and they've held this seat for 30 years, rebecca berg. so now o'connor is close, but let's put the numbers up for people. we just had another ohio moment, which is he was up. but the lead is now all but gone. this race is neck and neck. there's still a lot of votes to be tabulated. if you look at the different plays, 66% in, now balderson is ahead. just like that. as you jump from county and county, and john king is standing by. he's looking at the county by county mix in this because it's a big part of the state, the 12th district. you're going to see moves as they move from demographic to demographic. and the all-important battleground will be the suburbs. now, rebecca berg, o'connor's people are not going to like what they just saw happen on the big screen. what's their mood? >> reporter: no. well, they're certainly not going to be surprised, chris, by these jumps in the polls, and they are expecting tonight a very close race. as you mentioned, this is a republican district. a republican has represented this district in congress since

cnn political reporter rebecca berg is there. rebecca, let me ask the same question i asked to jason. what do people there telling you? is the o'connor camp hopeful? >> well, anderson, the o'connor camp is optimistic, but i would say cautiously optimistic. remember, this is a district that has been represented by a republican in congress for the past, you know, decades, since 1940, only two years this district has been represented by a democrat. so the odds are against o'connor. but what they have working in their favor is that democratic energy and enthusiasm that we have seen in other special elections across the country for months. they believe that democrats are enthusiastic about voting in this election. and then other factor potentially working in the o'connor campaign's favor here is republicans who are disaffected, who feel frustrated with the direction of this administration, with the direction of president trump, who might have voted for him in 2016, but are now unhappy. in fact, there is an ad running right now by the o

. >> rebecca berg, you didn't hear the word protect, but the whole upshot of this is that if there's no republican majority in the house of representatives, mueller and sessions doesn't un-recuse himself and mueller won't clear the president, the republican majority is the only one that can prevent this real danger to the president of the united states from unfolding. so the protection is clearly implied there, even if that word protect is not used. >> absolutely. it's clear what devin nunes here is saying. it's not necessarily surprising that he would think this, that he would believe this. but to hear a house committee chairman, much less the intelligence committee chairman, give voice to these feelings is rather stunning. two things, first, because of what it says about his investigation, about the work that he has done on the intelligence committee. it casts doubt on everything the h -- he has done. it racises questions about his impartiality. then it's also playing right into the hand of democrats politically. they have been arguing that they need to come to washington to be a c

rebecca berg is with the o'connor campaign. let's go to jason carroll first.t so much on the line here. what is the mood at camp balderson like? >> reporter: folks are feeling good here. they know it's likely going to be a late night. they feel as though the race is going to be tight. but you know, i spoke to a republican operative very close to the campaign who says that anecdotally they're showing extremely high turnout across the district and they feel as though that's going to tip in the favor of troy balderson. that's certainly what they're saying is some good early news, what they're feeling at least so far. but look, also they know there's momentum coming from the left, coming from democrats. they feel as though president trump coming here this past weekend is going to give balderson a huge boost. but having said, that some folks are also talking about the -- balderson you said you don't want someone from franklin county representing the district. of course o'connor being from franklin county which has a lot of suburbs. balderson in zainsville which has