AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In race after race, from congressional redistricting here in California to seats on the Public Service Commission in Georgia, Democrats won. They also won key governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey. Overall, it was a big night in the states for the party out of power in Washington. NPR political reporter Elena Moore and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson followed races across the country. Hey to both of you.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi there.
ELENA MOORE, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hey. OK. So let's start with what worked for the Democrats. Mara, to start with you, do we know what specific messages from Democrats really resonated with voters? Like, did you see a through line to these very different races last night?
LIASSON: I think there was a through line, only there were very different versions of it. It was a message that married an anti-Trump message with a positive message about affordability, that life is too expensive, the reason is Donald Trump, from tariffs to what he's doing to enrich himself and his billionaire friends, but the Democrats are going to bring the cost of living down. Also, the political laws of gravity have not been repealed. When a president is unpopular and his policies are unpopular, his party usually suffers in off-year or midterm elections, and that's exactly what happened.
MOORE: We should also say young voters turned out in droves for Democrats, you know, and really elected this - what we can see as a new generation of leaders in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City. You know, historically, young people don't engage heavily in off-year elections, but they kind of carried these candidates to victory, or at least helped carry these candidates to victory. Exit polls show that Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia each received roughly 70% of the under 30 vote.
CHANG: Wow.
MOORE: And in New York City, nearly 80% voted for Zohran Mamdani. You know, I've been talking to Gen Z and millennials about him all week, and they really feel seen by him. I mean, remember, Ailsa, he's only 34. Dillon Robertson is one voter who supported him in Manhattan. He's 32.
DILLON ROBERTSON: People of a younger generation have been really hungry for a long time to have someone who is willing to just take a risk.
MOORE: And, you know, these races that we're talking about all have big differences, but as Mara said, that through line is affordability.
CHANG: OK. Well, as far as Republicans are concerned, President Trump weighed in last night on social media. And he said, yeah, it was not a good night for anybody in the Republican Party. Mara, what did we learn about Republicans last night?
LIASSON: Well, the post was really interesting. Donald Trump said there were two main reasons for the Republican loss. One was the shutdown. He did not call it the Democrat shutdown, as he normally has. And then the other one was him not being on the ballot. And what's so interesting about that is he is never going to be on the ballot again.
CHANG: Right.
LIASSON: And what he was saying was if - I wasn't on the ballot, so we couldn't energize Republicans. But last night showed us that Donald Trump does energize Democrats whether he's on the ballot or not.
CHANG: Well, Elena, how much was President Trump a factor in New York? Because he did endorse Andrew Cuomo, who, of course, ran as an independent and was Mamdani's closest competitor in that mayoral race.
MOORE: Yeah. I mean, Trump is always a factor in some respects. And Mamdani did call out Trump directly in his speech pretty forcefully, vowing not to waver in his values. You know, but I would say that this election in New York City was essentially a choice between two versions of the Democratic Party, two generations of the Democratic Party. You know, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was pushing a message rooted in his experience and, you know, this political pragmatism, while Mamdani ran on challenging literally the Democratic status quo and focused on big, ambitious ideas.
And I think, you know, that the New York City mayor's race is an example and a reminder that, in many liberal places, progressives and young people, especially, have grown increasingly disaffected. And Democrats are going to have to find a way to win them back, and Mamdani's win may be an example of how to do that.
CHANG: Well, Mara, can we talk more about the variation we are seeing inside the Democratic Party? Because Mamdani had a really different political message from the two other Democrats who won last night in New Jersey, in Virginia. What do you take away from the different ways Democrats are carving different paths to victory?
LIASSON: Well, I take away that Democrats have to do that. Virginia and New Jersey are different than New York City. And they're all talking about affordability, but only Mamdani was talking about government-run grocery stores or free buses. In Virginia and New Jersey, they talked about affordability in a different way, bringing down energy costs. And I think that the mark of a mature party is that they can speak to the people who are in front of them.
I don't think you're going to see Mamdani's platform and proposals replicated in anywhere else in the country except for maybe another blue city. But I do think that his social media strategy, the way he campaigned, that's something that Democrats can learn from.
CHANG: Well, Democrats also won out here in California, where voters approved a temporary plan to allow partisan redistricting all through the state. What does all of this tell us about what may be ahead in next year's midterms, you think?
LIASSON: What may be ahead is more partisan redistricting.
CHANG: Yeah.
LIASSON: And I think now California is going to try to carve out five or so Democratic-leaning districts. The president started this all off by asking Texas to find him five more Republican-leaning districts. And this is now, I think, going to become a permanent feature - mid-cycle partisan gerrymandering. And in that game, I still think Republicans have the advantage. They have the ability to redistrict in many more states. And that's going to be one force in this election against the other one, which is that you now have a very unpopular president. You have a very unpopular incumbent party, and voters don't like their policies. And we'll see if the Republicans can gerrymander their way out of what should be a traditional midterm loss.
CHANG: That is NPR's Mara Liasson and Elena Moore. Thank you to both of you.
LIASSON: Thank you.
MOORE: Thanks, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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