US midterms: Democrats celebrate early victories at a watch party in Los Angeles

But first, let's head over to France 24's Wassim Corneille in Los Angeles. He's at a Democratic watch party. Wassim, the polls close in California at 5 a.m. Paris time, so in about an hour. There are no Senate races happening there. There are plenty of House races, a race for governor, as well as a mayor's race in Los Angeles. Which are the races that you're keeping an eye on? Yeah, lots of important races here to watch statewide, but let me just tell you about the atmosphere. It has become more and more boisterous by the minute. Just a few moments ago, we had two important calls made by NBC News and MSNBC, which is the networks that people here are watching for control of the House and for Senate races in South Carolina. Of course, you know, I'm speaking here under the authority of Flo Villamano and our partners at the Associated Press, but a lot of excitement throughout the night when we showed up here a couple of hours ago. There were still no balloons, no decorations on the table, and then progressively those came out, as you might have just heard right now. People are just opening bottles of champagne, just a reflection of the atmosphere here. But again, as you mentioned, lots of races, important races to watch. Here in the state of California, the most populous state, the governor's race, of course, Javier Becerra, the Democrat, is challenging Steve Hilton, the Republican. That should be an easy win for the Democrats. And we're looking also at the very important House races. There are currently 43 California House seats held by Democrats. If you recall last year, there was a very important proposition that was submitted to California voters, Proposition 50, that essentially vowed to counter efforts by Republican legislature. In Texas to redistrict to try to gain more seats in their house races there in the state of Texas. And that proposition passed, which led to the redistricting of five seats. And California Democrats are hopeful that they will gain. We'll is the first woman to ever be elected mayor of Los Angeles, but if she does lose, she would be the first incumbent to lose since 2005, and she's being challenged by a candidate to her left, Nithya Raman from the Democratic Socialists of America. right back. Proposition 40 here is on the ballot. It is very much the talk of the town. Proposition 40 is nicknamed the billionaire tax. It would impose a one-time 5% tax on all billionaires in California, 90% of proceeds of which would go to health care. The remaining 10% would go to education and food aid related programs. I just have to ask you about this because the Supreme Court had a ruling today to block Trump's Justice Department from seizing 20,000 ballots that it suspected were cast by non-citizens. Is today's ruling the end of that story? You know, it should be the end of that story, and it's a little complex, but bear with me. You know, this is a legal battle, excuse me, that has been going on between the state of California and the Department of Justice over how the Golden State runs its elections. Back in September, the Department of Justice came out with a list of approximately 20,000 people who might be ineligible non-citizens and asking California and the county of Los Angeles to set aside those ballots and not allow those people to vote. Now, followed, there were several... Legal filings, several federal judges ruled against that, saying it was too close to the election, citing something called the Purcell Principle, saying that if the Department of Justice strongly believes that there is voter fraud, then it should allow those votes to happen and then prosecute criminally afterwards. Thank you. And California, again, has also, one of their main arguments has been that the Department of Justice has not proven... That any of those 20,000 people on that list are actually non-citizens. In fact, over the weekend, a voting, a group of data scientists with a voting rights project at UCLA found that 42% of those people are not on the active voter registration roles. And then a number of those people actually Eligible U.S. citizens who obtain citizenship through naturalization. But again, that Supreme Court ruling should put an end to this story, but proof that Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have wanted to try to potentially disenfranchise or at least limit the scope of overwhelmingly democratic states to carry out elections the way they want to. Okay, we'll leave it there for now. France 24's Waseem Kornay in Los Angeles, California at a Democratic Watch Party. Waseem, thanks for that update. We'll talk to you a bit later. I want to go to Florence Filino at the big board with the latest results. Flo, what do you have? Come in so far. We're looking at the Senate races here. You can see everything that's in a strong color, blue or red. Those are the races that have been called. So the big news that we were focusing on was the race in Georgia that came out. We had, of course, the victory of Jon Ossoff. You'll see it here. Oh, sorry. This one is not Florida, but I wanted Georgia. There we go. Jon Ossoff beating out Mike Collins there. That was a race that we were paying close attention to. And good news again for the Democrats this time. In North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper beating out Michael Wattley there. This was actually a race that the Democrats flipped. So this is, if we take a look at the key number here for the Senate, one seat has been flipped. Keep in mind that, of course, Democrats need to flip four seats to gain control of the Senate A couple of the other races that we were looking out for here in Kentucky, this is the race to replace Mitch McConnell, so the end of an era. This has been won, not really surprisingly, by the Republican Andy Barr. And just some of the races that we're looking out for, the results are about to come in. In South Carolina, this is a very surprising turn of events. So this is Darlene Graham, the sister of the former Senator Lindsey Graham. She's trailing in the polls to Annie Andrews, the Democrat. This is very surprising. South Carolina is a very Republican state. So it's surprising that the Senate race seems to be going towards the Democrats. But at least 87% of the vote counted so far. We're waiting for that state to be called. And also another state that we're paying close attention to is Kansas as well. You can see 63% of the vote has been counted. The Republican Roger Marshall is trailing the Democrat Adam Hamilton. Now, this is incredible because Kansas, once again, very Republican state. If the Democrat is to win, it would be the first time it would have a Democratic senator since the 1930s. So this is where things stand with the Senate. This is the key number. One seat flipped for the Democrats. If we take a look at the situation for the House, here's the key figure. Two seats have been flipped. for the Democrats in North Carolina, first of all, and then another race that we were paying very close attention to in New Jersey. So this is Thomas King Jr., the representative. He has been beaten by the Democrat Rebecca Bennett. So this race was getting a lot of attention nationally because Thomas King Jr. was absent from the House for many weeks and months, and his team apparently seemed to be covering up his absence. Since it turns out he was being. Treated for for a depression. But this was a race that was everyone was focusing on because it is a key flip for the Democrats here. And let's just take a look as well at some of the governor's races that have been coming in. You can see the map here. There was a big win. For Republicans in Florida, not really a surprise here, but Byron Donalds won the race there, becoming the first black governor of Florida. But there was a big win for Democrats. You can see they flipped a seat this time. In Georgia, if we can pull up that race here, another historic win for Democrats because Acacia Lance Bottoms beat out Rick Jackson here, and she becomes the first female black governor of Georgia, but also the first female black governor in the United States. Okay, Flo, thanks for that update. We go across to France 24's Jessica Maury, who's covering the important Senate race in Michigan. She's joining us from Detroit. Let's pick up where we left off. Jessica, can you just talk about the issues that are motivating voters to get to the polls? Is it the economy? Is it the war in Gaza? What are voters telling you? All of those things, the cost of living crisis, affordability, that is the most important issue that everyone here talks to you about. But they see that as being linked to the war in Iran, and certainly those who are supporting al-Sayed want to see an end to that war, they want to see an end. to U.S. financing of Israel, arming of Israel as well. And they are also concerned about immigration, about corruption, but really the main issue and the issue that El-Sayed has principally campaigned on is about helping people to be able to afford daily life, to be able to survive here in the United States, feed their families, fill their cars with gas. He really keeps putting the focus I think we need to focus back onto that issue, even when anyone else tries to raise other issues with him. Another really important issue here, especially in Michigan, in Detroit, which has a large Arab-American population, is that of Israel in particular and foreign wars, and this is something that people really want to see an end to, but it's very much linked to affordability. Now, Trump's tariffs have also strained trade with Canada. Does that come up in a state that, you know, has built itself on its auto industry? Yes, absolutely. That's had a huge impact on the economy. And both Democrats and Republicans have spoken out against Trump's tariffs, in particular, the Republican candidate, the Republican nominee here, Mike Rogers, has criticized those tariffs because they're incredibly unpopular with Michiganders. They've They've raised the cost of living here even further. They've impacted the auto industry in a very damaging way. And people want to see an end to those. They see them as completely counterproductive. We're just a stone's throw away from Canada here. So it's had a huge impact on this state and in particular on Detroit. Okay, well, we'll leave it there for now. France 24's Jessica Le Majeur reporting for us in Detroit, Michigan.