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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Americans go to the polls today to choose the 47th president of the United States. And it is my pledge to you to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans. After all we've been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): How did Trump and Harris spend the final hours of their campaigns? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, November 5th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Republicans are hoping to wrest back control of the Senate and fend off Democrats' play for the House. This is a race between change and the status quo. I represent change. Which seats are the most likely to flip? And... D.C. and other big cities are boarding up, preparing for possible mayhem after the election.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Again, text WIRE to 989898 today.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): An unprecedented and tumultuous campaign season comes to an end as Americans head to the polls to choose the next president of the United States. Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips, one of the Daily Wire's election night hosts.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Here we go. So we've been prepping for this for months, and now Americans who haven't voted already are making some big decisions today. So first, how did Harris and Trump close out their campaigns?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they've both increasingly zeroed in, as you can imagine, on the few battlegrounds that will decide it all. Harris held four rallies yesterday, all in Pennsylvania. If Trump wins there, as he did in 2016, it would likely be a nail in the coffin for Democrats. So they are going all in.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As we've documented over these last few weeks, Harris's closing pitch has increasingly leaned on painting Trump as a fascist and a dictator. But it's interesting, yesterday in Pennsylvania, she really didn't talk much about Trump by name, opting instead to portray herself as the future. This is about a future with freedom and opportunity and dignity for all Americans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And so in this final stretch, let us remember that we have a lot of work to do and there is power in our work about reminding folks of their voice and the power of their vote. So remember, your vote is your voice and your voice is your power.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Harris spending her final day in Pennsylvania trying to fend off Trump there. How did the former president wrap up?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Trump was all over the country blitzing through three battlegrounds yesterday alone. He held rallies in North Carolina, where he has about a two-point edge, and Pennsylvania, where he stopped in Redding and Pittsburgh. He then capped off his campaign in Grand Rapids Michigan where stop me if you heard this he and Harris are in a virtual dead heat
--:-- Cabot Phillips: His final pitch was a simple one: Your life was better when I was president. We going to make our country so successful. We did it. We had the greatest we had the greatest economy. Best, you see the numbers, you see the charts. We did such a good job, but we'll do a much better job now because I know the people.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now we've spent a lot of time digging into the polls. The campaigns do their own polling, of course. How do they feel about their chances heading into today?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, it's interesting. Throughout the last month, the Harris camp was giving off a sort of pessimistic vibe. There were staffers leaking to the press that the campaign's internal polling showed Harris behind in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania. And campaign spokespeople were much more measured, saying it would be a close race, but refusing to outright predict a victory.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: However, in the last week or so, there has been a noticeable shift as they've been pushing a far more optimistic message, saying the early voting numbers are solid and that their internal polls show them winning over voters who are making up their mind late. Now, this is politics. That could very well be a campaign strategy. You know, they want to motivate voters on their side and maybe discourage those on the right.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it is notable. As for Trump's team, the phrase we've heard a lot from the campaign is cautiously optimistic. Here's Trump campaign press secretary Caroline Levitt on Fox yesterday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And our internal polls have President Trump leading in every single key battleground state. We are cautiously optimistic about a big victory tomorrow night as long as everyone turns out to vote. And we're seeing that people are turning out to vote.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: When you look at the early voting trends, President Trump and Republicans are leading these early voting trends in every single battleground state. And urban turnout is down compared to where it was in 2020. Female turnout for Kamala Harris is down compared to those that turned out early for Joe Biden in 2020.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, Levitt mentioned early voting there. Where does that stand now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the early vote numbers are just staggering. More than 75 million people have already cast a ballot early or by mail-in. And among the states that report party affiliation, the breakdown for each side is remarkably close. NBC reports that 41% of early voters were registered Democrats, 39% Republican, and 20% unaffiliated.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, that is a potentially good sign for Republicans who usually lag far behind in mail-in and early voting. But many analysts on both sides are warning that it's hard to read too much into the numbers as they could simply reflect changing voting patterns and not necessarily Republicans surging.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What is more eye-raising, however, is Republican gains in new early voters. We mentioned this yesterday, but Republicans have significantly outperformed 2020 and also gained major ground on Democrats, especially North Carolina, Arizona, and that key state of Pennsylvania. Part of the reason, no doubt, that Harris spent her final hours there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, now it's up to the voters. We'll all be anxiously watching those numbers stream in tonight. Yes, go vote, everyone.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Cabot, thanks for reporting and looking forward to seeing you this evening on Daily Wire's election night coverage.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): All eyes may be on the race for the White House, but voters today will get the chance to decide control of the Senate. Democrats have enjoyed a functional 51 to 49 majority over Republicans but Republicans are hoping to flip it today Here with one last breakdown of the Senate landscape is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): All right Tim, we're really down to the wire. How are things looking in the Senate races?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, there are 34 Senate seats up for grabs today, but control of the upper house could really come down to who prevails in a handful of extremely close races. And right now, Republicans seem to be pulling ahead in those races.
--:-- Tim Rice: First, there's one that isn't close. In West Virginia, where longtime Democrat turned independent Joe Manchin has retired. Republican Governor Jim Justice is running away with that one by 30 points.
--:-- Tim Rice: A far closer race is in Ohio, where Republican Bernie Marino is leading Senator Sherrod Brown by just 0.4 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
--:-- Tim Rice: In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy is leading incumbent Senator John Tester by around 6 percent. Tester and Brown have both tried to appeal to moderate voters throughout the campaign by distancing themselves from Biden and Harris, and in recent weeks have even gone as far as claiming to agree with Donald Trump on things like fracking and trade.
--:-- Tim Rice: Trump trided these senators in a post on Truth Social last month, saying the Democrats have voted with crooked Joe Biden almost 100% of the time and only pretend to be on my side when elections roll around.
--:-- Tim Rice: Now, there's also a competitive race in Pennsylvania, which is, of course, a key swing state. What's the latest there?
--:-- Tim Rice: Right. Democrat Senator Bob Casey headed into today with a slight lead over Republican Dave McCormick, who spoke to the Daily Wire yesterday from his high school gym in Bloomsburg.
--:-- Tim Rice: McCormick had this to say about his opponent. Bob Casey's a 30-year career politician. He's been in elected office for 30 years. He's the son of a high-profile governor. And he's lived off his father's name. He's not entitled to this seat. He hasn't earned it. And he's voted on these extreme liberal policies that are simply out of step against me.
--:-- Tim Rice: So I say to people on the campaign trail, if you want change, vote for me. If you want the status quo, you should vote for Bob Casey. Most Pennsylvanians won't change.
--:-- Tim Rice: McCormick also weighed in on the presidential race, suggesting that Kamala Harris knocked Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro off the VP shortlist because he was Jewish.
--:-- Tim Rice: It's hard for me to imagine that he wasn't selected, at least in part because he's Jewish. And there's an extreme wing of the Democratic Party that's anti-Semitic, anti-Israel. And I think that Kamala Harris looked at this capable man, who she was probably worried might overshadow her, and also looked at the fact that he was Jewish, which would have certainly brought out some of the extremists in her party.
--:-- Tim Rice: And sadly, that's a sad commentary on the Democratic Party today, but sadly didn't have the courage to pick someone who would have been a more capable running mate.
--:-- Tim Rice: One more Senate race to watch this evening, Wisconsin, where Republican Eric Hovde is taking on incumbent Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. Baldwin has held the edge in most polls, leading by about two points on average.
--:-- Tim Rice: Hufti joined Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro earlier this week to talk about what he thinks is the biggest issue of his campaign, transgender politics.
--:-- Tim Rice: She gave our taxpayer money for a transgender clinic here in Wisconsin that does this with kids without parents notification. She's behind pushing the change of Title IX, which the federal government's trying to force school districts to allow guys to play in girls sports and guys to go in girls bathrooms and locker rooms.
--:-- Tim Rice: So she's behind that kind of stuff. But she's just a radical leftist.
--:-- Tim Rice: Now, before we let you go, how are the House races shaping up overall?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, we haven't really reported on that as much because it's, well, it's messy. Republicans have held a very slim eight-seat majority in the House, 220 to 212. We could see them end up with around the same edge this time, or there's a real chance that Democrats could flip enough seats to claw back control there.
--:-- Tim Rice: RealClearPolitics lists about 40 of the seats as toss-up, while The Daily Wire has highlighted 10 races to watch. There too many to go through all of them now but some key states hold multiple competitive seats including Arizona California Michigan New York and Virginia So lots of possible movement there It be interesting to see how the presidential race impacts these more competitive House and Senate races.
--:-- Tim Rice: If we see a wave for either candidate, we might see both chambers follow suit. Right. And with the House, there's room for a lot of surprises because there's just not the polling.
--:-- Tim Rice: Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Thanks for waking up with us and tune in this afternoon for Daily Wire's election night coverage featuring several Morning Wire regulars starting at 4 p.m. Eastern on DailyWire.com.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
