CNN projects Dem Andrews flips SC Senate blue & more midterms latest

[0:00] We have a big update now on one of the closest-watched Senate races, and CNN can now make a major projection, and frankly, it's stunning. [0:07] Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews is going to win the Senate seat in South Carolina, pulling off a shocking upset in a longtime Republican stronghold. [0:17] Dr. Andrews is going to defeat Republican Senator Darlene Graham, who was appointed to replace her brother, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, after his death in July. [0:25] Andrews' victory flips a Republican seat and marks the first time a South Carolina has elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, Fritz Hollings, I believe. [0:38] CNN's Diane Gallagher is live at Annie Andrews' campaign headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. Diane, I have to say, stunning news. [0:46] Yeah, look, Jane, for the first time this millennium, the state of South Carolina will elect a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. [0:58] For the first time ever, the state of South Carolina will send and elect a woman to the U.S. Senate, as CNN is projecting that Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, will beat interim Republican Darlene Graham. [1:11] Now, look, the mood here in Charleston has been getting more and more excited. [1:16] Obviously, the message has not gotten to this crowd yet, but they've started gathering onto the stage, talking about the history. [1:24] We've had several people, including the former DNC chair, Jamie Harrison, on here, talking about the South Carolina motto, as I read, I hope, and what this means. [1:34] They talked about running a campaign for the moment. [1:38] I'm going to make another projection for you now. CNN can project that Democrats are going to flip a seat in Colorado. [1:46] Manny Root now has defeated freshman Republican Gabe Evans. [1:49] This is a district that voted for Biden in 2020 and then voted for Trump in 2024. [1:55] This is a Democratic pickup. [1:57] So let us take a look at where Democrats are in their attempt to win back the House. [2:03] At the beginning of the night, I told you they needed to flip three seats. [2:06] They have done that. They've now flipped the fourth. [2:08] So Democrats have already picked up enough seats to win. [2:12] Where are they right now, though, in all those outstanding seats? [2:15] Where are they in the Republican seats that they need to flip? [2:17] Democrats are leading right now in 59 districts currently represented by Republicans. [2:23] 58 Republicans leading in four. [2:27] Maine. [2:27] This is a Republican seat, of course, held by Susan Collins for three decades. [2:33] This has been going back and forth all night long. [2:36] Right now, Troy Jackson is ahead. [2:39] 659 votes. [2:42] That's how close it is right now. [2:44] He's at 50.4 percent. [2:46] Susan Collins is at 49.6 percent. [2:48] Again, it is early. [2:49] 12 percent of the vote in. [2:51] Now let's go to Texas, because James Tallarico is maintaining a very, very big lead. [2:58] Still over a million votes ahead at 59.1 percent. [3:03] Ken Paxton at 39.3 percent. [3:06] This is one of those seats, one of those races that Republicans are saying if the preferred [3:12] candidate of most Republicans, including in Texas, would have stayed here, John Cornyn, [3:17] the incumbent Republican, and not gotten beaten in the primary by Ken Paxton, who was backed [3:23] by Donald Trump, perhaps they would not have been in this situation. [3:27] 55 percent of the vote is in in Texas. [3:30] Kansas. [3:31] Kansas. [3:32] The Democrat Adam Hamilton, who is a pastor of a megachurch in Kansas, he has been ahead [3:38] since we have started getting these votes in. [3:40] He's ahead by more than 126,000 votes at 57.7 percent. [3:46] The incumbent, Roger Marshall, who Republicans have been, frankly, disappointed with in terms [3:51] of how he's run this race. [3:53] He is at 39.8 percent, 57 percent of the vote in. [3:58] Now let's look at Iowa. [3:59] This is an open Republican seat. [4:01] So this is all GOP terrain. [4:03] The Democrat is ahead. [4:05] Josh Turek at 72,000 votes ahead, 58.6 percent. [4:10] Ashley Hinson, the Republican who's trying to keep Joni Ernst's seat in GOP territory, [4:16] is at 39 percent. [4:18] Only 27 percent of the vote is in. [4:22] Jake, there are so many seats that we are watching that are in GOP territory, including [4:28] in especially Iowa, which used to be a swing state, not as much since Donald Trump has [4:33] taken office. [4:34] We're going to see how this ends up. [4:38] CNN can project that Democrat Rebecca Bennett will win the congressional seat for New Jersey's [4:44] seventh congressional district. [4:46] Unseating Republican Tom Kane, Jr. [4:49] Kane, as you might remember, stayed away from Washington, D.C. for more than 100 days earlier [4:54] this year. [4:55] He offered no explanation for his absence. [4:58] Then he returned to D.C. and said he had been treated for depression. [5:02] It's a big pickup. [5:03] And again, they only needed to flip three seats. [5:06] And now that we know, we can report that they've flipped five. [5:10] Kaitlin, how is President Trump taking this news? [5:13] It feels and seems as of now like a harsh rebuke by the American people against the president. [5:20] Well, and he's still in the East Room watching. [5:22] He's got a lot of his advisors, his cabinet members inside the East Room with him. [5:26] But, Jake, despite the president telling voters for the last better part of two months to act [5:30] like he was on the ballot tonight when they went to cast their ballots to get out and vote, [5:35] the White House is now casting blame on some of the candidates that the president ham [5:38] picked to run in these races. [5:41] A White House official just texted me and said President Trump did a better job promoting [5:45] many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves. [5:49] They said despite what we are seeing playing out in these races right now, where a lot of [5:54] those hand-picked candidates are struggling or have lost in some of these races, they [5:58] said the mood at the White House is still defiant tonight. [6:01] And they added this quote, President Trump was not on the ballot and it's proven that [6:04] Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot. [6:08] They said despite this, his resolve against fighting the left is still strong. [6:13] But, Jake, what we are seeing right now is that the president's hand-picked candidates, [6:17] not John Cornyn, of course, Ken Paxton taking that spot, Michael Watley, Darlene Graham, who he pushed [6:22] harder than almost anyone in these races, are struggling. [6:26] And now the White House is trying to pin the blame for their struggles tonight. [6:30] We'll see if there may be losses on the candidates themselves. [6:35] I mean, candidate quality is one thing. [6:41] Donald Trump saying that the candidates that he chose, and because he has so much sway in [6:48] the Republican primary system, the fact that they're not doing well is kind of remarkable, [6:55] given the fact that if you go back to Texas, for example, had John Cornyn been the candidate [7:02] right now, the president wouldn't have had to make that statement about the candidate not [7:07] doing as well as he was, because John Cornyn, he's been proven to be a very good candidate. [7:13] But, you know, we always have been hearing from other Republicans on Capitol Hill saying, [7:17] you know, Mr. President, don't get involved in this primary or don't do this. [7:21] And he got involved anyway because he believed these candidates are better. [7:24] He didn't like John Cornyn. [7:25] He could never get over that. [7:26] And so Ken Paxton ran. [7:28] But obviously we're seeing that, you know, the president's political power sometimes only [7:31] extends to himself and not to the candidates that he has backed. [7:34] Very much so. [7:35] Jake. [7:36] All right. [7:36] Thanks so much. [7:37] I'm here at the Magic Wall with John King. [7:39] And John, right now in the U.S. Senate, Democrats are currently leading in eight Republican seats, [7:46] Republicans leading in one Democratic seat. [7:48] That's with like one percent of the vote. [7:49] And this is just like an unbelievable number right now, even though that hasn't been called. [7:54] And it's indicative of what we're seeing. [7:55] But it's a huge wow. [7:57] And, you know, are they going to win all eight? [7:58] We don't know. [7:59] But when you're ahead in eight and you need four, your math is pretty good. [8:03] So that's a wow when you look at this map. [8:05] Now, I want to show you something else I think is even more of a wow. [8:07] This is the House as it stands right now. [8:09] OK, we're still waiting for out here. [8:11] It might be a long time. [8:12] But I'm going to circle this map, circle this part of the map. [8:15] And I want you at home to focus on the red. [8:18] Focus on the red. [8:19] OK, this is where we are right now. [8:22] OK, turn this off. [8:26] This is the current House of Representatives. [8:28] See that red? [8:30] Here's where we are right now. [8:32] Look how much more blue appears on this map. [8:35] The current house, what's happening right now. [8:39] Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. [8:41] There's no guarantee they're all going to hold up. [8:43] But that is just a you were talking earlier. [8:46] What's the right word? [8:47] Is it a rebuke? [8:47] Is it repudiation? [8:48] Is it shellacking? [8:49] Is it a spanking? [8:50] I mean, at the moment, this is the collapse of the president's party on live television [8:55] as you watch it play out. [8:56] Again, doesn't mean they're going to get them all. [8:58] But they're leading right now in 58 Republican districts. [9:02] And so and we're still going this way. [9:04] And so as you look in on some of those districts again, [9:07] and they're also leading in some of the districts that were going to be the hardest to get. [9:12] There's only 40 percent here. [9:13] We'll see what happens. [9:14] He's one of only three Republicans elected in a district carried by Kamala Harris. [9:19] And he is trailing at the moment. [9:21] He's been a survivor. [9:22] So I'll wait till that gets up. [9:23] You're going to have to bring me up with a higher percentage because he's pulled it up before. [9:27] But again, to see those results is quite stunning. [9:30] This is your home commonwealth, right? [9:32] This freshman won just two years ago. [9:35] Look at the numbers. [9:35] This is a seat here. [9:37] The Scranton mayor ran. [9:38] The Democrats got a good candidate here. [9:39] How much have we talked about Donald Trump picking bad candidates? [9:42] Democrats in some of these battleground districts had good candidates. [9:45] And this is one of them. [9:46] We called it. [9:47] The Scranton mayor, she's popular. [9:48] This is rural farmland. [9:50] And the Democrats have been more competitive in some of these rural places [9:53] than they have been in a long time. [9:55] And so you just look at the scope of this right now. [9:58] Again, when you go back and forth between where we are, [10:01] see all this red? [10:02] Look at the Midwest. [10:04] And look at the blue now. [10:05] Again, they're not all called and lacked up. [10:07] But at the moment, this is just epic. [10:10] Can I just, can I ask you? [10:11] Pick one. [10:11] Well, there are four House races in Pennsylvania, my home commonwealth. [10:16] They're getting all four. [10:17] You mentioned three. [10:18] What about Scott Perry? [10:19] At the moment, they're getting all four. [10:20] And that, again, it's only 48%. [10:22] But that's a huge. [10:24] So the early votes come in first. [10:26] And you know it better than anybody at home who doesn't know Scott Perry. [10:28] Democrats will be doing handstands if they defeat Scott Perry. [10:33] House Freedom Caucus, very conservative. [10:35] Big Trump ally. [10:36] Huge election denier after 2020. [10:39] A top Democratic target. [10:40] They thought they might get him last time. [10:42] They didn't in the presidential year. [10:43] We'll see if that one holds up. [10:44] But, and this is a victory for Josh Shapiro, the governor. [10:48] Yeah. [10:48] They targeted four Republican-held seats in Pennsylvania. [10:50] At the moment, they're leading in all four. [10:52] We'll see if the night ends that way. [10:53] But that's a big deal. [10:54] We'll see if the night ends that way.