What A Day - Dems Win Big: A Midterm Preview?

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Tuesday was Election Day and Democrats won big! Voters in New York City elected Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor. In Georgia, Democrats won their first statewide elections in 20 years, flipping two seats on the board that controls electricity costs in the state – a direct response to rising power prices. And in New Jersey, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill won a tough race to keep the state's governor's mansion blue. While in Virginia, former Democratic House Representative Abigail Spanberger won the governor's race, flipping the state's governor's seat back to the Democrats. For more on the Democrats' big night, we spoke with Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau.Show Notes:Call Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Wednesday, November 5th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is why today, the show that is living out. On today's show, massive victories for Democrats. And seriously, from New York to Georgia to Virginia, Democrats won critical races, sending a major signal, both to the White House and to Americans who are tired of all of this. In Georgia, Democrats won their first statewide elections in 20 years, flipping two seats on the board that controls electricity costs in the state, a direct response to rising power prices. And Virginia Democrats will keep control of both chambers of the state's legislature after flipping at least seven seats in the House of Delegates, meaning that their redistricting effort can continue.

And speaking of redistricting, California passed Proposition. which would give the Democratic-controlled legislature the ability to draw new maps ahead of next year's midterms. But let's start with New York City. My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty. I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be. the final time I utter his name

as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few. Pure bars. Voters in New York City elected Democratic Socialists Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor. Disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo

was Mamdani's stiffest competition, but his independent bid was unable to succeed on Islamophobia and racist AI-generated attack ads alone. Weird. Here's more from Um-Dani's victory speech on Tuesday night. We believe in standing up for those we love. Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community,

one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall your struggle is ours too and we will build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong

Mom Dani mobilized a coalition that included young people and South Asian voters excited by his vision for a more affordable city. More than two million New Yorkers cast their ballots in the highly publicized race. That's the highest turnout in a New York City mayoral election since 1969. Possibly the final nails in Cuomo's coffin, last-minute endorsements from President Trump and Elon Musk, to which Mom Dany had this to say. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, together. to any of us. You will have to get through all of us. Now that Mamdani has officially ousted Cuomo, all the billionaires, millionaires threatening the fleet of city can make good on those offers. I'm sure beautiful Destin, Florida

will welcome you with open arms. In New Jersey, Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill won a tough race to keep the state's governor's mansion blue. Sheryl's Republican opponent, former state lawmaker Jack Chittarelli, was backed by President Trump, despite calling Trump a quote, Charlotton in 2015. His campaign seemed to lean very heavily on, ending a plastic bag ban. Representative Cheryl is a moderate Democrat who served for nearly 10 years in the Navy. We here in New Jersey are bound to fight for a different future for our children. We see how clearly important liberty is.

We know that no one in our great state is safe when our neighbors are targeted. ignoring the law and the Constitution. Democrats have been concerned about the shifting political leanings of New Jersey voters after Donald Trump won a larger share of votes but ultimately lost the state to Kamala Harris by just about six points in 2024. This was Chittarelli's third failed run for governor. But hey, there's always 2029. And in Virginia, former Democratic House Representative Abigail Spanberger won the governor's race,

flipping the state's governor's seat back to the Democrats. Spanberger defeated Virginia's lieutenant governor, Republican Winsome Earl Sears. The center-left-leaning Spanberger will be Virginia's first female governor. We sent a message to every corner of the Commonwealth, a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country. We sent a message to the whole world

that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos. Donald Trump held back from fully endorsing Earl Sears, possibly because she initially said she wouldn't support Trump's 2024 re-election campaign. But Earl Sears has praised the president's second-term policies and took a page out of his playbook

by fixating on trans rights and culture war issues in her campaign. And when I say fixated, I mean that the GOP spent millions of dollars on targeting Spanberger for supporting trans equality. Hopefully, her defeat is a sign that voters won't be buying what the GOP is selling heading into next year's midterms. So for more on a big night for Democrats, liberals, progressives, and people who don't like Stephen Miller, I spoke to Pod Save America co-host, John Favreau.

John, welcome back to Water Day. It's good to be here, especially tonight. Woo! Wow. We're living out. This feels better. I'm really enjoying myself, unlike the last time we did this. I forgot what an enjoyable election night felt like.

An enjoyable election night that's like kind of over at 8.10 p.m. Pacific? Even better. Oh, my gosh. So in potentially the highest profile race of the night, voters in New York City elected Democratic Socialists, Zaraamamani, as their next mayor, despite all of Bill Ackman's tweets. And, you know, I thought more words would get it done, but not the case. There was just one more tweet. Momdani will be the first Muslim and person of South Asian descent to hold the position. He's also the youngest mayor of New York in over a century. I think the last time it was like, Tamundi. Hall era. What do you think Mamdani's victory means for Democrats nationwide? Because I think that on the one hand, there's going to be people who are like, take this lesson nationwide. We can do this anywhere. And there are going to be a lot of Democrats who are like, hang on a second. Like,

this is New York. New York is a very specific place. Where are you at? So I think that New York is a very specific place. I do not think that Mamdani could like win if you threw him anywhere in the country. But I do think that there are two very important lessons that Democrats can take from Umdani. And one is just his laser-like focus on affordability. I think that part of the message was just, it was huge. And I think affordability was a big issue in all of these races. I think that's kind of the umbrella that all Democrats should be operating under is not just like anti-Trump, but pro affordability. For sure. And I think he especially of all the candidates really honed in on that message and hammered it pretty hard. But I also think the way he campaigned,

watching some of the videos that his team put out, even these last couple days, it's like, whatever you think of Mumdani, whatever you think of his policies, like, you can at least look at these videos and think to yourself, this is how campaigning should happen, meeting people everywhere, talking to people everywhere. He has joy when he's campaigning. Yeah, I saw a video on Instagram of his, of him going out and talking to cab drivers in the cab line at night. And they're all just like, thank you so much for being here. And it, I know, it sounds weird to say this, but in contrast to what I saw at a former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, it seems like Mom Dani actually wanted to be mayor. Yes. And that he likes people. He likes people. I think that's a lesson for all politicians. Yeah. It seems like if you want to do this job and you like people, maybe people will be able to tell.

Also, remember how he started his campaign. He went to these neighborhoods in the Bronx where there was a swing towards Trump in a big way. And he talked. to all these Trump voters, these people who maybe hadn't voted for Trump before and they voted for him in 2024. And he asked them, like, why did you do it? Why did you vote for him? He didn't scold them. He didn't yell at them. He just, like, wanted to have these conversations. And that extended to all the different people he met through all the five boroughs of New York through like the whole city. And it's just like, this is what campaigning should be. You go out there, you meet people, you talk to them, you try to persuade them, and you do it with joy in your heart and excitement about what the job can be. And not creepy AI videos posted on the internet that make everyone uncomfortable or with just outright Islamophobia. Also a good lesson to take away From this campaign, yeah It's funny how that might not work Speaking of some of the other big races of the night

We got the results in Virginia's governor's race first Democrat Abigail Spanberger won decisively I think that there was like that weird moment Where for about two weeks we all had to pretend Like we were super anxious about that And then some of us became super anxious about that Because that's how we are Yeah, right

She beat the state's Republican lieutenant governor Winsome Earl Sears Flipping the state blue after four years so Republican Governor Glenn Yonkin, vest enthusiast. She is Virginia's first female governor. I was struck by how it wasn't just her. It was a basically a win top to bottom across Virginia for Democrats. What do you think Democrats can take away from that win and how to respond to two issues, I think that proved to be really big in Virginia, Doge and the shutdown? So I was not surprised that she won. The margin is crazy. Yeah.

Like, this is the biggest Democratic victory in Virginia that we have seen in our lifetimes. Right. And Democrats will, I think they're going to have 64 seats in the assembly. And if you look just in the way Spanberger won, too, she not only improved on Harris's margin from 2024 and McCullough obviously lost in 2021, but like even in the 2017 went, right? Like there's these counties that basically like Glenn Yonkin won by a couple points that have swung back like double digits towards Spanberger. I think that one lesson from this is Democrats should not cave on the shutdown. Right. Because obviously like you said, like Virginia's ground zero for this, this is where most of the federal workers are.

And I think that we're seeing from the turnout and from the margins that people are pretty pissed and they're definitely blaming Donald Trump and Republicans for it. Yeah, I also think that an important lesson, which I mean, granted this goes. for politics in general, don't try to run the last election because you saw from Winsome Earl Sears, who basically was like, I'm going to run the most anti-trans campaign you have ever heard of. She put millions of dollars into attack ads against Spanberger for, you know, supporting trans rights and supporting the rights of trans youth to compete in sports. And it turns out that maybe in the midst of an economic crisis and the shutdown and

Doge, that was not like top of mind for most people. it's funny how that works you know the polling has shown over the last couple months that the people who voted for Trump they're starting to swing against him these losing are younger people

Latinos black voters to the extent that there were some that voted for Trump in all those groups they have swung back hard tonight and so I do think that there was a bunch of people in Virginia and New Jersey and elsewhere who gave Trump a chance

or voted for him in 2024 because they thought everything was too expensive and they thought he would manage the economy and he is not just failed to bring costs down, he has made costs higher. And also in Virginia, a bunch of people out of work. And so, like, excitedly. Excitedly.

So, like, I don't know that you need more of an explanation than that. Right. Like, the whole thing he got elected for from people who aren't part of his base he didn't deliver on. Right. And I think that, again, there was this whole vibe that you got that Trump and his base basically decided, like, this was a forever election. We won. We will never be challenged again. A 1.5% win nationally basically means everyone loves us.

And actually what you said you wanted was a new ballroom and maybe going to war with Venezuela. And like you have a lot of voters in Virginia being like, I don't remember that part of any of this. And $40 billion for Argentina. Yeah. Yeah. To be at CPAC at Marilago. Right. And we did rename the Gulf.

Yeah. And the Department of Defense. You know. There are wins if you look. It's true. There's so many victories for those with eyes to see. Let's take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about the Democratic Party's big wins.

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That's BOM, BAS.com slash day, code day at checkout. New Jersey congresswoman Mikey Cheryl won a close governor's race against Republican. Jack Chitterelli, who was a plastic bag enthusiast. And a former state lawmaker who was backed by Trump, despite calling him a charlatan back in 2015. Democrats have been kind of worried about New Jersey because Trump, Trump won a larger share of the vote last year, even though Kamal Harris did win by about six points, which in New Jersey, that's not good. What do you think that that tells us about the state's politics one year into the Trump presidency? Turned out to not be close. The polling was probably more off on this one than any other. I mean, I think it's 13 points right now, which is a huge margin.

Right. And so once again, I think it's a combination. Some of the people who came out and voted for Trump in 24 stayed home. But then in some of these counties with a lot of college-educated voters, high-income voters who they were getting bluer and then they sort of swung towards Trump, they swung back hard to Mikey Cheryl. And, like, Jack Chitterelli, he was not winsome Sears, right? He was a better candidate. And so you can't just blame the candidate quality. He's run twice. Right. Everyone knows him.

And he came kind of close. Last time he was on the ballot. And so I do think this is more about Trump and Mikey Cheryl, who's a good candidate and ran a, like, a. really strong race and again very focused on affordability like mom dani like spanberger um but i do think this was a referendum on trump yeah and i think that uh i was seeing a pollster friend of mine talking about how like the idea of this race being close relies on the idea that for some reason people in new jersey like trump more than anyone else in the country which he was like i just don't buy that um democrat phil murphy has served as new jersey's governor for two terms and historically

it's been hard for the same party to hold on to power for three consecutive terms in the if we lived in a non-Trump world, okay, things would be very different. But you would see, if there was an unpopular Republican president, you would be seeing ads from Republicans being like, I'm my own man, I do my own thing. You know, I'm standing up for the voters of New Jersey. Like, whatever the president wants to do, that's okay.

They'd be, you know, advertising themselves as standing up to the president on issues that matter to the good people of New Jersey. Yeah. you will never see that from Republicans right now. Like every Republican either is terrified of Trump or wants to like hug him and pat his head. Yeah, the best that Chittarelli could do was in the primary he hugged Trump

and in the general, he just like pretended that Trump didn't really exist. Like if you went on- I do that all the time. Yeah, right, if only, if you went on his website and he has like a list of endorsements, it's like at the bottom of the list, there's like a small, it's like President Donald Trump.

Like that's about all he could do. But it is interesting, like you said, that, you know, there was the thought that Phil Murphy's approval rating that Phil Murphy just being an incumbent might drag down Cheryl. But Donald Trump, who is not running the state, he dragged down Chittarelli way more, which is not what people expect it. Right. So we talked about this a little bit earlier, but I want to go back to it, which is that you have Zeramam Dani winning big on Democratic Socialist policies, which it's been interesting trying to see. the right try to argue that he's simultaneously going to do three 9-11s, but also he's going to make everyone a Marxist and also transgender, which I'm like, I got to say. Pretty busy.

He's going to be pretty busy. That sounds really hard. But like so much of his efforts were focused on affordability. You also heard a lot about affordability from Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Cheryl, who, you know, Spanberger served in the CIA. Cheryl served in the Navy. You know, they just won big gubernatorial elections. They are definitely more moderate and advertise themselves as being more moderate.

So looking at all of that is it just, it's affordability stupid. Like, is that the message that Democrats should be running under, whether you're doing so further left, whether you're doing so towards the middle, whether you're running in Nebraska or Michigan or Mississippi, affordability. Is that it? Yes. Yes, it is. And look, I think there's going to be. Donald Trump gives us plenty of issues to talk about and plenty of things that we should be talking about.

And I think candidates will do that. But I think at the core here, again, Donald Trump won in 2024 because people were pissed that Joe Biden did not manage the economy well and that he let inflation get out of control and that he told everyone that everything was great when the economy was not. Obviously, a lot of focus on his age, rightly so. But I do think that inflation has always been a very,

politically sensitive issues for voters in any country. And so the fact that, again, Donald Trump came into office, and I think people would be more willing to give him time if he didn't immediately start making it worse. Like, he didn't come in and be like, okay, give me a year and I'll bring prices down. He was like, I'm going to impose a bunch of tariffs. And so I'm going to basically slap a sales tax on almost everything you buy. And then I'm going to try to cut health care. and then I'm also going to try to fire a bunch of federal workers. And also then here's my ballroom and my Qatari jet. Right.

Like, what are you doing, man? Yeah, it's a different thing for him. But there were a ton of other races that happened. You had my hometown of Cincinnati, reelected his Democratic. I know. My buddy. Beat J.D. Vance's half brother, who notably did not try. Like, let's be clear here, he did not campaign and did not try.

It was like a 50-point win or something? Yeah, it was a... Wasn't it the first time a Republican was on the ballot for mayor in Cincinnati in a long time? Yeah, Southern Ohio, it's a different place. But like, going to that affordability message, I was struck by the fact, and weirdly enough, Steve Bannon pointed this one out, that two Democrats flip seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, which helps determine the cost of power in Georgia. Georgia power bills have increased six times since 2023. And that was like, that was a win where people needed to explain what. what they did, and they still got that win, and they won big by, like, 20 points.

I just want to say that those Georgia races were probably, like, electorally, maybe the most impressive wins of the night. Right. Because it was, they were statewide races in Georgia. They knocked off two Republican commissioners and by, like, double digits. That is huge. And also in Pennsylvania, I believe we kept the Supreme Court, five two. There were three races there that the liberal candidates won. and Prop 50, as soon as the polls close here in California, they called Prop 50.

So we will redraw the maps here to neutralize at least the gerrymandering that Texas is done. Are you seeing any potential bellwethers that we can look to for the midterms? I mean, 2026 is simultaneously tomorrow, but also a long way away. And there's a lot that could happen in between that and now. But it seems to me looking at this right now, people are not exactly pleased with the direction of the country. And that seems not ideal if I were an incumbent. Yes, I think that is correct. It's a good question.

I think the turnout for an off-year election is usually a little less than in a mid-term election, right? Although we have to see what the final turnout numbers are because I think that they broke a lot of records tonight. So if you get close to a mid-term electorate, you're feeling good if you're John Ossoff trying to defend your Senate seat in Georgia after seeing what happened with the public service commissioners. And I think a lot of the House seats that are front-line seats, you're going to be feeling pretty good right now. And then I think the question is, you know, in order for Democrats to take back the Senate, you don't just have to win North Carolina and Maine and also hold seats in Georgia and Michigan. Can we pick off Iowa? Can we pick off Alaska? Can we pick off Ohio? One of those. I don't know. I don't know. But you know what? A result like tonight inches you a little closer in that direction. As always, John Favro, thank you for joining me.

Thanks for having me. That was my conversation with John Favro, co-host of Pod Save America. Before we go, Trump's threatening nukes, refugee limits are back, and chaos is spreading from Nigeria to Sudan. This week on Pod Save the World, Tommy and Ben break down what Trump's foreign policy deja vu means for the rest of us. plus a detainee abuse scandal on Israel, some rare good election news out of Europe, and no longer Prince Andrew losing his titles. Tune into Pod Save the World every once day, wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Celebrate even more Democratic victories, like Colorado voting to raise income taxes on higher income households to fund free meals for all public school students.

and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how in Maine, voters approved a red flag gun law and rejected a voter ID bill, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and good things!

Good things happened! What Today is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Four and Chris Alport. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Caitlin Plummer, and Ethan Oberman.

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