Democrats flip Senate in major midterm shift

There it is, Josh Turek, the projected winner in Iowa with 50% of the vote tallied, 91% have been counted. He has a 51% lead, 46.1 for Ashley Hinson, Iowa electing a Democratic U.S. Senator. Thank you. And by a fairly slim margin, but there it is for the state of Iowa. That's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. A member of the US House, Ashley Hinson, a state legislator, Josh Turek. And he, at the outset of this season was the underdog because Iowa is a Republican state. It's voted for Trump three times and it got competitive because of how unpopular Trump is in Iowa, tariffs, agriculture, the prices, the economy. We now know, as projected by Fox News and I guess the AP, that Democrats have won control of the Senate. That is the official call right now. We did do the math a few minutes ago, and that was the way it was figuring. It was tough to back off on five wins there that they needed. They only needed four, and they got five. So there it is. Democrats now control both houses. Both the House and the Senate has been called that way now. And going back to the race in Iowa there, Turek, 47 years old, a state rep, former wheelchair basketball Paralympian. He's a Democrat who is representing the most conservative district in the state. Iowa hadn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2008. And when I listened to Ashley Hinson speak to reporters after voting this morning, she talked about her first priority being ending the war in Iran. So it showed her separation from the administration. And I mean, every candidate was talking about affordability, but I think this storyline in Iowa is what we're seeing in a lot of places. From a political standpoint, now what we watch tonight is what the margin of victory is because that becomes so important in governing moving forward. They have the House, they have the Senate, but what are the margins of that win? Right, because certainly, you know, Democrats defect. The Democratic caucus in the Senate has John Fetterman, you know, who often will vote, with Republicans from Pennsylvania, and so a one-vote margin is different than a two-vote margin. That was the big concern. If they have 51 votes, will Fetterman join the Republicans? If they have 52, 53, 54, whole different story. I want to jump back into some of these state races because Tim and Blois have been looking at that as well and what's happening with our statehouse. Well, as we get more vote totals coming in now, we just had a dump of about 150,000 votes from Anoka County, and I think you're going to find these results very interesting here, all right? So we got about 44% of the precincts reporting from across the state of Minnesota. Now, let's look at Anoka County and see what's happening. happening here in the race for governor. Amy Klobuchar with 52% of the vote coming in over Lisa Davis, 45%, 46% of the vote coming in. This is a county that tends to be purple, but more often not Republican than it is DFL. Yeah, no, it has traditionally been purple the last few cycles, but it's working class, blue collar. This is where Trump had made strides. Amy Klobuchar leading there, and in the other races... Let's look at U.S. Senate. Okay, and again, this is going to be in Anoka County. Peggy Flanagan trails Amy Klobuchar by about... A point, a point and a half there. So you can see this. But she's still ahead. She's still ahead. But she's still ahead. Yes, by about four points. Yep. And then Attorney General. Let's go to Attorney General from Anoka County. Keith Ellison, 51% to Ron Schutz's roughly 49%. Michelle Tavoya and Ron Schutz have to be overperforming Lisa Damuth by much more in places like Anoka County. Let's go to the legislature. There's a couple key seats up there in the legislature. And what we know is in... Jim Abler's seat. We talked about it earlier. This is Senate District 35. Jim Abler is trailing 54 to 45 percent with 93 percent of the precincts in. This is a race that he won by about, what, 193 votes just four years ago. Matt Norris, one of the seats that probably the top seat Republicans thought they could flip. Democrat Matt Norris survives a challenge from Leslie Larson. With 57% of the vote. He won by 52%, 51% just two years ago. And then another Senate seat up there. That we're watching Chris Ford. Yes. He is leading Senator Michael Kruen, the Republican, 53 to 46 with 97% of the precincts. So you have Abler and Kruen. Those would be two Democratic flips. Now we're talking about a chamber that was already in DFL control. Right. So they're going to possibly gain two more seats. Correct. And we were looking at those other House seats and you're going to see that I think. If that's the way the trend goes, Democrats will probably have a majority in the Minnesota House. Right, and that would make a majority in the House, the Senate, and if Amy Klobuchar continues on the trend that she's in, we may have a DFL trifecta again in state government. Exactly. So that's the kind of trends we're watching so far tonight, guys. All right, and as we're watching the balance of power locally, let's see and talk more about that balance of power nationally as we now know that the Senate... And the House of Representatives has gone to the Democrats. Yeah, Democrats taking some Republican strongholds tonight. Right. So it does beg the question, you've got two more years with a Republican president. You've got a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. What gets done? The President has said that he is going to become, his words, Mr. Veto, that that's what he is going to do. Tonight, he is saying that he can work with Democrats, maybe they can make a deal. What will Democrats do? How do they try to unwind what has happened in the last 10 years? I'm looking at the Twitter account of Robert Garcia, who is the incoming chairman, the Democrat, of the Oversight Committee. In the house. And he would be the one leading all the investigations. Tonight, he tweets this. Lawyer up. And so it's a warning and a threat from the Democrats. And so the night isn't even over, and we're beginning to see this kind of thing. And I guess I would beg the question, because I've talked to people before this election, and that's exactly what they didn't want to see. They wanted to see something happen by their elected officials other than impeachment, other than calls of legal action, which they've suffered through already for the last decade. That's all we've had. Right. I mean, address the economy, address health care, these issues that voters on both sides of the aisle care about. And so some of the things that the Democrats can do if they control the House and the Senate is restore some of the health care cuts that have happened over the last few years. I think they will go that direction. Possibly raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage hasn't been raised in many, many years. They can go that direction, send it to the president. They can repeal the tariffs. They can vote to end the war in Iran. They can do all of that because that's all been part of this campaign. They can do that, but they still can do investigations if that's what they want to do. Corruption. It is actually Congress's responsibility to have oversight of the executive branch. The problem is we just don't see it during periods of unified government, no matter which party's in control. So it is Congress's job to do oversight. Now, I think Democrats will be cautious about impeachment. I could be wrong, but I think they will be cautious because that doesn't necessarily score political points with swing voters in a presidential election. I think I absolutely agree with you that I don't think we're going to to see impeachment, but I think we will see some of the investigations into, let's say, the prediction markets, the Kalshi markets, where people have made hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars by previewing what President Trump says an hour later, you know, those kinds of things. So I think you might see that. A more serious investigation and sort of perhaps legislative action on AI. And if there's an impeachment, what do you think? Would there be an impeachment of Pete Hegseth? That is one of the things they talk about, not of the presidents. Those are some of the issues that now the Democrats are going to have to grapple with and what do their voters want them to do. And a wise speaker would only bring impeachment to the House floor if there were 218 at least Democrats who support it. And public opinion was on that side. I say the chances of it are low. I would agree. So many of these candidates that had traction tonight were running on these platforms of ending the vitriol and unifying people. Really good point. So, you know, there is this. movement, that direction, with some of these candidates who won these seats tonight. I also think that there was a lot of, there'll be a lot of eyeballs, and we haven't heard too much other than El-Sayed in Michigan, on this progressive, almost described as socialist movement on the wing of the Democratic Party, if there's any wins there, or wind at their sails on that part of the Democratic Party. I'm sure there's going to be hearings on health, like Medicare for All, or as some Democrats want, just Medicare for All. Children, those kinds of things, those are really serious issues. People have lost their health care subsidies to help them pay for their doctors. I think that is perhaps the most serious thing that the Democrats can address when they go back. Yeah, absolutely. And again, I do think we'll see this oversight. I also think the conversation about, in both parties, the 2028 nominating. This process will start soon, sort of what wing of each party, how will they battle it out? And if I may, one more, the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is now there, and you've got two elderly members of the Supreme Court. And if the Democrats are in control for the next two years, then the president, whoever he appoints, if Sam Alito and if some of these people leave, Clarence Thomas, there it is. Is there any merit in the argument that whatever the Democrats do in the next two years is indicative or will affect? The presidential race, if they do nothing, if it's a constant battle over politics, over... Impeachment, whatever it is, raising taxes, you name it, if there's a battle over that, in two years when we're in a presidential election, does that harm or hurt? It will be one of many factors in the next presidential election. The economy will be a big factor in the next presidential election, and even though we now have democratic control of the House and the Senate, at the end of the day, the president is still the... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Affordability. As does the jockeying among candidates. I mean, John Ossoff from Georgia, the senator, was reelected early in the night. I think that positions him well. But there'll be many people vying for the nomination in both parties. And, you know, how does tonight affect J.D. Vance's chances? All right, let's go back.