as we continue to watch the votes. just want to check once more on that. the republicans still ahead there. again, the 6:00 hour, the warm-up, primetime starts any second. we re ready. we re only seconds away from the first major round of poll closings, control of the u.s. congress, the future of the trump presidency, all of that trump presidency, all of that and a lot more on the line. captions by vitac www.vitac.com we have a senate projection right now. cnn projects that bernie sanders, the independent senator from vermont, the incumbent, he will be reelected. he caucuses with the democrats. in virginia, tim kaine, the incumbent democrat, cnn projects he will get another six years in office. in indiana, too early to call, joe donnelley facing mike braun, a very, very tough fight going on in indiana right now. let s take a look at the balance of power, see where things stand right now. in the u.s. senate, remember, 25 democrats, they will be in the senate. 42 republicans in t
14 minutes away 13 minutes, i should say, before the next poll closings. let s go to dana. you ve got a key race alert. that s right, wolf. we are still looking at these two races, both states where the president won in 2016, both states where democrats are trying to hold on to democratic senate seats, starting in florida. last time i gave results here, the republican, rick scott, was ahead. no longer. bill nelson, the democratic incumbent, is now ahead by more than 67,000 votes. it is still early and the polls are still open in the panhandle. indiana is another one that we re watching very closely. the republican challenger, mike braun, is still ahead at this early point in the evening, ahead of almost 60%, joe donnelley, the incumbent democrat is trailing at 36.4%. i want to toss it over to nia and you ve got some key race alert numbers on the governors races. that s right, dana.
but 33 seats tonight remain outstanding. we re watching those 33 states so carefully. remember, democrats must pick up two republican seats, not lose any of their own, in order to become the majority in the united states senate. dana, we re watching indiana, oh so closely right now. the democrats need to hold on to this seat. they sure do, and it is one of the classic senate races of this election day because it s going to tell the story of not only whether they can hold this seat but whether there s any chance the democrats could take control of the senate and it s all playing out on trump turf, indiana is exhibit a of that. right now, the republican challenger, mike braun, is ahead, pretty well ahead, more than 60%. joe donnelley, the democratic incumbent, is behind a little more than 35%. just 4% of the vote in and as i toss it back to you wolf and jake, i will tell you that a democratic source in indiana cautions that a lot of the vote that they re seeing is
majority. we re looking at florida right now. all of a sudden, the numbers are coming in, the votes are coming in. they are, wolf. and we ve seen some frantic tweets from the senate republican marco rubio, begging republicans to go out and vote and look at the numbers, this tells you why. the democratic incumbent, bill nelson, is ahead, 51.4%. rick scott, the republican challenger, is trailing at 48.6% with a third of the vote in now. so we re watching florida incredibly closely right now. the democrat is doing pretty well considering how tight of a race we thought this was going to be. indiana, another just like florida, the story is that this is a republican turf where there is an incumbent democrat, mike braun, the republican challenger is ahead still, of joe donnelley. the incumbent democrat. we re going to keep watching this very closely. it s taking some time for the votes to come in there in
democrats must win 23 republican-held seats to take back the majority and not lose any of their own. in the senate, they need to win two republican-held seats to take control as long as they hold on to the number of seats they have right now. so, jake, what are you looking for at the top of the hour? at the top of the hour, we re going to be watching a handful of contests where democrats have their best chances, best chances of making early gains in the battle for control of the house, one key race is in virginia. the commonwealth of virginia. political newcomer abigail is in a toss-up contest against dave brat. that race might be an early indicator of how this race will play out for the democrats. in the fight for the senate, we re still watching that heated race in indiana, incumbent senator joe donnelley, a democrat, has been trailing republican mike braun in the very early results that have already come in but it s very early. we re also watch ago historic governor s race in geor