Results of the U.S. Senate race 2022

2022 Election Day. Thanks for joining us tonight. I’m Guy Rawlings along with cheri faulk. It is primary election day here in the state of Alabama, specifically central Alabama, which is obviously what we cover day in and day out. And polls are now closed and we are continuing uh as we have been all day to watch the election results as they are going to be coming in this evening. Are Ian writes is joining us as well. Ian, you’ve been watching the Senate races, the governor’s race, all of it. Yeah. So, we’re gonna be keeping *** very close eye on that. Taking *** look at the numbers, what these numbers mean and what some of the early results. Tell us about where these races could be going over the next couple of hours. Dr Mercer Grayson from stanford University is going to be joining me in just *** couple of minutes. We’re gonna break down some of the big races. The U. S. Senate rate to fill race to fill Richard Shelby Senate. See that’s *** big one. Also, the governor’s race, can governor Ivey won reelection without going to *** runoff next month. Two big storylines will be keeping *** very close eye on tonight, Guy and Sherry. All right, so, Ian, thanks. We have an entire team on the case tonight all across the state. We have folks in Montgomery in Huntsville and right here in Birmingham. We’ll get to them in just *** moment. But let’s go ahead and take *** look at some early results are already rolling in this evening. Let’s start with the Democratic candidate for governor. Yolanda rochelle flowers as you can see has 43% at this point with 803 votes. She has the lead, but there’s only 1% actually less than 1% reporting. Alright, let’s take *** look at the Republican candidates and uh one more, one more page of the democrats. Sorry about that. That’s chad chick martin With 6%. Doug Smith with five. Alright, now to the Republican side and incoming Kay Ivey with 59% of course, less than 1% of precincts reporting right now, very early on, just hour after the polls have closed. So Governor Kay Ivey with 3500 votes. More than 3500. Let’s take *** look at the other candidates in this race. Also, um not *** whole lot of votes here for the Republican other dino Other candidates there Stacy Lee George with .3 Of those votes. 21 votes for him at this point. But again, it’s very early. Less than 1% of precincts reporting. And let’s go live to Lisa Crane. She is with governor Ivey tonight. Yeah, we’re at the election watch party here at the renaissance hotel in Montgomery, this is for governor Ivey and her supporters. And if you look around the party is just starting to get going. As you can see here, starting to fill in *** little bit in this room, we have not seen the governor come down yet. but as you just heard with just *** few 1000 votes in right now. She is in the lead. It is way too early to be celebrating, but it’s certainly *** sign that it’s heading in the direction that her supporters were hoping for now. This morning, we were there when the governor actually voted at her precinct, we heard her supporters chanting four more years. We spoke to her very briefly. She said she’s very excited and optimistic. She is hopeful that this can be decided without *** runoff election. Now with nine candidates in this race and you have to get 50% plus one vote to avoid *** runoff. That seems unlikely, but they are still very confident her strategists we spoke to this afternoon also said very confident that she will be the Republican nominee and she will be the next governor for her. What would be her last four years in office. Now there is *** lot of competition, as we said, eight other candidates trying for this spot. So it could be *** long night here tonight. Now one of those competitors who is expected to give her *** run for her money is tim James and our Jeff Elias office standing by at his election watch Party, which is not too far from here in Montgomery, Jeff indeed lisa and just spoke with the candidate *** couple of minutes ago in this very warm room and he said, Jeff, I’m hotter than *** pig in the sun. But he hopes to stay hot tonight in *** very good way to be one of two people. You know, we talk about *** runoff, only two people can be in that. So the top two vote getters, even if somebody just gets 49% and the others that second place finisher, whoever that would be would end up in the June 21 run off again. The candidates saying he’s been *** lifetime friend of Governor Ivey, but he insists she’s going in the wrong direction. He is very upset about the gasoline tax that he feels should be rolled back. He believes the grocery tax should be taken away. He’s upset about mandates for masks and the like I asked him about the new surge that we’re seeing particularly in jefferson County of Covid cases. And he said, well, treatments are out there, all manner of treatments, some work better than others. But *** vaccine should still be *** matter of choice. And we are now in *** state when uh, we are only at about 52% vaccinated. So, some issues to talk about. It took another *** pass at asking him about the shooting today in texas. And he said really too premature to have *** serious conversation about that lisa. All right, Jeff, Thank you very much. And as you just heard, we have nine total candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the governor’s spot. So it’s going to be *** very long night for all of us. Let’s get back to even though in the studio to kind of break it down for us. All right, lisa, thank you so much. We’ll check in with you coming up again pretty soon. Doctor Mr Grayson from stanford University joining us this evening. Thanks for being here with us. Thanks for having me. So lisa there mentioned nine candidates vying for the Republican nomination. So *** challenging governor, Ivey, within her own party, What does that do for *** race like this when *** candidate needs 50% plus one to win without *** runoff? It makes it hard to do. So even if she has overwhelmingly support within the state, still those people who are getting +45 10% Are eating away at that 50%. And we’re seeing that with some of the candidates. *** couple of the top two candidates we have seen really go after her lately, Tim James and lindy blanchard. So what are their cases, what are their arguments to voters that they’re trying to differentiate themselves with, correct? So they both have tried to demonstrate that they are more socially conservative than Kay Ivey. So, tim James ran commercials talking about um, the Magic City acceptance center, the charter school in this day, accusing her of allowing things that he would never Stand for in the state Lindy Blanchard has done similar, similar things, really trying to show themselves as being more socially conservative when you look at this and we, we keep talking about that 50% plus one? The governor did that four years ago, she got 56% of the vote faced up within her own party, several challengers. But this time around with nine candidates, I mean, could she be looking at facing blanchard? James? Are those the two most likely candidates? Those seem to be the most likely candidates? And um, we know very little right now, but from what we do know those are the two that definitely have had the most support. And again, these are the first initial numbers coming in 1%. So really doesn’t give us an idea of where we’re at, but just going off these, you see the governor with 60% of the vote compared to blanchard 16% and James’s 16, those going back and forth changing as we’re taking *** look at that. Um, if this is *** race where, where it’s Governor Ivey against one of those to what, what could the spread look like? I mean, could it be *** 10 point difference for the governor? Could it be 15 points? What are we talking about? Oh, I think it’ll be pretty significant. I think we will see her at least reach the 40 45% threshold. It will just be *** question of if she can get to 50 and if we do look at this going into *** runoff? What happens then? How do these candidates, you know, differentiate themselves and what are some of the storylines that could evolve there? So I think we’ll hear, Kay Ivey talking about how um, she is not aligned with the trump administration and that many of the problems that people are feeling in regard to it, finding employees paying at the gas pump or *** national problem and not created by her. And she’ll focus on what she’s done economically for the state. But then she will also remind us of the social, socially conservative actions that she has taken in the state. So if you remember some of her campaign ads where she talked about making sure…