The state by 9. 4 . I think a lot of people going into this election thought it would be another easy victory for him, but it has proven to be much closer. Iowa saw gains for democrats in the 2018 midterms, so now they are building on that into 2020. Joe biden was in the state this week campaigning. A lot of polling has shown this race can net, including at the des moines register. In september, we showed them to be tied. Polls show trump pulling ahead in the final days. Todayl wait and see whether he ends up being able to pull it out, but it was a much closer race than a lot of people expected. Host that base coalescing. What areas of the state are responsible for that . Iowa. some parts of white men in particular. Independents appear to be coalescing. We are also looking to the suburbs, just like everywhere in the country, to see how those voters swing things and whether there is enough support there among women in particular to give joe biden an edge. Host we have been talking all morning about people who voted early versus people who will vote today. Break that down for us. Iowans about 51 of voted prior to election day. That polling showed about what you would expect, that democrats are voting early. They are mailing and their ballots, showing up in person to vote early, and republicans are largely waiting until election day to cast their ballots. So it will be interesting to see, as we get results, how that affects things. Iowa was able to start counting its absentee ballots yesterday and so some of those should be available quite early. I think we will see a democratic edge in those early returns and then throughout the night, as we get results from in person voting, i think republicans are likely to make up a lot of that ground. Host we saw issues with tabulation at the iowa caucuses. Does that come into play in this election . Guest they are a totally different animal. I think it has given iowa a glimpse into what can happen if you are not prepared, and especially if you do not set expectations correctly. I think there have been much better expectations set going into this, saying there is a lot happening we have not done before. Maybe have some patients. Did not doo that that in the iowa caucuses. People were expecting results as soon as they were over and that clearly did not happen. Expectation setting is different and this is a totally different system. The caucuses are run by parties and this is a state run election. The state has a much bigger handedness than it does in the caucuses. I think we are hoping tonight runs much more smoothly. Host when it comes to expectations, what have officials told you about whether we will know tonight who gets iowa . Guest there is a very good chance we know who wins iowa anight assuming it is not very close race that needs to go into a recount. Election officials are telling us that they will be able to process those votes relatively quickly, that we should have the numbers tonight. Host one of the races aside from the president ial race is the senate race featuring the incumbent, joni ernst. Talk about the race for those who may not be following it closely and where those candidates live. Guest this is a key race if democrats are looking to regain a majority. This is the second most expensive race for senate in the country, behind north carolina. There are people putting resources into this to try to swing it away from republicans. Joni ernst is the republican, elected in 2014, so she is seeking a second term. By is being challenged democrat theresa greenfield, a businesswoman who has never held office before. She has run a campaign challenging joni ernst on health care. She has really targeted senator ernst for voting to repeal the Affordable Care act. She has said i will be an advocate for farmers, an independent voice for iowans. It has been a close race. This is another that has been close throughout. Pulling had shown greenfield up by about 3 through the duration of this election. And the registers recent polling showed the base coalescing around ernst. 4 lead. Hem a 1. 4 lead. Host what are you watching tonight . Guest turnout. If republicans we have seen the early vote surge. That favors democrats. But if republicans are able to make that up tonight, that could really do some good for them. So we will be watching turnout, different parts of the state, the rural areas, the suburbs. We will be waiting to see whether joni ernst is able to pull this out. It will be interesting to see if donald trump wins the state, the republicans hold onto the senate. That is a real possibility. Joining us very early from iowa, the des moines registers chief politics editor. Touse your laptop or phone all of the results of the historic 2020 election. Go to cspan. Org election for interactive tools giving you realtime voting results, national map to track the president ial race, see the popular vote tally, Electoral College map, as well as the balance of power for the u. S. House and senate. Stream live anytime at cspan. Org election. All 430 five u. S. House seats are being decided today. Speaker nancy pelosi was joined by Democratic Campaign chair to talk about some key races and control of congress