Chris Cuomo asks the tough questions to newsmakers in Washington and around the world. Wild card . Why . He picked his pal, kris kobach, over the partys choice, who has a slim lead in polls over kobach even though trump is backing him. The proposition is this. Could trump put this governors seat in play by picking the controversial kobach . Youll remember him of gu dayzy voter fraud fame. Remember that commission to find fraud that found none . Thats him. Trump remembers the loyalty. The gop would like to forget he exists. Its also a crucial test for the other side. Democratic centrists are fighting the growing progressive wing for the future of the party. Then theres something im calling the x growth factor. What can democrats do to peel off trump voters . What do i mean by trump voters . Voters who are disaffected and who picked trump for being an antipolitician. What can they do for that . Lets get after all of this right now with chief National Correspondent john king monitoring it all for us from the nations capital. John, ive been watching the
cities. Theyre starting to run strong in the suburbs. Thats what the democrats are hoping for tonight, chris. We can go through this race in more detail. At the moment if youre Danny Oh Conner, you like that in Franklin County. You love this in Delaware County. This should be starting to turn red. Go anywhere in america. Cities are blue. As you move away, it should start to turn red. If this stays blue, Danny Oconnor is in good shame. But remember only 5 in Delaware County. Lets hold tight. You move into the more rural areas, the republican areas, and you start to see Troy Balderson doing what a republican should do here. The question is lets keep counting the votes down here. So two observations and a question. The first one is we remember from the clinton trump race that the way ohio goes early is not the way it necessarily finishes. She was up double digits. She wound up losing by eight in that state. Secondly, really late endorsement by the republican governor and popular one in ohio, john kasich, for balderson. Were not really sure if that was just about trump Kasich Intrigue or how he feels about baldersons positions, the state
senator there. The question to you this is this. Theres this big question with the democrats about where their future is, whether or not they have to embrace they are now the party not of the traditional Working Class but of big cities, new immigrants, younger populations. Do they embrace that and see te suburbs as a battleground, or do you think they continue to try to fight back for those working families that are all in those red areas . You can go to different parts of the country, and you have interviewed on your program, and you know over the years different democrats who will give you different answers. In some degrees, it depends on what state youre in. In a state as big let me switch walls here. In a state as big and complex as ohio, this is the current house delegation, 12 republicans and four democrats. If you want to win a house district, youve got to have Working Class voters here. Down here in columbus, if you want to win the city, which they do, then youre more of your progressive, Liberal Party in the city. If you want to win statewide, its a lot more complicates, with i is why the key other 2018
most times republicans tell you the early votes come out for the democrats. Republicans tend to be more traditionalists. They vote on election day. Can Danny Oh Conner hold this lead in Franklin County, and are these big percentages out in the rural areas for Troy Balderson you see the big percentages, especially here, a little more so over here. The percentages are great. Is the math enough . Are enough rural republicans coming out to vote tonight to offset at least what early on is a big dan anyway oconnor advantage, down here, near columbus, as you noted, in the suburbs where the people live. Lets do it this way. As you see the numbers change in an impressive way, get in high ear. Ill come right back to you. Lets bring in cnn chief Political Correspondent dana bash and chief political analyst gloria borger. Weve got both of you here. Its great to get both of your minds on the idea of the distinction between politics and policy. Dana, starting with you here, by historical measure, ohio should not be a race. You cant find a metric that is positive for the democrats going into this, and yet you got danny
oconnor is in a very competitive race. What do we learn from a Policy Perspective about what buttons hes pushing . Its an important question because ive been talking to republicans and democrats all day about these races, particularly ohio. And theres one thing that they agree on, and that is something really simple, chris. And thats candidates matter. Its easy to forget that when youre in these what looks like potential wave elections. But even in a wave election, in a district like this, your point, where a democrat hasnt won in almost 40 years, waves arent enough. And so in this particular case, what Danny Oconnor has done is focus on basically bread and butter issues, on health care, on Social Security, on medicare, drilling down on those, attacking the parts of the republican tax plan that they believe really that he believes really appeals to independents and maybe even some
trump voters who he can get. He also is very much aggressively distancing himself from all things washington, including his own party leader, nancy pelosi. And on the flip side, Troy Balderson, in any other environment, would be a perfectly fine republican candidate in this district, which is, you know, democrats didnt even bother for the past, you know, three decades. And in this case, republicans say hes okay, but he was slow at getting up and running on the air and getting to the point where he understood that this was a real race. Now, this could be a republican win in the end. But just the fact that were having this discussion about this race really is a reminder that the focus is where it should be as far as democrats are concerned on these bread and butter policy issues, which could bring some of those rural voters that you were talking about back into the fold for democrats come november. Thats a question. I really believe that trump didnt make the movement. The Movement Made trump. You had disaffected people who were looking for antipoliticians, not a savior but a virus to inject into the system and attack the elites and attack all the systems they didnt like. And they found it in trump. I dont know what the democrat play is there now. Lets shift over to you, gloria. I love being able to pose a question that gets answered in realtime on the show. Whats going on with Governor John Kasich . He was slow on balderson. Why . Really. Really slow. Well, you know, first of all, lets talk about his popularity. Hes got a 52 popularity, but hes more popular with democrats in the state than he is with republicans right now. So number one. With balderson, he took months too endorse him for a couple of reasons. One is he disagrees with him because john kasich, as you know from the president ial campaign, really believes governors should take that medicaid money in ohio. Balderson said, you know, no, you should not. Also it is no secret that john kasich does not like donald
trump at all. So this was kind of this was kind of dicey for him. But in the end, he ended up endorsing the republican. What kind of difference its going to make at this point, we really have no idea. And, you know, he has been out there for him, but i think the question is in the areas where john kasich is popular, Delaware County, suburban women, will he be able to convince those people who do not like donald trump that because hes endorsed him, they ought to go for him . And will he be able to convince those independent voters that they ought to go for balderson . And those are the folks that like kasich. A little complicated. It is, especially just because he endorsed doesnt mean hes out there burning calories for him. Hes not. We havent really seen that. I understand theres a big difference between an endorsement and a commitment. So well see how it plays out. Thank you very much. You hear anything that we need
to get to the audience, let me know. Ill come right back to you. Lets dig in to what this means tonight with cnns chris cillizza. Good to have you. So tom perez said to me once, you know, i heard you saying, cuomo, everybody likes a tax cut. You know who doesnt like a tax cut . People who didnt get one. Thats something that oconnor is working in ohio. They said they would help you. You didnt get helped by the tax cut. I always think in campaigns you got to Pay Attention to the ads because thats where the moneys going. So republicans started talking about the tax cut a few weeks back, attacking oconnor, promoting balderson. They stopped doing that very quickly and switched to a message, chris, that was focused its like a replay of 2010 and 2014. Nancy pelosi is a liberal. Danny oconnor wants to be for her. That tells you one thing. Now, Danny Oconnor and the democrats now towards the end of this campaign are spending money on ads that essentially say troy
balderson is for this tax cut. This tax cut would bankrupt Social Security, medicare. It would help the wealthy and hurt you, average person. Thats not what we thought would happen and what republicans insisted i remember when trump signed that tax cut, republicans said, we are going to run on this every single day. This is great for us. People like more money in their pocketbook. They may, but i will tell you there is a reason that democrats didnt start on taxes and ended on taxes and republicans started on taxes and didnt end on it. Heres a Realtime Check on the margins we believe weve seen a contraction, a shrinking. Look at that. The numbers are pulling up. You heard john king earlier. You have to watch this with patience because we saw with Hillary Clinton in ohio, democrats vote early in that state. They do early voting. They do voting by mail. So theyre already in the system. They tab yulate them right away. But the real returns can often
be very different. She was up by double digits. She lost by almost double djs in that state. I think she lost by eight. So the numbers are contracting. Its going to be very close. Thats unusual. But the democrats have to get wins not just close losses. So lets leave it there. Lets take a quick break because were going to get more numbers in and well be able to process them for you. So when we come back, well have the latest returns from the race were watching in ohio. But, remember, you have five big states all across the country tonight that are going to give us a look at where peoples heads and hearts are in advance of the midterms. Our best look yet, next. Behr pr ordinary versus overachiever. A lot of paints say they can do the job, but just one can behr through it all. Behr premium plus, a top rated interior paint at a great price. Family friendly, disaster proof. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Crisp leaves of lettuce. Freshly made dressing. Clean food that looks this good. Delivered to your desk. Now delivering to home or office. Panera. Food as it should be. Panera. When you bundle your auto and hwith esurance, you could save with their single deductible. So if you confused the brake with the gas, or if your lamp post jumped out of nowhere, or if you forgot your bike was on the roof rack, you only pay one deductible instead of two for a claim involving both your auto and home. And when you save that much, its almost like it. Never even happened. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. This bed. All right. This Ohio 12th District race has become a proxy for the State Of Play between democrats and republicans. This is our best look at what might happen in the midterms to date. We have people at both campaigns and youre getting such different stories. Jason carroll is at republican Troy Baldersons headquarters in newark, ohio. Rebecca berg is at democrat Danny Oconnors in westerville. Two very different stories. Ill get to berg in one second. Jason, what are you hearing from balderson . What are they telling right now . Reporter first of all, just hearing some cheers here in the room as some of the results just came in. Look, they are feeling very optimistic at this point. They realize it could be tight. The race could be tight. It could be a late night. Theyre feeling especially good about the president , chris, coming in this weekend. They feel as though hes going to give balderson that extra bit
of a push that he may need. They know that there is a lot of momentum coming in from democrats, but the question is can the president create enough enthusiasm to match the enthusiasm coming in from democrats . The campaign feels as though that will be the case. Jason, thank you very much. The spin there is, hey, we knew this could be close. Really . Trump won it. Romney won it. Clinton was up early. She got beat significantly, eight points in that. And theyve held this seat for 30 years, rebecca berg. So now oconnor is close, but lets 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. Theres 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. Hes looking at the county by county mix in this because its a big part of the state, the 12th District. Youre going to see moves as they move from demographic to demographic. And the allimportant battleground will be the suburbs. Now, rebecca berg, oconnors people are not going to like what they just saw happen on the big screen. Whats their mood . Reporter no. Well, theyre 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 1940 for all about two years. So this is solid republican turf, and Danny Oconnor has certainly overperformed. Democrats have overperformed. But over perfoperforming is not to be enough for them. They want to win this race. They want to send a message for democrats here in ohio and also National Democrats going into the fall. And so we do expect, of course,
a close race. But they are definitely hoping for a win here tonight. Theyve been working to get out the vote hard. They knocked on doors twice for every target voter. So this has been an aggressive campaign, and theyre not looking for second place here tonight even if they do exceed expectations. Is that journey that they have blasting behind you there, rebecca berg . Are you too young to pick up on that song . It is. Dont stop believing, chris. Dont stop believing. They better hold on to it right now. Maybe a subliminal yeah, those lyrics are going to play one of two ways in this race tonight. All right. Thank you very much. Jason, rebecca, as you hear things in the campaign, we need to tell the audience. Come back to us. Why are we saying ohio is such a bellwether for tonight . You have all this hoistry on the gop side but you have this very tight race. So what does that contradiction tell us . Well, ill tell you what the main play is suburbs. I know people think that most of the votes come from urban areas, big cities, but thats not true. 49 of the votes in the last election came from suburbs. And you know who won them . Donald trump. Thats why its such an important demographic. The democrats need them. Can they start moving that direction . All of those factors are what makes it a bellwether and an awesome topic for a great debate. As the results come in, these two gentlemen will argue over what it means, next. Sarah always chooses to take the stairs. But climbing 58,070 steps a year can be hard on her feet, knees, and lower back. Thats why she wears dr. Scholls orthotics. Theyre clinically proven to relieve pain and give you the comfort to move more. Dr. Scholls, born to move. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. All right. Now, up on the screen youre going to see over the course of the night what the State Of Play is. The democrats need 23 states to flip the house. One of the reasons were watching ohio tonight is if Danny Oconnor pulls off an upset, and it would be a major upset in that 12th District race, it goes down to 22. Still a lot of wood to chop for the democrats. But if they dont win this one, its equally as impressive. Lets bring back john king right now, the guru, because since i last spoke to you, this race has flipflopped twice. And it could in the course of this conversation again. When you went to break, the republican was ahead. You come out of break, the democrat is ahead by 1,018 votes. Danny oconnor leading 50 to 49. 4 . 75 of the vote in. Lets look at these counties because thats where this gets so important. Number one, Danny Oconnor is doing what his team thinks he needs to do most of all, keep it above 63 , 64 in Franklin County. That needs to be more than a third of the vote. If he can hold that number, they think he can win. Why do they think that even though its so close right now . Heres one of the issues. The reason this got closer is Delaware County started to report votes. Its up to 24 now. And the republican jumped ahead. Troy balderson jumped ahead. Look at the margin there, 51 to 48. Is that enough for troy Bal Balderson . Probably not if the numbers stay he here. Watch drelaware county to see i balderson can stretch that out. Suburbs, exurbs closer in, more affluent republicans. Thats where Danny Oconnor needs to run strongest. Heres the problem for troy
balderson. Rural county, 100 in. Yes, hes winning, big percentages. I dont know if that math is enough. The turnout, is that high enough out there. Come over here, 100 in. Again, winning with 70 , you think, wow, thats great. The question is, is the math, is the turnout up here enough to offset more votes down here . 90 reporting now in richland county. Again, a good margin for the republican. Maybe not big enough. Turnout not necessarily great. So heres the point im trying to make. Theyre all counted. Theyre all counted. Some left here. Theyre all counted here. Theyre all counted here except for 2 . So in the places where we know Troy Balderson can win and run up a lead, most if not all votes are in. Accounted for. Yeah. You start coming down here, Delaware County is going to be key. Theres always one. This is the late county. Whats the Return Percentage in the biggest county . Im sorry again . The biggest county, whats the Return Percentage . In the biggest county right now, were at 88 . The question is whats out, right . Is it a closer in, more
democratic precinct . Is it a further out . I dont have that information with me at the moment. The oconnor campaign believes if they can keep this at 63 , 64 , and the rest of the district runs normal, they can win. Thats their guess. Well see what happens. Again, theres always one county. You know this. Theres always one county that lags behind the others. It happens to be Delaware County right now. I want to give you a quick history. Turnout is going to be nowhere close to 2016. That was a president ial election year. But the republican with 51 there, the last time tea berry, the republican incumbent who stepped down, won 72 in the president ial year in Delaware County. The question is is that good enough for Troy Balderson as we count the rest of these votes . 593vote difference, mr. Cuomo. 76 in in the district. We have some more counting to do. Its so close. To your point, just thats its close is bad news for the
republicans. Right. The question is, is this bad news or is it about to turn into terrible news . Ill tell you what we know for sure. Its bad news for you because this is going to be another night where youre going to have to be around. John, thank you very much. This is why they brew espresso. Lets have a great debate. Van jones, david urban. We dont know the outcome so we dont have to take a lot of time on this. Theres one proposition. Who has the better message . This isnt about oconnor and balderson. All due respect to both their campaigns, theyve both made some good plays in this race. Weve been doing our research. But, van jones, do the democrats have the better case in these midterms . Well, i mean, first of all it does matter that we are right now watching a race where the republican is running on flat ground, and the republican is running uphill in the rain with short legs, and they are neck and neck. We should not be within one point of anybody in a district that red. Something is happening out there. Weve forced republicans to
spend 5 million bucks in the middle of the summer. This he had to fire donald trump, all his weaponry, and were still neck and neck at this time of night. Something is happening out there, and i think it has to do with the message on both sides. Donald trump is causing himself problems. Hes stepping on his economic message with all this nonsense that he does. And youve got somebody who is out there running for the democrats saying, im going to protect the 700,000 people who got that medicaid expansion. Im going to stick up for Social Security. And youve got a republican who says, nah, actually 700,000 people with medicaid expansion, i dont Care Anything about you. Even donald trump didnt say that. So youve got a bad message from the republican candidate. Youve got a bad distraction from the president. And youve got a democrat who is neck and neck when hes running uphill. Something happening is out there. Dave, rebuttal. Wow. Wow. So overly optimistic. Overly optimistic. Let me tell you, chris, you say candidates dont matter. Earlier in the piece, in one of
your segments, i heard dana say candidates do matter. I agree with her, not you, in this case. Candidates do matter. This is like pa 18 which we watched and talked about, conor lamb vrersus rick sa cone. Ive been following this race for a long time. One of my very good friends, tim kaine, ran in the primary there. Ive been dialed in and watching this evolve over time, and look, im not sure that balderson was the best, strongest candidate that emerge the. But here you got it. This isnt really about the president. Its about the individual candidate. All these elections, especially special elections have you looked at the list of guys who have held that congressional seat . Ohio has been this has been a gop seat for all about two years in the last four decades. I get it, chris. Chris, guess who won that district in the last president ial election . Not the trump president ial election. Who won in 2012 and by what
margin . Romney. Let me tell did you no, no. Obama won by 53 . I know. Everybody says this is such a republican district, how did obama win in 2012 by the same margin that President Trump won . You know, it defies logic. Romney won the state, though, and theyve held the district for but were not talking about the state. Were talking about look, chris, were talking about this district. The democrats werent even putting somebody up for some of those years because there was such prohibitive laws. How ruby red this is and how its impossible for democrats to win. Well, a democrat in 2012 won pretty handily. Not for the congressional seat. Dont paint it like its this ruby red, dyed in the wool republican i dont know how red you have to be, sir. From 1935 to now, youve only lost twice. You dont have to call me sir, buddy. You can call me dave. [ Overlapping Voices ] listen, i heard your earlier
point about the suburbs, chris. You know who doesnt believe the skbushs are important . Who . The current standard bearer for the Democratic Party, ms. Ocasiocortez, who said that, you know, there is no upper middle income standard bearer for the Democratic Party . Nancy pelosi is going to come and punch you in the nose, dave urban. If i were to take nancy pelosi around america or ms. Ocasiocortez around, i could guess i bet you can guess who gets bigger crowds. Shes saying suburbs dont matter. Upper middle class doesnt exist. The Democratic Party has been focusing on those folks for too long. So if thats the message van, is that what nancy pelosi says . Is that what ocasiocortez says . [ Overlapping Voices ] ill tell you what i know about both of them. Neither of them went to the district. Trump went to the district, and hes in a foot race right now. His candidate is in a foot race with somebody who nobody ever heard of three months ago. Im going to tell you listen, so Danny Oconnor
said he wont vote for nancy pelosi. Hold on. You had your time. I want to give some credit on one issue we havent talked about is that there were a bunch of voters who were purged in ohio because they were socalled infrequent, a Progressive Group got out there and got a deal cut so that everybody could vote this time. Thats the kind of stuff happening on the ground, fighting for voting rights, for progressive values that is making this race so close. We will see how it turns out. You know whats making this race close . Youve got democrats like conor lamb and Danny Oconnor, who are running against nancy pelosi and who are running against the Democratic Party as blue dog democrats. How is he running against the party . He went after the tax cuts and said they didnt help it. [ Overlapping Voices ] you sound nervous, dave. You sound nervous. I love nancy pelosi. You keep talking about her, but hold on. Lets end the debate and go to the results because youll have more fodder once we get the numbers. I want to show the numbers because theyre moving in
realtime. Thats how close it is. Look at the margin in this race. We have probably never seen one like this in ohio in this district for congress. Why is it happening . You heard the two gentlemen making their points. Lets take a break. When we come back, were going to give you more insight and a new round of numbers. There are more returns coming in right now. Stay with cnn. Behr presents ordinary versus overachiever. A lot of paints say they can do the job, but just one can behr through it all. Behr premium plus, a top rated interior paint at a great price. Family friendly, disaster proof. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Well, esurance makes it simple and affordable. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Paying too much for insurance that isnt the right fit . Well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance
saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Esurance. An allstate company. I get it all the time. Have you lost weight . Of course i have ever since i started renting from national. Because national lets me lose the wait at the counter. And choose any car in the aisle. And i dont wait when i return, thanks to drop go. At national, i can lose the wait. And keep it off. Looking good, patrick. I know. vo go national. Go like a pro. All right. Lets put up the latest numbers. Oconnor back on top. But again, look at the spread. This is why we have to keep checking it in realtime, and nobody is going to tell you that this race is concluded and give you a final result. And if they do, dont believe it, all right . Why does this matter . Again, its a bellwether. The gop has held this seat, this Congressional District, for all but like two years in the last four decades. All right . Donald trump did very well in this state. And word to the wise. Early on the returns there showed Hillary Clinton winning. Democrats get recorded earlier in ohio for different reasons. When the whole state came in, clinton lost it by eight points. Obama did win this. Thank you very much, everybody, for coming in and saying, wait a minute. You told me different numbers. Lets be clear. Obama won this state. However, romney won the district thats in play right now, and he won it handily, okay . Thats why were saying that this is a traditionally ruby red
place. And thats why the suburbs here are such an important battleground. And thats why the fact that its close is so interesting. But close gets you nothing in politics. So lets talk about what this will mean either way that it goes. Our next guest is the dnc chair, tom perez. Its great to have you. Welcome back to prime time. This is a big night. This is the best look at what the midterms could be that weve had to date. Ohio 12, youre close. I dont think youve ever heard anybody say that to you as a democrat before. Why are you close . Because were organizing everywhere. Weve got a great candidate. Weve got a great message. Hes fighting for health care. Hes fighting to make sure that people with diabetes or people like his mother, who is a cancer survivor, can get access to health care by protecting medicaid. Hes fighting to make sure that everybodys got a fair shot. Hes fighting for prosperity for everyone, and his opponent is fighting the trump agenda, that agenda that said those tax cuts
are okay. His opponent said, id be willing to change the age for Social Security and medicare retirement eligibility. Were fighting for these basic democratic issues that affect peoples lives, and hes talking about nancy pelosi and things that arent relevant. Thats why were winning this race. And, chris, theres been a remarkable i just put up the numbers, tom. Can you see them just so you know . Right now oconnor is up by like 100 votes. This feels like conor lamb again. This is the conor lamb race where we saw it seesaw. What im heartened by, as you pointed out before, is if he continues to be at 65 in Franklin County, thats going to do him well. And what his opponents going to need to do in Delaware County is win probably 56 to 44, 57 to 43, and hes not doing it right now. A lot more to go there. But ill tell you one of the reasons Danny Oconnor is doing so great in addition to focusing
on that message is that there has been remarkable unity. There were seven people in the democratic primary, and when danny won, everybody came together. Well, thats an interesting point, tom, because weve talked about this before, and were going to talk about it a lot more during this election season. You know, which vein of thought is going to wind up owning the Democratic Party because its one thing to want to get medicaid for certain people, but medicare for all is Something Different. You know, Free Health Care for everybody, single payer is Something Different than going back to just what the aca was in full. The party is going to have to make a choice, is it not . Well, look at the choices are, i think, best reflected in the elections that are being run. And you look there in the 12th Congressional District of ohio. And after danny won, everybody came together. The indivisible chapter there supported one of his opponents and they have been all in for danny. Swing left, all in for danny. The labor movement, the dnc, the Democratic Party there. Everybody coming together because they understand that Peoples Health care is at stake. Yep. Medicare and Social Security are at stake. Our democracy is frankly at stake. And were fighting for all of these. We saw this in virginia last year. A spirited primary on the democratic side. Everybody felt like their candidate got a fair shake. They came together. Record turnout. Weve been winning across this country, whether its conor lambs district. Well see what happens tonight in Danny Oconnors district. Its remarkable were having this conversation. Right. I mean, look thats the bottom line. Were winning everywhere because were fielding the candidates that reflect the values of the districts where they are running. Thats key. I understand the key of suit to fit. But eventually its going to have to wind up galvanizing to a national message. It will have to be counter and somehow positive more than antitrump to win on a big scale. Well see how you get there. And, you know, van jones, to borrow his metaphor, you are fighting uphill. Since the beginning of june, the president has been on some run. Hes backed 11 candidates in contests and hes won all of them. So lets see what happens tonight and what it means going forward. Tom perez, thank you for making the case from the side of the democrats. Appreciate it on the show. Always a pleasure to be with you, chris. All right. Be well. So thats tom perperez. You know why that matters for him. Again, being close aint a win. Lets take you back to these numbers. This is not the kind of thing weve seen from this district in ohio before. 155 votes. Well be back right after this. Frequent heartburn waking him up. Now that dream is a reality. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . Hawaii is in the middle of the pacific ocean. Were the most isolated population on the planet. Hawaii is the first state in the u. S. To have 100
Renewable Energy goal. Were a very small electric utility. But, if we dont make this move were going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaiis economy. Verizon provided us a solution using Smart Sensors on their network that lets us collect near Real Time Data on our power grid. colton this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our Renewable Energy goals. shelee if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. Lets bring back john king. Im looking at the breakdown right now. You show people what youre seeing on the board. Im tracking it. Im trying to get word from people on the ground about what they think is going to happen. 155 votes separates them. If youre the democrats youre thinking, weve already won tonight. The fact that this is so close is amazing. I want to make this point. The fact that democrats are competitive is why they can be optimistic going into november. Lets get it to the county level and look at this. You see this red, leading in the Franklin County portion of the district. Everywhere else the problem is ahead. 100 is in here. 100 is in here opinion 100 is in here. Were going to watch as were counting this out. Delaware county, only a little more than half of the vote in. Does his Campaign Want that up. Youve been talking about the suburbs all night. A third of the voters live down here. 94 in. So what kind of space does that leave, what is 6 . Its 6 of precincts. If it keeps coming in like this is it enough to offset if troy holds his lead here . Whats the math. Thats the part we dont know. That tells us how close we are, this has slipped from 65 plus just below 65. Watch the percentages and do the
math. I think the interesting thing were going to see tonight, this is the august special election. Turnout is down. Are enough people coming out for Danny Oconnor down here. And did enough people since were at 100 , come out up here. Is the math enough . A 3,000 vote difference here enough to offset whats happening down here . Thats what were going to go through its a question of perspective. Obama won this state, romney won the district. Hillary clinton, how did she do in this county. In terms of getting us perspective of how democrats have done in the past. This Congressional District has been red for all but two years in the last four decades. Lets look at the 25012 president ial race. This is Franklin County, this is the entire county. The part thats in the entire
district is up here. Thats 2012. Mitt romney carried the district in 2012. Lets go to 2016. We can look at this by Congressional District leer. President trump carried the district. Hillary clinton if you look at the statewide gap. Hillary clinton carried Franklin County. Begun, you see this anywhere in america. The cities are blue, thats been during the trump presidency. Thats why alabama has a democratic senator. I could go on including pennsylvania, and conner lamb. This 12krik9 Is Ruby Red republican. The fact that its so close is a big deal. Let me switch again for you. We have 95 house races, 82 of
them are held by republicans, republicans are on defense, if theyre worried about this district, no matter what happens in the next couple hours, every one of these republicans goes to bed tonight a little more nervous. John king, thank you very much. Lets put the returns up there, weve had another flip. Look at this now. Troy balder son, 131 votes ahead. Danny oconnor was ahead. As john king just told you. You have 89 in, 11 of the precincts still have to report. This could go either way. Whats the big takeaway . We have that for you next. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off
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talking about candidate quality. Theyre both perfectly fine. Neither is terrible. Not a very good candidate. Bad contrast with conner lamb who is quite good. These two guys are fine. A State Senator and a guy whos in office, just an office. In some ways, its just a generic. What party do you like better, these are safers for trump and pelosi. Thats what this election has been about. The fact that its this close. If youre a be and you say, Troy Balderson is ahead, let ace say he goes on to win. Theres a whistling past the political graveyard, that should not be. That can be a takeaway. That should not be the key takeaway. This should worry you, if you are smart