Haley Stevens Defects to Rogers, Shaking Up Michigan Senate Race

0:00Every day, animals across the country face abuse and neglect. And every day, the ASPCA shows up to rescue animals in crisis. But they can't do it alone. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Become a donor today to provide the care and shelter these animals urgently need. And for a limited time, the ASPCA will send you a free gift as a special thank you. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Share comfort and joy this holiday season at Tecova's.

0:33Dana Bash: Our boots are handcrafted in over 200 meticulous steps and have a broken in feel right out of the box with styles for everyone in the family. Our expert staff can help you pick the perfect gifts and we have free in-store gift wrapping to help make the holiday season truly special. See you soon at your local Tecova's store or shop with us anytime at tecova's.com.

0:56This is it. Just hours to go in an election that could transform the balance of power here in Washington and across the country. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

1:14election day is less than 12 hours away more than 55 million ballots already cast nearly 12 billion dollars spent months of campaigning across 50 states no shortage of political drama including a bombshell democratic defection in michigan that's rocking one of the most crucial senate races But even that 11th hour blow isn't shaking Democrats' confidence. The party is eyeing a series of potentially history-making victories, and new polling is fueling their optimism. The New York Times released a final batch of polls showing Democratic Senate candidates leading in deep red states like Texas, Kansas, and Ohio, as well as Michigan and Maine.

1:58Still, anyone who tells you they know how this is going to shake out is blowing smoke. because the reality is both parties are bracing for a very long and stressful couple of days. Short on sleep, heavy on caffeine. Speaking of that, I'm going to go right to Jeff Zeleny, who is in beautiful Austin, Texas. Somebody who somehow survives and thrives short on sleep. Maybe even not that much caffeine. I'm not really quite sure how. Jeff, it just looks fantastic there. This is going to be the place where all eyes are. What are you hearing from your sources there on the ground about how people are feeling just before the polls effectively open and close tomorrow?

2:41Well, Dana, you talked about those 50 million Americans who have voted early here in Texas. Seven point eight million Texans have voted as of early voting on Friday. That is over now. So is all now about Election Day turnout and talking to strategists in both sides. They believe no more than three million people will vote on Election Day. It may be less than that, but it's the Election Day turnout that is so central to this. Republicans know that they have to get their voters to the polls tomorrow, but that is what Republicans often do. They vote on Election Day. But Democrats I talked to are also a bit concerned.

3:15Do we have enough voters we can still find to get to come to the polls tomorrow? But I'm told that there are about 300 ,000 or so, according to modeling, voters, There's Democrats who voted in this primary, in this Senate primary, that have not yet voted. So look, there's enough for both sides. But when you hear the closing messages here between Democrat James Tallarico and Republican Ken Paxton, it basically can be boiled down to this. Ken Paxton is saying that Tallarico is too liberal for Texas. Tallarico, he says, Paxton is too corrupt, and it's costing you and the economy. Let's listen to a sample.

3:50Texas has never been this close to slipping away. We've never been this close to losing everything that we hold dear. Our jobs, our livelihoods, our way of life. If Texas falls, we don't have another Texas to move to. This election is a battle between the powers that be and the powers that ought to be. The powers that be have chosen their candidate. They have already bought and paid for Ken Paxton.

4:21so clearly the final closing arguments there those were in dueling rallies last evening in san antonio but look there is enthusiasm like we have never seen on the democratic side here in texas more so than back in 2018 the last time that beto aurora tried to run against ted cruz and was very close in that but even ted cruz the republican senator uh sounding the alarm He said that it's exceedingly close, too close, and Republicans need to pay closer attention to this. So that is the name of the game. Tomorrow on Election Day, do Republicans get enough of their voters to the polls? We shall see.

4:56But this is at the red-hot center of the midterm election. A fight for the control of the Senate right here in Texas, Dana. All right, Jeff. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here. And David Chalian, it always makes me laugh when you're saying something before the show or, you know, separately, privately that we hear from Jeff Zeleny on TV because that happens a lot. And what he said was, are there enough Democrats?

5:21Dana Bash: Yeah. I mean, Jeff and I were talking about this last night, so it's not totally fair. Don't burst my bubble. But it's true. It's a good question. Yeah. But let's just talk big picture. Here we are, you know, in 12 hours, the official election day will start. What's your sense of how things are going and how things really feel behind the scenes despite the public polling? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest question, you know, when we get to this point in the election, Dan, I tend to just try to remind us all, or at least in my head, like, what is this election fundamentally about? And so to me, you know, that really hasn't changed for much of this year.

6:01Dana Bash: So despite all the ups and downs and all the individual races or all the different polls, fundamentally, this is a midterm election that is going to be a referendum on Donald Trump. We know he's at his most unpopular he's ever been. And we know that issue number one, far and away from everything else, is the economy and the economic anxiety people are feeling in their lives. All of that is a potentially toxic brew for Republicans, which is why the question that hangs over the election is, are we about to see a blue wave come ashore here? The thing that still remains out there is the battlefield is on such deep Republican turf.

6:33Dana Bash: Is that just the political DNA of the map sufficient enough to withstand what could be a blue wave? And that is the question that will be answered tomorrow night when we see the votes come in. And Casey, just on the point of the president's approval or disapproval, I just want to show that part of this New York Times poll that came out last night. Ohio, 57 percent disapproval. Kansas, 56 percent disapproval. Alaska, 55 percent. Iowa, 55 percent. Texas, 55 percent. These are all states that two years ago the president won by double digits and in some cases like Kansas, healthy double digits. Well, and this shows you how the president's policies have impacted specifically the American heartland, right?

7:19Those states are places that have just been uniquely affected in many ways by the tariffs and by the implications of the war with Iran that has driven fuel prices so high. I mean, it has hurt farmers in rural America in places that were absolutely pro-Trump for the longest time. And, you know, you've seen when Jeff has gone out and talked to those people, for example, or John King for us, you hear that directly from them. And I do think this is the big question. David is, of course, you always are grown up in the room, right, telling the rest of us, you know, keep in mind the following things.

7:53But there does seem to be this big question about how big this wave is going to be. And Democrats, of course, badly burned in recent election cycles. Let's remember that Hillary Clinton was going to be president in 2016, right? the original kind of start of all of this. And so I find that when I'm talking to my sources, they are very reluctant to predict that. But I think it's worth noting that if it does materialize because of the nature of the map, you could see a real generational shift in some of these places. I mean, if we get Democratic governors in Iowa, Ohio, and Georgia, which is all possible, right?

8:28You're going to create a bench for the Democratic Party in states that have not recently voted for Democrats at a time when we are heading into potentially redistricting and of course the presidential race. That is not nothing. Yeah, that's a really important point. On the point that you were making about how much people are suffering in the heartland, let's listen to some voters out there. This is one from Iowa and then another from North Carolina. Everybody in agriculture is tired, would be the best way to put it. They're just tired. They feel very beat up right now. This is our first baby. You know, she's nine months old and everything has just gotten so wildly expensive.

9:08You know, we're feeling it at the grocery store. We're feeling it, you know, everywhere trying to save for a home. It's just something's not working. I mean, it's one of the tricks of cable news. If you've got a baby on TV laughing and smiling, you play it. But that's not why we played that. It's because of Erica Combs, the voter in North Carolina there, are talking about and giving voice to what we are seeing across the country. One of the main reasons why Donald Trump's numbers are so low, his unfavorable is so high, is because people are struggling with their everyday lives in the way that they weren't two years ago when he promised to make it better.

9:44When he ran on making it better, right? When he said that one of the first things that I'll do if I get back to the White House is drive down your cost of living. You know, The economy was the main issue that sort of drove him back to the White House. And now you come to a place on the eve of the midterms where economic frustration is really one of the top issues that people express, regardless of what constituency base that they're in. And that's also part of the reason that you're seeing some of these more traditionally red rural areas that now may be up for grabs when it comes to Democrats.

10:16Think of a place like Kansas, right, where now you have a senator, Roger Marshall, who's going to town halls, facing these questions from voters, asking about the impact of the president's tariffs, asking about the promises that he made on manufacturing. We are seeing a trickle down of the frustration and pushback that the White House is facing, making its way down to these races really across the nation at this point. And let's go back to Texas. And one of the questions is whether the sort of constituencies that went for Donald Trump kind of last in, whether they'll be first out in a place like Texas.

10:53And specifically, I want to look at the Latino vote. This is the Texas early vote data. In 2026, which is where we are now, 24 percent have now voted as compared to this time in 2024. 22 percent of Latino, the Latino vote had been. Yeah, it had been in 2024 and then 2022, the last midterm election, it was 20 percent. So the share of the Latino vote is much higher right now. What does that tell us?

11:26Dana Bash: Well, that tells us here is, you know, an uptick in Latino turnout as a share of the overall early vote electorate. We know from a lot of polling and on the ground reporting that Latinos in Texas specifically have been really breaking away from the president, despite the fact that he won the Latino vote in Texas two years ago. and that suggests that Republicans will have a lot of ground to make up on the election day vote if they are to be competitive again with Latinos because the early vote is not the whole picture. But Dana, the other thing in Texas, Casey, what you were saying about generational change, there's no doubt that if we see a huge blue wave in a lot of these places that we haven't seen, that it'll be historic, the shift in change in voter sentiment and in who participated in the election.

12:17Dana Bash: Those things both go together, right? What we just saw two years ago, though, and a lesson I think for all of us to think about, though, is there was a lot of thinking when it came to the Latino vote or young people that there was a real sort of realignment in some ways. There was some durability. Exactly. And we'll see tomorrow night if there is, but I think there's some questions about how durable that is. And so I do think there's also going to be a risk for Democrats, if it is a big blue wave, about overinterpreting the durability of the night. And before we go to break, I just want to show everybody an X factor.

12:50And that is pun intended. X factor being money. And just to look at one of the things that Democrats are saying that they are still extremely concerned about, which we've said pretty much every day on the show. And I want to say it and emphasize it one more time before Election Day. The way that Republicans are outspending Democrats, especially in places like Texas and Ohio, you see there, make Democrats nervous that they are finding ways to find the Republican voters who are maybe not that interested. Maybe they'll get them out to the polls. So we will see. All right. Don't go anywhere because coming up, Haley Stevens Sunday switch is rocking Michigan politics.

13:31Will it move voters in a race that really could decide who controls the U.S. Senate? Plus, we have new reporting on how officials are preparing for potential Election Day disruptions. That includes, potentially, from the Commander-in-Chief. Stay with us.

13:51Twas many nights before Christmas, and one woman knew she needed a Christmas tree. So to Wayfair she flew, finding just the right one, and for years it will last. Wayfair shipping was free and remarkably fast. What's this? Garland? A wreath? Essentials to host? Good thing she celebrates way longer than most. As her cart filled with magic and decor from the heart, Merry Christmas to all. Get your Wayfair head start. For holiday decor you can count on year after year, Wayfair delivers.

14:24Still wearing those old cargo shorts? If your wardrobe's due for an upgrade, but you don't know where to start, you need Stitch Fix. Your stylist learns your size, your style, and your budget, then sends a box pick just for you. They always nail the fit. No store, no hassle, no subscription required. Get started today at stitchfix.com. That's stitchfix.com.

14:54Call it a November surprise. Michigan Democrats are reeling from Congresswoman Haley Stevens' shocking decision to endorse Republican Mike Rogers for Senate. Top Democrats say Stevens promised them just hours earlier she would not do that. And then she went ahead and did it. Here's what Stevens said last night to Anderson Cooper. Abdul has been getting angrier and angrier. I was trying to help and I endorsed him. I was writing things out. And look, this level of anger and the things that we are seeing, Nothing with me changed, Anderson. This is, look, look, this is about Abdul getting angry and angrier and saying, I don't want these people in my campaign.

15:43The response from Abdul El-Sayed or our colleague Brian Todd asked him just a few moments ago. Do you have a message for Haley Stevens today? Do you have a message for Haley Stevens today? Thank you. Sorry. Casey, you know, it seemed like it was a shock and it was certainly something and it still is something that is sending sort of ripples through the Democratic Party in Michigan and beyond. But this has been a slow build for her. I mean, if you remember, she was on State of the Union with me a week ago yesterday and she had a very tepid endorsement for El-Sayed. Then she went on with Caitlin last week and also had a pretty tepid endorsement.

16:25It seems as though in between she had many, many people calling her from the party chair to Debbie Dingell, sort of the dean of the delegation to many others saying, what are you doing? Don't do this. Stay quiet. And then the last straw, she kind of went there with Anderson, although didn't really say it specifically. He got her there a little bit, was when El-Sayed said, never mind, don't come to this unity church service that Clyburn, James Clyburn, was arranging in Michigan yesterday. Right. And Clyburn, of course, had tried to underscore that Stephen should be welcomed to that event. It's very clear here that politics got personal, right?

17:06and she was not able to, decided not to separate whatever personal feelings were generated during the primary from what she was going to do politically. And I've talked to a bunch of people in Michigan, a bunch of Democrats kind of across the board here in the last hours since this all unfolded. And there are so many people that feel betrayed by what happened here and confused because she was telling a lot of them as recently as the day before this decision that she did intend to stick with what she had said, that she was going to continue to endorse El-Sayed. And then, of course, she explained on air, like, I woke up in the morning and decided I was going to go to church with Mike Rogers.

17:46And, of course, there are also conversations around her fiancé and the role he's playing in convincing her to do this. But ultimately, Democrats I'm talking to feel very betrayed by her and the decision to do this because, of course, Chuck Schumer recruited her to be the main person in this primary. She obviously wasn't able to pull it out. But there were a lot of people that did a lot of work to get behind her, and they all woke up today asking, why are you doing this? Yeah, and sort of the thing that is unsaid is, at least in the last, I don't know, 12 to 24 hours, has been the fact that this speaks to the very real divide that was very prominent during the primary season in Michigan and elsewhere, but particularly the race in Michigan that continues today the differences over the stance, the policy stance and other stances that Democrats have on Israel.

18:40And there's a very big divide between Haley Stevens and people on her wing of the Democratic Party and Abdul Al Sayed. Yes, and that speaks to also a deeper fissure really within the Democratic Party. This broad coalition around US military support for Israel. And that's sort of one of the big themes of this race as well, right? I mean, depending on how this goes, if El Syed wins, that would be a sign of potentially an inflection point for the Democratic Party moving forward on where their supporters and this party stands when it comes to putting forth all of this military support for Israel. Now, I do think Casey's point, though, too, when it comes to this specific tension between these two individuals though, it doesn't seem to just be about the issue here.

19:31It does seem to be. Why is it personal though? And I think that this is an important distinction because yes, there is a policy question. How should the U.S. be interacting with Israel in terms of arms sales and support? Fine. The challenge here, there was an ad that was aired by an outside group in this race that engaged in absolutely anti-Semitic tropes, basically blaming Jews for high prices in a way that is just deeply problematic and has been for centuries, if not millennia. And this was the precursor to what then unfolded was Haley Stevens saying, you know what, Abdul El-Sayed, I don't want you to just say my campaign didn't air that ad.

20:06I want you to say that what that ad is saying and doing is not okay, right? And I think that to the extent, you know, El-Sayed has critics in the Democratic Party, as much as they're now trying to rally behind him, they will say that his refusal and sort of intransigence on some of this is driving a lot of it. So the drama is very real. The question is, will it have an impact on the vote? And if you look at our poll from last week, David, the question of persuadable voters versus people who have already voted and decided, it's a 14 percent answer. 14 percent say they're persuadable, which isn't huge, but in a neck and neck race could be very, very big.

20:47Of that, I will say that, you know this, 9 percent say they picked a candidate but could change their mind. And 5 % haven't picked a candidate at all. And the other thing about that 14 % to understand is that they are, in large part, Republican or Republican-leaning, not Democrat.

21:03Dana Bash: I mean, there are Democrats in there, obviously, but it is a more Republican and Republican-leaning independent group than it is a Democratic group. Because also our poll showed that El-Sayed had 95 % support among likely Democratic voters. He and the New York Times poll today showed something similar, showing a consolidation despite all this drama that is happening between them. I want to play something from Debbie Dingell from earlier this morning with Kate Baldwin, because I think that it's important to hear. She gave voice to a reality that I've been thinking about a lot about how ugly things are.

21:40Let's watch. The negative ads that have been on television in Michigan the last couple of months has put kerosene on divisions, on anger. People in the Jewish community are scared to death. I had lunch with leaders in the Arab American community on Saturday. I'm on the support of Dole. We're scared about what violence might be targeted at them if he wins tomorrow night. And I spent a lot of time with the black community. They're seeing a rise of racism. They're scared. Yeah, this is something you do hear from community members in Michigan is we talked about the concerns of anti-Semitism. There's also been a mainstreaming of Islamophobia as well.

22:29You know, after January 6th, I remember covering political violence and the rise of threats against public officials. And so many law enforcement officials and public officials said now was the time to move away from this kind of divisive rhetoric that recent history has shown can translate into violence. And it does not seem that we have gone that route as a country. No, not at all. It's been really, really ugly. All right, coming up after dozens of rallies, President Trump is spending the final day of the 2026 campaign at a place that frankly says it all. It's not red, may sometimes look blue for a while over the summer.

23:08It was green. Stay with us.

23:24for inside and out, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home holiday ready. Find furniture, hosting essentials, festive serve wear, and more all in one place. So you can spend less time getting ready and more time enjoying the season with the people who make it special. Shop wayfair.com today to make holiday magic at home. Wayfair, every style, every home. After a campaign trail blitz of 30 rallies in 32 days, The president is closing out the midterm campaign with one more stop, a moment of reflection, if you will. It's not a factory. It's not a small business. It's not a school. Instead, on the eve of a high stakes election day that will determine what his final two years in office will look like, the president will speak at the site of one of his most controversial and chaotic Washington vanity projects, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

24:20Zolan, can you please tell us what your reporting tells you about, well, I think we know why, because he loves it, but how hard his advisors pushed him to come up with an alternative plan? Yeah, right, right. Republicans, really, in the days leading up to the midterms, president's advisors, just members of the party, have been saying that they want the president to get out, to fan out into the country. And he has. And he has. Absolutely, he has. He's done it most days. You would think that that would also happen the day before the midterms because their gamble, their strategy has been, whether you think it'll work or not, that we are going to double down on these dedicated MAGA supporters that come out in a presidential cycle and get them to come out in the midterms.

25:04This going to the reflecting pool, I have not found an advisor or political expert who would say that this is going to do that. This is not just a vanity project. I mean, fine, the reflecting pool, it could have used some work. We all know why this isn't the you-know-what moment, because he hired a contractor that was problematic and then blamed and even tried to prosecute a three-time Olympian for vandalism, and not even Judge Jeanine would prosecute that. That's right. That's right. And I do think that him going to the reflecting pool, sure, not just a Vandy project, but he sees it as a point of his legacy.

25:42And it is worth noting just how this is an example of the break between the priorities of a president that has been so focused on these various construction projects in D.C. and putting his own personal brand and stamp on government institutions and government buildings and the priorities of the party that's like, we got to address these economic concerns of all these voters. He is doing multiple tele-rallies today. And as we said, he was out and about a lot. Let's listen to a little bit of the president's message while he's been on the trail. I inherited high prices from sleepy Joe Biden. I didn't cause it.

26:20When that war is over, it's going to come plunging. It's going to back to the$1.85 that I saw in Iowa just before I said, let's make that journey into the Middle East. I could have won that war in three weeks. I could won the Vietnam War in a week. They just had a poll and they said, I'm the I'm the best president in the history of presidents for the farmers and ranchers. We're not going to let anybody. We're not going to let anybody hurt you. We could use a little more beef if you don't mind. OK, could you speak? In a sense, I am on the ballot because we've done all of the things, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our seniors.

27:01And that's just the substance. I'm not even including his remarks on Ashley Hinson's weight yesterday in Iowa or on John Husted's backside. Look at this map. This is where the president has been going. And you see the numbers on there are the percentages that President Trump won by just two years ago. A lot of very red territory. That's where this election is being played on red territory. But just even look, he went to Oklahoma. He won there by 34.3 percent. Florida, 23.1 percent, Casey. Right. And I mean, this reflects the strategy that the White House has been very transparent about, which is that they want voters in these red states to remember that they came out and voted for President Trump because a lot of those voters that came out for him don't typically come out in midterm elections, right?

27:50They're low propensity voters, which, you know, David knows all about. But just to come back to the reflecting pool moment. You want to reflect on it more? I would like to reflect for a moment on what this might mean. I mean, so much of what the president has focused on in these first two years reflects a let them eat cake attitude that you didn't show the clip where he looked out at the audience and he said, I'm gonna give you that$5 ,000 and it's barely gonna buy you a burger and a soda at my club that you, average American, cannot afford, right? And now he's gonna go stand there and show everyone and say on the day before they vote that the money and the time and the energy that he is applying was to try to make, sure, it would be great if the pool was blue and it looked beautiful from the air, but that's not the politics of the moment.

28:46Dana Bash: I think this is such an important point. One of the first poll numbers that popped at the beginning of this term, where we first started seeing, oh, Trump is going to have a little bit more trouble, was this notion we ask, and other pollsters do as well, focused on the right priorities or not. And it was the first thing, even before his approval, where we really saw a majority of Americans started saying pretty early on in this term, he wasn't focused on the right priorities that they were focused on. That disconnect is something the Democrats sort of like blew open in this campaign season to try and expose.

29:20Dana Bash: And he keeps sort of handing it on a silver platter every day because of how obsessed he is with these vanity projects. And as we go to break, I want to show our viewers a little bit of a history because it is typical that a president loses support in the House or loses seats in the House. President Obama was at 40 percent. He lost 63 seats. President Trump was at 39 percent. He lost 41 seats. President Biden lost nine. Look at where his approval rating is right now, 34%. So who knows what's going to happen in the House of Representatives after tomorrow. Coming up, we have new reporting on the threat election officials across the country never expected to have and have to prepare for potential interference from the federal government.

30:13and one woman knew she needed a tree, so to Wayfair she flew. She found more decor and added to cart. Merry Christmas to all. Get your Wayfair head start. For holiday decor you can count on, Wayfair delivers. When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI. Vanta gets you compliant fast with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more, and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring. Hyperbound, a YC-backed startup, used Vanta to unlock the Fortune 100 in under a year.

30:48Snowfire got audit ready in a month and closed a multi-million dollar deal. Trust matters. Get started at Vanta.com. Now to Maine, where Republican Senator Susan Collins has defied the state's presidential voting pattern and polls signaling her political demise for decades. Democrat Troy Jackson is trying to break her winning streak in the only toss-up Senate race that voted for Kamala Harris two years ago. Arlette Sainz is in Scarborough, Maine. Arlette, you just were talking to the Democratic candidate there, Troy Jackson. He just left a canvassing event. What's the sense on the ground? Well, Dana, both candidates are crisscrossing the state today as they are trying to turn out their voters with just about 24 hours to go in this election.

31:37Troy Jackson has spent a lot of his attention today in southern Maine. These are areas with high populations of Democratic voters. They're really trying to mobilize in the final stretch of the election, while Senator Susan Collins is up north in Aroostook County. That is where both she and Jackson are from. It's a more rural conservative leaning area. She's trying to get those votes there. But earlier today, we've been following Jackson around for several of his stops, and he really tried to portray this election as one focused on change. Take a listen. I'm tired of watching elected officials cater to people like Elon Musk.

32:15I'm tired of watching people I know, love and care about struggle and look at me with, you know, dismay and frustration. We can do better. We can do a lot damn better in this country. I know it and that's what this race is about. Now CNN's poll of polls average has shown that there is that Jackson has a slight lead over Collins in this contest. But the big question is whether Susan Collins will once again be able to defy the political odds. She's won tough reelections in the past, but Democrats are hoping this is finally the year they unseat the five term senator. Looks like a beautiful day in New England there.

32:52Thank you so much, Arlette. Appreciate it. And election officials have to prepare for all kinds of possible crises tomorrow. This year may be a little bit different. One Secretary of State, Steve Simon of Minnesota, told CNN, sadly, a new hazard on the list this time that's never been on the list before is the possibility that our federal government, our own federal government, would try to interfere somehow directly or indirectly. That comes from Great new reporting from my colleagues Gabe Cohen and Marshall Cohen. They dig into how those officials are preparing. Gabe is here now. What else are they telling you, these election officials, Gabe?

33:31Yeah, and I think hearing from Secretary Simon is actually useful there because over the past couple weeks we've heard President Trump weigh in on Minnesota's elections, again saying that the only way that at least one Republican candidate there will lose is if the Democrats cheat, if they rig the election, something we've heard the president talk about a lot. And just look at the situation that's playing out in California. Another great example of this tension where suddenly state election officials and the federal government are adversaries in a way they've really never been. Just this morning, the Department of Justice has gone up to the Supreme Court and asked them to weigh in on this lawsuit where they're trying to force the state to set aside, the state of California, to set aside about 20 ,000 ballots from about 20 ,000 people that they say are possible non-citizens.

34:17even though those numbers and other numbers that have come out from this administration about this crisis of widespread non-citizen voting, they've been scrutinized. Officials have said they're not accurate, they're dramatically inflated, but the administration is using them to try to take significant action on the eve of Election Day. And so you have officials across the country who point at that and say, that is why for months now we have been preparing for doomsday scenarios, What some people would think are dramatic and maybe even like paranoid ideas of what the federal government. How do they prepare for that?

34:49Well, that's a great question. So let's take ice at the polls or the idea that the federal government could come in and seize ballots or seize voting machines. So they for months now have been training election officials, election workers, I should say, poll workers to figure to understand how do you recognize those types of agents? What identification do you need to ask for? What are the federal laws and state laws around where these people can be? There are election leaders who have said they're preparing their law enforcement in case they have to arrest federal agents who come to polling locations, basically saying anyone who interrupts voting, whether it's a vigilante or a federal agent, could be prosecuted.

35:33And so, again, these officials are getting ready for what they thought was unthinkable a couple of years ago. But now on the eve of Election Day, they're trying to walk this tightrope of preparing, but also not scaring voters into believing that, you know, they shouldn't feel safe going to their polling place, that ICE could be there because there's no evidence at this point. You have been doing such important reporting along with Marshall Cohen and other members of the team to lead up to today to prepare for it. and tomorrow, I should say, and we're definitely going to be keeping an eye along with you and your terrific sources and reporting.

36:08So appreciate you doing everything that you've been doing. Up next, Democrats say they're laser focused on tomorrow's midterms, but 2028 questions are already in the air. Will you pledge right now tonight to serve your full six-year term if you win? Yes, I will. I have zero interest in running for president. I'm not running for president. Being the governor of Maryland has been the honor of a lifetime. And I would not be running for re-election if I was not committed to the people of Maryland.

37:01days to love it or return it, Mr. Shaq. Not that I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven-day return policy at carvana.com. In case you haven't heard, Election Day is tomorrow. And as soon as the 2026 campaign ends tomorrow, the 2028 campaign begins. Make no mistake about it, more than a dozen Democrats are already sowing the seeds, getting ready to think about potentially running for their party's presidential nomination. They've already spent the year on swing state campaign trails with stump speeches that sound as much like a dry run for 2028 as it does a midterm pitch.

37:45Because we also have a chance to make things better, not just in the issues, not just the policies that we believe in, but the kind of politics that we live with. They're willing to fight for a working class and for working people and to not just put our differences aside, but to embrace the diversity of our country. The difference today with this man in the White House is just simply, are you on team fight or are you on team flight? Those are the, and that is the question. He's going to fix health care and try to make an economy that works for everybody, not just the top 1%. David, are you ready?

38:26I am so ready. I'm so ready. I'm so excited.

38:29Dana Bash: It really has gotten underway already as you're showing. And it's interesting, you know, to see which midterm candidates in these various redder places that we've been talking about have invited which of the potential 2028ers that they think are safe to bring to those areas and attach to themselves in this midterm campaign. So that's been a really interesting thing to watch. But I don't think we're going to get to this. Literally, I don't think we're going to flip the calendar to 2027 before we have some announced candidates. I agree with you. Go ahead. No, no, I was just going to say the pace of this is just going to be off the charts.

39:03I mean, when you think about this in the big picture, Donald Trump has dominated our politics for a decade. Right. We are about to enter the first presidential election cycle really since 2016. And this is just part of the group of Democrats who are considering it. I think we're going to need two kids tables like for this number of people. It's so wide open. Right. And there's no person, you know, on that slate that you can plausibly say has run away with it, is out front. You're not looking at, you know, the dynastic candidacies of a Bush or a Clinton or a name like that. Obviously, on the Republican side, things are a little more constrained by what Trump will do.

39:48But I also think we're underestimating the degree to which if this is a blue tsunami, who knows tonight, but it could be, it is going to potentially open the floodgates on the Republican side. And that's to look and see, you know, just beyond. I mean, the conversation is always about two men on that slate, Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance. And Rubio's question, what will Vance do and who is Donald Trump going to anoint? But if Trump really does collapse, and make no mistake, if the losses are as deep and bloody as they could be for Republicans, he's going to take a lot of the blame. There's going to be a lot more messiness on the Republican side, too.

40:22Vance has been everywhere also. Let's listen to a little bit of his stump speech. Some people say that I'm an attack dog. And I will say that I do like the part where I get to talk about how crazy these lunatics are who run along the other side. The Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. We have got Dr. Roger Marshall, a proud servant of this state and a proud Christian to boot, versus a guy who would insult your faith and spit on your religion to accrue donations.

41:04The next two years are going to be fascinating because what this midterm cycle has showed us is that J.D. Vance, even when the president's approval rating is declining, the enthusiasm for him doesn't seem to be there amongst the base. Vance has continued to do the attack, attack, attack Trump playbook. Right. And now in these next two years, as we know, President Trump is not going to be on the ballot. The Republican Party is going to be trying to find its direction. Does he continue to move ahead with this approach of Trumpism or try to actually galvanize and build support among those one time Trump supporters who are angry over the economy and the war in Iran?

41:42And this isn't really flying anymore. Right. Like, how does he kind of walk that fine line will be something interesting to watch for him and any Republican who runs. Particularly because Donald Trump is going to try to put off being the lamest of lame ducks as long as he can. Listen to what happened yesterday with the president and Marco Rubio on the trail. If he gets any more popular, I'm going to say you're fired. Because he's our president, America's stronger, you're safer, and our enemies are weaker all around the world. On message.

42:18Dana Bash: Nothing like seeing the Secretary of State National Security Advisor on the midterm campaign trail. I mean, there is that. But Donald Trump understands his popularity and makes that pretty clear there, yeah. No, and the whole question of will he or won't he and whether or not the other Republicans will get in against a sitting vice president. It's all very exciting. Never too early. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Hydrate, sleep, do all the things. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

42:59The holidays are busy enough. Getting your home ready shouldn't be. From the perfect tree and twinkling lights to festive decor for inside and out, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home holiday ready. Find furniture, hosting essentials, festive serveware, and more all in one place. So you can spend less time getting ready and more time enjoying the season with the people who make it special. Shop Wayfair.com today to make holiday magic at home. Wayfair, every style, every home. You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer.

43:36Done. No hassle, no negotiation, no guy from an online listing lowballing you. Which means by the time I'm done explaining this, you could have basically done it.

43:51Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.