yeah. what he did back in 2011 they still remember in 2014. at least we think they do. we'll see. results coming in later tonight. james and jennifer, thanks so much. my assignment on our coverage tonight is here in florida. i'll be over at the charlie crist camp reporting here on msnbc. that's "the ed show." msnbc's election coverage starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> election night, get your popcorn popped plan your hydration needs accordingly, because this is going to be a long night with lots of suspense suspense. 36 u.s. senate seats are up tonight. about a dozen of them are in who knows territory right now. control of the united states senate is a coin flip at this point. about two dozen house seats are anybody's guess, even though

republicans will hold control of that body. and the governors races, more incumbents might lose their seats tonight than at any time in decades. there are more than a dozen governors races where nobody knows what's going to happen. it's going tieo be a fun night to watch. >> i think there's a yearning in the country for some control over things. the world is drifting with terrorists and disease threatening from africa to some extent, with politicians unwilling to do what their occupation requires them to do to get things under control. fix the immigration system invest in building the economy, and hope for the young kids coming out of school. tonight i'll be listening for the candidates losers as well as winners, who talk about this stuff. >> tonight, the difference between what the country thinks about this congress how low the esteem the congress is in the eyes of the country.

versus how many billions of dollars have been spent to address our options and our choices tonight in terms of how people are going to vote. that difference between what the public thinks and what has been spent to influence the public's opinion tonight, i think makes for a chaotic vista. i'm not sure what's going to happen. >> the good thing about chaos is drama. and the good thing about drama, there's personality in it. i think you'll see unusual people with audacity come to the national stage. some of them are going to be interesting to watch for years to come. i like the guy or the woman who beats the spread, who beats the national wave who survives upon wave. you'll see jerry brown, probably, in his fourth term as governor tonight. you're going to see people that have been around, people that you never thought would be big success. on the other side john casey, it's going to be an interesting night. watch the person who beats the wave, who stands up against all the wind and wins that

nonetheless. that's the person i think you're going to see who is worth listening to in the years ahead. >> i think that's right. and oimpt posed to the 2010 mid terms when so many surprise races were surprised because one of the two in the contest collapsed. very view of those tonight. people who are going to be winning are mostly going to be winning on their own terms. but in terms of what to watch for, our own steve kornacki is at the magic election board, giving us guidance as to what to watch for particularly early on. what's up steve? >> first of all, we should say, going to be potentially a very long night when a competitive night in alaska could be hours it really gets settled. i want to give you three states early on to watch, that will set the tone for what's to come throughout the night. so by the time we get to alaska we have a better sense of where things are going. 7:30 tonight, the polls will close in north carolina. this is the first of two early must-win states for democrats. for democrats to retain their

senate majority kay hagan, the incumbent in north carolina has to be thom tillis the republican challenger. the good news for democrats kay hagan has enjoyed a slight lead in the polls throughout this campaign. what republicans are banking on here is the idea that there's this national wave today that's going to lift all republican candidates like thom tillis with a few critical points to put him over the top. here's a test. one thing to keep in mind when the polls close, the democratic early vote you can expect that to be counted earlier. the expectation is hagan will do well in the early returns. see if that sustains itself. the second must-win state, jeanne shaheen trying to hold off scott brown. again, if the democrats fail to hold this seat, that sets a dire tone for them the rest of the night. if she can hold on that's an encouraging sign for democrats. on the flip side early closing in kentucky kentucky a two

time-zone state there. polls close at 6:00, and at 7:00 we'll get the numbers. mitch mcconnell trying to hold off grimes. bad signs in terms of the polls for grimes. is she exceeding expectations? is she making it closer than the polls look? or are the republicans getting what they were expecting, a big win out of kentucky? so a test for republicans early on as well. >> steve kornacki thank you. we'll have reporters on scene in a lot of these key races tonight, including some that you were just talking about. we'll start tonight with lawrence o'donnell at greg orman headquarters in overland park kansas. can you give us the stage a little bit about what has been happening at this unexpected race in kansas and what you're expecting tonight? >> well rachel this is the race that a screen writer would have to dream up. he would not expect to see it in real life. it's an extraordinary situation

where there are several different states, where it just might come down to that state for control of the united states senate. if it comes down to kansas the suspense may not be over tonight. because the independent has refused to declare which side he would vote for, republicans or democrats. there is a scenario in which the control of the senate could come down to orman's choice. he's refused to say how he would vote in that situation. it's created an incredible drama here. kansas senate races are not suspenseful events. republicans have won every one of them for the last 80 years. we have the local media here marveling at having national media here for a kansas senate race, but it's all about the mysterious independent and the one question he refused to answer, how would he vote for

majority leader of the senate. and sam brownback is in serious trouble in kansas created the biggest income tax cut in kansas history. it's hurt funding for schools and the democrat has a real shot now at the governorship. >> thank you, lawrence. perry bacon is in mitch mcconnell headquarters in louisville, kentucky. so perry, what does it smell like in that headquarters? are they upbeat, down beat or worried? >> this race was close until about three weeks ago, but now a lot of confidence in mcconnell camp. a lot of his former staffers have come down to kentucky today. they think it's going to be a big night, where not only is he going to win, but he'll eventually be majority leader. so they want to be with him to celebrate. >> on the other hand we spent time talking to democrats today. i found them talking about not

if miss grimes would lose but would she lose by four or five or would it be worse than this? so a lot of confidence here. the democrats and republicans agree, hard to see mcconnell losing tonight. >> just to mess up the story line a little bit, why did the guy drop two million of his own money into the race if he had this kind of lead developing? >> he's nervous. and they spent a lot of money. mcconnell is running like a nervous person still throughout this race, he's done so. the final totals will show he's spend two times as much as grimes did, and you can tell on the ground here. people when i talk to them are repeating things in mcconnell's ads word for word. this is a small state of 4 million people. when you spend the amount of money he has here you get a great saturation. i think that's what's driving this race, the money. >> thank you very much perry at mcconnell headquarters. now to the hard-fought race in the open senate seat in georgia.

joy reid is at the headquarters for michelle nunn the democratic candidate. we'll be watching this race for a while. this will not be over tonight. >> yeah absolutely. this is one of those races that by all rights democrats shouldn't have a shot at. even with a massive minority turn-out, president obama was not able to pull it off in 2012 or 2008. but here's the thing. democrats hope they can change the makeup of this electorate to bring out more african american voters even without the president at the top of the ticket and they're doing that by walking this fine line with what the republicans in the state want to talk about, which is michelle nunn and her ties to president obama and what they need to get the african american voters out, namely a decent respect for president obama. we went out with grimes on the campaign trail earlier today and this is what she said. >> you'd just be a rubber stamp for the president. how do you answer that? >> i would say, let me tell you

about where i'm different. -- [ inaudible ] but i will work together when it comes to the minimum wage or pay equity or bipartisan legislation around immigration reform. again, i'm going to focus on what's best for georgia, and i'm going to be respectful of my colleagues in the congress and i'll certainly be respectful to -- [ inaudible ] >> and notice that michelle nunn has walked that fine line probably better than most candidates that are running in the cycle. she has definitely pivoted back to the issue issues important to her constituency minimum wage being a big one. definitely one to watch. didn't make steve's big board, but definitely one to watch, polls close in less than an hour. >> thank you very much, joy. seeing michelle nunn on camera there, trying to thread that democratic needle this year where democrats are not necessarily trying to insult the president unnecessarily, but

they are running if not against him, then away from him. i want to bring into the discussion now, msnbc's reverend al sharpton and andrea mitchell and chuck todd. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thinking about this tough race, al, i'll start with you. in terms of what they've been able to do in these individual tough races, what's been the difference in the state of georgia where the ground game is the story, the democratic effort is the story, and a state like kentucky, where all they're talking about is national prevailing winds. it seems like there's nothing state specific that's making a difference in some states and some of them it is. >> and some of the states have individual concerns. like, for example, georgia, i toured. they're concerned in clayton county with a transit referendum. in kentucky, there are other concerns. in missouri it's about teacher's tenure. so there are different groups that are bringing out different constituencies, and i think all of those races will be determined by turn-out.

when you deal with the distancing of president obama, you've got to thread that needle, where not only you don't insult the president, but you don't turn off your african american voter turn-out which will be critical in races like georgia. so it's a real real hard needle to thread and i think we're going to see tonight who threads it and who ends up with just the pin in the hand with an empty needle top. >> i think this is impossible. i don't know how you can appeal to obama supporters by snubbing him. and when a candidate with a lot of publicity around her, alison lundergan grimes she grew up with this, refused to say she voted for the leader of her party. i think it's going to be that denial twice -- she probably continued to do it tonight. what is this about the democrats

where they can't stick together? >> what i would say is that michelle nunn showed in that interview with joy reid that she could thread the needle by saying, i'm with him on minimum wage and other economic issues and i'm not with him on others i'm for the people of georgia. that's a much more politically artful way than what grimes did. i think what alison grimes did in refusing to say whether she had voted for barack obama really ended up if it does turn out that way in kentucky ended up being the turning point of that campaign. >> here's what i don't understand, though. are democrats just my yopic when it comes to managing the down side of things? democrats are saying maybe if i don't talk about president obama being president, and being a democrat, he won't be president and he won't be a democrat. that will no longer be a factor in my race. >> but here's the thing. it didn't work in republicans in 2006. >> running from bush. >> it didn't work for democrats in '94.

it's one of those things you say, there's always one person it works for. so the consultants gravitate and say, it worked over here. it didn't work for 34 other people. i don't get it either because i think one side says president obama's the problem with the economy, the problem with the gridlock. the other side says president obama is a problem, you're right. what does everybody hear? president obama's a problem. economy and gridlock the number one issues. republicans handed the people that didn't like the gridlock, president obama, and democrats said we'll get this niche voting group, and this niche voting group, and where was the message, the cohesive -- >> andrea we talk all the time. isis exists. there's a part of the world right now that's growing and perhaps into a caliphate of people who are anti-western. they grab our people and behead

them on television. how did that cease to be an election issue? somehow, did we change the channel? did ebola, with two victims seem more important to us? i mean how did that happen? >> i think it did stay an election issue. all these closing argument ads, the world's a terrifying place, be afraid. >> but it's not an argument. it's a scare tactic by the republican opponents of democratic incumbents who tried to focus on isis and ebola in the scariest most non-factual ways to take at the eye off the real issues. because democrats were dumb enough to not say, let's talk about the economy, let's -- >> not only that they didn't engage in the conversation. republicans had a strategy here for 18 months. they're going to nationalize this election. they thought it was going to be health care. the issue kept changing but they had a strategy. they're going to nationalize this election, they see they

have a map that's their direction. this is about getting republicans out. so they found ways to do it. oh, the issue is immigration this week fine. we'll make that a national issue. if it's isis fine. if it's ebola, fine. and then the democrats got caught up in i think, where the sum is greater than the parts and they only focused on the parts. >> they tried to make every election a local election. >> and it worked in one place. now, she may not win. it worked in one place, north carolina. because you had something that the opponent was a part of. >> right. represents the legislature. >> the raleigh republican versus washington democrats so she created a choice election environment. you can't say that in many other cases. >> but they could have. they could have taken some of the national argument. when you talk about the economy, rather than accept their premise, they could have come back with a different premise, saying yes, this president inherited 800,000 jobs lost --

he added jobs every month, and if we had gotten more public sector jobs that you voted against, or your party voted against, it would have even been more enormous. but when you accept their premise, you lose your conclusion and that i think, is the biggest problem. >> we'll ask a question. why are the democrats good at getting to the end zone, but not putting on a show in the end zone? they get the touchdown, they don't do any hotdogging. if w. had gotten to 17,000 in the stock market reduced the unemployment rate they would be bragging. >> the world economy is not good. >> i know but the numbers are good. >> no the rural economy is not good. and these battles are being fought in these places. that's the difference. [ all speak at once ] >> but i would have connected

the rural economy to some of the public sector things that were blocked by republicans. >> if you don't toot your own horn, the other guy won't toot it for you. >> our first look tonight at the poll results, this is data you do not have yet, but you're about to get it right here. live coverage continues right after this. stay with us.

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welcome back to msnbc's live coverage of the midterm elections tonight. let's get on. it's an early look at what the voters are telling people tonight about how they voted and why they voted. tamron hall will be tracking that for us in exit polls. we love to know what people are saying. this is their chance to speak. tamron thank you for telling us what the world is saying through their votes tonight. >> that's an interesting way to put it. voters are clearly not pleased

with the job congress is doing. nearly half of those we spoke with, 48%, disapprove of the job being done on capitol hill. just this benumber, 20% agree and feel that congress is doing a good job. but let's break it down for the president. his numbers are slightly higher. when you take a look at the numbers here 44% approve of the job president obama's doing. 42% strongly disapprove. this is really interesting. look at this side bar. president obama's approval is nearly identical to those of george w. bush in the sixth year of his presidency. president obama at 44%, george w. bush in 2006 at 43%. and back in 1998, bill clinton's approval was at 55%. so that's the early glimpse of what we're getting in for the exit polling room. and we'll have more data throughout the night. >> tamron thank you. looking at those numbers for clinton and george w. bush,

right, we haven't had very many two-term presidents in the 20th and 21st century, but bill clinton in '98, and that's second-term midterm for him, he did a lot better than the average would suggest. one time the president's party picked up seats in a way that history would suggest was impossible because he had that very high approval number. >> and one other thing. there was a news story there, they were ready to kill him about monica and everybody thought they overdid it. i think when you see aberrations where the party in power does well, you had the cuban missile crisis it helped kennedy because he handled it so well. bill clinton everybody knew he was involved with monaco bs 'ing the country. they said enough already, you made your point. >> and that drove his approval

ratings. >> i sound like a marxist here. i really do think economics drives almost everything. in 1998 the economy was doing really well. just like if you want to look at nixon's problems of course there was cover-up with watergate, but people were feeling terrible. people will forgive a president who is effective. they'll put up with his -- >> they will do so when they can vote for the president. in a midterm, it's almost always party pendulum. >> and you're right, six losses tonight would be typical. but i do think -- look at our numbers. they worry about the economy. every gets home to the kitchen table and forget about politics for a while. they never forget about their lives, but they forget about politics. i was doing an interview the other day and the reporter said to me when did tipper gore begin her relationship with ronald reagan?

[ laughter ] not everybody watches it as closely as we do. they're vaguely aware of it. >> talking about president obama and how much the republicans have tried to make this about him and democrats have freaked out with that confrontation. president obama did do some radio interviews including this one in hartford, to get out the vote. >> take the time to get out to vote. it's something that's part of our civic obligations. and our founding fathers and subsequent generations fought for that franchise. it matters in terms of day to day how kids are going to be able to learn, and whether jobs are created and whether we're protecting the environment. there are big issues at stake. don't leave it to somebody else. go to the polls. >> one of over ten radio interviews the president has done trying to make the last-minute case to voters that they need to go out and vote get to the polls for the midterm elections.

should be noted in connecticut, polling problems. in hartford this morning, could have an outside impact on that state's contest for governor. the connecticut governor's race is really close. when voting began in connecticut this morning, some precincts in hardford were not ready because apparently the voter registration list had not arrived. dale malloy's re-election campaign went to court to argue the polling places should have to stay open late because voters had to leave without casting a ballot. republicans opposed extending the hours at all. a couple hours ago, a judge in connecticut ruled that two specific polling places would remain open for a half hour longer than previously suggested. this is a fascinating race a rematch from 2010. only 6,000 votes between them in

2010, without running up huge margins in places like hartford and newhaven, and bridgeport. dan malloy never could have won. if the voting is screwed up dan malloy won't win for technical reasons, let alone whatever else happens in the state. >> and you never know if it's strategic efforts to keep down the vote in key areas. >> throughout the night we'll be talking with with robert gibbs and steve schmidt, thank you for wearing matching ties and being here tonight. [ laughter ] in terms of whether or not this election is about president obama, is that -- was that necessarily always going to be bad news for democrats? did they have a choice in how to handle this? republicans did what they wanted. democrats seem like they never did. >> i think one thing that's interesting, and you both have talked about this there's the six-year itch problem. in 1986 ronald reagan was at

63% and lost nine senate seats. there's a six-year history problem that affects republicans and democrats. i think what will be interesting to see at the end of the night, did republicans nationalizing this election help bring those very base drop-off voters that democrats need to win in some of these close races out, by talking about how much they were opposed to the president and how much they were going to do to stop the president. did that actually activate voters that would normally have sat out an election except for a presidential year? >> steve, when republicans consider the strategy like that is that something they have to worry about, they'll cause a backlash? >> no doubt. when you're talking about midterm elections, one of the things you're dealing with is republican turn-out advantage. that might have been wiped away by the dynamic that you're explaining. but look, this is the most expensive midterm election in the history of american politics. and the overwhelming majority of

the ads have been a republican saying, i'm not barack obama. i'm going to oppose barack obama. my opponent votes with barack obama. in the case of kay hagan, 96% of the time. and of course the democratic candidates have tried to say, i'm an independent voice. i agree with him on some issues disagree on the others. and we'll see how that plays out in a geographic terrain that is overwhelmingly favorable for republicans tonight. >> let's talk about the politicians you guys know pretty well and how they all say they don't watch television. they're watching every minute. rob, i want to ask you about this. the president is watching. he had a campaign a lot of black radio, but he didn't get up on stage all week or the last month at all. how much is that going to bother him, that he had to go quietly into the night? of course he went to connecticut, he went to north philly, and a few other places but he knows he's not as bad as lbj was at one point, but the

fact that he had to go under-cover in an election year. >> right. you guys put up the numbers. it reminds me of the atmosphere in 2006 and the approval numbers show it between george w. bush and a parallel with barack obama. he's one of the most competitive people i've ever met. so of course it bothered him not to be out there more. he did end up mostly in safe places and the question is did some of that self-campaigning did a lot of radio interviews particularly in the african american community, help on turn-out? >> this election speaks to the enduring wisdom of harry truman who said if you want a friend in washington get a dog. [ laughter ] >> you have an enormous number of these democratic senators that owe their seats, owe their election to barack obama's spectacular rise in 2008. not a few in 2012. and of course you now see the dynamic playing out where they don't know him, they don't support him.

alison lundergan grimes won't acknowledge whether she voted for him or not. this is just washington politics. and what's interesting is the dynamic of politicians is that every one of the senators when they're republicans or democrats in the presence of the president of the united states will act as if he's their best friend will want their pictures with him. this is part of american politics. but what's interesting for the democrats, there was only one way through that mountain pass and it wasn't distancing yourself from president obama. because it's very difficult to do if you supported his policies, 95 96% of the time on the vote. so you have to acknowledge reality. you have to lean into the wave. you have to embrace reality and i think you've seen some of the democratic candidates out there fumbling around with this issue. watch out that plays out tonight. >> i think you make a great point. in 2008 it was probably as good a year as democrats could have

had. we won seats, senate races in alaska, that everyone knew six years later would be hard to hold. these first couple seats, narm and new hampshire, kay hagan in a great year got 53%. jeanne shaheen got 52% in a great democratic year. so while i think there's a lot of real estate that is very dark red and it's going to be very tough terrain for democrats, what will be interesting to watch is how big this so-called wave is when we look at the four senate seats that are in blue or -- i'm sorry -- purple states. new hampshire, north carolina iowa, and colorado. i think what we talk about tomorrow morning will be largely dependent upon those four races. do republicans win three or four of those? or do democrats split or hold three or four? >> what's fascinating about it when you look at some states where the president's approval numbers are high 30s to low 40s,

if republicans can't win in this environment with 70% believing the economy is in the wrong direction in some of these states very ominous signs for the republican party heading into 2016. >> thank you. i want to ask you if you have time to think about, how much john mccain will be enjoying this victory if he gets the chairman of the armed services committee. >> i don't think he would be upset. >> a mean way to put it but i had to do it. up next we'll go to the man in charge of getting democrats elected to congress. this is msnbc's live coverage of election night. we'll be right back after this.

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insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. from poll closing time in some key states including the hotly contested races in kentucky and georgia. melissa is with us now from kay hagan's headquarters in greensborough, north carolina. thank you very much for being with us. >> absolutely. happy to be with you. >> in terms of the race in north carolina, it has national implications but it's been hard fought to every state border line in north carolina. the ground game on both sides has just been epic. what's it been like, and what are you expecting tonight? >> i think the overwhelming feeling for north carolina voters, they are glad it's going to be over.

because the commercials alone are bombarding at such a rate that you can barely sort of think through programming, because there are so many commercials. but part of what we'll learn tonight, i think if there is a hagan win, despite the fact that we are in excess of $100 million spent in these two campaigns, most expensive senate race in north carolina history. despite that it may not in fact be that spending that would have made the difference in hagan wins. i think it will have much more to do with a set of campaigns going on outside of the hague hagan campaigns itself. they've used thom tillis as the character they've been organized against for more than a year. in the weekly meetings the demonstrations that were growing from the dozens and then to the thousands of north carolinians showing up and saying that this

state legislature had polled too far to the right, all of that was about a social movement on the ground. if we see a democratic win here it's unlikely to be because of a democrat herself. and much more likely to be about the effectiveness of a social movement. and i think that would be an extraordinary story to be able to tell at the at the end of the day of the night. >> in terms of north carolina, the closeness of the race there, there's a third-party candidate on the ballot there, a libertarian who hasn't received a ton of attention. everybody's been so focused on the top of the race. is there any indication, are you seeing any signs for him on the side of the road any indication of any support for him that might be significant enough in such a close race that he could be a decisive factor? >> well so there's been some conservative spending that is show sean hau spending, the goal of it being, emphasizing his interest in in peace over war, and the legalization of

marijuana and some other currently illegal drugs. i think the idea is to try to pull some portion of the millennial vote youth vote away from hagan. but it would only take just a tiny percentage to do that. i think that is the kind of strategy that could work very well in a general election but in an election that's a midterm, relatively no information, relatively low turn-out. it's the decline part of surge and decline, the idea that the wung people who are going to show up to vote are going to be that easily swayed as opposed to showing up to vote because they have strong preferences for one candidate or other. my bet, as fun as the sean haugh story is, it's unlikely to affect the results. >> up to manchester, new hampshire, i'm waiting to hear what you have to say, because you're a pro, and that race up there, we were just up there last week and i loved your question to the republican

candidate, by the way. he really seemed to like it too about what zip code he was going to have if he lost. >> i don't know about that. i don't know that he liked the question, chris. but i definitely did ask scott brown whether his zip code might change tomorrow if he loses this race. he came across state lines from massachusetts to new hampshire. could not vote in the state last year. his answer to my question was, that's a silly question. which is interesting, because it's nolt really an answer. one would think at this point, he would have a pat answer to that point. i don't think he has a well developed answer because he's made this into a national race. you drive through new hampshire as we did a little bit this morning, and there are signs saying stand with obama, vote shaheen. jeanne shaheen's campaign did not put those signs in the ground. that's something scott brown has done. and he's done it because new hampshire republicans up until september, six weeks ago, were not really necessarily on scott brown's side.

this guy had to make up a huge gulf with members of his own party and he did this by making a race between scott brown and barack obama. >> google the people are interested in his center fold. they're looking that up but also hillary clinton when they look up shaheen. will this be one of the races if shaheen does hold on one of the races where the clintons will be able to say, especially secretary clinton, we had an impact? >> you know as i do that hillary clinton has a soft spot for new hampshire. it's where she found her voice. it's undeniable shaheen is liked in this state. her favorite is great. her money is there and she has a formidable ground game. so it's weird that shaheen is not so much on the ballot as scott brown and obama is. if she can claim credit that's up to her and no one else. >> enjoy the night. it's going to be fun.

luke russert is in wyatt the west des moines headquarters of the republican candidate joni ernst. i have to based on everything i'm reading about iowa i have to believe the ernst folks are excited and confident. what does it seem like on the ground? >> yeah, i think it's fair to say momentum is with the ernst campaign. the poll that came in on saturday showing her with a seven-point lead. also leading on the question of who cares more about people like me? terrible for a democrat to trail on that question. the early voting numbers we saw here today in iowa something that's so important, the democrats only are plus 8,228. if you see there on the screen. 183,898 compared to the republicans 175, 670. in 2010 they were plus 16,000.

so because they're only up about 2,200 in the early voting that's leading operatives to think it will not keep away the republicans' strength. mitt romney won in terms of votes cast on election day last time around. tip of the scale to ernst and she's had a campaign based on personality and charisma. if you go through the issues and the attacks bruce braley has tried to make being out of touch to social security. that didn't stick. an attack on medicare. that didn't stick. terry branson worked with the state legislature to implement obamacare. over 100,000 iowans enrolled in the law. decently popular here in iowa. ernst will have to repeal that still believes the state can be the healthiest in the country. where the establishment and the republican party has succeeded is evident here in iowa. they have taken someone with tea party credentials in the

primary, moderated her, made her more packageable to iowa independents and voters i suspect if she comes out victorious she will be what everyone points to if they get the right consultant media branding and package themselves in a more conciliatory way. >> the packaging of joni ernst, the hog castrator. amazing. we'll find out what she becomes if she does win. right now we're joined by steve israel, chairman of the dccc the democratic congressional campaign committee. it's his yob to win tonight. i'm going to be positive with you, my friend. i'm going to ask you for the points of light. where do you see your party pulling some upsets tonight against the wind conditions? >> look there's no question, chris, it's a tough environment. but here's what's different. we're only a few hours from all the polls closing and yet not

one single democratic incumbent in any competitive district is down and out. in 2010 going into early october, we knew that about 50 of our incumbents were in trouble. 30 of them weren't going to win. but we have fortified our incumbent, so there's not one single incumbent that we're ruling out. they're all competitive. i think we also have some really strong challenges. we have republicans on their heels in nebraska. on their heels in the panhandle of florida. we have them back on their heels in iowa. we have this back on their heels in a race in california. so my take-away is that we still have 20 competitive races, and i think not only will it be a long night before we know where we land, but it may be a couple days before we know where we land. >> here's the key question to a lot of people. can you take a loss that's so big tonight that even hillary clinton if she runs and wins the nomination next time and comes in, but unable to bring the house with her. because you guys have lost such

a margin of defeat that even her successful win, with 52, 53% of the popular vote wouldn't be enough to bring in. is it still within reach that if hillary runs in 2016, the democrats can still win the house next time? is it still within reach? >> absolutely. i guarantee you that it's within reach. look, you talked about it earlier. the historic loss in a six-year midterm for the president's party is 29. so that's what history teaches us. even ronald reagan when he was very popular in 1986 he lost a bunch of seats. that's just history. but what i think is going to happen, chris, these republicans, they're going to double-down. i can't imagine ted cruz and rubio saying we won the majority in the senate if they win, and we won more seats in the house. now is the time to compromise. no, they're not going to compromise. they're going to double-down. they're going to fall further and further out of the mainstream. they're going to alienate voters, which i believe puts the

house in play in 2016 and makes it a very good cycle for democrats, because they're going to lose independent swing voters in suburban districts. >> congressman steve israel head of the dccc in charge of electing democrats to the house, a very tough environment. congressman, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> the eternal optimism. less than 15 minutes until polls close in kentucky and georgia. two huge senate races we're watching tonight. we're coming up on it. this is msnbc's live coverage of election night. we're back right after this.

polls closing in just a couple of minutes. i want to bring in al sharpton and chris hayes. as well as the msnbc

correspondent who has worn out more shoe leather than anybody else not actually running for office this election season. i'm not exaggerating when i say that kasie hunt has interviewed virtually every candidate in a battleground state this year. watch this. >> you all ready to do democracy? >> yeah. >> hey, kasie. i don't want to talk to you. >> i grew up castrating hogs on an iowa farm. >> what does castrating hogs involve? >> a very delicate hand. >> would you want him to commin for you? >> i speak for myself and don't need any other surrogate to do that. >> you and scott brown keep wanting to make this race about the president. but this race is about new hampshire. >> if you win this race will you commit to staying in new hampshire? >> of course. my mom is five miles away. >> who would you caucus with if you're elected? >> that's a great question and a great point. >> you are going to have to decide. >> he's for obamacare, and he's for amnesty.

okay? >> i think that's part of the sense of entitlement. it's almost like i served my country, therefore, let me into the senate. >> are you going to win in arkansas? >> yes. >> louisiana? >> yes. >> iowa? >> yes. >> new hampshire? >> yes. >> north carolina? >> yes. >> you got any noes? >> what we know is in large part because kasie hunt was there face to face. >> they were annoyed by the end. >> did you feel like traveling out to meet folks on the ground going to the places where they're campaigning, that you learned a different story than what the national media was talking about? >> it gives you different perspectives. it gives you a sense of what candidates are stronger than other candidates. when we're looking at this from inside the belt way, we discount do they like it, do they work hard? being out there gives you that sense. and it allows you to pick up

trends sooner. when you're talking to people on the ground, they're telling you what they're seeing in the moment and it takes time for that to get back to d.c. >> the touchy ones are losing right? >> yes. democrats in particular, struggled with a lot of questions. the question about president obama is a straightforward one and people really struggled to answer it. >> on that question of about whether president obama is on the ballot even though he's not on the ballot could democrats have handled that differently than they did? >> i think they could have. the one place they could have is around the affordable care act. then it clearly became the case they didn't have the politics in their favor. rather than seeing republicans retreating as a sign of weakness democrats and republicans came to a truce. in which the central political debate of the last six years was thrown out the window by everyone. we'll not talk about health care at all.

because democrats were so scarred from fighting those battles. because republicans realized the wind was no longer at their back. all of a sudden the thing that's been the largeest piece of legislation in 30 years is nowhere on the campaign trail. >> they just dropped it. >> i was going to ask a brilliant question, but i'll get to it later. the polls are just closing in some key states. the two key ones right now, kentucky and georgia. first results of the night coming here in seconds.

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it's nearly 7:00 p.m. on the east coast and the polls are about to close in kentucky georgia, virginia south carolina, and vermont. we'll get to the first look at the big senate races in kentucky and georgia. as well as the georgia governor's race where jason carter is looking to unseat nathan deal. we are waiting for news because this is after months and months and months. and finally the crackle of victory and defeat. the agony of defeat. it's all going to come starting in a minute. >> well, in about ten seconds. sometimes when you have a poll closing and you have a call right at the poll closing, it tells you a lot more about the race than before that exact

moment. it wasn't a close one and in some cases, the early vote came in that could have been coded ahead of time. but these are our first results tonight. the first one is a big one. nbc news projects that the winner of the kentucky senate race is mitch mcconnell. this is being projected at poll closing. mitch mcconnell wins in kentucky defeating alison lundergan grimes. in georgia, the senate race there has been characterized as too early to call. it's michelle nunn very david perdue a very hotly contested race. nbc news can project the winner in the south carolina senate race. lindsey graham is re-elected there. also in south carolina presidential election for senaterate there, tim scott, serving out a partial term there, is elected in south carolina. in the virginia senate race mark warner right now too early

to call in his race against republican ed gillespie. again, that's the virginia senate race at this hour, nbc calling it too early to call. overall in the senate at this hour, what we can tell you there are 33 republican seats in the senate. there are 32 democratic seats in the senate and two independents who have previously caucused with democrats, but that's the overall balance that we'll be watching tonight in terms of who gets to 50. now to some of the governor's races. gnge not only has a tightly fought senate race they have a governor race that nbc is calling too early to call. jason carter the democrat and nathan deal, the republican governor. in south carolina number news can predict that the winner of the south carolina's governor's race is nikki haley. in other races this hour we take you to the great state of vermont. peter shumlin the democrat there, scott milne, the

republican challenger upon they're calling it too early to call. one thing to know there's a 50% threshold for winning a race like this. it makes it a different threshold for calling it, a different threshold for winning, but nbc news said in vermont, it's too early to call between shumlin and milne. >> mcconnell nice guys finish first. hmm. anyway, no more comment on that one. >> we don't know if he's going to be majority leader or if republicans will win the senate but we know he's going to be back. >> interesting race in virginia warner was a successful and i thought safe incumbent. shows audacity ego and audacity. willing to take on the top race, going to keep it close long enough to indicate it a good-- to

make it a tough race. these are fascinating to watch. >> you think the senate race is running for governor? >> yes, you run once win the next time. in georgia, jason carter you think this is his last run for governor? he will run again and get it eventually. the way you get your name out there unless you're a born zillion air, run a few times. people get used to you, they get to trust you and then you finally get the job. so it's about endurance. i do think it's interesting, we've probably given on our program, you've probably done the same given more attention to the kentucky race than any race in the country. and yet here we state good old mitch mcconnell chunking in $2 million of his own money at the last minute. i'm sure his wife is saying why'd you spend that money? >> it could have been closer. >> it was a blow-out. >> why'd you pay for a blow-out? but this young woman had the

audacity to run against this incredibly tricky incumbent. she'll be back. she's going to try again and probably go for another race for the senate. >> and especially because she's so close to the clintons who we clearly haven't seen. >> she might be in the cabinet. >> mitch mcconnell harry reid pulled out that 2010 victory by a nose. and he knew his state and, wo he worked his state. when you watch harry reid and mcconnell from the perspective of the cameras, from the perspective of their performance, you think, really? these are the guys running the caucuses caucuses? when you watch them engage and know the chieftain where they know how to work their states they're pros both of them. >> you've been ruling for 30 years, you know how to do it. >> they don't want george clooney as their spokesman. >> no, they do not. >> they don't want someone to outshine them or be better

looking. they want somebody to keep the day going, make sure they keep their jobs. >> the word to use with those guys is careful. they know where their vote is and they go after that vote. mcconnell, yeah there was concern early on but at the end of the day, he knew where he had to get his vote. and then of course he always counts on his opponent to fumble the ball. >> i love george f. well been around forever. he said mitch mcconnell has been compared to looking like me. he said sharp, but true. it's not about charisma. let's go to somebody on the ground at headquarters. how is the nice guy handling his apparent victory here? >> they haven't announced it here yet. so people are still kind of waiting, but the numbers are called. we're told tonight mcconnell's going to give a speech but he's going to talk about kentucky. he's not going to stay up honestly to make sure see who

won alaska. they're going to clear us out at midnight. so he'll give a speech about kentucky tonight and tomorrow he'll talk about the broader implications of if he's senate majority leader or what he wants to do next. so wait on his remarks about being majority leader or not being majority leader tomorrow but not tonight. >> are you saying they don't know nbc news has projected mitch mcconnell to be the winner of this race? >> mcconnell's staff does because we just told them. the audience have not cheered, they don't know yet. they've not put on the screen yet the projection itself. we're still waiting on that excitement that will be here for his victory. people here also there's a lot of political operatives here and now you're hearing it for the first time. >> oh. >> there you go. >> hey, kentucky don't mean to let you in on the secret. but here's a little something that you have been dying to

here. >> feel free to start shouting it, in case it will make people buy you drinks. thank you. >> that was really funny. >> you like good news from the media. >> and you know who else is at mcconnell headquarters, senate rand paul, who played a key role not only in his campaign, but will be a key player as a bridge between mcconnell and wherever our conservatives end up led by. >> really fascinating thing to watch in kentucky, and it sounds like small ball but it will become the most important thing in the world really fast. the question of whether or not the kentucky house goes republican. it's one of the last if not the last legislative chamber in the south that has not gone to the republicans. and the reason it matters is because kentucky has a state law which says you can't run for two federal offices at once. rand paul will run for president in 2016 that's when his senate seat will be up. >> barry gold water gave up his

seat in arizona just so he could be an honest candidate and say, he wasn't lieberman playing it tricky, i want both jobs in case i lose. he said no i'm running for one office at a time. [ all speak at once ] >> that's part of the reason i think -- >> this could be alison grimes' chance. if rand paul gets the nomination, she gets the seat. everybody's happy. except mitch mcconnell. let's bring in steve kornacki at this point with kentucky off the table, steve kornacki what does that look like in terms of the democrat survival guide for tonight. >> how do the democrats get through tonight? we would have as of 20 minutes ago, have kentucky in the middle column of undecided. it's gone to the republicans. they're at 46. let's take you through what the democrats need now with nine battleground states up here.

arkansas, the polls haven't closed. we'll see what happens there, but the expectation is that will go the way of kentucky. that will be a republican pickup. on the other hand, we talked about the must-win states for democrats new hampshire, north carolina. let's say the democrats get those, we don't know. they must win them so let's say they get them add these to the democratic column. the other sort of juicy target on the board is kansas. you heard the vice president today saying that independent, if he wins he's going to caucus with us. we don't know what he's going to do, but democrats need him to do that if he wins. let's say that happens. let's add greg orman winning and caucusing with the democrats. that leaves five states in the middle. two are wild cards. i want to put them at the bottom. louisiana and georgia. these are states where runoffs are likely in louisiana and possible in georgia. that leaves you with alaska iowa, colorado. think about where the democrats

are in the scenario. they're at 46. now here's the key. you have to add two more. bernie sanders and angus king are independents who caucus with them. so add two to that 46 puts them at 48. they need to get to 50. they're two short. three states on the board tonight. the absolute bear minimum, let's say democrats lose alaska and colorado. doesn't work out for udall and say ernst wins in iowa. everything goes wrong in those three states for democrats, republicans are still going to be short. then the runoffs in these two states, a chance there. however, the democrats winning in these two in these states, good. you look at these three and say more likely for democrats tonight, they'll have to win one or two of these. so these three, democrats are going to need one, maybe two and

they're all upsets. >> let's bring in right now a member of the united states senate already who will remain so chris murphy of connecticut. senator, you're watching this whole thing. would you explain to people watching who don't really know the way the senate operates and organizes. what's the significance if the republicans grab control? what does it mean in terms of what's likely to come out of the senate if they have a one-seat advantaging advantage coming out of tonight? >> the fact is that the agenda is controlled by the majority, the chairman who oversee these committees, determined only by the majority. and most importantly for the senate, the president's appointees to various agencies and to the federal bench is determined by the majority. especially now that we've changed the rules such that 50 votes can put a nominee through. i think you're going to see the president's appointees effectively shut down. it's a government shutdown by

another mechanism. they'll not stop funding it they'll just stop populating it with the president's appointees. so i think that's probably the most significant change you'll see. >> people are nervous about it will there be a vote on immigration? even if the republicans pick up the leadership by a vote or two, will there still be enough power to pass a decent immigration bill like you did before? >> no. the problem is it will be perceived as a victory for the tea party. ernst and cotton they'll not be working with the moderates passing immigration reform. they'll be stopping it. so i don't see any way that middle of the road agenda that people like mccain or graham have supported in the past will be able to get support from that caucus which will be radicalized by this election. >> terrible. >> senator murphy, when you're looking ahead at the governor's race there's been concern about voting in hartford. a judge has ordered two specific

voting places in hartford to be held open a half an hour later. they had a hard time getting open this morning. we know malloy's strategy depends on turning out big margins in cities like hartford in your state. are you worried about shenanigans or failure about pulling off the election in connecticut? >> i'm not worried. what we've seen in the cities across the day is higher turn-out this year than you saw in 2010. governor malloy went into the election day four years ago down by three points. he won by about 6,000 votes. he's going in this time up by two or three points. i think he'll pull it off. we've elected a lot of republican governors over the past 20 years. it's not surprising that this is a dog fight here. >> thank you, senator. good to have you with us tonight. coming up, we have breaking news in the florida governor's

race. we'll be going live to charlie crist headquarters in st. petersburg. that's next. you're watching msnbc's special kochblg coverage of election night. big news so far, mitch mcconnell being elected, that was a call at the closing of the polls. there's a lot still to come tonight. stay with us.

welcome back to msnbc's coverage of election night, along with the battle for control of the senate we are closely watching governors races across the country. 36 governors races are up tonight. there's the possibility that we could see a record number of sit-in governors bounced out of office tonight. sitting governors of both parties. these races have national implications, as well as very important governing implications. some battleground states are picking governors, including pennsylvania, and wisconsin and michigan and florida. our colleagues is in st. petersburg at the headquarters of the charlie crist for governor campaign.

i'm told you have some breaking news about the florida election night now. >> well, i have to start tonight with a smile, rachel because in the land of the bush-gore lawsuits, i haven't even got a cup of coffee to start the night and we already got a lawsuit on our hands. charlie crist' camp is concerned about what's unfolding in broward county. number one it's not the kind of turn-out they were looking for. early voting was pretty good but the democrats have to score well in broward in dade and in palm beach county. what happened in broward early this morning is that the polling places were opening up late because there were some irregularities with some of the machines. there was also a great deal of misinformation and voters were confused. so late this afternoon, charlie crist's camp which by the numbers statewide, off to a pretty good start, they have asked for a motion to extend the voting hours in broward county. now, jennerically speaking, you can come to the conclusion this

is a big deal because if broward county doesn't get every vote counted, it's, number one, going to be an issue as far as the voters are concerned. they're going to be very upset about it. it's a stronghold for the democrats and charlie crist. but also the fact that the voting machines and if they have these problems, who knows where this is all going to end up? so our first report tonight out of florida starts out with troubling news for the democrats and a court asked to extend at the voting for at least one hour. one democratic operative told me they were going to try to get two, but it looks like they'll try to ask for one hour and that's what we have at this time. so it looks like it could be a long night here in florida. you know this race has had everything. and the money has been absolutely staggering. in the last week the crist camp has tried to keep up. they've had some conference calls with fund raisers. they've never seen money like this come over the phone, just

to keep up with rick scott throwing some $20 million of his own money into this thing. >> while you've been talking, we've been showing early results from florida. i should clarify for our viewers at home, that some of the vote is in florida, there are polling places open in the panhandle. a number of states where polling places close at different hours depending on the time zone. so i want to make that clear. ed, though as you're watching the crist campaign react to what they're worried about in broward county, file this lawsuit, as they're scrambling to make sure that the election is handled the way it's supposed to be handled, can you just tell us basically what their level of confidence is overall, whether you think that they think they're going to win tonight, whether you can tell if they're just spinning you or if they believe it? >> nobody's talking about a win here rachel. neither side. it's so close. it's razor thin. there's not a whisper about who might be leading, or what's so

positive for them to believe it's going to be a great night at the office. it's so close. but we've seen some turnouts, for instance in hillsborough county a good turn-out. at florida university, there was a turn-out they have never seen in midterm elections before. they have surpassed the 2010 turn-out from the data that they have, but they're certainly not going to reach 2012. one thing that has not been focused on very much is that charlie crist, tapped into the obama data mining personnel. there's a number of people that were working with the obama camp that kind of slipped under the radar screen and ended up working with charlie crist's camp. and so the research that charlie crist's team has should be spot on. and so the fact that they're not saying anything here early tonight, just underscores that they're not out of the woods yet. they're pretty nervous. but the same thing goes for rick scott's camp as well. close to the vest is the way

they're calling it right now. >> ed you must love this stuff. there was a great seven-point plan they did in florida last time in '12 for the president. a friend of mine was working there and said he would make seven contacts to each voter whether it was knocking on the vote, leaving a note, or making a phone call, or offering a car ride. if you put those seven contacts into each voter, you would get a vote. is it that kind of a machine that they picked up on down there for the governor? >> it is. it is exactly that. and it's also a greater door-to-door effort that we've seen in the three counties that the democrats feel like they have to be extremely strong the ones i mentioned, dade broward, and palm. if they don't get that i don't know how charlie crist can win. florida's kind of a politically schizophrenic state. you have a lot of conservatives up north. you've got middle of the state which kind of reflects a mixed

bag of thinking kind of mid western, and then you've got southern florida which really reflects the northeastern portion of the united states. now, figuring out the model to get those folks together to get out to vote has really been the challenge here. i talked to a lot of african americans in broward county when i was down here the last few days. they didn't feel like their young people were as energized as they should have been. and some of the older african americans were saying, ed, we got to get the young kids there. they don't know what's going on. so they were apprehensive about all that. but the data mining people from the obama team to charlie crist really was a brilliant move. so they feel like they got their bases covered. let me tell you about the money in this thing. we know that rick scott is very wealthy. thrown $20 million of his own money into this thing to try to secure it. last week there was a

conference call amongst the trial lawyers here in florida. so the trial lawyers have been with charlie crist from the beginning, the middle and now they're trying to close it out for them. there was a call that almost raised close to a million dollars. guys were on that call and forking out the plastic and going 25 40 $50,000 and that's the intensity of it. the trial lawyers are fearless. they just want charlie crist to win so bad. and they are so afraid of rick scott. you know they've had a republican governor down here since 2000. actually charlie crist was one of them for a while, but he's changed things quite a bit. but it's been radical on court lawyers for a long time and they are putting everything they have into this. if they can't win it this time i don't know when they can. >> ed schultz in florida, thank you. we'll be checking back in with you soon as polls in florida close at 8:00. when we come back in just a couple of minutes, polls will be

closing at the bottom of the hour, at the half hour in north carolina, and west virginia and ohio. all eyes on north carolina looking to see if democratic senator kay hagan can hang on to her seat. in is msnbc's live coverage on election night. stay with us. we'll be right back.

>> we're back and the news keeps

coming. the polls are about to close this three more states. north carolina, all important. ohio and west virginia. and the race to watch, north carolina. that senate race between incumbent democrat kay hagan who has fought like hell to hold that seat and republican thom tillis who has a few problems of his own. it's an interesting race. it's a race of even steven. they both have a case to make against the other's record. she's too close to obama, you could argue. he has a history of destroying the education in the state. which was their pride and glory. i went to grad school there. everybody loves chapel hill except thom tillis they want to bring it back to the stone ages. after years of building it up with duke and nc state, it's a great university center. the state has come up. anyway -- >> the republican takeover of state government in north carolina has been on the ballot as much as anything else. but we have our first results right now. polls have just closed in north

carolina. at this hour nbc news is calling this race too close to call between democrat kay hagan and thom tillis. west virginia senate race, nbc is projecting the winner. shelley moore. a republican pickup in the senate for the republican party. in the georgia senate race right now it's 50% of the expected vote in in georgia between david perdue the republican candidate and michelle nunn. excuse me, 1% in. with perdue and nunn. that's too early to call. 1% in there again, forgive me. senate pickups, republican at this point west virginia they've added that to their total. at this hour in the senate the republican total number of seats is 34. the total number of democratic seats is 32. and then of course our two independents who in the past have caucused with the democratic party. right now nbc news is projecting the winner in the ohio

governor's race. john kasich in ohio. this is a race where democrats thought they would put up a harder fight than they did. and the governor's race only 1% of the expected vote in in georgia. nathan deal the republican incumbent. jason carter the challenger. nbc is calling this race too earl to call at this point. >> the great thing about john kasich, if you're a conservative, he has the advantages of rick santorum without the insanity. he has all the pluses. he's working class, he's been a successful executive, won a big re-election. he may be -- maybe you have a thought here, but i think he's going to get on that list. he and -- if scott walker gets re-elected. it's a big if. but i think casic is the sweet spot. republicans have to carry ohio. they're having their convention in cleveland. it's perfect for him.

once you run for president you stick your head out, all the bad stuff comes out of nowhere. but he looks really good as a running mate. got the working-class thing going for him. i like the guy, known him for 30, 40 years. he was a house member forever, a commentator on the fox news network, if that's not an oxymoron. just kidding, great network. [ laughter ] >> you may like him, i don't know him. i react to him the way that i see him in politics. the only reason to disagree with you there, he did not have a contest in this governor's race. >> that tells you something. >> it tells you that him winning this race doesn't tell you he's the almighty conqueror. [ all speak at once ] >> but nobody wants to run against him. >> that tells you a lot in politics, when you don't get an opponent in a state like ohio where the democrats have been strong. >> sure. >> it tells you a lot that casic

has done his homework and done it well with the voters. we were focusing on everything going on with scott walker and chris christie. kasich was being the governor of ohio sticking to his business and dealing with the issues that blew up in the face of walker and christie in a very honest way. >> he also did a huge tactical readjustment after he got, you know -- >> shellacked? >> -- shellacked in the referendum overturning the law that he had passed like the wisconsin law. all of a sudden he shoved medicaid expansion down the throats of the republican party there, doing it in a fairly dubious means procedurally running an end around the legislature, but he understood after that mid point that he was in trouble, he was running too far to the right. >> don't be against end-arounds. rob? >> i think we should say ohio

should have been a race. so in rust belt governorships, democrats lost wisconsin, michigan pennsylvania and ohio in 2010. the person in the most trouble if you looked at the vote should have been john kasich he got 49% of the votes. democrats thought that would be a race six months ago. it's one of these races we're barely going to touch tonight, but it shows you how much the map has changed a bit. it's as to-up swing state in a presidential race, and the fact that we're calling the governor's race the moment the polls close, is testament to how much better a race that he ran than anybody could have imagined. >> isn't this the one race that's more like 2010 than any other? in the sense i look at the ohio governors race and i see i'm not a witch. i think this is the one candidate where you have a top of the ticket candidate on the democratic side in this case ed fitzgerald who really did implode as soon as they picked him. they thought he was going to be

a good candidate. they weren't giving it away to anybody who would be dumb enough to run against kasich. they picked fitzgerald and then all this stuff came out which destroyed him. it seems like kasich didn't get tested. >> you know who else built a career on their opponents falling apart? barack obama because every one of his opponents just self-sdruktded in front of him. your thoughts? >> look, i think tonight when we see john kasich take the stage, we see the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign. we have a governor re-elected who is considered to be vulnerable. so when he takes the stage tonight he's making an important national debut. how does he carry it? does he have the command presence? you'll have republicans in a wide open field getting their first look at john kasich successful chief executive, coming off a big and early victory tonight. be wise for him to get out there early tonight. a lot of people will be taking his measure as a future

potential presidential candidate. >> and i would say, the state of virginia again, a toss-up purple presidential state. mark warner got in 2008 65% of the vote. he left the governor's mansion in richmond with an approval rating somewhere between 75 and 80, and we're sitting on a race that's too close to call. i think everybody's a bit surprised that this isn't a race that got put away early. >> technically, it's too early to call. we don't know how close it's going to end up. >> that's right. but i do think it speaks that we're looking at the georgia senate race right now. and control of the united states senate could hinge on whether a democratic candidate prevails in the state of georgia. if virginia is as close as it may turn out to be a total failure of imagination on the part of the republican party in that virginia is a must-win state in a presidential campaign. one of the best campaigns by any republican in the country by ed

gilles pay esespie gillespie, but not an overwhelming amount of resources compared to other races. so you look at this map. democrats continue to expand opportunities, continue to spread the field into red states. they have competitive candidates in those states. purple state, the republicans have to win. if this is a close race this will be something republicans regret. >> on the senate races so far in terms of what we've learned tonight. in kentucky mitch mcconnell has been re-elected. polls close at georgia and north carolina shortly. in georgia right now, too early to call. in north carolina, too close to call. we're going to be watching those as results continue to come in. but steve, as you are looking specifically at that georgia race again, polls have been closed since 7:00. nbc is calling it too early to call. what do we know so far about georgia? >> there's something we're seeing very interesting. i want to first of all say it's a fluid situation. but we're seeing something

interesting in georgia and i want to flag it for you. so let's put the results up. it's very early and we have scattered precincts in. so pay no attention to the margin you're seeing there. the exit polls are constantly changing throughout the night. so when i say this is fluid, i can't stress that enough. however, what the exit polls are telling us at this hour, the composition of the electorate in georgia is 64% white and 36% non-white. if that holds that's the highest share of the non-white vote you've ever had in georgia. that's exceeding democrats' wildest expectations in georgia. it's also 30% black, higher than what democrats had been hoping for. so if you look at it closely, what you're seeing among blacks michelle nunn is leading 93-6. that's what she needs. that's why it's too close to call. the flip side is among whites in

the exit poll, she's only getting 27%. that's why perdue is in this. what to look for as the results start to come in. this is a empty county board right here. but this is the key right now for democrats. you see numbers like that that's fulton county right there. that's atlanta, that's dekalb county and that's the heart of the democratic african american base in georgia. and then you got to look at this one right here. this is henry county and the story of henry county is the story of georgia. in 1996 henry county was a white county that voted for bob dole by 25 points. by 2012 the black population had grown 400%. and president obama nearly carried it. look what happens there tonight. if they carry michelle nunn that's where you'll see it. >> were you going to jump in? >> i was going to jump in on mitch mcconnell and the head winds he was fighting against. 52% of the people in the exit polls said they viewed him

unfavorably. but the problem alison grimes had, 2/3 viewed president obama unfavorably. that explains why she was waffling on who she voted for. the exit polls from kentucky where we have the result of mitch mcconnell. and regarding virginia i was told this afternoon by a democratic operative, that they were seeing some trouble for the democrat john warner. he's a -- >> mark warner. >> mark warner. john warner of course the retired veteran senator. mark warner was the governor as gibbs was just pointing out and he won so handily back in 2008. and this would be just a real setback. >> it has been off the radar as a potential race. >> and the washington suburbs come in late. >> you live in d.c. with me. not at the same house. >> breaking news america. it's not what you thought. [ laughter ] >> in northern virginia they've been relentless, the campaign.

highly charged, very nasty. i root for the guy who takes on the impossible like i did for alison grimes against someone you can't beat and maybe does beat them. i think ed gillespie going up against the unbeatable warner could be a fascinating race. [ all speak at once ] >> he was an island. >> throughout the night we'll be checking with msnbc host jose diaz-balart who is in florida tonight. we're waiting on florida poll closings at the top of the hour. >> good evening. >> what are you seeing on the grounds today in florida and in the closing arguments for this all important florida governor's race? >> it's really tight, rachel. good evening. it could be a fan-blade thin difference between the two candidates for the governor's race here in florida. and ed was talking about the discrepancy they're seeing in parts of the country -- parts of the state, i should say. we've been keeping a very close watch on the latino vote in florida, up to maybe 19% of the

vote in florida could be latinos. and it's interesting because the i-4 corridor an area when is predominantly more receptive to democrats, has been apparently coming out to vote in very large numbers. and specifically in the miami-dade area, where the cuban american vote is and that's a vote that traditionally votes very solidly republican, they have been coming out to vote. but they come out early vote on a strong basis normally. we're seeing in early votes, florida is kind of tied right now. so it's really interesting. i really do think it's going to be very tight and maybe a long race. see what happens with this procedure they're asking to extend the voting. and rachel in about 15 minutes, the polls close in florida in the panhandle. so we'll see what happens then. >> it's fascinating. the share of the latino vote 18% in florida, 15% in colorado. >> i hate talking ethnically about this. but it's fascinating to watch what happened with michelle

nunn. as steve, who is the best in the business right now doing this. it's interesting because she has 27% of the white vote. i feel like we're in south africa. 27% of the white vote. yet everybody says she needs 30. it's already written down what your bar is for each community. anyway, i love incumbents because they're there. joe mansion, a democrat from west virginia. senator, thank you for coming on. there we have a legacy candidate elected. the daughter of the republican governor, a lot of dynasty stuff going around for better or worse tonight. let me ask you about your state, the state that jack kennedy won. everybody talked about the roman catholic winning there. a blue collar hard-knocks state. is it cole is it guns or is it

culture? >> chris, i think it's all of the above that you've mentioned, but mostly important it's the jobs. we have good jobs here a lot of good opportunities. we provide the energy this country has needed. west virginia is a hard working lot of people and are very patriotic. and seeing the government or perception of the government attacking him, which basically is what's happening. they have lost a lot of good jobs. coal is needed in this country and we can do it better and cleaner than anybody else. but they believe the president has doubled down on them. and i've told them government should be your partner and your friend. >> let's talk turkey. do you think that hurt her in the campaign? >> absolutely. and you look at the coal no matter what she says. in a coal country, and people have that seen basically first hand they're losing jobs. they're losing their economy. and it's an ancillary thing. there's a value added jobs all the way down the line and these people are losing their communities. it's devastating. and then you see the utility

companies saying, we need more of a portfolio that we can provide the energy this country needs. so it doesn't make sense that we have to fight so hard against our own government and administration to try to find a balance. that's all we're looking for. we're not asking for favors. just let us do the job we've always done for america. west virginia will do it. >> senator, now you'll have a republican colleague in the senate. we don't know if republicans will have majority control of the senate but when you look ahead toward working with a new home state colleague on the other side of the aisle, do you feel like you have more overlap with her than differences with her, when it comes to substantive policy that affects your state? do you anticipate that you two might be able to work together across the aisle more closely than people might expect from the two parties? >> i think so. because in west virginia, they expect us to work together. they don't look at the party affiliations and say you're a

republican, you're not supposed to work with the democrats or vice versa. you're now going it there to represent west virginia. we expect you to do the best for our state. when i was governor we brought people together democrats and republicans. we looked at our values and who we are as a people. and we voted that way. and then we'd have fun with our politics. but our state, we took our state very serious. and the same thing with our country. we've got to come together. the people are speaking loud and clear. they don't like what they've seen. i don't like what i've been involved with the last four years and i've been very vocal about that. we've got to change. so whether the republicans take control, whether we stay in control, then it's got to change no matter who's in control. because we can't continue down the path because nothing gets done. people don't have confidence that we can govern ourselves. when they lose confidence basically you see what's happened. our growth has been lethargic. our economy should be booming right now. when they have confidence that we can govern, it will work. >> i like that both of you come

on you and your new colleague come on "hardball" some night and cook some deals on the air. i want to see the deal-making, you guys together on issues like growth and things like that. thanks so much. what can i do? >> you can stir the pot, that's for sure. >> i will play barbara walters or walter cronkite. i will bring the warring parties together. anyway thank you. up next, more highlights from what you are thinking tonight as you cast your ballot. plus, chuck todd's coming with us, as msnbc's live coverage on election night is back after this.

this is a very exciting part of the night. so far in terms of what we know in the senate the big news of

course is in kentucky. senator mitch mcconnell the republican there in kentucky has been re-elected. in north carolina right now, the senate race right there nbc is calling it too close to call. in georgia, that senate race there, nbc is calling it too early to call. in virginia interestingly right now, nbc calling that race too early to call with about 19% of the expected vote in in virginia. but in terms of what voters are thinking about tonight who's turning out and why? tamron hall is tracking our exit polls. she joins us now. >> in our exit poll we've asked voters their opinions on a number of key social issues. first up same-sex marriage. let's take a look at what we've seen in these numbers. right now, of course same-sex marriage is legal in 32 states and the district of columbia. 49% of voters say that same-sex marriage should be legalized in their state. that sup eight points from the past four years. but let's take a look at the jump amongst young voters. this number is pretty

interesting here. under 30 crowd, 2010 52%. under 30 crowd, 2014 66% say same-sex marriage should be legal. turning now, though to the legalization of marijuana. already passed in colorado and washington state. and on the ballot today in oregon and in alaska. in our survey you see here 49% believe that marijuana should be legalized. 47% saying it should not. on this though pretty divided when you look at the parties. let's break it down here. 61% of democrats say that marijuana should be legal. looking over on the republican side, 66% oppose such a move. and lastly views have not shifted much when it comes to abortion in this country. in fact, 53% believe that abortion should be legal in most cases. 43% say it should be mostly or entirely illegal. so that's a glimpse of our exit poll when it comes to those key social issues i know you guys have been talking about in

studio, rachel. >> it's fascinating. looking at the pot numbers, you finally got a policy issue in which there is actually a clean partisan divide. usually clean partisan divides are all culture and who you hate and who you love and all this other nonsense stuff. finally a policy issue in which we actually have a democratic and policy position. chuck todd is back with us as well as andrea mitchell. looking at north carolina and virginia, just looking at the latest numbers as they come in both georgia and north carolina georgia too early, north carolina too close. what do we know there? >> well we've got a little more exit data in. a little more modelling data in and it looks a little bit better for hagan. it looks like perhaps the initial exit polls show 21% african-american, that the electorate was 21% african-american. it looks like it's going to be a little bit higher than that. plus, you start looking at some of the county by county data, hagan looks -- it's still too

close tole ka. call. it's pinky on the scale for her. quickly virginia we're watching all that come in. the models are starting to show warner is the favorite here. warner is still the favorite. clearly things tightened up. but our models indicate that warner should, depending on -- unless there's a collapse in northern virginia he should be fine at the end of the day. >> about 20% of that vote in. still too early to call in virginia, the official call at this point. >> that's a really interesting race, as we were saying because you've got two very prominent people in the party. and ed gillaspie -- >> he ran out of money. i think it really does tell you a little bit of a depressed democratic turnout in virginia. >> i think he'll beat the spread gillespie, and go on the

run for governor. >> a guy named mark warner pulled that same trick in 1996. i feel so bad for him. >> once for rank once for effect. when we come back polls will be closed in some key states. coming up in a couple minutes now, including two big governors races, the race in florida between rick scott and charlie crist. plus, a race that could make history in my home state of pennsylvania. we may have the first governor in history bumped out of office and that's going to be big news when our coverage continues.

it's nearly 8:00 eastern, and polls are about to close in six states. 16 states. including new hampshire, where there's a very tight senate race

between scott brown and jeanne shaheen. in floridapennsylvania, where i grew up, voters are about to dump their governor for the first time in history. >> pennsylvania has a long history, too. >> actually, it's not as bad as i made it sound. governors were allowed to start running for election in ' 74. they had a long period of one-term governorships. this is 40 years, however. there was a strong tradition of serving two terms. it's hard to tell exactly why tom corbett became immensely unpopular. but i think one part of it is he cut education. and that was a big mistake. >> at this point, it is 8:00 right now on the east coast, and nbc news can project that the republican party has maintained control of the house of representatives. this is not a characterization of any one individual race.

this tells you the overall control in the house. right now, out of 435 seats, the nbc news projection plus or minus eight seats, is that republicans will control 242 seats. democrats will control 193. so single-digit losses for the democrats in terms of what's being projected right now by nbc news. >> well there's always a problem that -- we always hope that a new president, and if it's hillary clinton next time around, we'd like to see if she wins to come in with a mandate. most people say better to govern than not be able to govern. that's an objective statement. one of the goals of the republican campaign was to build up enough padding that even if she came in with a decent majority, that she would not bring the house with her and not be able to govern. we're going to see if they get up to 240 or something or 245 where their real goal was. it's going to be real trouble for her. but as was argued earlier, they still have a potential to win it

all back in two years. >> 16 states where polls have just closed. let me tell you what we know first in terms of the senate and then we'll get to the governors. first one, all eyes on this race. shaheen in new hampshire against scott brown. nbc's characterization of this race is too early to call at this point. 9% of the expected vote in. in new jersey the senate race there, cory booker the democratic incumbent is projected as the winner by nbc news as is massachusetts democratic incumbent ed markey. in mississippi, thad cochran had a heck of a fight in the republican primary, but he is the projected winner tonight. nbc news projecting that thad cochran has been re-elected as has republican incumbent susan colins in the great state of maine. from a long way out, it looked like she might have a fight on this one, but it was hers to lose and she did not. illinois senate candidate dick durbin re-elected. democratic incumbent there, he's the projected winner according to nbc news projections. in tennessee, lamar alexander,

the republican incumbent is projected to hold on to his seat in tennessee. now, in the great state of oklahoma we've actually got both senate seats up. at the end of his most recent full term, he's projected to hold on to his seat. in the oklahoma senate special election, james langford is the projected winner in oklahoma. oklahoma one of two states tonight that has both senate seats on the line. in rhode island the democratic incumbent jack reed is expected to win. and in the state of delaware the incumbent the projected winner by nbc news. there's a few senate races that we are still watching. there's 13% of the expected vote

thus far in south carolina. kay hagan versus thom till lisis. david perdue the republican versus the democrat, that is too early the call according to nbc news. and interestingly, this turned out to be a fascinating one to watch. virginia senate, just over a third of the vote in. nbc calling ed gillespie versus mark warner too early to call in the state of virginia. in terms of the overall look in the senate the senate pickup so far, there has been one definite republican pickup in the state of west virginia. the overall senate chamber right now looks like this. 40 republican seats, 37 democratic seats, and two independents, who have caucused with democrats in the past. bernie sanders most certainly will continue to do that in the future. angus king might get interesting depending on what else happens. now let's look at what's going on in terms of the governors

races. in pennsylvania, the projected winner, nbc news projecting that tom corbett has lost his seat. the democrat challenger tom wolf will be the new governor of pennsylvania according to nbc news projections. before i go on i actually have to get your reaction to that, chris matthews. >> a very interesting candidate. entrepreneur. meets the payroll. not a philadelphian. somewhere from the middle part of the state. they're used to running against ethnics in big cities. this guy came out of nowhere. this guy beat allison schwartz a strong candidate in the primaries. he spent $10 million of his own money. >> was schwartz the establishment candidate? >> she didn't really have the big city machine. she had bob brady behind her, but she was a suburbanite mainly. part of northeast philly where i grew up. she never really had the sweep of support across the city. you know what she didn't do right? a very attractive candidate if she had gone on television. she never did any television.

>> very quickly, emily's list talking to people there, they have really struggled getting their donors fired up about electing women governors. this is challenging on everybody's list. they've had a hard time rallying people for martha coakley. scott walker, somebody that's popular, to give money against. but emily, which of course they can raise money for senate candidates, but it's been a real frustration for them that they have not been able to make more inroads here because you take hillary clinton away the best place to move women into the presidential field is via governorship. >> let's look at some of what else we've just gotten in terms of poll closings at 8:00 with these governor races. this is the florida governor's race. 2/3 of the vote in. 2/3 of the expected vote in in florida. nbc news is calling charlie crist versus rick scott in

florida too close to call. look at how tight that is, with that much of the vote already in. this is going to be amazing to watch unfold in florida tonight. in illinois the governor's race there being characterized as too close to call. pat quinn, the democratic incumbent there facing bruce rauner, the republican. massachusetts governor's race. this one's very close to my heart. martha coakley, the democrat. charlie baker, the republican. too close to call according to nbc news projections at this point. in maine, the governor's race is fascinating. maybe a three-way race there. paul lepage facing off against eliot cutler who maybe didn't race out last week but still has his name on the ballot. the democrat facing the democrat on the ballot there too close to call. that will be an interesting one to vote. dan malloy and tom foley a rematch for them.

this one is being called too early to call. tom foley and dan malloy fought it out very close in 2010. looks like they will again tonight. in alabama, nbc can project that the winner of that governor's race will be robert bentley, the incumbent republican governor in alabama. in tennessee, the incumbent republican governor there. in maryland, the governor's race there is too early to call. the democratic candidate there is anthony brown. larry hogan, the republican, too early to call. that's been an interesting one to watch. in new hampshire too early to call. this is maggie hassan against walt havenstein. rhode island gina raimondo. allan fung. he would be the first asian governor of rhode island. they'll make history either way there.

in oklahoma, it's joe dorman facing off against mary fallin. oklahoma a deep red state. in the georgia governor's race, just 4% of the vote in thus far. too early to call. nathan deal facing off against 39-year-old jason carter, his democratic challenger. so much going on tonight that is unknowable at this point. amazing. >> i heard one of the veterans around here that's been watching these elections for decades said he has never seen so many close elections. just so many. what is going on in the country where every election has to come down to too early, too close. it's everywhere. >> it's like status quo this year number one. but the two parties, via money and mechanics, have never been more evenly matched. this is sort of -- think of it as the cold war in the '60s and '70s. mutually assured destruction

financially now. they both found their billionaires. 2010, republicans did all the outside money, democrats really never did because president obama wasn't sure where he stood on that. that's been reversed. so that's why these are all right. every competitive race is evenly matched financially, ground game, you name it. so guess what, we have close races. >> what really strikes me is that people say in the exit polls, the issue that drives people most is the economy. neither side in most of these races talk about the economy. it's all attack ads. all this money was just pouring more fuel, more kerosene on the fire and making people hate the process even more. >> and yet, there's been a democratic call to the cavalry, which they used to call the base, and now it's the cavalry. the african-american vote. >> there's a victory in north carolina tonight. that's what it's going to be about. >> it's already a victory in pennsylvania. you've got to remember that not only two things that corbett became a symbol of cutting education, and he signed one of

the worst voter i.d. laws in the country. >> right. >> and i spent some time in pennsylvania. they were mobilizing black churches and all of that. so corbett's defeat is a big plus for the lay brbor and civil rights community. if crist is successful, the same thing there. and of course, north carolina. so i'm watching those states. we're seeing in georgia that blacks are coming out in larger numbers than they thought. we don't know what's going to happen yet, but the reason that none is competitive is there's a large black vote. and i think that clearly, a lot of us that have been on the field just dealing with turnout and saying don't let voter i.d. and ending some of the early voting day feeling that this is good because we are exceeding numbers in georgia and it looks like a real impact in pennsylvania. >> talk butt aabout a change in one call. in virginia, we were calling it

too early to call. virginia is now too close to call. the senate race between ed gillespie and mark warner. nbc just changed that to a too close to call. >> what struck me it's just cheating is what it is. but weren't you amazed that the republican leader of the legislature in pennsylvania and the party leader gleason came out and said on television we're doing this to screw the black voter? >> which is why tonight corbett's defeat is very much of interest to somebody like me because now they face -- in many ways i think it's so blatant. yet they incurred a backlash and the mobilization that i saw when i was there. and you would i would say a blacklash. >> but philly's a good town to do that to. they've got attitude there. >> enough attitude to export it. >> as long as they vote. >> exactly. we've all lived there. we all know how it works. let's go to steve kornacki on

this call that just changed in virginia. this is the senate race in virginia. it was too early to call. it's now become too close to call. what do we know is going on here? >> let's take a look. in the returns that we have right now, gillespie continues the lead warner. the thing to keep in mind is the return pattern in virginia is a little funny. and i want to show you what that means. let's take a close look at the counties in virginia right here. a couple things to keep an eye on. look right outside of washington, d.c. in the northern part of the state. this is fairfax county. this is the most populous county in virginia. there are a million people. more than a million people in fairfax county. this is a strong democratic county. it usually takes a long time to come in. so you see, only 7% of the vote right there. so this is sort of the heart of mark warner's base. you're not seeing many numbers here. you might not see them for a while. keep an eye on that. also keep an eye, the city of richmond. really about 10% of the vote in right now. so if you think back to the 2012 presidential election for most of the night, if you were looking at the returns in

virginia, you saw mitt romney with a stubborn lead over barack obama. some of these counties came in very late and pushed barack obama over the top. just one more to keep an eye on here. i think sort of a swing county in virginia. prince william county again outside washington, d.c. the last time there was a competitive senate election in virginia in a midterm. so back in 2006 george allen lost his seat to mike webb. so keep an eye here again only 4% in right now. but keep an eye there as well. >> joining us right now is u.s. congresswoman donna edwards, a familiar face on this network. thank you, congresswoman. we're talking about -- i hate to do this, but we're going to do it. the african-american vote. i call them the cavalry. because usually they're assumed to be the base. this time they've been called in an emergency sort of effort by a party that's a bit -- not complacent, but down i think. emotionally down. the white voter as a democrat seems to be down. they're saying let's get the

people who care most historically. why is the african-american vote the one who's been called almost like the emergency force to save the democratic bacon in some of these states? >> the african-american vote is a core vote of the democratic party. that is not a surprise. and i think if you look across the country, even in districts and states where there's a small percentage of african-american votes, they're being called to arms, and they're standing up. they heard the president's call. they understand the importance of this president in standing up to this president. and they were prepared to come out and vote. and frankly, they're voting their interests. we're all voting our interests in these races, whether they're in georgia or maryland or out in nebraska where i was a couple weeks ago. and so i'm not surprised. the african-american vote is a core part of our democratic coalition. >> what do you make of the way the president addressed your community? doing it sort of under the radar. not big national television speeches, but saying i'll do

black radio. in other words, it's almost like telegraphing without offending the white conservative voter. what did you think of the way he did this under the radar? >> well i actually appreciate it. he came to voters where we are. we're on black radio. we're in ethnic newspapers and our community-based papers. he came to our communities where our communities are and he spoke to us in a language that we understand and with a message that we want to deliver for the american people saying we want to stand up for wages and income disparities and health care and he knows, and the african-american voters know that unless he has a congress that's willing to work with him, it makes it really difficult for the president to succeed. >> congresswoman, in maryland right now, i'm just looking at the governor's returns. we've only got about 3% of the expected vote in thus far. but the nbc characterization of that maryland governor's race is that it is too early to call between the democrat anthony brown and the republican larry

hogan. at this point, we don't have very much of the vote in but while we're looking at this what's the best hope for anthony brown here and why have the republicans been able to keep this race within reaching distance? >> well, what i know about maryland is probably what you have in is coming from western maryland and from some more rural parts of the state. so it's not a surprise that it's too close and early right now. but when the washington suburbs are delivered, when my congressional district is delivered, when baltimore is delivered, it's going to deliver a vote for anthony brown. >> congresswoman donna edwards of maryland. thanks for being with us. it's going to be a long and fun night. >> i'm looking forward to it. thank you. >> i'm sorry, i was going to take us to a commercial, but much better. we're actually going to be to kentucky where alison grimes is going to be giving a speech. she lost tonight to mitch mcconnell. let's go live.

>> good evening. 16 months ago, we begun a journey. a journey to send the message that washington just isn't working for kentucky. that we want to actually put the people of this state first. instead of partisan politics. along that journey, we showed this nation what the commonwealth is truly capable of breaking records here in this state with our fundraising, leading the nation with our work leading the nation with our work to build a grass roots organization unlike any the commonwealth has ever seen, with over 50 offices, 6,000 volunteers and momentum from paducah to northern kentucky. this was made possible, this was made possible because of an

amazing husband, an amazing family my fellow constitutional officers governor bashir governor collins, governor brown, governor jones, governor patton, and importantly, a dedicated staff, and each and every one of you. tonight didn't bring us the result that we had hoped for. this journey, the fight for you, it was worth it. i will continue to fight for the commonwealth of kentucky each and every day. my hope is the message has been sent to congress that we need to work to increase the minimum wage, to close the gender pay gap, and to bring good-paying jobs back to the commonwealth of

kentucky. this journey, this fight was for each and every one of you, and i will work my hardest the keep this amazing organization that we have built together intact to fight for a brighter and better future. we deserve that. i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of kentuckians for voting. to each and every one of you that cast a ballot in this election, i will continue to work for you and together we will rebuild a brighter future for the commonwealth of kentucky. thank you all very, very much. thank you. >> alison grimes making her concession speech tonight.

nbc news did project right away that kentucky senator mitch mcconnell would be re-elected in kentucky. at this point, you can see 57% of the vote in. you can see what the vote differential is there. mitch mcconnell had an eerie confidence all along, even as the rest of the country called this a race to watch. >> that wasn't your usual concession speech. usually you congratulate the winner. you say something gracious. you move on. you unify the extent to some extent. it was a partisan speech. fair enough it's her call. >> it wasn't a concession speech. usually you concede. i mean, i think that again, you need to be gracious. you can represent what you represent. but you respect the winner. and you pledge to move on together and let him look lake the one obstinate.

you look like you lack authenticity. she furthered that tonight by not being gracious to senator mcconnell. one i disagree with but you don't act in that way. >> i think she looked shell shocked. i don't think she expected to get beat that bad. >> i don't think they did either. i think it's also a reflection of just how nasty this race has been. if you talk to people who have tried to run against mitch mcconnell in the past they all describe it as sort of a pummelling experience. we forget how many millions of dollars were put on the airwaves both through the super pacs supporting mcconnell but there was a lot of dark money. she really took a drubbing here. >> and we were just down in coal country in eastern kentucky a month and a half ago. the fact of the matter is mcconnell's strategy to tie her to barack obama was the correct political strategy and he had it from day one and he never wavered, and her unable to say that she voted for barack obama was because barack obama is deeply unpopular. >> but you've got to have an

answer other than -- >> 100% agree. >> i'm not going to do it. i was going to say something. okay, i'll say it. not able to say who won the election either. that was a written speech. i would recommend that the secretary of state out there did it. i think you should concede and congratulate the winner because it is a fair election. there wasn't any cheating in the election. you have to observe certain protocols in american politics. do it, get it over with. >> now mitch mcconnell is waiting to find out if he's not just going to be minority leader, if he is going to be majority leader of the senate. we're told he is going to speak momentarily, which means he's not going to wait to find out if he's majority leader. i think we'll be right back with mitch mcconnell's remarks. stay with us.

joining us right now, georgia republican congressman jack kingston. congressman, thank you for coming on. you'll be our in-house spotter right now. tell us about republican control for two more years. is it your hunch they'll go to probes, or maybe have a sit-down with the president and figure out what can you do on trade, what you can do on infrastructure. there are areas, they don't agree on much but there are areas they can agree on a growth agenda for the country. i believe both sides agree on economic growth. i'm sorry, we have to hold off and go to senator mcconnell. >> they've put their trust and confidence in me for a long time. and i want to thank them tonight. i work hard to bring your concerns to washington, and i will not let up.

you know, every election is a job interview. in this case a very long one. i shared my vision with you. you shared your stories and your concerns with me. one complaint has stood out above all the rest especially in recent weeks. so i'd like to make an announcement that i think will be very welcome news to many of you. no more campaign commercials. [ cheers and applause ] the tv executives may not like it, but enough is enough right? a little while ago, i spoke with my opponent. secretary grimes ran a spirited campaign. she earned a lot of votes and she earned my respect. took a lot of guts to take on a

race like this. because of the business we're in it also meant she'd take some heat. i admire her willingness to step into the arena and fight as hard as she did. we need more people who are willing to do that not fewer. she deserves a lot of credit for it. this was certainly a hard-fought contest. [ applause ] and i've been so proud, so proud to have my wife beside me every step of the way. [ cheers and applause ] you know she told me early on, she wasn't ready to have me sitting around the house working on my resume. and she's gone above and beyond to prevent that. she's been the most valuable

player on our team and i'm so blessed to have her in my life and by my side. and to my campaign manager josh holmes -- [ cheers and applause ] my friends, he pitched a perfect game. thank you, josh. of course there's so many others. >> i'm sorry to interrupt here for a moment but we have just had polls close in the state of arkansas and we do have two calls to make. in the arkansas senate race nbc

news can project that the winner of the arkansas senate race is tom cotton. this is a republican gain. democratic incumbent mark pryor losing his senate seat in arkansas to congressman tom cotton. nbc news also in arkansas can project at this hour that the winner of the arkansas governor's race is asa hutchinson. has run several times never won before, but this is a big win for the republicans. that's a pickup at the governors level. that is also a pickup at the senate level. now back to mitch mcconnell and his victory speech in kentucky. >> for my mom, i learned the value of perseverance and got an enduring lesson as she helped me overcome a frightening bout with polio as a child. in many ways my folks were just

like any other parents in their generation. they were optimists. they believed in america. without a trace of cynicism they transmitted the central promise of this country on to me the promise that every generation will leave the next one a little better off than the one before. this is the come pact that every generations of americans has made with the one that followed it. and through civil wars and depressions and world wars and strife, we're always made good on it. but as i've traveled through kentucky over the past year i've sensed new doubts. suddenly folks aren't so sure that that compact will survive if we continue down the road that we've been on. they're hungry for new leadership. they want a reason to be hopeful. above all, they want some reassurance that people who run the government are actually on their side.

so tonight, i pledge you this. whether you're a coal miner in eastern kentucky who can't find work, or a mom in paducah, who doesn't understand why the government just took away her family's health insurance, i've heard your concerns. i've made them by own. you will be heard in washington. [ applause ] and look when you get right down to it that's what this campaign was really all about. it wasn't about me or my opponent. it was about a government that people no longer trust to carry out its most basic duties to keep them safe to protect the border, to provide dignified and quality care for our veterans. a government that can't be trusted to do the basic things because it's too busy focusing on things it shouldn't be

focused on at all. [ applause ] a government that's too busy imposing its view of the world on people who don't share that view. too many in washington have forgotten that their job is to serve. so tomorrow the papers will say i won this race. [ cheers and applause ] but the truth is the truth is tonight we begin another one. one that's far more important than mine. and that's the race to turn this country around. to restore hope and confidence

and optimism across this nation of ours. some things don't change after tonight. i don't expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke up this morning. he knows i won't either. but look we do have an obligation to work together on issues where we can agree. i think we have a duty to do that. just because we have a two-party system doesn't mean we have to be in perpetual conflict. i think i've shown that to be true at critical times in the past. i hope the president gives me the chance the show it again. there's so much that we can and should do for the good of all americans. they're tired of a government that only seems to work when it

works against them and they're also tired of hearing that those of us who fight for them in washington are somehow the problem. i'm so honored to have dr. noel hunter with me tonight. [ applause ] you've all gotten an opportunity to get to know her. what an extraordinary woman. dr. hunter was determined to get her daughter back. against all odds, she did it. and when all was said and done she achieved something else that a lot of people said was even more remarkable. she made me seem all warm and cuddly. >> mitch mcconnell the republican leader in the united states senate with his charm turned up to stun giving his victory speech tonight after he defeated alison grimes in that kentucky senate race. a lot of people talking about him as being an unpersonable guy. that was mitch mcconnell at his

best. just to briefly summarize, republican mitch mcconnell holding on to his seat in kentucky is huge news. democrat mark pryor in arkansas just moments ago losing his senate seat. also very big news. right now in terms of the races that have not yet been called north carolina and virginia senate races, both are considered too close to call by nbc news. and the new hampshire and georgia senate races are both considered too early to call. so we're keeping an eye on that. a lot of moving pieces still happening right now in the united states senate and that's before you get to the governor's races. >> i just want to say about mitch mcconnell. politics is a profession. he knows how the game is played. he plays it professionally. he gave a very good victory speech there. he said very good things about his opponent. it was a rough campaign but he gave her respect, he said she has grown in my respect. he said all the right -- he knows how to do this thing. and it's called politic, and it is a profession.

it is not for amateurs. when somebody loses, they better come back as more professional. let's go to jack kingston, who went through a tough primary fight in georgia. congressman, thank you for joining us. i want to ask you about the house. now that your party has been projected to win control again next year, what does that mean to the american people? i listened to mitch there, the senate majority leader probably, possibly plausibly, and he was basically saying i'm going to stay at odds with the president, but we will find areas of common ground. give us hope tonight. what are the areas of common ground between the republican conservatives who are apparently going to dominate congress next year and this center-left president? some people might say left. i say center-left president. what do they have in common? >> i think they both want jobs. they both want a strong national security. we can debate how do you do it, which regulations do you change how do you tweak one thing or the other. do you repeal obamacare. do you just go into part of the pricing mechanism for it. you know what are the right balances. but i can say that under the

banner of jobs and national security, there will be things that accomplish. if you think back to clinton losing both the house and the senate, and newt gingrich coming together with bill clinton and saying -- you know, he famously said in his state of the union the era of big government is over, which was a way to hold out an olive branch. i think that both sides can probably take a step in the right direction and we can get some things done. >> what will your party give? >> you know, i was reading a comment by rob portman, and he said if we could get the keystone pipeline, maybe we can do something on carbon tax credit. i don't know what he really meant by that but it was a step to say we can find something that the democrats want in exchange for something that we need. but i think the overwhelming theme has to be what's best for america. but again, we have been here before. i think what the presumed majority leader of the senate mr. mcconnell was saying a majority leader's type speech.

there will be things we can get together on, and i think the american people will be ready for that. >> okay thank you, congressman jack kingston. he's been on the program. thanks so much for joining us from georgia. >> i'm sorry to jump in here but we do have another call to make in an important governor's race. this has been a fascinating to watch in new hampshire. new hampshire not only has a very tight senate race. this gunfire's race was fascinating to watch. nbc news is projecting that governor maggie hassan the democratic incumbent in new hampshire, has held on to her seat there. we saw multiple multiple multiple trips there, trips up to new hampshire by the republican governors association chair chris christie. both trying to boost the process pecks for walt havenstein, but also i think at this time in his life, he likes going to new hampshire. at this point, the new hampshire senate race according to nbc news projections, is too early to call even with that governor's race in new hampshire being called. we're going to be back in just a moment with more news on new

hampshire and that key senate race, and we'll be joined by tom brokaw. stay with us. we'll be right back.

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just moments ago a call in the new hampshire governor's race. this is one to watch. new hampshire's democratic incumbent governor maggie hassan has been re-elected in the state of new hampshire. that does not mean things are settled in new hampshire. there's house races to watch there. but also a very important united states senate race.

jeanne shaheen facing off against scott brown, who is the republican challenger who is also himself a former senator from the neighboring state of massachusetts. let's bring in steve kornacki to talk about what's going on there in new hampshire. what do we know about that thus far? it's being called too early to call right now. >> as we said at the top of the show this is one of those must-win states for democrats. jeanne shaheen really has to hold on here for them to take the senate. what i can tell you is there are some very encouraging signs in the vote that has come in for jeanne shaheen. we can see here as a map these are all the cities and towns in new hampshire. you see a lot that just aren't in right now. some important big democratic voter rich areas. the thing you have to understand, president obama carried new hampshire in 2012. he won it by six points. so the name of the game for jeanne shaheen is could she be coming close to what president obama did in some of these key democratic areas? let's take a look. the city of concord, third largest city in new hampshire,

the capital. president obama got 65% of the vote here in 2012. jeanne shaheen now 100% in has exceeded president obama's level in concord. she has 67%. manchester the queen city of new hampshire, the largest city. president obama, 54% here in 2012. almost all in. jeanne shaheen is equaling president obama's number. and finally, the most liberal still in new hampshire, portsmouth, president obama getting 68% of the vote here in 2012. jeanne shaheen basically right at that number. so what you're seeing early -- and i should just caution you, what we're not seeing on this map, right down here. this is sort of -- these are voter rich suburban bedroom communities. these are people who fled massachusetts because of taxes. this is the most republican area of the state. at this point, seeing returns like this it tells me that scott brown from this area that i just circled, he needs monster numbers. they're not in yet. he could get it. but what's in right now, very encouraging for jeanne shaheen.

>> those are the people who have been seeing the massachusetts senate race ads for scott brown years ago before they were seeing new hampshire senate race ads for scott brown this year. those border communities in some ways get treated very much as the outskirts of boston in terms of the commutability. steve kornacki, thanks very much. let's bring in our dear friend tom brokaw from nbc news. looking at what we know thus far tonight and what history tells us about what to expect, how do you feel each party is doing? >> we don't know yet, but let's talk about mitch mcconnell for a moment. that's a big victory for the republican party to have him. if they get to a majority the question is will he change? we were just talking here off the air about a lot of this is all about 2016. about how they get to the white house the next time. that's the big prize in washington. there have been a lot of republican senators who quote that mitch mcconnell -- could that be me? >> no it's not you.

>> i'm afraid it is unfortunately. the alarm goes off. and there you are. >> i thought you were a fire. >> yes, i will remember to bring home the milk. don't worry about it. and i'll feed the dog in the morning. it's going to be okay. i'm sorry about that. at any rate. at any rate. a lot of republican senators have been saying quietly, we need to have a different mitch mcconnell because we have to change the message. rand paul is going around saying the brand sucks at this point. and to get ready for '16, they can't go into that election like they have gone into this election which the country -- the phrase, half cocked in the ticked off position. that's where the country is at the moment. so if he begins to change begins to make some deals, stays true as i expect that he will to his fundamental political values, that will be a different game altogether. he still gets up in the morning

and forgets to take his charisma pills, there's no question about that. but he's got a great game in kentucky. he loves politics. and two weeks ago, one of the republican senators said to me, he's going to kick in that ground game and he'll get back again. i just hope he's not about the past. >> can we ask about a parallel election situation? bill clinton after he had his very difficult first midterm in 1994, republicans just absolutely trounced the democrats. they were seen as pushing him back in a strong way. >> contract for america. >> exactly. the newt gingrich years. one of the calculations that republicans made was they needed to get some governing things done. it made people think that bill clinton could get things done. isn't the way they look at that history, that they tell each other that there's no reason to appear to be governing from congress because nobody's going to give congress forward credit get credit for it anyway.

all credit always goes to the president and we want to beat the president's party in 2016. >> well i think that there's something to that. somebody said to me today on the republican side, we're not going to send anything that has his signature on it which he's going to be able to claim credit for. so this is going to be a tricky game for them. >> what policy is that then? >> that's part of the problem. my guess is that not a lot will get done. we've been talking about senator portman here today. he came out with typically for him his reasoned voice saying we ought to be able to do something about corporate taxes, job creation. got to do something about energy in the keystone pipeline. the question then is, who gets the credit for all that? and does obama have the instincts of bill clinton to step in and say this is how i can take credit for that? bill clinton goes down and says, you know that tax increase? probably a mistake. and then he also says on the hill, the era of big government is over. i mean, it is an astonishing statement for him at that time. does president obama have it in him to do that?

and does he want to do that? i don't know. so we can conjecture all we want here. it's going to get interesting from the next week on. >> let's play walter cronkite in from the old days. talking about -- it seems like there are deals that could benefit both parties and the country's better off. it isn't a completely zero sum. democrats say they want minimum wage raised up to about $10.50. republicans always want tax relief for corporations. they'll admit that they want trade expansion. there's a lot of parts that can put them together and say we both won. and by the way, obama's not running again. it's not like clinton. it's a different scenario. there's going to be an open seat for the president. >> look i don't know what they're going to do on minimum wage. you can see a scenario in which they'll say we'll do it in stages. we'll get to $10, 18 months over two years or whatever it takes. >> they just elected all these folks that said there shouldn't

even be a minimum wage. how can they do that with the joan joanie ernst -- >> ted cruz said i'm going to drive the senate to the right. i'm going to go in the other direction. that's a big challenge for mitch mcconnell and the other republicans who do want to get something done. >> i think that the republican party has effectively has a schism and it will be interesting to see if there is a governing wing of the party fighting against a confrontational wing of the party. >> the republican party as currently is constituted in this year pretty much sent the tea party back to the locker room. the tea party didn't dominate their party. they were so pumped up. but the fact is and eric cantor was not an example. because those were self-inflicted wounds. so the tea party, they have

removed. now what are the lessons for them? >> i think the president, if he's as smart as bill clinton, he will find a way to exploit the victory of the other side and he'll come back and have something done. because he needs a record more than mitch mcconnell needs a record, this president needs one. >> and the country needs policy. >> i think we need economic growth. >> thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure. in terms of -- >> and i won't forget my shopping list. >> now that it's been delivered on national television, it has that much more umph. the senate race in new hampshire between jeanne shaheen and scott brown is too early to call, but we do have a slight update. too early to call right now. you can see the percentage of the vote is 23%, but right now, jeanne shaheen is leading. so that is still too early to call, but the nbc characterization of this race is that jeanne shaheen is in the lead. but again, less than a quarter of the expected vote in in new hampshire. down in florida, the governor's race is still too close to call. our friend ed schultz is joining

us now from charlie crist's headquarters in st. petersburg florida. ed, what's the update from st. pete? >> well, the update here rachel is that the crist camp is a little bit concerned that they're not pulling the numbers that they need to pull out of the three democratic strongholds, which is broward county dade and palm beach county. they thought that they were going to get better numbers than what they've gone right now. so there's a little bit of concern in that regard. but what's unfolding here is this hour of -- requested hour of voting time in brurdoward county, that being rejected. this could open up a huge controversy in the coming days depending on how this race tightens, the way it unfolds, and how it ends up on the final count, because obviously, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to say well, you know, i went to vote but i wasn't allowed to because

the machines didn't work. of course the legal process has been stymied and crist's camp lost a big motion tonight. so you have a difference of 123,000, they could make that up in about three blocks in broward county. so it's going to be very interesting to see how this -- this is going to be a long night. no one's throwing in the towel, but they're a little disappointed in the numbers as far as turnout. they've exceeded the 2010 numbers. but not enough. and that's kind of the feeling right now and they're a little bit anxious. >> thanks for the update, ed. we'll be right back. that was the crist headquarters. when we come back polls will be closed in other key states across the country. colorado and kansas included. and that senate race up there. we'll see you back when i can read the prompter. we'll be right back.

the polls are about to close in more states. >> we had one slight change to a call from a state in which the polls are already closed. the connecticut governor's race it had been too early to call. connecticut governor is now too close to call. >> you obviously think there's somebody out there remarking their card. oh, my gosh, give me a beer. >> if you were thinking the connecticut governor was going to be a blowout and it was just

early. oh come on. >> we're very careful about these things. but i think the average viewer -- you're right. it's breaking news. my life has changed. >> if you are a politics dork -- if you are a big enough dork too close versus too early, like the difference between day and night. >> did you hear what she said? too early. anyway, you're on. >> thank you. at the top of the hour in 20 seconds, polls in 14 different states are going to be closing. close senate and governors races. keep in mind, we're still waiting on senate results in north carolina, new hampshire, virginia and georgia. we're still waiting on governors results in florida, illinois massachusetts, maine, connecticut, and georgia. those are all place where is the polls have already closed but we don't yet have conclusive results. in terms of polls closing, though at 9:00, let's start with the senate races. and then we'll do the governors thereafter. in the senate races, this is a republican pickup. this is the tim johnson senate

seat in south dakota. the retiring democratic senator. this will now be a seat held by mike rounds. an interesting three-way race there. in the kansas senate race this one is too close to call. just 9% of the vote in thus far in kansas. in colorado, the senate race for mark udall is trying to hold on to his seat. he's facing off against republican congressman cory gardner. this one is too early to call. in the louisiana senate race it's another democratic incumbent, mary landrieu facing off against republican bill cassidy. this one according to nbc news projections is also too early to call. in michigan, the senate race there, there is a call. projected winner according to nbc news is gary peters, that's the democratic seat there. carl levin is retiring. it will be held by the democratic party. in the minnesota senate race

incumbent democrat al franken holding on to his seat according to nbc news projections. in the texas senate race do we have the texas senate race? texas incumbent republican senator john cornyn is projected to hold on to his seat in texas. in nebraska nbc news is also projecting the new republican senator from nebraska will be ben sasse. in wyoming, mike enzi winning in wyoming to hold on to his seat. and in new mexico in the senate race there, this is tom udall, the democratic incumbent facing off the republican challenger named allen weh. this one is too early to call. we do have a call now in new hampshire. we have been waiting on this one. nbc can now project that the new hampshire senate race has been held by the incumbent democrat jeanne shaheen, defeating scott

brown, who moved from massachusetts to face her. let me get your reaction to that one. >> everybody has their own way of looking at how this will turn out when it's all over in january. i think there's a root, it may be a difficult root it's plausible. based upon the numbers it is plausible. she just won. that's the first step. the next step is to win, if the democrats want to control this senate next time. win in north carolina. that's what hagan has to hang on there and win. then pick up kansas. we'll go with the democrats if it's decisive we're told. then win in alaska which is always hard to poll. and then go out and win the final race nail it down january 6th. it is doable. it's not a pipe dream. it is going to be tricky. they have to win all five. there's one alternative. instead of winning in alaska they could win possibly in either colorado or iowa. but they're difficult. it is doable. if you're a progressive or a democrat or just like a good

fight, there is a possible route for the democrats to hold on tonight, after all this talk. >> we have a lot more information tonight. kansas too close to call. colorado too early to call. scott brown just made history. he is now the first person in american history to have lost senate races to two different women. we've got some news in terms of governors races. do we have governors now in terms of polls that just closed? at 9:00 p.m. the wisconsin governor's race. this, of course is a very closely watched race. scott walker the embattled republican incumbent facing off against democrat mary burke. nbc news is characterizing this as too close to call. in the kansas governor's race the republican, proud conservative governor there sam brownback in a race against democrat named paul davis. this one just 9% of the vote. too close to call in the deep red state of kansas.

in the colorado governor's race the democratic incumbent there is john hickenlooper. his opponent is bob beauprez. this one is too early to call in colorado. in michigan the governor's race about 11% in there, the republican incumbent there is rick snyder he's facing off against democratic challenger mark schauer. this one is too early to call in michigan. in texas there is the call. the new texas republican governor will be greg abbott. greg abbott defeating democratic national household name wendy davis to keep the texas governorship in republican hands. according to nbc news projections. new york governor andrew cuomo also projected by nbc news to be holding on to his seat in the state of new york. in the minnesota governor's race, nbc news can project that democratic incumbent mark dayton will also hold on to that governorship. in the south dakota governor's race, the projected winner is the incumbent republican dennis

bowguard. in arizona, fred duval the democrat vying for that seat in arizona. it is too early to call. in new mexico republican incumbent susana martinez facing a democratic challenge from gary king. that one's also too early to call in. the great state of nebraska the governor's race has just 6% in. too early to call between republican pete ricketts and chuck hassebrook. in the florida governor's race these are a few governors races where the polls already closed before the top of the hour but we're still watching these races. 95% of the vote in, and the flf florida governor's race 125,000 votes between rick scott, the republican incumbent, and charlie crist, the democrat. this is not being called. this is too close to call according to nbc news

projections for florida governor. the illinois governor's race. this one also too close to call at this point. pat quinn, the incumbent democratic, i think it's fair to call him an embattled democrat facing off against businessman republican bruce rauner. less than 30,000 votes between them. under 10% of the vote in. massachusetts governor's race martha coakley, the democrat and charlie baker the republican. this one is too close to call. less than one in five votes are in in the bay state thus far. in maine this has been a great one to watch. paul lepage and eliot cutler were both there when lepage took office. it's another three-way race now in maine. no call there yet. the connecticut governor's race dan malloy and tom foley, they're having a rematch from their 2010 race. this one is too close to call. in terms of governors races, the only other one we're watching

right now is this georgia governor's race nathan deal against jason carter the democratic challenger. this one is too early to call. i want to go to steve kornacki right now in terms of what we know in the florida governor's race. we've got 96% of the vote in right now, but this is still too close to call. what's going on steve? >> i'm going give you a collective flashback to 2000 now. you remember how late that night was in florida? remember all those south florida county names that we got so familiar with in 2000. so where it stands right now is charlie crist is looking at a gap of a little over 125,000 votes. that's what he's got to make up. let's go inside florida and take a look. it's these big three. these are the crown jewel of democratic politics in florida. palm beach broward, miami-dade county. these are massive counties massive democratic vote producing counties. let's look inside and see what's happening there, if i can get that off the screen. broward, for instance, right here in the middle. you can see right now charlie crist doing very well. this number you're seeing this says 21% is in.

this suggests there's a huge amount of hope out there. there's been a ton of absentee ballots that have come in that have been counted. doesn't affect the percentage of precincts. so this is actually a little bit misleading when you look at the total in broward, the total vote that came in the last time around. i'm just looking at my notes here. total number of votes, about 415,000 in broward county the last time there was an election so you can see you're already creeping up there close to 300,000. so it's not 21% that's in. there's fewer votes outstanding here. you can see charlie crist still an opportunity to make it up. in miami-dade another opportunity here for charlie crist to make up ground. he's tracking at 57%. this is another one, says 45% fewer votes. so that's what he's got to do. he's got to rack up the score in these three counties right now. there's still a significant number of votes out and somehow try to make up that 125,000-vote gap. >> being able to go county by county explains everything about how you can get that close to an

overall statewide number and still not be able to call it. we have one other race that i want to take a look at right now in the state of arkansas. i'm not sure if we've got a board on this one. arkansas. this is a fascinating sort of sleeper issue. in arkansas, one of the things that was on the ballot this year was increasing the minimum wage. arkansas a red state. the arkansas republican legislature was not going to vote for an increase in the minimum wage but they put it directly to the voters and boy did voters like this idea. a 2-to-1 margin. 61% for, and raising the minimum wage passes not by an act of the legislature, but instead by a direct vote of the people of arkansas. there have been 11 times now -- there's been 11 times now that the minimum wage has been on the billion lot since 2010 in which we've got a result. there's three more we're waiting on tonight. all 11 times since 2010 when it has been on the ballot it has passed and always passes by huge margins. >> let's bring in our colleague

lawrence o'donnell in kansas. lawrence, all concern has reached into your heart. we want to know who's going to win in kansas. greg orman going to win? >> reporter: everyone here wants to know that. anecdotally the excitement here at orman headquarters is that there were significant lines in johnson county today. they expect that to be a strong area for orman voters. and we do not know at this hour this is way too close to call here. it has been -- there was a period there about a month ago where greg orman opened up a lead in the polls, but that closed back down into this very tight race. it has been a nasty race. 58% of the ads here have been attack ads. the only state with more attack ads, north carolina, 67% for the ads there attack ads. this state is weary from those attack ads. voters here today are telling me they are relieved that the attack ads are over, they get to vote, they get to count these votes tonight, chris.

>> in the old days of voting which is many years ago for me the rule was don't make yourself too available. and i get the feeling that greg orman has not made himself very available. nobody knows what party he's in. has he been too cute? >> i think you can judge if he's been too cute by the outcome tonight. if he comes in a little bit short, maybe he should have said during the campaign something more clear about what he would do if control of the senate is up to him. what he did say very clearly is if one party or the other wins control of the senate without his vote he will then vote with that party so that he will bring more power to kansas. he'll be on the winning side that way. there's been a lot of controversy that joe biden indicated there was some idea at the white house that greg orman was going to vote with the democrats. what joe biden actually said was he expected the democrats to elect 51 senators and not

actually need orman's vote and that's how they would get orman's vote is that they would have the majority already. in other words, what biden said actually fit what orman has been saying all year. >> here's the question though -- >> chris if you're looking for clues, chris, here are some clues for you. at princeton, he was in the college republicans. when he started making political contributions, he started making them to republicans. then in 2007, he started making contributions to democrats, including president obama, then candidate obama. candidate al franken and his contributions have just been for democrats since then. so the record is mixed. >> at 3:00 this morning, if we get a call on alaska, and if the democrats have a real chance to still hold control of the senate, because he wins there, greg orman wins there, of course they win in north carolina, they have a shot. if it's 48-50 and they're waiting for the decision to come out of georgia come january 6th is this guy orman going to sit

around and wait until then to decide whether he's going to add it up to 50? >> he's not going to be allowed to -- he won't be allowed to sit around and wait because the leaders of both parties will be all over him. they'll tell him remember what the republicans did to you with the attack ads. on the other hand, what orman is going to do is remember what those republicans did with the attack ads and think the next time do i run do i want to face those attack ads or do i want them on my side? >> lawrence o'donnell at greg orman headquarters in kansas where it is too close to call at this point. looking at about 18% of the vote in. just fascinating. i do have two results i want to bring you from the great state of nebraska. the first one, we were calling it too early just moments ago, but now nbc news can project the winner of the nebraska governor's race, it is republican pete ricketts it had been previously held by a republican. one other result from nebraska. again, i was just talking about the minimum wage and how it

always wins no matter how red the state is. in nebraska it was initiative 425, and nebraska voters as republican as they are, they sure do love the idea of giving america a raise. a huge vote tonight thus far for the nebraska raise the minimum wage initiative. it is one of four states that's voting on that tonight. one more result that we just did a moment ago, the minnesota senate race. minnesota senator al franken, democratic incumbent there re-elected in minnesota, according to nbc news projections. joining us now is his home state colleague from minnesota. congratulations on your pal and colleague winning re-election. >> well, it was a little easier than last time. >> yes. >> well you know 312 votes, and it took him six months to get there. i kept telling our minnesotans they can't start chants that say five and a half more years.

we're excited about this and governor baden. they both ran really strongly on the economy, on economic accomplishments with our 4.1% unemployment. the fact that we have done a good job in terms of encouraging business and workers. and it's just been a positive campaign here in minnesota. at the same time we're very concerned about the races across the country. but i did have to smile when i saw my good friend jeanne shaheen win and actually a victory for the constitution which says that each state can have two senators, but each senator can't have two states. >> well-done. it's political science in the form of limericks, which is one of the things i've always loved about you. with senator franken being re-elected, with you in the other senate seat in minnesota, with our dear friend michele bachmann leaving politics as we look at the rest of the country looks at minnesota, you guys always get shorthanded as a purple state.

has minnesota gone blue? should minnesota be seen as a more democratic place than it usually gets credit for? >> i think it is still purple. we have very close state house races going on. we have two contested congressional seats. and the president i think won by seven points which is the exact same margin in wisconsin last time. but i think the difference is we've really focused in our state politics and in these races on the economy, i think one of the wednesday morning quarterbacking questions will be was there any kind of a trend for candidates that focused on the economy, a little bit of accomplishments, knowing there's so much to go but also talked about minimum wage and issues like that that mattered really at the heart of people in this country. so i think that's going to be looking at the races in the senate and see if there's any kind of a trend there that's important. >> let me ask you about your colleague who was just declared the winner for re-election. he's found a very unusual career path. he's gone from being a very well-known figure in american

life especially our cultural life. might even say a celebrity. he's going from being a celebrity to a noncelebrity. he's become a senator. this is really a strange decision. most people like to get better-known. it seems like he has followed a strategy for six years -- well i think it was steve martin who said "let's get small." and he got small. he hasn't done any national interviews. we can't get him on our show. i don't know if you've had any luck rachel. >> do you want me to put ina good word in for you, chris? >> i want to get your starting preview of this transformation from a famous national celebrity to just another good united states senator from the state of minnesota. i think it's remarkable how well he's been disciplined to do this. i'm celebrating his victory, because everyone should have a second act. and he has got one. >> i think what he's done, he said he was going to do this from the beginning. he put his head down, he got to work. he did things that mattered to the people of our state and put our state first. and that's what this campaign's

been about. that's what the election's been about across our state. and i do think the fact that we have the lowest unemployment rate of any metropolitan area in the country. we have worked hard to have a strong education system in minnesota. and the governor took a $6 billion deficit and turned it into a $1.2 billion surplus with the help of so many strong businesses and workers in our state. it's really been our message. i don't think it's completely unique. i think you see some other people running on that across the country. so we're happy, but we have really difficult races out there. maybe i'll be up with you at 3:00 a.m., chris, waiting for those alaska numbers. >> let me talk about you now, senator. take a moment. everybody likes you. everybody in the national media likes you i think. and everybody that knows you in your state likes you. the question is how do you get to be president of the united states? with hillary clinton running. how do you get around hillary clinton? because that's the only way to win. you have to go around her. how do you do that? >> i think you are aware that

all the democratic women senators signed a letter encouraging hillary to run. right now, what are we focused on tonight? the midterm elections. >> it's over. let's talk 2016. >> it is not over. there is so much more work that needs to be done here with these states. and really, i'm hanging in there for iowa and mark udall in colorado and mark begich in alaska, who has created the best voter turnout. more polling places more early voting. so we're hanging in on those races in a very, very difficult match. >> you made my point. you are a national figure rooting for everyone across the country. thank you, senator amy klobuchar, who everybody actually does like. >> thank you. coming up now, a democrat from illinois. congressman, thank you for joining us. there's been a lot of talk about what the president might do after this election is over starting tomorrow morning. do you have any signals from the

white house for anyone the chief of staff, or the president himself, that he might do something dramatic in the area of immigration? >> i do. and i'm encouraging. i've been talking to you and other members thinking it's going to be millions. the question is is it going to be a half a loaf or a full loaf? one of the things i'm encouraging in the white house is to seek fairness and justice for every immigrant they can. don't try to dilute it. you know we raise the minimum wage for all workers. we seek justice and marriage equality for all gay people. we do for all women a fair rate of pay for them. we should do the same thing when it comes to immigrants. if they don't do it, there will be a fight for the democratic nomination and a fight for the

heart and soul of the democratic party, and don't expect -- look i just came back from being with mark udall all day yesterday. i have traveled across this country. everywhere what candidates are tell megaising me is it is hard to get the sentiment of the latino vote. >> hang in there. we've got an announcement to make. the oklahoma governor's race. nbc is projecting mary fallin will win that race. mary fallin. that's a keeper. i want to get back to congressman gutierrez. what do you mean that there's going to be something dramatic? >> here's what i believe. look, the president can make a decision and he can say well i'm going to free and allow two, two and a half million undocumented immigrants to come forward, or he can be bold and he can be generous and make it 5

to 6. the senate passed a bill. we are encouraging the president to allow all of those that have been here, that are ready to come forward with their fingerprints and submit to security and background check, to be able to be legalized. he's got to pick a date for the dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants. he said they had to be here five years before he would allow them to be here. pick a date that is broad that is sweeping and that really fits. i heard you earlier. i'm a big fan of msnbc and you said hey, the president needs a record. the republicans are not going to give him a record. the president needs to stand up for a community of people that have stood up for him. if 73% of latinos voted for him, 80% of asians did and the immigrant community expects a president that is going to be responsive to their needs and to their genuine support for him and the democratic party. >> what do you say if the president is threatened with

impeachment for that? what would you say to him about that threat? because there will be something like that hanging out there. what would you say to him if somebody says be careful, mr. president, you will then say what? >> here's what i've said. leader pelosi i -- we put out there a document this past week in which we have given all of the times the presidents have used their executive authority to intervene and to save immigrant communities so that the congress can finally get around to taking care of them. so what i would say to the president, you're on good standing. if we are going to allow the republicans to the threat of impeachment from stopping fairness and justice for our community, then you know what? why don't we all become republicans then? and we can all dictate the future. we're democrats and we have to stand for our values and for our principles and i think that this president right now has the opportunity -- you know, everybody said oh it's already

written, his legacy. no it isn't. it will be written in the next 45 days when it comes vis-a-vis the immigrant policy of this president. be bold, be generous, be a democrat. >> congressman luis gutierrez of illinois. your passion and clarity on that. the thing that is often forgotten in this discussion is that the immediate political calculation gets told in political science textbooks, but the history gets told in the wiz dm -- wisdom of the policy. nobody remembers what you earned in the next election cycle. they remember if it was the right thing to do. we'll have more on the question of immigration after this. we're still waiting for lots and lots of results. this is sort of a sweet spot in terms of the suspense for the night. stay with us.

control of the united states senate still hangs in the balance, but the united states state senate's mitch mcconnell holds on to his seat. in arkansas democrat mark pryor has lost his seat to republican congressman tom cotton. in the great state of new hampshire, the democratic incumbent there jeanne shaheen, she has held on to her seat. she has defeated a challenge from former massachusetts senator scott brown. in terms of races for the united states senate that are still listed as too early to call those include the senate races in georgia. in georgia we're looking at david perdue versus michelle nunn. that race too early to call. another too early to call race is the one in louisiana, where democratic incumbent mary landrieu is facing bill cassidy as her main challenger, but i

think there's eight people on the ballot altogether. in louisiana, it's still too early to call. the other big too early to call race, colorado senate cory gardner versus incumbent democrat mark udall. half the vote in so far. this is still too early the call. in terms of races that are too close to call those include the kansas senate race where incumbent republican pat roberts trying to hold on to his seat against a tough challenge from an independent named greg orman. only about a thousand votes, 1,400 votes between them with about 21% of the vote in in kansas. that is too close to call. it is also too close to call and this is interesting, in new mexico. too close to call between kay hagan, the democratic incumbent, and tom tillis, the leader of the republicans in the north carolina legislature. 64% of the vote in thus far in north carolina. also looking at a race that is too close to call in virginia.

i want to go to reverend al sharpton and chris hayes from msnbc. tons of important races to come. when you look at these races so far, what kind of night do you think this has been? >> i think it's going the way we expected. i don't think very many folks were surprised about mitch mcconnell. but i think you have silver lining when it comes to whether the democrats are going to pull it out. georgia, 4% of the latino vote is still coming up. they are the fastest-growing county in all of the united states. so it will be interesting to see what happens. especially because in georgia, they actually had the roughest most oppressive immigration law. and you'll see whether or not the vote comes out. in colorado the same thing. you have roughly 147 initiatives around the country. people come out more if there's

a ballot initiative and you have latino voters women voters in colorado. i think that's something that we're going to see because that's what gets people off the couch. >> it was interesting, watching that arkansas minimum wage measure. so arkansas -- the democrats there knew that it was going to pass. what they hoped was that it would goose democratic base voter turnout enough to give mark pryor a chance to hold on to his seat. mark pryor at the poll closing lost his seat. but that still won by big double digits. so i think democrats hang a lot of hope on the turnout effect that these ballot measures can have, but just depends on how big a hill you've got to climb for these things. >> i think one of the things that we're seeing a couple of things. one, the whole sweep, the avalanche that we were told for months that was going to happen for republicans has not happened. now, of course, we don't know whether or not they end up with a majority. but we clearly are not being drenched. you know, we can put away the

umbrella. maybe a shower cap. but the flood is not going to happen. secondly i think that the rout that chris matthews said -- >> still alive. >> and possible. but let us listen very carefully, because i agree with congressman gutierrez and with maria. it is going to be black and brown voters that either make it close or victorious. the question is, what are we going to get in those communities for doing that? and that could lead to some very serious debate going into '16. because georgia may be bailed out, florida and north carolina by black and brown voters and we do not want to just be the ones to deliver people and go home. >> not being a frail flower what is the demand? dealing with immigration rights. voter rights. we cannot -- we cannot have and

i think this is going to be a real test for mrs. clinton and others in '16. you can't have people come out and vote to protect voter i.d. immigration rights and a lot of progressive thoughts and reward them with triangulation. so i think you really want to watch where these votes come from. >> you also have to division yourself -- distinguish yourself on the record. making the calculation that obstructing would split the blame evenly. there is some evidence that has been effective. if you look at the polling on latino voters in colorado, there's a relatively narrow gap between cory gardner who's part of the house republicans that block comprehensive immigration reform. and who was opposed! >> the number one voter within the latino community are young women.

that's because the average latino voter is 27 years old. so when we're talking about minimum wage talking about the issues of person hood talking about immigration they're all living it right now. that's what the republican party has to keep paying attention to. >> so this is a little bit metta, but this i think is the most fascinating thing about this colorado race because cory gardner was a sponsor of personhood. he is still a sponsor of it federally. he's running as if he thinks personhood is a terrible idea. cory gardner is against immigration reform. he's running against mark udall because mark udall didn't get immigration reform passed. so if cory gardner beats mark udall in colorado today, it will be because he ran to the left of mark udall, criticizing mark udall for not being able to deliver on the stuff that cory gardner is opposed to. that tells you that democrats win the argument even if they lose the race. >> before we jump all over the republicans on immigration, which they're wrong on but this president has not been politically deft on immigration.

he wants the issue, i'm not sure he wants the damn bill. because he sells it he is for amnesty. why do you think it got a dozen republican votes? it has real tough things on e-verify. it really has to work. you have to be legal here to work here. in four years, you have to have a photo i.d. it's no more hiring cheap labor. it's really tough. and yet he never says that. because he wants to appeal to your community. >> he got up there in the state of the union, he basically said we've deported more people. >> they lead with how tough it is. $20 billion. >> that's not the issue. the bill doesn't talk about gatling guns or deportation. the bulill talks about no more illegal hiring. he doesn't sell that part. he just doesn't. and he ought to start going for bill. and your community is sick of waiting. i would say it's time to get a

bill and stop talking the issue. >> the president can't pass a bill. he can do an executive order. >> he can champion a bill and he's not doing it. >> i don't think the american people realize how tough this bill is. >> why doesn't he tell us? >> when he talks about e-verify that's every single u.s. citizen to make sure they also have the right application. >> like every other country in the world. >> i think a lot of libertarians are going to go berserk. i think we have to have -- besides that, when we start talking about immigration reform, we need to have an honest conversation with american public. we actually need the work force. >> that's my point. we've got to come up with something of substance. i mean, we're dealing with the era of michael brown and ferguson. people are going to the polls because they're angry and impassioned, and the democratic party can't run away from the

base that made them competitive. >> i think the president needs a bill right now. let's go to some news right now from louisiana. an interesting call here. this race is going to go to a runoff. and that of course will be in december. nobody's going to get the requisite 50% majority to be able to win this thing tonight because of today's voting. this is a big development. it means that at least on paper, look at this race here there's a lot of people voting for maness. it looks like mary landrieu is still in this game. that means it's going to be an interesting election. lots of money is going to be pouring into louisiana. >> eight people on that ballot so everybody thought it's going to be hard for anybody to get to 50%. the issue is once you go to the runoff, doesn't matter how well rob maness was able to do. mary landrieu is the last state-wide elected democrat in the state of louisiana. if the democrats need that seat in order to hold on to the

senate, it is going to have to be a global effort by democrats in order to try to save her. >> isn't she also the last democrat representing the deep south in the senate? >> well let's talk about kay hagan right now. >> you're right. >> that is too close to call. and i think, steve kornacki have you got more for us in terms of what's going on in that north carolina senate race? >> some interesting things that are still outstanding. let's take a closer look in north carolina. just in terms of the returns, the return pattern here, the patterns in the last hour or so have been tightening. now you can see hagan falling 2,000 votes behind tillis. i want to show you what is still left to come in and why democrats aren't necessarily alarmed by that. although obviously it's concerning for them. take a look at this map here and take a look closely. this is where charlotte is. charlotte, north carolina. you can see -- again, we talked about this with florida. it says 10% is in. that's not actually really accurate. expecting a little over 200,000 -- about 220,000 would

be the ideal turnout here in mecklenburg county. kay hagan is doing exactly what she needs to do. this is about what she did in 2008 when she won the seat, 62%. it's about what president obama did. when you're talking about, when 100% comes in it will be an additional plurality. this is a big democratic vote rich area that's probably only about half in right now. actually not the only place in north carolina where that's the case. you look closer this is durham county. durham right outside of raleigh. same thing. you're looking at now close to three quarters of the vote is in. but look at the massive margin for kay hagan here. leading by 38,000. you can expect again probably that's going to grow by 10,000 12,000. still votes outstanding in wake county that's raleigh. one other thing to show you on this map. this is interesting to me.

we're always talking about is the democratic base turning out, are those obama voters turning out, are they excited for this midterm election? here's orange county. this is the heart of obama country. these are college students. this is the university of north carolina. in 2012 when president obama got really big numbers in north carolina, he won orange county by 33,000 votes. tonight, 100% is in in orange county. and kay hagan has come pretty close to that. she's won this thing by 26,000 votes. that's monster turnout. that's an incredible performance by her. that bodes well when you're looking at these other democratic areas that are still yet to come. there are still some republican areas, too. very close, but democrats are encouraged because of what i just showed you. >> steve kornacki thank you. in terms of senate races outstanding right now, too early to call in georgia and colorado. too close to call in kansas virginia, and in north carolina for all the reasons steve was just explaining. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back we'll be going live to colorado to senator mark udall's headquarters. again, that colorado senate race just a crucial one for the

democrats. it is considered to be too early to call with about 59% of the vote in in colorado. we're going live to colorado when we get back. stay with us.

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the republicans will go up to about 243. the democrats will drop to about 192. again, this is not a characterization of any individual race and the margin of error there. just plus or minus seven in terms of that projection. so this could still change, but it looks like a good night, but not an earth-changing night for republicans in the house. this is a race a lot of people have been keeping an eye on. seth moulton is an iraq war veteran, served multiple combat tours as a united states marine in iraq. he ousted democratic incumbent john tierney, and tonight he had a race against a republican who was considered to be a tough race. an interesting district in massachusetts, running against an openly gay republican. seth moulton has won tonight in massachusetts. in colorado -- >> in colorado the polls have been closed for 45 minutes. the senate race between mark udall and cory gardner is still too early to call obviously.

and the governor's race ron mott joins us now from mark udall headquarters out there in denver. thank you for joining us. this is a race that the democrats aren't particularly optimistic about. i can say in the last couple days. how do they feel in headquarters? >> reporter: they're giddy here for one thing. i think they're expecting a long night. saw the early numbers. still a lot of ballots to be counted. the three counties that we're really looking at to determine whether this race goes republican or democrat are rappswing counties. because the economy is chugging along fairly well here, mark udall didn't have a lot of things that his opponents could attack him on. so instead, they've attacked on the style of campaign he has run this fall. about women's rights and

reproduction. that message has sold pretty well around the country but apparently is not selling as well here in colorado. the numbers are showing that the voters are pushing back with that message and some people have said that this is an extremist campaign that he's run and that's not the kind of state colorado is. going forward, if the democrats lose that seat plus lose the governor's mansion as well there's going to be some sobering postmortem here about what this means for 2016 because president obama won here in '08 and 2012. what does this mean for '16 if they lose one or both of these seats, and they go red. this state has been proudly purple over the past few cycles but we could see a fundamental shift here tonight to the right. >> yeah proudly purple is right. it's probably like a lot of states. it isn't like everybody's purple. there are people who are red, and there are people who are blue. and like crayons you can make them look purple when you put them on top of each other. but there are different parts of colorado that are different than the other parts. thank you, ron mott who is at udall headquarters.

let's bring in the former governor of pennsylvania ed rendell. governor, you were much more popular than the current governor it seems. you got re-elected rather well. this guy becomes the turkey of the year because he's the first governor in the history of pennsylvania, to use the word that rachel just used verbs like goose, and she's used the verb oust. i love that word. he was ousted. >> when you oust a goose is when things get really really hot. >> your thoughts about what he did wrong. it seems tough to lose a governorship, watching it from the outside. how do you lose governorships? >> well first of all, i want to correct you, chris. william penn served as governor for 37 years and he never won a single election. what governor corbett did wrong was two things. one, he did cut a billion dollars out of education in his first year when he didn't have to. he did it to give businesses almost half a billion dollars in tax cuts at a time when nobody

should have been getting tax cuts at that point because the economy was still rocky. the second thing he did wrong was he did the republican playbook cutting business taxes is going to produce jobs. pennsylvania ranked ninth in the country in job creation. this month, we're 50th in the country. dead-last in job creation. so it didn't work. it never works. you and rachel know it doesn't work on a federal level. it doesn't work on the state level. so the economy was crushed. education was tanked. the scores went through the floor. what's worse is he actually did raise taxes to local school districts in a desperate attempt had to raise their own property taxes. so he made those two basic mistakes and he never recovered. he was dead in the water after his first year. he's not a bad guy. he signed a no tax pledge.

he violated that for transportation, for a good infrastructure bill. but it was too late to change. >> you raised the point, it's going to be a conversation here. >> i think and the governor and i have talked about it, governor rendell. not the former governor that was streeted tonight. i think the education cuts and the old voter id voter suppression efforts that the pennsylvania pennsylvania legislation put tlougs that was championed by this governor helped with the turnout. i think this is big for the labor and civil rights communities tonight. >> to give you an example how strongly the voter suppression efforts were velt in the 46 with regard, west philadelphia

lower middle class area 5,028 to 133 was the voter turnout. >> wow. >> so you get a sense from the community that the people really rebelled against this effort to keep him out of the polling places? >> no question. no question. it backfired in the presidential year and it's still backfiring this year. >> great to have you on. governor ed rendell. >> actually, before we go to you guys, i do think we have one more call to make. one of those interesting ballot initiatives we've been watching. this is person hood. this is the third time that colorado voters have been asked to vote on a very radical anti-abortion measure. and for the third time, colorado voters have said no to it by a very large margin. the initiative fails. that wes. >> a little bit over half the vote in. it's too early to call for the governor's race or senate race

in colorado. but personhood fails again. that's something corey gardner has been printing from. >> fertilized eggs don't attach to the uterine wall are they all people? >> yes. >> even if they don't attach and ever begin to become a person? >> yes. >> has anybody thought through the science of this thing. >> essentially you're a citizen. a fertilized egg that doesn't attach. what happens to that citizenship? >> the voters in mississippi rel jekted this. >> 30 seconds after you had sex, you're two people. >> i don't think they thought through the science. >> we've got one other one. one more here. on another social issue, a very hotly contested social issue.

the issue of marijuana. there's a bunch of states are voting on legalizing marijuana for recreational use. in florida, the vote was on medical marijuana. they needed a 60% yes vote to pass this. they did get a big yes vote for medical marijuana in florida but they did not hit the 60% threshold they would need in order to amend the constitution. so florida will not be getting medical marijuana. we'll have races still to come. a lot of governor's races in particular. including some of those states having ballot measures like colorado and florida. the governor's race is what we know so far. i think it's still too early to make any big sweeping judgments on the governor's races.

the news in florida is looking somewhat encouraging for republicans. in illinois a vulnerable democratic governor slightly ahead in the race right now, but as these governors races flesh out over the next couple of hours, i think it remains to be seen how many republican governors lose. and certainly, that will be an indictment on chris christie if it's more than a coup. >> particularly in swing state governors, colorado florida, michigan, new hampshire, ohio pennsylvania, and wisconsin. obviously some of those we've called. but there are a lot of swing state governor races that are up. it will be interesting to watch the rust belt mid we were states that we have to see. scott walker, crick snyder in michigan . 62% or 63% of the vote in there, the senate candidate mark udall trails the

democratic governor. he's at a 48-48 race whereas the udall-gardner race is 61-44. a little concerning that you have that senate candidate trailing what the democratic governor is. >> when we come back, the polls will be closed in iowa. what a hot state race that is for senate. and montana, another one we expect the republicans to win, but watch iowa coming back in just a minute.

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to learn more, visit citi.com/easierbanking >> polls are back to close in iowa. that's a big state. montana, nevada and utah, and the race with we're all watch heerg, the senate way in iowa between joni ernst who made her name with that tv ad about castrating hogs. and bruce braley. he made the mistake of calling the senior senator in the state as some farmer from iowa. >> which isn't a nice insult anytime, especially if you're running for state office in iowa. this is what we've got so far. nbc news projects the winner in the montana senate race is steve

daines. this is a republican pickup. this was the max baucus democratic-held seat before now. in the iowa senate race bruce braley and joni ernst. it's too early to call. all eyes on that race right now in iowa. in terms of other races where polls closed earlier tonight but we still don't have a definitive result. in north carolina it's too close to call between republican thom tillis and kay hagan. in kansas the republican incumbent trying to hold on. at this point, that is a too close to call characterization by nbc news. in the virginia senate race, this is fascinating. 86% of the vote in between gillespie and mark warner. this one is still described as too close to call. this is michelle nun the democrat and david perdue the

republican. too early to call. corey gardner versus democratic incumbent mark udall, too early to call with just under 2/3 of the votes in. in new mexico about a quarter of the vote in that's too early to call. and mary landrieu is trying to hold on to her senate seat. rob maness siphoning enough votes that nobody is able to get to 50%. there will be a december runoff in louisiana. in terms of the overall senate picture, the senate pickups thus far are in arkansas where mark pryor lost his seat south dakota went republican and in west virginia where the rockefeller senate seat has gone republican. in terms of the balance of

power, there are 45 republican senate seats in washington 40 democratic seats, plus two independents who in the past have caucused with the democratic party. angus king of maine and bernie sanders of vermont. 13 races still undecided. in terms of governor we just had a poll closing in iowa. republican governor terry branstad has been re-elected. and in nevada the republican incumbent there, a popular incumbent republican. also projects that brian sandoval has been re-elected. in terms of governors ss races, the big one, rick scott versus charlie crist. this one is too close to call. but nbc news is not projecting a winner at this point. the illinois governor's race this one is also described as too close to call between pat

quinn and bruce raunor. in the massachusetts governor's race patrick stepping down and the democrat who wants to succeed him, versus charlie baker, the republican. that one is too close to call. just under 60% of the vote in. massachusetts three-way governor's race paula page the republican -- excuse me maine governor's race. eliot cutler different democrat this time around from mike michaud. that one in maine, that three-way governor's race is too close to call. connecticut gor nor's race dan malloy versus tom foley. look at the difference in votes there, 400-some-odd votes. just about a quarter of the vote in in connecticut. in wisconsin, the republican incumbent scott walker facing off against democratic challenger mary burke. that one is too close to call. in wisconsin, the kansas governor's race conservative

sam brownback. it's too close to call. in the georgia governor's race nathan deal republican unkem bent, too early to call in his race against democratic challenger jason carter. grandson of former president jimmy carter. the michigan governor's race too early to call between the republican incumbent rick snyder and mark schauer. wow. >> we've been here four hours. and yes the zsh. >> fool feels like five minutes. >> it's joyous. the only thing we've decided is what we could have pretty much predicted a month ago. this is a good time to order pizza or have a cup of coffee because this is going to go on

for hours. we knew there was going to be three very tough races for the dems -- well four if you include arkansas. west virginia, montana and south dakota. now that it's over i don't want to depress anybody by saying nobody thought those changes were going to happen. in pennsylvania, tom corbett was out months ago. so we're waiting for the shank of the evening. we're going to find out if there's going to be the upset of the year in virginia. where it's going in iowa, colorado. we're going to find out if this is the one that's really pesky north carolina. finding out where that's going to go. there's no other way democrats are going to win tonight if they don't win north carolina. they have to win that baby. and i think kay hagan did one hell of a job in that race. she got a lot of support from the reverend barber. >> moral mondays, yeah. >> she made thom tillis the

issue. if she can't win, they're not going to be able to call any victories tonight. but i still think it's possible. virginia is so fascinating. no one would have said a few months ago that mark warner had anything to worry about. >> i thought oh ed gillespie is very bright when they stopped running ads. >> the mcconnell race came out much closer than anyone participated. the cantor primary, and now tonight. i mean right now we're looking at it's possible that gillespie loses by a narrow margin to scott brown in new hampshire, which is the marquee race. >> what do we know in the virginia senate race? >> this is a crisis situation for democrats right now. this is a very dramatic election term process playing out right now in virginia. since i've been standing here mark warner the democrat closes

to about 7,000 votes. we talked about this ermier tonight, fairfax county always comes in late. the democratic county let's look at what's going on in fairfax county. you can see mark warner right now, leading by close to 40,000 votes, about 70% in. so the issue here for warner is can he drive up, can he get enough votes out of fairfax for what's left there to overtake gillespie? and the other issue would be if you look back on the map, there are still scattered precincts around the state that haven't reported yet. i'm looking at it i saw, this is as of about ten minutes ago. virginia beach, a republican area. there was still some outstanding votes there. so gillespie could pick some up there. but really this is about fairfax county. and to underscore this we weren't talking a few weeks or months ago about this being a close race. we weren't talking about a few hours ago. any scenario about the democrats

keeping the senate any scenario we put out there about the democrats keeping the senate just assumes they're going to keep virginia. so right now in fairfax county in the next few minute mark warner must overtake ed gillespie an win this race to keep the democrats going and have a chance to preserve the senate. >> i'm sorry for being obtuse on this. how much do we have from fairfax county? >> it looks about 70% is in. you can't tell exactly how much is left. but when you have a 7,000 vote lead statewide at the current rate, if warner gets that same percentage for what's left he would overtake him. as i said the only issue is is there are other outstanding precincts in the state. there aren't many of them but it's not entirely clear what the pattern is there. but right now, basically, he needs to continue getting a big margin out of fairfax and what's left there. when jim webb beat george allen in 2006 virginia it was very late at night. he trailed all night because it takes so long i don't know why, to get the vote in at fairfax.

he caught him by the wire by about 6,000 votes. that could happen here. but again, this is one of those -- this was just not on anybody's radar. they would have said radar is going to win this thing by a 15 20 points. >> with a huge population concentration in fairfax, it could be a long night before we know what happens. >> yeah. they're coming in bunches, too. >> let's go to steve schmidt and robert smith on this. i think of ed gillespie as like steve schmidt running in nebraska or robert gibs running in your home state. i feel like ed gillespie is a behind the scenes guy who nobody expected to be a candidate on his own terms. it looked like a bad idea when nobody had a prayer. >> he's turned out to be a hell of a candidate. and one of the aspects i think is important to put in context is the republican party gave up six u.s. senate seats with deeply flawed candidates over the last two election cycles. when you look at the map and the way it's playing out tonight,

the state of virginia it's certainly going to be the case that if ed gillespie falls slightly short in this race it will be because in the most expensive political midterm in american history, his race was not properly funded. and it's just extraordinary. a lack of imagination, a huge strategic mistake by the republicans. as we move to the purple facilitate states we have the predictable results out of the red states, but we have seep the first defeat by a republican in a purple state in new hampshire. we'll see how it plays out in colorado and north carolina. but a must-win state for republicans in a presidential election is virginia. and as chris pointed out just a bit ago, cuccinelli left the field undefenlded in a close laws to mcauliffe. and now gillespie, pretty big mistake if he goes down. >> historically the most republican southern state was virginia right?

when north carolina and georgia were going for carter virginia was not. what's really stunning as you said 51% was what barack obama got in just two years ago. warner, though was elected six years ago with 65% of the votes in. he walked out of the governor's mansion with a 75 to 80% approval rating. and, you know what ed gillespie and others have done in this race is take somebody who had a profile of winning votes in rural southwestern virginia and a bipartisan image. they've made him into just the average democrat. >> in terms of this in terms of the virginia senate race too, what makes for a surprise? part of what makes for a surprise is polling. we' seen -- >> i saw some people close to

the warner campaign over the weekend. and, you know they said that it was going to be -- they thought about a six-point race. they actually thought it was going to be closer. i think this was one of the races that nobody really pulled in and nobody ever really saw and i would absolutely reiterate what you said. somebody forgot because, you know to paraphrase sarah palin, you can see virginia from the rnc headquarters and somebody forgot to take the temperature in a big, big swing state. >> how do they do it in two -- it's seemingly right there. how do they screw up the gubernatorial. >> it's not like virginia wasn't polled though. there were four polls in october in virginia. mark warner up by 10 mark warner up by 12 mark warner up by 7. if i was making spending decisions based on numbers like that i would make the same mistake they were making. colorado, the hope for democrats in colorado is the polls are as wrong in colorado as they've been for the last two cycles.

the hope for the republicans in virginia is the polls have been as wrong as they've been as it looks tonight. >> one thing here there were some early sign not necessarily in polling, but in the way mark warner was conducting himself. he was one of the first people to come out really strongly to criticize the president on how he handled ebola, which is something that some other democrats weren't even willing to do. and the smart republicans i'm talking to at this point in the night say they're expecting, for what it's worth, for the virginia race to go to a recount. >> wow. >> one thing that's important to remember in politics you have to run for something. you have to be for something. and gillespie ran a mad dog anti-obama campaign. he wanted to win, he was going to beat the democratic liberals if you will. what was mark warner running for? what was his message to voters? i watched the ad campaign. it was on the tv all the time in washington. i didn't get a sense of why mark warner was important to the country. >> he's always run as i'm a

technocrat. i have no recognizable ideology. he's always been that. and has been successful. >> but this time that was the issue. >> now back to kansas. lawrence o'donnell in kansas just to remind you of what's going on in kansas right now, that's a senate race where it's too close to call. 39% of the expected vote in. at this point it's too close to call according to nbc news. at orman headquarters there, lawrence, how are they feeling about things so far and where they're watching the vote come in from. >> they're very encouraged here tonight, rachel, at orman headquarters. republicans are supposed to win senate races in the state. they have for 80 years. and in the general election, no one has a chance against a republican. but greg orman coming in here as an independent with the democrats vacating the ballot clearing the way for him to try to get in here and take the seat away from the republican is running neck and neck.

this is completely unpredictable, even at this stage. and there are so many layers of drama in this election here tonight. one of them is a very personal drama that took place within the republican party. it started two years ago when bob dole for the first and only time since he left the senate went to the senate floor to ask for votes op what was basically a u.n. treaty that would make basically our -- the american disabilities ability international. he needed republican votes for that. he was betrayed by republicans on the floor, including republican senator pat roberts from kansas who voted against bob dole on the senate floor. one of the big dramas that occurred here was, what is bob dole going to do in this campaign? and a few weeks ago, he came to kansas and he started to campaign for pat roberts. and what i have to wonder is the bob dole i knew would have said to mitch mcconnell before

coming out here to help the republicans win the state again, you owe me. you owe me a vote on that treaty if you guys win the senate. and by the way, you owe me a vote on the treaty even if you don't get the senate. you owe me the six republican votes that i needed that you wouldn't need me the one and only time i went out on the senate floor. the drama of bob dole entering the campaign trail here is someone of the things that closed this for roberts. it was a gap where roberts was behind, when bob dole got into this campaign. that's when this tightened up. >> lawrence, it's great to hear from a man who knows the intersection of irish attitude and loyalty and the senate system as it works. very few can put it all together as you just did. by the way, the president is out working tonight, called up tom cotton who won the race for the senate in arkansas clinton country, to maybe begin a relationship there with the new guy. one more call. we can now project that suzanna

martinez has been re-elected governor of new mexico. she's considered a rising star in the gop. and coming up, senator corey booker won.

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>> nbc news has just been able to project the winner in the colorado senate race. cory gardner has unseated democratic incumbent senator mark udall in the state of colorado. too early to call for most of the night. but cory gardner will take mark udall's senate seat. that's a hugely important strategic seat for the republicans. they have five pickups. they need six overall. we can also project the governor race in michigan. rick snyder has been re-elected

in michigan against his democratic challenger mark schauer. fascinating. cory gardner. wins in colorado unseats mark udall. i want to go right now to senator cory booker democrat from new jersey who was just re-elected in new jersey tonight. although he does not know if he will be in the minority or the majority when he goes back to washington. thank you for joipg us. >> good to be on rachel and chris. thanks for having me for a few moments. >> congratulations on your re-election tonight. it seems like it was never really in dougt. we were all pretty sure you were going to win. but as you look at the landscape right now for the united states senate what do you think is going to be different if the republicans do take control. what do you think democrats will be able to do under leader mitch mcconnell if that's how far it goes? >> we're going to have to find a way, on the issues that matter from immigration reform to corporate tax reform we've got to get some things done. and i'm going down there

determined to fight, to find common ground and to move forward. it's a shame that a lot of issues mean a lot to a lot of people that are going to be put on the sidelines, whether it's raising the minimum wage or some of the other things the bedrock issues that help people that are often more disadvantaged in life. i just think it's going to be harder for us to set that agenda. and it's frustrating tonight to see some great senators like out in colorado i went out and campaigned for senator udall earlier this year, this summer. and he's a spectacular guy. and running against somebody i thought he would win a race like that. it's a tough time for democrats. low voter turnout in this country definitely worked against us. but, you know i'm looking forward to going down to the senate. whoever is down there, whoever is in majority i'll work for anybody, r, d or independent who wants to move our country forward. >> let me ask you about a problem we've had in the senate. it is pretty much bipartisan. harry reid's job is to keep

certain votes from coming to the floor. he doesn't want to talk about pipeline and other issues, keystone and other issues. now you have a new guy coming in there. do you think this whole pattern of avoiding anybody looking good, the number one goal in the senate leadership is making sure the senate doesn't do anything good. you hear already mcconnell -- i'm sorry, harry reid to the extent he'll still have any power doesn't want kelly ayotte to look gaud because she might get re-elected. this game of not doing anything, when is it going to stop? when do you say when are we going to get something done instead of using the tricks and the rules of the senate to make sure nothing good looks good for anybody? you must be -- you're a clean, positive new young force there. you come from a business background. don't you hate it when nobody wants to do any business, do anything? >> first of all, i think you would be surprised. there's a lot of new senators there. i talked to some of them tonight, all of us. and people on both sides of the

aisle who just want to get things done. i think you're going to see that become a stronger force. i've been in politics for 40 years. i've never seen everybody looking down on everybody. you're clean, you're new. but at some point you're going to be a part of the history of the senate. how do you change it? >> again, if i had that script, right now, i don't know what it is. but i know me and a bunch of other folks down there are just sick and dired and want to find ways to pull people together to get thing doens. that's why i got elected. problems republicans and democrats both sigh this is a problem. >> name me a handful of republicans you think might want to do business in the senate. you've been there for a while. i think corker wants to do business.

name some guys. people. >> come on corker lamar alexander, even on some issue, jeff flake, mike lee, rand paul and i have all worked together on talking together about criminal justice reform. there's a lot of folks out there that you might be surprised. even orrin hatch and i have had great conversations about get things done. most of my bills have been done with republicans. there are people down there willing to work. i tell you, there is a high level of toxic cynicism in in our country right now about congress. we need to find ways, both as a country and as body to begin combatting that. >> tom brokaw heard he had heard from senator portman who is a moderate republican. and they're talking about getting minimum wage by dealing with republicans and getting corporate tax reform, getting rid of loopholes in exchange for getting minimum wage over $10 an hour. can you see deals like that? that's what being a politician

is, dealing. >> exactly right. getting into the trenches and start to hammer out some of these compromises that can move our country forward. i think there's going to be a lot of opportunity for that. i'm new at this, but that's what i came to the senate to do. and by god, i'm going to roll up my sleeves and try to work towards that end. >> it's an honor to have you on. congratulations, sir for winning the senate seat again from new jersey. a great state. >> thank you so much. >> we're all here. >> i want to run down just what happened in terms of what's going on with the senate right now. if we can. the big news we just got out of colorado is that nbc news has projected that the winner in the colorado senate race is cory gardner, the republican taking that senate seat from incumbent democrat mark udall. obviously that's a huge deal for colorado, it's a huge deal for mark udall and for cory gardner. i think you saw real emotion from cory booker talking about how sad he was to lose mark udall as a colleague in the senate. in terms of what this does that's the fifth pickup thus far

for republicans. they need six in order to become the majority party in the senate. right now, the virginia senate race, it's too close to call between ed gillespie and mark warner. 92% of the race in in virginia, there's less than 2500 quotes between them. right now, mark warner the slimmest of all possible leads in that virginia senate race. other senate races that we're still watching include iowa where it's too early to call between joan ne ernst the republican and bruce braley the democrat. in north carolina polls have been closed for a long time, 85% in north carolina right now. it's too close to call. less than 35,000 votes difference between kay hagan and thom tillis. right now, david perdue well over 50%. just under 2/3 of the vote in the georgia senate race. it will go to a runoff if no one

hits 50 but right now he's outside of 50. and this is the picture of the senate at this hour. i'm pretty sure democrats knew they would be there at this point in the night but they probably didn't know what it would feel like. the republicans have 47 senates, democrats have 40 plus the two independents who have caucused with them in the past. >> at the risk of being baghdad bob, i know it's tough now. but there's still a root to victory. they won new hampshire. they can still win north carolina. they can win kansas go ahead and win alaska and finally when things turn around by january 6, lots of things can happen between now and that runoff if there's a raunoff in georgia. as you pointed out, they could still win iowa. >> and virginia nobody know what is's going to happen in virginia. >> we earer haing in the grap fine it looks doable now for warner. but you're right, it's really close. too close to call. >> less than 2,500 the votes. >> at this point, the democrats

have to -- essentially colorado is one of those pig pivot races. in all the models if the republicans win the colorado the odds of democrats retaining the senate gets small. >> this is one of the big bellwethers and should really be a focus, not just tonight but going forward. this says a lot about where republicans could be in 2016. this is a blue state. they ran candidate who didn't enflame the electorate pl it's a state that looks like america. its demographics are changing. it's an increasing hayes panic population. republicans are privately saying for weeks their ground game there was way more impressive than anyone -- >> what about the democrat candidate who said he was brain dead who couldn't name the three most influential books he's read in his life. >> we ranhe ran a one-note campaign.

>> i didn't hear a note. >> people who are folk focussed on nsa issues and rolling back that power have lost a powerful advocate. >> we got a call in the colorado senate race. we do not have a call in the colorado governor's race. in the governor's race we've got 74% of the vote in, we've got the same precincts reporting, but between bob beauprez and john hickenlooper are two different candidates. there's a big latino population that insists they're being underrepresented in the polls. there's a new method of voting in colorado. everyone has mailed a ballot. that has boosted voter turnover in oregon and washington. latino activists we talked to when i was out there in colorado said they thought it might particularly help with low

income and latino voters who dis disproportionately don't have access to transportation. getting mailed the ballot might make the difference. it's going to be interesting to watch in terms of what it means about mark udall. i think that's where chris' point comes in about ud ooh ll as a candidate. this is what maria and i were saying earlier, you have got to turn people on before you can turn them out. you can not expect people to just to rally around you if you're not rallying around issues. and i think that's part of what happened to udall. what is bad about it is it begins to turn the tide nationally because now we're closer to the republicans getting those six seats. but we can no longer just act as though people are just going to do what you assume they're going to do because you just said this is the way the party is going. those games are over with. >> think about, you had fours states that barack obama won in 2008. iowa colorado, virginia and

north carolina. right? and those were big victories. that was decisive. >> a canadian pollster once told me it's true in every culture, three ingredients give you a winning candidate -- motive. you know why they're there. you have to always know why they're there. never have to ask. and third, this is where a lot of these candidates fall down. spontaneity. they can react to the unexpected question. the lights are on and somebody is home. robert gibbs. >> i think regardless of what

happens to the senate at some point later tonight, i think the real judge of this race is not going to be whether or not democrats lost the south dakota or montana senate race. they're going to be judged as chris said on the four swing states that we have senate races in. right now, we've got north carolina way too close to call. it looks like the democrats called new hampshire for the democrats. we've called colorado for the republicans. i think the real judge of how republicans did in this election on the senate is for 2016 is going to be measured by whether they win three of these states or two of states or one of these states. one thing that we should mention, and we do this not because of one side being called or the other. but what happens in 2014 is not at all a prediction of what happens in 2016. senate races in colorado iowa

new hampshire and north carolina. >> going after gardner, the war on women's issues. in this election cycle, those attacks fell flat. cory gardner, perfectly pleasant demeanor. doesn't come across as an extremist in the tv ads. these attacks fell flat. i think whether it was how to deal with the contraception issue in the tv ads that you see some of these republican candidates in these purple states showing how to deal with some of these democratic attacks that have sbon devastating. >> remember, it was cory gardner originally running for the house seat. ken buck was going to run for the senate seat. they swapped and it was considered a huge recruiting coup for republicans.

>> you were talking about kay hagan in north carolina. she successfully defined thom tillis as being a part of this legislature doing very conservative things. she made her race about her state, not just her country. mark udall couldn't pull that off. we're still waiting to see whether hagan pulled it out. but it's close there. >> i was able to speak to mark udall. we had a camera crew there to shoot me interviewing him. i said shoot me as soon as i walk in the door. something went wrong and that couldn't happen. so i ended up making small talk and watching him make small talk for people about five or ten minutes before we went on the interview. the most likable dad like outdoorsy, friendly, self-deprecate self-deprecating, funny, slouchy kind of interesting guy in the world. and cameras went on and it was -- >> oh no.

what is that? >> i asked him, you seem sort of robotic. you're not giving off a lot of humanity. cory gardner looks like a muppet that's stuck in on. always giving that big open smout smile. i love everything! everything is so great. and so serious, so wooden. >> this is the truth about human beings, when they get scared they get risk adverse. when you think you're going to lose you start to act not to make a mistake. alison lundergan grimes in the end it probably wouldn't have mattered. but keep my head down. when i was reading strategists talking 2002 when they got creamed in the mird terms, we need to take the national security issue off the table. you don't take things off the table. you don't say less things. you don't pull down like this to be a successful politician. you have to actually say things and take chances. now there's dumb chances and

there's smart chances. but when you get scared and you think about keep my head low enough and no one will notice. the voters sniff that out. >> and mark udall didn't share his story. he's climbed the 14 tallest peaks in colorado. almost summited mt. everest. >> this is a great topic. what you said is true to some extent secretary clinton. she could she could be effusive in public but in private she's totally like that. i was thinking a lot of great show business people, just the opposite. johnny carson totally introverted in person. mark russell, a very quiet guy, but on the stage, it's a great show. isn't it interesting that's a flip? >> don't get away from your original point, chris, of why you are running. >> motive. >> when you're dealing as you opened four hours ago, when ou ear dealing with all the crisis

we're seeing in the world, people don't want to have to figure out what you represent. you've got to be very clear that i'm about this. i think that hayes was right that there's no permanent parties. but there are permanent interests. >> let's get to this really quickly. this race is still too early to call, but as you see there, david perdue leads in this race. >> hell of a third party candidate.

>> the wisconsin governor's race. incumbent republican scott walker in wisconsin now projected to be holding on to his seat. mary burke, the democratic challenger in wisconsin. for comment immediately on the wisconsin governor's race let's go to ed shultz actually down in florida, the crist headquarters. i have to get your impression. >> this clearly will put him on the national spotlight. i think it's going to be hard to keep him off the ticket. the guy has gone into the middle of the country. he has attacked labor, he's gone

after education, he's rolled back a lot of health care provisions. he's supressed the vote. he's victorious at almost all of it. we're on the verge of a call down here in florida. i was told 30 minutes ago a charlie crist has already written his concession speech but as for walker it is utterly amazing. there's very few people in american politics that can say well i'm election tested. they put me up three times in four years and i've won. so i think walker is now a major player with big credibility. and there was a big flap inside the republican party a few weeks ago when walker came out and said i don't have enough money to win this.

>> you've been in the ring against this guy. tell me what moves he's got. i know it was hard to do it with the guy on the other side of the fight, but what is his resilience about? what is his about to come out and get -- and win. we're looking at a pretty good majority here if it holds up. >> well this is really interesting because i was told earlier today that the election commissioner in wisconsin had to call in more workers, up to 50 people, because they didn't have enough people to process the lines in heavy democratic turnout areas. there's a couple of pockets of wisconsin that the democrats have not been able to penetrate. it's called fox valley. it's a 16 county area around green bay. labor went up there. democrats threw a lot at that. and they thought that having

a -- you know, mary burke was going to be peel off a lot of women voters. apparently that didn't happen. now, in the recall and also in the first time walker won, he was able to get a strong independent showing in the 16-county area. that has really been a collar around the neck of the democrats unable to move that. strong turnout in dane county still not good enough. strong county turnout in milwaukee. the president did everything he could do in a base election. just apparently didn't get out enough people. so walker is now a major player for the republican party. he has a resume that i think number one is going to be endorsed by the koch brothers and all of these money groups that are doing what they're doing in american politics.

it's working in wisconsin. this has not been a good night for the democrats. down here in florida, what i'm hearing is broward county has overperformed for the democrats. but dane county has underproofrmed. i was told half an hour ago that charlie crist has got his concession speech ready to go. it's probably going to be in the neighborhood of 30,000 votes. if it's a half a percent, then it is going to be an automatic machine recount. if it is a quarter of a percent, it's an automatic hand recount. i think all of us know what that can look like.

to the year 20000. this is rather an amazing thing. ended up in the last ten days putting $20 million into it. the trial lawyers association both here and in florida and nationally did everything they could to help charlie crist down the stretch because they didn't think they were on tv in miami enough the last couple of weeks. that of was addressed in late conference calls. but apparently it doesn't look like it's going to be enough. now also i was told if we want to talkn't iowa in just a moment. in jasper county the county auditor is saying this is the highest turnout they ever county in any midterm. and so where bruce braley has to show up it sound like he has shown up. but of course i didn't get too much air of confidence on that phone call. both phone calls actually, talking about joni ernst.

look at this race. joni ernst, is there's anybody who has gone against the environmental protection agency get rid of the department of education, let's get rid of the irs. she's even said no to a farm bill. she's even said no to wind tax credits. i find it an amazing night for the republicans, both in the senate so far, whether the democrats hang on to the majority or not, and also the way the governorships are playing out right now. it is -- the democrats are in the corner trying to hang on, as i see it. too close to right now. a. >> scott brown has refused to concede. >> they still think there are towns out that can help them. >> jeanne shaheen has been

projected the winner but scott brown refusing to concede. we do have one other call that i want to make rite now. this is a race it's important marly because new england was looking like such an unsettled territory for the democrat tonight. but gina raimondo is the project ed winner. she will be the first democratic governor of rhode island, defeating allan fung the republican mayor of cranston. >> let's bring in bob casey. he's the democrat from pennsylvania. senator casey, thanks for joining us tonight. ed shultz was very concerned about, and i guess a lot of people are about this surprising conservative switch in the country. you see a lot of races, even virginia close now. the republicans are having a very good night, having won five new seats in the united states senate. they're not there yet, but what do you make of it?

>> well chris, i think in pennsylvania the narrative went the other way. we had a very strong win for tom wolf. he may get the last count with about 80% of the vote and he was at 56%. chris, you know uh you remember the early '6s 0 when bill scranton got about 55% of the vote that year. to get your first time running in pennsylvania 56% is a tremendous mandate. and a significant win not only as a first-time candidate but to break that streak where an incumbent wins. his emphasis on education, on expanding the middle class, fighting for jobs. very strong. >> what do you think the tom corbett problem was? was it personalty? was it the education cuts? was it the handling of penn state affair as attorney general which made nobody happy on either side?

i mean, was it -- there was voter suppression that turned out the african-american community perhaps in philly. what do you think brought him down so badly? >> chris, i think it was a combination of a lot of things. but i have never seen or rarely have seen in a governor's race a single public policy issue be so dominant. in this case, public education. it was a real fundamental choice to stay on the course, which was not providing the investment, or putting pennsylvania in a different footing when it comes to investing in your kids so they can learn more now and earn more later. tom wolf made that case. he was an authentic candidate. he didn't sound and act like a politician, didn't talk like a politician. so i think that his background as a business person and his authenticity, but principally his focus on education was really the difference. >> it's great to have you on. senator bob casey, democrat from pennsylvania. much more tonight. a lot of opportunities right now.

we're going to go right now to a report from scott brown headquarters. coming back to that.

republican david perdue is

projected as winner over michelle nunn. it's projecting he will defeat the 50% threshold that will send this race to a runoff. a lot of people thought this race would go to a run-up, but david perdue is projected to be the winner in georgia. arkansas, colorado montana, south dakota and west virginia for republicans pickups. we also need to go now to new hampshire. alex wagner is at scott brown headquarters in manchester new hampshire. now, nbc news has projected that the winner of the new hampshire senate race will be jeanne shaheen. but what's going on down there? >> there's a lot of noise, rachel. despite the fact that there are news broadcasts being shown in headquarters saying that jeanne shaheen is the projected winner the crowd is not accepting those results. and the chair of the new

hampshire republican party came out a few moments ago and said this thing is running 50-50. we are not giving up until every vote is counted. they seem confident when more votes come in that those margins will change. she said this to rousing cheers of go scott go. this team is not giving up or waving the white flag in any way this evening. >> alex in terms of how this is viewed obviously, we are working from the nbc news projection here which is that jeanne shaheen has won. are they making a case based on which precincts haven't come in and how those precincts have performed in previous elections, in the obama election for example? >> unfortunately, they didn't have their own steve kornacki with the precinct map, but this seems to be purely -- what she referenced was another cable news network, not fox, that has called this at 50-50. despite many many many other outlets, fox news calling this

for jeanne shaheen. this seems to be a sort of willful momentum declaration more than based in electoral reality. >> sometimes you use the body english. maybe make it happen. we're going to find out whether jerry brown will win. catch this his fourth term as governor. we continue to watch to see whether republicans can win a decisive sixth net vote to take over the senate. it's getting pretty close. i may have an announcement to make about that.

>> we're projecting a winner in the kansas senate race pat roberts. pat roberts defeating the independent challenger greg orman tonight in kansas. nobody ever would have thought that kansas would be a hotly contested race. the senate at this hour the republicans have republicans have picked up five seats. they're at 49 in the senate democrats are at 40 plus two independents who have caucused with democrats in the past. california governor jerry brown has been reelected to an unprecedented fourth term in california that's the pro

skreks from and john kitzhaber, too early to call. and butch otter too early to call against his democratic challenger. and in hawaii david ige against duke an iona after ige ousted the former governor abercrombie, in the democratic primary. the hawaii senate race is incumbent democrat brian schatz. and jeff merckley has held on to

his seat. and too close to call between ibt mark warner and his republican challenger ed gillespie. north carolina is 95% in too close to call between thom tillis and kay hagan. and in iowa this is too early to call between democrat bruce braley and republican joni ernst. and in new mexico this is not being characterized as too close but rather too early to call. tom udall the projected winner there. and in the georgia senate race david perdue is the projected winner. senate pickups for the

republicans, arkansas colorado montana, south dakota west virginia. this is michelle nunn. >> i am very proud to have stood side by side with thousands of georgians. some of y'all's hands may be blistered from putting in all those yard signs and your voices may be hoarse from shouting and telling people how important that race is and i know there's a lot of tired feet tonight because y'all have been walking a lot of nakeds. and you could not have worked harder. you know we have exceeded every expectation of what was possible in this race. just about 15 months ago all of the political pundits said that georgia was not in play. and we put georgia in play. but we've built a foundation now that need to be cultivated and it needs to be built upon and we need to work on it to broaden

our reach with the message. we want to remind y'all that elections make a difference in people's lives. we change people's lives, we change communities, we change our world when we vote. and we've reminded people of that and we want to keep reminding people of that. we make choices about how we care for our sick how we care for our environment, how we care for our elderly. these are the choices that we wants to continue to lift up in the future as we go forward. so i hope that we've reminded georgia also that we can and should have leadership that represents and looks like our state. you know during the course of the campaign i met with a wonderful group of pakistani and indian doctors and they told me it was the first time that anybody had reached out to them to engage them in this process. when i left they said you've given us hope and you've given

us inspiration. you all did that. so i started out this election saying that i'm optimistic about america and i have never been more optimist being than i am right now today after 15 months of seeing the extraordinary idealism commitment and passion of georgians. and i was reminded time and time again of our georgia state motto. y'all have heard me say it right? but i have seen it embodied in our georgia citizenry, wisdom and justice and moderation. so tonight more than anything i want to thank you all, to the staff and to the thinks of people who have worked so hard on this campaign. for the future of our state, for the future of our country, for your commitment and dedication. each one of you have given so much your talents, your resources and sleepless nights and an unrelenting commitment. i am so grateful to have walked

this path with you to fight for something that transcends us all. i want to say a few thanks to only my family because otherwise it would be out of control the number of people i would have to thank. >> you're listening to michelle nunn. that's her concession speech tonight. nbc news has projected david perdue will not only win that case but will win it by clearing the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a runoff election in december in georgia. so that will be -- excuse me in january. so david perdue will bes next senator from the state of georgia. in terms of what's outsanding in the senate here's the big thing you need to know right now. republicans now have 50 u.s. senate seats. if republicans stay at 50 u.s. senate seats, the democrats control the senate because they have a guy named joe biden who will be the tie breaking vote. but there are outstanding races.

in alaska the polls are still open. for understanding what's going on in some of these races where we're still waiting on a result and therefore the control of the united states senate we turn to our numbers guru steve kornacki. what's going on right now? >> you just set it up really nicely. you mentioned new mexico. basically the republicans are one away. any one of these. we've already called louisiana going to a runoff. any of these other four states up here, if they move to the republican column republicans win the senate. it could be louisiana, it could be tonight in one of these states. democrats need the full house basically, they need everything to move over into their column. we can look closer as to what's going on. first of all in virginia i can tell you we were talking earlier about fairfax county being critical, about warner needing to make up the difference there and get into the lead. all of fairfax county came in and it was enough to put mark warner ahead by about 2,500 votes in virginia. what was left there were some precincts in virginia beach

that's a republican area. it did not look like there were enough precincts there to lift gillespie back to where warner is. so that's the best opportunity right now for democrats. i do want to take you close and look closely, though at north carolina. as you showed a minute ago, a lot of the vote in in north carolina and we can tell you right now, try to put it up when you look at this kay hagan is in a world of trouble. she's about 50,000 votes behind right now. if you look closely at what's going on here you can see wake county this was key to kay hagan's hopes tonight. this is rowley the state capital. she won this by 13 points over thom tillis. i think the expectation of democrats is they were going to give you a bigger spread than this. the hope what democrats have to come back in north carolina there are still outstanding votes. can they get some votes out of charlotte? the other thing we can look and

this is where the city of greensberg is. we're talking about scott brown refusing to concede the race in new hampshire. i can tell you this here are the five biggest cities or towns still yet to report in new hampshire. i'm going to give you the name and the percent of the vote that barack obama won in them in 2012. dover, 60% for obama. claremont, 60% for obama, franklin 58% for obama, rochester, 52% for obama, keene, 70% for obama. those are the biggest places in new hampshire yet to support. shaheen is holding on to a lead right now and those are some very democratic areas to come in. >> scott brown wanting, wishing and hoping yeah. >> that might be the one democratic victory tonight in all the contested races. >> we have a big announcement to make right now.

georgia governor nathan diehl, the governor has won. it looks like he will not have to have a runoff. we're going to have to wait a little bit to find out louisiana but it could be nine. here we go. this is a surprise. illinois governor. nbc has projected bruce brrauner has defeated the governor of illinois. unbelievable. >> that was one of those races for the longest time that a lot of republicans were holding their breath over because it's illinois. you got chicago. there's so much it's obama. but, again, i think what the republican party tapped into was this real frustration with incumbents, and they ran a

national campaign and applied it to everyone. >> well billy daily was going to run thinking that quinn was weak and he was right. andrea? >> it's also a real blow to president obama. he campaigned for him. that was one race that the president really did want to win. >> fascinating case though. how did pat quinn become governor? >> a guy named rob blagojevich. rob blagojevich and his hair went to jail. >> i'm surprised rauner won but i'm not shocked because quinn had problems. and i think again that -- i agree reluctantly that the

republicans won a lot from anti-incumbency, but i question in some areas where the democrats did not tap their base illinois being one. >> in that illinois governor's race pat quinn had to run for it in 2010 and he won by less than 1% of the vote. in 2010 which was such a bright red year at the same time that illinois picked a republican senator in mark kirk in that same election. so pat quick for how unpopular he is and how difficult his circumstances is has been a real survivor. for him not to be able to pull it out tonight given how resilient he's been is a very telling thing. also the georgia governor's race is a big thing. nathan diehl has never lost an election in his entire life. jason carter gave him a tough fight. nathan diehl has some ethics trouble, he brought the state to a standstill in a snowstorm last year in a way people thought

would hurt him but he's cleared the 50% threshold. >> the sea seems to have gotten away from me. >> the southwest passage, or whatever it was for georgia, doesn't look open anymore. >> steve and robert do you want to jump in here? >> sure. i think one of the dramas unfolding here i think there's no expectation that tom corbett was going to wins election. he was for sure a goner. this is turning out to be a very big night for chris christie raised over $100 million for the r.g.a. rick scott is looking like he's going to make it through, the scott walker race decisive victory for him, clearly one of the top tier presidential candidates coming out of this race very strengthened. so it looks like the republican governors are performing at very much the same level that you're seeing in the united states senate right now. >> and what's surprising in some of these races is how quickly

they're being called. in michigan addnd wisconsin, i think we thought we'd go later into the ninth. the governor's race was called very quickly. in the pace of pat quinn, he had about a 35% approval rating. as rachel said having to clean up the blagojevich mess and all the budget mess that went with it greatly pushed down his approval rating and he got killed tonight in the suburbs. so i think you're right, a very big night for republican governors in big states and in some important states. i will say one of the things -- we haven't talked about this race -- we won't talk about this race much but the wendy davis race in texas, she's right now a little bit less than 40%. bill white got 42.3% against rick perry four years ago.

so democrats invested a huge amount of money in battleground texas in this notion that they could turn texas purple. and i think tonight the question is whether or not wendy davis will get a vote equal to the percentage that bill white got just four years ago in getting crushed by rick perry. >> i do think the only silver lining that appears for democrats tonight is this new hampshire race where jeanne shaheen has a 2,000 vote lead. and i think the provenance of that victory may well rest with the clintons so a really resounding at this hour defeat and rebuke i think, to the president and i think republicans, you know are on the verge of exceeding their wildest expectations for this night. >> i think we're not going out

on a limb to say it is not the clintons' last trip to new hampshire. >> what is the significance of new hampshire? just kidding. i was thinking al gore didn't get new hampshire, which is fascinating. the clintons always do. under google searches looking up jeanne shaheen, one of the prominent names they wanted to look up with that name is hillary clinton. so hillary clinton is affiliated with her. it's interesting to see how the clintons exploit this. >> when i was interviewing jeanne shaheen and she was asked do you want president obama to campaign for you? and she said oh no he's so busy with isis and what not. do you want the clintons to campaign with you? oh yes. >> they want to arkansas -- >> they spent a long time in kentucky. >> secretary clinton, if you're

watching msnbc, i assure you reverend sharpton wants to talk to but this issue. >> and me and me! >> that you will have an opponent in the election 2016. let's find out more about what's happening in north carolina. this is one still up in the air. at the kay hagan headquarters in greensboro, what's up? >> reporter: at the moment you feel the sense here it's going to be a long night and a tough night. i was talking to some of the hagan staffers they don't have that sense of jubilant expectation that they're about to win. quite the opposite. lots of hand wringing and anxiety at this moment. >> let me ask you about this campaign. it seemed to have turned in the last couple of days if tillis wins. what happened in the last couple of days? did tillis -- what did he do? do you know? >> reporter: i'm not certain actually that it changed dramatically. i think there's a couple of things in operation here. one, we know that we had

enormous voter turnout, both today but also in early voter turnout, which absolutely topped what happened in 2010. this is not about necessarily a down midterm election. there's been major turnout, but i think we may have underestimated the extent to which turnout in this race could have been driven by national issues not only for the democrat in this case the question of trying to distance herself from president obama, but also for republicans here. so one of the things we saw was an uptick for tillis immediately after the federal judiciary rulings about marriage equality that brought marriage equality here to the state of north carolina. for many progressives that was a moment of celebration but for many conservatives, it became a social issue, a reason to come out and vote for tillis even though tillis and hagan weren't making it an issue in their

campaign. early on we saw a lot of education in the discussion point. hagan could do a good job of really sort of painting tillis as the bad guy. but as it moved over the course of this kind of final part of october to a question about the president's handling of national issues, again, tillis was able to use his appeal as an outsider. the final thing i'll say is there hasn't been a democratic senator reelected in north carolina since 1968. so the other possibility here is that we're just looking at the reality of what this state is for democratic senators. >> yeah. well it looks like the state is going to look like it moved to the right. we'll see. that was really good insight because of these cultural factors. marriage is a big issue on both sides of the issue. we keep forgetting that up here in the big cities. s fact is it's a negative for some people. remember 2004 what happened in iowa in ohio when don king

brought in all the -- minister -- i know it's a long time ago. but it will work with the conservatives, including black clergymen. >> but a lot of the things we got to be strategic, progressives you got to always factor in where you're going to get a reaction or a backlash. i think that may be what we saw in north carolina, including a lot of the demonstrations and all. you've got to know how to have a winning strategy not just a dramatic strategy. >> let me jump in here because david perdue is giving his victory speech in georgia. let's listen to a little bit of that. >> we don't want to leave this world to our kids without trying to make it better. most importantly, georgians want good paying jobs. to do that we have to get this economy going. we have to finally solve our tax problems.

right now saxby chambliss is handing the baton over to me and i'm going to fight for the fair tax.

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a three way governor's race there, about two-thirds of the vote in. paul lepage over mike michaud. in connecticut, less than half the vote in too close to call in connecticut. in kansas governor's race, incumbent republican sam brownback, too close to call but

narrowly leading paul davis. that's 77% of the vote in in kansas. in maryland. look at this blue state maryland. right now too close to call between the serving governor anthony brown and republican challenger larry hogan. that's fascinating. we'll talk about that in a moment. in the colorado race the senate race has been called for republican cory gardner but in the governor race it's too close to call. massachusetts governor with 82% in, too close to call between charlie baker, the republican, and martha coakley, the democrat. i actually think we've got a senate call we can add to that list of governors right now. brand new call in the new mexico senate race. tom udall, not to be confused with mark udall, the incumbent from new mexico, the democrat will return to the senate. nbc is projecting that seat stays in his hands.

that means the overall senate projection at this hour is there are 43 count it 45 if you lump in independents. republicans only need one more senate seat from anywhere in the country to give themselves the senate majority and put mitch mcconnell in charge in that body. the governor races, massachusetts, charlie baker, the republican martha coakley. steve kornacki you know politics better than anyone else. what's happening there? >> this is a barn burner right now in the bay state. can you see charlie baker -- i don't know why it did that. let's go right back in there and take a look at it. still learning this thing. charlie baker leading by about 5,000 votes over martha coakley. there's some good news and bad news for coakley when we look closely at the map here looking at all 353 cities and towns in massachusetts. actually, rear not going to.

i'm still learning this. here's what's happening in massachusetts tonight. in 2010 when martha coakley lost that special election to scott brown, one of the biggest weaknesses she had was small blue collar workers defected and went with him. she's made up ground, folksr example, the city of lowell she lost that then he won that tonight. waltham, she lost that in 2000 she carried that tonight. the problem is it may not be enough. as we said she's 5,000 votes behind right now. the biggest democratic producing city left on the map, lawrence an old mill town on the merrimack river, that just came in and it left her still behind. what you have left now are a lot of -- there are some blue collar

rare areas in the boston area like winthrop and then you have small and mid-sized towns in central massachusetts. it is hard to see her making it up. there is still a pathway but it's very narrow for her right now. >> there's the massachusetts map in terms of what's happening internally but the governor's race map of the entire country is fascinating. you look at where it's contested and too close to call it's a blue state map, maryland connecticut, massachusetts. colorado still too early to call, florida too close to call maine, too close to call. kansas is the only one too close to call that's a blood red state and that's because of the peculiarities of sam brownback.

when you look at those results thus far, what do you see? >> i see excitement on one end but i also see the practicality of tax-and-spend policies in the state. larry hogan made this race about taxes and spending and he did it very effectively and brown didn't have an answer to 40 tax increases over the last eight years. he didn't have an answer to losing jobs in the state. and if you don't have those answers, the voters are going to go to someone who did and larry apparently does. 79% of the vote is in in the state and it's almost 100,000 vote difference in the state. >> the maryland governor's race right now characterized by nbc news as too close to call. so it's certainly not done. if larry hogan does beat anthony

brown, does that pose problems from o'malley as he tries to spring board from being governor to a presidential candidate? >> absolutely. it's completely defeating in his attempts -- >> it's not him on the ballot it's his lieutenant governor. >> his lieutenant governor was a very quiet sort of also rand kind of person -- >> o'malley had a lot to do with his winning the primary. i think this is a big deal if anthony brown is defeated. >> we have a huge call. nbc news has been able to make a call in one of the most important senate races in the country. this is the enchilada for the republican party. the projected winner in the iowa senate race is joni ernst. this means that republicans gain

control of the united states senate. they needed to pick up six seats in order to take control. this puts them at 51 guaranteed republican seats even before we get to the louisiana runoff and even before we get the final results in north carolina virginia or alaska. so at this point joni ernst is over the top in iowa that means the republicans are over the top in senate control. >> it's true. >> it's true? >> it's true. the only thing left now is the numbers we haven't gotten in alaska. about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning we'll find out. the big one we're watching is north carolina. the only thing they've done is hold on -- this is i would call a wave. now, people will dispute the use of the term but the fact that maryland, which is endemically gut level democrat with a decent candidate and larry hogan, an old familiar name his father was the congressman for years, but it's an old familiar name

there's nothing dashing about this guy, maryland goes republican for governor? it's happened a couple times in our life time. agnew and ehrlich, your guy. >> larry hogan is a work guy. you know he identified with a lot of grass roots, every day folks. and i think that's made the difference across the country tonight. >> excuse me i don't think we should underestimate the power of this medium. everyone talks about ground game and all that and i like that stuff. but when you sit and watch television a lot like i do -- >> we have to go to iowa. luke russert is at joni ernst's headquarters. she's just been declared the projected winner in that iowa race. luke do they know it yet there? >> oh they know it. they were just cheering quite loudly. they've been quite confident all night as the governor terry

branston won. they really just cheered loudly when fox news called it. but what this reflects rachel is what we saw over the last few days which was the early vote numbers were just not there for bruce braley. for a democrat they run up the score, hold the line on election day. bruce braley made a series of errors. he was i think it's fair to say, a flawed candidate. perhaps he never got over his gaffe of saying that chuck grassley was just a simple iowa farmer and he who didn't go to law school became head of the senate judiciary committee. who cares more about you? something that democrats almost always win on joni ernst was besting bruce braley.

she also bested him on medicare and tv was unwatchable according to people we spoke to. she goes to washington and she instantly becomes a hot commodity. she's 44 years old, she's a woman, she's a veteran, she led troops in iraq and she is somebody who sits in a state where everybody republican hopeful on the republican side is going to want her endorsement and covet her endorsement. when she's in the senate pay attention to what she said. she was made famous by her ad talking about castrating pigs. she's gone away from the hot button issues but much more vague, much more general. if she continues on that path going into washington, i think that you could see somebody who will move up in the national ranks of the republican party so quickly because woman, veteran,

young, they don't have a lot of those had on the republican side at all. >> okay luke. let's bring in lawrence from kansas. does this mean if greg orman wins tonight, which he won't because he lost right? what's he going to do with his life? >> greg orman gave a really warm and positive concession speech here. he said his campaign shows independents do have a chance. he's personally thanking every one of the hundreds of people in this room to cheer him on in the end. the picture of what happens in the senate now, we won't really know until we get that final number of exactly how many republicans are there. if it's just the 51 that means

that any one of the republicans in the majority basically become almost a majority leader because they can stop anything that mitch mcconnell is trying to do. if you listen to the text and the spirit of mitch mcconnell's victory speech tonight, it was very gracious, it was an old fashioned senatorial victory speech. it was the victory speech of someone who if you take him at his word wants to go back to actually working in the senate. now, i don't know if he's going to be able to even if he intends to. what i do know is that mitch mcconnell worked in the senate back when the senate worked. he was one of the responsible republican members of the senate 20 years ago and he knew how to make things happen and knew how to get things done there and form alliance there is. i don't know if that's an impossible thing to do in the modern senate with the ted cruzes and others who as they've announced just wants to investigate the president. that's all ted cruz thinks the

senate is for. it's very hard to tell right now, chris, what's going to happen in the senate when it's very closely held like this one of the problems is when the senate and house are held by very close majority, the business of the minority tends to become nothing other than defeating the majority in the next election two years from now. >> i hear ron johnson is in line to take over the permanent investigating subcommittee which can do anything it wants to. they have complete control of subpoena power. they can spend the next year with ron johnson, who is to the right of mitch, what is that going to look like? you talked about the fact that mitch might not be able to control the troops. >> reporter: well, one of the things that both leaders have done is control chairmen for the last several years. it used to be that senate chairmen were all powerful and the majority leader would beg

the chairman to do certain things and if he felt like it, he would. harry reid really took control away from chairmen. mitch mcconnell is in a position to do that i think he probably can following the reid model. i am not terribly concerned with all the horror scenarios that are going on out there about which republican is going to be chairman of which committee because the committees haven't been doing any business at all in this senate. they have not been marking up bills, they have not been generating any kind of committee product. but again, that could change it could revert to the old senate style where, yes, the chairmen of the committees do start to generate their own work product. >> i thought it was portfolio and impressive that you picked up on mitch mcconnell's different point of view. when mitch first responded to the election of president obama, he said i'm going to destroy

this man's presidency. totally and completely transapparently negative. >> let's not be surprised if there's a handful of democratic senators whose ambition now is to destroy mitch mcconnell. that is the dynamic we've seen in both bodies when there is a power shift, when the majority loses power to the minority their immediate reaction is how do we get it back and they devote themselves to nothing else. >> if this becomes a real field day for republicans tonight and they pick up nine seats or so and end up at 54, does that put harry reid in trouble? would chuck schumer make a run for the leadership take him on? >> my bet tonight is he wouldn't. because it's really not a job worth having. this is not the place to make your name at this point in time.

i think chuck schumer is in a position to wait out harry reid. harry reid could also decide on his own, chris, that after a night like this that maybe it is time for a change and it is also possible that his caucus could decide it is time for a change. but i don't think chuck schumer would lead the charge for a change in leadership that way. >> thank you, lawrence. i will say there's a lot of governor races still outstanding, colorado massachusetts, connecticut, florida, maine, maryland kansas. one of those governor races that has been called is for wisconsin governor scott walker. do we have a little bit of scott walker's victory speech tonight? no, we don't. when scott walker wins you win absolutely nothing. >> i think ed schultz got rid of it killed the tape. >> chuck todd while you're

here this race in iowa is big news for joni ernst and iowa but it's bigger news for the country in terms of senate control for republicans. >> it is. there's a wave tonight. let's not beat around the bush. this is a wave. this is a big win. they could get up to nine seats i think when you look at it. that's big. you brought up scott walker rick scott, maryland governor is not called yet, that says something. this was clearly republican momentum at the end. they'll have the largest house majority since world war ii. maybe they find another seat and it's the largest number of republicans in the house of representatives since 1928. i don't know what else you want to come up to with the definition of wave. listen to this stat. bruce rauner the new republican governor elect in illinois first time the home state governor lost reelection since 1892. >> wow. >> this is -- there's no way to slice this. i do think when democrats -- i think there are two people to blame here for this for the problems the democrats have.

you can say president obama is one. harry reid is the other. hough he ran the u.s. senate and he did this to protect all these guys from taking tough votes, it hurt mark pryor and mary landrieu. >> i want you to explain that. >> let's go to joni ernst. >> it's a long way from roanoke to washington. from the biscuit line of hardee's to the united states senate! but thanks to all of you we are heading to washington. and we are going to make 'em squeal!

thank you. thank you. this morning i was voting in red oak, and i was thinking this is about as different as you can get from washington, d.c. in washington they are more interested in talking than doing. they ignore problems hoping they'll go away. but you know what isis isn't just going to go away. the almost $18 trillion of national debt is not just going to go away. our economic struggles aren't just going to go away and our problems aren't just going to go away on their on. but we can overcome them because this is the greatest nation in

the history of mankind. and there is nothing we can't achieve. we are going to do this but to get there it starts with new leadership. [ cheers and applause ] and that's -- and that's what iowa has voted for today. yes. we've talked a lot in this campaign about iowa values honesty, service, and hard work. knowing the value of a dollar and not to waste it. these are the values that our parents and grandparents have taught us. these are the values that my mother -- that my mother taught

me on rainy mornings. not with a lecture or a book but with plastic bread bags. you see, growing up i only had one good pair of shoes and so on those rainy school days my mom was slip plastic bread bags over my shoes to keep them clean and dry. you know what i'm talking about. thank you. and you know what? it want high fashion but i was never embarrassed. and it worked. and it worked. so it wasn't high fashion and you know i wasn't embarrassed because every day when it rained and i got on the school bus, there were rows and rows and rows of other kids just like me with plastic bread bags tied to their feet.

these were the sons and daughters of hard working iowans. their parents didn't have much but what they did have they worked very hard for. they taught us to work simply not to waste and to help our neighbors and they taught us to thank god every day that we live in this special place that we call iowa. thank you. thank you. people ask me all the time what my favorite part of the campaign has been. well i think tonight. nothing is going to beat tonight! but before tonight my favorite

part of the campaign was going through the iowa state fair and, believe me i hugged my way through the iowa state fair. and if you got within five feet of me it was probably because i was trying to hug you. i love the state fair because it truly is a celebration of what is best about iowa. our agriculture, our manufacturing, our technology our community and our family. that's who we are, and that's the iowa way. and our iowa way is working. and it's not luck or an accident. it's because we have the greatest people, and we have the

greatest governor and lieutenant governor of any state in the nation! here in iowa we understand that america's greatness doesn't come from its government but it does come from our people. and look -- >> joni ernst, nbc projecting her as the winner over bruce braley. she's the kind of candidate who we'll be hearing a lot more from. heading into 2016 her endorsement and willingness to sign on with other republicans as they head toward iowa is going to become an important

thing. if you like that speech you'll hear a lot more of it. >> it leaves mississippi now as the only state in the union that has not sent a woman to congress. iowa was one of two states. >> iowa not only a senator but member of the house as well. >> you're right. mississippi, you're up. >> we do have a call in the oregon governor's race. nbc news can project in the oregon governor's race democratic incumbent john kitzhaber has been able to hold on to the race. there was some discussion about his very interesting fiancee and her past. and there's something going on in florida that nobody quite understands. but here's what's going on. in the florida governor's race nbc news has not projected a winner in this race. nbc news says this is too close

to call but rick scott has just taken to the podium at his headquarters in florida to say that he called rick scott to congratulate him on running the race. ed schultz is at charlie crist headquarters in florida. ed what's going on? >> reporter: well a number of new agencies have called it. so there was really some wondering of what was going to unfold here. what happened here was charlie crist came out, took the high road and didn't say anything about any kind of voter irregularity that was contested earlier tonight as he was looking for another hour out of broward county. didn't say anything about that. he talked about friendship he talked about values he talked about thank you for the great effort, you're wonderful people. and it was just the high road across the board. and it was very short and to the point. >> ed i need to cut you off for a second. as you were speaking nbc news did change its call and project

rick scott. so nbc had not been doing that had been calling it too close to call for a long while yet. bum we have one other call that we need to make in the senate race. in the north carolina senate race, nbc news now projects that kay hagan has lost her seat that republican thom tillis has won the north carolina senate race ousting kay hagan from her seat there. what remains outstanding for democrats at this point is virginia where nobody was even expecting it to be a contest tonight. the virginia senate race right now still listed as too close to call between democratic incumbent mark warner and ed gillespie. this does look like as chuck todd said earlier, a "wave." on the late call in the florida governor's race in relation to

charlie crist's announcement what happened here? >> somebody said miami dade just found 300,000 votes. it's florida. you're always a little built careful when you don't know where ballots are. what's interesting there, scott actually won by a larger margin than he did over alex sink. just shows you not by much and he invested so much money in a ground game and all of those things. but you have to wonder charlie crist was just such a flawed candidate to have in there. he's now lost as an republican independent and democrat since 2010. in that same period of time, scott walker has won three governor's races. charlie crist lost three different races at three different parties. i'm not surprised a swing voter said at least i know where rick scott stands i don't know where charlie crist stands. that was always credibility gap that charlie crist was going to have to jump.

scott did need a little breeze at the end. >> let's talk about how this is going to be looked at nationally winners and losers. the democrats lost tonight. who is going to get blamed? you said it's going to be harry reid. he never gave the more conservative democrats a chance to show their independence because he wouldn't let votes come up on keystone and things like that. >> there's going to be blame on the president. every single race in the country was about barack obama. sam brownback was trying to make his governor's race about barack obama, okay? everything -- obamacare was a rick scott governors races. so you're going to have that and i think second guessing democratic strategy should they have embraced some of obama's policies and at least tried to keep them above water? but what harry reid did in trying to protect people from taking tough votes is he prevented mark pryor to factually show he's a krentories and prevented mary landrieu from

being able to show she's a centrist. i think they were so worried -- everything with the democrats has been tactical. tactical in their campaigns. harry reid was tactical in how he ran the senate. mitch mcconnell was no less tactical being the minority leader in the senate but were they so myopic that they lost the big picture here? >> you always lose when you play defense. hadn't harry ran the senate that mark pryor could have cast votes that made him look more independent. you can't defend yourself against attacks if you're not running on something that you have? >> they had no agenda. we don't know what their economic agenda was. the top two issues were gridlock and the economy. the republicans' answer to both of those was obama. obama's economy is not working

for rule america and obama is the one that's grid locked. the democrats said those are the top two issues? we're going to talk to women, those are the top two issues we're going to talk to hispanics. there was a disconnect. >> we're going to get kay haguen giving her concession speech which is basically the board has been run here. here she is. >> thank you so much for your friendship. thank you for being here tonight. i just called speaker tillis to congratulate him and to tell him we will work with him during this transition period. and i really first want to thank my fabulous husband, chip. you know ist's been one of the greatest blessings of my life to have chip with me by my side standing with me as we really worked for the values we hold dear in north carolina. chip thanks for your unending

support. i also want to thank my kids. you know the best absolutely the best. and my baby grandson harrison. >> pardon the interruption. as kay hagan makes her concession in north carolina there is another call to bring you. it's an interesting one. it's the virginia senate race. nbc news now projects that incumbent democratic senator mark warner is the apparent winner. you saw the language there, the apparent winner in the virginia senate race. chuck todd i get to ask you what that means. >> it's not outside a potential recount issue, we know there are absentee ballots out that we assume will be warner. all of our modelling has warner

winning this. gillespie, if i were him, i wouldn't concede tonight. it could be within recount range. that's why we don't have a way of seeing a model that ever has warner not in the lead. >> it's less than 20,000 votes between them about 95% of the vote in. as you say, the models don't show a way that gillespie can win. >> correct because of where the vote is out. but it's that close and again, i wouldn't be surprised if gillespie add for a recount. >> fascinating outcome in virginia. in the new hampshire senate nbc news long ago projected the winner of the new hampshire race would be the incumbent democrat in new hampshire jeanne shaheen defeating scott brown, scott brown who moved from massachusetts to new hampshire specifically it seems to run in that race. nbc news projected that and a lot of other news organizations projected that early in the

night. scott brown for a long time was refusing to concede, making a lot of noise that he had not lost that race. that has changed and that makes him unique because he is now the only person who lose senate races to two different women. i'll keep saying that all night lost to two different women. we'll be right back.

. if you love politics you love nights like this. an historic night for the republican party, as they run a

lot of the table tonight in the six-year mid-term elections during the barack obama preds cy presidency. let me give you a lay of the land of what has happened thus far tonight in the senate. in virginia, nbc news has projected the apparent winner in a very close senate race mark warner projected to be the winner over ed gillespie, the republican candidate there. in north carolina the senate race there, the projected winner is thom tillis republican challenger to kay hagan. and not only is david perdue projected to beaten michelle but she's beaten her to above the 50% win that would allow a

runoff. mitch mcconnell held on against alison lundergan grimes. and mark pryor lost to tom cotton. the colorado senate race another democratic incumbent losing tonight, mark udall losing to cory gardner in colorado. and in kansas pat gardner had the race of his life in kansas. tonight he did in the end defeat a tough challenge from an independent named greg orman. in iowa this was the race that put the republican party over the top to control the united states senate tonight, republicans joni ernst defeating bruce braley. in new hampshire, jeanne shaheen beats off a challenge from scott brown, the challenger who had previously been a republican

senator from massachusetts. the senate pick ups tonight for the republican party, arkansas colorado iowa montana, north carolina south dakota also west virginia. at this hour the state of the united states senate republicans know they have 52 seats with could be more to come. democrats have 44 seats plus two independents who have caucused with them in the past. bernie sanders certainly will continue to do so. angus king will be having some interesting conversations with republicans if he was so inclined. he's been making some noise he'd be interesting in caucusing with the republicans. in maryland too close to call layer hogan and anthony brown. maine governor also too close to

call. the incumbent republican paul lepage, mike michaud at 44%. connecticut governor race between democratic candidate dan malloy and tom tolly. only 52% of the vote in in connecticut. could be a long night. and in massachusetts, too close to call between martha coakley and charlie baker. and we have a winner to announce, sam brownback has beaten back a challenge from democrat paul davis. sam brownback has been at the helm of a total republican takeover in kansas. a lot of republicans crossed lines to support paul davis, the

moderate democrat running against sam brownback. but nbc news now projects sam brownback will be the winner. and in colorado this has moved from too early to call to too close to call. tonight with 82% of the vote in in colorado it's too close to call. in vermont, peter shumlin, scott milne, you have to get 50% to win in vermont. i believe at this point it means it goes to the legislature? >> that's correct. it's not even a runoff the legislature will pick it. >> wait the runoff will pick it? >> no there's no runoff.

>> the vermontsters will decide. ben & jerry have no vote. >> we have our results in. it is a sweep -- it's a wave you said that. people are not going to be talking about harry reid two weeks from now. it's going to be about the president of the united states. i want to hear from people who tell me will be the white house correspondent. how is the president taking the news tonight, robert? >> well i think as chuck said when you look at a state like maryland that is not just blue but fairly deep blue about as blue as michael steele's shirt and that's why he's grinning in a large way. the president is hugely competitive. we're not talking about senate control now. we're talking about what the number will be for republicans.

we're way past -- i mean the brieltest spots for democrats tonight are jeanne shaheen by 11,000 votes and a pennsylvania governor's race everyone knew was kicked a month ago. >> we have more news to put the cap on this. this is the maryland governor's race. nbc news is now projecting larry hogan is the next governor of maryland in a state that is essentially democrat as you know. >> essentially democrat. >> let's come back to your point there. how does the president not read this as a rejection of his name of his party of his agenda? how does he not read that? >> two things. obviously there were a huge number of these races in very red places right? essentially republicans won control in red places added to that in a big way by winning

three of the four purple senate races. look, i think it's going to be an interesting press conference at the white house tomorrow. was there in 2010 when we -- i will say this the word shellacking has been taken. but i think this is as chuck said, a big wave. maryland's a big wave. >> steve, one of your leaders of the future rand paul and i don't mean that sarcastically says your party brand sucks. it doesn't look like it sucks tonight. >> this is a rejection of the president and his policies not a buy-in of the republican agenda simply because we didn't have much of an agenda other than asking people to vote against the president in race after race. i do think one of the interesting aspects in the immediate future, and i say this as someone who has been a long-time advocate of immigration reform i don't think it's possible for republicans to be a national

party, getting 27% of the his it andic -- hispanic votes, we need 40% to win. the president by executive order is going to wipe away the nation's immigration laws and legalize 7 million people plus by executive order. i think it would be an extraordinarily provocative act, incredibly divisive and i think that this is an issue that is immediately in front of the new congress potentially in the lame duck by the president. and i think his actions in that space will very much set the tone for the remaining two years of the administration. will he act in a conciliatory way or not? >> is that a deal breaker? if he goes out there and does it by fiat and legalizes x number of people and says i don't need approval from you guys he'll

just do it does that mean no more deals? is that an end to the game? >> what deals? >> i'm asking. >> i suspect it is. we live in a constitutional republic and what that is in my view is cesarism. the president doesn't have that authority. it's a grotesque overreach of the executive authority. i say that as someone who believes the hastert rules in the house are pernicious. this was the point that chris was making earlier. the issue with the immigration bill, the republicans certainly, we have our fair share of blame as an advocate for it but the president has not been able to get this done from a leadership perspective and has accountability in that space.

>> have i toi have to say for how much i've enjoyed talking to you about this over the years, i think you're out over your skis in terms of what the president has done and whether it's cesarism. the president hasn't done anything nor has the president talked specifically about what he's going to do nor has he talked ever about changing laws nor could he do so legally. the president is talking about what's in his administrative power to do. >> i think politically -- >> whether or not he's a dictator, come on. >> i think legally he could do some the things he can do here. i think politically tonight it put an end to it. it would be a provocative act politically -- >> no matter what he does? >> on this front i think you have a republican party while i think a lot of them want to work with him on tax policy trade, i think they think that immigration will tear their own

party apart and i think they will feel they have to confront the president here. what i'm saying is the president is going to know that if he does this, he is starting a war -- political war in washington between the white house and the republican congress. he'd be -- i'm not -- i understand what you're saying that you can be technically legally correct. it would just start a political war. >> nothing has changed in terms of the politics of immigration in washington. the republican party was blocking it before from the minority in the senate and the majority in the house. they will continue to do so. the president has said -- he's made this promise. if he breaks it, every latino in the country has reason to believe that democrats have been lying to them. >> he shouldn't have delayed it though. >> i think that you may have a point in terms of delaying it but i think that when we have

heard nothing different from the president to start talking tonight about cesarism yes, there's been a wait. a lot of us including me didn't want to believe that would happen. first of all we don't know whether the republicans are going to be intoxicated by their victory tonight and overstep the runway here. we don't know what's going on. >> that's going to happen. >> and it's very possible that the war can be declared by the republicans. the president has not said anything different than he said before. and if he operates within his administrative powers and doesn't overpush the envelope and the republicans too zealous, you could see a different kind of politics. it's very premature. >> two checks to what was just said and to what you said, rachel. the first check is what happened tonight. the country has given the united states senate to the republican party. that is a check on the president. whether he likes it or not, it is a political check on the

president. so he has to honor that check, to chuck's point, because in other words they want him -- the country wants him to figure out a way to work with them. the check on republicans is in that two years we're going to be sitting around this table with a lot of blue in play for republicans. they want to keep the senate,they're going to now have to govern which means they're going to have to figure out a way to work with the president on immigration and a host of other issues. >> they don't want to govern. ewant to make it look like washington is broken so people hate obama all the more. >> i want to know what the president is going to do for us before we analyze -- >> let me try to wrap this up. one thing we can all agree on this is there has to be pretty early tomorrow morning a sequencing conversation in the white house. at some point tomorrow the president will walk into the east room and give a traditional press conference after an election and talk about working with the senate working with

the new senate right? and i do think there's going to have to be a sequencing conversation because if the message is i want to work with you, here are some ideas and some things we can do there's going to be some different conversation that has to be had. you can't just turn around in three weeks and wave a wand. there will be a lot of sequencing in this. michael is right in that republicans will have to decide something. i'll make this prediction and it's not far out on a limb. if they don't fix their hispanic voting problems in two years, they will be in charge of congress for a long long time and they will only be inrighted to meetings at the white house. since george w. bush in 2004 mitt romney got less and less

hispanic votes. there has to be to reaps, they saw eric can't or they you a others. there are going to have to be discussions that happen inside. >> here's thom tillis's victory speech. >> we won! i tell you what though. but there was something else that was very very important that had to happen tonight and we have swept this nation with a compelling charge. somehow i think senator reid is going to have a different office

assignment come january. i think at the end of the day the reason they spent all that money, they looked at north carolina they knew what we had here. we had hundreds and hundreds of volunteers committed knocking on doors, doing what we needed to do. y'all refused to lose and that's why i'm standing here before you.

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. in oregon they have voted to legalize the sale and possession of marijuana. but the legalized sale and possession of marijuana passes in the state of oregon. it did not meet the threshold it needed to meet for medical marijuana. we'll be watching alaska. and two duelling initiatives on guns in washington state, one which would prohibit background checks and one which would mandate background checks. the one that prohibited background checks lost tonight. the one that would have mandated background checks that one passed. so gun control passes thanks to

a pair of perfectly conflicting propositions none the washington ballot tonight. >> we hear cory gardner is going to give a victory speech in new jersey. >> colorado. >> oh that gardner. i like the or cory better but let's go to this guy. >> tonight we shook up the senate. you shook up the senate. your message was heard from nevada to pennsylvania avenue. as republicans in colorado, we've gotten used to the saying wait until the next election. well, i've got news for you. that next election, it finally happened. a few minutes ago i spoke with senator udall and i thanked him for his incredible commitment to public and our commitment

together to work for a smooth transition. nine months ago in boulder i stood before you to accept the nomination for united states senate. it was there that we realized together the great challenge that we would face to get to this day, saying then we have signed up to be the tip of the spear, the van guard of the movement that is sweeping our nation to pick the shackel of gridlock and to fundamentally change the dysfunction of washington, d.c. and we have indeed reached that historic day. we have realized the success of that movement. the people of colorado voters around this state had their voices heard. they are not red, they are not blue but they are crystal clear in their message to washington, d.c., get your job done and get the heck out of the way! [ cheers and applause ]

tomorrow -- tomorrow we go to work to fix a washington that is out of step, out of touch and out of time. tonight colorado indeed became the fulcrum of the balance of power. tonight we commit ourselves to building a government we can be proud of again, a government that solves big problems because leaders have the courage to lead to unite those voices who, while they may not have voted with the victor tonight recognized the need to find common solutions, an all together uncommon notion in washington. i will work each and every day for every person in colorado to find those solutions, not for party and politics but for you, the people of colorado. i am convinced -- i am convinced

that we won this election because we -- we asked coloradoans to live their eyes to that great rocky mountain horizon, to look ahead to a future that is brighter than our present. ours is a forever young state with an ever hopeful attitude. all of us are here tonight because we believe there is something exceptional about our state and our nation. we believe in courageous ideas and bold beliefs, we believe in the power of optimism, of the american story, a belief that isn't electioneering but enduring, a generational commitment to the better tomorrow than we are today. the moral compulsion to give our children and grandchildren a better starting point than the one we inherited from our parent and our grandparents. and i say we can fix this nation's problems together. we can build a stronger economy together. we can achieve energy independence together.

we can improve education together and we can protect our incredible environment together because tonight the people of colorado sent a message, a message that is what is happening in washington isn't working and it has to stop that our country expects and deserves better than what it is getting, that leaders shouldn't stop at the status quo and they think deserve a pat on the back. it was not a message for republicans tonight or against democrats but a warning, a warning to all who fail to courageously act. how did this rag tag nation of farmers, planters mercantilists defeat the greatest nation on the face of this earth? it's because each and every one

of us has a passion in our hearts to rise to be better to imagine a great nation to imagine a great economy, to imagine together a nation that rises. thanks to all of you who made this night possible and thank you to my family. [ cheers and applause ] >> okay, that's of course u.s. congressman cory gardner, who has defeated incumbent governor mark udall in colorado tonight. roy, we were just arguing about the lame duck and you're taking us right to '16. what do you know? >> what i know is that the republican victories are exciting republicans a lot tonight, especially in blue states. as rachel was mentioning earlier, you're looking not only at illinois wisconsin staying with the republicans,

connecticut, possibly massachusetts, maryland a blue state if there ever was one. this is an indication of what the ground game is going to be like and what the playing field is going to be like in 2016. there are 18 states in the district of columbia that form the big blue wall for democrats in which they have 242 electoral votes just starting out with that group of states that regularly vote democrat. now you've got a situation of the republicans taking governorships in some of those places showing i think a chance and an excitement that they've got to really compete strongly in states they need to get to break through. illinois is big and there's no mistake about it. the notion that i don't know whether we've called the race in massachusetts yet, buts fact that charlie baker is ahead there is really significant -- >> we haven't called it yet. >> okay. it's been really interesting. connecticut. maryland overwhelming defeat of a democrat in maryland.

you can put that down to anthony brown's weakness as a candidate if you want but i think it means a lot more than that. and on some of the senate races, the fact that mark warner barely survived in virginia and under barack obama became a part of the democratic coalition i think is a warning to democrats heading into 2016. >> let's talk about audacity which is really the key to politics, the ego, the person who is willing to run the race they can't win but they do win. maryland virginia new hampshire, audacity. ed gillespie is going to beat mark warner you're kidding me? a republican is going to be governor of maryland? you're kidding me. a guy can move from one state to the next can't vote there hardly, says i can win anywhere. audacity. it seems to me the democrats don't have a whole lot of audacity and the party that does

have it wins because they keep going on offense and the crafts are going on defense. >> i think the republicans were invited to be audacious this year because of the weakness of the president, bass of his lousy poll numbers, because of the general sour mood about the economy generally, even though there's been some progress on the economy. you get guy like ed gillespie, who spent most of his life as an insider, as a lesser figure than steve schmidt but still an insider in republican politics imagine steve schmidt running for the senate out there. i think it could have been done if he wanted to do it this year because that's the kind of year it was. >> was it that big a republican year? that big? wait, that would be a tsunami. >> rick scott has broken down all sorts of barriers for bald guys. >> if you ran, i would run your campaign. >> i think we would all run

steve's campaign. i think with this atmosphere, it's going to invite republicans to take chances and invite scott brown to mosey overs border to new hampshire. it's going to invite an outsider to run an insider campaign in virginia. and he almost pulled it off. you've seen that all over the country because republicans, feeling mcconnell's strategy of basically locking up action in washington and then blaming it on the president has worked brilliantly. and that's the story. >> one last question. i'll take one answer. >> yes. >> which party has the spark right now? >> oh the republican party for sure. the dems have to reinvent themselves all over again. the obama era is over. >> thanks my friend. let's bring in our colleague, lawrence o'donnell, who is looking at the new united states

senate because he's an expert on it. there was a hot discussion a few moments ago how audacious the president is going to be when he comes back after this election and how wild he's going to gets in terms of executive orders on immigration, will he go all the way or part way or whatever even if it pro voks the congress. do you think he has to tread softly or are they separate questions? does he have to be careful if he wants to get something done in economic growth? >> we saw this with bill clinton in 1994 he in one night lost a democratic house and a democratic senate. i can tell you what was going on in the white house the next day was simply shock. the white house did not know what to do next. we went up there very soon after that election different groups from the hill and the basic thing we wanted to know the basic message we wanted to get from the president is what will you veto tell us what your veto

lines are, where the line is for you on a category of possible legislation. white house couldn't do it and bill clinton could do it. i think the president tonight never having worked with a republican senate before there isn't really a way for this white house to know tomorrow morning when they wake up how they're going to deal with this senate. the president is going to have to meet one-on-one with mitch mcconnell, it's going to have to be a meeting unlike any he's ever had with mitch mcconnell. he's going to have to really try to see if there is a way to finds the man of government that mitch mcconnell used to be 20 years ago. that may be impossible now, to see if he can reach into this new senate majority leader and do some business with him and do one very important piece of business right off the bat. he has to say to the senate majority leader look this country is very soon not going to have an attorney general. we have to confirm an attorney general. you, mitch mcconnell have to confirm an attorney general. he's going to have to work very directly with mitch mcconnell on

how to get that done. that will be the very first public test of just how responsibly mitch mcconnell wants to runs united states senate. >> rob, do you think the president ever really sits down and has a heart to heart with the other side or does he have these highly choreographed meetings at the jefferson hotel so he doesn't have to get close to anybody? >> look i think we're coming into a brave new world tomorrow. >> yeah. >> and, look i think it's fascinating on a whole number of levels. mollie ball had a great piece in the atlantic a week ago where she covered pat roberts. pat roberts said vote for me because i'll stop obama and we'll start getting something done in the senate. and she wrote about the fact that those are two completely

incongruent statements to make next to each other in a speech. you've got a democratic government that wants to do some things to add to his legacy, to continue to see the economy grow but you've also got republicans who now not only do they have to govern but i think they have to show the american people they have the ability to get something done. they have to. because the one thing again we need to be clear about is -- and i think republicans and democrats can agree on this -- is what happened tonight is not an indication or a prediction about what will happen in two years. and for the republicans to have a night like tonight in 2016 is going to require of them getting something done. they've got to change something about the gridlock. you're shaking your head but i'm telling you -- >> no, i'm trying to figure out -- >> no you're not, chris is. >> i think the tactical decision, which is to obstruct

has been basically quite politically beneficial. >> you shut down the governor and you're rewarded. >> what's the point of encouraging that crap though? >> i'm not encouraging it. >> it sounds like you're saying it's effective politics. >> from a purely political standpoint there are two big decisions made. one was do you pass comprehensive immigration reform? the voices in the party said if we pass it we'll get no credit for it, if we block it, hopefully the blame gets divided equally. the people that said let's shut down the government. they shut down the government and all the people said this is terrible and look at what kind of night we're having now. >> maybe someone will agree with me here. i think both parties gain from a deal on immigration. the republicans, they used to have this problem with social security, cut the deal get it behind you. at some point they got to make a

deal to let people who have been in this country for many years to become americans. there's no other long-term policy that makes any sense to do that. >> jose diaz-balart has been waiting. what do you think? >> i agree with chris on this. i think it's beneficial to both parties if some immigration reform comes out of washington in the near future. clearly the president has been saying since day one he supports immigration reform. it would be beneficial to this country on an economic factor. it would lose help the economy but it would also help this country. the fact is he has not been able to do that. the president promised for example, that byes end of the summer he would take executive action on immigration because the house of representatives did not, they punted on it. and this decision to wait until afters elections may have cost the democrats, specifically in colorado because less latinos

turned outs to votes for democrats. let's think think of this. in 2012, president obama received 80% of the california latino vote and mr. udall got 71%. that's a pretty substantial drop of latino support for the president. i think the president needs to gets this as a legacy issue and i think it would be beneficial to republicans as well. >> jose have i to ask you a really tough question and it really is tough. i look at the senate bill as a balanced bill. it's got 12 republicans behind it, it has good opportunities for people to become citizens a road to sip senseship, for both compassion and american reasons, we want people to be americans. and there's also tough stuff in there. it really does make it hard to hire people legally. it it makes it you have to be papered, it has to be official

from now on. why doesn't the president put some of the tough teeth out there. what do you republicans want m? there's teeth in this bill. what more do you want? don't make it look like you're the softy. this is a tough ass bill. what more do you want here? i'd be much nastier about it. >> and additional money to get across the border? >> this idea of the border higher buildings, more guns it's ridiculous. deportation is ridiculous. if it's legal to come here or make it easier to come here buts fact is we can regulate our border effectively, we can do it compassionately and something that we'd be proud to do but we don't want to do it. i still have a problem with the president with this. they don't believe he's delivering. am an at some point he's got to go from the issue to the bill.

>> how could he make john baner pass it? >> you got to try. >> he got it through the senate. >> it's the way our constitution works, that's why. >> when you try and they say no what do you do? >> one of the defining issues of our time in politics is the total collapse of trust in nearly every institution in the country, which extends beyond the government to business. so we talk about the 1994 election and we talk about bill clinton and the republican congress. it's important to remember that was a time of peace and prosperity in this country. the and the american people broadly speaking in this election have just rendered a verdict that essentially we feel like the wheels are about to come off.

and they are anxious, they are upset and they're in a bad mood and they don't believe that the leaders of either party, judging by any poll have the capacity to actually govern the president. i think it's and to show the american people they have the capacity to govern and lead in a time of real crisis. we look at isis we look at the ebola epidemic. actually out across the world. so these very serious challenges i think demand a level of seriousness from the national leaders. it will be very interesting to see which side is able to get up on the high ground of reasonableness but for sure the zero sum notion that i win, you lose, both sides by working together i think you're exactly right, have every capacity to rise together.

>> i think that is hopeful on policy grounds. on tactical grounds i have to say republicans have been rewarded for making sure nothing happens. we have to note there are four big races outstanding tonight, even before we get to the polls closing in alaska in about 19ments. there are outstanding races for governor in maine, in connecticut, in colorado and in massachusetts. we're going to be talking with steve kornacki about what's going on in some of those races right now but we've got four outstanding governor races. tomorrow morning in the "boston globe," we've seen what the front page is going to look like. they're not calling it between charlie baker and martha coakley either. we'll get some of those numbers ahead of the next poll closings when we come back.

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in the maine's governor race tonight, nbc is still calling this race too close to call. we're just told that paul lepage, the republican incumbent, has declared victory and mike michaud has conceded the race. we do have a new call in a governor's race, though. this is a big one. nbc news projects that the winner in the massachusetts governor's race is republican charlie baker. this is a republican pick up outgoing governor is deval patrick, democrat. martha coakley was trying to succeed him as democrat.

in maine we've got a race that's not being called by nbc news. colorado and connecticut, nbc considering both of those races too close to call. as these last few get sorted out, let's talk to steve kornacki about what we know about these races. the call right now from nbc on massachusetts, no call on these other three. >> i'll start on massachusetts. i think there's a pretty good reason they did this. what you can see is that charlie baker now has climbed ahead by 30,000 votes. when you look at what's outstanding, there just aren't really any democratic areas that are left. the two biggest places left on the map are haverhill and attleboro, they're strong republican towns. i think what the coakley people were waiting on here is the massachusetts state law says if you're within half a point, you then can request a recount. you have ten days to do that. baker, though, in the last however has seen the lead climb

from a fraction to a point to over a point. it also looks like he's above that point threshold. when you look in maine, you have rural areas and outlying areas. we don't have the map but i can explain quickly what happened why this has happened tonight. in maine there's a very clear sort of cultural geographic divide between the rural northern part of the state and southern maine, southern maine which can be a boston suburb. the shocking thing is paul lepage in southern maine, communities would expect him to get clobbered in saco maine, scarborough, maine, even portland the democrats did not shine here. connecticut connecticut's outstanding.

malloy is trying to hang on. hartford, east hartford, new haven, bridgeport. democrats have a path at least in connecticut. i can't resist. have i i have to share with you one statistic, if you're a democrat on this night, it would be in the state of massachusetts there are nine congressional races tonight, all nine of them went to the democrats. that means that in the last 100 individual congressional races in massachusetts, democrats are now 101. so even in this brutal climate tonight, that streak survives. >> that says something about the massachusetts congressional delegation. but massachusetts goes back to a republican governor.

let me get your reaction to that. >> gee, martha coakley loses again apparently. this really is shellacking the sequel. i said earlier i wasn't sure it was a wave. this is a wave. you loses maryland governor's race you lose in states where you shouldn't be losing and so it's more than just i think the referendum that republicans wanted on president obama or on the way you feel about things right now. because the democratic party comes out of this looking tired and almost exhausted. and i think it's a real mistake for democrats to assume that in 2016 they can so easily recreate the coalition that president obama created in 2008 and 2012

and energize and fire up minorities and women and younger voters in that very special way. they might not be able to do that. >> let's talk about that without being final about anything because nothing's final. martha coakley has suffered from the notion that she's boston she's been elite. and the guys who run against her, i'm more of a guy, i drive a truck, i'm more west of boston, you know the area they try to sell it. but hillary clinton was very popular when she ran up there, as someone who did identify with the working class people. she never had the elite tarnish. coakley does have this problem of people saying she's not one of us. >> that's an interesting point because hillary clinton as we

have seen over the years does have that kind of appeal. she's able to talk to the kind of vote that's barack obama is not able to talk to. but can she assemble the rest of that coalition? can she really inspire the people that the president inspired in his two campaigns? maybe she can. but who else can do it? >> there's so much going on. denver post endorsing cory gardner, and the "iowa register" endorsing ernst. >> i was go toy say martha coakley is one of the worst candidates we've seen repeatedly. i think the broader point you're making here is pretty close to the mark. i think you saw a lot of democrats in some of these close places take these key groups for granted, whether it was women, whether it was african-american voters. the question is how do we turn these people out?

in colorado it was essentially how do we turn people off of cory gardner. and that tactic at the end of the day wasn't enough. >> and it could be the voters who are being targeted figured and probably correctly that you know, these republicans are conservative and weird but they're not actually going to do all this stuff. they're in the going to do what -- >> that's the key point is that you have to have some faith that there's some causal connection between who you vote for and what those people will do. when that gets severed, right, what you end up voting is your discontent. right now and for a long time let's remember the economy -- this recovery has not delivered for the vast majority. voters. it has not. >> somebody once said a squirrel is a rat in nice packaging. they're very similar if you look at them closely but they're more cuddly. >> i feed the squirrels, okay?

>> don't feed them, at a distance. i had a better point to make. we'll be right back to try to explain this in a more literal fashion, a more literary coverage. this is nbc's coverage at 1:00 in the morning, yes, it is.

oh, there's still more to come. at this point the republicans have taken seven seats noticein the senate. we still don't know what's going to happen with the alaska seat

held by mark begich. we're still waiting for a call on the connecticut, colorado and maine governor's race. in maine they seem to be acting like it's over but nbc news is not calling the race. so we're watching those last few governor races, connecticut, maine and colorado. we're waiting on alaska poll closings a senate race governor's race and interesting ballot measures on legalizing marijuana and raising the minimum wage in alaska. we'll be right back with that in just a moment.