We’ve covered a lot of Election Nights on The BradCast over the years. But it’s difficult, if not impossible, to remember one where Democrats (and anti-GOP, anti-Trump voters) won pretty much everything in every corner of the country. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]
True, it was an off-year election. Only about eight states even had statewide contests. But there were also local races in about 30 states. And, wherever voters voted, Team Trump lost on Tuesday. Badly. From “blue” California, to “purple” Virginia, to rural Maine, to battleground Pennsylvania, to deep “red” Mississippi and everywhere in between. And they lost by a lot in almost every case, whether it was for a candidate or an initiative on the ballot.
We run through as many reported results as we can fit in today — both high profile contests and some that were deep under the radar — before sharing an excerpt of the electrifying victory speech from Democratic New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who just blew the roof off the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with one of the best victory speeches I have ever seen. Actually, one of the best political speeches, of any kind, I have ever seen.
Then we’re joined by longtime progressive journalist and author JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation magazine, where has been covering Mamdani, and many other progressives up and down the ballot — along with the more centrist candidates in between — for many months now, during the run-up to Tuesday’s elections: the first time since Donald Trump took office for his failing second term that voters have been able to register their opinions about him at the ballot box in a whole bunch of states at once.
“We have had so many conversations where we are trying to find the straw” of good news following an election, Nichols observes, referencing our many post-election conversations. “But now we are in the bizarre, reverse position where, when you look across the entire United States, you are very hard pressed to find any disappointing results. And the reason for that is pretty simple. Donald Trump, a year after his election, nine months into his second presidency, it has been an unmitigated disaster.”
“Last night, you got the confirmation that across this country, from New York to Virginia, to New Jersey to California — but also to Mississippi, where they took away the Republican supermajority in the state Senate; to Georgia, where they were winning Public Service Commissions that they never win; to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Mayoral races in Iowa — it was just across the board that Democrats won and won and won.”
Beyond that, however, there are a lot of details to discuss, regarding why it happened and what message both Republicans and Dems need to take from what happened on Tuesday and, in particular, from the landslide election of the charismatic, 34-year old, Ugandan-born, Muslim, Democratic socialist immigrant whose charm offensive, good humor and promises of a tangible Affordability Agenda for NYC have now made him its next Mayor. And how, incredibly, it is even possible that many establishment Democratic Party leaders — including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York — couldn’t bring themselves to endorse the Democratic nominee for Mayor of NYC.
Are they most fearful that Mamdani will be a failure? Or that he will be a success?
We discuss all of that and much more on today’s BradCast…
We need more Mamdanis in politics.
The Trump administration has committed so many crimes and done so much corruption, that the GOP, basically cannot allow there to be an election in 2026, unless it could be entirely manipulated and controlled in its outcome.
TOTAL control of outcome may not be possible(?), and if not, then we can count on the Trump admin to find a way to cancel the 2026 election —- Through the Insurrection Act, or something else just as radical.
Think about it —- The Trump/GOP has dug itself into a hole so deep, that in a real and accurate election, they would be utterly destroyed, setting the stage for their MASS-prosecution by the Dems, as America tries to re-build the rule of law.
The GOP simply cannot afford to have a real election in 2026.
For them, it is virtually an existential issue.
To stay alive, they HAVE to cross the line and become totalitarian.
Brian @1 said…
Much as AOC arguably begot Mamdani, so will Mamdani inspire many others next year and beyond, I suspect…
A big oopsie here in My Less and Less Fair City, home of proportional representation for municipal offices (City Council and School Committee). The Election Commission told us on Friday that they failed to clear the data from the test ballots before they counted the real ballots, and the preliminary results announced for the School Committee now show a different winner in the sixth slot. You can read about it here, here and here, or you can see what the Election Commission has to say here.
I suppose I could also make a political comment about the apparent winners hereabouts. We have another DSA member set to join the City Council, and I am hoping that she actually sticks with DSA positions, unlike the other one, who was reelected after he talked a good game but voted neoliberal all the way. The one incumbent who had not voted reliably with the neoliberals was reelected ahead of the “intellectual” head of the neoliberal voting bloc (it appears that MIT graduates engineers whose arithmetic skills are iffy at best and who are seriously ignorant about economics). I expect nothing good out of our new City Council but would, of course, love to be wrong.
I have no doubt that our esteemed host will be psyched to hear that passage of a new city charter is likely to usher in fractional redistribution of votes, which feels more democratic than the current system but makes a hand recount practically impossible. I suppose that balances out the potential for removing a whole lot of democracy elsewhere in the new charter.