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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Democrats Win Key Races in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia in the First Major Election During Trump's Second Term; Yes Votes Prevail California Voters to Redraw Congressional Districts. Aired 3- 4a ET

Aired November 05, 2025 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:03]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back.

If you're a political geek like me, I'm going to give you some trivia to share with your friends at your next party, and it's going to make you the coolest kid in the room.

Okay, so here's some fun facts about the race.

New York City's Board of Elections say that 2 million votes were cast, which is the most since 1969.

At 34 years old, Zohran Mamdani is projected to be the youngest mayor of New York City in over a century.

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, the projected winner of the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, were roommates when they served in Congress.

And Spanberger is the first woman to ever serve as Virginia governor.

That's it for this hour, but we're going all night, baby. The next hour of our election night, "The Story Is" starts right now.

And a look right there at the state capitol in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is in charge, and a big win for him, as we join you live right now from Sacramento at the headquarters of the California Democratic Party, where they are celebrating tonight.

I'm Elex Michelson. Welcome to "The Story Is," where it is now midnight on the West Coast, and election day is officially over. This is a special edition of "The Story Is," and tonight there's one big story, Election 2025.

And it's so big that I'm bringing in reinforcements. Brian Abel with us tonight from Washington. Brian, welcome.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Elex. I appreciate you, and I appreciate being here in Washington. It's 3 a.m. now, and voters across the country, they have spoken. Some big wins tonight. MICHAELSON: Yes, big wins, especially for the Democratic Party. A big

sweep of major races across the U.S. They secured important wins against Republicans in a year of contentious battles with the White House and now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

A big theme among Democratic candidates in the race was countering President Trump's agenda with campaigns built on cost of living, affordability issues, a battle over congressional redistricting, and more.

And it didn't take long for the President to sound off online, downplaying the Republican losses, posting this on Truth Social, blaming the government shutdown and the fact that he wasn't on the ballot as reasons why Democrats swept the races.

ABEL: Well, of course, be checking with some of our panels to see if that is indeed the case, but let's break down some of those big wins first.

CNN projects Democrat Zohran Mamdani will win New York City's mayoral election, beating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent, after losing to Mamdani as a Democrat in the primary.

New York's Board of Elections says more than 2 million people voted in the election, the most since 1969.

It is a major win for progressive Democrats and an even bigger moment for Mamdani, who was relatively unknown when he launched his mayoral bid. But the mayor-elect wasted no time sending a message to President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.

So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: CNN also projects Mikie Sherrill will win the New Jersey governor's race, making her the first female Democratic governor in the state's history.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Sherrill campaigned heavily against President Trump and his policies, often comparing him to her Republican opponent. And in a nod to the recent No Kings protests across the U.S., she said New Jersey would never bow to anyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR-ELECT MIKIE SHERRILL (D-NJ): We're going to follow Lady Liberty's beacon. We're not going to give in to our darker impulses. Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor will it ever be ruled by kings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And over in Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger has flipped the top office in Virginia from Republican leadership.

[03:05:03]

CNN projects Spanberger will become Virginia's first female governor, she is a 46-year-old mother of three who served in law enforcement and the CIA before winning a seat in Congress. Her campaign was focused on affordability and the impact of federal job cuts and the government shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR-ELECT ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: And here in California, CNN projects California voters will approve Governor Gavin Newsom's push to redraw the state's congressional maps. Prop 50 is in response to Texas Republicans redrawing their map to help the GOP. It will replace lawns drawn by an independent commission with a map that could get Democrats as many as five new seats in next year's midterm elections.

Here's more from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was here behind me a few feet away after the big win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We stood tall and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump's recklessness. And tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result. None of us, however, are naive.

This is a pattern. This is a practice. Donald Trump's efforts to rig the midterm election continue to this day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Let's break all this down with our panel.

Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and a Democratic strategist. And Jason Rantz is host of "The Jason Rantz Show."

Welcome to you both. Good to be on with both of you for the first time on T.V. I appreciate it.

Jason, let's start with you. You've got quite a post on X about Governor Newsom. Not a big fan of his presentation. Let's see if we can put that up on the screen. Talking about him and

calling him basically one of the world. Here it is.

"Gavin Newsom is so desperate to be president that he doesn't seem to mind that we know he's the country's biggest narcissist."

What do you mean by that?

JASON RANTZ, HOST, "JASON RANTZ SHOW": I mean, that one I think was pretty direct. He's a narcissist. This is a guy who's desperate to become president and he's been running for president for a very long time here.

I think everything he's doing is trying to set himself up as sort of the anti-Trump and trying to take on the sort of Trump persona of being sort of a bully, this huge personality. But it's completely inauthentic.

And it comes off as if he's trying to get attention and trying to basically, you know, edge out any other potential challenger. And obviously that's not working. Right.

J.B. Pritzker is obviously also running for President. And we're seeing others who are stepping up in some significant ways. I think every time he does this, he makes this really more about himself and not about California, not about this country.

This whole idea that he pushed this proposition to go after Donald Trump tells you he doesn't really care about the California residents that he basically disenfranchised with the intent to disenfranchise.

MICHAELSON: But yet, Maria, the voters just supported him in a very big way. They did.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: That's exactly right. You know, a lot of people who don't like what happened in California continue to say that the voters were disenfranchised. But you know what?

Maybe the voters looked at what Donald Trump did in Texas, trying to steal while stealing five seats in the middle of a decade and said, you know what? We're not going to let this happen to us.

So they turned around and changed what they needed to change with their law to make sure that they could counterpunch what Donald Trump was trying to bring upon the country because they knew that what Donald Trump did was out of complete desperation. He saw the writing on the wall. And tonight was a very big indication that the writing is big and bright and blue.

And he's desperate; he Donald Trump was desperate to try to change what is coming next year in the midterm elections. He tried to do it in a way that is not done.

You know, blasting norms the way that he normally does in California said, you know what? We're not going to let him do it to us. And that's exactly why they decided to do what they did.

MICHAELSON: I mean, Jason, what do you think is the message that voters around the country are sending to President Trump tonight?

RANTZ: I think Democratic voters are saying they don't like Donald Trump and they're saying that in blue states.

[03:10:04]

I grant you that there were a lot of conservatives who were putting a lot of hope, at least in New Jersey. I don't think many Republicans were all that convinced that Winsome Sears was going to win in Virginia, but they did seem to think that should a rally would be able to pull out a victory.

But, you know, I was one of the voices who said these are blue states and this is an off-year election. Donald Trump is not actually on the ballot. And I don't know if you can look at either of those particular elections and say, well, this is a referendum on anything.

These were blue states making decisions that seemed to be pretty obvious from a blue state perspective. Now, to be clear, if should a rally did win, if Sears won, that would be an indication because you're going into blue states and you're actually winning there.

But I think the reverse is just not that big of a deal yet. You look at some of the data points, there's clearly some concern over the economy. And I think that does have to worry some Republicans and the Trump administration. He made some very bold promises early on about what was going to happen in the economy. We haven't quite seen everything yet.

We've seen some improvements, Democrats want to pretend otherwise, but we haven't seen the improvements that people expected. And I do think he is going to have to speak to that.

MICHAELSON: What do you make of-- go ahead, Maria.

CARDONA: I was going to say that except for in New Jersey, Democrats actually made history because I don't think it was since maybe the 1960s that Democrats have had three terms. And so that right there tells you going against precedent that there is something in the air and that something in the air is that not just Democrats, the Republicans, Independents, sane Americans looked at what Donald Trump's agenda is and said, this is not what we voted for.

On the economy, on immigration, the two issues that he won in 2024 with, completely upside down. And they were also huge wins with black and brown voters that Republicans swore this was a realignment when many more of them went for Donald Trump. And it absolutely was not that.

RANTZ: And that would be totally valid analysis if Donald Trump was running.

MICHAELSON: And we're not talking about really swing states here. And then you also have this moment, Maria, where you have the mayor of New York is now Zohran Mamdani, who is a Democratic socialist who came out talking about Eugene Debs, who is saying basically, I am who I am, I'm not backing away from that.

Is there a real danger that in swing states that Democrats need to win the presidency, that Zohran Mamdani could be a big liability?

CARDONA: No, absolutely not, though. I'm sure that Republicans are going to try to make it that. But I don't think they'll be successful.

And I don't think they'll be successful because we have people like Abigail Spanberger, who won overwhelmingly in Virginia, and Mikie Sherrill, who won overwhelmingly in New Jersey. And Democrats won all across the country.

We swept in Virginia the House of Delegates, we flipped 13 districts in the House of Delegates. We won in Maine, we won in Georgia. This has been a Democratic sweep all across the country.

And not just that, this past year, Democrats won or overperformed in 47 of 48 special elections, flipping many Republican seats in local districts.

So that right there tells me that this has nothing to do with Zohran Mamdani running and winning in New York, but it has everything to do with candidates who are running in their districts and in their states, listening to their voters and meeting their voters where they are.

That's what happened in New York, that's what happened in New Jersey, that's what happened in Virginia, that's what happened in California and all across the country.

And when Democrats continue to do that into the midterm elections next year, I think it's going to be a great year for Democrats.

RANTZ: Maria, I think you're undercutting your own argument.

MICHAELSON: In the New York race, Jason, not only did we have Zohran Mamdani, who had clearly a very good night, but you have Andrew Cuomo, who had one of the worst campaigns that you can imagine. I mean, this is a man who was the three-term governor of the state of New York who lost to a Democratic Socialist 34-year-old assembly member. I mean, talk about sort of historically bad what happened with Cuomo was.

RANTZ: Yes, I mean, you had some really bad Democratic candidates who were running, and that gave Zohran Mamdani that opening to bring that spotlight onto him. But this idea that this isn't all that meaningful for the Democratic Party and it's not going to really harm them, of course it is.

[03:15:02]

That's precisely why there were so many Democrats who refused to embrace Zohran Mamdani, including Chuck Schumer today, including Barack Obama, who's out there endorsing all the Democratic candidates but choosing to stay silent on this particular one. I think Hakeem Jeffries is taking so long to go ahead and embrace him because the reality is a lot of folks have asked the question as to whether or not the future of the Democratic Party is Zohran Mamdani. And the answer is no.

The present for the Democratic Party is Zohran Mamdani, AOCs, Bernie Sanders, those are the ones who are engaging the base in a way that has really inspired them. Now the base does not speak for the entire Democratic Party, and the average Democrat does not support the socialism of Mamdani.

However, those are the ones who have all the power right now within the party. And so to just push them aside, or think you can push them aside for more established and mainstream Democrats, I think is just naive.

Even, Maria, in your case when you were bringing up New Jersey in particular, the voters said they don't want Donald Trump. You didn't at one point say they wanted Mikie Sherrill. You said they didn't want Donald Trump.

And that's the problem I think Democrats are going to have. Donald Trump was not running, he was running for President, and he won. And he won in a big way.

Now you've got Mamdani who made all of these grand promises, many of which he's not going to be able to fulfill. I mean the whole idea, like free buses.

Well the mayor doesn't determine whether or not the bus will be free in New York. And so he has set himself up, in a lot of ways, you know my criticism of Donald Trump, or at least the vulnerability of promising all these economic prospects right off the bat. If you're not going to deliver, the base is going to turn on you.

CARDONA: See, but I don't agree with you on--

MICHAELSON: Unfortunately we are out of time. We'll have to leave it there. But we really do appreciate both of you sharing your perspective.

Maria Cardona and Jason Rantz, thank you so much.

CARDONA: Thanks Elex.

RANTZ: Thank you. I appreciate it.

MICHAELSON: Still to come, we will discuss how California's verdict on Prop 50 could impact next year's midterm elections. You're watching a special edition of "The Story Is."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MICHAELSON: Well it is a record America did not want to see broken. But just a few hours ago, the government shutdown entered Day 36, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning that a further standoff could force parts of U.S. airspace to close. That would be a very big deal that would wake people up.

Two Democratic sources say roughly a dozen Senate Democrats have privately signaled they would support a stopgap funding deal to reopen the government in exchange for a future vote on health care, as we look live at Capitol Hill, where once again, they're not really doing anything.

Democrats won major victories tonight across the U.S. on election night. It will be interesting to see how that impacts the shutdown debate. One of the most significant wins right here in California at the home of the Democratic Party.

CNN projecting California voters will approve the Democratic-led redistricting measure, Prop 50, which will boost the party's effort to counter Republican gerrymandering in other states. The measure will allow Democrats to redraw congressional lines with new ones that could make five U.S. House seats much more favorable for the party.

We go live now to Los Angeles, where Sarah McGregor joins us now, she is the national managing editor for Bloomberg News. Thanks so much for joining us in the middle of the night on election night when I can never sleep. Sarah, great to be with you and welcome to "The Story Is."

SARAH MCGREGOR, NATIONAL MANAGING EDITOR, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Thank you so much for having me.

MICHAELSON: Talk to us about what was your big headline, the most important takeaway from the night.

MCGREGOR: Well, I think, you know, there's in the few hours that we've seen these poll results come in, you know, from east to the West Coast, we've seen that it's been a big night for Democrats.

You're seeing it there yourself, Elex, here in Sacramento. You know, Democrats are pretty pleased with the results. But really what I'm thinking about already is just that next beat that, you know, one of my colleagues said to me that the 2026 midterm campaign begins today.

And I think, you know, everyone might celebrate tonight, but tomorrow morning everyone's going to be waking up thinking about what does this mean? How are the chips going to fall?

And it is a good sign for the Democrats. It does put a bit of a wind in their sails after devastating losses in 2024 and a lot of questions about if and how they'll rebuild. It seems like some of their messaging came across, it seems for a figure like Newsom who has political ambitions that might be presidential.

It's a really good sign, he was able to get redistricting across the line.

And for the Republicans, I will be interested to see because we haven't heard a lot about how they're going to explain away some of these gains for the Democrats. I'll be interested in the morning when folks wake up what they have to say, including more from Donald Trump.

But really going into the midterms, I think the parties are going to have to take a look and take stock from tonight and see how to move forward.

MICHAELSON: Well, and you think about Sarah, the midterms are going to be especially complicated here in California and now in Texas and potentially some of these other states, because with redistricting and new maps come different races and you're going to see a scrambling. We're already starting to see that with certain members that maybe choose not to run other members who run against each other. I mean, everything's about to go all over the place, right?

MCGREGOR: Absolutely. I mean, in California, I did find it interesting because some of the Republicans here in California did manage to get along with some of the Democrats, let's say in the House.

[03:25:04]

So in some ways, while they were four different parties, there was still some work that they were able to do across state lines, I'm sorry, across some district lines within California.

So I think it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. And I think one of the important things that we've been thinking about, too, is the donor base and how this, you know, especially in California, Newsom managed to raise $120 million from donors.

How does that re-energize them going into the midterm elections? Now, I think a lot of them after the 2024 race, a lot of donors, especially in California, with the deep pockets, traditional Democratic donors had taken a step back and kind of reassessed the situation.

And so going forward, will Newsom be able to leverage that now into the midterms? Will the Democratic Party be able to reconvince some of those donors to open up their pocketbooks?

MICHAELSON: And Newsom raised so much money that he did something almost unheard of in American politics. He sent out an email saying, "don't give me any more money, we've got enough," which some donors appreciate after being asked for money over and over and over again.

But talk about how this whole fight has really helped Governor Newsom, not only with donors, but with a list of potential people that he can turn to for a presidential run as well.

MCGREGOR: Make no mistake, this was a big political gamble for Newsom. About three months ago when he launched this, there was that risk that it would look like he would lose perhaps the moral high ground by, you know, trying to fight fire with fire, as he would say. Texas, of course, passed a new congressional map out of, you know, out of the census regular season. And so California said, fine, we're going to gain these five seats, which the ballot measure passed tonight in California, to fight fire with fire. But it was a gamble.

You know, whether Newsom was going to do this and people would get behind him or if they think that it was sort of, I suppose, stooping, you know, below what they would have expected from the governor. And so I think through this, he's been able to build that base.

And we see a pretty phenomenal result tonight, about, you know, two- thirds of voters so far have passed this and even my husband went out, he said there were super long lines in Los Angeles. He had to go to two voting polling stations to cast his ballot, to not have to wait. We saw that around Orange County. So people did really come out to vote.

And so I think, you know, will he be able to translate this now, though, to the national stage? Does this go beyond California in this one issue?

MICHAELSON: We'll see. But we have seen an increase in his fundraising, in his poll numbers, in his social media following and his name I.D. as this fight has gone forward. And to your point about a risk, imagine if he would have lost.

If you're going into a presidential race and you're not even able to convince your own home state, one of the most blue states in the country, to follow you, that would have been an incredibly embarrassing egg on your face situation. Instead, he leaves this with a lot of strength.

Sarah McGregor, it is great to talk to you. I hope to see you in our studio sometime soon. I really appreciate you joining us.

MCGREGOR: Great. I'm going to take you up on that invite. Thank you.

MICHAELSON: All right. We've got more coverage of the U.S. election results still to come, including how President Trump is reacting to a string of major wins for Democrats. And a hint, it's not great. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Welcome back, I'm Elex Michaelson, live from the capital of California, Sacramento. This is a special edition of "The Story Is," Election 2025.

ABEL: And I'm Brian Abel here in Washington, where it is now 3:34 a.m., along with you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes, and it was a big night for Democrats, the party with major victories and contests across multiple states, building momentum into the 2026 midterms.

One of the most significant wins here in California, seeing them projecting the state, look at that number, 63 percent. That's a big number, bigger than even they expected. The state voting to approve Democrats' redistricting push, and that number may actually go up as some of the mail-in ballots, which are traditionally Democratic, get counted over the next few weeks.

All that will boost the party's efforts to counter Republican efforts to gerrymander in other states, Democrats essentially gerrymandering themselves in California. So this is going to redraw the congressional lines with new ones.

They're essentially targeting five Republicans in the House right now, adding a whole lot of Democrats to their districts. California's governor now asking other states, at least Democratic states, to do the same.

[03:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: We need the state of Virginia. We need the state of Maryland. We need our friends in New York and Illinois and Colorado.

We need to see other states with their remarkable leaders that have been doing remarkable things meet this moment head on as well to recognize what we're up against in 2026.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And at least in Maryland, a commission has already been started to take a look at redistricting there.

Democrats delivering a strong rebuke of President Trump in the first major electoral test of his second term. CNN projects Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani will become New York City's next mayor.

And CNN also has Democrats sweeping two key governor's races in Virginia. CNN projects Abigail Spanberger will flip the Republican office, becoming the first female governor in the state's history.

And Mikie Sherrill is also projected to make history in New Jersey as the state's first Democratic female governor.

In a post on True Social, President Trump attributing Republican losses to the government shutdown and the fact that he was not on the ballot.

Joining me now, Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist and founder and CEO of the political consulting firm Blueprint Strategy. And Joe Pinion, a Republican strategist and former U.S. Senate nominee in New York. Thank you both for being with us.

One of the big questions going into this election, could Democrats show momentum heading into the midterms? It seems we have that answer, a yes, at least at this moment, with some gains from the 2024 presidential margins in Virginia and New Jersey. Did this election though, Antjuan, did this improve the Democrats' brand?

Because the conversation really has been, do Dems have a clear identity in the wake of Trump's re-election?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, AND FOUNDER AND CEO, BLUEPRINT STRATEGY: Tonight was a political revival for my party, the Democratic Party.

Not only have we elected two national security moms in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in New Jersey, but we won statewide court races in Pennsylvania, in deep red Georgia we were able to win two statewide public service commission races.

You've been talking about what happened in California. So what was clear tonight that Democrats have continued the trend of winning and outperforming the narrative since Donald Trump has taken office.

This was a clear rejection of MAGA-nomics. This was a clear rejection of the Republican-led government healthcare shutdown. This is also a clear message that when Democrats are unified around quality of life issues, bread-and-butter issues, we can be successful up and down the ballot.

The trifecta in Virginia speaks volumes about how people were informed and engaged and were very interested in talking about and responding to what Republicans have presented as their political platform. They have been upside down on every major issue from immigration to healthcare to the economy and voters gave them a failing grade at the ballot box all over the country tonight.

ABEL: And Joe, I want to get your response to that. Do you see that to be the case, that this shows that Republicans are getting a failing grade?

JOE PINION, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, AND FORMER SENATE NOMINEE, NEW YORK: Look, I think tonight is a sobering night, I think, for not just the Republican Party, for the nation. I'm here in the state of New York, I've run for office here in New York, I've lived my entire life in the state of New York and a city in New York City has become home to a mayor that thinks that he will arrest the Prime Minister of Israel right before he defunds the police.

A man who had one of the worst voting records in the modern history of the state legislature, but found the time to show up to affirmatively vote not to recognize the Holocaust. So, yes, I do believe it was a bellwether night for the Democratic Party. I would agree with my friend across the aisle that, yes, I think that in many ways, the Republican Party has won on the issues.

But we have lost in the public square when it comes to messaging on these issues. I think the party has to do a better job of informing the American people that the government is shut down because the Democratic Party has decided on 14 different occasions not to vote for a clean, continuing resolution. I believe that there are some things that are worth fighting for on the other side as it pertains to those issues. But the facts remain that the reason why the government is shut down is because of the fact that Democrats have decided to hold the government hostage on those issues. So, yes, I think moving forward, my party has to do a better job of messaging on the issues.

But yes, you have to give credit to where credit is due when it comes to the issues affecting Americans. I think Democrats have done an effective job in these midterms.

[03:40:05]

ABEL: Joe, let's talk about that New York City mayor race for just a minute, because I find it interesting that in New York City, when we look at the exit poll data, because you were talking about the issues being something that Republicans can still move forward with, cost of living was the number one issue for voters.

That was the issue Mamdani ran on. That seems to be a through line in both Virginia and New Jersey. Cost of living, the economy, so much so in New York that Mamdani won, even though the majority of New Yorkers in exit polling say his policies are not realistic, that's at 50 percent.

And the vast majority say they are not Democratic socialists. So you have these voters that don't identify as aligned with Mamdani's political identity, don't believe he could necessarily carry out what he's been talking about, yet they still vote him in. So what takeaway is there from that, Antjuan, maybe from a messaging standpoint, moving forward for Democrats?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, this fear messaging from the right-wing extremists who've hijacked the Republican Party is certainly not anything new. Every single election cycle, they tried to label the entire Democratic Party as the party of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders or any other person they want to identify to be the political boogeyman or boogey-woman. At the end of the day, we are a diverse party, we are a party who can be a big tent party.

We can have a Zohran Mamdani in New York as our mayor in the same way we can elect -- re-elect Andre Dickens in Georgia as the mayor of Atlanta. It does not mean that the mayor of any city, Democrat or Republican, is the clear leader of any party.

But what it does mean is that when you have a message that connects with the American people and that through line, affordability, was a transferable through line all across the country tonight, including in places like deep red Iowa just a few months ago in the special election, what that's clear to me is that the Republicans are out of touch with the American people on the issues that matter. It's also true they have failed the American people miserably on the economic bill of health of everyday Americans.

Thirdly, Democrats have done a hell of a job of being consistent and constant with things in a message that resonates in a unified way to the American people. And at the end of the day, voters in New York, Democrats, Republicans and independents, showed up tonight to displace or to show their pleasure with the candidate of their choice. And that is not anything new to the political ecosystem in New York.

ABEL: Guys, I do want to talk about who wasn't on the ballot. We're talking about Donald Trump and even he came out and said, I wasn't on the ballot. That's why tonight it happened the way it happened.

Joe, we were hearing from voters exiting the polls saying they were not happy with this White House and their vote was sending a message to Trump. So do you think the President is hearing the message from these results?

PINION: Well, look, I think the reality is President Trump is a second term president. I think in many ways he was elected to do the uncomfortable work, the messy work of trying to build back from the failed to Build Back Better initiatives of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

And so the economic woes of people in New York City did not spring up like a well when President Trump took the oath of office. This is a multi-generational trend of compound despair that has impacted working people all across New York City and all across New York State. And so, yes, I think that frustration is part of what happened in New York City.

I think it is part of what happened in places like New Jersey and Virginia. But I think going back to my original point that the Republican Party has to do a better job of messaging, that we have allowed the Democratic Party to, I think, tell bold untruths in the interest of, quote, unquote, "being on the right side of history."

And in the end, frustrated people will drag themselves through the desert towards mirage because of the pain that undeniably has affected working class people from one Republican President to a Democratic President and back.

ABEL: So is it a barrage or is it reality? Because it seems like the voters are saying this is reality at this moment.

PINION: I am not saying the pain is to be clear. I'm not saying the pain is a mirage. In fact, I'm saying the direct opposite, that the pain is quite real.

What I am saying is that when we allow people to come on T.V. and say the government is shut down because of President Trump, that is demonstrably untrue. When we allow people to come on T.V. and suggest that the reason why New York City is unaffordable is because of the Trump administration, that is demonstrably untrue.

When we allow people to ignore the fact that we've got issues with education in places like Rochester and Chicago where black children are underperforming of their peers.

[03:45:06] And that's the result of the Trump administration. That is demonstrably untrue. So the reality is in American politics, the national issues bleed into our local elections.

That is clearly what we saw tonight. But to pretend that somehow this is in any way somehow different from what we see in many times when one party takes over and then there is the pendulum swing the other way. I think that is also an overstatement.

ABEL: Antjuan, I know that you want to jump in there. I unfortunately have been told I am absolutely out of time. So we're going to have to come back around at another moment.

Antjuan Seawright and Joe Pinion, I appreciate both of your guys' time. Thank you.

PINION: I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

ABEL: California's governor is celebrating redistricting ballot measures that voters approved in defiance of President Trump. Still ahead, we'll hear from a Politico ballot watcher.

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[03:50:00]

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is" from California's capital of Sacramento as we cover a big win for the California Democrats.

Joining us now, one of the smartest guys on the political topics, Sasha Issenberg is with Politico. He's based in L.A., but joining us here in Sacramento. Sasha, good to see you.

SASHA ISSENBERG, CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURES EDITOR, POLITICO: Thanks, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Big night for the Democrats. And you say some of this has to do with the demographics of the Democratic Party. What do you mean?

ISSENBERG: Yes, you go back a couple of decades. The Democrats had a coalition that was disproportionately non-college educated voters.

People who vote less frequently, which meant that they had a coalition that was sort of primed to turn out in big national presidential years, had to work a lot harder to get those people to turn out in off-year elections.

We started to see this shift in the educational coalitions. Democrats are now the party of college educated voters and these are people who are reliable voters in off-year elections, special elections and so you look here in California, there was one issue on the ballot. You really need to have voters who are likely to turn out motivated.

And also these off-year elections on the East Coast, same thing. Democrats are now able to count on their voters showing up when there's not a presidential election on the ballot.

MICHAELSON: So essentially, these college educated voters show up no matter what's happening, and the non-college educated voters need some real motivation. And Donald Trump has been that motivation for them, which is why in the presidential years, he's done so well.

ISSENBERG: And we've seen a lot of trouble with Republicans getting any sort of turnout that they need during the Trump years without Trump himself on the ballot. This is going to be a big challenge for them in 2028.

MICHAELSON: So we also are going to see in 2026 now a completely different congressional map here in California. We've seen a different map in Texas. We could be seeing other states now doing this.

You've got new reporting out just today about this concept of a redistricting battle, which in some ways is a back to the future.

ISSENBERG: Yes, for the last 60 years, we've had this regularity. We redraw our lines every 10 years when the new census information comes out. That's been the sort of status quo since the Voting Rights Act and some important Supreme Court decisions in the 60s.

You look back at American history in the 19th century, we were doing this all the time. Between 1878 and 1890, Ohio changed its congressional lines six times. There'd be a new party in charge in Ohio, word would come down from party leaders in Washington, we need some more seats in Congress, and often control of Congress in Washington would be decided by the maps in Columbus.

We are back in a moment like that where state leaders are highly dedicated to the national party and are often willing to sacrifice, or make life harder at least, for their local congressional incumbents to win some seats in Washington.

MICHAELSON: So if all of this happens and everybody redistricts, who does that benefit? Do the Republicans actually have more places to go when it comes to redistricting?

ISSENBERG: There are some more where they can go. And if the Supreme Court rules, as many people expect they would, that some of the racial qualifications that have been used to draw districts are unconstitutional, that'll open up new opportunities, especially in southern states, to redistrict. So there's going to be a rush of probably some Democratic states that were ambivalent about this, Illinois, Maryland among them.

It may take solace in what happened here in California today and say we should push ahead on this. Governor Newsom was encouraging some of them to do that. But if the Supreme Court rules striking down a map in Louisiana, that could be an invitation to Missouri, Georgia, sorry, a map in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi rather, to redraw their districts in a way that could cut out Democrats entirely from those states and get rid of majority minority districts that the law has required.

MICHAELSON: Which is a complete change for the whole map across the country.

So we saw Governor Newsom standing back here. You've been chronicling him for a year. What do you see about him in this moment? How do you respond to what he said tonight?

ISSENBERG: He basically ran another statewide campaign this year. He did it last year, a few years ago when he ran for governor. He had to run a recall, he's now run four statewide races where he's at the head of the ticket.

[03:55:03]

You look at some of the other Democrats who might be running against him for President in 2028, Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear in Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker in Illinois. They've run two statewide campaigns.

There's something that you learn from having put together a team that has now run these four races where he's been at the top of the ticket, including some other smaller ballot measures, that I think is worth something. You get a certain amount of experience, a certain amount of loyalty, and you learn a lot about strategy and tactics. And I think that that shouldn't be undersold.

MICHAELSON: Although some might say it's a lot easier to do that in a very Democratic state as compared to a state like where Josh Shapiro has run Pennsylvania, which is challenging to win in terms of the middle. But we'll see. Clearly, the Newsom political campaign team is all around him.

Very experienced. Keeps the same people. And it'll be interesting to see where they go if he actually does run for President.

Sasha, thanks for your reporting.

ISSENBERG: Awesome to see you.

MICHAELSON: Check it out in Politico.

We'll be right back.

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