Voters go to the polls amid Trump's declining popularity

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0:34Welcome to The Beat. Greetings from Detroit, Michigan. I am Jacob Soberoff in for Ari Melbert. It is my favorite night of the year, election night in America, and we have got some very, very special coverage lined up for you right now on MS Now. Voters are heading to the polls tonight for primaries in five states, in Kansas and in Missouri, Virginia, Washington, and right here, right now in Michigan. We are live at a polling site at Wayne County Community College District's Northwest campus in the Motor City, and Michigan is a pivotal state. Democrats need to flip at least four seats to gain Senate control.

1:08The path is a lot easier if they hold on to this state, to Michigan, in November. And today, an important development in Michigan, the Democrats say, highlights the need to take back power in Washington so that they can check Donald Trump's abuses of power. Listen to this, quote, The Trump Justice Department announced that the department was monitoring poll sites in Detroit, Hamtremick, Lansing, and East Lansing, all Democratic strongholds. As the voting rights group Democracy Docket writes, quote, it's not unusual for the U.S. Department of Justice to send election monitors to observe voting in federal elections, but targeting Democratic cities in a key battleground state raises serious concerns that President Donald Trump will directly interfere in this fall's midterm elections.

1:51I can report tonight from right here in Detroit. According to Detroit's election department, DOJ officials have visited five different polling sites in Detroit alone. Donald Trump has targeted Michigan with unfounded claims of election fraud for years, even though he won the state in 2024 when Biden was president. As for tonight's key Senate primary, Michigan Democrats are choosing between progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, and Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is supported by party leaders. Many observers see it as a microcosm of the party's larger debates. I don't take corporate money.

2:26You haven't seen as many of my eyes. Because I'm not willing to be bought off by DTE or Big Tech or Big Farming. And you have an opportunity to think, be off old policies. You know, talking about the values of universal health care, of paid family leave, of good environmental quality and sustainability for jobs of the future. You know, I believe in a fair tax code that benefits our middle class.

2:54When we know the outcome of this election tonight, the winner will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers running unopposed in the Republican primary. Democrats will seek to tie him to an increasingly unpopular Donald Trump. Earlier today at the legendary Eastern Market here in Detroit, I was shooting prediction markets, the segment for my show Connect. I talked to voters about today's race. El-Sayed or Stephen? El-Sayed. You think he's going to win? I do. Stevens or El-Sayed? El-Sayed by a hair. Why Stevens over El-Sayed? She does what she says she's going to do, and she's very honest, trustworthy.

3:31Stevens or El-Sayed? I voted for Stevens. I voted for El-Sayed. But wait a minute. The two of you here shopping. Great friends. Great friends. Agree on most everything. We got El-Sayed and we got Stevens. What's the difference for the two of you? I'm going progressive this election. I'd like to blow everything up and start from scratch. And you went with the trusted voice or for you, the trusted voice here in Michigan. Yes. So who are you for? What's your prediction? Elsa, I'm freaking kidding me. Come on. Get money out of politics, baby. It's a toss up.

4:10And that is where we begin the balance of power in the United States Senate running through right here in Michigan. We have a huge show ahead. Our very own Allie Bell. She has a breakdown at the big board. We are also tracking the news on Todd Blanche, as well as the Trump administration surveilling protesters. You are not going to want to miss that. But we are going to start with our panel. My dear friend Chris Jansing, MSNOW chief national correspondent and Craig Mauger, state politics reporter with The Detroit News. It's good to see you both. It's an extraordinary day. I've been saying this all day.

4:38It doesn't look like long lines. But Chris, because of the way that they vote here, you may not be able to tell. And I know you've been tracking enthusiasm on the ground. Yeah. And I think early voting has been very high. I think you would agree with that. What is it? 1.3, over 1.3 million now. But the number that folks who I talked to before I came here told me to track was low propensity voters. And here's why. Abdul El-Sayed is a candidate who they wanted to see. Would he bring people either back to the fold, people who have gotten so sick of the political process they think it isn't answering their needs, that they've kind of dropped out, or people who frankly have never been involved because they don't really believe that their vote makes a difference?

5:19Let me show you the numbers that I got from the Secretary of State's office. 53 ,000 people who early voted, 53 ,000 had only voted in one of the past three presidential elections. These are generally non-voters or low propensity voters, as you say. And this is the lowest propensity voters. 18 ,386 people cast absentee ballots who did not vote at all in the last three general elections. So I talked to Abdul El-Sayed this afternoon when we were over at Eastern Market. Look, they see that as a good sign. But in places like where we're sitting, I think that could be a little bit of a different story.

6:00What are you seeing, Craig? This election, they keep saying it's a bellwether on the Democrats. But ultimately, I have talked to so many Democrats who say they are going to unite behind whomever emerges here as a referendum, ultimately, on Donald Trump come November. And this is a state which I said earlier in the broadcast that he has hit time after time with allegations of voter fraud. He has come here and said he has become the Michigan Man of the Year, a position that does not exist. I think voters here seem to be tiring of Donald Trump's message. At least that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, I talked to one Republican voter who said Trump's endorsement didn't matter to her because she was tired of him.

6:36So, I mean, there are views all over the place about how people see the president right now. This is really a test of the Democratic electorate in Michigan and maybe nationally right now, as you all have outlined. There is a theory that in Michigan, these progressive anti-establishment voters make up about 30 to 40 percent of the electorate. That's how it's always been. Abdul can't win this race. Heads up with Haley. That's what people thought going into this summer. And now the voters have turned that on their heads. Abdul has a chance to win. He has a chance to overturn how people see Democratic politics in this battleground state.

7:10And that's why the eyes of the nation are on this state right now. What do you hear? What's your reporting tell you? I said to our viewers that I heard from the Detroit elections officials that there have been at least five sightings because they have to sign in, actually, inside the polling places like the one that we're outside of, of these federal election monitors. And they say that they're looking into issues like poll watcher readiness. What's your reporting tell you about this monitoring operation sent by the federal government? Yeah, I think there's two tracks here. There's one track that is so far today, it seems to be going smoothly.

7:40No one's raising any concerns about the monitors are doing. The other track is why are they here? And the basis for what the Justice Department has said, the reasoning is for them to be in Michigan today. It doesn't line up with what election officials from either side of the aisle have seen. So their actions are not concerning. The questions as to what this portends for November, that's what I think concerns a lot of people. Chris, the money has been just as big a part of the conversation here as the substance of the issues. Abdul al-Sayed continues to point out the outside spending on behalf of the congresswoman, and it is exponentially larger than anything that he's gotten.

8:20What are the numbers? Yeah, central to his theme is no outside money, no corporate money in his campaign. And he believes that so many people take outside money. And this, I've watched it resonate with people when he's talked to them one-on-one. I went canvassing with him last night and he talks about, what do you think that money buys? Do you think it buys loyalty to you or to the corporation or the company or the PAC that gave it to him? Almost$81 million has been spent in one Democratic primary. It's the most expensive in Michigan history, if I'm not mistaken. Most expensive ever for a Senate race primary.

8:56It's unbelievable. And 63.9 super PACs and other well-funded organizations for Haley Stevens. 34 pro Haley Stevens. 20 million opposing Abdul El-Sayed compared to 7.3 million that he's been. The advertising is incredibly lopsided. And look, again, I spent a lot of time in crowds with El Syed supporters But today, just walking through the Eastern Market Talked to one Republican who said, you know, I've been Republican for a long time But I just can't do it anymore, and I'm going to vote for El Syed And one of the things that he mentioned was this influence of outside money And so many people have said who support El Syed I don't want other corporations outside of Michigan people telling me who I should vote for, I'm going to make that decision.

9:50In a state where data centers, the cost of living, people looking for jobs is clearly top of mind to anybody that you talk to. This money thing has become so central to the conversation, both on the airwaves, but in people's brains, the Israel Gaza war, the spending of AIPAC, he has turned it into an issue against Haley Stevens, I'll say. Yeah, I mean, that's what Abdul has done, I think, so skillfully. this summer, is he has tied the spending to people's concerns about prices. I don't think Democrats have been able to do that in the past, tie the outside influence to, hey, this is how it's actually impacting your life.

10:26This utility company has supported Representative Stevens in the past. This is the utility company that you're upset about. And Abdul has worked that angle so well. I've talked to numerous voters today who have tied that outside money to their own frustration with how the political system works. And it gets down to that question I think people will be asking in the fall. Is this a change election? Is this an anti-corruption election? Is it some combination of both? And if you're Abdul El-Sayed, he's kind of prepared for both of those possible outcomes this November. It really does feel extraordinary to be here in this moment.

11:02I know you'll be his campaign headquarters tonight. I'll be his campaign. Okay, so everybody stick around because Chris Jansen will be there during the special when of kicks off with Rachel and the gang. Chris, Craig, thank you both so much. It's good to see you. Thanks. Thank you. All right, I want to go right now to Ali Velshi, another one of my dear, dear friends who's at the big board with a preview tonight. Mr. Velshi, take it away. I'm so jealous of you, first of all. I've spent probably more time in Detroit, Michigan than most other places in America. A little trivia for you, my friend, since you do prediction markets.

11:28If you are sitting in Detroit, Michigan, and you look south, are you looking at Indiana or Ohio? Okay, don't answer it. I won't make you answer. The answer is when you are looking south from where you are right now, you know you're looking at Canada, right? Detroit is north of Canada. So that's number one. Number two, let's take a look at some house races in and around the area that you're in right now. There are two that I'm keeping an eye on very carefully. Number one is the 7th district in New York, which is in and around Lansing. This is an interesting race. There are three people competing in it right now.

11:58The most prominent name was Bridget Brink. She was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine most recently, resigned under the Trump administration because she felt that he wasn't doing what needed to be done. He's running against Matt Mazdam. The two of them probably occupy a similar ideological lane versus William Lawrence, who's coming in in that progressive lane. So we're going to watch very carefully, in addition to that state Senate race that you've just been talking about, what happens in Michigan 7. I also want to go to Michigan 13. This is part of Wayne County. It's where you are. It's Detroit and the southern part of Wayne County, in which an incumbent, Sri Tannadar, is being challenged by Donovan McKinney.

12:39Same thing, an incumbent being challenged by somebody from the left. We're going to see how that goes. Sri Tannadar would, if he loses tonight, become just one of a handful of Democratic incumbents to lose. But again, it's far, far too early to tell how that's going to go. If you go one district west of where you are right now, this is 12. Rashida Tlaib is the incumbent there. She's expected to win very handily. And if we go out to the Senate race that you were just talking about with Craig and Chris Jansing, we're going to be looking at results really coming in from the Detroit area. This will be late.

13:14The bulk of the state's population is in the Detroit metro area. Detroit is part of Wayne County, so that whole district will be very, that whole region will be very important. But as Al-Sayed has pointed out, he may have support in areas that are just outside of Detroit as well. So as early results come in, Haley Stevens is going to say, hold on, don't do anything until you see the Detroit numbers, which might be several hours from now. Al-Sayed is going to say it's not just Detroit numbers. It's areas like Dearborn and Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck in which his power base is. But in the end, this is going to come down to some of that conversation that you aired at the top of the show where people are making decisions not based on who they are, where they come from, what their internal politics are, but what they're sick of or what they want more of.

14:01And we're going to be watching that very closely through the course of the night. Jacob? It's going to be, you know, it could be a late night here, Ali, because not only do the polls close here in Detroit at eight, but in the Upper Peninsula, as you and I were talking about offline earlier, they close at nine. And it's a very interesting system here in Detroit, because while Wayne County tabulates all the votes from the different municipalities and townships, each of them, and I know you're going to monitor them all very closely, tabulate their own vote results and then bring them back to a central headquarters.

14:31So we're going to be going through this together tonight, my friend. I'll be out here. Call me anytime, even when we're not on TV, and we'll keep the conversation going. All right. Ali Belchie, thank you so much. And I want to introduce, yes, I want to introduce all of you guys at home to three people that I just met. they're all here voting as part of this process. And as I said earlier, it is not an indication that there isn't enthusiasm because you're not seeing long lines. In fact, it's the opposite. Let me get all of your names. Tell me who you are. Alex. Alex. Darnell. Darnell. Olivia. Olivia.

15:00And have you all voted already today? Okay. If I'm not mistaken, you voted absentee and you have voted here in person and you voted here in person. Talk to me about the race. What brings you out today? Why did you decide to come out in a primary election? Well, because I always vote. People died for the right to vote. I've never missed an election. Never. And in particular, of the two candidates, Stevens and El-Sayed, who's got your attention? Who's got your vote today? Unfortunately, El-Sayed, because that seat has been held by an African-American occupant since 1965. And your decision in terms of the issues, what are the issues that are most important to you?

15:39Well, the people who live in that that district aren't being represented. They just aren't. And why absentee? You're here in person. Did you drop your absentee? Thank you very much. Why'd you drop your absentee? You dropped it off here today? No, I dropped it off in the mail like four weeks ago. And so what brings you out to the polling place today? If you voted four weeks ago, you're on top of it. My husband goes to school here. I see. So, and I just came up, but yes, I voted. Like your husband, did you go for Mr. El Al-Sayed? Dr. Al-Sayed? I did Haley. Why Haley? First of all, Barack, he, you know, endorsed her.

16:14And then I like the fact that, you know, she's not a millionaire. She's one of us. She worked in his administration. Yeah. Yeah. So I like that about her. If she doesn't prevail tonight, will you back Al-Sayed like your husband in the general election? Yeah. Yes, I will. And do you think that the Democrats can hold on here to power? It's critical if they want to regain control of the Senate. Yes, I hope so. Yes. And how about you? You came out today to vote. Are you a regular voter? Yes. Okay. So why'd you wait till the last day? Why'd you vote on election day? It's just the timing of everything, but I made sure I came out today.

16:48And El-Sayed or Haley Stevens? El-Sayed. Okay. Talk to me about what spoke to you about Abdul El-Sayed. Well, I heard that Haley Stevens had taken a lot of like AIPAC money. We were just talking about that with my My fellow colleagues here. Yeah, that turned me off from her. And then I just feel like Abdul El-Sayed, he has a lot of the things in his campaign were things that I cared about and that aligned with me politically. So it just made the most sense for me to go in. You think you'd back Stevens to unify the Democrats if El-Sayed doesn't win tonight? I mean, if it comes down to it, yes. But I'm hoping El-Sayed wins.

17:27It's so nice to meet all of you. Thank you so much for coming by, saying hello. and don't be a stranger. Polls don't vote. People do. Polls don't vote. People do. So nice to meet you. I want to show you all a little bit more of what's happening here before we go to a commercial break. We have so much more left in this show and so much more left tonight on MS Now. As I said, Rachel and the gang are going to be here at 8, but before then, we're going to bring you through all aspects of this election and a lot of other news that's happening today. First, these are people that are electioneering here.

17:56I was talking about this with Nicole Wallace. They're standing here to the last possible minute in order to tell people their opinions about the candidates in this race. Some of them, you're not even old enough to vote, right? You said you're 17 years old? Yes. What's your name again? Christian Harlan. How does it feel to be out here and watch people exercise their right to vote today? It feels really nice. I'm really happy that everyone's come and just exercised their rights to vote. You have a little FOMO that you're not able to vote yourself today? Yes. Well, you got next year, you'll be up.

18:23It's so nice to meet you. And the last thing that I want to show everybody is that these nice, before you guys go, Can I say hello to you? You guys are doing the curbside voting. How many people are showing up? You feel like that there's a large presence, a large turnout at the curbside vote today? Now, yes. Now there is. There's a little bit of rush. Yeah. Last minute rush. People seem to always want to wait till the last minute. Have you ever done anything like this before? Oh, yeah. Every year. Yes. Are you feeling like one of the things that the Trump administration was talking about is that they're sending people out here to monitor the integrity of the vote.

18:55Is everything going smoothly from your estimation? Yeah. Definitely. Everybody knows what they're doing. As somebody who's experienced in this, what's a sign that things are going well? Everybody's working well together. Say it again. No spoiled ballots. No spoiled ballots. Your names? My name is Trina. And? Molly. Thank you so much for what you do. Thank you so much for your service. You are doing the civic duty. And I always say it time and again. And when anybody, this administration or others, come after election workers in this country, it should drive all of us crazy. Are you this is probably not your day job, right?

19:31No, no. What do you normally do? I'm a declutterer and organizer. A declutterer and an organizer. And what do you normally do if you weren't here today? Take care of my grandchildren. Taking care of your grandchildren. I love it. I love it. Thank you for your service. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you very, very much. It is it really is an extraordinary day out here in Detroit. And we have so much more to come on this very special edition of The Beat. We're going to talk all about Democrats accusing Todd Blanch of lying under oath. Joyce Vance will be here. Also, we have revelations on the Trump administration using social media surveillance against protesters, a critical issue in this election.

20:08And Congresswoman LaMonica MacGyver will be here, a new tragedy in ICE custody. It is election night in America. We will have a whole lot more coming up after this very short break. Stay with us.

20:21There's a lot of news to cover. Money. The economic fallout from the war. Is it temporary? Power. Is this White House for sale? Politics. What is your message to the country right now? Money Power Politics with Stephanie Ruhle. Weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on MSNOW.

20:42It is Election Day in Detroit, and we are back. Just a moment ago, we heard a voter say that Barack Obama had endorsed Haley Stevens. I just want to correct that voter. That is incorrect. President Obama has not endorsed in this race, although he has endorsed her in the past. And now I want to turn to a controversy back in Washington, D.C., where Donald Trump's attorney general nominee took another step closer to confirmation today, despite widespread backlash, as the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Todd Blanch to the full Senate. And that vote could come as soon as this week.

21:13That all happened after two Republican holdouts agreed to move Todd Blanch along, after he posted documents rescinding Trump's controversial slush fund, although experts point out that there are numerous loopholes. Here's what one of those Republican senators, John Cornyn, said earlier today. As to the idea that it could be revived in the future, I think it's highly unlikely that that could happen without the cooperation of the Department of Justice. And I think Mr. Blanche gave us the assurances that it was dead and would not be revived. And in this case, We have no alternative but to take his word for that.

21:54You will not be surprised to know that Democrats disagreed. Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, even said Todd Blanche. He said Todd Blanche lied under oath. Mr. Blanche's willingness to casually lie under oath about a statement he made in a room full of witnesses shows the lengths he will go to to avoid offending President Trump. The most brazenly corrupt and unethical thing this administration has attempted. Can you trust Todd Blanche going forward? I will tell you, I do not. He is about to become Trump's sword against his adversaries and shield against any scrutiny.

22:41Coons said the most brazenly corrupt and unethical thing this administration has attempted just moments ago. Maine Senator Susan Collins announced she would vote against the Blanche nomination. Her defection, it's important to note, though, will not be enough to sink Todd Blanche in the full Senate. She has, of course, that tough reelection campaign in a purple state in Maine against an opponent who has criticized her for voting too often with President Trump. Joining me now is Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney and MSNOW legal contributor. Joyce, thank you so much for being here. I want to read what you wrote earlier today, that, quote, the$1.776 billion slush fund isn't as dead as Senators Cornyn and Tillis seem to be willing to believe.