Early starts special election coverage begins right now. Good morning, everyone. A very Early Morning. Welcome to early start special election edition. And i am john berman. It is 3 00 a. M. In the east. As we said, there is major breaking news this morning. Republicans have taken control of the United States senate, and they did it in a tidal wave fashion. It was a night many had forecast would be filled with close contests. Instead, it was near to a blowout for republicans, who picked up more than the six seats they needed to take control of the senate. Now races still remain unsettled in alaska and louisiana. But as things stand now, right at this moment, republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the senate, picking up seven over the current congress. Democrats will hold 45 seats. Lets begin with those republican pickups. West virginia has its first female u. S. Senator, republican Shelley Moore capito defeating natalie tenet. She will take the seat of jay rockefeller. Capitos victory marks the first time in 56 years West Virginia has elected a republican senator. Another key pickup for republicans is south dakota, where mike rounds easily defeated ri defeat defeated weiland. Turning to montana, steve daines defeated Amanda Curtis surrendered by max baucus. Democrats all but conceded after their original candidate john walsh withdrew over reflations he plagiarized parts of his masters these success. Another seat in arkansas with republican tom cotton defeating senator mark pryor. Pryor had tried running away from president obama, whose Approval Rating among arkansas voters was just 34 . A historymaking night tonight. Joni ernst picking up the seat vacated by retired Democrat John harkin. This was quite a battle. Ernst becoming the states first female senator in an easier than expected win over bruce braley. This was a bruising big money battle with the candidates spending nearly 80 million on campaign ads between them. Easier than expected is a theme this morning. In colorado, a surprisingly easy win for republican cory gardner, unseating the incumbent democrat mark udall. This was supposed to be neck and neck. Colorado is a purple state. And udall is the first Colorado Senate incumbent to be voted out of office in 36 years. North carolina. A state that president obama won once. That was the state that clinched it for republicans. Thom tillis defeated the incumbent democrat kay hagan. That was the race that finally gave control of the senate to the Republican Party. Now kansas, that was icing on the cake. One of the most hotly contested races in the country. In the end, republican senator pat roberts, he won reelection, defeating an independent challenger greg ormond. Republicans had been nervous. A surprise. A nail bite theyre is too close for us to project still this morning in virginia. Democrat senator mark warner is declaring victory. He is enjoying a lead right now of 12,000 votes over the republican challenger ed gillespie. Gillespie has not conceded this race. There really is no one in the political world who saw this one being this close. In new hampshire, cnn has projected that democrat Jeanne Shaheen will hold on to her senate seat. The republican challenger there scott brown has also refused to concede at this point. Mitch mcconnell, the Senate Minority leader, at least for a few more days, cruising to reelection. He defeated democrat Alison Lundergan grimes to win a sixth term. And with republicans taking control of the senate, Mitch Mcconnell will become the next majority leader. Christine . There. Are two more races where the outcome is not known. In louisiana, neither Mary Landrieu or any of her opponents got over the 50 threshold required to win the seat. That throws the race to a primary on december 6. And in alaska where the polls didnt even close until midnight eastern time, theyre still counting votes at this hour. I want to start in ankle a raj where cnns drew griffin is standing by life for us. Governor, drew. How is the vote count going up there . 68 in is an sullivan the republican challenger to the democratic mark begich is leading 50 44 . Given the tone of the evening, christine, the history of alaska politics and the results so far, it looks like the republicans will pick up this seat, and mark begich, the democrat, will be a onetermer. But nobody is conceding anything here here. In fact, i just talked to the alaska senator, the senior senator from alaska, lisa murkowski. And she says look, we dont count anybody until all those votes are counted. And she said even with all this percentage of the vote in, its still, you cant call an Alaska Senate race because things can get so quirky here so fast. It looks good for dan sullivan. It is only 11 00 at night here. The party is still on here. And dan sullivan is just down the street. Should he win, he is going to come back to this vote tally center and make the rounds. But right now we are just waiting on all those votes, farflung regions of alaska to be counted. Christine . Quirky. I think thats a really good way to state it. Still counting the votes in alaska. The winner of louisiana senate. Neither Mary Landrieu or bill cassidy got the vote to win outright. It will be decided in a two candidate Runoff Election. Suzanne malveaux is there live for us in new orleans this morning. This is what many people would forecast, that we wouldnt know the outcome of this vote for some time. You know, christine, they called it a jungle primary. But we expect kind of a wild ride to happen in the next 32 days or so before that runoff. Yes, it was not unexpected here. But certainly it is a lot of anticipation around this. Youre talking about senator landrieu, who came out late in the evening, really very aggressive against her opponent, bill cassidy, challenging him to six debates before the runoff. Also launching a new website, a poster, saying look, where was bill. Com, challenging him on his record. And then finally saying, christine, that this race is not going to be about the president , who he was, who he is, or who he will be. She made that very close. Then you had bill cassidy coming out, the congressman saying exactly that, that he again compared her, linked her to the president , saying she voted with him 97 of the time. He also boasted that 60 of louisiana voters voted for change. And that is a big challenge for senator landrieu. Now what her people told me last night and early in the morning, they said look, anticipate and expect that she is going to fight and fight hard, because she has done this before. Back in 96, she won the runoff. Back this 2002, won the runoff. Back in 2008, didnt have to actually do the runoff and won then. So this would be her fourth goaround. Not her first rodeo. So they are getting prepared. Theyre getting excited about this. But clearly, they have huge challenges ahead. Because those who supported the Tea Party Candidate, a big portion, 14 of the voters, theyre going to likely go towards cassidy, if she cannot actually take some of those votes away. Still 32 days, christine, to see how this all turns out. All right. Suzanne malveaux for us in new orleans this morning. And john, big story in the senate, of course. But this was a night that belonged to the republicans in the house as well. Everywhere, christine. The how many timuse of represen republicans were able to strengthen their hand. At the moment republicans will have the less, at least 239 seats in the house of representatives when the congress sits in january that is a minimum of five more than the 234 they hold at the moment. It will probably be much more than maybe not much more. Somewhere between 10 and 12 perhaps. Democrats have at least 172 seats. This will almost definitely strengthen John Boehners hand when dealing with the president. The question remains will it change the partisan gridlock situation in washington. Were going to have to wait and see what the leaders say over the next few days. I want to bring in our political analysts right now. Joining us, john avlon, editor and chief of the daily beast. Republican political strategist margaret hoover, and sally kohn for aggressive columnist for the daily beast. Margaret hoover, you were a card carrying member of the Republican Party. Well let you start tonight there is no other way to put it. This was a tidal wave. Everything that we thought was close wasnt nearly as close. Things we didnt think were going to be close, like virginia, way close. What happened . The map was laid out and very favorably from the beginning for republicans. There was some sixyear itch. The electorate is disenchanted with the president who has very low Approval Ratings. And republicans ran incredibly strong candidates. I think between all of those things, the option on the table was to change the status quo in washington by moving one element, making the senate republican, give some chance of changing from the status quo. By the way, it wasnt an entire tidal wave. Scott brown lost. If scott brown in massachusetts then we could legitimately say yep, we swept the country. Really, really large kahuna. It wasnt a super storm surge. Too soon. It had to be a long, long night for you and for activists around the country. I mean yes is the right answer to that question. I dont want to sugarcoat it. Margaret just gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling that it wasnt as bad as it could have been. Look, the reality is there is sort of this emotional roller coaster if you will for democrats this cycle. From the beginning, margaret is right. It doesnt look like a race democrats were going to do well in. The change was if anything that suddenly it looked like things are closer than they might be. This is the sixth term of a democrat president. Sixth year of a democratic president , and sixyear elections, the party in power almost always loses seats. This was expected to happen. If anything the news is it wasnt as close, it wasnt as bad as it could have been. You got to find a Silver Lining somewhere. Youre in the white house tonight. Youre president obama. What are you thinking . Are you thinking gosh, look at what i did to all these guys in my party . Are you thinking gosh, im going to go out there and be aggressive tomorrow and change things. Gosh, im going to find ways to c compromise with the republicans. He has campaigned on it. He has talked about it. He is accused of being an entrenched partisan. Well put that to the test now. I think he is going to want to see some things get done. I think he is probably going to dig in his heels on appointments and other issues if they want to try to repeal or dismember any part of obamacare, i think he is probably going to pull out the veto peck. But other than that, there is plenty that needs to be done there is a huge backlog of very routine work that has not done over the last two kongs. The New York Times has a quote they dont see this as a repudiation. How can you see this as anything but a repudiation . Look, among other things, one of the things you mentioned tonight is simply turnout. If turnout is high, you get different results. Thats something that the parties need to deal with. Republicans should feel good tonight, partly about their pickups. There were a lot of countervailing forces going this election. Republicans seem to have won almost them all. It is a fundamentally different slice of the electorate. Mitch mcconnells Closing Argument is all about gridlock. The president has to rise up and say ill find areas of Common Ground and they both have to follow through. Stick around. We have a lot more to talk to there are a lot of other races we need to get to. Were going go to christine now. A lot of governors mansions that changed hands last night. The gop sweeping most of the competitive contests for governor across the country. Were Still Holding off in projecting winners of a few of the races. Republican candidates taking over the Governors Office in arkansas, illinois, massachusetts, and maryland. While the democrats only pick up this morning is in pennsylvania. In illinois, wow, republican bruce rauner defeating the incumbent governor pat quinn. Thats according to a cnn projection and a big upset there. Another stunning upset in heavily democratic maryland. Republican businessman larry hogan winning the governors race. He defeated the democrat anthony brown, the states Lieutenant Governor. And another deep blue blow for democrats in massachusetts. Republican charlie bake erwining the governors race over the democrat martha coakley. It comes after eight years of democratic rule in massachusetts under governor Deval Patrick there is a new republican governor in arkansas. Former Homeland Security official Asa Hutchinson defeating the democrat mike ross, giving the gop control of the top office after eight years in the hands of democrats. The gop also taking other tight races where democrats were given decent odds to win. Florida voters reelect rick scott to a second term as governor, delivering a stinging rebuke to democrat charlie crist. Scott pumped nearly 13 million of his own money into his campaign in its final days. He becomes just the second gop governor in florida history to win reelection. In wisconsin, the republican scott walker easily won reelection to his second term by doubledigit others the democrat mary burke. That victory keeps walker in the mix for a possible president ial run in 2016. Walker angered many voters and had a recall election in 2012 after he ended collective bargaining rights for the states employees. Republicans hold on to the state house in georgia. Voters dave nathan deal four more years. He defeated jason carter, the grandson of former president jimmy carter. The republicans remain in control beating fred duval in the governors race. Hell replace jan brewer who decided to retire rather than challenge the states term limit law. He is best known for building the Cold Stone Creamery before selling that company in 2007 and entering politics. Democrats only one pickup on their call this morning, tom wolf is the new governor of pennsylvania, the democrat defeating the republican incumbent tom corbett in his bid for reelection. I want to check in on the panel for the expansion of the Governors Offices across the country. I want to start in illinois. What happened in illinois . I want to listen to something that bruce rauner said. He is a republican who defeated pat quinn. Lets listen. This is an historic time in illinois. The voters have spoken. The voters have asked for divided government for the first time in many years. Well have a republican governor and a democratic legislature. And the voters have chosen to have a divided government not so we can fight, not so we can bicker, not so we can get angry with each other, but its to find solutions. Deep sighs from sally kohn. Ive heard a lot of deep sighs from you this morning. This is a big loss for the democrats. You know, illinois was a big surprise. Then again, i really have nothing positive to offer here on the case of illinois. Im sorry. Its not pretty. Something positive. Look, this is something that seemed possible a few months ago, and then quinn seemed to have an improbable surge. In illinois and massachusetts, two of the most democratic states you can get have republican governors today. But what is just as significant is the message they gave. They both said elect a republican executive as a check on an entirely democratic state. And people responded to that message. Charlie baker returning that legacy of bill weld. Deval patrick is an aberration in recent years. And so thats a really interesting sign. Its not just a republican wave in this case. Its an interesting sign of some voters in blue states wanting divided government as a check on legislation. You have to point out in illinois the handwriting wasnt always really on the wall. Pat quinn won that seat with a 500,000 vote margin, all out of cook county, all out of the chicago area. He was in some ways sort of the governor of chicago. And if you dont turn out the cook county organization doesnt turn out the vote out there, this is what happens. Can we talk about maryland . Maryland a big deal in maryland. But what were seeing in the dna of these republicans that are winning in blue states is actually a different kind of republican. And i think that thats thats some Silver Lining for my progressive friends on my left. Even though they dont want to like republicans, if they had to pick one, they would like this kind of republican do. You like larry hogan . As opposed to a Sam Brownback kind of republican. Youre getting a more moderate version on social issues, certainly more temperate. Fiscal issues are conservative. This is a new breed of republican that frankly i think the National Republican party has been thirsting for some time. Margaret is pointing to the broader Silver Lining here for democrats. And frankly, for the majority of the American People who support marriage equality, who support raising the minimum wage, who support access to reproductive choice and abortion, which overwhelmingly the majority of americans support. And in not only in electing these moderate governors, but in the ballot measures and all these instances, they supported that even in cases where they put republicans in the senator in the electoral elections. What kinds of republicans are going to be Running Congress . What kind of tone are the Republican Party going to have in washington . So glad. What were starting to see in a lot of these house races is actually because weve grown our margin so much, its a lot of suburban districts wh