Now make a
projection in the
final Senate election
of the 20, 22 midterm elections.
CNN projects
Democratic Senator Raphael
Warnock will win reelection
in the Georgia Senate runoff,
defeating Republican
challenger Herschel Walker.
Warnock, who joined the Senate
after a special election victory
two years
ago, is now poised
to serve his first full
six year term again.
CNN is projecting
Senator Raphael Warnock will be reelected
in the state of Georgia, a critical win
for Democrats.
This is what it means
for the balance of power in the Senate.
Democrats now
have an outright
majority of 51 Senate seats.
This strengthens
their control of the chamber.
Republicans have 49 Senate seats.
That's one less,
one fewer than they have now.
Let's check in
with our correspondents
covering the candidates.
Even McCain is with Senator
Raphael Warnock.
And even
can I see behind you
people celebrating that CNN has projected
Raphael Warnock will be reelected
to his first full six year term, even
Yes.
So, Jake,
obviously it's exuberant in here tonight.
And this is what Democrats
have been telling me all evening,
that this really solidifies Georgia
as a true battleground state.
You know, Democrats
want a
lot hard in the final hour
to get that Saturday voting.
They are indicating to me that they think
that that was really crucial as well.
In ushering in this victory tonight.
But this still shows
that Democrats aren't
still in play in this state.
You know,
they won
no other statewide races
during the general election.
The governor's race on down.
But tonight, they have a victory, Jake,
a big victory,
a huge, big victory for Democrats.
And Dana Bash,
in the midterm elections,
not only did Democrats
not lose any Senate seats,
they actually picked one up.
It is
really remarkable when you see the map
and you know this, senator,
because you were quite literally
all over the map campaigning for
and with your your colleagues
and those who wanted to be in the Senate,
like John Fetterman in Pennsylvania.
Given every headwind that Democrats
have had here now, one up
from where you were before.
Yeah.
Could I just celebrate for one moment?
Pretty cool. I came on the set.
We were 800 votes behind, and suddenly
here we are
and this is what we thought
was going to happen.
And again, democracy on the ballot.
The fact that Raphael Warnock
and so many of our candidates were high
quality
had the back
of the people of this country.
And then finally,
no one want their freedoms taken away.
And the Dobbs decision
and what we saw out of that
with moderate Republicans
and independents
joining Democrats to say, wait a minute.
Reproductive freedom mean
something to me.
All of those issues
were on the ballot in Georgia,
and Raphael Warnock never wavered.
And I am so happy for him today
and for the Senate
that we're going to have him back.
He's, of course,
sort of
you had raised a lot of concerns
about Georgia
election laws
that have been put in place there.
You and other Democrats
had as well, suggesting as a possible
Jim Crow type
legislation that was enacted
in the state.
We see about 3.3 million voters,
according to election officials,
showed up today.
Was there any evidence that those fears
were borne out
that you and other Democrats
raised the vote last year?
We don't know what the totals
would have been
if it would have been easier
for people to vote.
And what we are seeing
across the country, remember,
they were trying to ban Saturday voting
right before the election. Who does that?
Usually when parties lose an election
like what happened with Trump
and a number of their candidates
in the midterms,
they step back and say,
what can we do
about changing our policies
or their candidate
what they've been saying
is, let's get to the voters.
Let's make it harder for people to vote.
Georgians respond to that.
They don't like that.
And meantime,
we should just actually sort of mark
the moment pretty hateful shot
right there.
The picture that we're seeing
from Warnock headquarters, because this
this is a not not a it's a reelection.
It's actually his first full term.
He's run
the last two years.
This is the fifth time he's
been on the ballot in two years.
Two points about this.
Obviously, Democrats really,
as Senator Clinton knows,
worked their butts off
in the state of Georgia, going back
even before 20, 20.
This has been a many years long effort
to create a ground game
where one really did not exist
at the statewide level in the state.
But it is also a catastrophic failure
for Republicans
to lose two Senate seats
in a in a red state
where they could have had
a fighting chance
because of some really key
missteps and failures, frankly,
to acknowledge
what was happening and respond to it
when Trump basically depressed
his own vote.
That really sealed the deal back in 2020
and set up a chain of events
that has led us to this moment
for the next four years at least,
Georgia is going to have
two Democratic senators,
and that's going to give Democrats
for a little while longer
a real opportunity to to lock in
some of these gains
that they've been working on
for all of these years.
And it's going to be that much harder
the next time around for Republicans
to try to claw this back.
I think that
this was a key moment for them
and they missed their shot.
Well, they missed their shot.
And, Anderson,
I'm sure you're going to talk about this
with your panel.
It was Donald Trump
and his influence
in a very negative way in Georgia
that set off that chain of events
that really hurt them there.
Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
I mean, Van Jones
it is extraordinary
to see this turn of events.
Oh, it feels good.
Feel good.
Georgia, this is Georgia.
This is Georgia.
That the blood of martyr
is still in the soil in that state.
People that were lynched,
people were beaten,
people were enslaved in that state.
The idea that not once,
not twice,
five times you had someone like war
not be able to be a senator six years
and going to be there for six years.
It's a very, very big deal.
And you got to think the grass roots,
you got to think color change.
You got to thank black voters matter.
You got to thank the working families
party.
You got grassroots
groups out there and fought hard.
And by the way,
you got to thank Stacey Abrams
because it was Stacey
Abrams that made that entire thing
even possible.
This was beyond our ability to imagine
before Stacey Abrams.
Sometimes we can if she loses,
but your cause wins.
So congratulations
to Obama for being there.
And also thank you, Donald Trump, for
giving us this opportunity
to make even more history.
I mean,
I think Georgia after this
midterm, after
what happened
in 20,
20 may be remembered
as the state that finally broke
Donald Trump
in losing Georgia
in the presidential election,
losing this Senate race.
This is not a state Republicans
ought to be losing.
And so
when we go through this
Republican primary,
we need to think about the state
of Georgia.
It's going to be a swing state in 2024
and if we go down this road again,
I suspect
we're going to get the same result
I think.
Brian Kemp
does stand out for me
despite the Democrats
and congratulations
to Senator Warner not.
I do think
Kemp had had a good cycle here
and did what he needed to do
to show the Republicans
he wants to be a team player.
And also the Georgia
elections officials
and the people who wrote the Georgia
voting laws.
This was called
Jim Crow 2.0 by Joe Biden and others.
And everybody voted.
Good turnout,
good election, nothing bad happened.
Governor Duncan,
all the Republicans down there
who took all the grief of that,
I think it should be said
this worked swimmingly in Georgia,
even though Republicans didn't
get a good outcome
on the election system.
Well, Jeff Duncan, let me ask you,
I mean,
you think this could be good
for the Republican Party or necessary?
This is a necessary step. Yeah.
Let me qualify my answer by saying
if you're a Republican,
you're disappointed.
And the only way to explain
this is candidate quality, right?
That's the only way to explain
what to nine
plus point Delta
between Brian Kemp's margin
and where it looks like Herschel
Walker is going to finish this up that.
So candidate quality does matter.
Look, we've got a lot of work to do.
I think Americans wake up all over
this country
worried about two things
the direction of Republicans
wake up worried about two things.
Who's going to take the lead in the party
and what's the economy going to do?
People are going to be scared
to death tomorrow to lose their job.
And they don't know where the
Republican Party said
we need a leader to show up big time.
We need a once in a generation leader
to show up
that actually understands
conservatism, understands the values
and the outcomes
in making conservative decisions
and truly challenged.
Joe Biden in 24.
If we don't take our medicine
here, it's our fault.
You know, I was
just emailing
with a Republican strategist
who was a Walker supporter
And here's what he said.
Kemp's ground game with McConnell's money
nearly saved what Donald Trump ruined.
And he
said that every Republican statewide won.
What's the difference here?
The difference was Donald Trump.
And he said, you know,
we have to get over this.
We just have to get over this dependance
one other thing I want to note is that
Ron Klain, the White House
chief of staff, tonight
tweeted that Biden
becomes the first president since FDR
and 34
to see every senator of his party
who was up for reelection reelected.