Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill speaks to supporters on Election Night, East Brunswick, New Jersey, November 4, 2025 (Amanda Brown/New Jersey Monitor)
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Tuesday’s Elections: The Light Shines Again in the US
UPDATE, NOV 10: I joined BBC Radio Scotland on Sunday for further discussion of Democrat electoral success and whether it can be extended in the fightback against Donald Trump’s damage and wannabe authoritarianism.
To listen, you need to be in the UK or have a VPN:
Listen to Discussion from 1:16.32
This word “affordability”, which surged in these elections — you will hear this all the way through next year’s mid-terms.
There are serious economic issues in the US which have been accelerated by Donald Trump’s chaotic approach to slash Government and support for transport, education, and healthcare.
And there is the contrast in the style of politics that takes in those economic issues. On the one hand, you have a Trump politics of confrontation and division. On the other, you have Democrats saying, “We need a positive politics that we are all in this together.”
Dr Kate Ballantyne of Liverpool John Moores University and I also consider the record-setting US Government shutdown, hours before the Senate voted to end the 40-day closure.
ORIGINAL ENTRY, NOV 9: I joined two top Democratic Party strategists on Times Radio on Saturday to analyze if the Democrats can build on success in Tuesday’s elections from New York City to Virginia to New Jersey to California.
Will Marshall is one of the founders of the New Democrat movement in the 1990s and has been President of the Progessive Policy Institute since 1989. Mark Longabaugh was a senior advisor to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential campaign.
In the 23-minute discussion, I set out the possibilities, highlighted by the state and local elections, of a “positive politics” versus Donald Trump’s negative approach.
“Us v. them” and “enemies within” might have worked for Trump in opposition. But when you present voters with that when they have these day-to-day issues, that division and confrontation does not necessarily work.
Marshall and Longabaugh debate what that means for policies and personalities. Can Tuesday’s success be extended across all 50 states next November?
