points a year ago. former democratic governor terry mcauliffe has been locked in a tight one with first-time candidate republican glenn youngkin. we're also still watching the vote counting in the state of new jersey. incumbent democratic governor phil murphy hoping for a second term. his race against republican challenger jack ciattarelli remains too early to call. nbc news can project that democrat eric adams will handily be elected the next mayor of the city of new york. only the second black mayor in the city's history. notably a former member of the nypd, who decidedly did not sign on to the defund the police movement, perhaps the most toxic phrase ever introduced into our politics in the modern era. with all that we want to begin with the very latest on the vote count. you know what that means. for more we go to steve kornacki at the big board for us tonight as he has been all evening. steve, what have you got? >> yeah, brian, i mean, the story right now has shifted a bit towards new jersey, a state we did not talk about a lot in the run-up obviously to this election. but here's the deal right now. we've got about 60% of the vote counted statewide, and in the tally that's been done so far the republican challenger jack ciattarelli leading the democratic governor by four points. now, what's making this so tricky in new jersey is the vote has been coming in extremely unevenly. so it's not like we're looking at a sample of votes from county to county. there are some counties here. i'll give you an example. bergen county. this is the biggest county in the state. you see that ciattarelli leads here. this would be a very big thing. if ciattarelli can actually win bergen county tonight. what we are missing in bergen county, though, is an enormous piece of the puzzle. the mail-in vote. the vote by mail ballots. this total you see here does not include any of them. i have been in contact with folks in new jersey, democrats in new jersey who say they are pessimistic. they think that there's going to be mail ballots counted in bergen county tonight. so until you see the mail vote aplayed here to bergen county, it's tough to know exactly what to make of this ciattarelli number. here's what he's trying to do. in bergen county in 2020, bergen county was basically a bellwether for the state. biden won bergen county. you see the margin 57-41. he won new jersey 57-41. again, that's why if ciattarelli is able to win bergen county or get within a whisker of winning bergen county, that's huge for him statewide. these numbers right here, these are same-day votes. these are election day votes, people who went out and voted in person on election day. these are encouraging for him. but we need to see that other piece of the puzzle to get a read on bergen. the mail vote we don't have any yet in bergen county. it is the same story, another bellwether county, this time in south jersey. burlington county. very similar story. burlington county in 2020 looked a lot like the statewide result. ciattarelli right now in the votes that have been counting is improving significantly over donald trump's number. no mail-in vote. no vote by mail is included in this yet. so it's tough to really get a sense on burlington county and bergen county of exactly how much better ciattarelli is doing than trump. it seems like he's doing better than trump but he's got to do a lot better than trump to win this thing statewide. so we need to see mail-in votes coming in in those places. meanwhile, in essex county here this is the biggest democratic vote-producing county in the state. newark, the area right around newark, we basically have the mail-in votes counted right here. phil murphy doing extremely well here. not surprisingly. this is what it looked like in 2020. but we are missing -- there's been very, very slow progress in getting today's vote, the same-day vote, the election day vote out. i've been trying to figure out when is that vote coming? i've been talking to folks there in new jersey. and i can tell you there's a lot of confusion among political types in new jersey tonight about the slow pace of these vote returns. essex county right now, why is it still only here? a lot of people are wondering about that right now in essex county, but that's a big piece of it. we need to see more vote in essex county to get a read on exactly what it looks like there. the areas that have come in with the most votes so far, places like hunterdon county that have traditionally been republican areas and ciattarelli is really running up great numbers here. you know, trump won hunterdon county by barely four points in 2020. ciattarelli tonight is winning it by more than 20. take a look down at ocean county. not only is ciattarelli -- this is -- always, even with donald trump was a big republican county. and there's a lot of people that live in ocean county. look at this. the margin that jack ciattarelli leads phil murphy by in ocean county, he's now leading phil murphy in ocean county by a margin the same size that chris christie racked up in ocean county when chris christie won statewide in new jersey, tough for a republican to do, when christie did it ocean county was a big part of the equation. ciattarelli's performance in ocean county tonight looks like chris christie's performance when chris christie won the state of new jersey. so there are places here on the map where ciattarelli can be very happy right now, but there are some very big pieces of the puzzle statewide in new jersey where we're just missing critical information because he's got to do everything i just showed you in a place like ocean, a place like hunterdon. he's got to pitch jack ciattarelli to win new jersey, he's basically got to pitch a perfect game. he's got to make significant inroads everywhere on this map. so we've got to see burlington, burlington, essex. let's see if we get some more vote in essex pretty soon here tonight. but that's what we're waiting on here in new jersey. this is unexpectedly turning into a suspenseful night here. donald trump, as we said, won this state by 16 points. this has not been a friendly place to republicans besides chris christie in a long time here. let's get a few more votes in and let's see. does ciattarelli have a real chance to pull this out? you can't say no right now. >> let's take a drive south to the commonwealth of virginia. let's see that map. >> so here we go. and you see 95% of the vote is in in virginia. what's been happening basically is glenn youngkin the republican put up a very big lead here in virginia by rolling up massive margins in republican-friendly areas of the state. and what's been happening over the last hour or so is absentee votes in more democratic-friendly bigger, more democratic-friendly counties have been adding in and chipping into that. the problem for mcauliffe is he's running out of places to make up 84,000 votes. the story of the night here in virginia. we can show it to you. take a look. we'll start right outside washington, d.c. biggest county in virginia. fairfax county here. we knew the democrats were going to win this county. the question tonight was how big would terry mcauliffe win it by? was terry mcauliffe going to get a number like joe biden got here, which was basically 70%, or was glenn youngkin going to make inroads here? was glenn youngkin going to win back some of those suburban voters who left the republican party because of donald trump? glenn youngkin wanted to be getting 33%, 34% of the vote in fairfax county. he's done that. he's going to land at 35% of the vote in fairfax county. that's a big achievement for a republican in such a gigantic county. also loudoun county right next door. again, take a look at this one. 25 points. that was donald trump's marge nin loudoun county in 2020. tonight terry mcauliffe still wins it. that 25-point margin, though, reduced all the way down to ten points. remember, glenn youngkin's campaign made particular emphasis with a message on schools on loudoun county, in particular youngkin finished his campaign monday night with a big rally in loudoun county. but that was the goal for youngkin in densely populated democratic-heavy northern virginia. it wasn't win. it was make the kind of inroads i just showed you. and then it was could he get the kinds of votes in the rural parts of the state that donald trump was getting? could he get the kind of support that donald trump got in southwest virginia, for instance? take a look here. donald trump got 78%. very small county here but we saw this pattern. we have seen it over and over in virginia tonight. trump ran up 78%. youngkin did him better. he got into the 80s. we see this in one county after another. i'm just going through the region right here. this is where virginia tech is. this is a big one. biden actually won this by six points tonight. glenn youngkin flips it, wins it by double digits. all throughout southwest virginia into the shenandoah valley youngkin outperforming donald trump. and then you take a look, we come here. virginia beach we said at the start of the night this was one of the closest things to a bellwether county in virginia. it voted for joe biden in 2020. it had gone for donald trump in 2016. it it had gone back and forth. the youngkin campaign wanted to win this one, wanted to have a little bit of a pad here. they got a lot of a pad. this is a nine-point margin now for glenn youngkin in virginia beach. 450,000 people. this is the largest independent city in virginia. youngkin absolutely hitting his number there. also right next door chesapeake, this is a big city as well. 53% of the vote for youngkin. again, biden won chesapeake in 2020. from trump getting under 46% of the vote tonight, glenn youngkin up to 53% of the vote. so in trump country, in sort of a bellwether swing area of the state, and in the core democratic areas of northern virginia glenn youngkin just county after county, city after city tonight hitting his number, it's not enough for a massive landslide for him but he was trying to erase a ten-point win for the democrats for joe biden last year. and here we are lo and behold with a scattering of votes left and youngkin sitting 85,000 ahead of terry mcauliffe. >> steve kornacki at the board. usual rules apply. wave at the camera if we have a characterization to change. obviously, if some big ticket counties in either of these two races come in we'll go right back to you, as we will regularly over these next two hours of coverage anyway. our thanks. for more let's bring in a couple friends of ours. lawrence o'donnell, host of "the last word," 10:00 p.m. eastern here on this network. claire mccaskill, former democratic senator from the great state of missouri. juanita tolliver, veteran political strategist to progressive candidates and cause. and a.b. stoddard, veteran washington journalist, associate editor and columnist for real clear politics. good evening and welcome to you all. let's start with the former senator in the bunch, and that would be claire mccaskill. and claire, the question is this. what do you think your old colleagues on the democratic side of the u.s. senate are thinking and saying tonight? >> it's not a good night. and i think we can try to dress it up, try to take it out. but it's not a good night. and here's what i'm most afraid of. i am begging my friends in the united states senate, i'm begging all the democrats on capitol hill, do not spend days or minutes even trying to blame someone for what happened tonight. whose fault was it? why weren't the bills signed? joe biden could have done -- it's time to pivot and punch. they got a deal today on reducing prescription drug prices in this country that will be huge. they are on the precipice of passing legislation. forget about the top number. look at what it's going to do for women in this country, especially women with children that need child care, that want universal pre-k. and i think we have an opportunity to turn this around for next fall but not if we spend the next three weeks or month trying to figure out who to blame. >> but claire, to your point, congressman ryan of ohio during two minutes today on the house floor did a better and more passionate job, sometimes at a shout volume, of telling people what's in the bills that will improve their lives, laying out the stakes for not just democrats but for all americans. he did a better job at that than anyone in congressional leadership and certainly anyone at the white house. why is that, do you think? >> i think part of the problem is there has been such a focus on very narrow margins. we have a bare majority. so we've got to get everybody going the same way. and that is a hard job for nancy pelosi, chuck schumer and the white house. they've been so focused on making that happen they have forgotten that most americans don't even know what's in the bill. they know something about climate change is in there. i think they're beginning to figure out universal pre-k is in there. childcare. expansion of health care. hearing assistance for medicare. they need to start talking about what's in it and quit talking about who agrees with him and doesn't agree with him in the democratic party. >> all right. lawrence o'donnell, your reaction thus far. as we look at the board in the studio i a quick note to our viewers, our characterization of the new jersey race has changed as it had to from too early to call to too close to call. so in that case we're covering two barn burners side by side here. lawrence, over to you. >> brian, there's always a risk of overinterpretation of governor's races and what they might mean for washington. when you look at virginia, it's such a peculiar situation there. you have -- it's a one-term state. they really only want their governors to serve one term. so you're asking virginia voters to kind of defy their own habits by restoring a former governor to become governor, again, which they've only done once before. they did it with a democratic candidate who ran in 1965 i think it was. and then in 1973 he ran again and won as a republican. so what terry mcauliffe was trying to do tonight has never been done. and so there was four years of a mcauliffe governorship that was on the line, that was being evaluated by voters, and there was -- you know, youngkin dunce have a record. he has that advantage of not having a record. it's a very peculiar rice to try to bring into the calculus of what does it mean in washington. that won't stop people from doing it. they'll be doing it in the house. they'll be doing it in the senate. there are members of the house who have never served in the minority before in the house of representatives. they will be hearing things about what it is to serve in the minority. there will be people who are trying to worry them. about what they need to do in terms of this legislating negotiating going on now on the ground in order to get this bill across the finish line as fast as possible. there will be a new urgency in that. it will be a fear-based urgency that wasn't there last week. >> juanita tolliver, i think everyone can agree that mcauliffe made some unforced errors, big ones, in this campaign.a terrible time. they are seldom made at a good time. if he indeed ends up going down to defeat tonight. and i want to pick up on claire's point, maybe go against claire's advice. do any democrats not named mcauliffe share any of the blame for what may happen in virginia? >> brian, i actually agree with claire on this one. it is not worth democrats' time to play the blame game but instead they should be pressing the reset button. resetting how they respond to these horrible racist dog whistles from the gop and the lies from the gop. resetting on how they sell their policies to voters and make sure that voters fully understand it. they're fighting tooth and nail for them. as well as resetting on the types of candidates that they run. i feel like voters have been explicitly clear about the need to see candidates who are more representative of this country as well as candidates that they know will fight tooth and nail for them to deliver for them. that is what democrats need to focus their energy on in the coming weeks, especially as they gear up for 2022, because i assure you that the sweater vest, very nice soccer dad model that youngkin has put out there, this new -- like i'm a palatable version who still says similar things that trump said, especially when we saw his closing arguments about what he dubbed education when in reality it was about race and whiteness, when he put that out there people responded to it. and democrats have to come up with a substantive rebuttal that is going to not only resonate and counteract the energy that the gop is going to receive from these types of arguments but also in creating enthusiasm among democratic voters because it's not fluff now to just say that trump is toxic and this candidate is just like trump. especially when they carry themselves explicitly different from trump. >> great point to go to a.b. stoddard, who is terrifically connected among especially elected republicans in washington as journalists go. and a.b., what is the lesson here? or is it too early to write it down? about republicans wanting to run a successful campaign, perhaps even in 2022. this looming presence of donald trump, who i note has claimed credit tonight, as everyone anticipated he would, even though we have not called this race, he's claiming credit for a republican victory in virginia. >> well, donald trump does not like being shunned off stage. and he was in this race. it was clear glenn youngkin did not want to have him around in the final days, didn't want to appear with him, didn't want to answer questions about him. and so the former president is trying to make sure that everyone is looking at his new statements taking credit for turning out the maga base and calling glenn youngkin an america first, you know, patriotic republican and cut from the cloth of his base and really trying to claim to glenn youngkin when glenn youngkin was trying to detach himself in the general election of this campaign, not the primary, from donald trump. so he's a little bit -- wants some more attention. and really interesting numbers, both in new jersey and virginia tonight, brian. in areas where both republican candidates are doing way better than donald trump did in those two states. so that's obviously going to make him sore. i think there's too much celebration among republicans that glenn youngkin is the new mold, the post-trump candidate and a way for the party to pivot. it's going to be very different next year for congressional and federal candidates in the house and senate to separate away from the former president, who will loom very large in the '22 campaigns with his endorsed candidates and, again, his need for attention. and it's not going to be the same kind of thing with a one-off governor's race where he's not really part of the show. it will be harder for people to talk about whether or not they support kevin mccarthy for speaker, what do they think of the big lie. that's just going to be a separate kind of question entirely. but for democrats tonight they do need to think, they need to get into the data of this race, in virginia particularly. and they need to be concerned about biden's poll numbers. they need to be concerned about the fact that very many virginians who voted for joe biden ended up voting for glenn youngkin tonight. they need to find out why. >> some terrific analysis already tonight. to our guests and to our viewers the same message. we're going to sneak in a break here. you'll hardly feel it. our director jason and i promise that if we call one of these two races we are covering we will bust out of the break and onto live television. either way we'll see you in a few moments. our live coverage of this election night continues right after this. ♪ feel stuck and need a loan? 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yo, steve. >> sorry about that. i was just talking to my producer right here. what we just got in new jersey and we can show you, you might have noticed the last time we checked in it was a four-point advantage for jack ciattarelli. now down to one point. we just got a lot of vote in. we said we had been waiting. essex county just reported out a ton of its same-day vote. and you can see it right here. phil murphy now leading in essex 73-26 for ciattarelli. now we can start to put this number in perspective. we wanted to get a sense here of what that same day would look like. ciattarelli is doing better than trump. you know, trump lost here by almost 56 points. 55 1/2 points. tonight ciattarelli now trailing by 46 1/2. that's an improvement for ciattarelli. but again, he's trying to make up 16 points statewide in new jersey. joe biden won this state by 16 points over donald trump. essex county, it is one of the biggies in new jersey. and for democrats it is the biggest. and for phil murphy here there's some slippage here, but perhaps ciattarelli would have wanted a little more slippage because again, there are some other areas here in the state where ciattarelli has made some inroads. we've talked about them in hunterdon. we've talked about them in ocean county and in monmouth county. he needs to make significant inroads too in these big vote-producing areas. so essex county now, we have a much clearer sense of -- and ciattarelli cutting into that deficit that trump faced but not by the margin necessarily he might need statewide. but we want to see if we can make up for it elsewhere. bergen county really looming as one of the big ones right now. ciattarelli leading by five points right here. again, this would be a significant jump for ciattarelli over trump. we are still missing. we are still waiting for. and it looms very large with almost 75% of the vote in in bergen county. the vote by mail. the mail vote in bergen county. the mail vote is very heavily democratic. so phil murphy will get a big boost from that when it comes in. and that will change what you're looking at right now. the question is how much will it change it? again, ciattarelli wants to be running in a place like bergen like ten points higher than trump when all is said and done. right now he's 11 points higher than trump. but you add that vote by mail in in bergen county that could be a different story. that's the big sort of looming variable there. burlington county we're waiting on a lot of vote in general in burlington county. but also one of the things we're waiting for in burlington county is the vote by mail. again, we've seen some places on this map where ciattarelli has just made enormous gains relative to trump. i was showing you ocean county. i mean, what ciattarelli's doing here is better than what chris christie did when chris christie got elected governor of new jersey back in 2009. but again, he needs to be making leaps and bounds gains pretty much everywhere on here. this was a pretty big piece of the puzzle, getting what we just did in essex county. so again, for ciattarelli he gets to about 46. this is what it was for trump. this is what it is for ciattarelli. wherever we pull this up, he's trying to erase a 16-point gap that democrats faced last year. ciattarelli continues to lead here in the statewide total but still some big mail vote in bergen, mail vote in burlington county. some core democratic areas, hudson county still perhaps some to come. so very interesting race taking shape here. murphy -- i'm talking because i'm trying to see if more votes come in. you saw a little uptick for murphy to .8 of a point. anything big i get, brian, i'll flag you right away. >> point personal privilege having been born in bergen county i can't believe the numbers coming out of there tonight. steve, is this your polite way of telling us we might not have a call on the new jersey governor's race tonight? >> yeah. >> and sending people to bed without a decision? >> we don't have clear information on this in terms of -- as i say, that's a huge outstanding piece of the puzzle, to not have vote by mail in a place like bergen county, which is the largest in the state. and there are some other places where we're missing it as well, especially in a race this tight. again, the thing in new jersey is unlike what we were talking about in virginia, the rule in jersey is midnight of election day you can start opening and processing those vote by mail ballots that have been piling up. so i think you have potentially a backlog in some of these places. we've seen in places where that delays the voters, significant share of the vote by days. so if this thing continues the way it's looking right now and we're not getting vote by mail in bergen and a few other places, i think it's very possible we're not going to get a called winner tonight. and again, i just say talking to political folks there in new jersey there's a lot of frustration at the way this is playing out tonight just in terms of how slow and how difficult in some cases it is to understand what's going on in these counties. >> yeah, i bet there is. steve kornacki, thanks. wave your arms. let's bring in former minnesota senator al franken. because of the natural nexus between comedy and politics, he has returned to the former and is currently touring and performing stand-up. it's part of the tour he calls "the only former senator currently on tour tour." so senator, you may need to rely on both of your skill sets for this tonight. >> i'll try. >> when last we spoke really just a few nights ago you said to me for the democrats to be successful, and i wrote it down, they need to pass their agenda. they need to tell people what's in these bills that's going to improve their lives. how are you feeling tonight? >> well, i was right. they didn't quite do those things. but i agree with claire too that we've got to get past that now and past those things because there's so many -- the reason i was talking about that is yeah, we're going to have childcare for people so they can go to work. we're going to have pre-k. we're going to have all these provisions in this. people are going to like bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. i wish we'd done it earlier. i wish we'd gotten it together. but it's very hard when you have -- when your majority is zero plus one. >> does the president -- and i think i asked you this days ago. does the president need to get tougher? and i'm speaking here about these outliers who have ds after their names, sinema and manchin. >> well, i'll bet you he's tried. i bet you he's tried to get tougher and he's who he is. he's not lbj but he -- they're going to do this. they're going to do this. and i do hope they do it soon. but it's too late for these two races for these two governorships. but i really believe they'll be doing it soon and that the midterms will be very different. now, one thing i want to talk about tonight is youngkin basically ran on a number of lies, one of which is critical race theory being -- he was going to end it being taught in our schools. well, it wasn't being taught in their schools. also, the republican party now is just a party of -- they just tell lies. the election was stolen. the insurrection wasn't an insurrection. it was a false flag operation. i think we have to deal with that. i think we have to find an effective strategy to have the american people understand that they're just -- they have nothing but lying right now. >> al, people showed up today in dealey plaza in dallas because of a qanon rumor that john f. kennedy jr., who's been in hiding this whole time, which is surprising to his family following his death in 1999, was coming back to us to somehow be donald trump's running mate. so that's where we are. and a fair number of people showed up in dealey plaza, only to go home disappointed tonight. we could have saved them the trip. it's a roundabout way of asking you just how much trumpism is going to be on the ballot across this country in 2022. >> well, it is going to be because he's going to demand as much as he has of these gubernatorial candidates and i think youngkin played it extremely in a very savvy way. these folks running for the senate and for the house, they're going to have to be much more tied to donald trump because they're going to be in primaries and they're going to have to pledge their loyalty to donald trump. this is going to be a different kind of feel i think in 2022. and i also again believe that the accomplishments that we will have through this -- the reconciliation package, which includes all these good things, that will become clear. the child tax dr., what that will mean to families, to children, to halve the number of children in poverty. all that stuff is going to mean stuff. i wish we had done it obviously before this election. >> former senator al franken our guest tonight. always a pleasure. thank you very much for sparing the time and coming on. >> my pleasure. >> still with us, our panel. lawrence o'donnell, claire mccaskill, juanita tolliver, a.b. stoddard. lawrence, before i lose you, i have any point of personal privilege. i'm going to give you one. and that is mayor of boston, massachusetts. the city of your upbringing and youth. what can you tell us about that race tonight? >> it's a wonderful story. michelle wu, 36 years old, is going to be the next mayor of boston. she will be the first elected woman mayor of boston. kim janey was the acting mayor. she came into office after marty walsh went on into the biden cabinet. and so kim janey served most of this year and will continue to serve as the first woman mayor. but she was not elected. a black woman. and michelle wu's story is really wonderful. she came to boston to go to harvard college, and that makes her very much an outsider in boston politics, especially boston city hall politics, where you had to either be born in boston or somewhere close by in new england or some boston mayors were born in ireland. that was allowed. but certainly illinois was never allowed, brian. and that's where michelle wu is from. and so you're seeing the 21st century of american politics come to boston in a big way. and it's a really -- she was the front-runner, a very strong front-runner throughout this campaign once it was a two-candidate campaign. she was endorsed by kim janey and most of the people who she ran against in the first round of the campaign, which narrowed it down to just these two candidates. and so it's a very big night for boston and people are feeling pretty great about it there. >> change is coming, though not to all places on the map that we are covering tonight. lawrence o'donnell, thank you. claire mccaskill, back to you. having just heard from one of your former democratic senate colleagues, it really is true that just days ago al franken said they'll be successful if they can pass the president's agenda and then if they can just explain to the american people what's in it that's going to make lives better. >> yeah, i think the formula for next year is first we need strong candidates. and right now the electorate, especially those that decide close elections, like fresh faces. they like people who haven't got a lot of experience in politics, someone who they may be not as familiar with. but i think we've got to realize that not only do we have to sell what is going to get done, and al's right, it's going to happen, this is going to get done. i think we also have to make sure we talk not just about donald trump but mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell is the most unpopular politician in america. they just took a poll of rural americans. he was the most unpopular of anybody you could think of that you know their name in politics. and he's the guy who is trying to pull the strings, stop everything good from happening in order to take over power in washington. and i don't think most americans are that excited about mitch mcconnell being the face they look at so frequently. so i think we need to use mitch mcconnell more effectively as this is what you're going to get if you don't stay with the democratic team. >> juanita tolliver, the question becomes a little tougher when it comes to the progressive agenda colliding with the moderate democratic agenda, colliding with the president's hoped-for agenda. >> i'm not sure i understand the complication, especially on the capitol where progressives were most aligned with biden and fighting the hardest for all of his proposals included in the build back better agenda. right, brian? i think that's the reality we have to understand. also i want to emphasize the fact that michelle wu in boston is a progressive candidate. you have progressive candidates winning down ballot across the country, and democrats need to pay attention to that. versus look to any type of friction that they want to create within the democratic party. look to what is possible with women of color, with progressive candidates down ballot who are fully tapped into the communities they want to lead, who are fully listening to the voters and who are fighting, again, tooth and nail. that enthusiasm that people see when folks like michelle wu are fighting to advance policies that they know are going to change their lives. that is what's critical here. making sure that the voters can see you and the sweat on your brow working day in and day out for them. because that is what's going to be critical to not only get voter enthusiasm, which we have seen as being somewhat questionable down in virginia, but making sure they are tapped in and they know there is a benefit to actually turning out to vote and voting for democrats. i think that is absolutely something that cannot be understated here that the future of democratic candidates should absolutely come from a pool of women, of people of color, of lgbtq individuals, of people living with disabilities, people who voters can look at and say you understand me because you're living it, you understand me and you're going to fight for me because you're fighting for yourself at the same time. so people with skin in the game is who democrats need to look to as their next slate of candidates going into the midterms. >> a.b. stoddard, it is possible that tonight is just going to make the national blue-red map even more fascinating. it is basically a sea of red in that one donald trump won 86% of the individual counties in the united states. joe biden won 16% of american counties. how would you describe our country, a.b., right now tonight? >> well, brian, again, i have to go back to the polling for president biden, which if you dig into any poll across all of the sectors of his coalition that he needs to hold on to, african-americans, latinos, suburban voters, independent voters, across the board he is losing support. he did almost lose the election in 2020 by 44,000 votes in three states. the house democrats saw a loss of 13 seats last year. and they barely control a senate majority. if they want to be strong in 2022, they need to look at the voters that are turning away from their party and they need to find out why. historical trends put them at an average loss since world war ii between 27 seats and 40 seats. they have a three-seat margin in the house right now. redistricting is largely going to be controlled by republicans. and then you look at these issues that are playing with these voters in the middle who are switching between obama for two terms, then trump. biden. now these different republican candidates. and those issues of inflation, of the economy, of education, school closures during covid, chaos at the border, all of these issues resonate in the middle of the electorate with voters they need to hold on to next year. so they have a very tough hand even without mcauliffe losing and potentially phil murphy in new jersey. they need to dive into this data and beyond passing their agenda see why they're seeing this erosion in their coalition. >> 43 minutes after the hour. our great thanks to the members of our starting line tonight on this election night tuesday. we are taking a look at the youngkin campaign headquarters down in virginia. still a very boisterous crowd there, still a very good mood and a packed house. they don't yet know what to expect, nor do we. it's why we're covering dual races with the same proviso, too close to call. which brings us back to the big board and steve kornacki. steve, any changes? >> yes, brian. sorry, i was just checking one message right there. in virginia where you're waiting for glenn youngkin not much of a change here. you can see why there's such excitement in that room right now. youngkin -- and there it is actually. in fact youngkin's lead jumping up 7,000 there. see if i can get you where that just came from. but we've been hovering in that 85,000 vote range with not a ton left to come. i think one of the most notable things to say big picture of what we're looking at in virginia is take a look at the total combined turnout in this race. youngkin now with that update we just got moving north of 1.6 million votes. million and a half there for mcauliffe. we're well over 3 million votes, 3.1 million votes. you know, when you were talking to democrats and republicans in the run-up to this virginia race, some were saying maybe this could get up to 3 million but i think is it 2.7? is it 2.8? so this is just absolutely enormous turnout for an off-year election in virginia. to put it in some context, in the trump-biden presidential race last year the total turnout was a 4.4 million in virginia. so this is running at more than 2/3 of the level of turnout that we saw for the presidential election last year in virginia. so just enormously high interest, enormous turnout all across the state here. and in the midst of that as you see another update just coming in here, youngkin's lead over mcauliffe ticks up another 4,000, now sitting close to 100,000 votes. we move up here to new jersey, where now nearly 3/4 of the vote is in. and again, jack ciattarelli, the republican, continues to lead phil murphy by about a point and a half. 1.6 right now. i think one of the biggest outstanding pieces of business here, we have been talking about this, is in bergen county where we've got just about all of the same-day, all of the election day vote in right now. we're waiting on absentee vote. we're waiting on vote by mail. we're waiting on what should be the most pro-murphy bloc of votes we're going to see. the question is how much is that going to change things? again, nearly 3/4 of the vote here in bergen county. can murphy get ahead of ciattarelli even if this thing basically lands at 50-50 in bergen county? we've been talking about it. bergen county is basically a bellwether county in new jersey. so ciattarelli's right around where he wants to be here in bergen county. key question here. when you apply the mail vote, the absentee vote that's going to be so heavily democratic, how much is that going to shift this? that's a big piece of suspense in bergen. i have been hearing from some folks who say we may get that answer in bergen county. we continue to wait on that. we continue to wait on a ton of vote in burlington county as well. there are also a number of places, some in democratic areas. we could show you, for instance, mercer county here. this is the trenton area. passaic county we're waiting on a fair amount of vote right there. this is, you know, ciattarelli right now at 46%. and what we have in passaic county, this is a core republican stronghold. not that big. but sussex county in northwest new jersey. we basically have almost no vote in from sussex county. so there's an opportunity here for ciattarelli to still run up some votes. you may be noticing at the other end of the state there's one county where we have literally no votes from. this is salem county. keep in mind pretty good land area. salem county is tiny. by far the smallest county in new jersey. still could be an opportunity. ciattarelli's been running very well in south jersey. could be an opportunity for ciattarelli to net a few thousand more votes. so again, there's been a lot of confusion. folks on both sides of the aisle tonight in new jersey trying to understand exactly where the vote is left and not just where the vote is left to come in but what type of vote is left. where's the mail vote left to come in? where is the same-day vote left to come in? but the bottom line is we're eking up here to about 75% of the vote in. jack ciattarelli's lead you see sits at 31,000 votes over the democratic incumbent phil murphy. and the polling in this race, the final two polls i saw had murphy ahead by eight points in one, by 11 points in another. we've talked about how democratic a state new jersey has become. this one was really not on anybody's radar. certainly nationally this wasn't on a lot of people's radar. new jersey frankly. and here we are this late at night with this much suspense in new jersey. there was a governor's race many, many years ago in new jersey featuring christine todd whitman -- excuse me, a senate race featuring christine todd whitman and bill bradley where there was a massive election night surprise and whitman nearly pulled off the upset. some new jersey junkies probably having a flashback to that tonight with ciattarelli in this position. so again, still trying to get more clarity on exactly where and what type of vote is left to come in. but you can see a lot of this has filled in and ciattarelli continuing to run ahead of phil murphy by 30,000 votes, brian. >> steve kornacki, thanks, stay at it. let's bring in two more guests of ours, david plouffe, former obama campaign manager, former senior adviser to the president. and jowl yan castro, former mayor of san antonio, former hud secretary under president obama. former presidential candidate in his own right. gentlemen, good evening. mr. secretary, i'd like to begin with you. are you okay with where your party is tonight or are you scared for the future? >> well, of course not. i don't think anybody that cares about the future of the democratic party is okay with the results of tonight. look, in a lot of ways this was not completely unexpected. many people have pointed out we're always facing headwinds on these off-year elections when we control the white house. mcauliffe had been the only democrat, the only candidate in like 44 years to break the cycle in virginia of winning when he had an incumbent president of the same party. and as lawrence pointed out as well a little bit earlier, a democrat has not so far been re-elected to a second term in virginia as governor. so there were headwinds from the very beginning. but let's face it, these are also two states that we firmly consider to be democratic states and also two states that have become more and more diverse in virginia. for instance, just a couple months ago the 2020 census showed us that the latino community in virginia had grown over the last decade by 44% and the african-american community had also climbed. the asian american community climbed significantly in the state. these are the kind of states that democrats are supposed to be doing better and better in. that's hard to take. and new jersey, same thing. solidly blue. but we've seen chris christie. we've seen bob mcdonnell and others win in relatively recent history. i think it's time to take a step back, to regroup, to get the build back better agenda done in washington, d.c. as well as the infrastructure package. to as i said a little earlier reconsider what we consider electable as democrats. you need people who are able, sure, to appeal to a broader array of folks but also to fire up that base that glenn youngkin was obviously able to do and terry mcauliffe was not able to do in this off-year election. and then finally, i also think that we need to figure out a way to address these cultural wedge issues, the racial priming that republicans have engaged in successfully tonight, the taking of fantasy land and making that politically, quote unquote, a real issue like critical race theory, that is anything but. democrats have not come up with an effective way to address that. we need to do that. we need to use issues that benefit us. i didn't see much conversation about the fact that youngkin, you know, does not support the right to an abortion. i didn't see much conversation about a sensible path on immigration. you have a lot of new immigrants in virginia, folks affected by that irk. so we need to get that together and go on offense, not just play defense. >> david plouffe, how would tonight have been different if americans had so much as one deliverable, one thing the democrats had to show from being in control of the white house, house and senate? how would tonight have been different if the democrats going to the polls knew what was in both bills that are being hung up by their own party that may someday come their way and improve their lives? >> brian, it would have been better. but you know, these are pretty massive shifts. so you know, in virginia 10 to 12 points and mcauliffe off biden's numbers. in new jersey it could be more than that. we lost 13 house races back in 2020 when joe biden won and we won the senate with those numbers. so this is a massive problem. i think it will get better. so yes, i think passing the infrastructure bill, which is i think the easier of the two to go out there and do story teleing -- >> hey, david. i can hear you but i'm told our audience is struggling. you've got a microphone problem. we're going to try to switch it out. is someone -- hang on. we can do this live. you've got a good one now? >> i hope so. can you hear me now, brian? >> yes, i can. >> okay. that's great. then i'll continue. what i was going to say is -- everything in build back better polls really well, including how it's paid for. but i've learned that selling one piece of legislation that simple is really hard. this has so many components it's going to take great skill to make sure everybody understands there's universal pre-k, there's childcare, there's elder care and how it's paid for. so yeah, i think it would help a little bit. but the big thing i think, brian, is the national environment ended up being really terrible tonight for democrats. with the biggest thing that will change that is we're in a different place a year from now on the pandemic. it's either in our rearview mirror or it's endemic. the economy is doing better. inflation's under control. gas prices aren't five bucks a gallon when people are filling up. voters get very cranky around election time when gas prices are high. so the national environment. i think critical race theory got a lot of attention, as it should. but as we're seeing in new jersey and actually in some other races around the country at the county level this was just a really terrible national environment. the kind of national environment that if it doesn't change is going to bring back nightmare they'reios of 2010 and 2014 and 1994. that's the kind of movement. non-college voters in virginia who are women based on the exit polls moved 39 points in virginia in one year. that's just a massive shift. >> i mentioned this earlier. and if we don't get it on tonight i pledge to our audience to air it tomorrow night. congressman ryan of ohio managed in two minutes to tell americans more about what is in these bills that will put money in their pockets and change their lives for the better than any elected democrat i have seen since the bills were born. so i commend that to everyone's attention. david plouffe, julian castro. gentlemen, thank you for your patience. thank you for your comments and for joining us tonight. to our audience, we're going to take a break prior to the start of a new hour. mr. kornacki's at his board. there's youngkin headquarters on the right. there's the race on the left. too close to call. as is the contest we are watching in the garden state tonight. we've got a lot of political coverage yet to come and two tight races to cover and eventually decide. 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uh- huh! well let it go! woooo! get a dollar for dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. wednesday election night gives way to a new day here on the east coast at least. as we enter our second hour of coverage tonight, the focus tonight on these governors races virginia, new jersey. we are still waiting for all the votes to be counted in the garden state. and bc news saying the race between republican jack ciattarelli and republican democrat phil murphy remains too close to call, indeed it is. in the commonwealth of virginia, and we see news also saying this race between the republican glenn youngkin and one-time democratic governor terry mcauliffe remains too close to call. also tonight, we do have news on three races with conclusions. former nypd officer eric adams projected to be the next mayor of new york city. what he will be the city second black mayor. michelle wu expected to become mayor of the great city of boston massachusetts, first asian american to be elected to that office. for those following along the braves have won the world series. i digress, to the big board we go. steve kornacki with a look at the numbers coming in. steve, -- in virginia which i see is called up on your map, 5% of the known remaining votes still outstanding. yeah and we've been hovering at this position for a while, brian, just to see here 100,000 not much left. that can actually show you it will give some clarity here. the one biggest source of remaining votes here in virginia with youngkin leading by 96,000 votes, is in chester field county. this is big suburban county just south of richmond, you see rural youngkin is leading with 61% in. what they are waiting on in chester field county and it took a while to do this in 2020, is the absentee vote. which will be the most heavily democratic vote. there is about 56,000 absentee votes to be counted here, if mcauliffe got what biden guy in 2020, biden got 60% of the absentee votes, he probably will not an additional 11,000 votes out of chester field county. you can see if you took 11,000 off of youngkin's margin, you can knock him down to 85,000 that's a nice step for mcauliffe. the problem is that is the biggest one that is left out there, there is a scattering of much smaller remaining vote, some of it democratic friendly, but a bit of scattering beyond that so that number is a daunting one that mcauliffe is trying to eat into right now. the biggest single source though is chester field county. okay now, new jersey, you set it up here, no democrat in new jersey and probably in very few republicans in new jersey thought we would be in the situation with three quarters of the vote in. jack ciattarelli the republican challenger in the lead now, it just kicked down as you came to me, it's 23,000 votes statewide, some votes came in from hudson county, heavily democratic hudson county, just across some new york city, josie said he is here. phil murphy no surprise getting a big number out of that county. what it did is that knock should are well easily down to 23,000. okay where the votes still to come in new jersey? while this has been a somewhat confusing question tonight, again calling around the political folks in new jersey there is some confusion there to, not just where the vote is, but what kind of voters left to come. here's what we know. a couple big sources, essex county, we have most overwhelmingly democratic x x county. we do not have all of essex county. what we are waiting on here is a number of precincts to report their same day vote, their election day for, the folks that went out and voted today. there are still votes to come and essex county, there will be some democratic votes, extremely democratic areas than essex county, if those precincts are in those areas that is some opportunity for murphy to make up some ground. speaking of murphy to make up some ground, as i told you he just did. that 23,000 statewide vote lead has been cut in half, it is down to 11,000. what just came in is down here in camden county, this is right outside philadelphia another core democratic area. murphy picking up votes there, he just picked them up in more hudson, and camden, we are waiting on some same day counting in essex county. those are the three big ones for democrats statewide. more to come there. that is a path for murphy to catch up to ciattarelli here, what is ciattarelli have to john? to counter what murphy could have? here is not the biggest county in northwest new jersey, but this is a heavily republican county. there is an opportunity here for ciattarelli done a fair number of votes. we are also waiting on burlington county, this is a big one in south jersey suburban county here. we do not have the mail-in vote counted here, this is -- a same day vote counted here. that looks like it could be a more pro ciattarelli vote. there is opportunities for both counting candidates and burlington county. -- opportunity for ciattarelli to pick up to 3000 votes, something like that. bergen county again, we are basically got the absentee vote, we expect the absentee vote to favor murphy, an opportunity for murphy to draw further down on that lead for statewide. just check back on the statewide number here, it's very slim right now just under 12,000 votes. oh there is one more i should tell you about, mercer county, mercer county with state capital trenton is here. it is also a core democratic county, you could see trump lost biden by 40 points. here is the key and mercer county right now we do not have the vote by mail for mercer county, big democratic county, the vote by mail tends to be a big democratic foe, so that is another piece of the puzzle that could favor murphy. if you put together what we are talking about here, there are quite a few opportunities left on this map for murphy to overtake ciattarelli. there are some opportunities still for ciattarelli to counter that, sussex i really want to see what that same daybell is left to come and burlington county. she really has been rolling up some surprising numbers in places around the state tonight. that is what we are down to tonight, brian, in jersey. >> i love the tour of my home state, chamber of commerce couldn't have done it any better. steve kornacki at the big board thank you. for more on this peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times, our friend juanita tolliver is back a strategist for candidates and causes. mike murphy veteran republican strategist co director for the center of political future at the university of southern california, in his spare time his cohost of the hats on tap podcast, good evening and welcome to all. peter baker, since your first rodeo this is not, perhaps we should begin this way, why could history have guided us as a predictor, that would make tonight somehow less surprising? >> well i think that is the important point to remember, brian. and i covered virginia politics or ten years before moving to the national desk, mike murphy, mike if you remember back in that senator race one that you need to know about is the off year governors elections tend to be contrarian, they tend to go against the national wave. if you go for the back the past 44 years there's only one example where governors race didn't go against the winner of the last u.s. presidential election. if a republican wins the white house, a democrat tends to win the governor's mansion in virginia the next year. history would say it is not a surprise if a republican were to win tonight, having said that, it doesn't make the pain any less for the democrats, particularly in the biden white house which is looking at this result as a real warning sign of problems that they have still to come. particularly if they were to lose new jersey, that would be an earthquake for a lot of democrats. but it is an exciting night for elections, i don't know that we know the answer yet, but the fact that we are so close, a lot of it will remain to be seen. >> mike murphy, why should tomorrow morning bring on the chalkboard, white board, of every local democratic party headquarters across the country? are we a progressive country? are we center left? are we perhaps enter right? >> well, lately we have been a lot of center right. let's put it this way, the voters keep reminding the democratic party that the really strong progressive super woke stuff, is a dud with the electorate. we learned in the new york city race where to moderates. we learned tonight in minneapolis with the defund the police going down. we learned in ohio special action not long ago. what we are seeing tonight is a clear theme here, i agree that it is not a normal for the states for a presidents newest term to kick, it reminds me of my days in new jersey after clinton was elected a 92 we had a big upset win. but it is the suburbs racing back to the republican party, they have been scared away by donald trump, but in virginia and new jersey that is what is driving these amazing numbers. you know if i were the democrats on a white board i would write in capital letters, reset less woke, more middle class economics. because they're taking a real beating tonight regardless of what happens in jersey, virginia we are just waiting for the final news there. >> juanita, this response does match what you were saying about go with the best most electable candidates tailored for the race you are running, period. >> that's exactly right. i agree with mike on a couple of things, but i disagree on the fact that virginia was one, unassuming called yet, but one on economic issues. because we know if the last issue that resonated with them the most, came from youngkin's campaign, came from the education, racist dog whistles that absolutely targeted white women voters who virginia saw swing that to republicans. this is why i agree with mike on the fact that they were turned off by trump, but they are absolutely open to welcoming in this more palatable republican, who still uses the theme racist themes that route trump dead, he just package them in a soccer dad sweater vest model that i'm sure republicans will try and run across the country in the midterm. it is critical democrats come up with a response to that, that not only counteracts the lies that the gop is running on, but also they are swinging towards a lot of the things that come through. white supremacy as well, the insurrection, all of the times that members of congress and the gop have said it was normal. democrats need to remind voters of all of that, in addition to reminding voters of all the ways they are improving the lives of different pieces of policy and legislation. >> mike, there also mcauliffe like paraphrasing should have no role in correcting him, the youngkin campaign was up with an ad 12 hours later a soundbite that made some gravy. mike, let me read you a quote from someone we both know, they've roster at the critical report. needless to say tonight's results are consistent with a political environment in which republicans would comfortably take back both or house and senate in 2022. mike, i don't have to tell you how the friendly confines of social media are dragging mr. wasserman for that come meant tonight, but do we know enough for that to be true or false? >> well he is totally right directionally. just a footnote, what i argued was the democrats ought to do more middle class economics to move away from this woke grievance campaign that they keep running that the voters keep projecting. wasserman, he is right about the trajectory, the issue though -- for governors candidate to get away from donald trump. remember, youngkin didn't have to go through a primary. he's got a great model to win, but it's a hard model to replicate in the senate races in 2022, i think thousands looking very good for republicans. but in the senate that republican battlefield they got it tonight, can they hold a, all part of it is who they nominate. maybe it won't change, it should if the party listens elections, which parties often don't. i'm not sure the democrats will listen to what they should be learning about virginia, and jersey. but it will be hard to nominate more youngkin's and washington take aside total or food fight. interject in any way he can, so senate is for grabs but the direction is bad in the next number is the houses looking pretty good for the republicans. peter baker, if my math is close to right in about 45 minutes air force one hearing the president first lady in their party and it lands back our home and a hell of a mess. hours ago from a podium at the news conference he lead forward and said at the conference night we will win but his troubles don't even begin there. >> well, i think that's right he's running in a different country, it is possible to over react and over interpret an off year election which where the turnout is not the same in a presidential election, for sure. and even in a midterm congressional election, we over read some of these off bureau elections. having said that, the narrative that will urge, if that this is not helpful, the narrative is that he is down in the poll, he is costing the democrats support among the people who voted for him just a year with xfinity home, you can keep your home and everything in it more protected. i can wrangle all my deliveries. thanks, hoss! and i help walk the dog from wherever. *door unlocks* ♪ ♪ well, i can bust curfew-breakers in an instant. well, you all have xfinity home, with cameras to home security monitored by the pros. *laughs* learn more about home security or get our self-monitored solution our decision is just trying to starting at just $10 per month. confirm that right now. it is kind of pops up on the website, our decision desk is trying to confirm that. but if that is the case, then a, murphy would pull ahead in the bergen county, vote but obviously more importantly for, murphy that would move him within about 5000 votes, statewide in new jersey. that would be significant. that would not quite be enough to -- the question will become, where else has their outstanding vote in the, state we can tell you, sussex county right now, is a great republican hope in new jersey. far northwest new jersey, this is a core republican, county we barely have any vote in here. whatever comes in the rest of the, way is only going to help him. he's hoping to get some help from suffix, county there's other places in bigger places though where the vote is out in new jersey most notably burlington county, we now have two thirds of the vote in burlington county, he's leading here by a little better than nine points and we do not think critically that this council vote by mail. the vote by mail again that heavenly democratic vote. with a vote by mail is factored in, is murphy going to get the burlington similar to what he may be poised to get up and bergen. given the deficit that murphy is facing statewide right, now that could help him significant. burlington and bergen potentially, i understand we have a little bit of an update here as, well the other thing that's happening right now, is to be honest with you, the vote reporting that's been coming out of new jersey for some of these counties, tonight has been an absolute, mess i have been hearing from democrats, i have been hearing from republicans in new jersey. democrats and republicans don't normally agree on anything in new jersey, they agree tonight that this is been a very frustrating experience, for both sides, trying to get a handle on where and in which one of the 21 counties that has the remaining vote and what type of vote remains in those counties. our decision desk right now is trying to make contact and all of these counties and get an exact accounting for how many votes do you have left if you have votes left, and what type of vote is left in your county, is it vote by mail? is it same day vote. what are we looking at exactly. we are trying to track that down. precisely. and you can see burlington, you can see sussex, you can see that piece of it that i just talked about in bergen county as well. there are some other pockets, hear some of which i think could be very hopeful for murphy. but he's sitting, here murphy trying to make that 26,000 votes, with about 80% of the vote and. i can already tell, you this thing is, this thing his set off alarm bells. what we're seeing in new jersey statewide, has set out alarm bells in that state, the new jersey globe is reporting right now that in south jersey ciattarelli has really really been running up the score. in south jersey tonight. it's the state senate president, a democrat, is now in danger of losing his seat, that's from the new jersey site that closely monitors this stuff, he says this is gotten so bad for democrats down the ballot, in new jersey, that the state senate president, a democrat is in danger of losing his seat. even if murphy pulls this out tonight, it will be by the hair of his teeth. and this is a state again, joe biden won it by 16 points, democrats did not come in there today thinking they were going to be sweating new jersey, now they're going to be very happy of murphy can just pull this out, and they go one for two in the governor's races today, but again, in new jersey particularly in south jersey, a blue collar working class vote in south jersey, you're seeing something kind of strange here tonight brian. >> let's go ahead and also talk about what happens in the real world, in the real world, people will hold concessions well recounts are, triggered some of them automatic, we now live in the world of the word audits, even though it's incredibly misleading, in some of the states where they have been launched. so steve, this could go on a good long while i'm guessing. >> that's the other, thing you think back to last november, in how the presidential lays took a few days to call. what were we waiting on last november? we were waiting on vote by mail, there were some states that ended up being pennsylvania last november, remember what the issue was in pennsylvania, they were allowed in pennsylvania election officials, to open up and process all of this mail-in ballots they received until election day, and they were just inundated with so much they couldn't get through much of, it took him a few days, that's why it took until saturday of election week last year. new jersey actually had a similar rule in place here, election officials in new jersey, could not open up the mail-in ballots, until midnight, i'm not sure a date is right. now but midnight of election night. is when they were first allowed to open up and begin processing, there were some delays in new jersey in 2020, and getting the vote reported at there's a couple of days we didn't talk much about it because new jersey was not a swing state, but now we're talking about a razor thin governors, race and if there are some big outstanding we may get it from bergen here very shortly, if that county clerks site is accurate, but it's possible there are some other places like burlington, where we are waiting on vote by mail, i think it's very much a question of what are we going to get out tonight? and one might take it into tomorrow? >> let's just take a second steve. because we are waiting to see governor elect youngkin at his rally. you mentioned working class south jersey. south jersey is about three different states, all its own. a lot of it is uninhabited woodland. way more pine trees than people. it's the cranberry crop every year, it's the philadelphia suburbs all the way to the atlantic, in atlantic city. but the democrats have lost south jersey. the democrats used to have a stronghold, at least in the lion share of the southern part of the state. which as you point out, got even more red tonight. the other thing about that brian is interesting let's just move the map here. here from new jersey, used to cover new jersey, and i remember one of the jokes in new jersey politics, back when i covered it about 15 years ago, was that joe biden from delaware, right here, was actually new jersey's third senator. people actually called himself jersey senator. look at the proximity right there. joe biden a very familiar name, a very familiar figure in this part of new jersey, but we can just take you through here, what we are seeing, tonight glossed or county, it's not all but a lot of it is, should really up by ten in chester county. trump lost this to joe biden last year. salem county, we told you this is a small, and let's take a look at crumbling, counties still, lots to come in and cumberland county. but ciattarelli leaps and bounds better than donald trump. may county is a very small, one bit again, ciattarelli improving over trump in lansing county here again, a lot of atlantic county and ten point improvement ciattarelli over trump. i mentioned that state senate president, he's south jersey this is democratic historically, also joe biden with some political connections with this area, and also remember, that congressman, two years ago, jeff van drew, the democrat, which part of the republican party. aligned himself with trump. he went back to south jersey, got himself reelected this is also his neck of the woods. >> you can't see russia, but you can see delaware from the southern tip of the state. steve kornacki. thank you and thank you for your ongoing knowledge of all 50 states. we are going to prepare to take a break at the top of the hour. well we thank our guest robert gibbs and tim miller and we thank all of our guests, for their patients being on standby all evening long. that's youngkin campaign headquarters, they are hearing from various folks, leading up to the big moment tonight, which is going to be, the first words from glenn youngkin, who is at least projected by this network, to be the governor elect of the commonwealth of virginia. at the top of the, hour our live special coverage continues. that race, done and dusted. the big question mark. new jersey. they have yet to awarded democratic incumbent, with a second term. over the last 44 years, can governor phil murphy become the lucky one who bucks that trend? or will he fall to the trends of state electoral history? this could be a long night, it could be a long day tomorrow in the garden state. we have all of it covered, my friend ali velshi picks up tonight's live election coverage. at the top of the hour after this break. after this break after this break hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ if you're washing with the bargain brand, even when your clothes look clean, there's extra dirt you can't see. watch this. that was in these clothes...ugh. but the clothes washed in tide- so much cleaner! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide hygienic clean no surprises in these clothes! couple more surprises. we are the next. the next generation of visionaries. rule breakers. game changers. and world beaters. we certainly aren't here to do what's been done before. and neither are we. at palo alto networks, we are ready to secure our digital future. we innovate to outpace cyberthreats. so you can make the next day safer than the one before. we've got next. good evening good morning and whatever stereotype you're gonna try . . . . . . to put on me about having hiv isn't gonna fit. that's for sure. my name is zach and i'm on biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment . . . . . . used for hiv in certain adults. it's not a cure but with one small . . . . . . pill, biktarvy fights hiv . . . . . . to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a build-up of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding . . . . . . or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv . . . . . . keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. welcome to msnbc's special election coverage. and was too close to call for much of the night, at 12:30 am nbc news projected that republican glenn youngkin will be the next government of the commonwealth of virginia. he defeated terry mcauliffe the democrat who previously served as virginia's governor from 2014, to 2018. but the emerging story right now is how close it is in new jersey. where democratic governor phil murphy is running for a second term against republican challenger eric schiller elie,