible republican presidential candidate ron desantis easily won re-election. in georgia, republican governor brian kemp defeated democrat stacey abrams. in pennsylvania's governor's

race, democrat josh shapiro has defeated dg mastriano, a far-right election dier backed by trump. in wisconsin, democratic governor tony evers has been re-elected, while republican state lawmakers in wisconsin appear to have fallen short in their effort for a supermajority. re in new york, democratic vernor kathy hochul has defeated her trump-backed challenger lee zeldin. hochul, who took office after andrew cuomo resigned, became the first woman elected as governor in new york. massachusetts will also soon have its first woman governor with the election of democrat maura healey. she will also become the first openly lesbian governor. in vermont, the first woman to first openly lgbtq+ candidate i never want to congress. she was elected to the house to fill the seat held by peter

welch who was elected to the senate to replace patrick lahey. in maryland, voters elected democrat wes moore who will become maryland's first black governor. meanwhile in arizona, democrat katie hobbs is leading and the governor's race against republican kari lake. in arizona's closely watched race, secretary -- election deniers running to oversee election. cnn reports election deniers won sec. state races in alabama, south dakota, and wyoming. one of tuesday nights big winners was abortion rights. vermont, michigan, and california all voted to enshrine the right to an abortion in their states' constitutions. in kentucky, voters rejected a ballot measure that sought to amend the state constitution to say there is no right to abortion.

state lawmakers have already passed a near-total ban on abortion in kentucky, but the measure would have made challenging the ban even more difficult. in montana, with over 80% of ballots counted, it appears voters are rejecting a ballot measure that would establish that infants born alive at any stage of development are legal persons and criminalizes healthcare providers. voters in maryland and missouri voted to legalize recreational marijuana, while similar proposals failed in arkansas and north dakota. several states voted on measures related to slavery. voters in tennessee, alabama, oregon, and vermont backed removing language allowing slavery as punishment in their constitutions. but in louisiana, two-thirds of voters rejected a proposal that would have barred slave labor in prisons. in voting rights, connecticut passed a measure allowing

in-person early voting and michigan approved several pro-democracy measures, including opening polls for early voting and ballot drop boxes. but in a blow for voting rights, nebraskans overwhelmingly supported requiring a photo id to vote and ohio voted against allowing residents who are not u.s. citizens cast ballots in local elections. maine's largest city of portland and evanston, illinois, have voted to use ranked choice voting in city elections. in nevada, a ballot measure to allow for open primaries and ranked choice voting has not been called yet though "yes" votes lead by 3 percentage points. in labor news, washington, d.c., approved initiative 82, which phases out tipping and raises the minimum wage for tipped service workers from $5.35 to $16.10 an hour by 2027.

at the u.n. climate conference in sharm el-sheikh, egypt, several european nations, including ireland and denmark, made modest pledges to fund loss and damage for poorer nations that are bearing the brunt of the climate disaster. ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission, endorsed the move to include loss and damage as part of global efforts to combat climate change. notably silent on the issue was the united states. harjeet singh from the climate action network said -- "the u.s. has for decades acted in bad faith with regards to loss and damage, but the delays and deception have real life consequences. the u.s. needs to change from being obstructive to constructive." a new u.n.-backed report says the global south needs at least $2 trillion a year to fight the climate crisis and that half of that should come from rich countries, investors, and multilateral development banks. meanwhile, some island nations, which are among the most vulnerable to climate change, have proposed a windfall tax on oil companies.

barbados prime minister mia mottley called for a 10% tax on oil companies. she spoke at cop27 on tuesday. >> the events are a risk for us, as small states become a serious concern. we make the put all the time that large countries can be the subject of a climatic event and still survive. small states do not have that luxury. and for many of us, the risk of a event is simply too great for us to carry. amy: as the officials meetings and speeches continue at cop27, pressure is mounting for the egyptian government to take action as political prisoner and human rights activistlaa abd elattah contues his compte hunger a water strike. he stopped drinking water on sunday. on tuesday, the head of human rights at the u.n. warned

his life was in "great danger." german chancellor olaf scholz also addressed the issue tuesday. >> it is very depressing to see how human life is at risk and the hunger strike has now entered a state where we all have to fear this will really lead to quite a dreadful consequence. it is why i and i know many other heads of state in government raised this issue specifically. a decision needs to be taken. a release has to be made possible. amy: on tuesday, egyptian lawmaker amr darwish confronted alaa abd el fattah's sister sanaa seif as she spoke to press at cop. he asked sanaa seif, "are you here inciting foreign countries to put pressure on egypt?" before being removed from the event by security. president biden is meeting later this week with egyptian president abdel fattah el-sisi. he's expected to raise human

rights with sisi, but it's not clear if he will explicitly discuss alaa abd el-fattah. the united states and russia have agreed to resume talks under the new strategic arms reduction treaty, or new start. the meetings have been on hold since before russia invaded ukraine in february. the only remaining nuclear treaty between the countries limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads for each country as a deterrent to a new arms race and nuclear war. in russia, the american wnba star brittney griner is being transferred to a penal colony. e process could take up to two weeks. her lawyers say they don't know where she will end up. griner was sentenced to nine years in prison for bringing a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage into russia. in syria, a new report by doctors without borders is denouncing the horrific conditions faced by refugees at the overcrowded al-hol camp, describing it as a massive open air prison and a death camp. al-hol is located in the

northeast near the border with iraq and houses about 60,000 mostly women and children, many younger than 12 years old. refugees at al-hol say violence has intensified at the camp between armed groups inside the camp and islamic state fighters, described arbitrary detentions, theft, and extortion, and rampant medical neglect. the report said some children died as a result of result of prolonged delays in accessing urgent medical care. and young boys are being forcibly taken from their mothers once they reach around 11 years old, never to be seen again. meta, the parent company of facebook, instagram, and whatsapp, is laying off more than 11,000 workers, reducing its workforce by 13%. ceo mark zuckerberg announced the mass firings early today, blaming declining ad revenue and profits. it's the latest hit for tech workers after twitter's new owner elon musk last week fired nearly 4000 employees, half of

twitter's workforce. florida is bracing for tropical storm nicole, which is expected to make landfall thursday morning north of west palm beach as a category 1 hurricane with torrential rain and damaging winds. many residents are still reeling from the destruction left by hurricane ian in in mexico, october. anti-corruption officials are investigating the attorney general's office in the state of morelos, accusing it of covering up the femicide of 27-year-old ariadna lópez, whose body was found by a highway last week. morelos officials claimed lópez had died of alcohol intoxication. but during a news conference monday, mexico city's mayor claudia sheinbaum presented the results of a second autopsy that found lópez had actually died of multiple force trauma. sheinbaum also played security footage of a man in an apartment building parking garage, carrying a body -- which sheinbaum allegewas ariadna lópez. last year alone, there were over 1000 femicides reported in mexico. this is activist karina vara.

>> we ask the authorities to work and get accurate results. we do not want declarations or statements. we demand justice and dignity. the state is feminist side. -- femicids. the community is an accomplice. men take our lives. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we go to wisconsin and georgia for the latest news and look at how voters in vermont, california, michigan and tried abortion rights and their state constitutions. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "within" by daft punk. this is democracy now!,

demoacynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: the balance of power in congresss still up in the air after democratic candidates outperformed expectations in much of the country in tuesday's midterm election. with ballots still being counted in many key races, it remains unclear which party will control the u.s. senate or the house. control of the senate now rests on four states -- wisconsin, georgia, arizona, and nevada -- after john fetterman pulled off a major victory in pennsylvania's senate race defeating dr. mehmet oz for the seat currently held by republican pat toomey. fetterman addressed supporters this morning. >> we bet on the p -- people of pennsylvania and you did not let us down. and my promise to all of you is i will never let you down.

thank you, pennsylvania. thank you so much. amy: in georgia, it appears increasingly likely the race between democratic senator rafael warnock and republican herschel walker will go to a runoff. in arizona, democratic senator mark kelly has a six-point lead over his trump-backed challenger blake masters with two-thirds of the vote counted. in nevada's senate race, republican adam laxalt is leading democratic senator catherine cortez masto with 75% of the vote counted. and in wisconsin, republican senator ron johnson is in the lead over democratic lt. governor mandela barnes but the race is still too close to call. we begin today's show in wisconsin to talk about tuesday's senate races and much more with john nichols, the nation's national affairs correspondent. welcome back to democracy now! you are joining us from madison, wisconsin. talk about this key race, what we know so far and who these

candidates are. of course, on johnson the incumbent and the other lieutenant governomandela barnes. >> it is easy to say ron johnson is the most controversial and scandal plagued member of the united states senate. although he certainly has competition. johnson, especially over the last six years since donald trump came on e scene, identifi as one of the most trump aligned members of the senate and also has been someone who has caused a lot of controversy because of his conspiracy theory like statements aboutoronavirus, vaccines, things of that nature. and of course was drawn into e january 6 controversy because there was a moment on january 6 where apparently he was talking with folks outside of his office aboutelivering lists of fake electors to vice president

pence. the vice president said no and i did not go forward. when you put the pieces together, johnson was someone who appeared to be a pretty easy target. there's also the fact he acknowledged coming to the senate doubled his own wealth. democrats were very enthusiastic about putting somebody up against him. mandela barnes, the lieutenant governor of wisconsin. he ran what i would argue was a pretty remarkable campaign based on his deep ties to milwaukee, the fact he comes from a union family -- his grandfather and father and mother. and his own service as lieutenant governor and state legislator. his campaign was very strong one. unfortunately, in september and early octobervery, ve

wealthy republican donors as well as republican senate campaign committee moved immense amounts of money into the state. they overwhelmed barnes with the multi million dollar advertising campaign that by any means, by any standards was untruthful, was widely decried as racist because the ads identified mandela barnes, the first african-american candidate for united states senate of a major party in wisconsin as dangerous, indifferent, using all sorts of otr codewords. that put barnes down a little, one point down by six points in a major poll. but a very strong debate performance in mid-to-late october, and appearance by barack obama on his behalf, and just incredibly hard campaigning by mandela barnes, brought him back into the running to the position where we are now, which is a very close race.

johnson is ahead. we don't know all of the cap ye johnson has the advantage but barnes could theoretically still close the gap. juan: what do we know about the turnout, how it compares to 2018 midterms and also who came out? what sections of this date or what demographic groups? >> turnout was very strong. early voting, which is obviously a measure that usually means somewhat favors the democrats, was up 35%. that is a huge spike in early voting. but on election day, what was very striking, the heavy turnout on campuses around the state. mandela barnes was a young candidate, in his 30's. focused a lot of attention on the campuses. and late lasweek and into the

weekend, senator bernie sanders came into wisconsin and appeared on four college campuses to rally students. there are videos fm some of these causes of incredibly long lines of students showing up on election day. we will get the final measure to all of this but it does look like mandela barnes benefited at the close by bump in youth turnout as well as incredibly hard work that he and a number of other groups did in milwaukee , like turnout, latinx turnout. i do think that cap was closed by a quite successl mobilization. the final thing i will tell you, in dane county, the madison area, which is the heartland for a lot of progressive vong in wisconsin, you saw a great increase in turnout. i d't know the final number

but well above 80% turnout. that was certainly beneficial to farms. -- two barnes. juan: could we switch over to nevada? there's the increasing since this will be a republican gap in the senate race, possibly as well and in the governor's race. nevada was a state that increasingly the labor movement has played a key role. what from your sense h happened there? >> a lot of things happed in nevada. we don't have the final results anhave to be careful because nevada can surprise you in the end like it has in recent years. but at this point, you're right. republicans appear to have the advantage in the key statewide races. these races ended up closer than expected i think becse the culinary worrs union really put on a major final push. but it does not appear at this point to have closed the gap.

why? nevada is a state las vegas especially estate where it rises and falls many times with the ecomy -- inflation is a huge issue in nevada. it was a heart issue for the democratic candidates in that state. this is true i think in general for the democratic party nationally and important to understand whileemocrats did fa better on tuesday night than expected, they never really developed an effective sh on what came out as the number one issue in most polls, and that was inflation. the challenge was instead of focusing on price gouging, instead of focusing hard on corporate responsibility in the state, in this case, they had more of a vagueness it prevented democrats from potentially having an even better night on tuesday, not

just in nevada, but in an ever states across the country. amy: john nichols, thank you for being with us the nation's , national affairs correspondent. we turn now to georgia where it appears increasingly likely the race between democratic senator rafael warnock and republican herschel walker will go to a runoff. 95% of the vote has been counted. warnock is leading with 49.4% of the vote. just shy of the 50% needed in georgia to win the election outright. walker has 48.5% of the vote. senator warnock spoke to supporters early this morning. >> well. good, georgia. -- good evening, georgia. or maybe i should say good morning. here's where we are. we are not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there is

still a little work yet to do but here's what we do know. we know when they are finished counting the votes from today's elections, we're going to have received more votes than my opponent. we know that. amy: we're joined now by latosha brown, cofounder of black voters matter fund. talk about what has happened in your state. >> i think what we see happening is we are a product of this runoff, there, very tight race. which we anticipated. i think there was a disappointment for many around the loss in the governor's race between brian kemp and stacey abrams. but ultimately, what i think is there were no big surprises in terms of what we expected it to

be a tight race. it is unfortunate that we are now presented a runoff with candidates that are distinctively different. we have en saying it for over a year, but voter suppression has had any impact in this election. yes, we saw early vote turnout but will we look at what has happened at sb202, at law passed in georgia after the 2021 election, once you saw there was a number of things that were put in place. one of those was around restricted access about mail-in ballots. what we saw was a drastic drop for mail-in ballots that went from 1.2 million last election to .2 million. that means one million people did not access mail-in ballots and that has had an impact on

the race as well. we knew this was a critical race. a lot of money was poured in. you could not turn your television on to nazi commercial after commercial after commercial of herschel walker. there's another thing that we can take from this as well, herschel walker is one of the weakest candidates and it a country. there's a question around, why has he performed that way? we have to recognize this was a strategy, someone who was picked out of texas, the republican party recruited him, moved him to georgia to literally run and came around his campaign. did not matter what negative information came out, did not matter what factual information comes out around his ability or lack of ability to serve. this was around pure raw power and operating in a way that we are seeing going into this election, this runoff election. juan: and could you talk a little more about the

gubernatorial race and the difference in the boat for stacey abrams versus raphael warnock among democrats and general electorate? >> there were two phenomenal -- phenomena in consideration. warnock was able to capture votes, particularly white votes that stacey abrams was unable to capture. in addition, a vote spread between the candidacies. they will look at the rural areas, warnock actually outperformed stacey abrams in the rural areas. some of that i think he had a campaign that literally focused on what the can of implications of his seat would have to the state -- the economic implications of his seat would have on the state. while herschel walker

overwhelmingly got republican support, i think it was a moderate republicans, that was too much for them. that his candidacy was too much for them. and warnock was able to build on this, coalesce around he was a stronger and more viable candidate, would be able to get things done. as result, i think what you see is the vote spray difference and part of it is not only candidates, but how the seats were perceived by voters in the state of georgia. he was able to get moderate voters to vote for him. what we saw was going into the runoff, we see it to get people voted for brian kemp and they voted for warnock. so there were thousands of those he was able to capture. amy: i want to turn to stacey abrams, the voting rights activists, gubernatorial candidate, conceding last night. >> i am here because this is a

moment where despite every obstacle, we are still standing strong and standing tall and stand resolute and standing in our values, and we know georgia deserves more and whether we do it from the governor's mansion or the streets, from the capitol or from our community, we are going to fight for more for the state of georgia. amy: your final thoughts, latosha brown, where georgia goes from here? it is hard to believe we are seeing a replay of two years ago. while stacey abrams did not win, this was a rematch for her against brian kemp, december 6 would be come if there is a runoff, if warnock does not hit 50, will be the day of the final election between herschel walker and raphael warnock. the whole country then. you talk about the ads now, can you imagine the amount of money that will pour in because this could determine the balance of

the u.s. senate? >> yes. there are three points a winter race. in terms of stacey abrams, let's be clear part of the pathway that was opened up for us to have senator warnock in position , lay the infrastructure that stacey abrams helped build. so part of while she did not capture the state last night, she is -- i commend her for that. i think she run a strong, credible campaign. there were many obstacles along the way. one thing brian kemp was able to do in some ways quite effectively, he was able to rebrand himself as if he were different, that he was a moderate republican and brand himself in the context of separating "i was the person who stood up to trump." he did not have the backing of trump that others had. that third thing to look at, even as going forward and

something she said, the state of georgia, what we saw happen in 2020 and 2021, purple state or state that is tively cnging, re in e middlef a trsition. at ithe fure of gegia. is was a har camign,ery tit, b absolely a shift the state of georgia and part of that, stacey abrams has been partly responsible for that. amy: i want to go to ohio, back to john nichols, the nation's national affairs correspondent, from wisconsin to j.d. vance's victory over the congressman tim ryan. how surprised were you and what do you think was at stake in ohio? this taking a republican seat, keeping it in republican hands? >> [indiscernible] demoats were looking to pick up at least two seats on tuesday

so they could expand eir majority in the senate to appoint where they would not have to deal with kyrsten sinema and joe manchin who have been barriers in ma cases to advancing the democratic agenda. ohio emerged late in the campaign as a place where it looked like that might have been possible because of a very effective economic populist campaign by tim ry. but the thing to understand out ohio and florida, to states that produce very significant republican results on tuesday nights, is these traditional battlegroundtates have increingly become republican stes. thewins and florida were striking and friendly, ohio, the republans held a lot of thei strength throughout the state. ohio had some wins in a district they had sought to gerrymander,

but on balance, an immense amount of rebuilding to do in ohio. the result looks like it has cost them the ability to claim two seats -- see to vanish. the hope is mandela barnes might be able to pull it out the wisconsin and that is something we will keep an eye on. the other thing we are also going to be keeping an eye on because ohio -- the two western seats in arizona and nevada. if democrats were to win both of those, they would be very well-positioned. if they lose one of them, as we were just talking about, that georgia runoff becomes a definition of a contest. losing ohio was a big loss for democrats. amy: john nichol-- juan: i just want to ask him a john, you mentioned gerrymandering. we too often forget many of these lines were redrawn and

repuicans clearly had an advantage of the numberf states that they control in terms of redistricting. how do you get a sense of how redistricting has played in terms of the potential for the possibility or the likelihood that republicans will end up controlling the house? >> it is huge. i think this is something people need to understand. we have a system in the u.s. where politians pick their vote and the voters do not -- are not given the opportunity to have their district lines where they can have realompetition. this benefited the republicans in a number of states. in fact, had we had fair ms across the country come the 2022 midterm election cycle would have been a very, very different competition will stop it would not have had throughout much of that cycle the assumption of republican wins, especially house races, because you have had much more competitive

contests. j mentoring is a big factor. i can tell you this is something that democrats have got to focus on going forward because they lost a number of seats this time around that with a fair map, perhaps even a line she had in 2018, and probably would have one. amy: in new york, it was a democrats fault. they so overreached. they could determine very democratic state the house goes republican because of what they did and then the judge pushing back. >> that's right. when we talk about gerrymdering. -- in 2022 at the end of the day, the gerrymandering tended to be, i think, ttle more beneficial to the republicans and if the republicans take the house by a number of -- a handful of seeds, we will be able to point to gerrymandering

as a factor in their ability to claim the victory. amy: john nichols, thank you for being with us, from madison, wisconsin, and latosha brown, cofounder of the black voters matter fund. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. in at least four of the five states where reproductive rights were on the ballot, voters supported protecting the right to abortion and rejected new restrictions. on our election night special tuesday, we spoke to amy littlefield, abortion access correspondent at the nation. i began by asking her about for much become the first state to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution. >> history has been made in vermont in more ways than one. this is absolutely incredible early in the evening, results coming in that vermont has enshrined not just the right to an abortion, but the right to personal reproductive autonomy into the state constitution. that includes the right to access birth-control, the right

to access or refuse sterilization because of this robust and tragic history of forcedterilization of women of color, people of color in this country. it includes the right to be pregnant and have support when you want be pregnant and to have an abortion when you want to have an abortion. this is the first time we have seen the state proactively enshrine that right into a constitution. think about what it would mean if that was enshrined in the u.s. constitution. two other states are considering similar measures. it is really on but i would predict because abortion is such a popular issue, i think michigan and california, the other two states, are likely to passo enshrine this robust right to reproductive autonomy into their state constitution. where the state matters the most is michigan because michigan has 1931 abortion ban still on the

books. it has been held up by a court. the democratic governor currently in effect doing everything in our power to save abortion access in her state, but it would be a hugely powerful and consequential message if the people of michigan voted in favor of this constitutional amendment that is on the ballot. and then we have kentucky, amy. i am obsessively refreshing the results right now waiting to see if this race is going to be called. kentucky, one of the reddest states in the country, a state already living under an abortion ban, has on the ballot in antiabortion measures similar to the one we saw in kansas over the summer, that would sort of make permanent the existing abortion ban by saying there is no right to an abortion in the kentucky state constitution. it looks like voters there are rejecting this measure.

early results are showing a pretty resounding rejection of this antiabortion amendment in deep red kentucky. amy: amy littlefield, former democracy now! producer, reference the michigan proposal 3 enshrining a constitutional right to reproductive freedom. "the new york times" latest update is that with 84% of votes counted, the measure is ahead with 55% of the vote. meanwhile, protect kentucky access, which worked to defeat kentucky's antiabortion amendment, called the win historic, and said in a statement -- "not only does it represent a win against government overreach and government interference in the people of kentucky's personal medical decisions, it represents the first time so many different organizations have come together with such an intense single-minded purpose to defeat a threat of this magnitude." also on democracy now!'s election night special, we spoke to former labor secretary robert

reisch about the next steps for president biden if the republicans to take control of the house. >> there are some who say that democrats need to compromise more with republicans. well, you know, the days of compromising have to be over. there's no compromising with authoritarianism or proto-fascism, there's no halfway point between democracy and the authoritarianism we are seeing with the republican party now, which is becoming the party of authoritarianism. i don't think the democrats should attempt to compromise. i think the democrats have got to stand for labor, jobs, working people. the abandonment of the working class by the democratic party to a large extent in the past 40 years has been a huge problem, not only for the democratic party, but for the country as a whole. juan: rert reisch, as it seems

likely, although we don't know for sure, that the democrats lose control of the house, possibly even the senate, what do you envision that president biden should do the next two years toe dealing with opposition control of the congress? >> well, this veto paddle is going to be active. i think you will be -- if t republicans take control of congress or even if they take control over one house of congress, he has got to be very careful to push back as hard as he possibly can. what i expect, t first thing we are likely to get if republicans control the house is an attempt to use the raising of the debt ceiling as a way of

forcing the ministration's hand to do a lot of things that the republican party would like to do in corporate america and the monied interest class, such as reducing taxes further, such as providing even more rollbacks of regulations. and i think what the administration has got to be very clear about is there is going to be no compromising on the debt ceiling. we're not going to have a repeat of 2011. we are not going to allow the republicans to use that debt ceiling fight as a way of gaining leverage when they know they're not going to have the ability to override a veto. amy: that is former labor secretary robert reich speaking on our midterm election night special tuesday night early in the evening before we had many results back. when we come back, we are going to aimee allison president and

, founder of she the people. we will talk about summer lee in pennsylvania, democratic-socialist, who took on not only the republicans, but the democratic establishment. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. on tuesday and it in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, state representative some early -- summer lee who ran on the democratic ticket won a race to replace retiring democratic congress member mike doyle. the race confused many voters because summer lee's opponent has the same name as a democratic congressman who is retiring, mike doyle. in fact, one of his last as was, "a name you can trust" and he really identified himself as republican.

summer lee also faced a flood of opposition in funding from aipac, millions of dollars put in against her. this is her addressing supporters tuesday night. cooks it looks like we won the election. we believed in you will because we were up against a wall, every single timwhen it looked like it was getng bleak, we had friends come fm all over. when we got -- when aipac dropped another million dollars in the last weeks just tory to demoralize as, our movement did not sit down. we stood up and fought back.

we' not going to be intimidated. we're not going to let dark money and outside folks come intoestern pennsylvania and tell us what we deserve because our community's have been waiting far, far too long for this. this is a victory not just for me, this is victory forach and everyone of us. amy: that is summer lee speaking at her victory party tuesday night inittsburgh as she becomes the congressmembeelect for pennsylvania, the first african-american congresswoman to represent pennsylvania. meanwhile in illinois, delia ramirez made history as the first midwestern latino elected to the u.s. congress. for more on these and other race we' joined in oakland, california, aimee allison, president and founder of she the people. it is great to have you back with us after we had a late night on our special. talk first about summer e. >> what we should know about

summer lee is first and foremost, she is a movent organizer. she comes out of the black lives matterovement in which she ran years ago for state legislature. she displaced a moderate white guy then who is noterving pittsburgh in an environment and if it's a in with the black and brown vote has not been fully utilized and engaged in order to build power. she set about doing just that. she facedosition, she meioned, among those who ran ads and try to derail her. aaipac's last-minute ads with him to demoralize in silence her. her organizers came through. what is interesting about summer lee who is unabashedly an

advocate for gender justice, she talks about reproductive justice, criminal justice reform , and did not back away from any ofhose things, leaned into it, organized percent of voters and had a victory. the thing is, people are looking at nationwide victory race of fetterman, senator-elect, and think, well, that is surprising. but it isn't when you think about there was a surge in early voting of women in pennsylvania. a lot of that fueled by organizers and local elected officials. a statewide we re saying the ability to turn out women and most of them democrats in at state, a lot of percentage are women of color or democratic party loyalists, really progressive voters, so to turn

out voters that summer lee demonstrated i thinkas -- have contributed to the state what senate win and the possibility for democrats to govern more effeively in this next phase. for excited about her in the leadership that she is going to demonstrate even as a freshman congresswoman in washington, d.c. juan: and couldou talk also about other key races who were following that you think are bellwethers? and also if you could talk about the race, the municipal race in los angeles that has national ramifications. karen bass, the progressive they're running for mayor of los angeles but it is a very tight race there. >> it is a tight race. you would think in a state like california who has a reputation of being a solid blue democratic stronghold that former

republican and person who was fueled and funded by republica in his past would be in this tight race with karen bass, who was the former head of the congressional black caucus, very well known activist in essentialist, and white -- in los angeles and widely respected. billionaire who has spent so far last count $150 million ofis own money to buy of the airwaves in the nation'number one media market to attempt to buy the election. meanwhile, karen baswho is the candidate who spes to working people's concerns, particularly around housing as los aeles has made her case, but it is a ugh race. the bellwether there is, are we going to be in a state like

california a billionaireho can claim change is pretty registration or tried four different political stripes at the last minute to be able to claim a seat -- los angeles is a wealthy and very important local municipality in the country, so the bellwether is that. i am also looking at another california race. the venth black woman to serve in an executive office, she won comptroller in california, the fourth large economy in the world. she writes the checks. this is significant because she bested a republican who was not committed to choice the way california will be funding clinics, at a place where women from sroundingtates will go to have reproductive serces. so this is a very, very

important race as well. then turning toward ohio. ohio is very significant. any democrats -- ohio is increasingly red. tim ryan had a surprising competitive race and i heard people saying, why was that? you can look no further tn the congressional race in akron, ohio, who ran and won and beat a truck-addressed campaign who during the campaign -- trump-dorsed candidate who in the campaign were many supporters during the how hitler'sype hand gesture, she was there in that district and millions of dollars of dark money in races fueled by kevin

mccarthy's pac attacked and attempt to to weaken h. but what i know you able to do waso gather the multiracial oup of voters and succeed in akron and w she is congress woman-elect. now that the majority of the house is down a few select races, her eye needs to be fixed on important races likakron where -- what we need to learn right nows ohio and other battleground states ar not -- the future is not just republican. there are strong -- amelia [indiscernible] that is significant in of itself. juan: can you talk about

some women of color who fell short, listens to be learned from last nights votes? stacey abrams, cheri beasley? we have about 30 seconds. >> heartbreaking loss for some of the nation's candidates. stacey abrams, val demings in north carolina who fell srt, and others. it demonstrates the democrats who need to invest early and very strongly in order to protect and build the capacity to turn out the vote, particularly midterms. the lesson learneds, for 2024, invest early in the candates who will inspire the democratic base, men of color, so we can be successful the next time around. y: aimee allis, for being wi us president and founder of , she the people.

you can visit democracynow.org to watch our three-hour election night special last night. we want to thank our exec of director julie crosby who worked behind the scenes to make this all happen. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your

hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in new york. u.s. republicans went into midterm elections boasting they would overwhelm democrats in a red wave. but they failed to attract the swell of support they had predicted. and their wave has faded. americans go to the polls two years after presidential elections to decide again on who wants to represent them. they vote on a third of the 100 seats in the senate and all 435 seats in the house of representatives.