75% of Americans on verge of being run by Dems as blue wave grows

We have new. numbers tonight. on a handful of closely watched races. CNN projects Democrat. Nancy Liqueur, a retired Navy vice admiral, will Admiral. will flip. South Carolina's. first district to succeed. GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace. In Colorado, Republican Lauren Boebert. narrowly trails. the Democrat in the state's. fourth district. In Mississippi's Senate. race, Democrat Scott. Klum is widening his lead over. GOP incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. and Governor Chips.

remain on the line in Alaska and Kansas, with Democrats ahead in both states, those races are still too close to call. If those leaves hold, Democrats will govern 75%. of Americans 75%. I'm going to start with you. because one of the things. that was so striking to me about this. election was how many young people. came out to vote and how. far they swung towards the Democrats.

And so much of the hopes of younger. Americans are riding. on some of these changes. What do you want to see, happen. in the first, you know, 100 days that these governors. are now able to sort of. take the reins of their state? I want to see Democrats in Congress. aggressively push. single issue bill after single issue bill. that would help the American people. No more broad omnibus bills, but bills. that we could probably all agree with. A federal ban on gerrymandering.

ban insider trading in Congress. and the presidency, maybe raise the federal minimum wage. Maybe we can provide. health care for Americans. And if Republicans. want to have the responsibility. of vetoing those, that's on them, we're showing the American people. what we are providing. that needs to be coupled with oversight. into the corruption that happened. We just want law and order. and accountability. And then our strongest communicators. on the Democratic side, Ossoff, AOC, everybody need to be out there. making videos about what's happening. when it comes to young voters. They voted for change in both 24 and 26.

There is a generational compact. that's been broken. where young voters were told, if you get a degree, you do your everything right, you'll get a high paying job. and live comfortably. But we're living in this weird place. where you can get a degree for a job. that may not exist in five years, get into debt, have housing farther away. Young people are just. disillusioned with that. So that's the fundamental reality there. Lydia, some of the things though, that. these governors. have talked about in their first, days are not those things.

Keisha Lance. bottoms has talked. about repealing Georgia's. abortion restrictions. You have a Democratic governor. elect in Texas. Basically wanting to reshape schools, saying that, there's she's. going to do away with policies. that she's calling divisive. That's not exactly affordability issues. Right? Wants to end school vouchers. Yeah. I think. especially in Washington, I think over just about 50% of. people said they voted for a House race.

because they wanted to send a message. to Donald Trump. I understand that. I think voting for a governor. who's going to make policies. that will probably make life. less affordable right now, if you look at the most. affordable states, they've been historically red states. because of the deregulation, a lot of other considerations. And so I think ushering in. more of these restrictions. is ultimately going to backfire. I think one of the things and, Jason, you kind of hinted at this earlier. that we saw was the delineation. between the way that people. voted on ballot measures. and the way that they voted. for people representing them.

So obviously, lots of blue congressmen, senators, governors. And yet when you looked at the ballot. measures, things like voter ID. that was approved, even in states like Ohio and North. Carolina, the wealth tax in California, that was struck down. again, boys and girls sports, as you. mentioned, Washington, Colorado, that was upheld. So it's interesting to see. I think voters are still conservative, but I think this election, there was so much anger. at the corruption at Donald Trump. I think they ultimately made decisions.

that are going to come back to bite them. And it's also it is. very it's really interesting too, because when we're talking. about affordability, it's certainly true. that federal policy can influence that. But a lot of that actually comes. from the local. And voters constantly. send different messages. all the time on this. They say it's too expensive, but I'm going to support this increase. in sales tax here. or I'm going to support this bond levy. And so now the Democrats. who are in charge, at least in the places. where they traditionally have not been, they actually have to show some results. for some of the promises that they made.

It's different from Washington. in California and Oregon in New York, because you have a direct to your name, you're automatically. going to be in office. But it's different elsewhere. But I actually. think that's an important point. that I don't think. the federal government needs. to, govern like the state government. If you look at how these individuals. ran their races, they ran them in their unique own voice. Gina Hinojosa went and said, the fact that Greg Abbott. and one of the reasons. why Gina started to sorry, Governor elect, my I've had some respect on an governor.

elect in a Hosa. actually started to catapult. was because. of what Greg Abbott did to public schools. and closing five day schools. to four day schools, giving a no bid contract to folks around. charter schools. Texas and Texas. The public school system. is the largest employer in the state, and people were livid. And that is why the margin was so big. Governor elect. bottoms, she talked about, about abortion in her race. She talked about making it safe. for people to have families.

in not having to leave. The state she talked about, grocery taxes and gas taxes. So I think they did talk about issues, and voters did hear those issues, and voters elected them. Wow. Jon Ossoff ran a very different race. He went straight at Donald Trump. Talarico went straight at Donald Trump. They ran different races, and they get to govern differently. And I actually. think that will be the harmony. that people will be looking at. There's a huge opportunity, obviously, here for Democrats that that map shows it.

and they'll be tested. Right. And I feel like they're kind of groping. past their famous. disorganization and disputatious ness. Right. The old Will Rogers land. I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat. What are they? You know, you get the. the Democratic socialists, you've got the cultural issues. You've got working class members now. And I think they're groping toward. a populist economic base, make life better, and the rest of this stuff. will figure itself out.

If they do that, then Republicans. are going to be in the shadow, because the first party that does. that, yes, is going to be in power. for a long time. Yeah. But then enter, I'm sorry, the activist class. of the Democratic Party. And I mean, I, I take your point. and I do think. the messaging during the midterms, was incredibly consistent. And it. I have to tell you, if there is a leader. of the Democratic Party. is probably Bernie Sanders. because it was straight out of Bernie. Sanders book of, you know, talking about economic populism.

But there are a lot of different groups. at the base of the Democratic Party. that want a lot of different things. And that has always been. when we're talking about the divisiveness. that has always been there, the pull the people we got today. with Adam Hamilton, with with people. across the with James. Tallarico, the activist. They don't yes. They don't have the traction. that they did not say. As someone who sometimes gets lumped. into that activist category, I think there's a misread. on what the activists actually want. They want costs and corruption out.

They want cost down and corruption. driven by. I tell you. what, Republicans are alarmed. and they might also. all Democrats, Republicans are immediately. hearing Democrats. push to end the filibuster, push to potentially pack. the courts ad state. It seems like they're getting power. And Elon Musk got a lot of hate for this. Where he outlined this, I will add, the concern is that Republicans. have basically. shot themselves in the foot, not passing this back. because they don't want to. end the filibuster. And that. now we're seeing Democrats once again.

Now we're seeing. that there's been a lot of anger. from Republicans. Now we're seeing Democrats float. some pretty radical things. I think the Electoral College is. about to say, I have seen what I have seen. since this whole governorship has come. out, is a lot of Democrats. fantasizing about ending. the Electoral College. because they now. perhaps have the capacity to do so. So we shall see. Welcome to the panel. What a wild week it has been. It feels like it's. been a year, especially. probably for you, Harry, and, but Sarah Matthews, I want to start with you. because we served together in the first,

Trump administration. Do you think, you know. many of these players that the real depth. and weight. of what happened, this. overwhelming repudiation. by voters on Tuesday night? Has that sunk in in the white House? And will there be any lessons learned? I think it's sunk in in the white House. for the staff, but not necessarily for the president. I think the president doing, the pre. midterm speech, being at the reflecting pool. and it's post midterm speech. being at the ballroom. It just shows that he doesn't really care.

about the outcome of these elections, because I don't think his narcissism. allows him to take responsibility. That this was a resounding. rebuke of his presidency. and his failed policies, that voters were upset with him. They felt bamboozled by him. because he broke promise after promise, whether that was to bring down costs. or not, to get us into another war. in the Middle East. And so I don't think that his narcissism. allows him to accept it. because he's saying things like, well, if I was on the ballot, we would have won. And it's like, well, you did tell voters to vote.

as if you were on the ballot. And so that's exactly what it looks like. They did. And, but I do think that for the staff, they recognize this moment. And then I have to. imagine they're pretty frustrated. seeing him kind of all over the place. and more concerned. with his vanity project. than he is about. actually trying. to get things back on track. for the Republican Party. Now, Yamiche, you've worked for a number of Democrats. who obviously are in the Biden. White House. What did you, as a Democrat, see as the biggest takeaway. from Tuesday night? What was the most shocking moment? Well, the fun thing. was the first race called with. that night was for Senator.

Mark Warner, my first boss in DC. So the night started great for me. I just didn't realize. it was all going to be up from there. Look, the most shocking thing. for me was. when all the numbers in the South. started coming in. and I felt like. that was the turning point. for a lot of people. in feeling like, this is not even just going to be. a small electoral victory. This is going to be generational change. And coming from Georgia, when I was hearing from folks. on the ground about the statehouses. and I realized. not just at the top,

that there was going. to be transformational change, but all the way down to the roots. in ways. that will not be able. to be reverted for decades. And that's when I realized, oh, this is going to be something. Yeah, that was kind of the moment it was. We were debating on that. with Harry Enten. Is it a wave or is it a tsunami? And I think once, once it started to look like. Texas and Kansas were going to go, we're like, we're in tsunami territory. I want to talk to you about the numbers, because obviously we used to say in. politics, demographics is destiny. Donald Trump. made all these historic inroads.

in 2020. for young white men, non-college-educated, Latino. voters, black male voters. It seems like nearly. all of those dried up. What are you saying? Adios, amigos. Goodbye. See you later. We see it in the voter polls. We see it in the actual county. We see it in the precinct level results. All of those historic gains. that Donald Trump made. for Republican candidate. for president in 2024 were wiped out. They were totally wiped out. You could see the high turnout. among young voters. on college campuses, right?

You could see it around, you know, UT. Austin, for example. You could see it among Latino voters. And it's not just in Texas that you saw. You could see it in Kansas. You could see it across the political map. and the historic African-American black. turnout that we saw amongst, southern black voters in particular. I mean, if you had asked me a month ago, Mississippi, Mississippi, what. what is happening here? This is bizarro land. It's craziness. What's shaking?

And so this to me, you know, you could just, you know, just talk about it. Not. We're on the table right now. Nine Senate flips. net gain of nine. for Democrats in the Senate. That hasn't happened since 1958. The biggest popular vote. win for Democrats in the House. since the Bicentennial and governorships. We're talking. about the highest number of Democrats. elected governor. since the early mid 1900 and 90s. You just put it all together. These are the types of not just waves, not just enemies, but blue enemies that you read. about in the history books. Jason, I'm. dying to get your take.

because what do you see as. what did Republicans get wrong? Was it any one issue? Was it a number of them? And I think a lot of us have thought. MAGA was dead before. And then Donald Trump. has a way of coming back to life. Do you actually think. this is the beginning. of the end of the MAGA movement, or do you think it survives this? I guess it depends on what you mean. by the MAGA movement. Obviously it had to come to an end. MAGA is defined by the president. He's not running again. And so it's going to evolve. into whatever the next steps are. I mean, we look back at the shellacking.

during the Obama administration. and everyone was saying. that kind of the same thing, like, how do we recover from this? There's going to be. this generational change that Republicans. are going to take advantage of. And we did that came to an end, and now we rebuild. Now we can rebuild quickly, which I think obviously is the hope. You're hearing it. now from Ron DeSantis, a little bit from Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio hasn't. spoken out that much right now. He will be a big part of that. And we now just evolved. You can't. completely dismiss the MAGA base. You have to be able.

to keep them in your camp. while also expanding it. And I think we've got. a lot of really good people. who are capable of doing that. And it will be interesting just from, from like the political nerd side of me. I like the idea that there are 300 people. running on the Democrat side, and we're going to have. a few dozen on our side who are viable, and someone's. going to rise to the top, and they will create. whatever the next movement actually is. But MAGA is not dead in. any traditional sense of, well, now he's not going to be able. to get anything done. He's still going to have.

a lot of influence, and the voters are still there. We just have to redirect them. to whatever. This next step is very interesting. I mean, there seems to be. this sort of debate. Is this a repudiation. of the presidency of specific policies? It may be all of the above, but what I kept coming back to on. election night. was looking at ruby red states. that were turning blue, and I kept thinking. tariffs, tariffs, tariffs on something. that's not the sexiest topic. but impacts so many different industries. across the heartland, places. that we've always relied on. to be Republican strongholds.

Sarah, do you think that there is. and we're going to get to. this more staffing and things. But, later in the show. But do you think there's any recognition. of the actual policies. that turn voters out in your mind? What are the key ones. that voters were rejecting? Well, like you said, tariffs. I think was a huge one. I think that a lot of people felt like. I erased the cost of everything. And in those ruby red states. where there's a lot of farmers. and ranchers, those people were upset. because it affected their livelihoods. And these are people that voted for Trump. 2 or 3 times, and they turned on him.

And I think what my favorite anecdote. from this whole. election is in the Iowa State House, there was a Democrat. running for the 20th, state. House seat there, and he dropped out of the race. because of health issues. And there was only. a Republican running then. But the guy's name. was still on the ballot. He won the man Eric Armstrong won. And he had to say to voters, well, I'll do my best, but I'm still battling. these health issues. Those voters literally didn't care.

that he had dropped out of the race. They wanted to send a Democrat. because they were so upset. And so I think that that speaks to. how it's that. they were with these policies, like terrorists, like the war. that also made fertilizer more expensive. Like, obviously the price of gas, I mean, so I think it's those things. that the cost of living. in affordability crisis. and that. Democrats ability to campaign on. those were key to their success. And then the president. obviously being out there saying.

things like affordability is a hoax. and not really acknowledging their pain.