Cindy Hyde-Smith Wins Senate Race in Mississippi; CNN Heroes.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: And the concentration of all those emotions get worse, we need people that we can count on to tell the truth. And I hope that that happens for this country. That's all for us tonight. Thanks for watching. CNN with Don Lemon, "CNN TONIGHT" starts right now.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Thank you, sir. A lot to get to, so I'm going to move it along. I'll see you tomorrow. All right. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. Here's our breaking news. Early results coming in right now in the U.S. Senate runoff in Mississippi. Republican Senator Cindy Hyde- Smith, well, she has the lead over the Democrat there, who is Mike Espy. But there are still a lot of votes to be counted. You might be wondering why all eyes are on this Mississippi race tonight a full three weeks after election day. Well, the answer -- three words. The blue wave. The blue wave that swept Democrats into power in the House, and it stands right now -- as it stands right now, Democrats have picked up 39 seats in the House of Representatives. That is the biggest gain in the House seats -- in the House seats by Democrats since Watergate. But even that fact doesn't really capture what happened in these midterms. The Cook Political Report has been keeping a tally of the votes cast for either party in House races across the country. And according to their latest count, Democratic house candidates got over nine million more votes than Republican candidates. That is the largest margin in the history of midterm elections. Democrats lead Republicans by 8.1 percentage points. That's a bigger lead than Republicans had in wave elections in 1994 and in 2010. And beyond the House, Democrats picked up seven governorships, even winning in Kansas, a state the president carried by almost 21 points and unseating Republican Scott Walker in Wisconsin. They picked up 332 state legislative seats across this country, and that could still grow. Since his press conference on November 7th, the president has insisted without evidence that he and the Republicans had a good election night. Make no mistake, there was a blue wave in America. Plenty to discuss now. Mr. John king is here. John, good evening to you. Give us the latest.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Big blue wave in America, but perhaps not in Mississippi tonight in the final contest of the 2018 midterms. Let's just look, Don. We're at 55 percent. The incumbent Republican, she was an appointed senator, but she's the incumbent now. Cindy Hyde- Smith with 55 percent. You see it here. Mike Espy, the Democrat, former congressman, former Clinton -- Bill Clinton cabinet member, just shy of 45 percent. So, 51, almost 52,000 vote margins for Cindy Hyde-Smith as you look at the map, and it's filling in. Here's one safe bet. This will get at least a little bit closer. Why? This is Mike Espy's old congressional district out here in the western part of the state. You see all the blue. This is the most Democratic part of the state, a heavy African- American population. The problem for Mike Espy is he needs to not only run up margins here, it will show you, they're pretty good, right, at 72 percent in this county, with 84 percent in. Sixty-seven percent here with half of the vote in. He needs to not only run up those margins, he needs to turn out. He needs African-Americans to come out in overwhelming numbers. One other thing, if you look at the Espy campaign, they're saying we'll get closer here because Hinds County, we're only at 47 percent of the vote, so half, a little more than half still to be counted. And you see the big margin. This is Jackson, just around Jackson that Mike Espy is running up there. So, if you're in the Espy headquarters, you're saying, OK, that's not great. It's going to get a little bit closer. The question is can you get it close enough? Is the Democratic turnout mostly in the western part of the state going to be enough and that's a big challenge? Because you start looking. Number one, let's look in the Jackson suburbs. This is a pretty respectable showing in Madison County. For Mike Espy 46 percent of the vote we're at 44 percent. Down here closer to Jackson, you have affluent suburbs we saw in the Alabama win last year for the Democrats in the south. We saw throughout this blue wave year in House races. The president struggles with Republican voters, especially moderate women, in the suburbs. So that's a respectable showing. Is it enough to get Mike Espy over the finish line? That's how we'll count them up as we get closer. You move over here and see a much bigger win in the eastern Jackson suburbs. It's more conservative territory, Cindy Hyde-Smith doing what she needs to do there. One more quick point about Mississippi, Don. Now we can do whatever you want here. I just want to look. This is one of the places the president visited, Cindy Hyde-Smith running up pretty good numbers here. Why do we say that? let's do a little comparison. This is three weeks ago. We're here tonight because there were four candidates three weeks ago. So, 48 percent, 20 percent, 68 percent, right? The Republican vote in this area three weeks ago. Let's come back. Remember, 68 percent. She's getting just shy of that now. So, did the president help? Well, a lot of those Chris McDaniel voters not fans of Cindy Hyde-Smith. So at least the president will be able to make the argument he got those tea party voters who might not love her to realize you got to come vote today. Again, we're going to be counting for a little while. We're up to 59 percent now though. Fifty-nine percent as the map fills in this very red state. For Mike Espy to pull off a miracle when these counties come in, not only the margins, the turnout has to be huge. Possible? Yes. Bet on it? I wouldn't.</s>LEMON: Yes. So, you showed us where Espy needs to run up the total if he stands a chance. But I got to ask you, we're looking at usually a ruby red state. To have these sorts of numbers, what does it say about what's going on, John?</s>KING: Look, this is not just the president. She's not a great candidate. As you've talked about for the last couple of weeks, she said some pretty horrible things, at least from a national perspective. We're going to see tonight how the verdict goes on some of these racially charged comments in Mississippi. She has a state that's Republican Party has become more tea party. She's more establishment. So, it's not just President Trump. Not just President Trump. But if you have a 10-point race, let's assume it gets a little bit closer. Republicans will celebrate that. That means they will have 53 seats in the United States Senate next year. Easier for the president to get a new attorney general. Easier for the president to get other nominees confirmed. However, in Mississippi, she's on the ballot again in two years if she wins tonight. This is to fill the remaining term for Senator Cochran. If you look at this you are going to be thinking, yes, the Democrats might not have a great candidate. This is not an over joyous night if this is the margin that holds up in the state of Mississippi. A win is a win, don't mistake that. A win is a win. But it's another sign even in Mississippi, you just talked about the big blue wave. The Republican Party has problems just about everywhere.</s>LEMON: Let me ask you this, then. You said the Republicans, they have problems just about everywhere. Let's talk about overall because not a lot has gone well for Republicans in terms of the House since election day. So, catch us up on where we stand right now.</s>KING: Sure. Let me come out of here, and let me close this out. I got to fix this for you. This is our House map. This is the big House map if you look at it right now. These are the called races. There's one left out in California where the Democrat has actually pulled ahead. We're not ready to call that tonight. The Democrat has pulled ahead in recent days in another Republican district. Right now, 234 to 200. Four hundred thirty-five seats so there's one left. That's 42 pickups minus three. A net gain at the moment of 39, 39 for the Democrats. That's a blue wave. That is a blue wave, and it could get to 40. So, what do we do when we look at this? Number one, the Democrats are winning everywhere, not just wiping out the Republicans in New England but picking up a seat in Oklahoma, but picking up seats out -- a seat here in Kansas. That's one way to look at it. Let me show you something else, Don as we go through this. Republicans, the reason Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, then George Bush, the Republican Party of those days was anchored in the suburbs, including suburban women who cared about low taxes, schools, crime. Let me show you something about what happened in this election. Let's bring this out and take a look. Number one, let's look at the big 2016 to 2018 flips. These are the Republican held seats or the Democrat held seats if it's red. These are seats that flipped from one party to another. Now let me bring that back out and show you this. Let's just collate in now the top suburban districts. Of the 39 the Democrats have tonight, maybe 40 when that California race is done, the pickup, right? Look at this, Democratic pickups in suburban, more than half, more than half of what the Democrats are getting are these suburban districts and they go coast to coast. Coast to coast the Democrats have taken away the suburbs, which are fast growing in the United States, which are where most competitive statewide elections are won. And just one quick point, to stretch out California, you don't need to be little bit smart here. But Orange is literally the new blue, as in Orange County, which used to be Ronald Reagan rock red Republican. The California Republican Party, we talked about the National Republican Party. This Republican Party in this state has been in trouble for a long time. It is just on life support after this cycle.</s>LEMON: Orange County traditionally very conservative. Thank you -- thank you, John. I appreciate it. We'll get back. We're going to keep following. Listen, it's not over yet. It is not over, as we say, till it's over. So, let's bring in Harry Enten, Mark Preston, Nia-Malika Henderson. Listen, the numbers are what they are right now. But again, until it's called, it's not over yet. Mark, give us your impressions, your thoughts on how things are looking in Mississippi.</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple things. One, we shouldn't be surprised by what we're seeing as the outcome right now. We know Mississippi is a rock-solid red Republican state. Having said that, though, there are major red flags being put up. Now John just discussed those and talked about how Democrats are winning across the country. Let me just put this in perspective when we talk about changing demographics and how things can change in the country. If you look in the south right now and you look in Georgia, you look in Texas, you look in Florida, you saw three states where Democrats almost won major seats, whether it be a Senate seat or a governorship. What did all those candidates have in common? They were absolute long shots to even be in contention for those seats, and they were all minorities. You add Mike Espy to that list as well. You now have four candidates. Let assume Espy does lose, who were very, very close. Why is this a problem for Republicans? It all comes down to math, right? You need 270 electoral votes, Don, to become president of the United States. Let's just say in a decade these demographics change a little bit, and we see that Georgia, Texas, and Florida flip and they become Democratic states. All you have to do is add in California, which we know is very liberal, New York, which we know is very liberal, and you are only 103 electoral vote as way from being the president of the United States. That's with only a handful of states.</s>LEMON: Very interesting. Let's continue to talk about Mississippi. I want to bring Harry in. Does Espy have a path to victory right now?</s>HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: I don't see it. I mean, obviously, I don't project races for this network. But I don't see it based upon everything that I'm seeing. And that shouldn't be a huge surprise, right? The polling average heading into this runoff had Hyde-Smith leading by mid-single digits. Based upon the votes left out, we should see Espy close the gap which is above 10 points now. So, we'll head right towards that polling average. But more than that look at the results that occurred earlier this month. And then you try and predict them based upon the past presidential vote whether or not the incumbent is running. That would have predicted Hyde-Smith would win by seven percentage points and that's looking like what we'll probably end up at this point.</s>LEMON: Listen, you are the forecaster, the political forecaster but, I mean, just to me as a person who sits here and, you know, sort of as a moderator of the political debates, to see this -- these sorts of numbers in Mississippi, as I said to John, I mean, it's surprising to me.</s>ENTEN: I think it is somewhat surprising insofar as this is a state where a Democratic Senate candidate hasn't won since 1982. A Democratic gubernatorial candidate has not received a majority of the votes since 1987. And you have to go all the way back to the '50s for a Democratic presidential candidate to receive a majority of the vote. So, the fact that Espy at least was somewhat closer, closer than you might have expected given the first rounding of voting when the Democrats only added up to 42 percent of the vote does indicate to me that some of Hyde-Smith's comments might have hurt her but not to the extent whereby it was enough for Espy to close.</s>LEMON: Let's dig in a little more about that. Because, Nia, listen, if she does win, a win is a win. Cindy Hyde-Smith, her comments about attending a public hanging, the president asking whether Espy fit in in Mississippi. Do you think these dog whistles had an impact?</s>NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Marginally. Probably. I think the major way they had an impact was it drew the national spotlight to this campaign in Mississippi that probably wasn't going to get much national attention. It also allowed Mike Espy to make a closing argument about why people should vote for him, which is to say that essentially Cindy Hyde-Smith wouldn't be good for Mississippi's reputation. Obviously, it's a deep south state and has struggled to embrace sort of this new south reputation. So, I think that in some ways was a good thing for his candidacy. But I think in the end, we're going to see a state do what a state like Mississippi would do, which is to say we're going to see a very racially polarized electorate, likely 80 percent of white voters in Mississippi are going to pull the lever for Cindy Hyde-Smith, and over 80 percent of black voters will vote for Mike Espy. That's just how Mississippi is. Everything in that race in terms of politics, everything in that state in terms of politics has often been about race, right? I mean, white people fled the Democratic Party and became Republicans over the issue of race. So, if you're a Mississippian, you're sort of used to this language around race and dog whistling and signaling around race. But in the end, it will l be the same outcome here. But certainly, some warning signs, I think, for Republicans in this state, and certainly, I think probably some regrets that they did put forth Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is a weak candidate and likely ended up in this position because Mississippi is a state that has never had a woman before Cindy Hyde-Smith represent them in Congress, either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. So, if she wins tonight, she's going to make some history tonight.</s>LEMON: Mark, a win by Smith would mean that we're looking at a 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, and the president went down there, campaigned hard for her as he did for many red-state senators. Is this Senate his red wall?</s>PRESTON: Well, it certainly -- I mean, he's going to need the Senate. He's going to need Mitch McConnell to have as much breathing room as possible to try to get some things done. But, look, nothing is going to get done unless House Democrats and Senate Republicans can actually come together on some issues. It doesn't appear that they can. But you can never say never. So, operationally, this win is more important for someone like Mitch McConnell because he needed that extra Republican senator. Now, we all know that President Trump is going to be tweeting and talking about how he delivered this race to Cindy Hyde-Smith. What's interesting about her is that she entirely embraced Trump. I mean, she might as well have been like Trump woman, right? I mean, that was her whole campaign. So--</s>LEMON: Wasn't her bus something like the MAGA bus or something--</s>PRESTON: Right. Right.</s>LEMON: -- that she drove around in?</s>PRESTON: She went hard. What he'll do is he'll look at that and say, look, she embraced me. She won. Mia Love didn't embrace me. She lost. Doesn't make sense. It doesn't make it true. But that's the reality of what he's going to say.</s>LEMON: All right. Thank you. I want you all to stick around and I want everybody to stick with us for the latest results on the Senate runoff in Mississippi. As it says, as we've been saying, the votes are -- the vote counting is underway, and all of this is happening as the president is doubling down on his assault on the truth tonight. Wait until you hear what he is saying now about his own administration's climate change report.