Politics

Biden’s revenge: His alumni are winning in the midterms

Published

60 minutes ago

November 4, 2026

Joe Biden was unceremoniously ushered out of the White House two years ago.

On Tuesday, he got a small measure of revenge.

Prominent Biden administration alumni are winning in a handful of notable races, with Keisha Lance Bottoms — the one-time Atlanta mayor turned Biden’s senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement — leading the pack by flipping Georgia’s governorship.

The victories, his former staffers say, are an important part of rehabilitating his legacy within a Democratic Party that all but banished him in 2024.

“It’s proof that President Biden assembled a talented team of public servants — who the public is calling on now to help turn this country around,” said Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff. “These fantastic men and women will make life more affordable, health care more available, protect our rights, fight corruption, and make our country stronger.”

Biden was not a regular on the trail this year, and most Democrats kept their distance from the former president. But he did weigh in on a handful of primaries, helping put loyal lieutenants in front of voters who still held him in high regard.

While Bottoms was the highest profile victory, there’s a number of Biden alumni also poised to head to Washington. Gabe Amo, who won a 2023 special election in a blue Rhode Island seat, secured his first full term in Congress. And Dan Koh, who won Massachusetts’ 6th District to succeed Rep. Seth Moulton, was Biden’s deputy Cabinet secretary and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

He leaned into his Biden endorsement throughout the campaign and this week reposted a video of a phone call he and his family had with Joe and Jill Biden on primary night in September.

“Mr. President and Madame first lady, thank you so much for all of your support,” he told them. “It wouldn’t have been possible without both of you. … You changed my life by giving me a job of a lifetime. And you got my back the minute I decided to run.”

Biden’s Cabinet also had a strong night in other governor races. Xavier Becerra, Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, had a solid polling lead over Republican Steve Hilton in the race to be California’s next governor going into Tuesday. And, Deb Haaland, Biden’s Interior secretary, was projected to win the New Mexico governor race.

“In his farewell speech, President Biden warned that ‘an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy,’” said Andrew Bates, the former president’s longtime spokesperson. “He urged his team and supporters to keep standing up for the values that we all care about, including decency, hard work, and a sense of national community. On the ballot and off, a whole lot of his alumni are fighting to carry on that legacy.”

Politics

Democrats sweep Texas

Published

15 minutes ago

November 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

AUSTIN — Democrats’ vision of a blue Texas is finally here.

James Talarico has been elected a U.S. senator and Gina Hinojosa as governor, the first Democrats to win either office in more than a generation. The four other statewide candidates are leading as ballots continue to be counted. Democrats further down the ballot are leading some red districts, changing the complexion of the state legislature, congressional delegation and courts.

“It’s something that I haven’t seen in decades, that none of us have seen in decades,” said former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate Republican.

It’s an outcome that even the most bullish Democrats didn’t dare enunciate in the late days of the election. But as results have poured in Tuesday night, the party is outpacing its expectations across the country’s second most populous state amidst a national romp.

Both Hinojosa’s and Talarico’s victory margins came by running up vote counts in Texas’ deep-blue urban centers and while also leading in the largest Republican-led county in the country, Tarrant County. They reversed Republican gains across the Latino-heavy Rio Grande Valley region, an ancestrally Democratic area that had swung hard to the right in recent years. Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez romped to a near-20 point victory in a seat Republicans drew to favor them during last year’s redrawing of the state’s House map, ousting a top Republican recruit who campaigned alongside Speaker Mike Johnson to begin election day.

It amounts to a set of remarkable results in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988 and to the governor’s mansion since 1990. In recent cycles, Democrats have tried and failed to flip the state in presidential and U.S. Senate contests but have been largely uncompetitive for state offices. But Tuesday’s blue wave slammed into Texas particularly hard, as it combined frustrations over the economy, immigration enforcement, data centers and corruption with a collapse of Trump’s 2024 coalition.

“We reminded voters that Republicans have been in charge in Texas for 30 years. That every problem we have, was caused by Republicans,” Michelle Lowe Solis, chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party. “They aren’t going to fix the problems, they caused them.”

As votes continue to be counted, Democrats appear poised to blunt the impact of Republicans’ attempted gerrymander, likely sweeping the Rio Grande Valley congressional seats while holding onto another San Antonio-area district drawn to favor Republicans. In state Supreme Court races, they lead in all four seats up for grabs, potentially turning a 9-0 conservative majority into a 5-4 split. Among the first 36 state house races called by the Associated Press, 34 have gone to Democrats and just two to Republicans.“Voters aren’t dumb,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC. “Even though the Republicans have tried to cheat with the series of gerrymanders, that has, I think, only made voters in those areas more willing to participate.”

Talarico’s and Hinojosa’s victories will be felt nationally. Texas Democrats, who have long asked for national money and resources in a state where elections are costly, now have a test case of how to win. And it will bolster their arguments that their state, with 40 electoral votes, should be treated as a presidential battleground.

Ali Bianco and Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.

Politics

The blue wave is cresting: GOP braces for midterm wipeout

Published

35 minutes ago

November 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Just a few hours into election night, Republicans acknowledged what appeared to be a historic midterm defeat — a long-feared “blue wave” that had started washing across the nation.

The extent of the washout became clear soon after polls closed: Republicans lost a South Carolina Senate seat for the first time in nearly 30 years. Democrats nipped on the heels of House incumbents in deep red Florida districts. And the man in charge of the party’s House reelection effort was at grave risk of losing his own seat.

By 10 p.m., Democrats had already flipped three GOP House seats — itself enough to win a majority if Republicans can’t make gains elsewhere — and many in the party feared dozens more could follow as voters registered their dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump.

Voters in Texas, a ruby-red state for a generation, appeared at risk of handing multiple statewide races to Republicans and possible control of the legislature. Joe Straus, a former state House speaker, cast it as a historic rebuke of an unpopular president.

“President Trump hasn’t exactly done any Republicans favors across the country,” he said on a Blue Light News election night broadcast. “They haven’t done themselves favors, frankly, by following so closely along.”

Many of the political professionals charged with getting GOP candidates elected in this environment said the results could be potentially historic in nature.

“We are looking at tsunami territory,” said one national Republican operative who, like others, was granted anonymity to candidly describe the returns.

“This is the worst electoral defeat in my lifetime and likely in history,” said another GOP operative working on battleground races. “Trump said his name and record was on the ballot and people responded — resoundingly.”

At an ill-fated victory party for Senate candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina, staff were already packing up the room less than two hours after polls closed. Returns showed Democrat Roy Cooper on track to win by as many as 20 points in a race that was supposed to have been tooth-and-nail.

Standing in the room, one North Carolina Republican openly pondered what many others in the party had long avoided saying openly — that it was finally time to think about life after Trump.

“Trump has done some excellent things, and I appreciate that. But it can’t be the party of Trump forever,” said Jonathan Fletcher, a former GOP county chair. “If the Republican Party is going to be serious about winning, we have to be serious about winning people in the middle.”

Nearly every state, district and county shows movement toward Democrats, from counties that Trump won three times to blue strongholds where Democrats are improving their margins. County-level data shows Democrats doing on average more than 5 points better than Kamala Harris did in the 2024 presidential race.

That suggests that districts Trump won by double digits just two years ago are in reach for Democrats.

The losses threatened to pile up even after Republican candidates, committees and super PACs spent massive sums in an effort to retain control of Congress — including more than $380 million from President Donald Trump’s political operation.

“I can’t believe how these House races aren’t close given the amount spent,” a senior Senate GOP operative said. Another senior Senate GOP official called it a “bloodbath.”

Many of the Republicans said the war in Iran, which sent voters’ gas prices soaring, and continued frustration with the economy drove frustration with a party that won on those same issues in 2024.

On top of that some quickly vented about substandard candidates — such as Darline Graham in the South Carolina Senate race and Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate contest.

“Not only were folks upset about the war, inflation and gas prices, but add to that the fact they think he was making them eat a shit sandwich in Darline, and they just had enough,” said Mick Mulvaney, a former Trump White House chief of staff and South Carolina congressman.

Trump said on Truth Social his own absence from the ballot for the drastic Republican underperformance — even after barnstorming the country begging Republicans to “vote like I’m on the ballot.”

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Other Republicans were ready to blame Trump’s own decisions.

“Republicans got their asses kicked tonight because of the Iran war — plain and simple. Everything else is just noise and spin,” said a person close to the White House.

Meanwhile, power in Washington was already shifting. The likely next chair of the House Oversight Committee, who has been gearing up for massive probes into the Trump administration, issued a two-word statement Tuesday addressed to administration officials and the “Trump Crime Family.”

“Lawyer up,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California said.

Will Steakin, Erin Doherty, Lauren Fedor, Ashley Ahn and Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.

Politics

Poll: Republican voters want their party to talk more about the economy

Published

12 hours ago

November 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans don’t think their party is focused enough on their biggest issue.

The economy — and specifically the cost of living — is far and away voters’ top concern, and new results from The POLITICO Poll reveal a warning sign for the GOP just hours before polls close: There’s a stark disconnect between what Republican midterm voters want their party to focus on and what they say the party actually is focusing on.

Nearly half of Americans — 47% — say cost of living and affordability are among the issues that matter most when they are deciding how to vote. That includes a 44% plurality of Republican midterm voters and 54% of Democratic midterm voters. The economy and jobs ranked second.

But when asked which issues matter most to their party, a 39% plurality of Republican voters cited immigration and deportations as a top priority for the GOP. Just 23% said the party’s top priority was cost of living and affordability — a 21-point gap from the share who said it was a top voting concern.

Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters also say they want to hear more about the economy and cost of living from their party.

It’s a clear signal that voters wanted the GOP to stay focused on affordability, even as some Republicans and President Donald Trump continued to lean into culture war attacks — from transgender athletes in women’s sports to calling Texas’ Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico “tofu Talarico.”

In recent speeches, Trump has often prioritized other topics — including cultural issues, the Reflecting Pool and, yes, GOP candidates’ rear ends — over the economy.

If Democrats win the midterms, “you will have a 1929 style economic depression,” Trump told a crowd in Daytona Beach, Florida this Friday. He added immediately after: “Because when you hear men in women’s sports, when you hear transgender, when you hear about — you know, open borders and all — everything they have is crazy.”

Meanwhile, there isn’t the same dissonance on Democrats’ side: A plurality of Democratic voters pointed to cost of living and affordability as a top priority for their party, the poll found.

The findings expose a potential messaging vulnerability for Republicans heading into Election Day: Even among voters planning to support the party, there is a perception that GOP leaders are not devoting enough attention to the cost of living concerns weighing most heavily on Americans. Trump’s own agenda — his tariffs and his decision to involve the U.S. in a war with Iran — has roiled the country and key races that could determine balance of power in Congress.

“Well, I don’t think it’s good for Republicans,” Republican strategist Jeff Burton said of the poll results. “But it makes sense, because most of the Republicans’ campaign message hasn’t evolved around that and what affordability and cost of living really is. And it’s hard to tout it when every street corner has gas prices $2 or more than they were just a few months ago.”

The survey, conducted by PF Global the weekend before the election, underscores the messaging challenge that has dogged Republican candidates throughout the cycle.

Candidates in races up and down the ballot have zeroed in on economic talking points: Campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $800 million on ads focusing on affordability, including roughly $401 million from Democratic-aligned groups and $311 million from Republican-aligned groups, according to a POLITICO analysis of primarily TV ad data from the tracking firm AdImpact.

Still, the GOP has struggled to effectively convince voters that it is doing enough to fix an issue voters also hold them responsible for.

Some Republican strategists think that disconnect comes down to one person: Trump.

“I mean, look at what he’s doing today,” said longtime Arizona Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin on the eve of the election. ”He’s going in front of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. He’s drawing attention back to his monument exhibition.”

“It’s phenomenal how off message he is, and how that has burdened the party with his narrative, which doesn’t come close to talking about what Americans care about,” Coughlin continued. “I mean, he’s pretty much said time and time again, he doesn’t care. You know, he thinks affordability is a hoax.”

At the end of last week, Trump made three campaign stops in Florida, South Carolina and Ohio. Across all of those speeches, he spent just over 10% of his time talking about the economy and the cost of living, according to a Blue Light News analysis.

That’s significantly less than the amount of time he spent talking about culture war issues and other topics unrelated to the affordability crisis. He spent more minutes advocating for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to resign and zeroing in on the Dan Sullivan ballot controversy in Alaska than he did talking about prices and inflation, for example.

Guns, transgender issues, and renaming landmarks took up more of his focus than taxes, tariffs, and drug prices combined.

“President Trump has delivered on his promise to provide relief to hardworking families, securing more than $82 billion in individual tax relief from No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, the Enhanced Senior Deduction, and No Tax on Car Loan Interest,” White House spokesperson Matthew Middleton said in a statement.

RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said “Democrats’ far-left policies will decimate” Republicans’ progress and that Trump “has criss crossed the nation to drive voters to the polls to support our Republican candidates who will build on these achievements over the next two years.”

The Blue Light News Poll suggests there is relatively little appetite among Republican midterm voters for more discussion of some of the cultural issues that have featured prominently in Trump’s political messaging.

Just 10% of Republican midterm voters said they want to hear more about “wokeness and DEI” from the party, when asked to select two issues from a list of options. And only 6% of Republican midterm voters and 5% of Democratic midterm voters identified race, DEI and “wokeness” as among their top voting concerns.

By contrast, 64% of Republican midterm voters said they want to hear more about the economy and cost of living and 42% said the same about immigration and border security.

The results also underscore just how thoroughly the economy has dominated this election cycle, relegating issues that played prominent roles in past elections — including abortion rights and transgender issues — to the sidelines.

“If Republican voters actually feel that their number one issue isn’t being addressed, then that is definitely going to affect turnout,” said Burton, the GOP strategist. “And the worry could be that, ‘okay, they turn out, but do they actually vote Democrat or split their ticket?’”