buckle up, we are heading into the final hours of voting and the first results in one of the most consequential midterm elections ever. >> it's the high stakes race to a fever pitch campaign. >> are you ready to win this election? >> i love to win. >> voters, making big choices in a nation on edge. >> with high prices. >> crime is rising. >> the woman's right to choose. >> what's happening across the u.s. could shake up the balance of power in congress and shape the next race for the white house. >> speak out, get engaged, vote, vote, vote, tonight, democrats are fighting to hold on to the senate, knowing a loss of one seat could cost them the majority. >> we need a senator that understands what pennsylvania is going through, not some guy that has ten gigantic mansions. >> the poster part of the far left radical part of the democratic party, john fetter nan. >> -- fetterman. >> we must change direction in washington. >> everything is at stake. >> both parties, hoping to expand their influence by winning governors offices across the nation. >> we will never ever surrender to the woke agenda. >> governor desantis only cares about the white house, he doesn't give a damn about your house. >> it is a critical test of the current president's agenda. >> we're already getting it done. >> and the former president's grip on the gop. >> welcome to the new republican party. >> will this election set the wheels in motion for a biden/trump rematch? >> trump and the extreme maga republicans have made their choice, full of anger, hate and division. >> watching our country go to hell, we may have to do it again. >> this is cnn's coverage of election night in america. the races for congress. the contest for governor. and the future of american democracy. >> we're taking our state back by storm. >> our democracy is on this ballot. >> the people are choosing, the world is watching and anything is possible until the last vote. and we are live in washington on a very suspenseful night in american politics. voters are deciding control of the united states congress and the direction of the country over the next two years. welcome to cnn's special ko coverage of election night in america. i'm jake tapper. the first major election since president biden took office and the first chance for voters to weigh in on his record at a moment when so many americans are struggling with high inflation, and economic anxiety, republicans believe that will work to their advantage, as they fight to win the 218 house seats they need to e reclaim the majority. the battle will take place in 82 key house races, competitive contests that could go either way. in the senate, republicans need 81 seats to take back control. we're watching 13 key races that will be crucial to the fight for the senate. another factor, former president donald trump who has endorsed a slew of republicans who support his false claims about the 2020 election. some of them could have influence over certifying the results in 2024 or refusing to do so, if they win tonight. that includes some of the candidates for governor in races playing out in 36 places across the nation. the pivotal battle grounds of georgia, wisconsin, michigan, and arizona, covering all of this tonight, dana bash, abby phillip, chris wallace, and our entire election team, john king is at the magic wall. he'll make sense of the wall, mapping out the races district by district. case casey -- kasie hunt is standing by. including key races, boris sanchez will be reporting results from 36 governor's contests across the u.s. david chalian is getting ready to roll out exit polls on what voters are thinking, and brianna keilar is at the voting desk, keeping tabs on how ballots are counted and we have correspondents spread out across the country at candidates headquarters and vote counting centers. also right here in washington, d.c. first, let's go to manu raju at the headquarters of house republican leader kevin mccarthy. how confident is mccarthy feeling right now? >> reporter: extremely confident. the last couple of weeks, kevin mccarthy has been working on a victory speech he plans to deliver tonight. they believe they will take the majority, potentially as soon as 11:00 p.m. eastern time. that is what they're looking at, in a time they believe mccarthy may come out and deliver remarks, and prepared some off the cuff remarks as well. we expect to hear from other republican officials through the course of the night, ronna mcdaniel, as well as newt gingrich. mccarthy has been raising enormous sums of money. he has traveled to 40 states over the last several weeks. today in virginia, two districts in which they believe could help them take back the majority. mccarthy and his team i'm told have set the bar at 20 seats. that is more than enough to take back the majority. they believe they clear that bar. it will be a very successful night. they believe that will give them enough for what they consider a governing majority. anything less than 20 seats, they believe while successful to take back the majority would make kevin mccarthy's life more did i difficult assuming he gets the speaker's gavel. republicans and democrats looking at the margins, also significant in tonight's results. >> let's go to one of the most important battlegrounds tonight. pennsylvania's jessica dean at the headquarters of current lieutenant governor, john fetterman. the battle for control of the senate could hinge on the race. what is the thinking in the fetterman campaign headquarters? >> reporter: yeah, it certainly could, skjake, and across the country, democrats are playing defense. here is where they could play offense. an open senate seat, republican pat toomey is retiring, and democrats would love to pick this up. i talked to several campaign sources late this afternoon, and one of them acknowledging this is a jump ball, we know this is an incredibly tight race. what we are confident in, they closed it out as strongly as they could. the campaign feels like the last five days have been very good for them. they highlight the oprah winfrey endorsement that came late thursday and dominated the local news cycle on friday. they had the rally with former president obama and president biden in philadelphia, and one here in pittsburgh with obama, and they really feel like that has really lifted and given them a lot of momentum heading into today, especially with suburban women. that was the demographic that came up again and again when i was talking to them. one more thing that the campaign is pretty confident about, jake, it is they believe mehmet oz, the republican challenger who has pitched himself as an independent voice, a moderate, undercut that message by appearing at the rally with president trump over the weekend. doug mastriano, the republican gubernatorial candidate also there as well. >> all 435 house seats are being decided in this election. only the most competitive will determine which party wins control. house republicans must win 30 of those competitive seats to reclaim the majority. house democrats must win 53 of those competitive seats. so democrats face a much more difficult challenge. they have fewer seats in the safe column. we're going to see if they can meet that challenge as the results come in. let's make our first trip to john king at the magic wall to take a look at the balance of power and the state of play when it comes to the house of representatives. >> brand new map. the 2020 census, begets redistricting, which gets you to the 2020 map. focus on this to begin with. the current house, the prior map. the district lines have been changed quite a bit. that's the map you need to remember. republicans essentially need a net gain of only five. the historical average is 30, if you go back to ronald reagan's days. president's first midterm election, 37 if you start the clock at bill clinton. so you're looking at this map across the country. you mentioned those competitive races. first, let's bring them up this way, and show they are coast to coast. you have competitive house districts from coast to coast. here's another way to look at it, the way you brought it up. we get into how this map tells you here, look at all of that blue, that tells you democrats are on defense. defending way more districts. look at the guide down theory. 57 of these districts have incumbent democrats. 20 have incumbent republicans. and a race down here in texas with two incumbents, think about that. democrats are defending nearly three times as many seats in a democratic president's first midterm year. they go from the northeast corner of maine, all the way do southern california. rank choice voting in maine and alaska, we may not know the results of those seats for quite some time. republicans need a net gain of five. jake, it's possible they could get it right here. ma manu was talking about republican optimism. there are places we will get results early on, and let me close this off, get rid of the lines so you can see it. the commonwealth and state of new hampshire, two competitive house districts there also. a very competitive senate race. we could learn early on in new hampshire. can these two democrats, these are white working class districts, can they hang on, can they be competitive? we'll get early clues there. you drop down from there just in the state of new york, we have ten competitive districts in the state of new york, seven of them are democrats on defense right there. and if you come down to the commonwealth of pennsylvania, 17 districts across the commonwealth, but you see four districts in blue right here. defend, the four competitive districts in the commonwealth of pennsylvania which has a governor's race and senate race as well, all democrats. we could get early clues as you come down. if we haven't figured it out by then, the commonwealth of virginia, also an upscale democratic suburban district. just across the bridge in the washington, d.c. suburbs. another suburban district down here. a big change in the demographics of this district. can elaine luria hold on down there. so we have a number of examples, even though it could take us quite some time to get to the final house math. these races in the east are going to tell us quite a bit. we stretch down, again, you can start in the east coast, go across the midwest, all the way here that the democrats are on defense so much out here. the democrats have dominated the west coast for a generation. competitive seats in washington, in oregon, in california as well. democrats on defense, jake, their challenge tonight, upend history. >> it's exciting, john king. we don't know what's going to happen. it's fun because it so rarely happens. dana bash, as we prepare for the evening, what are you looking for? >> i'll pick up where john left off, which is in virginia. particularly it's virginia's second congressional district. elaine luria, an incumbent democrat. people have gotten to know her because she is a member of the january 6th committee. she is in a district that has flipped back and forth over the past 20 years, and she was also a so called majority maker in 2018. she was part of the wave of democrats who helped pick up the house for them. she has spent about $11 million in a small congressional district. in a race. and she has been working as hard as she can up against a very sour mood. we will know early on because polls close at 7:00, and they tend to tabulate them pretty fast in virginia, whether or not she is going to survive and that could be actually will likely be a telltale for other districts around the country. >> i'll seal you virginia 2 and raise you, an area north of new york, an area biden won by ten points. what's especially interesting about is it sean pat rick malony is running there, and republicans have gone in heavy. they have spent millions of dollars. it got sufficiently tight in the final weeks. the dccc put $600,000 into maloney's race. if he should lose it will be the first time that one house party has taken out the other house party's campaign chairman since 1980. >> you know what i think is so spe interesting about tonight, both parties are like, i don't know what's going to happen with the senate, and that kind of uncertainty i think is partly about what i consider tonight to be this split screen moment. the top of the ticket in the governor's race and senate race in a lot of states are not rowing in the same direction. when you look at a state like georgia, for example. if you have brian kemp running well ahead of stacey abrams, what does that do to a very tight senate contest? you could tell the same story in arizona, in pennsylvania, in nevada, lots of the key senate races, there's something totally different happening at the top of the ticket, and that's something both parties are looking at. >> one of the places i'm watching closely is pennsylvania, for exactly that reason because we are more than likely, democrats feel very confident about their gubernatorial candidate in pennsylvania, josh shapiro over the republican, doug mastriano. but the senate race could go very differently, and you know, i have been talking to sources throughout the afternoon, and there's a couple of things to watch. this is going to be one of the critical senate races. we're going to start to get the vote count in early, but we expect it to take potentially days to actually count. that's partly because of philadelphia county, by democratic and republican sources are watching for turnout in philadelphia, and they're also looking for margin in the philadelphia suburbs, which jake, i know you know very well as to having grown up there because they're looking for particularly white suburban women and how they're voting to see how the night is going. >> that demographic is going to be one of the key questions all night long in philadelphia or virginia's second districts, they went towards joe biden and the democrats last time around. the question is whether republicans can get them back. >> fascinating stuff. as we stand by for the first exit polls on what is on the mind of vote, we're going to break down the early numbers. we're finding surprises. stay with us on this election night in america. ♪ ♪ luxury exemplified. innovation electrified. with apple music seamlessly integrated. the all-new, all-electric eqs suv from mercedes-benz. before we begin, i'd like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? 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(music) visit goldhub.com. where do we even start our house search? the house whisperer! this house says start with deep search filters on realtor.com. and all the missing socks, are behind the dryer. realtor.com. to each their home. welcome back, control of congress is up for grabs as we head into the final hours of voting across the country in this momentum election. right now, we have a break down of early voting in key battleground states, and we're finding some interesting twists. brianna keilar is at our voting desk. >> more than 45 million ballots were cast before election day in 47 states, and here's what we know about where those early votes are coming from. you can see here on the map, the states that have cast the most early votes, texas, has the highest count with more than 5.4 million votes. next is florida with 4 p.9. 4.7 in california. 2 2.5 in georgia and here's what we can tell you about who is voting. in pennsylvania, we see a pretty typical divide between the parties when it comes to preelection day ballots. 69% of votes so far from registered democrats. 21% from republicans. and that is roughly the same break down that we saw in pennsylvania in 2020 with 66% of early votes from democrats, and 23% from republicans. but then take a look at this. there are several states seeing a rise in early voting from republicans. in ohio, republicans make up 28% of early votes. that is up 5% from 2020 as you see here. and in florida, republicans are outpacing democrats making up 43% of early votes. that is also up 5% from 2020. so we're going to see what kind of impact these preelection votes will have as results start coming in tonight, jake. let's go live to our battleground correspondents. sara sidner is at a voting location in tempe, arizona. what kind of turnout are you seeing there? >> it has tripled in the past couple of hours. the line here on asu campus, we're in tempe, arizona. that is part of maricopa county, the largest and most populous county in arizona. typically about 85% of voters vote early. this line is indication that there are quite a few people left that want to get their vote in today. there are a lot of folks here who are students. there are a lot of folks here who are first time voters, and you know, we are talking to them about some of the different issues that they have come here to vote about. there are lots of concerns about a lot of different things, so, you know, and you have people here that are constantly, you know, saying you've got to be 75 feet. you've got people who are constantly making sure people feel safe, but, you know, we've got different voters from different parts of the county because you can go anywhere, anywhere. okay. so apparently we're a little close. so we have been doing this all day long, talking to different people. apologize for that. we got a little bit too close. you can see, they're serious about making sure that people feel safe here as they vote, jake. >> sara sidner, let's go to nevada. gary tuchman is at a voting site in las vegas. how busy is it where you are? >> jake, we picked a busy place, not only because of the intense interest in three major races in nevada. but we are in a mall, just east of the las vegas strip in clark county. so you can come here, you can shop, you can eat. you can ride kitty rides, you can go to the movie theater and cast ballots. that's what a lot of people are doing here. five minutes ago, i walked down the line, more than 100 people wait to go vote in the 25 stations here, and the people are talking to us about five major issues when we just talked about. no particular order, the economy, crime, reproductive rights, the border and trump. both pro and anti-trump. is this precinct busier than normal. less busier than normal. there's no way to know in nevada by individual precincts. like most states, you can go to any voting center in the county you live in. there are 17 counties in nevada, clark county being the most populated, 75% of the population lives here. they make it very convenient, and also to vote early. even before the polling places opened today. 34% of the registered voters in the state of nevada already had their ballots received by early in-person voting, and mail-in voting. this state, if you register to vote, you automatically receive a mail-in ballot. those have to be received by this saturday, if they're postmarked by today. the polls are open for another four hours here in the state of nevada. >> gary tuchman, thank you so much. we appreciate it. two of the big b