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CNN Projection: Donald Trump Wins Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana; CNN Projection: Kamala Harris Wins Delaware, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York; Crucial Battlegrounds Of AZ, GA, MI, NC, PA, WI Too Early To Call. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired November 05, 2024 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem, Asheville, and Wilmington down there.
So, you have a very competitive race, right there. Right now, you'd rather be Donald Trump and you'd rather be ahead. But there's a lot of vote counting to do. And again, this is one of the tightest of the battlegrounds.
Virginia, a bit of a surprise, Jake. More counting elsewhere.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: All right, John King.
Voting is about to end in 15 states, the second biggest wave of results this evening, 163 electoral votes will be up for grabs. And we're watching several crucial battlegrounds.
CNN is going to bring you this projection right now.
CNN projects that Texas will go to Donald Trump. The State of Texas, as expected, to Donald Trump, with its big bucket of 40 electoral votes.
CNN also projects that North Dakota will go to Donald Trump, as expected. North Dakota with its three electoral votes. Two more for Trump now.
CNN projects that South Dakota will go to Donald Trump. South Dakota, as expected, with its three electoral votes, to Donald Trump.
And CNN projects that Wyoming will go to Donald Trump. Wyoming with its three electoral votes.
CNN is not making any projections in the following states that just closed their polls. Arizona, that's a big battleground. Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, battleground Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York and battleground Wisconsin.
Let's look at the electoral map now. Donald Trump has 154 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 27 electoral votes. 270 are needed to win.
Let's bring you a key race alert now.
In battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris in the lead with 64.4 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has 34.7 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris in the lead there with 326,000-plus votes. Only an estimated 16 percent of the vote has been counted in Pennsylvania.
In battleground Michigan, Kamala Harris in the lead, 54.8 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with 43.3 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with a 55,000-plus vote lead. That's with only an estimated 8 percent of the vote counted in Michigan. Still very early in Michigan.
In battleground North Carolina, Donald Trump in the lead there now, 51.8 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 47.1 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a more than 106,000 vote lead. That's with 39 percent of the estimated vote counted, in battleground North Carolina.
In battleground Georgia, Donald Trump in the lead there, 52.8 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 46.6 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has a healthy 221,000-plus vote lead. That's with an estimated 66 percent of the vote counted in Georgia. About two-thirds of the vote in Georgia has been counted.
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, Donald Trump in the lead there now with 49.3 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 48.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 13,334 vote lead. That's with half the vote counted in the Commonwealth of Virginia, 50 percent counted there in Virginia.
In the State of New Hampshire, Kamala Harris has 53.6 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has 45.7 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris in the lead there by roughly 16,000 votes. That's with about a quarter, 25 percent, of the estimated vote counted in the Granite State of New Hampshire.
In Ohio, Donald Trump in the lead, 52.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 46.3 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 197,000-plus vote. That's with half the vote counted in Ohio, 50 percent of the vote counted in Ohio.
Let's go to John King at the Magic Wall.
John.
KING: Jake, let's start with the context, what you just went through. I'm going to wander over to this wall here, just to show the race to 270 at the moment.
If you're a Republican, you might be saying, Wow, this is a route.
If you're Democrat, you might be saying, Oh, my goodness, we should be worried.
No. We're early in the night. As Chris Wallace said, I loved the analogy, Nobody has broken serve yet, as in every red state here, Donald Trump won in 2020, when he lost the White House. Every blue state on the map so far, Joe Biden carried when he won the White House.
What don't we have? We don't have Rhode Island. We don't have Connecticut. We don't have New Jersey. We don't have Illinois, just yet. Long-time blue states. So, as we move west, and as the count advances in some of the -- New York as well, some of the most reliably blue states, this map will change in the near future. At least, that is our expectation. We'll keep an eye on it.
That's the path to 270. You get there by filling these states in red and blue. So let's see. Again, an unusual map, at the moment, just because the vote count is early, or because we're going to have the most surprising election of my lifetime.
But in Nebraska, right now, statewide, you have the Vice President winning. But you see most of the votes are out here. She's not so much worried about the statewide vote.
She'd love to win Nebraska. Don't get me wrong. Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District is right here in the Omaha area. Nebraska and Maine award electoral votes based on congressional district, the two states that do that. So eastern Nebraska is what matters most to the Vice President. We'll see if Nebraska stays blue.
Again, to its south, the State of Kansas, 29 percent of the vote in. But you see all this? Those are -- that's, if you're playing Legos, that's Donald Trump. That's how he builds his buildings, right there, those small rural counties, all across America, especially in the heartland here.
[21:05:00]
So Kamala Harris, the Vice President, ahead with 52 percent of the vote. It's all over here, Kansas City, Missouri, the suburbs here, the more blue areas, the college towns and the more urban areas in Kansas is why she's ahead right now. It's only 29 percent of the vote. We'll watch as that map fills in.
Again, Missouri, when I started doing this, in 1988, spent a lot of time in Missouri, with Michael Dukakis. It's not a battleground state anymore. But at the moment, it's 51 percent. But it's only 7 percent. And again, you see votes coming in, in the suburbs, just to the west of St. Louis, suburbs just to the east of Kansas City. That's why the Democrat is leading at the moment, as we go through it.
So now let's get to the states that we actually think will be the battlegrounds in the end. We'll keep looking. We'll keep looking. Open to surprises here. But let's check in on the big ones.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania still at 16 percent. This is a 30- point race. Just shy of a 30-point race in a state we know is going to be decided by one or two points. So, we'll continue to watch to see. I check in on it, just to see if the vote count has gone up. It has not in a while. Still 16 percent.
Same with Michigan. We come over up to 10 percent here, right now. 53 to 45. Again, if there's an eight-point lead in Michigan, then you have a blowout. You expect this to be very close in the end.
We're missing a lot right? Earlier tonight, Grand Rapids was red for Donald Trump. That's Kent County out here. Right now, you see it's almost a tie, right there. This is one of the battlegrounds within the battlegrounds. Fiercely, formerly reliably red. Now, a closely-fought suburban area around Grand Rapids. We'll keep an eye on that.
But still nothing out of Wayne County, Detroit. I just want to come up here to Ingham County. This is where Michigan State is. If this ends the night there, Donald Trump's going to feel very good about his Michigan chances. But we're at 3 percent. Students here, state capital, government town, should be blue, by the end of the night. If it's not, that would tell you something huge.
So, let's come to where we have more votes in these battlegrounds.
Again, I just want to check on Virginia again. This is our surprise at the moment. We're up to 50 percent of the vote, and you have Donald Trump with a very narrow lead. I did this a moment ago. I just want to do it again, for people at home.
Most of the outstanding votes, these circles tell you, the larger the circle, the more outstanding votes were still waiting to be counted. And the color tells you how the vote's coming in so far in that area.
So you see a lot of blue up here. Virginia now has become a blue state because of the Washington, D.C., suburbs in Northern Virginia. This, the places, the counties, within 25, 35 minutes, depending on traffic drive. So that's out there. Plus Richmond and the suburbs around there. We'll see.
Donald Trump is remarkably in play in this state. And this would be even it close -- even if it's close, it might tell you something about what's going to happen to its south, in North Carolina. They're not twins. But they're very similar, Virginia and North Carolina. North Carolina actually has a higher African American population. So, if you're the Vice President, that's part of your base.
Here's Donald Trump with a lead, 52 percent. 41 percent reporting. Again, should the Harris campaign be nervous? Both campaigns will be nervous about battleground North Carolina. It's going to go back and forth.
But again, you see, there's still some large pockets of Democratic votes, also some pretty good-sized pockets of Republican votes in a battleground state. This one's going to take a while to sort out. But you see where the outstanding votes are.
I didn't get to this last time in Georgia. So let's go down and look at battleground Georgia. And bring that up here right now. We're up to 68 percent of the vote in Georgia. And you have 53 to 46. So, if you're in the Trump campaign, you're thinking with more than two- thirds of the vote counted, you start to feel good about a lead that big, especially in a state that was, what, 11,700 votes, four years ago. But let's see what's left out. Where are the outstanding votes? And you see right there, why? In the Harris campaign, you're nervous. You're checking in with all your field captains and your precinct and your county people. But you see right there, you see those giant circles right there, and a bigger circle -- another big circle over here. There are still a lot of areas that we know vote disproportionately Democratic, where votes are to be counted, in Georgia.
I just want to come back and make one more observation here. You see that 242,000 vote lead. It is a little after 9 o'clock on Tuesday night. If you go back to 2020, Donald Trump was leading Georgia by 244,000 votes, at 9 o'clock on Tuesday night, Election Night in 2020. It was 244,000 votes, then. It's 242,000 votes now. Joe Biden carried Georgia. Doesn't mean Kamala Harris will this time. It just means we need to count all the votes.
And you come back out, and take a look, again, to see if the map has changed at all. Texas and Florida have gone back. Ohio has gone back to where you expected to go back, and that lead seems to be growing.
I want to just check in again on this battleground here. Still at 18 percent there.
And so, I'm going to do something now. This is an exercise. This is an exercise. But you see Trump leading in North Carolina, and Trump leading in Georgia. I just want to switch to the map here, and come over to the race for 270, OK? This is an if. This is an if. It's not it. We're nowhere near there. We have a lot of votes to count there.
But why is this so important? When you take battleground states off the board, when we're able to project and call them, it changes the chest of getting to 270. If Donald Trump were to hold that? He's leading there now. It's close. It's close. There's plenty of votes still for the Vice President to catch up. We have to wait and see what happens.
But if Donald Trump takes those two, the Vice President of the United States needs to win that. That's what makes the math interesting. She needs that 19 votes right there. Because if Donald Trump gets that, Donald Trump gets that, it gets him to the finish line. So if that happens, that becomes essential.
We're not there yet, Jake. But just like to do the math in our head, as we go through the scenarios.
[21:10:00]
TAPPER: All right, John King.
And CNN can now bring you a new projection.
CNN projects that Kamala Harris will win the State of Delaware. Delaware, as expected, will go to Kamala Harris with its three electoral votes, the Small Wonder state. Let's take a look at the electoral vote count. Donald Trump has 154 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 30 electoral votes. 270 electoral votes are needed to win.
Let's bring you a key race alert now.
In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris has 60.4 percent of the vote, Donald Trump, 38.7 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with a 284,000-plus vote win -- I'm sorry, lead. 284,000-plus vote lead, with only an estimated 19 percent of the vote in. Not even a fifth of the vote. Still a lot of votes to count in Pennsylvania.
In battleground Michigan, Kamala Harris with 53.1 percent of the vote, Donald Trump has 44.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris, with a 46,000-plus vote lead. Only a 10th of the vote has been counted in Michigan, 10 percent, still very early there.
In North Carolina, Donald Trump in the lead, with 51.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 46.9 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 119,000-plus vote lead. That's with 41 percent of the estimated vote counted in North Carolina.
In battleground Georgia, Donald Trump in the lead there. 52.7 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with 46.6 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 225,000-plus vote lead. That's with 69 percent of the estimated vote in Georgia. They're really counting the ballots, in Georgia there. 69 percent of the estimated vote has been counted.
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, Donald Trump still has his 49.5 percent lead. Now, it's 49.4 percent. Kamala Harris has 48.6 percent. Donald Trump is 18,000-plus votes ahead of Kamala Harris right now, with more than half, 52 percent of the estimated vote counted in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
In New Hampshire, Kamala Harris in the lead with 53.3 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has 46 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with a 17,000-plus vote lead. That's with more than a quarter, 28 percent of the estimated vote in the Granite State of New Hampshire, counted.
In Ohio, Donald Trump still in the lead there. 53.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris has 45 percent -- 45.2 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 275,000-plus vote lead. That's with more than half, 52 percent of the estimated vote counted in Ohio.
John King.
KING: Let's look at the map, Jake.
And one of the wonders as we get into the 9 o'clock hour, and this will be in the 10 o'clock hour, 11 o'clock hour, expecting to past midnight hours, but you're beginning to see more states fill in. Most of it is very early voting, but it's still. As you just see, as the polls close, and we go from east to west, you now see many more states reporting votes.
Let's just take a peek. We've already projected this one, to be for Donald Trump. I just want to show you North Dakota. These states feel they don't get respect, because they're not huge electoral battlegrounds. I like to wander through, and look at the votes, and just show people out here.
You see, South Dakota starting to fill in slowly, very early on, 1 percent of the vote.
This is a surprise at the moment. Nebraska, the Vice President so far, carrying the state, statewide. But we're only at 27 percent. And again, most of this gray you see from about here, west, rural Republican farm country, where Trump tends to run it up.
Just go back and give you the 2020 example of what I'm talking about. That's what tends to happen. And so, we're not there yet. So, when that happens, if that happens, that number will change.
Again, for the Vice President, what you want to do is you want to be here. I'm just showing you Douglas County. It's the big piece of Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District. This is where you want to win. The blue dot, they call it. If she wins the blue wall, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania -- I went backwards. But if she wins those three, and she wins Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, she can get to 270 electoral votes. So, we'll keep an eye on that as it plays out.
First votes in Wisconsin. You see it's red at the moment, 796 to 479. Guess what? We have a long way to go in battleground Wisconsin. Just for context, when Joe Biden won it four years ago, it was 1.6 million votes. So, we are in the infancy stages of counting the votes in battleground Wisconsin, and you watch as it plays out.
One of the places we'll watch here. I'll just show you now. Zero votes in yet. The Green Bay area, Brown County. This is one of the key tests. Can the Vice President hold on to the President's share of White working-class voters?
I just want to show you, as we go back in 2020, Joe Biden did not win Brown County, but he got 46 percent of the vote. The margins within the margins sometimes make the difference in a battleground state. Wisconsin settled by 20,000 votes, right? You look at that, 46 percent for Joe Biden. And then you move back in time, and you see 42 percent for Hillary Clinton. That makes the difference. She lost the state. He won the state.
So, one of the things we will watch as the 2024 results come in, is not just, can she turn out the African American vote in Milwaukee. Not just can she compete in the suburbs Waukesha, just to the west of Milwaukee, but can she hold her own? Just be as competitive as Biden was in some of these blue-collar counties. Long way to go there.
[21:15:00]
Let's pop over to Michigan. As Jake just told you, we're only at 10 percent there, so not a lot to look at. Just move it up, so you can see it a little bit better at home. The Vice President has pulled ahead in Kent County. That's Grand Rapids. But it's early. And again, you're looking down here. I told you earlier, one of the warning signs was Washtenaw County. This is where the University of Michigan is, Ann Arbor. If you move east here, Dearborn is over here, near Detroit.
Her question marks in Michigan are young voters and Arab American voters, right? You find the young voters here, University of Michigan campus. And again, you say, Wow, that's a 30-point lead, what are we worried about that for? Well, you're worried about it, because the President of the United States had that four years ago.
It's a county where, if you want to win Michigan. Joe Biden won by 154,000 votes. So you could say she has some to spare, if you will. She can lose a little bit, in the coalition. But you don't want to lose a lot. And I was at the Michigan campus, just last week. They're having a very aggressive young voter turnout operation there. We'll see, later in the night, if those numbers change at all.
That's Michigan. Let's come back out, and come over to the home state of Mr. Tapper. Still at 20 percent. It's bumped up just a little bit there.
So, what are we looking at? Let's move it up just a little bit. We have some votes. Erie County, as I told you earlier, 25 counties in America, twice for Barack Obama, then to Donald Trump, and then flipped back to Joe Biden. So, it's a bellwether County. Doesn't mean the person who wins Erie County is going to win the Commonwealth, and win the presidency. But that's what's happened in the last several presidential elections.
So you look, we're just starting, just getting started in Erie County, 512 votes. Just for context, it's going to take close to 70,000 votes to win that county. So we're just starting. That's one of them.
Let's come back to 2024, and move over here to Northampton County. Again, right along the New Jersey border, not terribly far from Allentown. The Vice President ahead there, at only 22 percent of the vote in. So, that was -- again, look how close it was. Joe Biden just barely carried it. Donald Trump just barely carried it four years before that. That's the way it tends to end up. So we'll watch as that plays out.
Here's something we do want to look at, is Lehigh County. Only 20 percent of the vote in here. If there is an impact, from the Donald Trump Madison Square Garden event, where so many insults were made, about Puerto Ricans and about Mexicans and about Latino and Hispanic Americans? If you're going to see an impact? This is one of the places you might see it, right here. And that's why both Trump and Harris went to Allentown, in the final days of the campaign, to try to take advantage of it.
We're only at 20 percent right there. But again, you're doing this for context. 62 percent for the Vice President. You go back in time, to Lehigh County, 2020, 53 percent. If the Vice President can over perform Joe Biden, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania? She's in good shape. So we watch that as it plays out. We're only at 20 percent of the vote right now, if we come down to it. That's only 20 -- it's only 20 percent.
So then you come out more. Where else you're looking in Pennsylvania? Let's bring this up. You also had the Vice President door-knocking in Berks County. Berks County, at the moment, is blue. If Berks County ends the night, blue, my bet would be on Vice President Harris winning Pennsylvania. Why? Let's look at it. Let's show you where it is.
Here's Philadelphia. Here's the close-in suburbs around it. And then, as you drive out, what used to be farm country, now you see the homes lined up, right? People moving further out, because that's the only place they can afford a home. That's places like Berks County, Pennsylvania. Half the vote counted, a little bit shy of that right now, 51 to 48, right?
Let's go back in time. That was a 53 percent county for Donald Trump, in 2020, when he lost Pennsylvania. And it was a 53 percent County in 2016, when he won Pennsylvania.
So, if you're the Vice President of the United States, you're keeping an eye on this one. If you can keep this blue, your chances to win the Commonwealth are improved dramatically.
So spent a lot of time there over the last year. It is interesting. Find a lot of Nikki Haley voters there, a lot of Reagan Republicans who don't like Donald Trump, who were kind of tormented about voting for Trump or voting for Harris. So we'll keep an eye on that one there.
Then you move out here. This is the number two, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Allegheny County is Pittsburgh and the suburbs around it, the labor vote, the blue-collar vote, a smaller African American population, but the urban vote Democrats need. So, she's at 68 percent. When you look at that there. You come back in time. He was at 59 percent.
So again, we're early. We're early. Let me bring -- come back to 2024, and come out. It's 40 percent. So, it's early. These tend to be early votes, which tend to favor Democrats more. So, we want to wait and get more to see if that's contextual.
At the moment, she's outpacing the President of the United States in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in some key places. We will see if that holds up.
The flip side. Pick one. Tioga County, along the border, northern border of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump getting 71 percent there, half the vote is in. Again, this is Donald Trump's secret. Just runs it up in small, rural counties, across America. 75 percent. So, keep an eye on that. It's early. We're still counting votes right there. But it's the Trump base turning out in the same math numbers, in a place like Pennsylvania. He needs to run it up in places like this.
There's Bradford. Again, it's only 5 percent reporting. 75 percent. 71 percent. Again, even in these small, rural counties, the early vote, there's not a lot of Democratic votes there, but a lot of it comes out in the early votes, if you're following along, when they count it. So let's be careful to not make any projections, any -- tough -- lasting cement analysis, I guess I'll call it. But we'll keep an eye on that as we go through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
[21:20:00]
Virginia. Every time I come out, I wait to see if Virginia is going to flip back. We're still at 59 percent. That lead has narrowed somewhat. This would be a shocker. Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points, by 10 points.
Even if it's closer, even if the Vice President comes back? Let's take a peek. Yes, the Democrat -- the outstanding votes are still largely Democrat -- there's some Republican votes out there. You see the red dots. But the big circles are in Democratic areas. So, the math is there for the Vice President to recover.
But even a close race in Virginia might tell you that it's a more competitive environment for Donald Trump. Especially Jake, as we've talked before, can he do well in the suburbs?
And then you see, we're looking at Virginia as kind of a, you know, it's interesting. What lessons can we learn there? Well, again, they're not exactly the same, but they're similar.
You come down to North Carolina. We're above 50 percent now. It's close. This is -- welcome to North Carolina. This is what--
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: This is what it's going to be. And so, you just take a look, and you say, What's missing, right? Where are they still counting votes?
Again, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte and the suburbs around it. African American voters, upscale suburbs around it, key to the Democratic coalition. A lot of votes there. Lot of votes in Raleigh, Durham, the Research Triangle again. And so you see that happening right there.
And let's see. We go back here and come back up to Virginia, and we see 49.4, and 48 percent there. Again, pretty remarkable. 17,000 votes. Again, we got a long way to go. 45 percent of the votes still to be counted. But Joe Biden won it by 10 points. So if you're the -- in the Vice President's camp, you're a little nervous about that.
TAPPER: Let's bring in David Chalian, to get some insights now on the outstanding vote in Virginia, which is as of now, a little tighter than I think the Harris campaign would like.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, Jake, we're trying to determine how much of this vote we're looking at now is pre-election vote. Our estimate, right now, is that we are looking at Virginia, 39 percent of the vote that's in is pre-election vote. That, we think, at the end of the day, is going to go up to 52 percent.
So, there's still quite a bit of pre-election vote to come in here. And Kamala Harris is winning the pre-election vote by about 17 points. So as more of that early vote gets funneled into the count, in Virginia, you can imagine, there's real room here for Harris to grow, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, David.
And we have some projections, right now, for you at home.
CNN can project that Illinois will go to Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris, as expected, will win Illinois and its 19 electoral votes.
CNN can also project that Rhode Island will go to Kamala Harris, as expected. Kamala Harris will get the four electoral votes from Rhode Island.
So where are we on the electoral map, as of right now? Donald Trump has 154 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 53 electoral votes. 270 are needed to win. Neither of them is within spitting distance of that.
Let's take a look at the actual votes coming in, from the battlegrounds that we have not projected.
In battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris in the lead, 57.5 percent of the vote. Donald Trump, 41.5 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with a 258,000-plus vote lead. That's with about a quarter, 23 percent of the estimated vote in Pennsylvania counted as of now.
In battleground Michigan, Kamala Harris with 53.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with 44.3 percent of the vote. Harris with a 64,000-plus vote lead. That's with an estimated 12 percent of the vote counted in Michigan. Still very early in Michigan.
In battleground North Carolina, Donald Trump in the lead. 50.7 percent of the vote. Harris with 48.1 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 75,000-plus vote lead. That's with more than half, 51 percent of the estimated vote, counted in battleground North Carolina.
In battleground Georgia, Donald Trump still holding on to his lead, 52.9 percent of the vote. Harris has 46.4 percent of the vote. Donald Trump, right now, with a 249,000-plus vote lead. I'm sorry. Now, it's a 255,000 vote lead. That's with an estimated 71 percent of the vote counted in battleground Georgia.
In Virginia, Donald Trump in the lead, as of now. 49.3 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris has 48.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump is ahead by more than 15,000 votes. That's with more than half, 56 percent of the estimated vote. But still a lot of vote to come in, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
In New Hampshire. Harris with 53.4 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with 45.9 percent of the vote. Harris with an 18,000-plus vote lead. That's with under a third of the vote counted in New Hampshire. 30 percent of the estimated vote counted in New Hampshire.
In Ohio, Donald Trump in the lead, 54.3 percent of the vote. Harris with 44.8 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 332,000-plus vote lead. That's with almost 60 percent, 58 percent of the estimated vote counted in the Buckeye State.
Now let's go to John King at the Magic Wall.
John.
KING: And so, Jake, you lay at the results, and there are some surprises there, right, at least where we are right now. So we just want to go back and follow up where we were.
David Chalian was talking about some of the outstanding vote. We know, in Virginia, it's early vote, and that percentage is going to jump. And we know that the Vice President is doing quite well in that vote. So, I just want to show you what he means by how this can change.
[21:25:00]
Again, Donald Trump's lead has been shrinking. It was 16,000, not that long ago. It's 12,395 now. Look at the Northern Virginia suburbs here. I just want to show you, these circles help us understand where are there live outstanding votes, meaning votes that we know are out there that have not been counted yet, right?
You see the big circles. The biggest circles, around the northern Virginia suburbs, also Richmond and the suburbs around that, and some big Republican circles, down here, Virginia Beach area, and some here in the suburbs, more to the south, the exurbs, south of Richmond.
But I want to focus up here, and just to show you why you can say, early on, you say, Well, what's happening here? But then things can change pretty quickly, when large population centers report their vote.
So, let's take Fairfax County. And it's the largest of the suburban counties. It's the number one county, population-wise, in Virginia. The Vice President's getting 66 percent of the vote. 63 percent of the vote in. Look at the number, where she is, though, 250,000.
We know turnout is robust, right? So if we should be somewhere around 2020, when we end 2024, maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower, but somewhere around it. 250,000 votes, right now. If you go back in time, you see 419,000 votes. So if she's winning 60-plus percent, the President was winning 70 percent four years ago. You have Vice President Harris winning 66. A little below, little below.
Virginia looks like it's going to be a little bit more competitive, this year. But you can see just right there, in that one county, there's a lot of votes still out, and she's winning disproportionately, in the math right now. That can change. But it generally tracks when you get above 60 percent of the vote.
And so, just in that one county, right there, the math, when those votes come in, the math can change. So doesn't mean it will. But there's more than enough Democratic votes still outstanding, or votes outstanding in Democratic areas, is the better way to put it, for that to happen.
So, let's check in on the other battlegrounds as we go through.
This one, again, go back in time. This was the closest Donald Trump victory in a battleground state of this. Of the battlegrounds, he won, 74,000 votes -- 483 -- 74,483, four years ago. He's a 110,000 (ph) ahead right now. But we're only at 54 percent of the vote, right?
So, you see these gray areas? What are those? That's where you have no votes in yet. So, we're still waiting, some of these smaller counties. This what, you know? This the 10th of the 100 (ph) counties population-wise. So it's not tiny. Gaston County, along the border right there. But the big population centers are Charlotte. Let's just see how much we have. Only 10 percent of the vote in Mecklenburg County.
So, if you're looking at this number, you're saying, OK, Donald Trump's got a four-point lead, three and a half -- four-point lead in North Carolina. But then you come here, it's the largest Democratic area, only 10 percent of the vote. And again, look where we are. 36,000 votes for the Vice President right now. You go back four years, 378,000 votes. So we just need to slow down with any -- where we go in here in North Carolina, and count more votes, because there are more than enough votes out there.
Again, if you come out statewide, and just apply the entire graph to the whole thing, live outstanding votes. You see some Republican pockets here. But where are the biggest circles, right? Where are the biggest circles? Charlotte in the suburbs, Raleigh, Durham in the suburbs, Winston-Salem in the suburbs, Wilmington in the suburbs, Asheville in the suburbs.
Doesn't mean the Vice President is going to win North Carolina. By no means, means the Vice President is going to win North Carolina. It just means there are a lot more votes to be counted, in areas that right now are blue, and some of them blue by a pretty lopsided margin.
Now, just to be fair, you see all these little, tiny dots? There's a lot of little, tiny red dots, right? Right? They're not going to match the vote count here and here. But there's a lot more of them, right?
So when you come out, you just take a look? Again, I'm a broken record sometimes. But this is the wonder of Donald Trump. This is how he runs up the math. 72 percent there. Only 25 percent reporting there. But 72 percent in Rutherford County, right down here, along the border here. Let's just go back in time and take a peek. 72 percent.
Donald Trump is consistent. He is the constant in this race. In most places, you look, he's getting what he got in 20 -- 2020, and he's getting what he got in 2016. He's pretty constant and pretty consistent. But 24,000 votes there with 72 percent, four years ago. And so, then you come forward there, we're only at 25 percent.
So again, if it comes in around the turnout of four years ago, and it stays at that percentage, there's a chunk of votes there. And in many of these other small rural counties, still for Donald Trump, which is why we count late into the night, and sometime into the morning. He gets small margins. But you add them all up? 20 -- 15 -- 20 -- 30 rural counties? You match them up against the one urban county. That's how you get a battleground state.
Let's pop down to Georgia. We come down over here. This one here, again, in a state decided by a 11,000 votes, four years ago, with 75 percent of the vote in, Donald Trump's ahead by 241,000. You start to think, Oh, we're about 75 percent of the vote. Are we at the point of no return?
Well, let's take a look. Number one, how many votes does it take to win Georgia? Donald Trump's leading right now, with 2.1 million. Joe Biden won it in 2020 with 2.4 million and change. And we hear turnout is pretty good down there. So it could be somewhere around that, could be a little higher than that, number one. So you start there.
And then number two, Jake, you just apply, what are we waiting for, right? And look at the size of the blue circles. Again, doesn't mean the Vice President's going to come back and win Georgia. It just means everybody take a breath--
TAPPER: Yes.
[21:30:00]
KING: --and let's count votes. Because you see Atlanta and the suburbs around it, where most of those big circles are, which means, in a place like Fulton County, where, well, 78 percent reporting in Fulton County, that's actually interesting. We'll see what comes out. It's still, it's a big -- because of the population center, it's a big chunk of votes. But she's running at 73 percent right there.
Look at that. Look at that. 72.6. 72.6.
TAPPER: It's funny.
KING: It's a mirror image right there. So, I always look at the ones a little bit farther out. 80 percent now in Cobb County. It's 57.4. You go back here. It's 50 -- you know, it's just -- the question is, can he improve, is really the bigger question. I keep focusing on her. Can he improve in the suburbs? He's not there.
Let's just come over here to Gwinnett. He's at 39 percent right now, and he was at 40 percent there. He's close. He's close. But those little, tiny margins can matter. But again, 16 percent of the vote there.
So we got a ways to go. That's a healthy lead for Donald Trump. There's a lot of votes still to be counted in this blue circle right here.
TAPPER: So, let's bring back the map that shows where the vote is still outstanding. If you can do that.
KING: I can do that.
TAPPER: Because I want to bring in Pamela Brown.
KING: There you go. TAPPER: To get us up to speed, on some of the outstanding votes that remain in Georgia.
Pamela, what are you learning?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk about that.
I'm just getting off the phone with Gabriel Sterling, a key election official in Georgia. He says, give or take, there are 1.5 million outstanding votes, still in Georgia. Again, give or take, not a precise number, but around that.
Let's zoom in here on Gwinnett. This is a Democratic stronghold. They are significantly delayed, according to Zach Manifold, who I just got off the phone with. He says, there's an issue with their adjudication software for the write-ins on the ballots. And so, that is why we're seeing such a low number.
Now, overall, in Gwinnett, I'm told, there are 419,000 votes there. So, that was as of 06:30. He says that's likely -- that number is likely going to go up. Out of that breakdown, the at least 419,000, there are overall, 96,000 day of votes in Gwinnett, 322,000 early votes.
So if you look at the numbers here, the rough estimate of 16 percent of the estimated vote in, there are still roughly more than 350,000 outstanding ballots, just in Gwinnett alone. And then, you put that into the bigger picture of what I just said, from Gabriel Sterling, that there's still 1.5 million outstanding ballots in Georgia, give or take.
Jake.
TAPPER: And we actually have a Correspondent/Anchor in the Gwinnett County election center in suburban Atlanta. Victor Blackwell.
Victor, what can you tell us about the vote count in Gwinnett County?
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: So, let me tell you what's happening right now.
Zach Manifold, who Pam just mentioned, the Supervisor of Elections, is on the phone, right now, with Brad Raffensperger, explaining what the delay is. As Pamela said, it's a problem with the adjudication of some of those write-in ballots.
We spoke with him, just a few moments ago, at the 08:15 news conference here, in which he said, there was some delay in processing those, and getting those 322,000 early in-person and absentee mail-in ballots to the state tabulation center, to that computer.
It statutorily had to be there by 08:00 p.m. He says that it was just the computer system clicking down to identify the names in the write- in column for president, specifically, for that race, and there appears to be a problem with that system. So, right now, there are from Gwinnett County, about 72,000 votes. Still about 250,000 of the early in-person votes, and those mail-in absentee votes that were supposed to be in, more than an hour ago.
And he's on the call, right now, to determine what happens next, and explain to the Secretary of State's office what they're doing, and probably look for some guidance on how to move forward, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Victor Blackwell, in Gwinnett County.
And John King, as happens every election, human beings are fallible. Machines all the more so.
KING: Right? Which is why you want trusted officials to deal with the problem when it arises. And we know from, 2020 Georgia happens to be a Republican Secretary of State, and these local county officials. They know what they're doing. And they have a problem? They said -- then they make a plan, right? They have a problem. You try to find in a solution.
So, where is Victor Blackwell? He is right here. He's in Gwinnett County, one of the most important suburbs in the Atlanta area, to the northeast of Atlanta. And as we noted, only 16 percent of the vote reported in this county, right now. And so, a long way to go in the count, Jake.
And this is a place where, again, with Donald Trump with a pretty healthy lead, statewide, right now, that's what you're waiting for. You get a giant basket of votes reported from there? It gives you better context about the real state of the race.
TAPPER: All right, John King.
We have a projection for you now -- at home. You people at home.
CNN can predict that New York, as expected, will go to Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris will be the winner of the 28 electoral votes offered from the Empire State.
[21:35:00]
Let's take a look at the electoral vote count now. Donald Trump in the lead, 154. Kamala Harris with 81. 270 are needed to win. Neither of them is there as of yet.
Let's go to Abby Phillip, at Harris campaign headquarters, here in Washington, D.C., on the campus of Howard University.
Abby.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jake. This group here has been here for a little while now, and they've been watching the returns, as they've been coming in.
You're hearing them, right now, cheering, as they're seeing you, a little bit delayed, calling New York for Kamala Harris. They want some good news tonight. I can feel the anxiety in the crowd. These are all people, who want to have a party. They want to celebrate. There's been a DJ playing, all night long. But the results are coming in, and they're coming in slowly. But each time a race is called for Harris, or she is shown in the lead, in one of these battlegrounds, it is a big moment, for the folks, here at the Kamala Harris headquarters.
And Jake, as I'm talking right now, you can probably hear me talking to you. But the crowd, they're excited. They're ready to go tonight. They want to see more reporting, and results that they like to see.
Back to you, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Abby Phillip, in Washington, D.C., in the campus of Howard University, where Harris is holding her campaign headquarters.
Right now, let's go to West Palm Beach, where we find Kaitlan Collins at Trump HQ.
Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jake, I should note, obviously we are all still watching these numbers come in. There is no celebrating happening yet, inside the Trump campaign.
But one thing that is giving them a confidence boost, this hour, are the numbers that you and John King were just going over, in Virginia. They were looking at that very closely, comparing it to President Biden's numbers there in 2020, and it is making them feel good tonight, lifting their spirits.
Now, no one is saying that this is obviously anywhere near over, yet. They are still watching very closely to the blue wall of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Donald Trump calling into radio shows, in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, in just the last few hours, as he's at his Mar-a-Lago club.
He just spoke to supporters briefly, Jake. But as he's talking to the people who are at Mar-a-Lago, who is also getting constant updates from his own campaign team. And right now, they are watching a few key indicators, including the turnout from Black males in Georgia, and in other states, but also, just watching those numbers in Virginia. We'll see Jake, of course, if that pattern continues throughout the night.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.
John King.
KING: Jake, a fascinating map, at the moment. You just updated the electoral vote count, 154 to 81. You're looking at a map now. There are a lot of Democrats looking at this map, and saying, Wow, we're having a great night. I would just say, Be cautious. Enjoy the moment, but just be cautious.
Why do I say, Wow? Well, at the moment, we touched on this a little bit earlier, the Vice President is still leading statewide in Nebraska. What she wants to win is the 2nd Congressional District, which is right here. Nebraska, one of two states that awards Electoral College votes based on congressional district.
Only 30 percent of the state. You see all this gray. Those are small, rural, farm country, beautiful, beautiful parts of Nebraska that tend to vote for Donald Trump, in overwhelming numbers. So let's wait to see that one play out.
But then you move east, and remember, what was the surprise poll of the last week of the campaign? It was the Iowa poll that showed the Vice President of the United States actually, no clear leader, but 47 to 43, I think, if I have it right, a little bit ahead of Donald Trump, in what has been since Barack Obama left the scene, a reliably red state.
Well, at the moment, only 19 percent of the vote in. But at the moment, Democrats in Iowa, and I suspect elsewhere, are saying, We told you so. But we have a long way to go on the count, right?
So Polk County is Des Moines. 83 percent of the vote, and this is almost a downside for the Democrats, if you will. She's getting 56 percent of the vote, but you're at 83 percent already. So you got some more coming in. But this is your biggest basket, biggest Democratic stronghold, the capital of Des Moines. If you haven't been in Des Moines, in 10 years, it's a very different city than you might remember. A lot of young professionals, insurance industry and the like.
The Democratic stronghold. There, Joe Biden got 56 percent in Des Moines, in four years so -- four years ago. So if you think, Oh, wow, look at that? Just let's be careful and be cautious.
But we are waiting. Ames, college town, right up here, Story County, Ames, we have nothing right now. That's a place where President Biden got 57 percent of the vote. When we get numbers here, we'll look at that.
But let's see that. If the Democrats are going to surprise us, even by making Iowa much closer than it was four years ago, you'll see some math in these blue counties, more people, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm matters in a competitive environment. So, we'll see what happens with Iowa. Again, it has been a red state for quite some time.
And just to put the exclamation point on the, it's early, the State of Missouri has the Vice President of the United States ahead right now. Missouri hasn't voted blue for President in a very long time. Again, let's be open to surprises, and we'll count votes.
Now let's come in to the battlegrounds, where we are waiting. Wisconsin is blue. It was red, last time. Still very, very early. 18 percent of the vote counted.
[21:40:00]
This is critical for Vice President Harris, if, if, if, emphasis on, if, you can win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, hold that Nebraska congressional district I just showed you? Then you're the President of the United States, right? That's her easiest. No path is easy. But her easiest path is keep the blue wall, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.
So, let's move up Wisconsin, so you can get a better look at home. She's ahead, right now, at the moment. But we're only 18 percent of the vote.
And again, John's a broken record tonight. But I want you to look up at all of those gray areas. And I just want to remind you, in most of them, not all of them, but in most of them, you're in rural Trump country. So, as you come back to the 2024 map, and you say the Vice President's ahead? That's where you want to be. You want to be ahead. But you got a long way to go.
So, what are we looking for? I'm going to do this in reverse order, because of the questions about young voters turning out, whether unhappiness with the White House over Israel-Gaza, Israel-Hamas policy would impact youth turnout.
38 percent in Dane County. That's the University of Wisconsin. Absolutely essential for any Democratic win in Wisconsin, to run it up here, not just in the percentage, but with the raw math. So let's look. 38 percent of the vote, so a long way to go. Long way to go.
Let's just compare it to the President. President Biden had 76 percent. Keep an eye on it. Don't panic yet if you're a Democrat. But keep an eye on that, because the Vice President needs to be as close to that as she can be. And at the moment, she's running a little bit behind that. That's Dane County. That's Madison.
This is the biggest population center. I've spent a lot of time here in the last year. The big question here is, do Black voters turn out? And the subset question of that is, does Donald Trump make inroads, especially among Black men? We did see some evidence of that in our several trips to Milwaukee.
At the moment -- I was texting with somebody in Milwaukee earlier, by the way, who said they thought turnout was actually going pretty good for the Democrats. We'll see if that turns out.
At the moment, 25 percent of the vote in, 66 percent if you round up. 32 percent for Donald Trump. So let's just go back in time, knowing we have a long way to go. And Milwaukee sometimes reports late. But if you go back in time. Joe Biden again, 69 percent. Trump at 29 percent. So the 69 percent is what jumps out.
Trump is -- Trump is a little above right now. Trump's a little above where he was four years ago. She's a little behind where the President was four years ago. It's only 25 percent of the vote. We're not pouring cement on any of this. But that's where you say, Oh, we got to keep an eye on that as we go forward.
Then you move over here. You go into the WOW counties, Waukesha, the biggest among them. This is a Republican suburb. Long has been a Republican suburb. The challenge for Democrats, I've been saying this about Trump in the blue -- in the battleground states that tend to lean blue. Where's Trump's number in the suburbs? Can he compete? He's not going to win. But can he compete? That's the challenge for the Vice President here.
Waukesha County tends to be a Republican suburb. So there she is at 40 percent. Trump at 59 percent. Again, you go back in time, 59 percent to 39 percent four years ago. Welcome to another 20,000 vote race probably in the end, in Wisconsin, based on that.
It's a 66 percent of the vote in there. It's essentially matching where we were in 2020. And again, just so you remember, our history here in the blue wall, Harris is leading right now. That's -- we got a lot of vote to count, right here.
But I'm laughing a little bit, just at the 22,000 number. Because if you look at that right there, Joe Biden won this state, in 2020, by 20,000 votes. Four years before that, when he cracked the blue wall and became president, Donald Trump won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes. That -- welcome to Wisconsin. It's a state that tends to hang around the margins of 20,000 votes, which is why that is somewhat amusing to me earlier.
Now, she just put it up to 34,000, to shut me up. And there we go, as we go through the couch in Wisconsin, very early there.
Let's come over to battleground Michigan.
Let me come back for a second. See that? If they stay that way? And it's early. It's early. Don't call your bookie. Don't make any bets. Don't pop the champagne. But you see Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, right? Especially if you're looking at a map, where North Carolina and Georgia are red, at the moment? They're not done either. They're not done either. But if you're a Democrat, you're kind of a little, Ooh, should we be nervous about this? Then you should be -- Wow, should we be optimistic about that?
So, let's take it away and see what I mean by that. Number one, let's just start to the east and go west. Up to 32 percent in Pennsylvania. Long way to go. Long way to go. I just want to check on where we are in Philadelphia. Still at 26 percent. You get Philadelphia over 50 percent? Now we can start to understand what the math is elsewhere, as you go.
But again, you see most of the rural areas filling in for Trump. That's his strength. That is his strength. And Pennsylvania is one of his best states.
Let's come up here into Michigan. We're still only at 14 percent in Michigan. And we have our first votes out of Wayne County. And it shows Donald Trump with the lead in Wayne County. If Wayne County is red, at the end of the night, Donald Trump's winning the presidency in a landslide. We're at 1 percent. So, that's unlikely to happen. The question is, where does it end up?
This one's more interesting, Macomb County. But again, 500 votes. 506 votes. Trump wants to keep it somewhere around there. Go back in time. You see, he's at 53 percent. If Donald Trump can win Macomb County, it keeps him competitive. Keeps him competitive in the state. The higher above 50 he gets, it matters.
[21:45:00]
This is one of the signature key counties for Vice President Harris and her Michigan chances. Oakland County. The birthplace of Mitt Romney. Used to be a Republican county, when I started doing this. She's at 55 percent, right now. They're just past half the vote.
So look at the 55 percent. Little behind Joe Biden. That can matter. That can matter. We're not done yet. She's only 55 percent. A little bit behind. Biden had 434,000 votes, when he won the county. And you're just checking on turnout. She's at 234,000, with about 54 percent. So, you're in the ballpark of similar turnout.
Let's see what happens as that comes in, and you're going to watch that number. But that number, tiny changes in the margins, can affect the battleground states. So Trump's at 43. Let's do it that way. Trump was at 42. Again, it's tiny. In the close states, tiny can matter. We'll keep an eye on that as we go through the count in Michigan.
And then, one more. Let's just -- I was already over there earlier. Let's come back out and see. So, the blue wall, at the moment, is blue, and the Sun Belt states, which used to be reliably red, and are now battleground states, at the moment, are red. So we'll just check in, see if anything else came in.
Georgia's at 79 percent. President's lead is 204,000. It was 240,000 a little while ago. President's lead has come down a little bit. I just want to remind everybody, in this hour, four years ago, Donald Trump was leading Georgia, by about 244,000 votes. Joe Biden won Georgia, when the votes were all counted. Doesn't mean that's what's going to happen this time. It just means you'd rather be ahead than behind. But we're not done yet.
Let's come back up to North Carolina. We're at 63 percent in North Carolina. This count's coming up now. This count's coming up a little bit. And you're at a 177,000 vote lead. That would be a blowout. Anything in triple digits in North Carolina. Again, go back four years ago, the closest of the battleground states, Trump carried. 74,000 votes, then. You see how close it was, 50 to 49.
And so, let's come back now and take a look. The blue is -- the blue then is where the blue is now, except for this one out here, I believe this one, Haywood County. Well, we're only at 4 percent. If you go back in time, that was a Republican county.
I look out there. Because if anyone's out there watching, we hope you're doing all right. This is an area of the state that was hit hardest by Hurricane Helene. And the state and the county officials and the local officials, God bless them, they did amazing things, just so people could vote.
I know that more important things are, can you live? Can you get housing? Can you get food? Can you get water, and things like that. But the fact that people are voting out there, in good numbers, is a testament to the state, and to the county officials. And people have heard a lot of misinformation out there. We see what's happening. Democracy is unfolding in western North Carolina.
This is where it matters most, if you are the Democrats. And only 14 percent of the vote is in. So, you see Donald Trump leading in North Carolina. But you see only 14 percent of the vote in, in Mecklenburg County, which tells you, let's just take this for a while. Let's just go through, and see what happens as we go.
It's a 11 percent of the statewide population. The Vice President's at 60 percent right now. So you go back in time. Again, this is, if you're the Vice President's camp, he lost, Joe Biden lost North Carolina, getting 67 percent of the vote in Mecklenburg County. She, at the moment, is getting 60 percent of the vote. Is that meaningful? We don't know yet. We don't know yet. It would be meaningful, if we end up there. But it's only 14 percent of the vote right now.
So then you come back out here.
And again, that would be Donald Trump doing better in the suburbs. If he gets that -- her number down, from Joe Biden, that would mean Donald Trump is doing better with Black voters and in the suburbs. But we watch that. We still have a long time to go.
Wake County is Raleigh, number two. Mecklenburg, number one, population wise. Wake County is number two. She's at 64 percent, right there. Trump's at 35. You go back in time. Trump's at 36. She's at 62. Roughly the same, roughly the same. Won't make a big deal about that now. Sometimes roughly, you start looking into the margins of roughly, if we get to 80, 90 percent of the vote.
Move over here to Durham, your sixth largest county now, right? So Raleigh, Durham, the Research Triangle, young voters, some Black voters, some college-educated suburban voters, in the health care industry, and the other industries, in the Research Triangle, there.
81 percent of the vote right now with 85 percent in. So this is where you can make a comparison. You're at 85 percent of the vote. You can say, OK, where are we? Where was Joe Biden? 80 percent. So, she's matching Joe Biden here in a key place. Trump's at 18 percent in 2020. We see him at 18 percent now, a little bit below that. So this, if you're the Vice President, you're matching the President. The question is, is that good enough, right? He lost the state by 74,000 votes.
So we come back out. Where else do you want to look? You look for the other Democratic pockets, right? Cumberland County. This is Fayetteville. We're just starting, right? We're just starting. This is the fifth largest county in the state. So that's, if you're the Vice President, you think there's some room for growth there, because we're not there yet.
And again, I just want to show you, you see the blue in the urban areas. North Carolina along here, as the belt here, these are Black voters here, for the most part, in these Democratic counties, absolutely essential to the Vice President's math.
And then, you come down to Georgia. Again, in these states, you just see all that red. Not a lot of people live in those. But if you do county after county after county after county, you run it up.
And Jake, as I toss back to you, just one more check. No. Fulton County's still at 80 percent. So the Georgia math, we still have the biggest population center, where we're waiting, to see some key results.
TAPPER: All right, John.
[21:50:00]
As we stand by, for the next poll closings, at the top of the hour, here's an update on the race to 270. Donald Trump has 154 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 81 electoral votes. Obviously 270 electoral votes are needed to win.
Now, another key race alert. Let's go to the states where we have not called.
Kamala Harris in the lead, in Pennsylvania, 51.4 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has 47.7 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris has 88,000- plus votes of a lead. But it's about 35 percent of the vote that's been counted in Pennsylvania, about a third, still a lot of votes to count in Pennsylvania.
Michigan. Kamala Harris has 52 percent of the vote. Donald Trump has 46.1 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris with a 49,000-plus vote lead. That's with only an estimated 15 percent of the vote counted in the battleground of Michigan.
In Wisconsin, another battleground, Kamala Harris, 52.2 percent of the vote. Donald Trump, 46.1 percent of the vote. Harris with a 52,000- plus vote lead. But only 27 percent of the vote counted in Wisconsin, still very early in Wisconsin.
Battleground North Carolina, Donald Trump still in the lead there, with 52.1 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris has 46.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 201,000-plus vote lead, as of now. That's with 64 percent of the estimated vote counted in the battleground of North Carolina.
In battleground Georgia, Donald Trump in the lead, 51.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris, 47.1 percent of the vote. Donald Trump, with a 208,000-plus vote lead. That's with 79 percent of the estimated vote in Georgia counted. Still a lot of votes to count there. But a lot of votes have -- already counted.
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, Donald Trump -- in the -- in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Donald Trump has 49.5 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris, 48.6 percent of the vote. That is a 27 -- 28,000, now, vote lead, with 63 percent of the vote counted.
I am going to now bring you a projection. And CNN can project Louisiana will go to Donald Trump. Louisiana with its eight electoral votes, as expected, to Donald Trump.
Let's see what that impact is on the electoral vote count. Donald Trump has 162 votes, electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 81 electoral votes. She has exactly half. 270 votes are needed to win.
We're getting deeper into the night, and another round of results -- we're getting. We're counting down to the top of the hour, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, when 16 electoral votes are on the line in three states. Every vote is vital to get to the winning total of 270.
Polling places are about to close in Montana and battleground Nevada and in Utah. Nevada is the key battleground to watch in the next hour. Kamala Harris fighting to hold on to Nevada, for the Democrats, a state that Donald Trump narrowly lost in 2020, and in 2016.
As we await the end of voting in Nevada, let's check in with Jim Acosta, who is at a polling place in Las Vegas.
And Jim, you have new information from the Nevada Secretary of State.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jake. I mean, one interesting development that has emerged here, in Nevada, is they're running into a problem with some of the mail-in ballots that have come in so far.
Some of the signatures have been an issue. And election workers are now reaching out to some of those folks, out there, who have signature issues. Your signatures need to match those that are on file with the state.
And an interesting anecdote here. One of the problems that they're running into is that a lot of young voters don't know how to sign their names. And so, when they've signed their names onto some of these ballots, they are not jiving with what state officials have on file.
And so, what they're doing at this point is sort of frantically reaching out to a lot of young voters, across the State of Nevada, to say, Hey, wait a minute -- hopefully they're looking at their texts. And saying, Hey, wait a minute. There's a problem with your ballot. You need to check in with the state, and make sure that your signature is verified, so your ballot can be counted. So that is one thing that they're looking at this point.
There are about 14,000 of these ballot issues that they're trying to rectify. They do have several days to work that out.
And as you mentioned, Jake, the polls are about to close here in Nevada. If you're still in line, you can stay in line.
We heard out in Nye County, which is about an hour outside of Vegas, they've got a line about two and a half hours long. And so, that process is going to go well into the night, in that county, as well as here in Las Vegas.
Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Jim Acosta in Las Vegas, thanks so much.
Let's go to Kyung Lah in Phoenix.
Kyung.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: We're in Maricopa County, Phoenix, and the most populous county, Jake, in this entire state. As Maricopa County goes, so does the rest of Arizona. That's why we are here.
[21:55:00]
And we are watching the clock. In just minutes, in about eight to 10 minutes, we are hearing that the county will be reporting its very first batch of election results. A 11 electoral votes on the line here out of Arizona. Maricopa County will give us a strong indication after that first drop.
But it takes a long time to count all of the ballots. The first drop that we're going to see, the first results, will be the early vote that is counted before Election Day. And it's not all of them, but it is the majority of the early vote that is counted before Election Day. That is what we are going to know in just minutes. We are watching to see what is happening.
And the sense that we are getting, Jake, from all of the election officials we've spoken to, here in Maricopa County, is that they are overwhelm -- overwhelmingly pleased that there hasn't been major, major problems here in this county.
Things have gone relatively smoothly. Yes, there have been some small issues here and there. But overwhelmingly, they say this has gone fairly well, and they are really looking forward to continuing to keep that going as they go throughout the night.
After that first report, Jake, we are expecting to hear further reports as that in-person vote from today starts to come in.
Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Kyung Lah, in Phoenix, Arizona, big battleground out west.
David Chalian has exit polling from Nevada.
David, what are you learning about Nevada voters, and the issues that they're focused on?
CHALIAN: Well, the democracy -- democracy and the economy are battling for that top spot. 33 percent of Nevada voters, in this election, Jake, say democracy is the most important issue to their vote. 32 percent basically the same, say the economy is most important. Then that is followed by immigration at 15 percent, abortion at 11 percent, and foreign policy down in single digits. Your family's financial situation, is it better or worse than four years ago? A plurality, nearly half of Nevada voters say, 48 percent say, it was worse than four years ago. It is worse today than it was four years ago. Only 22 percent say it's better than four years ago. 29 percent say it's about the same.
Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. should be offered a chance at legal status, or should be deported? 54 percent, a majority in Nevada, who side with the Harris position on this, offered a chance at legal status. 42 percent Nevada side with the Trump position that they should be deported.
Abortion, should it be mostly legal or illegal? 68 percent of Nevada voters, nearly seven in 10, say abortion should be mostly legal. 28 percent say it should be illegal.
And Biden's job approval rating is at 40 percent in Nevada, 59 percent disapprove. That is about where it is nationally, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, David, thanks so much.
Let's go to John King at the Magic Wall.
KING: Well, Jake, we're starting to watch now, as we go further west, we have more states coming in. Some of the states we talked about earlier that we thought were aberrations, or early votes, you see right here now, including Kansas. Kansas has gone back to being a Republican state. We expect it will finish out that way.
There are some Democratic pockets of support here. They're mostly in the eastern part of the state, Manhattan, Kansas. Well, remember, it was Kansas that sounded the first alarm after Dobbs, when the amendment passed out there, protecting abortion rights. So, we'll watch the result margin. We expect Kansas will be a red state, at the end of the night. But you will keep an eye on that to see about that.
Then you keep coming forward. Here's the one that's interesting, and it's staying interesting, but we're only at 31 percent of the vote. Iowa, which, again, has not been a state we paid much attention to since Barack Obama left the team -- left the scene. Donald Trump won it comfortably twice. The Harris lead is shrinking a little bit. But she's still ahead in Iowa, 51 percent to 48 percent.
And if you look through I said earlier, we were at 83 percent in Polk County, we're still there. That's the bulk of your Democratic votes. You start moving down. You come over here to Cedar Rapids, which is Linn County, you're only a 34 percent of the vote here.
So there's some business to be done in terms of Democratic votes for the Vice President, in what is an interesting state. If this one is competitive, it's just it would be a surprise. And Election Night surprises are always interesting.
You see there, Dubuque County there. We'll see how that one plays out as we go forward. So now let's come over to some of the bigger battlegrounds. Again, if you're in the Harris campaign, especially because we're not done by any means. But if North Carolina and Georgia, Trump's ahead there? Then you'd rather be the candidate ahead in the blue wall states. And at the moment, the Vice President is. 34 percent, a little more than a third of the vote counted in Wisconsin. Again, you see Trump filling in, in the rural areas.
Just want to check. I teed this up earlier. Brown County, Green Bay, blue-collar workers. Kamala Harris is not going to win Brown County. The question is, can she compete. When Joe Biden won the state. You see, she's at 33 percent. We're only at 12 percent. So, we have to do this a little bit later. But Joe Biden had 45 percent. So it's a key test of White blue-collar workers. Can the Vice President of the United States try to at least come close to where the President was? At the moment, she is not. But it's very early in the count, right there.
Again, the foundation of any Democratic victory is down here in Milwaukee. We're almost at half the vote right there. She's at 67 percent there. Let's just go back in time and look. The President was at 69 percent. It sounds like not a big deal. 67. 69. Let's see.
Right now, we're only at 48 percent of the vote. If at the end of the night, she's underperforming the President in Milwaukee by a couple points? That can make the difference in a state, Jake, that in two elections in a row, has been decided by 20,000 votes.
Jake.
TAPPER: That's right, John.
And we're just moments away from another round of poll closings. Voting is about to end in three states, including the key battleground of Nevada.
