of state -elect, adrian fontes.k you very much for joining us on this important night. it was, it took a few days to get here, but this is possibly one of the most important victories in any of these elections that we see anywhere in the country. tell us what was at stake in this campaign, in arizona. is this the campaign, or one of them, that president biden meant when he said, democracies on the ballot? >> there's absolutely no question. the diametrically opposed candidates in this race, mr. finchem, and both caper, an antisemite, an election denier, and myself. i'm an hard-core veteran, and election administrator, with a guy who beat the cyber ninjas here in maricopa county. we advocated for our team, the people who have actually run elections. democrats, republicans, and independents alike. regular citizens who have been coloring, who have been insulted, who have been called frauds and cheats by these election deniers for the last two years have had their we -- are very excited that the voters in arizona recogni

and to, is adrian fontes being elected as a secretary of state. what does this mean for the out remaining outstanding races in arizona? well >> yeah, absolutely, and thanks for having me. i think a lot of us who have been watching this unfold we're a little surprised last night when the ballot drop went in the democrats favor. that is how we got to the point where the races for senate, and secretary of state were able to be cold. the balance -- more than half of the ballots that were tabulated and posted last night were what we call late early, which is what we people who got mail in ballots but didn't drop them -- drop them off at the polls and mail them back. the thought was that those which hundred publican because of people being concerned about the security of mailing back their ballots. so, we all kind of we're expecting this to at least, to some extent benefit republicans. when they benefited democrats that was surprising. that's obviously what we got the call we, did and it definitely makes us all think a little bit more. about how the rem

joining me now is the man who will be in charge of arizona's elections, adrian fontes was just electedry state of arizona, after defeating his trump backed election denier opponent mark finchem, his opponent. secretary-elect, let me congratulate you on your victory. how do you think this election, as the person to be trusted with the authority to run elections in the state very soon, how do you think this election went? >> i think it went well. i think that there were some bumps and bruises here and there. that's is what happens with human endeavors. no election is perfect, and real election administrators understand this. when you're dealing with the not reality fantasy of conspiracy theories, every little possible inconvenience becomes this sort of a big voter suppression, which is nonsense. those flag waving crowds that you saw in the video a minute ago were outside my office in maricopa county. we got past them then and we will get past them now. notice the crowds were a lot smaller this time around. >> yeah, i don't want to oversell how much momentum is behind this. this seems lik

you are looking at, again, adrian montes, if you may hear for a moment go back to 2020, adrian fontesn maricopa county recorder here. he lost his race in maricopa county. he then went and announced a run for secretary of state. so, this is a man who previously lost maricopa county, and as running as secretary of state. he beat mark finchem here throughout the day today, over the course of, i mean, essentially every two hours, is come up with a different conspiracy theory. i'm not suggesting folks go and follow him on twitter here. but he has thrown out essentially, every excuse as to why he is down right now in the polls. the big question is, what do you hear from him? blake masters, potentially, the attorney general candidate, a holiday, kari lake was on top of some tonight, in which she even suggested that elections here in arizona that had been rife with fraud here in the past, she had been slow to not make specific claims about her governor's race this year, because the thought process on that camp was that they were going to overcome here. and ultimately, win this race outright.

i'm excited about continuing the campaign to help spread the good word. >> adrian fontes, thank you somaining days on the campaign trail. >>> coming up many celebrities are helping to get out the vote in this final stretch. actrust and activist kerry washington is one of them and she's actually in arizona right now trying to get our last guest elected. she's here next. stay with us. the abcs of ckd a is for awareness, because knowing that your chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes could progress to dialysis is important. b is for belief that there may be more you can do. just remember that k is for kidneys and kerendia. for adults living with ckd in type 2 diabetes, kerendia is proven to reduce the risk of kidney failure, which can lead to dialysis. kerendia is a once-daily tablet that treats ckd differently than type 2 diabetes medications to help slow the progression of kidney damage and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks. do not take kerendia if you have problems with your adrenal glands or take certain medications called cyp3a4 inhibitors. kerendia

i'm joined by the democrat who's running to keep finchem from that office, adrian fontes.s. marine and former maricopa county recorder. you called this, quote, powder keg. how big is the risk someone will get hurt trying to count the ballots or in any related way. >> jake, thanks for having me. the risk is real. that's the problem. we're finally in a weird place in the united states of america, an uncomfortable place where we're talking about the possibility of violence in what ought to be the most civil activity we have in the united states of america, which is elections and voting. this is what they have devolved us into the, the election liars, the election deniers, the oath copers, the insurrectionists, they have brought us here because of one person's loss. that is the true disgrace we're facing, and we've got to have a come up answer about this. >> the federal rule stating they the first amendment right to vote ballot boxes. what are the rules about what is and what is not allowed? >> that's why they're in front of the courts. this isn't something anybody has ever re

once again, cnn projects that democrat adrian fontes wins as arizona's secretary of state. let's go to john king and take a closer look what is going on. lots ovf developments in arizon. this is the future of the u.s. senate. >> not often we're on television talking about a secretary of state race. that's a win for math. that's a win for team normal. that's a win for somebody that counts the votes. the democrats win, the democrats win. that's the way it's supposed to happen in elections and mr. fontes won. where are we now? let's come back to the united states senate. we just projected mark kelly the winner here. bring this map out. this is a head. i'll do this. these are races we called, right? so right now democrats have two shots, two shots. they win either here or here. they get the senate majority. republicans need now to win them both because republicans need 51. democrats need 50 because they have the vice president of the united states. the democrats it's possible, wolf, as nevada results continue to come in, it's possible democrats can clinch the majority before th

you are looking at, again, adrian montes, if you may hear for a moment go back to 2020, adrian fontes was in maricopa county recorder here. he lost his race in maricopa county. he then went and announced a run for secretary of state. so, this is a man who previously lost maricopa county, and as running as secretary of state. he beat mark finchem here throughout the day today, over the course of, i mean, essentially every two hours, is come up with a different conspiracy theory. i'm not suggesting folks go and follow him on twitter here. but he has thrown out essentially, every excuse as to why he is down right now in the polls. the big question is, what do you hear from him? blake masters, potentially, the attorney general candidate, a holiday, kari lake was on top of some tonight, in which she even suggested that elections here in arizona that had been rife with fraud here in the past, she had been slow to not make specific claims about her governor's race this year, because the thought process on that camp was that they were going to overcome here. and ultimately, win this race outr

in arizona, democrat adrian fontes will be the next secretary of state after defeating mark bishop, another endorsed candidate and election denier. in the u.s. house, republicans up here poised to win control of the lower chamber but only narrowly. and in the days other headlines, former president donald trump is suing the january committee to avoid cooperated with a subpoena forcing him to testify next week. the lawsuit likely dooms the prospect of trump ever testifying since it ensures a lengthy legal battle that would last beyond the committee's life spent the move comesays before mr. trump is expected to formally launch his third campaign for president. in ukraine, deliberative city of kherson continue to celebrate the withdrawal of russian troops. eltricity has been restored. and police protection as well as tv and radio broadcasts are resumed. overjoyed residents welcomed ukrainian soldiers while police teams worked to neutralize explosives and document war crimes. all part of an effort to make the city livable after months of occupation. still, much of the surrounding region remains

joining me now is adrian fontes. the secretary of state-elect in arizona. former top elections official for maricopa county. he defeated the trump backed election denier, mark finchem. he attended the january six insurrection. mr. fontes, welcome back to the show. congratulations on your victory. we were together two weeks ago. we are talking about this. i want to ask you about overnight. you repeatedly tweeted, respect the process. as you are very familiar with vote counting in maricopa county. they have been boasting on opposite things. they say it is a disaster need to be read. another idiots war running. -- americans need to think about this. thank you very much. >> it might be official for the media. until we get those votes counted, it is gonna take a little while. we are not done yet. here is roy a. we did it so that we would get it right the first time. that is what we have done. if the 2020 audit showed anything, they will far no errors. this is the way that maricopa county runs its system. it is not just maricopa county. it is the rest of the othe

you said this -- the way we're talking about democracy resembling a dinner reservation -- >> so, adrian fontesary-elect, as we call him in arizona, the guy who was the maricopa county records. he was the guy who sort of oversaw the vote counting reminds us, this will end. the votes will be counted. there is no actual problem. they just take time. everybody chill. we'll get our results in arizona. but the shorthanded what steve would saying is that these votes did not break for kari lake the way some people were expecting them to, or at least the campaign was expecting to. while she gets more votes out of maricopa county in this match than katie hobbs did, it's not at the rate that she would have, which would bode well for katie hobbs. >> it's certainly not as good as it was for trump in 2020, and i think steve has been pointing out, if you compare the numbers in terms of what the republicans have pack to get out, not just in this race, but in races across the country, they're not getting to the numbers that they needed to to either flip certain seats, or to win seats like this one. >> in fact,

arizona secretary of state -elect, adrian fontes joins us now. indian, congratulations to you.g joscelyn benson a few weeks ago, and i was asking if election deniers win, what does that mean for democracy, and she said, it be a five alarm fire. do you think that fire has been extinguished? >> i think the fire has not only been extinguished, i think the idea of trumpism has been rebuked pretty somali. it's incredibly important that we realize that the threat was real. it remains real. we still have folks since they asked this, still have here in an undecided governor's race and attorney general's race. this is still a problem in the united states of america. the fact that we are so close as against election denialism and these authoritarian forces, it's something way to take very, very seriously. so my victory, joscelyn's victory, cisco's victory in nevada, those things are what they are, but we have a much bigger problem that requires a much deeper and more serious conversation. >> when we talk 12 hours ago, we call jury, as a victory. i pick it's just thing to see in the conte

and it put kelly over the top as well as adrian fonte who's arizona's secretary of state and now arizona's next secretary of state. >> republicans try to focus by and large on the economy and biden's handling of the economy. the democrats focus a lot on abortion, and a lot of people thought that might have been a mistake. was it a mistake when it comes to arizona? how much did that play into this? >> i haven't seen any good exit polls out of arizona, but certainly looking at broader polls it did seem like abortion remained top of mind for many voters. i think hanging over all this is the sense is, you know, democracy in peril? a lot of people approved that notion. but it appears it's stuck in the back of voters minds. let's get rid of some of this crazy stuff which the trump era characterizedch. >> what perhaps surprised you or did not surprise you in these arizona races? >> sure, good question. i mean i've been surprised by how republicans so far are still trying to play catch-up. i do think they will especially for many of the down ballot races. but even in our state le legislature which

and in arizona's secretary of state race, democrat adrian fontes beat out republican mark finchem, whoas ties to the far-right oath keepers group. in arizona's governor's race, democrat katie hobbs has maintained her narrow lead over republican kari lake. lake, whose chances of overtaking hobbs look increasingly slim, previously refused to say whether she would accept a loss and has been projecting a major victory for days while making baseless allegations that election officials were slowing down the counting. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky visited the recaptured southern city of kherson, which russia had occupied since march, before fleeing last week, celebrating a major victory in the ongoing war. zelensky said investigators found evidence of hundreds of russian war crimes in kherson . over the weekend, jubilant crowds in kherson greeted ukrainian soldiers. >> it is impossible to express what i feel right now. never have i felt such joy as now. our brothers, our protectors have come and we are free today. this is impossible to convey. kherson isai ukrainian army is the best

tiffany, she also voted for blake masters, and this despite voting for mark kelly, and she voted for adrian fontestorney general's race, she voted for the republican. that's where we could get tonight, and we could get a mix match. not necessarily all four democrats or republicans will win. >> thank you. jonathan, let's talk through a couple scenarios if we can. let's look at the state of arizona, specifically. in the 2024 election, if you have, for example, somebody like kari lake in the governor's office and we find ourself in the situation as we did in 2020, but yet it is kari lake who is the governor, somebody already expressed election denialism and already said she will question the results tomorrow. where does that leave us? >> chaos. republican-elected officials in some of the key states, remember, joe biden won the electoral college by 44,000 votes over three states, arizona, wisconsin and georgia. you had republican officials that stood up to donald trump to a free election, and kari lake is starting to make excuses in the event that she loses tonight, which i think most analysts are pre

arizona's democratic secretary of state elect, adrian fontes, thank you very much for being on this morningr governor and secretary of state losing in the midterms, our next guest says the country is not out of the woods yet. joining us, staff writer at "the atlantic," elaine godfrey. we appreciate you coming on. your latest piece is entitled "stop the steal isn't concede," and you write in part, "the thing about trust is that it's pain staingly hard to build and relatively easy to demolish. election denial is now a chronic wound in america's body politic, only partially healed, and ready to reopen red and raw whenever circumstances permit. those circumstances may arise sooner rather than later. donald trump has already broken the tradition of gracious presidential concessions and peaceful transfers of power. he's encouraged a populist animus towards institutions that will likely remain a litmus test for future republican candidates. nor than anything, trump has created a blueprint for exploiting the messiness and complexity of america's elections, an audience for this type of exploitation

it involves the democrat adrian font, the former maricopa county recorder in 2020.acing off against state representative mark fincham, who we have mentioned a lot on this program, because he was at the january 6 rally. he is a four term state representative who has led the efforts, at least in arizona, to throw out the results of the 2020 election. he introduced a bill in the state congress to that effect, to throw out the votes of maricopa county voters in 2020. fincham is currently trailing fontes by more than 4%. there are still a lot of votes that were cast and have not been counted. it is too early for anyone to be celebrating. what i will say this, this is closer than a lot of consuants i spoke to would have expected. there are more registered republicans in arizona. it is a republican leading state . as one gop consultant i spoke to described, republicans have turned out is the best election cycle in years and made it competitive. his take is that arizona ultimately is not a trump estate. trump certainly has a lot of enthusiastic supporters here, but biden di

dump in arizona, nbc news can also project that the democratic candidate for secretary of state, adrian fontes, will win his race to feeling trump endorsed election denier, mark finchem. overnight, donald trump won on quite a tirade onto his socials, saying arizona needs to redo the election and making wild claims about voter fraud. once again, no evidence. zero evidence for any of his claims. so now, all eyes are on the nevada senate race. still too close to call, with democrat katherine cortez masto, now less than 1000 votes behind republican adam laxalt. if the dems do win the seat, they'd win the majority before even having to go to that jonah runoff. we've got these newest developments covered from all angles this morning. let's start with msnbc's vaughn hillyard, covering arizona. vaughn? >> good morning katie. this is a major win here for democrats nationally. republicans all this as a major pick up opportunity. they thought that the issues, the national issues were on their side, from the inflation to the number of migrants who have been crossing the border. republican challenger blake

the secretary of state, kennedy, adrian fontes, nbc news projects that he is going to be republican mark finchem. we are waiting here for the next batch of ballots in maricopa county. that could give us an indication and where he governors races headed here in the state. yasmin? >> potential indication there as you put it. that means that this thing is not even gonna get wrapped up today. what are we expecting? there could be a call. especially on the governor's race. >> actually, let's be frank here. if kari lake does not cut the deficit tonight, it is not my job at nbc news to make those projection calls. but i think that, per the conversation with both camps, that would be essentially the nail in the coffin here. these final batches of ballots here that are coming in are all reflecting. this will play out in the days ahead. these are the mail ballots a folks hand-delivered on election day. generally, they are all going to look the same. if you are kari lake, you want to be winning these tonight by 53 or 54%. 47 or 46%. you will have a chance to be in this ball game here tonight. >> oh

. >> as you know, republican mark finchem, a prominent election the mayor lost to adrian fontes in theition, cnn is just projected that immigrant cisco aguilar will defend trump backed jim marchant in that secretary of state congress . what do these wins mean for election integrity in future contests? ? >> you can see repudiation of the election denialism that we've been seeing across the country. and i hope, especially for our amazing election workers all across the state of this country, that it tells them, it sends a message that voters do believe in the work that they are doing, and that it's important work and we believe that they are trustworthy and they are acting with integrity, as we know that they are. >> what is your message to those election deniers, we heard yesterday, sometimes today, over the past few days, that there were all sorts of fraud in the current vote count? >> i mean, we continue to hear this but of course, there's absolutely no proof that there's any fraud and again, arizona takes time to count our votes. it's the integrity of our elections that is ensuring,

adrian fontes is set to become arizona's next secretary of state. he beat out mark finchem. he is a trump endorsed election liar. he actually attended the january 6th rally in washington, d.c.. in nevada, joe lombardo will become the -- he defeated -- he flip the seat for the democratic battleground of post. we are still waiting for the results from some key congressional races. it is already clear that the expected red wave did not wash out the democrats this year. control of congress remains up in the air. senators kelly's victory in arizona as a pivotal. one it gives democrats the edge of maintaining power in the senate. senators kelly's reelection, the makeup of the senate is now 49 democrats and 49 republicans. two races left undecided. georgia senate race has had to do a runoff on december 6th. that is between the democratic incumbent raphael warnock and his opponent, herschel walker. meanwhile, nevada's senate race remains too close to call. it is virtually a dead heat right now between the democratic senator, catherine cortez masto, and her republican challenger. ada

sigh of relief for defenders of democracy everywhere finchem was defeated by democratic candidate adrian fontes extremism that voters rejected. all of the election-denying secretary of state candidates lost their races in presidential battleground states. that is good news. in addition to finchem there was kristen karamo in michigan. she lost to democratic incumbent secretary of state jocelyn benson who will join our program in just one moment. kim crockett in minnesota was beaten by democratic incumbent secretary of state steven simon. and in a race called just this saturday jim marchant was defeated by democratic candidate cisco aguilar in nevada. all four of those republican candidates for secretary of state were endorsed by the twice-impeached ex-plnt. and they ran their entire campaigns on his big lie. "washington post" reports this. "some pledged to decertify the 2020 result, although election law experts said that is not possible. others promised to decommission electronic voting machines, require hand counting of ballots, or block all mail voting. their platforms were rooted in trump's

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[inaudible] [laughs] coming >> up congresswoman maxine waters, the incoming secretary of state adrian fontes is still awaiting election results in his own race, former illinois congressman joe walsh and many others -- another hour of our special 2022 midterm coverage begins right now! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome back to our continuing coverage of the midterm elections, i'm ali velshi, it is 3:00 here in new york, it is now tomorrow, even in california. the polls may be close but counting is still in full swing! here's where we stand at this hour: while nbc news cannot protect -- project the control of the house at this, moment and that is a wild thing to say, just let me remind you! three in the morning, we are not able to project who will control the house of representatives in -- in an election where people thought the most obvious thing in the world is that at this point, at least we know that much that republicans are in control. our decision desk has released an estimate. now this one is tricky -- it appears that the red wave might have been more like a red a splash. republ