Election night live: Health care replaces economy as most important issue for voters

Two-thirds of voters in today’s midterm election favor keeping Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling on abortion, as it is, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll. About one-quarter of voters say the ruling should be overturned. 

Republicans are closely divided on this question, with 44 percent in favor of keeping Roe v. Wade as is and 45 percent saying it should be overturned. Substantial majorities of both Democrats and independents say Roe v. Wade should be left as is.

The Georgia gubernatorial race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp is too early to call, according to NBC News.

Polls in Georgia closed at 7:00 p.m. ET. 

The race is one of the most closely watched of the 2018 midterm cycle. Abrams is attempting to become the first female African-American governor in U.S. history. Kemp has embraced President Donald Trump and highlighted his positions on gun rights and illegal immigration. 

If neither candidate tops 50 percent, they will face off, again, in a one-on-one runoff on Dec. 4.

President Donald Trump has dominated the nation’s political landscape in his first two years in the White House, and early results from today’s NBC News Exit Poll suggest that he shaped today’s Congressional elections. 

Two out of every three voters say Trump was a factor in their House vote, with 26 percent saying they cast their vote to express support for the president and 38 percent saying their vote was to oppose the president. The remainder — one-third of midterm voters — said Trump’s performance as president was not a factor in their House vote. 

Will Vermont be the first state to elect a transgender governor? Christine Hallquist, the Democratic nominee, hopes so. The state’s polls closed at 7 p.m. ET, and the race is too early to call at this time, according to NBC News. 

Hallquist has been crisscrossing the Green Mountain State since she quit her job as CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative to run for office in February. But she has an uphill battle, thanks to Republican incumbent Phil Scott’s popularity. 

What is still unknown is how the state’s voters will react to the historic nature of Hallquist’s bid. The state is solidly progressive, but its elected officials show its quirky voting habits: the governor is a Republican, Sen. Bernie Sanders is an independent, and Sen. Patrick Leahy is a Democrat.

Read NBC Out’s coverage of Hallquist and her bid here.

Voters on Tuesday paid tribute to Susan B. Anthony, the legendary suffragette who helped lead the social movement that would eventually give women the right to vote, leaving stickers on the headstone at her grave in Rochester, New York.

Voters have previously flocked to her resting place in Mount Hope Cemetery, which in 2016 extended its hours on Election Day to allow visitors to pay their respects.

Anthony passed away in 1906. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed a woman’s right to vote, was not ratified until 1920.

As voters in Georgia faced long lines and, in some cases, issues with voting machines, early results from the NBC News Exit Poll found that about half of voters were concerned that people who should be able to vote would be prevented from doing so. Fifty-one percent of voters expressed that concern, while 41 percent of voters said they were more concerned that people who should not be able to vote would cast ballots. 

Among black voters in Georgia, 73 percent were concerned that people who should be able to vote would be prevented from doing so. Just over half of white voters, 54 percent, were more concerned that people who weren’t qualified to vote would cast ballots. 

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, concerns were raised in Georgia about whether early votes were being counted correctly. There were also complaints about stringent voter identification requirements. 

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are watching election results with “friends and family” at the White House residence tonight.

In a statement, she touted the president’s rally schedule and leadership that fueled “an extraordinary ground game geared toward defying midterm history and protecting the GOP’s majorities.”

“The president and first lady look forward to watching the results come in with friends and family in the White House residence,” she added. 

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have won re-election, NBC News projects.

Kaine defeated Republican Corey Stewart, NBC News projects. Sanders defeated Republican Lawrence Zupan.

Both Kaine and Sanders had been expected to easily win their races.

Lester Holt anchors a special edition of NBC Nightly News from NBC News’ Election headquarters. 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, who is also secretary of state, is one of many Georgians who ran into issues at the polls on Tuesday. 

When Kemp, who oversees elections in the state, tried to vote but his voter card said “invalid” and he had to get another card, according to WSB-TV, an ABC-affiliated TV station in Atlanta. 

Voters in the state have reported long lines and other issues at the polls on Tuesday. 

Kemp’s campaign told NBC News that this incident was a non-issue and that Kemp had a blank card. The campaign added it was fixed within seconds. 

One out of every four Latino voters today said that they had never voted in a midterm election before, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll. The share of first-time midterm voters was nearly one in five among African American voters and one in 10 among white voters. 

In addition, a majority of voters under 30 — a group whose participation in elections generally lags behind that of other age groups — said that they voted in a midterm election for the first time this year. 

While Asian-Americans make up 4.1 percent of voting-age citizens in the U.S., they are the fastest growing racial group in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

Researchers expect the voting bloc to double by 2040, and Asian-American voters could end up swinging 27 congressional races this year, according to AAPI Data, a research program at the University of California, Riverside.

Read the full story here to see 10 congressional races where Asian-American candidates or voters could have a particular impact.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told “MTP Daily” on Tuesday that good news about the economy doesn’t motivate her party’s voters like criticism of Democratic rule does. 

When asked whether President Trump’s focus on a hardline immigration message in the final days before the election means that economic issues don’t motivate her side as well, McDaniel said that the economic message alone hasn’t proved as motivating for Republicans. 

“When you take just that to the voters,” McDaniel said about good economic news, “it doesn’t move the needle as much. You have to contrast it with what would happen if Democrats would take control of the House.”

“I don’t know why good news doesn’t just bring voters out, you would think it would. But they need to see what’s at stake.” 

Voters in today’s midterm election are more likely to oppose the U.S. Senate’s decision to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court than they are to support it, according to early NBC News Exit Poll results. Forty-eight percent of voters said they oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation, while 43 percent support it. 

Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings became embroiled in multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, accusations he denied.

Women voters oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation by a 16-point margin (53 percent to 37 percent) while men support his confirmation by a 6-point margin (50 percent to 44 percent), the NBC News Exit Poll found. 

Jesse Rodriguez, director of booking for MSNBC, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the cable channel’s operation as polls begin to close.

The first round of polls have officially closed.

Polls in the eastern half of Kentucky and most of Indiana closed at 6:00 p.m. ET.

The next round of polls will close at 7:00 p.m. ET. That list includes the remaining parts of Kentucky and Indiana, Georgia, most of Florida, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

Most voters feel that the nation’s political rift is growing, an opinion that spans the partisan spectrum, according to early NBC News Exit Poll results.  More than three in four voters nationwide (77 percent) say that Americans are becoming more divided politically, while just 8 percent say Americans are becoming more united and 13 percent don’t see any change in the nation’s political atmosphere.

The sense that Americans are more divided is shared by majorities of Democrats (86 percent), Republicans (68 percent) and independents (77 percent).

Nearly half (45 percent) of those who feel Americans are becoming more politically divided told NBC News that they cast their House vote in part to express opposition to President Donald Trump. In contrast, 20 percent of voters who feel the country is becoming more divided said they cast a vote to show their support for Trump.

Health care, immigration, and President Donald Trump brought voters to the polls on Tuesday, according to interviews with voters conducted by NBC News. 

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for two years,” says Ben Zylman, a 61-year-old from Kalamazoo, Michigan. “I do believe it’s a referendum on Trump and the GOP in general, as they’ve fallen in lockstep with him.”

Zylman, who considers himself an independent, had previously supported GOP Rep. Fred Upton but turned against him after Upton voted last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“Because where I am at in my life, health care is the number one issue,” said Zylman, who receives coverage through the ACA.

Read the full story here.

Midterm election voters today are divided on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Roughly half of voters so far in the NBC News Exit Poll see Trump’s immigration policies as either about right (32 percent) or not tough enough (16 percent). The other half of voters (48 percent) say the policies are too tough.

A majority of Republican voters say Trump’s policies are either about right (61 percent) or not tough enough (28 percent). By contrast, about eight in 10 Democrats think the policies are too tough, and about half of independents say the same.

Women are more inclined than men to consider Trump’s immigration policies too tough, 55 percent to 41 percent.