US: "Even in places where the Democrats haven't won, the swing towards them has been significant"

We're going to bring in our team in Washington, Ketevan Gorgostani and Fraser Jackson, our international affairs editor, and of course our current Washington correspondent. Guys, just I want to get your reaction to the results so far. Of course, we have this flipped Senate seat in North Carolina so far. What races are you watching tonight? Well, I think we're watching one closely. We're actually just looking at what was coming in and where those results were. And that's the Kentucky 6th District, because this is a district that all pundits are looking at as a sort of bellwether on whether we're going to see a blue ripple, a blue wave or a blue tsunami. So that race is still not being called just yet, but we're waiting to see how. Democrats are going to do in that race that could be a sort of hint as to what those types of results are going to be coming in later on in the night. Yeah. And I think if you're a Democrat in Kentucky, this, you know, is something that six months ago you would not really have thought about. And now, you know, there are some U.S. media outlets that are already projecting that Dembo, the Democrat there, will win that seat. And it is a seat that Trump. won by 15 points in 2024. It's also the House seat was won by the Republicans by 30 points as well last time around. So you see that kind of swing that we are seeing, not just in Kentucky, but, you know, across the board. I think we were also we were both very surprised how quickly Georgia got called as well. The polling has kind of been all over the place in the last few weeks. It definitely had Ossoff in the lead, definitely had him, you know, a good seven, eight, nine points ahead. But how early that race got called was really quite shocking. And if we go back to the beginning of this election cycle, I remember listing Georgia, listing John Ossoff as probably the most endangered Democrat in the Senate races. That was a few months ago. And now he was probably one of the first sort of competitive races. that were called for the Democrats, which shows how much it's shifted. Yeah, the polling has definitely kind of moved their way. I think in the last few weeks, things certainly started to crystallize. We got that. I mean, we can't be here on election night and not talk about the polling that we got from The New York Times. On the eve of the election, effectively, which especially somewhere like Michigan had Abdel El-Sayed 11 points ahead, well outside of the margin of error. I think even the most ardent, you know, Abdel supporters, and I have a source who's very close to him, even they found it difficult to believe that it would be that good a night in Michigan. Of course, we're still waiting to see how it goes there. But it kind of gives you a flavor of how the polls have kind of moved towards the Democrats in the last couple of weeks. And I think, you know, You know, what we're seeing tonight is... Even in places where the Democrats haven't won, the swing towards them in some of those Republican areas in places like Florida, even in Kentucky, as we said, has been significant. Let's talk about another race that was called the first sort of flip in the Senate for the Democrats. That's North Carolina, Roy Cooper beating out Mike Whatley. What do you make of that race? I think that was also a fascinating race because that was somewhere that the Democrats had long felt good they were going to do well there. The polling, again, had a double-digit lead, 12, 13, 14 points. Cooper, he's a very well-known in the state. And it was a place that effectively even the Republicans had abandoned. They, you know, they kind of pulled in the weeks before they pulled all of their assets out of there, stopped spending to try to, you know, stem the bleeding in other places, places like Kansas that we're still talking about this evening as well. So it was not a surprise that Cooper had done so well this evening that it was their first flip. But it was certainly interesting to see. Also something to remember, Ketavan, the Democrats was going against a Republican, Whatley, who was handpicked by Donald Trump. He was somebody, you know, that the MAGA base will really have gotten behind because he was kind of anointed by Donald Trump to go forward to this race. And ultimately, he's come up short in the state. And talking about things or strategies that have possibly backfired on the Republicans, Redistricting. We talked a lot about the gerrymandering battle that went on in the past year. It, of course, started in Texas, where Republicans started redrawing the map there. It was compensated in a way by California that picked it up. But Florida also really redistricted several seats. And it seems that that has massively backfired because at least three Three of those redistricted seats have gone to the Democrats associated Press calling those three seats for the Democrats. Yeah, Moscovitz's race I think was something which was you know we were watching very closely. He so somebody as well I think beyond the kind of politics of it all, somebody who has more of a kind of national brand in the House. There aren't many kind of House Democrats or Republicans that you know are kind of household names or you c Thank you very much. Come the kind of divisions and, you know, the rhetoric and the ads that are churned all over local TV stations during an election cycle. And again, that was a district that Republicans thought they were going to move so that they could increase their likelihood of picking up these House seats so they could hold on to that, hold on to that majority that they have, the razor-thin majority, which, again, we've seen over the course of the last two years has been difficult for Republicans to kind of hold that. And just to bounce back on the sort of issues that Monty and Doug were talking about, obviously you had immigration, you have the economy that's obviously top of mind, but there's one issue that a lot of people have talked about, and you actually did some reporting on that in West Virginia. Data centers became in the past few months, basically since the summer, an issue that just popped up that nobody really saw coming. Yeah, I think it's one of those things that's definitely worth digging into as we go through the night. But, you know, one of those things that has crossed party lines, 70 percent of Americans don't want a data center in their backyard. And that is something that the Republicans put their stock in this election as well. Back to you, Monty. Okay, Ketavan, Gorjastani, Fraser Jackson, our team in Washington will be checking back with you in just a bit. We want to go over to Florence Villanueva at the big board because I understand you have some results to share in Georgia. That's right. This is the governor's race in Georgia that's just been called. We can take a closer look here. Quite a historic night. This, as you can see, Keisha Lance Bottoms, she has won the race for governor there. 55.4% of the vote with 75%... Now, this is historic because she is the first black female governor of Georgia and also the first black woman to serve as governor in the United States, so quite a historic night for the nation. If we want to just take a quick roundup at some of the other races that we've been following and we've been talking about through the night, if we look at the Senate here, you can see these are the races that have been called here so far. But the big ones that we've been focusing on, Georgia here. Here with, as we'll be able to take a closer look, this was called early in the night and John Ossoff winning, beating out Mike Collins. And of course, North Carolina, this is the big news for Democrats managing to flip the seat there with the former governor, Roy Cooper, beating out Michael Watley. And if we just take. A closer look at the House of Representatives as well. This is how things are looking right now as the results come in. We're going to be taking a closer look at some of these results later on in the evening as they come in, but if we take a closer look at some of the ones that we're looking out for, Ohio, this is one that has been getting, excuse me, not Ohio, I was looking out for Georgia, where's Georgia, sorry, I'm getting confused here with the, this is the House of Representatives, excuse me. Got the wrong map. This is the governor's map here, and we were looking out for Ohio. Here we go. This is a race that was getting a lot of attention in the U.S. media ahead of the election. And you can see 53% of the vote has come in, and Amy Acton, the Democrat, is ahead of Vivek Ramaswamy. It was a very bitter race between the two, with some bitter ads coming out. From the Republican side, he put an ad out with Amy Acton's estranged mother. So this was one of the races that has been getting a lot of attention ahead of the vote today. We'll keep you posted with that. And just to take a look at some of the Senate races also that we're looking out for and showing just how surprising it actually is tonight, because some of the races that. Weren't actually a couple of weeks and months ago, races that were going to be considered swing races are looking bad for Republicans. For instance, in South Carolina, Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, she's trailing behind Annie Andrews here. South Carolina is a very. Republican state. So this is quite a surprising result. And we were also talking about the race in Kentucky as well that we'll be looking out for. We don't have the results so far, but that is definitely a Republican state. And if a Democratic senator is elected, there would be the first time since the 1930s. So that is definitely a race we'll be looking out for. Yes, something definitely to watch. We want to go back to our guest, if we can. Mallory Newell, Senior Vice President at Ipsos. Thanks for staying with us here. Our team in Washington there was talking about data centers. There are certainly a lot of issues that are motivating people to come to the polls. Immigration, the war in Iran, affordability. You've touched on some of this. What is the biggest issue that is driving people to the polls in this midterm election? Hands down, the biggest issue is related to the economy, but the economy is a big umbrella term, so what do we mean by that? I think voters have really felt and expressed a palpable frustration about cost of living, about affordability. Thank Some of that is tied to the war in Iran, right? I think one of the most visible signs of feeling the affordability pressure is gas prices. But it is everything, from groceries to basic household items. The economy was actually one of the issues that helped propel President Trump back into the White House in 2024. you. But since then... Really, in the past six months or so, there has been a significant shift away from both President Trump and the Republican Party as a whole on having an advantage on the economy or an advantage on cost of living. Voters have felt a deep pessimism and frustration, and I think you're seeing the results of that tonight. What about the issue of corruption? I see that has risen to one of the top issues in the campaign. Is that something you've seen reflected in the polls? I have, yes. Corruption has sort of risen as an issue, I think, particularly from those who identify as Democrats. And so you see that reflected in many Democratic candidates' messaging across the country because it can be a way to galvanize and mobilize the Democratic base.