The Cook Political Report Senate and Governors Editor Jessica Taylor discusses Senate races in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin with Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz.
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Right now as we speak, ninety nine percent of the vote count in total is in in Michigan and Alyssa. Slotkin is up against Mike Rogers by just three tenths of a percentage point. The margin is incredibly tight. Then you go to Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick is up forty nine point one percent to Bob Casey's forty eight point four percent with ninety seven percent of the votes in. And in Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin is holding on to about a one point lead forty nine point four percent, Eric Couvdy's forty eight and a half percent. Ninety nine percent of the votes are in there, but all three Joe still too close to call right now.
Could drop bonus while we're on the air here now, which is a great opportunity to bring in cook political reports. Senate and Governor's Editor Jessica Taylor, This is Jessica's specialty, and Jessica's great to have you back. You've probably been up all night as well. Your expectation now that we've seen Michigan be called by the Associated Press on the presidential level, what happens to the Senate.
Race, I think that when I look at, like you said, almost all of the vote count is in. I was talking with my sources, both Democratic and Republican this morning. They were waiting on Wayne County to come in there and they expected that that would break pretty heavily for Slatkin.
If i'm again, I'm on one hour of.
Sleep, so it looks she's a head by about eighteen thousand votes right now. I think that's probably hard to overcome at this point. As you mentioned, it's very close, but I think that she's probably going to hold on there.
So that's a hole there. In the Senate race in Wisconsin.
We don't have that race called yet either, but again, based on what I'm seeing and talking to my sources, they expect that Tammy Baldwin is going to win a very very close race there, even as again Trump has won the state. The one that's most surprising to me is Pennsylvania. You were mentioning another very close race. David McCormick is in it is leading Democratic Senator Bob Casey there. When I look at where the outstanding vote is, there's there were some vote tabulation machine and malfunction in Cambria County, which is Johnstown, and that's a very Republican stronghold.
There are some still outstanding apps.
And tee ballots in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia, but once we get that Cambria County vote in, I don't think it's going to be enough for Casey to make up the difference in those bigger population centers. So again, not Callege yet. We don't know what the results are going to be till they finally come in. But I would much rather be McCormick in this instance and in those other races. I do think that Democrats are going to hold on to Michigan and Wisconsin well.
And then there's Nevada Jessica. Right now, eighty four percent of the votes are in. Sam Brown, the Republican challenger, is up a tenth of a percentage point right now against the incumbent, Jackie Rosen. We're talking a margin here of less than a thousand votes. I don't know if you have a strong feeling about what way this goal ismate goes ultimately when all theccounts are in. But for this reason some of the others we were just talking about, what's the likelihood of recounts and potential legal challenges here.
I think in Nevada there are I think Democrats were always sort of preparing for and Republicans were for I think some very late counting because they have to sort of cure ballots.
There's absentee ballots.
That could could certainly face legal challenges and things too. Again, when I look at sort of the outstanding vote, Rosen is leading there and most of the vote is still left in Washo, which is Reno, and in Clark County, which is Las Vegas. I would rather be her in this instance, but again I think it's going to be very very close. This was a race I was hearing from Republicans that they felt like was breaking their way pretty late, largely because of the presidential race there, even though Rosen had a pretty substantial lead for much of the race.
So again, this is another one.
So I think by my account right now, Republicans have at least a fifty two to forty eight majority. That means they flipped West Virginia, which we knew, they flipped Ohio, and they flipped Montana.
Those were the ones that we expected.
More they flip Pennsylvania, like I expect that they will that's fifty three, So Nevada, maybe that could be fifty four.
Wow, well, Jessica, if a rising tide lifts all votes. Carrie Lake sprung a leak somewhere, And I'm wondering what you thought about this, Reuben Diego, the Democrat, on a night like that, taking a lead over such a well known Republican candidate, former TV news anchor, closely associated with Donald Trump. Where did she go wrong?
She was well known and that was her problem.
She came in with very high negatives from that twenty twenty two gubernatorial race. Mitch McConnell gave a press conference on Capitol Hillary earlier today. They asked him what his takeaway was from the Senate races. He said, candidate quality matters. That's why they feel like they got strong candidates there in Pennsylvania with David McCormick, and races there in Montana as well. Carrie Lake was not a strong candidate. We knew this going in that she was a very polarizing figure. She came in high negatives, was never really able to overcome them, never really, you know, in that race for a governor.
She insulted sort of McCain voters and those swing voters.
There in Maricopa County that makes up over sixty percent of the vote.
Geygo ran a.
Very smart race. He was able to spend early on. He had the spending advantage. He was able to introduce himsel Off there. Even in a state where he was more progressive than the state's other senator, Mary Kelly, that ran us more of a centrist, So he was able to tell his story being raised in poverty by a single mother going on to be in the Marines. So I think that also we saw him Joe better with the types of voters that Donald Trump was doing better.
With, both the Latino men and black men. So those were the split ticket voters.
But also those independents broke against Kerry Lake, and I think it's because she was I think she was sort of the wrong candidate for the moment in Arizona.
Well, as we consider the idea of split ticketing, you look at a state considering you follow gubernatorial races as well, like North Carolina, which of course Donald Trump won by a margin of about four points, are a little under that. Josh Stein, the Democratic candidate for governor, won by fourteen points in North Carolina, what's the takeaway there, Jessica.
Again, the candidates matter, and you had the lieutenant governor there that Republicans, many of them knew early on, was a very controversial candidate. And then you had a scandal that came out about allegedly posting on a porn site and talking about being a black Nazi. Republicans largely abandoned him. He didn't have much of a campaign infrastructure to begin with. He was off air on advertising for the last two months of the campaign basically. But I think also voters do look at a vote for governor and a vote for Senate very differently. Actually, in the last hundred years there in North Carolina, they've only elected a Republican governor three times, so they are.
Used to splitting their tickets.
And in fact, even as Trump carried the state in twenty sixteen and in twenty twenty and Roy Cooper won both times.
But actually, you.
Know, apart from the top of the ticket at the presidential level, some nor North Carolina Democrats were.
Having a pretty good night, and I think that was sort of Stein helping them.
They've broken the supermajority in the state legislature, they won the attorney General's raised. Democrats have kept that seat, and then they also won a Secretary of Public Instruction basically the secretary of education there that was also with a very controversial Republican candidate.
All Right, Jessica, I want to talk leadership with you here now that we're looking at a red Senate here, and I guess to your point, we could still add a couple more to the list. There is a thought with Donald Trump on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue that this is not the race we thought it was to replace Mitch McConnell, that Steve Danes could even be drafted late in the game. Here, we're only a couple of weeks out from this what's about to happen.
Danes did give an interview with Semaphore where he did say again he would not be drafted. He was not interested in doing this. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in leadership in some position, especially after having a very strong showing for Senate Republicans.
He was my dark horse, but he is hick. I said.
He gave that interview to Burgess ever there Somemophore last week and said that he would not be there.
So we have the.
Two of the Johns, John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornet of Texas. Now some they have had a rockier relationship with Trump.
You know. Rick Scott of Florida has also thrown his name in there. Now.
He had a bigger than expected victory after having sort of very narrow winds for governor and for Senate.
But he also had a very contrab Marshall tenure.
At the top of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in twenty twenty two when they actually lost a seat. So I think it's going to be a lot of jockeying behind the scenes. I think probably still fun or corn and have the inside slot.
Ben the gek. You said, is there another candidate that emerges? Perhaps two? All right?
Jessica Taylor, the Cook Political Reports, Senate and Governor's Editor, thank you so much for joining us.