welcome, everybody, to a special democracy hangover edition of rfd. it's 1:00 p.m. on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. on the west. republicans sweeping the country and claiming the senate. we're right now awaiting the first big reaction speech from president obama at the white house. that should happen in the next hour at around 2:50 eastern. in the meantime, we're hearing the president has been working the phones calling dozens of candidates from both parties. and, get this, leaving a message for mitch mcconnell after the gop captured the majority. picking up, in fact, more seats than it even needed. republicans also widened their majority in the house. they haven't had this many seats in that chamber since 1945. adding insult to political injury, normally blue governor

seats went red including michigan and maryland. both races that the president himself threw his weight behind. take a look at the cover of "time" today. speaks volumes that obama hope logo replaced with another hopeful. along with his new gig, senator mcconnell won kentucky as big as he said he would. with all of last night's big wins at his back, the senator struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech, mentioning the president himself by name. >> 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 to show it again. >> so bipartisanship may be not dead. we'll have to see. we're also waiting on remarks

from senator mcconnell shortly. he'll speak around 2:00 p.m. eastern. he announced that speech, again, scheduled before the presidents after the white house announced their timetable. again, their messaging from the president himself is expected at 2:50 eastern. so a lot coming up. joining me from the white house is kristen welker. kristen, thanks for following this for us. what can we expect to hear from the president? what are you hearing from your sources there? >> reporter: well, ronan, good afternoon. i'm told that president obama's main message is going to be that he wants to get to work, it's time for both sides to reach across the aisle, to work together. and there is a lot of pressure on him for members of his own party. who say that he has to strike a conciliatory tone. he has to do a better job of getting engaged and reaching out to republicans and actually getting something done. there's a lot of pressure on the republicans, as well, though, ronan. they now own congress, which means that they would own any gridlock. and of course, if the gridlock continues, that could hurt

republicans in 2016. now, i've been talking to my sources here at the white house and on capitol hill who say they have already begun to identify some possible areas of common ground. you heard leader mitch mcconnell reference that. those areas include corporate tax reform, also early education. the minimum wage, possibly, it seems hard to envision they'll be able to come together on that, but also infrastructure and energy projects. as you mentioned, president obama has been reaching out to lawmakers who were just elected or who held on to their seats and he's also invited lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and both chambers here to the white house. on friday, no word yet, ronan, if he's been able to contact mitch mcconnell. >> all right. so some promising signs of conciliatory tone. no idea how long that will last. but it is certainly striking to see it right now. nbc's kristen welker, appreciate that update. >> thanks, ronan. >> what is the president going to be up against for these next probably very long from his perspective two years?

in the new cover story we've mentioned on "time," he spoke about his specific plans as majority leader. approving the keystone xl pipeline, repealing the medical device tax, trying to restore a 40-hour workweek hitting that labor theme we saw on some of the ballots last night. and he also mentioned trying to get rid of the individual mandate. the president, of course, has already promised some priorities that are, shall we say, less ripe for bipartisanship that includes that long awaited executive action on immigration reform. so how much room is there for compromise? or are we looking at two years of all-out war? let's get into it with two former obama insiders. here in the studio. cal penn, and over from washington, the founder of the insight agency and former obama campaign press secretary. great to have you on finally. ben, i'll start with you. according to "politico," the president's beginning to strike that tone of compromise we've been talking about. that seems wise from a messaging

standpoint. he's going to promise to work with republicans on some of these areas. but what policy priorities specifically, ben, can there be realistic cooperation on. >> well, i think there's agreement between the two parties in a few areas. one is trade, one is infrastructure. obviously everybody agrees that things need to be done to get the economy moving for the middle class. there's been some disagreement on how to get there. so hopefully you can make progress on all of those things. i think what may change for republicans now is if you looked at the numbers last night, there was just as much of a jex rejection of the republican brand as there was of the democratic brand. i think voters voted against inaction in washington. and two years from now, the republicans are going to face a difficult map. so they actually have some pressure points now that their hands are on the wheel to help the president govern. >> all right. sticking to those talking points, ben -- but actually it is true. some of these ballot measures were not right leaning. cal, one thing that was striking

also was that there was an attempt to replicate the 2008 connection with minority voting groups. that's something you worked on on the campaign and at the white house, specifically this outreach, i think you were the rep for pacific islanders and a number of other groups. why couldn't dems replicate that this time around. >> i don't think they tried very hard. there was this tremendous field strategy came out of the obama campaign. i don't think that was there this time around. i think what she should've done for young voters in particular or different demographic groups is capitalized -- there are some popular things he did, particularly the pell grant, staying on your parents' health insurance until 26. they didn't do that. that was run by the dnc, but organizing for action was successful to get the minimum wage up in those three states. so i think it's an interesting split to keep an eye on in how their strategy may have differed from each other. >> what lesson do you think we've learned for 2016 in any of

those areas? >> i don't know. gosh, i think when it comes to young voters, they like to be reminded of the positivity of change. things they've voted on. and really, a lot of these young folks have gotten really involved in campaigns and it goes back to things like 30 years of advocacy of peace in darfur. you know this probably better than i do. three decades of youth organizing that went into that. something like don't ask, don't tell, another two decades that went into that. i think reminding them of how change is very slow is an important thing. it keeps them engaged. >> talking about that youth vote. we're hearing from our nbc numbers from early exit polls, 12% millennial turnout. really strikingly low. why the failure to connect with young voters? is that standard apathy about midterms versus general elections? or is there something else amiss here? >> i do think that's a piece of it. i think it's very hard to mobilize millennials without a galvanizing figure like the president at the top of the ticket taking on some big issues

that do matter to the youth vote. things like climate change that may matter less to an older demographic. but ultimately, this is a different electorate than we'll see in the polls. many of the states up were states the president lost in 2008 and in 2012. but that means that the field organizing work has to begin now for 2016. the president worked very early to change the traditional electorate that voted to bring in young people, to bring in a more diverse coalition. that same composition of the electorate didn't show up last night. but candidates like secretary clinton, a likely candidate need to start thinking about how to mobilize that demographic now. >> what about immigration reform? if the president takes this aggressive action, how like is that to succeed? and thousand do you see that connecting with voters and minority voters that you did outreach to? >> many of us were with the president when the dream act failed and heard him personally speak about how this wasn't done

and he felt it was a moral imperative. the economic imperative of not just the dream act by things like family reunification and comprehensive immigration reform. i think the republicans would be stupid to not capitalize on that. there's a lot of common ground there particularly with conservative latinos and conservatives in general who favor the economic argument over the moral one. i think there's a lot of room there. i think as ben suggested, there's a lot of room for investment and infrastructure, i would say criminal justice reform. you have a lot of libertarian republicans now who favor things like this. and i think that's a good thing. >> and obviously holder coming out in a big way. that's a trademark of this administration. we have to see whether there's any room to push that further. thanks to both of you. really helps us understand what we're gearing up for here. >> thanks, ronan. >> thank you. >> we're going to have live coverage coming up. again, scheduled for the top of the next hour followed by president obama's remarks at around 2:50 eastern. msnbc's chris matthews will be anchoring the live coverage starting at 2:00 p.m. keep it here. up next on this program with

that huge win at the polls for republicans, what's next on their side of the aisle? we're going to dive into just that with two gop insiders after this break. stay with us, everybody. ♪ many americans who have prescriptions fail to stay on them. that's why we created programs which encourage people to take their medications regularly. so join us as we raise a glass to everyone who remembered today. bottoms up, america. see you tomorrow. same time. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything. ["mony mony" by billy idole she cokicks in on car stereo]y". ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah

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for too long this administration has tried to tell the american people what's good for them. and then blame somebody else when their policies didn't work out. tonight, kentucky rejected that approach. friends, this experiment in big government has lasted long enough. >> yeah! >> it's time to go in a new direction!

>> loving him was red. republican minority leader likely majority leader of the senate. striking a defiant tone. we're going to hear from him in a few minutes in his live news conference from louisville. call it a wave, a tsunami, a typhoon, but the republican party won big last night. candidate after candidate triumpha triumphant. >> it is time for a new direction. it is time for a new way forward. >> and the one thing that i take away from all of this is that you want to change the direction of our country. >> somehow i think senator reid's going to have a different office assignment come january. >> we are heading to washington. and we are going to make them squeal! >> make them squeal. her trademark. many of those states are key battlegrounds. of course, for future presidential elections, as well.

joining me here in the studio, the board master, the scorekeeper, my colleague, steve kornacki. tell us, first of all, colorado's one race i wanted to focus on very much. a senate race and gubernatorial race to sort out there. walk us through what happened. >> you have a split verdict, and the question is why. why in the same state with the same voters is one democrat rejected and one reelected. so right here you see the democrat who was rejected last night. udall, the incumbent democrat. i can show you things on the map the county returns in colorado. you're looking at denver, the heart of democratic territory in colorado. big percentage there for udall. didn't get gigantic turnout. you know, at the same time, you look here, this is pueblo county, sort of big republican territory. they had huge turnout here. also, douglas county, huge turnout here for the republicans. so the republicans had a little bit of an advantage there. where did he really start to lose it then? here's what you have to look. take a look inside this county right here. this is jefferson county, this is the suburbs of denver. this should be -- this is one

the democrats want to be winning, you know, three, four points, something like that. falls a little bit short here. you ask why did udall lose and hickenlooper win? well, let's take a look at the county map for the governor's race and you're going to see differences here. in denver, still the same deal with good turnout -- good number for the democrats, not necessarily a good turnout. you look down here, el paso county, republicans still -- take a look in jefferson, though, the swing county. >> you keep mentioning lower turnout even though there were high percentages for dems. was that at the heart of the results? >> that's part of it. that puts you in trouble. in denver, you didn't necessarily get the number you needed, whereas in these big republican areas, they got big numbers, now you're in trouble. now you go into a county like jefferson. this is golden, colorado, they make coors beer there. this is the suburbs west of denver. hickenlooper, he did. it's in counties like this where

he was able to -- hickenlooper the governor was able to connect. this is a perfect example. this is pueblo. city of pueblo county. right there, a five-point win for hickenlooper. cory gardner won this county in the senate race. this is one that democrats rely on. hickenlooper was able to win in places like that where mark udall wasn't. and that's the difference between one democrat surviving and one losing. >> really striking stuff there. let's go over to iowa. this is another big race. i want to do this while we have time. what groups turned out for joni ernst in particular. who came out in force? >> well, first of all, i called up the governor's race. let me call up the senate map and show you this. >> so adept with your toys here. >> i just want terry's picture on the screen. eight-point win, very solid win. i can show you the map. normally what you have in iowa is a pretty stark. you can see the outlines. a stark east/west divide. that is really -- >> this is striking.

a state cut in half. >> what you see last night was joni ernst made big inroads. scott county where davenport is on the mississippi river. in the 2012 presidential election when barack obama carried iowa by six points. h he won scott county by 14. look what happened last night. joni ernst went to eastern iowa and beat bruce braley. this was the sort of thing she was able to do in eastern iowa that most republicans aren't able to do. >> i think we may be drawing nigh when we have to call it quits. looking at this country wide, you've been working the board on every major race. what's the game-changer here? >> well, we can talk about how motivated republicans were. and that's true as we showed you in colorado. it's certainly true in kansas. turned into an absolute blowout because the republican-leaning voters of kansas finally said we don't want a democratic senate. but this thing became a wave last night.

i can quickly call this up on the screen and you can see. this thing became a wave when some governors races started coming in that nobody saw coming. when paul le page, the incumbent in maine survived. >> no surprise there. >> he didn't just win, he won big in maryland. when that starts happening, i'm not always as shocked when republican wins the governor's race in massachusetts. they have a history of doing that. but, again, when these things all start to happen on the same night. and the democrats are left saying, hey, we won rhode island and we won connecticut, and that's pretty much all they're left to brag about. that's when it's a wave. >> a lot of morning after doubts and regrets for the dems right now. the one and only, steve kornacki. appreciate it. you can catch steve and his show "up" weekend mornings on msnbc. a lot of big wings as we looked at for republicans. at least seven gop seats total on the senate side giving them a clear majority. and what will a senate controlled by these conservatives look like? take a listen.

>> tonight, as is always with a night, there will be the start of a new day. the tide has turned. and the era of the obama/reid gridlock is over. >> end of an era? will republicans end that gridlock? and what steps will they take first? two of our favorite gop voices, a former bush/cheney senior adviser and msnbc contributor as well as hogan gidley. someone who knows ground game well. robert, i'll start with you. harry reid on his way to the minority. what changes with that in the senate? >> well, i think it changes a lot of things. to your earlier point, ronan. republicans now have a responsibility to help colegislate here. and i think what you're going to see is an olive branch being sent to the president.

let's sit down and talk about tax reform, the keystone pipeline. let's sit down and talk about a reasonable approach to minimum wage. because, you, in fact, were right. you were right a couple of weeks ago when you campaigned across the country and said that your policies would be on the ballot this time and the american people spoke very, very loudly and said, you know, mr. president, we're not exactly sure we agree with the direction of the country you want to go into. let's try the republican role, if you will. and that's when republicans have to step up to the plate and have to co-legislate here because they really can't blame the democrats anymore in terms of gridlock. they have to come up with a policy that is forward thinking and leads to a 2016 majority to the white house. what harry reid is going to do, is he's going to have to sit back and take a passive seat here. but what will senate democrats do here? it sounds like this is deja vu all over again where they have nancy pelosi as the house minority leader and harry reid as a senate minority leader. these are the two individuals that drove them in this ditch, if you will. and the question is, whether or not senate democrats and house democrats will say, you know what, it's time for new

leadership. it's time for new blood in terms of our democratic leadership. >> hogan, one interesting point in what we heard from robert is this idea that there was a referendum on some of these policies and that the public went right on the policy side. but it's not a totally clear picture on that front. a lot of initiatives you wouldn't necessarily expect, like raising the minimum wage, what do you make of that? >> well, i think you can differentiate between the two. and voters did just that. they wanted some republican leadership at the senate level. republicans on a national level are fine with some minimum wage increases, especially if it's done at the local level, which is what they've been fighting for. but quite frankly, i think folks like senator mcconnell now the leader will have to address some of those things. he should bring those things into the conversation. robert mentioned the keystone pipeline. that's another thing we should focus on as republicans. and i'll throw another one out there, mandatory minimums need to be talked about from the republican standpoint. try and make inroads. for so long, barack obama hasn't

had to use a veto pen because everything republicans passed went to harry reid and sat on his desk. now, these bills will get out of committee, they'll get out of the full chambers and go to the president. the question becomes, how willing will he be to fight these issues? is he going to come to the table? is he going to allow for the legislation to become law? because if it does, i think it sets up really nicely for us in 2016. and at the end of the day, republicans will have to take this golden opportunity they've been given and actually govern something. and if we do that and show we can govern. show republican governance can and will be successful, we're sitting pretty for 2016. >> let's get into that question of actual governance. what policy agendas are and should be on the table. interesting fact, the white house has a bipartisan meeting of leadership on friday. what kind of concrete initiatives should be on the table that actually could have feasible support from this white house and this new hill? >> i'll go back to what i said

before. i really do think the keystone pipeline is probably the first thing. when you look -- take a look at it purely from a bipartisan standpoint. >> everybody keeps saying that. >> it's true. it's true. you have the teamsters, the union individuals, bipartisan folk, governors that want this. that 43,000 jobs, these are temporary jobs, but 43,000 jobs that will be created because of this. look, that's a no-brainer, right? when it comes to the national security and the energy security. i think the second thing and hogan's right about this, i think there's a reasonable approach to minimum wage. look, at the end of the day, we all know that a minimum wage, there needs to be some type of living wage. states are taking the initiative to pass living wages because the federal government is kind of stuck, if you will, in neutral. so i think those two things, along with maybe even some foreign policy initiatives when it comes to trade, i think are on the table and most likely could pass overwhelmingly. >> thank you so much, both of you. hogan, last word to you. we've only got a few seconds left.

these diverse candidates coming in, like mia love, do you see that change on the policy side? more out of the gop party and gaining prominence within the gop platform. >> i hope so. but with mia love, tim scott, folks like that did not run on a liberal agenda. they ran on conservative ones. you're seeing a big shift in the african-american community and other minorities who say, look, we don't care who is driving the train, we want the train to show up at the station on time. and if republicans are given a chance to steer it and get there on time, we'll see a shift in who those big voting blocks support, not to mention the ones in the senate and the house. >> our fabulous gop brain trust, thank you, both of you. we're going to have our dnc war room team in just a couple of minutes to get the other side of this. but first, earlier this week, we asked you our viewers to send your call to action. we shared a lot of our favorites

yesterday and doing the same today because you guys had great voting selfies. win or lose ronation is all about democracy. maggie, snapping a pic after voting. and hi to devon after taking a selfie in the lone star state. finally, sweet willow sporting her voting swag. can't get enough of our team ronan selfies, appreciate all of you sent them in. just ahead, the first cut is the deepest and it was a night of first, mia love, we've got the full story when we come back. ever since darryl's wife started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. (sniff) uh honey, isn't that the dog's towel? (dog noise) hey, mi towel, su towel.

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support with my campaign for governor. we came very, very close. he's conceding to winner dan malloy. you see the numbers there. we're going to keep an eye and have more on that race coming up. but first, we're looking at all the firsts last night. and there are plenty of them. bruce rauner winning illinois's governor race against pat quinn. that marks the first time since 1982. that a sitting president's home state, illinois in this case, lost the governorship. we noted that some other firsts last night also happened that since 1892 prompted us to bring you this special election edition of daily spike. here's a first. as of last night, there'll be 100 women in congress. that's pretty big. it's the first time ever and, of course, still a long way from gender parity. but it's a pretty good start. way to go, america. also another midterm first, tim scott becoming the first black republican senator elected in the south since reconstruction. could the civil war finally be actually over? could racial tension be over? i think the answer's probably no

to the latter, but it's a wonderful step. also, mia love rounding out this list. the utah republican becoming the very first black female republican elected to congress when she edged out democrat doug owens last night. like we said, a night of firsts. just ahead, we heard from the winners, we're also going to hear from the democratic strategists throwing their spin on last night's events and diving into what comes next for the party. the dnc war room next. [singing to himself] "here she comes now sayin' mony mony". ["mony mony" by billy idol kicks in on car stereo] ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪'cause you make me feel like a pony♪ ♪so good ♪like your pony ♪so good ♪ride the pony the sentra, with bose audio and nissanconnect technology. spread your joy. nissan. innovation that excites. [singing] ♪mony mony

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poise to republican businessman david perdue. perdue was able to avoid a much wanted runoff with 53% of that vote. and the other hopeful, jason carter. democratic political dynasties losing across the country from georgia to colorado, to arkan s arkansas. so what's next for democrats? ron reagan is a radio show host and msnbc contributor. bob shrum has run campaigns for decades. thank you both of you. you know this well. what happened? what comes next? ron, i'll start with you. it seems like one big feature of this midterm was people staying away from president obama, going great lengths to say we're not tied to the president or his agendas. in retrospect, was that smart or a mistake? >> i think it was a mistake. i think the grimes race in kentucky is emblematic of that. she lost a lot of points, i think, in the polls when she

refused to answer the question, did you vote for president obama? now, i can defend her on principle, we do have private ballots here, but a terrible answer. the answer should have been, of course, i did. he's the standard bearer of my party. we may disagree on certain issues, but that's okay. we can do that in the democratic party. they ran away from obama, they ran away from obamacare. they let the republicans paint it as some sort of failure. no, it's not. millions of people have health insurance then and didn't have it before. and the republicans have no alternative for this. they should fought harder, the democrats. this is typical of democrats. they run away, they lack the strength of their convictions. that was the take away for me last night. >> and at a time when people desperately want transparency, that answer or lack thereof smacked of entirely the opposite. democrats, on the other hand, were very eager to invite the clintons to campaign with them. and a lot of republicans are now trying to tie these losses to the clintons. do you think that the clintons weren't effective because of any

specific reason or policy on the table? or was their mojo overestimated going into this race? >> well, i think that's all republican spin. look, the fundamentals of this race were set way in advance. it took place in states that were primarily red, especially these senate contests. i admire the clintons for going in there and fighting hard. i think they did a very good job. and i think republicans are going to find out in 2016 that there's a lot of mojo in hillary clinton. beyond that, this was not a representative presidential electorate. 37% of the turnout last night were seniors. 12% of the turnout came from young people. that's the kind of electorate where democrats can't do well. and i think ron is exactly right. running away from the president was crazy. democrats who ran away from president clinton in 1994 didn't do very well. and if you look at this from an overall perspective, you have to go back and remember that right after barack obama was re-elected, folks like charlie cook, the political

prognosticator were saying, democrats are going to lose the senate in 2014. the odds are so heavily against them, where the races are held, the nature of the midterm electorate. i think blaming president obama is a mistake. they should have been out there, defending him. this economy is in a lot better shape, and yet, 60% of people think it's in a recession. >> ron, you heard bob on the make-up of the electorate and how that's a challenge for democrats. but there were strenuous efforts to capture some of those minority groups. women, a big push on the emphasis on republicans waging war on women, allegedly, a lot of outreach on images of ferguson and racial tensions, trying to get black voters out to the polls. and also a lot of outreach to young voters who turned out in force for president obama in the past. why didn't those efforts connect more? >> well, that's a good question. and there's going to have to be a lot of tea leaf reading and soul searching going on. i don't think you're going to attract a huge minority vote, particularly a black vote if you run away from the first black president of the united states.

i mean, you know, if you're a young black person who may be on the fence about voting in kentucky, let's say, let's use that example, again. and you hear the democratic candidate, the candidate you would be most likely to vote for disassociate herself from your guy, from barack obama, how enthusiastic are you going to be to go out and vote for her. she's indicating she may not really go along with what barack obama wants to do anyway. this is -- it was a very unsuccessful effort, i think, on the democrats' part. >> and, bob, the blame game is extending to even right now, we're seeing senator harry reid's chief of staff saying this was all on president obama, these losses. so a blame game beginning there on the subject of harry reid, can he keep his leadership position given these losses? >> sure he can, i think he will. nancy pelosi will keep her leadership position. to blame either of them or the president or to suggest as your earlier guest did that somehow or other, this election means that african-americans are

moving toward republicans is deluded. it was a typical american election. it has not been since 1938, franklin roosevelt, that a president in the sixth year of his term had a senate held by his own party. so the odds historically were against the democrats. and by the way, ron's right about this, too. it wasn't just in kentucky where the candidate quality was a real problem. you look at iowa where bruce braley who should've walked to the senate. bruce braley got up, and what he thought was a private meeting made fun of farmers, in iowa. you know, private meeting, i mean, i think mitt romney showed us a couple years ago, there's no such thing as a private meeting. >> all right. we all remember those 47% comments. both of you so appreciate this as we gear up for the president' 's remarks again coming up in an hour. >> thanks, ronan.

>> and up next, it wasn't just the senate and the house where the gop won big last night. the other side of this, governors mansions and republican candidates are measuring for drapes. rick scott in florida is one of them. settling into his governor's digs. we'll look at what happened after this break. we asked people a question how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to like, pull it a little further got me to 70 years old i'm going to have to rethink this thing it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ you know how fast you were going? about 55. where you headed at such an appropriate speed? across the country to enhance the nation's most reliable 4g lte network. how's it working for ya? better than ever. how'd you do it? added cell sites. increased capacity.

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governor anthony brown. and democrat martha coakley biting the dust in massachusetts. narrowly losing to republican charlie baker. joining me now, former ohio governor and democrat ted strickland to look at the gubernatorial side of this. thank you, sir. first of all, i want to look at illinois, 122 years since the president lost his home state to an opposing party. how big of a blow is this to president obama? and what happened there? >> well, governor quinn in my judgment's a great man and a good governor. but, you know, let's just face it. democrats across the country in numerous races took a whipping last night. and we can't minimize that. it's serious, but we'll recover and we'll move on. and in terms of illinois, illinois had some really difficult problems that governor quinn addressed. and as a result of his addressing, you know, the pension problem and other problems, it made him a little more unpopular than he otherwise

would have been. but maryland's a difficult one to explain, quite frankly. i think maybe, you know, the campaign that the democrat run there was, you know, an inferior campaign. massachusetts in the past has had a history of electing republicans governor, and it's not terribly unusual. >> well, governor strickland, i want to look at some of the other races, let's talk about florida incumbent rick scott, unpopular for most of the race, 42% of voters saying they had a favorable view of him earlier going into this race. how do you turn that around? >> well, they spent a lot of money, a lot of his own money. a lot of money was spent on both sides and both candidates had high, unfavorable amount of voting population. some people described that race as, you know, a choice between two negatives. and it was a very close race. i don't think this says anything about what florida's likely to do in 2016, for example.

because we'll have a totally different electorate in 2016 than we had in 2014. but it was a very close race. it was a nasty race. both candidates threw a lot of mud at their opponent. and, and as a result, it was close, but charlie crist did not win. he had been governor. people knew both candidates very well, and both candidates had some rather deep flaws. and as it turned out, governor scott prevailed. but he prevailed in part because of his resources, he spent a lot more money than charlie crist. >> and, governor, having been in this position yourself, what kind of policy implications does this change have? this change of gubernatorial leadership? >> well, you know, i think if you look across the country, progressive issues did better than democratic governors. >> right. minimum wage. >> democratic senators.

>> minimum wage, i mean, five states passed an increase in the minimum wage, the winning margin was well over 20 points, you know, the average in those races. four of those states were red states that actually voted for increasing the minimum wage while voting for a republican to be in the senate in massachusetts, child care, medical leave. so the progressive issues when they were on the ballot and people had a chance to make a decision about that particular issue, the progressive policy prevailed. and washington state, background checks for gun ownership, prevailed. so i think what that may say to the democratic party is that you need to be more focused and more definitive in what it is that you stand for. >> and also, of course, just the realization that this is an

electorate that doesn't always split downright, left lines. how about that really appreciate your insights on this. >> thank you for having me. >> once again, we are awaiting remarks from president obama. that will be in the next hour. but first, a look at an overlooked facet of this. what is going on? millennials too busy taking selfies to vote? take a look at how many, or how few of us under 30s turned out at the polls. come on, guys, the difference we made next. skeptical. what they do actually is rocket science. but at ge capital we also bring expertise from across ge, like lean process engineers we asked who does what, when, where, and why that step first? ideas for improvement started pouring out. with a little help from us, they actually doubled their output speed. if you just need a loan, just call a bank. at ge capital, we're builders. and what we know... can help you grow. wow! [ narrator ] on a mission

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a lot of people don't know what's going on in the world. they're not studying what's going on. so, i feel like more young people get more involved, actually know what's going on, the better it will actually be. the adults, us old people, they know what's going on. >> so, how many of us under 30s turned out at the polls yesterday? some very interesting numbers on the millennial vote this

midterm. only 12% of all midterm voters were under the age of 30. compare that to the 37% over the age of 60. embarrassing us again, baby boomers. that 25-point difference is, get this, larger than the age gaps we've seen in the last three midterms. so, where are the millenials? liz plank is senior editor at mike news. set to speak at millennial conference, involved in the white house dialogue about the millenials. where are we? >> you call that figure interesting? i call it depressing. i couldn't believe when i looked at the demographics this morning, 13%, that's how much millenials made up the electoral, people who went to the polls last night. that is way too low. compared to 19% in 2012, which was already so low. what i really think is -- you know, we look at the exit polls. we saw, you know, two-thirds of voters, general voters, the general population, believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

22% believe that the next generation of americans will be better off. millenials are already feeling apathetic, already don't have any trust in the government. if everyone's already feeling this way, it's a lethal combination. >> those are good points. but i want to push back because as a general phenomenon there's more apathy across the board and fewer young turning out for midterms. why do midterms get young people less excited? >> it's important to mention, across all ages, there's less people showing up at the polls. >> especially the composition of midterms votes is less young. why? >> i wish i knew. i wish everyone would go and know how important their vote is. millenials aren't aware of the difference they can make. politicians are still not good at talking to them. we saw rock the vote, which is a good campaign. whoopi gold berlg, they didn't vote in the last election. millenniaials are looking up to those role models --

>> what is the magic sauce that propelled barack obama into office on the back of so many young votes. how do you replicate that? >> that's a really good question. we saw amazing numbers in 2008 and even 2010. there was hope for change. there were high expectations. and i think millenials need to manage their expectations. they need to realize that, sure, washington is washington. but that they can still make a difference. and the difference that they can make is -- the most important way of doing it is really going to the polls. >> going out to the polls, making your voices heard. we've heard a lot in our audience doing that. people excited and disappointed about that. maybe that will propel more voters to the polls. >> i sure hope so. >> they want specific policies and a lot of gridlock that stands in the way of that. thanks for helping us understand the young voice. all of you, it's been a blast, a pleasure, an honor. appreciate your time. any minute, mitch mcconnell, the man who will probably be senate

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we'll go to the white house east room where president obama holds his first news conference since losing the big election last night. you might call that an election massacre last night as the president is being seen as general custer. we're on the ground now with the backstory on both of those events this hour with nbc news white house correspondent kristin welker and msnbc senior reporter perry bacon. perry, let's go to you. this guy must be the stud of the walk today, mcconnell. he not only wins his seat where he was somewhat in jeopardy, all that democratic money spent against him, with a very attractive young opponent. now he's coming in with, what, 3, 54 senators. a decent majority. he doesn't want the system to be in perpetual conflict. ma wha can we expect from him today, more