Democrats Take Texas For The First Time In Decades | 11.4.26

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With both the House and Senate now in Democrats' hands, what can we expect coming down the pike? I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Wednesday, November 4th. This is a special election edition of Morning Wire. For generations, female athletes have fought for the right to compete on a fair and level playing field. Today, those opportunities are being threatened again. Athletes like Sophie Cunningham are speaking up and reminding the WNBA of a simple truth. Biological differences matter in sports, but the fight is bigger than one athlete or one league. It's about protecting opportunities for the next generation of girls. Concerned Women for America is the largest Christian women's policy organization in America, and they're standing up for female athletes and calling on organizations to do the same. For more information, visit www.youtube.com. Like the WNBA, to remember what the W stands for. Women's sports are for women only. Join Concerned Women for America and add your name to the petition today. Go to ConcernedWomen.org slash wire. Joining us now in studio is Tim Rice, host of the District Club and our DC Bureau Chief. Tim, thanks for coming on. Of course, guys. Happy to be here. The night has not been long enough, Tim, so we've invited you on for a follow-up. There's nowhere I'd rather be to wrap things up than with you two right here. That's sweet. So we came in expecting a blue wave. This was way bigger than anyone expected. Tell us about the results. Yeah, so I mean, let's start with the two kind of tentpole races that we've been talking about for six months, Texas Senate and Michigan Senate. James Tallarico won in Texas. He will be Texas's first Democratic senator since 1993. Ken Paxson called him to concede. Also in the Lone Star State, Governor Greg Abbott has lost and conceded to his Democratic opponent. So Texas has, basically, as far as these things go, flipped blue. And then, you know, you run through the other Senate races. In Kansas, Republican Roger Marshall lost. In Maine, Susan Collins just called to concede to Troy Jackson, her Democratic opponent, who was, as we all remember, a late substitution after Grant Plattner's campaign imploded. Susan Collins, again, we can't stress enough, has seemingly always managed to get out of the handcuffs at the last moment. So it's looking like Democrats are going to hold 54 to 56 seats in the Senate. And then in the House, similar margins. We've talked a lot going into this about how one positive side would be that if these 10 Democratic Socialists of America candidates won in the House, they would probably wind up putting Hakeem Jeffries through the same sort of rigmarole that Republicans put Kevin McCarthy through. It's looking like the Democrat majority in the House is going to be big enough that while those Democrats are going to hold 54 to 56 seats in the House, they're going to hold 54 to 56 seats in the House. So it's looking like the Democrat majority in the House is going to be big enough that while those Democrats are going to hold 54 to 56 seats in the House, they're going to hold 54 to 56 seats in the House. And other leftist members can cause problems and drag the caucus further to the left. It's not going to impede Jeffries' ability to keep a speakership. It's not going to impede their ability to pass legislation. Yeah, we're seeing estimates of upwards of 250 seats for Democrats, correct? Yeah, that's exactly right. This is the first time in decades that one party has had not just control of both houses, but control of both houses of Congress with such large margins that they're really going to be able to get things done. And with a lame dog, they're going to be able to get things done. And with a lame dog, they're going to be able to get done. And with a duck Republican president, this is this is divided government like we haven't seen in at least 20 years. So look, it was no surprise that the Republicans lost some seats yesterday, like we said, the top. But what was surprising to you? I mean, this is obviously the scope of this is a massive surprise to most people. What was particularly surprising to you? Susan Collins losing in Maine was surprising to me. I really did think that especially given the calamity that the Democrats had in that race, I thought that Collins was going to be able to win. I thought that he was going to win. I earlier today we were saying she doesn't just have nine lives. She has 19 lives. Apparently those lives have run out. You know, the NRCC chairman losing in North Carolina, that was shocking. You look at these House races and again, moderate Republicans like Mike Lawler in New York, like the folks in in North Carolina, like Victoria Sparks in the Indiana 5th, people who were in the solidly Trump Trump plus 15 plus 20 districts and 24. Even when you account for the fact that Trump wasn't on the ballot, when you account for the fact that Trump wasn't on the ballot, when you account for the kind of, you know, incumbent party curse that we tend to think that we know happens in midterm elections. Some of these races that we just didn't even think were going to be toss-ups have landed solidly Democratic. And I think that when you talk about the scope, John, that is to me when I see the scope of this, it's not just the big ticket races. It's all the down ballot races, all the House seats, all the governorships that we didn't think would flip. Even Darlene Graham in South Carolina. I mean, obviously very sort of controversial pick or maybe not controversial as a wrong word, but not a strong, not a strong and a debated pick. You know, is Lindsey Graham's legacy enough for his sister who never really worked outside of state level politics to win? And people went back and forth on whether or not she was a good nominee. But I think, you know, coming into yesterday, everyone sort of thought that the Graham name would be strong enough. And she sort of started picking up steam and momentum in the waning days of her campaign. And just all of these across the board kind of handily Democrat victories. Again, the scope of it was just a little staggering. Well, it's been quite a week already. After a big election night, I think we can all agree that a little rest sounds pretty good right about now. We're also getting to that time of year when there's nothing better than coming home, putting on something comfortable and climbing into a really good bed. 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I mean, I was talking to our friend Brent Buchanan, who I was on set with all night, and he was saying, you know, this is good for the industry, right? Because in a lot of ways, and obviously Brent is a class above and Signal does good polling, but, you know, they were predicting a lot of stuff. Libertarians, spoiler candidates in different governor's races or third-party candidates in Senate races. A lot of their predictions were kind of spot on in ways that people didn't expect because they seemed a of this election is that the polling industry lives to fight another day. One thing that I do want to mention very briefly is there were a lot of ballot initiatives and a lot of sort of down ballot state and local level things. And one that's really fascinating to me is in North Carolina, where North Carolina voters voted for in favor of referendums that would have imposed voter ID restrictions, caps on property taxes and lowering the income tax. And all of those ballot measures are winning by the same margin. That Democrats are winning in North Carolina. It's about a 60-40 split. And this is something that it's still very early. Obviously, you know, ballot measures are something that is not talked about that much going into these elections. And there's going to be a lot more polling and exit polls than data to crunch and discuss in the coming weeks. But that, I think, is something fascinating. There's something interesting going on with the American electorate where this isn't, yes, this is a blue tsunami. It's not truly a blue tsunami because voters are voting against Democrat priorities in states where they're voting for Democrats. I don't know what that means. I don't think any of us will know what that means until we get a little bit more data and maybe not until 2028 kicks off in earnest. That sounds like affordability, though. Yeah, exactly. There's a little kernel of hope in there. Maybe we're seeing voters kind of realign again around candidates that they like, around issues that they feel strongly about, pocketbook issues, kitchen table issues. I think it sets an interesting table for Republicans going into 2028 because the key to victory in the future might not just be being the most partisan candidate. It might just be being the most electable. Right. Well, tons to unpack over the next few days. Certainly, you're going to be back with us very soon. Of course. Thanks, Tim. Joining us now in studio after a grueling night of discussing this election is Ben Dominich, host of The District Club. Thanks for coming on. You're still awake. We're all still awake. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Are you kidding? Election night is always fascinating, and this one turned out to be pretty historic and, I think, a shocker in a lot of ways for some people, but also, I think, one that we can take a lot of different lessons from. Yeah. So, like, look, going into yesterday, a lot of people bracing for a blue wave. We got a blue tsunami. What, in the end, are the top-line issues that really shape this election? Well, you have to start with the economy, of course. It's obvious, but it's true. The economic problems and challenges that people face are part of it, but a large part of it, too, is their concerns, and I think that they didn't feel that Republicans were adequate at all when it came to addressing those concerns. Those can be some things that drill down within the various people who made up this new Trumpian coalition in 2024. My takeaway from this is something that I've been saying for a while, which is that I felt like too much of the conversation around the 2024 win assumed that all these voters who came to support Trump did so because they were down with the MAGA movement, that they believed in him to the hilt, that they thought, you know, that he was someone who they could follow into all sorts of different, you know, challenges. Instead, I think that they were making pragmatic decisions based on the fact that they didn't like Kamala Harris, and they liked the economy that Donald Trump had been the head of as president before COVID hit, and that's something that I think was underestimated as a decision point for people. The second thing, I think, is that Republicans didn't like Kamala Harris. Republicans dramatically overestimated, I think, how much they could lean into some of the weirder Democratic candidates as being a hedge against a historic wave. What you're seeing in this election is a situation where all of these candidates who Republicans had hammered as being weird, off-putting, even supporting terrorism, they all effectively won, overperformed, and they make up now a significant portion of this new Democratic Congress that's going to be coming into Washington and Texas. And I think that you can't just assign that to negative Republican candidate quality. Sure, you can point to Darlene Graham, you can point to Ken Paxton, you can point to some of these other candidates who had challenges, but the truth is that in a wave that is this big, it doesn't come down to just one bad candidate here or there. And then finally, I think that the other issue that has to be weighing on all of this is that the president's decision to go into Iran the way that he did had, I think, a lot of pressure. I think that the president's decision to go into Iran the way that he did had, I think, a lot of pressure. I think that the president's decision to go into Iran the way that he did had ramifications that hit your pocketbook because of the gas prices and everything else. But also, I think that this administration has not seemed like it was focused on the primary things that people care about, about the pocketbook issues that they think about every day. And that has led to a lot of concerns about where we're going as a country. And Republicans, frankly, didn't have a message on affordability. I certainly don't know what it was. All of those things came together, I think, to make for one of the worst performances that we have seen in the history of the United States. Historically, for a president's party and a midterm. Was there anything from yesterday's results that particularly surprised you? I'm very surprised by the outcome in Texas. I thought that it was definitely possible that the blue attempt to take this, you know, something that has been a lodestar for them for such a long time was probably going to be successful when it came to that Senate race. But I also thought that Greg Abbott, you know, a governor who has been relatively popular, even though he was trying for, you know, a historic term in terms of his fourth, that he would be able to pull it out. Instead, Texas turned out to be, you know, a situation where even given the amount of money spent there, Republicans weren't able to hold on. And, you know, even though the fact that they thought that they had won the redistricting battles, creating new districts there that they thought they would be able to pull off, you know, in a competitive election, that turned out to backfire on them, too. And it was not a situation where they could prevail in any of them. Redistricting. And this was particularly interesting to me. Texas, they won the redistricting battle. They lost most of those seats. Can you drill down a little bit more about why that was actually a risk on some levels? Sure. When you look back at the redistricting fights timing, and the takeaway generally in Washington was that Republicans prevailed, that they won virtually every redistricting battle that they had. One of those was due to a court ruling in the case of Virginia. And I think part of that has to, in retrospect, look at the situation where they had a lot of confidence, including the point that some of these House members were saying, hey, maybe Democrats will take the House, but they'll only have a slim majority. They'll, it'll be impossible for them to make any, they'll be in the stuck in the same situation we've been stuck in with a single digit majority, unable to move a lot of legislation. Instead, they have this huge wave. And I think part of that has to, in retrospect, look as a situation where Republicans made those redistricting decisions at a moment before the Iran war began, when gas prices were not as high as they had been in the past. When you still had a feeling on their part that they could win a lot of these voters back, if the economy continued to improve in the coming year. Instead, they lost those voters. And now this could create significant problems for them long term in terms of the makeup of these districts and the fact that they thought this was part of a new permanent coalition. You know, when Trump's not on the ballot, when it turns out you're not running against Kamala Harris, it could be a very different scenario. He wasn't on the ballot. And it sounds like he thinks the MAGA base is still very strong behind him. But how do you think the war in Iran has affected his core base who voted for him because he said no new wars? Well, one of the things that I'm going to be curious about when it comes to the demographic studies is looking at what men in particular did when it came to those votes. Young men in particular have been pessimistic about the war in Iran. And they obviously make up a significant portion of the president's base. They have historically. And I think Republicans just assumed they would never be a demo that they would lose any significant portion of. I think what you may end up finding is that those voters just didn't show up or, you know, they basically stayed home. Democrats were very excited to vote. Republicans less so. And I think that one of the things that we could be seeing there is a break off of a portion of his coalition. This president still has enormous support, but that support tops out at a certain level. And I think that whether that's 35 percent or 37 percent, however you want to describe it, it's not a majority when it comes to most districts in the country. Final question about Trump. Do you see him really altering his approach in the coming months after this? I mean, we thought, you know, probably Democrats would win the House with this kind of significant wave. Does he make any changes? I don't think so. I don't think he's going to be looking to try to answer in the coming weeks and months. You know, the president doesn't change his behavior often. And I don't think he's going to do it at this stage necessarily in his presidency. But the lessons he takes from this could send him in very different directions in terms of his response. Does he go heavier into Iran to try to finish things up the way that some people want him to? Does he pull back completely because he says voters didn't like this? We got to get away from it. I was given bad advice. You know, you write the truth social tweet. The thing that I think is going to be really interesting about that is the president isn't going to be on the ballot again. How much does he care about the future of this coalition? How much does he want to have a voice in terms of who takes over or competes for it? He's already declared that he's going to be a pundit about some of these candidates who lost. And of course, he'll find ways to blame them. But I think it's going to be very interesting to see how he reacts to this. There's a lot of different ways he could go. I will say one thing about the president. Which is that he did a better job campaigning for these candidates than a lot of these candidates did for themselves. Yeah, that's a point he made. carry Republicans over the finish line. Unfortunately. wasn't enough for him. But I think in this case, these Republicans did not make any kind of case for themselves, any kind of consistent case on affordability, on the economy, on the war, on any of these issues that matter to voters. Like you said at the top, an historic night, not the kind of history, though, that the Republicans wanted to suffer through. We will see what comes in the coming months. Thanks so much for coming on. Great to be with you. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show ad-free and join our mission, become a member at dailywire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know. It also has. Has a wide variety of 12 amazing spices. Call 1-800-2468-751. That's 1-800-2468-751.