TJRS SPECIAL COVERAGE – Election Night Watch Party | The Joy Reid Show LIVE!

Summary

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The Joy Reid Show: SPECIAL COVERAGE – Election Night Watch Party (Nov 5, 2025)

Overview

On this special live edition of The Joy Reid Show, Joy-Ann Reid gathers a panel of political commentators and special guests for real-time analysis and reaction to the crucial off-year Election Night 2025 results. With major races in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and California on the line, the conversation centers on voter discontent, affordability issues, the impact of Trump-era politics, and a wave of historic, diverse victories—most notably, the election of Zoran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor and Abigail Spanberger's victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Election Night Energy

• The episode opens with Joy-Ann Reid engaging with the live chat and setting a celebratory, energetic tone, highlighting the historical significance of the night and the show's new media format.
• Joy repeatedly encourages hydration, participation, and engagement, welcoming "old cable days" friends—Rev. Mark Thompson (Make It Plain Radio) and David Jolly (former GOP Congressman, now a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida).

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2. The National Mood: Voters "Screaming for Change"

• David Jolly spotlights a “wave of anger and frustration” from voters over unchecked costs—housing, healthcare, tuition, utilities—and describes an “affordability crisis gripping the country.”
• Jolly links these anxieties to an impending political backlash, especially in Florida:
  • “Voters are screaming for change and they're pissed off... The affordability crisis is crippling people.” (02:44)
  • Predicts big Democratic victories, emphasizes a non-ideological hunger for responsive leadership.

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3. Bomb Threats & Voter Suppression Tactics

• Panelists note alarming bomb threats in New York and New Jersey, seen as attempts to depress turnout and intimidate marginalized voters.
• Zoran Mamdani’s reaction:
  • “It is an illustration of the attacks we're seeing on our democracy... in the manner of these bomb threats... a general approach the Trump administration has taken to trying to intimidate voters with baseless allegations of voter fraud…” (04:53)

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4. The Virginia Race—Abigail Spanberger's Win & Lessons on Identity Politics

• Mark Thompson breaks down the meaning of Spanberger’s defeat of Winsome Sears, discussing why Obama endorsed Spanberger over Sears despite shared racial identity:
  • Points out that many on the right accuse Democrats of “identity politics,” while demanding loyalty from Black voters based strictly on race:
  • “They think Black people just support Black people because they're Black...but it's about policy, not just identity.” (13:07)
• The show plays a “supercut” of Winsome Sears interviews and soundbites, underscoring her alignment with MAGA ideology, opposition to reproductive and LGBTQ rights, and eccentric approach:
  • Thompson: “When we look at Republican Black MAGA candidates, they all fit that eccentric bill…and become self-caricatures.” (16:12)

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5. Meritocracy, Diversity, and GOP Hypocrisy

• David Jolly delivers a powerful case for “inclusive excellence,” arguing that diversity actually strengthens meritocracy, and rebuffing GOP critiques of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion):
  • “In any walk of life... I want our leadership team to look like our state because it's a moral right and it improves our meritocracy... Diversity improves our leadership.” (18:04)
• Joy & Mark Thompson attack Republican claims to value meritocracy, highlighting Trump hires unqualified “TV personalities” for major administration jobs:
  • “They don't believe in meritocracy at all... It's just whoever is out there saying the most inflammatory thing.” (23:23)

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6. The Impact of the Government Shutdown

• The recent government shutdown, its disparate impact on federal workers (especially in Virginia, DC, Maryland), and rising economic anxiety are repeatedly cited as key factors influencing the Democratic surge.
  • Jolly: “Most people are blaming Republicans because they control everything... 51% of [Florida] doesn't have enough savings to last two weeks.” (29:30)

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7. Defiant Progressive Messaging and the Rise of the Working Families Party

• Guests and chat hail the breakthrough victories of progressives, particularly Zoran Mamdani in NYC.
• Maurice Mitchell (Working Families Party) discusses “fusion voting” and the party’s coalition strategy:
  • “This is a watershed moment... If you wanted to win in 2025, you had to focus on affordability.” (68:51)
• The huge, diverse turnout—especially by young voters, immigrants, and working-class people—is seen as a repudiation of both Trumpism and “corporate Democratic” caution:
  • “People are tired of status quo politics... They want to believe that there are a group of leaders that are willing to fight for them.” (89:27)

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8. Historic Firsts and Notable Momentum

• Zoran Mamdani: First Muslim, African-born, democratic socialist mayor of NYC, winning more than 1 million votes—a modern record (120:42).
  • Dean Obeidallah: “This is every nightmare of the right come to fruition... Younger Muslims are more defiant than ever. They're not gonna be quiet.” (92:57, 101:51)
• Ghazala Hashmi: First Muslim woman elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (71:26).
• Multiple Black women win mayoral and statewide races across the South and New York.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Joy-Ann Reid [on the expanding “big tent”]:

  • “We need a tent big enough for the emerging young progressive and the last Blue Dog standing. Those are our values. But they're so much bigger than our party.” (59:25)

• On the meaning of the night:

  • Mark Thompson: “I can't, I'm. Look, I can't. I don't see a loss tonight. Anywhere where anyone has lost a step.” (108:51)

• On accountability:

  • Mark: “We genuflect too much. We need to be holding them accountable. The work begins tonight—it doesn't end tonight.” (121:53)
  • Joy: “Do not make the same mistake that people made when Barack Obama won... Now the work begins.” (123:36)

• Dean Obeidallah:

  • “We have to call this class warfare... Don’t be afraid of saying the wealthy have to pay their fair share and get big money out of politics.” (119:54)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:44] David Jolly on national voter discontent and affordability
• [04:53] Zoran Mamdani on bomb threats and voter intimidation
• [13:07] Joy-Ann Reid on identity politics: why Black voters didn't back Sears
• [16:12] Mark Thompson on the “eccentric” style of Black MAGA candidates
• [18:04]–[21:29] Jolly, Joy, and Thompson on DEI and real meritocracy
• [27:44] Government shutdown's electoral impact, especially in Virginia and Florida
• [47:54] Jolly outlines his campaign strategy for Florida governor
• [56:31] Mark Thompson: Big-tent success as evidence of anti-Trump mood
• [68:51] Maurice Mitchell (Working Families Party) on the new coalition and affordability focus
• [92:02] Projection: Mamdani wins NYC mayor—first Muslim, African-born, socialist mayor
• [105:27] Virginia counties shift blue; historic swing away from Trump
• [121:53] Mark Thompson’s challenge: vigilance & accountability post-victory

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Election Results Round-Up (as discussed on-air)

• Virginia:
  • Abigail Spanberger (D) wins governor (55.4%), defeating Winsome Sears (R).
  • Ghazala Hashmi (D): 1st Muslim woman Lieutenant Governor.
  • Jay Jones (D): wins Attorney General.
• New Jersey:
  • Mikie Sherrill (D) wins governorship in a solid victory.
  • Sanctuary state policy preserved.
• New York:
  • Zoran Mamdani (WFP/Democratic fusion): wins NYC Mayor, first with >1M votes in two generations.
  • Wave of progressive, Working Families Party-aligned victories.
• Georgia:
  • Alicia Johnson: Black woman wins statewide Public Service Commission.

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Tone and Style

The episode is dynamic, unscripted, warm, and direct—anchored by Joy-Ann Reid’s signature wit (“Florida shouldn’t have an asshole as a governor… just keeping it real.” 61:10) but also layered with sharp political analysis, grounded hope for progressive coalition-building, and repeated calls for accountability and continued effort.

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• 2025’s Election Night marked a powerful rebuke of Trump/MAGA politics, with voters reacting against chaos, inaction, and economic anxiety by delivering wins for Democrats across the spectrum—from pragmatic centrists to insurgent progressives and democratic socialists.
• Young voters and cultural minorities—Muslim, Black, working-class—formed the backbone of the turnout wave, embracing candidates who spoke authentically to affordability and refused to play safe or triangulate.
• The Democratic Party’s future, guests agree, lies in a boldly “big-tent” vision—one unafraid to address economic justice, diversity, and working-class issues, and to challenge both Republican extremism and the party’s own establishment hesitancy.
• The real work begins now: Delivering on promises, holding electeds accountable, and sustaining turnout and engagement to prevent a repeat of 2010 and 2014 midterm collapses.

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“People are tired of status quo politics. They want to believe that there are a group of leaders that are willing to fight for them…”
— Maurice Mitchell (89:27)

“Now the work begins.”
— Joy-Ann Reid (123:36)

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[A]

Party polls closing all over the country. Virginia polls have already closed. The race has already been called. Rachel Maddow already calling Virginia for Abigail Spamberger. But we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about all of the elections that are happening around the country, including that ballot initiative in California. We've got a ton to talk about. Big up to the chats. Hello to everybody in the chats. We see you, especially the folks who are like literally in the chat before we even started waiting to jump on. Thanks to our team, TJRS members. Big ups to everybody that are also listening on substack, on Instagram, on TikTok. I think we even got some folks watching on LinkedIn. Like, wherever you're listening right now, you're exactly where you need to be. We appreciate you being here tonight. Hope you are well hydrated. I am well hydrated. You know, I had to have majority show cup because, you know, you got to keep drinking water. I also have myself some cucumber water because you can never have too many cucumbers and too much veg. So hopefully you guys are staying very well. You know, you know, caffeinate it if you need caffeine because it could be a late night. We think the California race could take a long time, but we want to make sure that everybody is comfortable, happy, hydrated and ready to go. I have got a very blessed evening of guests tonight. We've got a lot of people hanging out, but for the first hour of the show, I have two co hosts and I'm really excited about them. Let's bring them on right now. My good friends, Mark Thompson, the Rev, Reverend Mark Thompson from Make It Plain Radio, as well as David Jolly. You know him, you love him. We used to hang out on Ms. Nash now is what they call themselves now. We used to hang out a lot, but we are back together again. Two of your favorite guests from the old cable days. But we're here in new media, y', all, because this is the new way that things go. And I want to welcome both of you all to this special. Let me start out by going around the table. Before I do around the table, let me remind everybody, hit that like button, please. Hit that, like, hit that share button. Hit the notification button as well. That way you'll never miss it when we go live because sometimes we surprise you. I know we're Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but every so often we just go off script. And we decided to go live like we did tonight because we're like, hey, it's Election night. We might as well be here. Thank you very much to the people in the chat saying they're happy to be here. Is that Maria Alcindo? Thank you very much. Appreciate y'. All. Let's go. Indeed. I want to go around the horn, and I want to start with you, David. I cannot believe this is the first time. Is this the first time you're being on the show? I think so. Let me let you start first by giving us your impressions of any of the races, including the fact that it appears that Abigail Spring has prevailed in the state of Virginia.

[B]

Yeah. Joy, first of all, can I tell you how excited I am to be with you?

[A]

I think this is the first time, which is crazy. Okay. Because literally exactly one of my favorite favorites. Yes. So welcome, David, officially, to the Team TJR as family. Your thoughts on tonight, because I know you're running for governor, too. You're thinking about it. So let's talk about the Virginia race.

[B]

I'm running for governor in Florida, and what I'm excited about tonight is I get to tell the nation. Florida's next. Florida's next. Because what we are going to see tonight is that voters are screaming for change. Joy, this is. I've done 113 community events in Florida, and the one thing I can tell you is voters are screaming for change and they're pissed off. They're really mad that nobody's listening to them. And so we know there is an affordability crisis that's gripping the entire country. It presents itself in different ways in different states. Right. And, and many states, it's access to housing, affordable housing for either home ownership or for renters. Some places it's car insurance. Some places it's utility payments, frankly, in our states that have adopted universal vouchers for education now, now families are getting hit with a tuition bill just for the kids to go to elementary school. There's an affordability crisis that is crippling people at a time when the government is stopping food security programs, reducing access to affordable health care. And people are pissed off. And so, look, we're going to see big Democratic gubernatorial wins, I think, tonight, which allow me to say to the nations, Florida's next, because this change is happening in the Sunshine State soon. And I think you can also even say in the New York City's mayor's race, look, there's so much kind of circular firing squad politics around Mandami. The fact is Mandami is listening to voters who are pissed off and Cuomo and other politicians aren't.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's why he's going to win today.

[A]

Let's talk about that, Mark Thompson, because, you know, the mayor's race this morning in New York and the race in New Jersey started off with bomb threats across New Jersey, bomb threats all around, and also in certain parts of New York. Jason, this is a 17, I believe it is that. I want to just let you all listen to what Mamdani actually had to say about that. If. Jason, if you can throw a 17 up, this is what Mamdani had to say about it. Oh, a 17. Oh, wait, is that a 17? I got it wrong. Got it wrong. A 16. A 16. Sorry about that. A 16. I'm gonna get to a 17. But a. I think that it is.

[B]

An illustration of the attacks we're seeing on our democracy. Sometimes they're blatant and explicit in the manner of these bomb threats. And we have to understand this as part of the general approach. The Trump administration has taken to trying to intimidate voters with baseless allegations of voter fraud as a means of trying to repress the voice of Americans across this country.

[A]

And, Mark, you know, a lot of people are saying that the Abigail Spanberger victory, which is now a fait accompli, and what Mamdani's doing in New York, are the two polar opposites of the party. But to David's point, I think what both represent is a very. A great dissatisfaction with one person, Donald Trump and his regime.

[C]

And.

[A]

And the fact that rather than fulfill his promise of making things cheaper, everything's much, much, much more expensive. And also everything's chaotic. What do you make of the result in Virginia and of the fact that, once again, just as happened in the 2024 election, in places like Fulton County, Georgia, we get bomb threats, and in this case, they were apparently fake bomb threats in New Jersey.

[D]

Well, first of all, Joy, thank you for having me. Good to see you. Feels like old times again. Good to see David as well. I didn't know you were going to run, David, man. Let me know what we need to do.

[A]

There you go.

[D]

We got you on that, but we got to get that done. So. Yeah, that's interesting. Two opposites, you know, Abigail Spanberger representing, you know, I guess some. Someone more moderate. Mom, Dani, someone they perceive or. Or say is. Is more radical. Although, you know, I. Because I'm radical. I don't see him as radical. And I'm. And I'm a New Yorker.

[B]

Right.

[D]

But it shows unanimity in terms of those different camps that. You're right, Joy. Shows unanimity against Donald Trump. People are, people are over that. And I think this, this bodes well in a state like Virginia. Virginia has always annoyed me somewhat because governors cannot succeed themselves. And as we know, every term it goes Democrat, Republican, Republican. I think recently was the first time two Democrats went back to back. But this is, this is an important win and it speaks to the political acumen of the people in Virginia because there was some media who really did not even want to cover winsome Earl Sears in the way she needed to be covered as a pretty ridiculous person. You know, it was, it was, sometimes the coverage was just too even handed. Oh, the Virginia, like it was very casual today. Virginia was definitely going to elect the first woman. Well, wait a minute. No, I mean, both of them are women, but one of them is that, that can't, that can't be. So this is, this is big news in, in Virginia. Associated Press is reporting that Democrats are, are suing now for polls to stay open a little bit longer in New Jersey because of the bomb. I think ABC News is reporting maybe there was even some arrest in that. But what are we seeing? We are seeing, we, we thought things couldn't get worse, but we are literally reliving the type of voter suppression that happened after Reconstruction and the troops were pulled out. The, the violence, the threats, this, this crazy gerrymandering and redistricting that's going on and the Voting Rights act, the vra. Joy, you and I are in some, almost every year is, is being undone before our very eyes. So glad people got out to vote today. I think it's going to be a good night for Democrats. But still we have to be ever vigilant and we have to be concerned about the ongoing attacks to our voting rights.

[A]

Yeah. And we're going to come back to New Jersey because New Jersey is going to be the tightest probably of the races and we're going to come back to it. But I do want to stick with Virginia for just a moment. Before I do that, let me go through some of the poll closing times. Arizona polls, and I believe these are all east coast times have closed. Connecticut has elections tonight. They close at 8. So that's closed. Now you've got Illinois that has 7pm Close. Indiana has a 6pm Kentucky also 6pm Louisiana had an 8pm Maine is interesting. We're going to be watching this Maine race. This is for municipalities with a population 500 or more. Polls can stay open until 8pm for those with a population between less than 500, polls stay open until 8pm we have Missouri, 7pm New Jersey, 8pm New York, 9pm that's the latest of the poll closings tonight. And obviously Virginia is closed and that race is already called. But to stay with you just for a moment, Mark, because there was an interesting thing that happened in this Virginia race. The right kind of crashed out about the fact that you have this African American woman who's the sitting lieutenant governor of Virginia, and yet you had President, the former President Obama come out and stump for Abigail Spanberger rather than her. And it's this interesting thing where conservatives say they don't like identity politics and they're opposed to it. They're not really that opposed to it when it comes to somebody that's on their side. Jason, let's put up a 10. This was just a representative post of several that I saw on social media where people were getting very, very upset that Winsome Sears was not being treated as sort of an historic figure. And it says here Winsome Sears were a Democrat. It really was a Democrat. She'd be on every magazine cover and mainstream media would be extolling her at every opportunity. But since Sears has an R next to her name, they pretend she doesn't exist. If Spanberger loses, it will be due to misogyny. Well, she didn't lose. Let's go to now A11. This was another one. Also representative of the kind of, you know, stuff that people were saying in a 11. Also, there's another one. They're saying that, you know, she is a female. She's a military veteran, an immigrant, a black woman. She would be the first black woman governor of a state in. She won, which is wild, in 2025. But because she's a Republican, they hate her. Yada, yada, yada. And, and, and, and let me, Let me play one more. I'm gonna play a video. This is Winsome saying it herself. This is a 17. This is the video. A 17. And this is her also complaining before the election that she's claiming there's a double standard, including in Barack Obama supporting Abigail Spamberger. Jason, let me know when you got president.

[E]

Remember, Obama was supposed to be the president of hope and change. Whatever happened to all that? Where is the hope, Mr. President? Where is the change? President Obama, of course, we know it's all hypocrisy. And then, of course, last year this time, he told everybody to vote for the black woman. Well, Charlie, here I am, right? Here I am. And now he's singing a different tune. Hypocrisy. All the way. But the Virginia voters are seeing through that because we are for common sense, and my opponent, Abigail Spamberger, is for nonsense.

[F]

You know, you raise a really important point, and I. And I really honestly do not understand it because we did go through years of lectures about how important it was to vote for Barack Obama to be this historic first black candidate. And then afterwards, we were told that this was the greatest thing and it.

[G]

Was going to solve all these problems.

[F]

Of course it didn't. And in fact, over. You know, polls show that over the eight years of his presidency, race relations actually deteriorated badly in this country. And then for him to have an opportunity to help out the first black female governor, by the way, of a state that elected the first black governor in the United States.

[G]

Explain to me where.

[F]

What. What are we missing? How does it. I can't square this.

[E]

Yeah, yeah, you can't square. It doesn't make any sense. I told you, these people are for nonsense. If I have to tell you that water is wet, then what are we talking about? We don't even have a means to come to some agreement. The Democrats, as far as I see, they continue to fight the Civil War. Everything is racism. Everything is color. Everything is this issue. Well, here I am, an immigrant to this wonderful country, and I am dispelling all of those narratives that, no, there are opportunities in America if you avail yourself of them, because I'm the one whose father came to America with only $1.75.

[A]

Okay, okay. Winsome Earl Sears. I love that name, by the way. I have a child named Winso. But it is an interesting way that they think. Think about that. They think black people just support black people because they're black and that they just voted for Barack Obama because he was black, not because he actually agreed with them on policy or had policies that align with Africa or the majority of African Americans. But before I let you weigh in, Mark, I just need to play a super cut of Winsome Earl Sears, because if he said he. The guy, whoever the guy's name is, he said he couldn't put his armor. He couldn't understand why Barack Obama would not endorse Winsome Earl Sears when they're both black because they think that's what black people are supposed to do just right. That person's black, and that person's black. You got to endorse them. Let me just explain to you, sir News Guy, why she didn't get Barack Obama's endorsement. Which one is that? This is a. No. It is a 12. A 12. We're jumping around a little bit. Sorry about that.

[E]

A 12 life is going to hit you hard and you have to be prepared for it. You come out of the womb, you screaming. That ought to be an indication of how things are going to be. Folks, we gotta win in November.

[A]

I want to vote for the person.

[E]

Our rogue nations are afraid of.

[A]

And that was Donald Trump. He didn't start no wars.

[E]

I am speaking. I am speaking.

[A]

I am speaking.

[E]

My opponent's only plan is solar and wind.

[A]

Well, what happens when the sun goes down? There is nothing serious.

[G]

A flashlight.

[D]

You know, it's important on Halloween.

[A]

Lightning way and everything.

[E]

But we always know who our enemy is and we've got huge firepower. And furthermore, we're coming with all kinds of, you know, flak jackets, everything. We've got grenades even and we're going to use them. But you don't. Your enemies are people who look like yourself. There are our fellow citizens and we don't know what you're facing.

[A]

Let's not talk about what's happening with Ukraine. When you are willing to kill a child up until the day that the baby could be born, go get the mirror and ask yourself if you're okay with this kind of thing. I don't care whether you're libertarian, Democrat, Reform Party, green. I don't care who you are. Murder is murder and one day it's going to be your turn. My opponent has previously said that she does not think that gay couples should be allowed to marry. She has said that she quote unquote, morally. My opponent has also previously said that she thinks it's okay for someone to be fired from their job for being gay. That is discrimination.

[B]

Ms. Bberger, your time is.

[E]

I am speaking.

[A]

I am speaking. I am speaking. So Mark, can you figure out why Barack Obama didn't endorse her?

[D]

Look, that, that I am speaking thing. Oh, it's, you know, the most diplomatic way to describe her, God bless her, is being eccentric. That's, that's the nicest thing we can say. Yeah, but look y', all, let's be real. When we look at Republican African American candidates or Afro Caribbean candidates, whatever the case may be, when we look at Republican black MAGA candidates, they all kind of fit that eccentric bill and are extreme and become self caricatures. And in the case, I mean we can look at a study over the years in the case of, of winsome Earl Sears, she even became, I mean she even presented herself as self misogynistic. She, she attacked women, women's reproductive rights and that's just not Gonna Wash in 2025. That's not going to get you over. So of course he would not endorse her. Absolutely not. And that thankfully the Virginia voters got it and didn't go for the Okie doke and didn't go for the pressure of saying, well, why won't we elect a black woman? She's a very different black woman than is Kamala Harris, that is for sure.

[A]

Yeah. And I just want to let you all know what the race is over. And it was not even close. 55.4% Abigail Spanberger, David Jolly, 44.4% for winsome Earl Sears and yourself as a former Republican, a recovering Republican who has not identified with the party since Donald Trump came down that escalator. What is it about the party that seems to gravitate toward this kind of extreme? Because it does work in some elections. I mean, she is the sitting lieutenant governor. She did get elected once.

[B]

Yeah. Look, MAGA is a cultural movement more than it is a political movement. And when we try to justify it through a political lens, it gets really hard to understand, understand the rationality behind it. But as a cultural movement that preys on these darker themes that we've often talked about, the racism, the xenophobia, the anti immigrant, the darker themes that emerge from conversations around white nationalism, that becomes a cultural movement more than a political one. But I want to stick on this conversation because, listen, as Democrats coming off of a cycle where DEI really hurt us, we've got to get this right. But getting it right does not mean walking away from our values. Getting it right means amplifying our values. Listen, in my governor's race in Florida, this is a very real issue. And I will tell you the way I talk about it and expose what I think Republicans are showing us in this Virginia race and in this inability to understand why Obama would endorse Spanberger. Look, I talk about inclusive excellence. I talk about diversity, improving our meritocracy, not diluting it. And what do I mean by that? In any walk of life, certainly in an administration, I want to build, in a campaign leadership team. I want to build. I want our leadership team to look like our state because it's a moral right to do so. But it also improves. It improves our leadership and our meritocracy. I'm not trying to hire unqualified people. I'm trying to hire qualified people with diverse life experiences. Right. I'm a 52 year old white guy with salt and pepper hair. I bring a certain life experience growing up in a rural home of a. Of a minister. But that's very different than somebody else's life experience and the next person's life experience. And so when we bring highly qualified people together from different walks of life, different cultures, different communities who have had different challenges, different life experiences, that improves our meritocracy. It's inclusive excellence. And I think what we are seeing exposed by Republicans in this moment is their inability to recognize the substantive qualifications, and in this case, of people of color. Right? So when they use DEI as this broad brush, the baseline to that joy is that somehow people of color aren't as qualified as, I guess, white people. Right. The whole notion is that if diversity is actually an aim, that somehow that is not a reflection of meritocracy. That's a weakness, because maybe people of color are substantively less qualified. That's an exposure of. Call it racism, if you will, call it ignorance, if you will, but it's a moral wrong. Right? And then you flip the script and you see what the. This environment. And even Winston Earls is saying, look, because of my color, Obama should be endorsing me and nobody else. It just reinforces the fact that they are not looking at people because of the substance. Because of the substance of their character, their intellect, their qualifications. We have to get this right as Democrats, but that doesn't mean we run away from the DEI defeat of the last cycle. It means we talk about the fact that diversity improves our meritocracy, strengthens our leadership, and frankly, it's a gift to young people, because you can't be what you can't see. And so when we actually put into leadership people that are maybe people of color, people from the LGBTQ community and the youth look up and can see themselves, not only have we achieved inclusive excellence, but we've given a gift to our young people. We got to get this right as Democrats because we're on the right side of it, and we should be unapologetic and not take the loss by continuing to talk about it in the 2016 cycle.

[A]

Right. And the reality is, and I'll bring you in on this, Mark, Republicans don't believe in meritocracy anyway. I mean, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President United States. He's President United States. He's got. The guy who's now in charge of NASA is the same guy from the real world, Boston, who's in charge of the entire Department of Transportation. He's not qualified to do that. He has no. Why is he in charge of NASA? He's now temporarily the NASA administrator. On top of being in charge of all the airlines in department. He's not qualified for that. People are like, well, Pete Buttigieg. Pete Buttigieg at least was a mayor. Least he had to deal with transportation. This guy was. You know, he's a member of Congress, but is he Qualified to run NASA? No. Right. Is RFK Jr qualified to run our entire health system? No. I mean, Dr. Oz was on television with Oprah. Does that make him qualified? They're not hiring qualified people. Pamela. Joe. I mean, she was all right as Attorney General of Florida, but she wasn't outstanding. It's not like she was the best person for the job to be Attorney general. That lady who's his spokesperson, she's like, what, 23 years old? She's good at lying. She qualified for the job. No, they're like Karine Jean Pierre. Yeah, Karine Jean Pierre literally worked for two successful presidential campaigns for the first black president of the United States and was a political advisor to him in the White House. She was totally qualified. So, Mark, they don't believe in meritocracy at all. I can't think of anyone in the administration other than Marco Rubio. He has no morals, but at least he's qualified to be Secretary of State. But other than him, and I'm only really grudgingly. And David knows I'm being very grudging about saying he's qualified, but he's like the most qualified out of the gang of incompetence that Donald. As a matter of fact, it's Pete Hegseth. Pete Hagseth did a TV show on the weekends. I did tv. I used to do a weekend show. I love weekend tv. I met David. I knew Mark already, but I met David on weekend tv. It doesn't mean I was qualified to be Defense Secretary. But he's just a white guy that was Trump liked on tv. So now he's the Secretary of Defense. Come on, Mark. They don't believe in meritocracy. Do that.

[D]

Well, and you mentioned Winsome winning. But keep in mind, she wasn't the leader of that ticket. No, she was kind of hidden, you know, And I think if people had seen her out front, then that thing might have gone down another way anyway. Right? I mean, let's be honest. But I don't. I don't think that would have happened. So. No, it is. It's. It's. It's not about being qualified. It's not about having talent. It's not about being. Having experience. It's just whoever is out there saying the most inflammatory thing. This is, this is the moment of shock and awe. So we're going to shock people. We're going to say crazy things to people. We're going to make people believe us because of that. And it's just, it's a distraction. See, what with the test now is whether people are now awakened. So if, if people an hour can't get their SNAP benefits, are they still going for that crazy MAGA rhetoric? And I remind everybody it's been my, my pet thing for the past few months. David, the words of the great Lyndon Baines Johnson himself. If you can convince someone he's better than the best black person, he won't notice your pick in his pocket. He'll, he'll give him somebody to look down on and he'll let you pick his pockets for him. He'll open his pockets for you. And that is working. It has been working so far. Don't know how long it's going to work. When this government's shut down, people aren't able to get the things they need. And when people aren't able to get SNAP benefits. I had the, the president of the nea, Becky Pringle, on. She's out in the Midwest. She's talking white people. We can't get snapped. When you folks understand something, SNAP also feeds young people in school the breakfast and lunch programs. That is how they get fed. That is a discount for them without having, without them having to pay for it. That's provided for them. And you know, as many people know, I lived in the place of my birth for 25 years. And I remember it was snow like the dickens in Washington D.C. and people would say, Mary and Berry closes schools. Man base. I'm not closing schools and I'm not closing the schools because if these kids don't come to school, some of them don't get anything to eat. Some of these kids, as a matter of fact, have to put the breakfast and lunch in their backpacks to take home to feed their little sisters and brothers and sisters. And that's not just African Americans. So we will see if the craziness, that whole clip you played with her on Fox News, she can't get away with that anywhere else. That's what FOX News is for. If, if, if that is going to continue to hold the day. It's really puzzling, but I don't think it will. I think people are going to be awakened. He's not cutting costs. Things aren't getting better. And that is why we're going to have victory tonight.

[A]

Let's, let's go through. I just want to let you all know, I'm just updating and updating the, the polls closing. New Jersey is going to be a tighter race, even though right now it does look like Mikey Sherrill, military veteran, is ahead of Cittarelli. But if you look at what's come in so far, much of what's come in early, and recall there have been a lot of early voters, record numbers of early voters in New York. North of a million people voted. This could be the largest turnout in New York City in more than two generations. It's, you know, literally this could be the first mayor to be elected with more than a million votes in two generations since Mayor Lindsay way back in the day. In the state of New Jersey. You've had a lot of the state. The parts that have come in are the very blue parts of New Jersey. So the Citarelli vote seems to still be out for the, for the most part right now. As of right now, according to the New York Times, Mikey Sherrill is leading 61.7% to 37.8%. That race is still ongoing. We're still waiting for that. The Prop. The Prop 50 race in California, that won't even be. That'll be way, way later tonight. We' air already by the time that happens. I want to come back to you, though, David, on what impact do you think the government shutdown? Lots and lots of federal workers live in the state of Virginia and the snap crisis had on that race because in addition to the oddness of winsome Earl Sears, it really wasn't clear, you know, what that kind of leadership would mean in this moment.

[B]

Yeah, look, I think everybody understands chaos, right? And I would suggest the government shutdown. It's interesting. I, I was an appropriator as a member of Congress. I was a staff member on the Appropriations Committee. I've been through basically every government shutdown scenario in the last 25 or 30 years in one way or another. It has a, a disparate impact on a small community early, and it takes a long time for that to go, and it's almost baked in.

[C]

Right.

[B]

The, the politicians know that their risk aperture is somewhat limited early on because you're only hitting specific communities. Well, one of those specific communities is Northern Virginia. Yeah, Northern. The dmv, DC, Maryland and Virginia. That is their economy in Northern Virginia. That is a real impact and it is remarkable. And it kind of speaks to kind of the, the the brash, nonsensical political gamesmanship of Donald Trump and Republicans that going into a tight gubernatorial race in Virginia, they would be willing to disrupt a key part of the electorate. When a governorship was on the line. They knew what they were doing and they just decided to kind of self sabotage and allow themselves to take the blame. Because Republicans are getting the blame for this now. Now how does it translate out at this point? Now are we five weeks into it? I will tell you in the state of Florida, far removed from the federal workforce, although certainly we have some pockets that were immediately hit. Now you are starting to see the economic anxiety around food security, around access to health care and honestly the disruption of personal life. It becomes a personal travel and some of the disruption of federal services. Now you're seeing that. And so the question becomes who is going to bear the blame. And for a lot of voters it's all the politicians.

[C]

Right?

[B]

If you don't perform in a hyper partisan way, you don't quite understand why it's shut down. You're just ticked off that it shut down. But we do know statistically most people are blaming Republicans because they control everything. And, and nobody buys the fact. It's a process argument. Senate Republicans make that. Well, we need 60 votes. Well, guess what, you're in charge. Go get the 60 votes. They, they somehow say like we're in charge but we're not really in charge of this situation. Yeah, you are. Go find the 60 votes. Republicans control the White House, the, the Senate and the House. The majority of voters know that. And they're going to blame Republicans for the emerging economic anxiety. That is real joy in the state of Florida. 51% of the state does not have enough savings to last for two weeks. Two weeks. They cannot absorb a health care disruption, disruption to their access to food, a disruption, a car, you know, a car breaking down. 51% of the state is what we call asset limited. But employed, they don't have savings. And as you start to see those communities get hit, those are middle class communities, not just what we sometimes talk about, the lower income class. Those are emerging middle class communities now being hit with the anxiety of a government shutdown.

[A]

Yeah, it is getting rough out there. I just want to note that Mayor Andre Dickens, easily reelected as mayor of Atlanta, that race is over as well. We are still watching to see what happens with some of these other races in Virginia. There was also an attorney general race that's pretty important. It would be a lieutenant governor race also. We're still waiting on that as well, so things are starting to roll in, Mark, to you as well, because I think one of the things that I think seems relatively important is the positioning of governors vis a vis the Trump administration when it comes specifically to immigration. And it seems like that issue. And I'm going to come back to you on this a little bit, David, too. But to start with you, Mark, because it does seem like the message that people like Abigail Spanberger are giving, that they will stand up to this administration when it comes to things like immigration, when it comes to things like the federal workforce, that seems to have been.

[D]

A winning message and that makes all the difference. Trump is a bully. And sometimes Democratic politicians over the years have, you know, stress being too polite, trying to take the high road. After all, Michelle Obama coined the phrase they go low, we go high. But it seems even her disposition has changed. She's not quite, you know, she came out strong for Kamala Harris. So that makes a difference. And I think that's why Gavin Newsome has gotten some of the traction he's gotten. That's why I think Prop 50 will win. I think the New York Times is reporting already 7.2 million people have voted in California itself because you, you gotta, you gotta stand up to the bully. You can't let him do all the bluster and play the dozens and no one respond. And so with a Spanberger, while she may not be a Gavin Newsom in a state like Virginia, for her to speak out, for her to show some backbone and to stand up to Trump and to say that's what she's going to do, obviously people are going to vote for her. She's got to do it, Mikey, Cheryl is going to have to do the same thing that we can't. People can't just be in a position of being stunned and non reactionary and just do pearl clutching every time he does something, we've got to stand up those of us who support Democrats and those who are Democrats and push back as hard as we can. His governors in his back pocket are doing what they're doing. That's why we're seeing all this crazy redistricting outside of the period of the census. That is very, very problematic. So, yes, if that's a winning message, it ought to be. I think we'll find out tonight if it really is and whether that can carry us forward into next year and the years after.

[A]

I can report now that Democrat Ghazala Hashmi has also been declared the winner. NBC News declaring Ghazala Hashmi as the winner. Of the lieutenant governor race in the state of Virginia. She makes history. I do believe she will be the first Muslim period or maybe just first Muslim woman to be lieutenant governor of the state of Virginia. So she's a history making candidate. Let's bring in Gary Chambers Jr. I want to add him to this panel just to talk about kind of the overall feeling that you have. Gary, good to see you as always. On what we're seeing tonight, we now see Abigail Spanberger elected governor elect in Virginia, the lieutenant governor, the Democrat running, Jay Jones. We're still waiting. Jay Jones is running slightly ahead, about two points ahead of Jason Miaris in Virginia. I'm just going to keep refreshing and refreshing and refreshing. That seems to be held up. There was that text message controversy that he faced that had the Democratic Party afraid to openly really endorse and they didn't really know what to do about him. What do you make of everything that you're seeing tonight, Gary?

[F]

I think that voters are showing that they feel and hear the pressures of today and that they want to see a difference in somebody to stand up against what we see happening in Washington. I heard what Jolly said a few seconds ago about people at different points of the economy feeling the pressure at different levels. That makes people reconsider their vote all the time. That makes people say, you know, are you on my side? Are you working against me? And I think that the average American who's not locked into politics doesn't care about a lot of the nuanced things that we care about. What they do care about is did you do the things that you said you would do? And I think 10, 11 months into the Trump presidency, people have evaluated that conservatives are full of it, that they don't have a governing strategy and that they need to elect leadership that wants to be responsible. Now I think the challenge for Democrats at this point is people are not looking for vacillating leadership. They want to see leaders that go fully after an agenda. They want to see people who fight back. They also want to see people who are after working class issues.

[A]

Right.

[F]

So if you campaigned on it, now's the time to make it happen. It's not time to get mealy mouth and not know how to move an issue or an agenda forward. If people are watching Donald Trump strong arm the United States Congress and the United States Senate, we don't want to hear excuses in your state legislature. We want to see you be able to move an agenda and figure out how do you get something done for working class people. Otherwise we end up back in this topsy turvy environment again, because voters are looking for someone who they believe will yield a result. The absence of that result causes them to vote in a different direction.

[A]

Yeah. Donald Trump rocking about 33% approval ratings. David Jolly, in this moment, take us back to when you were in the United States House of Representatives, because one of the things that people presume about people in politics, that we all have an ego, but it takes a certain amount of ego to believe you can represent an entire district, let alone an entire state, let alone the entire country. And so you would think and presume that members of Congress would jealously guard the greatest power that they were given under the Constitution, which is the power of the purse. I mean, it really is the thing that particularly House members tend to prize. You know, everyone wants to be on appropriations because it's such a powerful position. But what we've seen is Republicans hand the power of the purse to the, to the White House, which is something generally you would think they would never do, because just their own ego would say, we're the ones who keep this, this checkbook, not you. But they seem to have given it away without a fight. What is going on?

[B]

Yeah. Joy. That the Congress has collapsed. And I say that with heartbreak. And we should all consider that with heartbreak. It's easy to say, look, Republicans have done this to themselves, but the Congress has collapsed, and we need a strong Congress. I mean, consider the entire design of our government was that these branches would be kind of wrestling with each other continuously for power, and it would ebb and it would flow. But what we have seen for 200 years almost is a Congress fighting for its share of the power while the executive is reaching for theirs. And honestly, since, you know, since the Iraq war in 9, 11, we have seen the executive branch try to grab as much power as it can through different iterations and different national crises. And then Donald Trump has just come in like a king and said, I'm going to take it all for myself. This is the time when we need now more than ever a Congress, regardless of party, to stand up for the institutional significance of the Congress. Right. The reason Trump is getting away with this is not because he wants to. It's because the Congress is letting them. The Congress has collapsed. And so, yes, we should litigate the president every shot we got, because we need to help, as a nation lead a conversation about whether or not the president is acting with fidelity to the Constitution and to the office. But we also need to be litigating every single Member of Congress who's letting him get away with this or trying to hold him account. I think the Republicans in Congress know. They know they are in so much trouble. That's why instead of changing their positions, they're trying to change the maps. They're gerrymandering not just because they can. They're doing it because they're trying to save their jobs, because they're so out of step historically with what people expect the Congress to be. Look, legacies are being shaped right now every single day by Republican members of Congress. And I am proud to no longer be a Republican member of Congress, but I'm probably prouder to no longer be a Republican in this moment. There's good reason why I left.

[A]

Yeah, I can see. I can see why. And the weird thing about it is, Mark Thompson, it puts us now in a position as people who care about ordinary people being able to survive in this country and not just the billionaires who are funding elections and buying politicians and taking judges on free trips to make sure that they stay on site as well. We end up being the state's right side, weirdly enough, because you actually need strong states in order to stand up. What do you make of the fact that in the state of Virginia, it seems that the governor and Lieutenant governor cleared the bar pretty easily, but you're gonna probably need someone to litigate on behalf of the state if you want to fight back on behalf of the people of Virginia. Jay Jones is barely hanging on his lead right now, 50.5% to 49, 0.1% versus Jason Meares, who is a MAGA Republican and would likely not litigate on behalf of the state of Virginia's workers, federal workers, et cetera, or protect abortion rights or any of the things that Democrats seem to want. What do you make of the fact that he's. He's barely hanging on at this point?

[D]

Yeah, that's troubling. We need him to pull that out for the reasons you stated. And it is interesting how the tables turn. The assault on the federal government comes out of long standing Republican mores that the federal government is the enemy and the federal government was the branch of government, including the federal courts that saw to it that much of our civil rights was enforced. The federal government is the holdover from the union. And so you had Republicans for decades as tenthers promoting states rights, the 10th Amendment. Now that the federal government has been nullified, David, I really think that's what's going on. Because, you know, the people, people run MAGA runs for office and it didn't just begin with maggot. You know, we saw it in the Newt Gingrich, they run for office to get a six figure salary in the House and a six figure salary in the Senate to shut down the government, the very government that's making it possible for them. They're in that living, that's what they're there for. So if the government, I really think for some of them, the government never, government never reopened and the House and Senate never convened again, they would be perfectly happy. And so traditionally, those of us who couldn't rely on the states now have no choice. It was the several states that went to the federal courts and some of the federal courts beneath the Supreme Court are being fair. They went to federal court in, in, I believe in, in, in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and they got an order for Donald Trump to pay the SNAP benefits. He said he's only going to pay half of them for November, but that those were states where we had friendly attorney generals like hopefully we will get in Virginia. Virginia. I hope you all voted up and down that whole ballot. Now some of my family from Virginia's texting me, Helen and them and Teresa and Anne. Did y' all vote for the attorney general? Because that's as important in this hour. You know, sometimes there's another thing we've got to be more attuned to. It's not just the top of the ticket. It's not just the president, it's not just the governor, it's not even just a member of Congress up and down that ballot. We have got to win every race because all these races are important. And to your point, Joy, especially if we know we're going to have to go and fight some of this in the court. So where the federal government is failing and not functioning, we need to do something in the states and call them. But wait a minute.

[G]

Oh, y'.

[A]

All.

[G]

Thought y' all were for states.

[D]

Thought y' all were for states rights. I thought you all love states. It's seemingly not once the tables have turned, but this is a fight we'll have to continue.

[A]

I'm going to get Gary in on this for just a second, but let me, let me go back to the New Jersey race, also fairly tight. Well, I mean, we don't really know how it's going to turn out at the moment. Mikey Sherrill, the Democrat leading with 59.8% of the vote. Jack Cittarelli with 39.7% of the vote. But only 30% of votes are in. So that does not tell you how this is going to play out. This was looking to be probably the tightest of the races for Democrats tonight. One of the things that I think a lot of folks were originally hoping was that Ross Baraka would be the nominee because he would electrify the base more, he would get more excitement among the base. But Mikey Sherrill is holding her own right now. But a lot of what I'm seeing out in the state, Newark, which is the stronghold for Democrats in the state, is pretty much in Atlantic City is pretty much in about. Well, about 37% of Atlantic City are in some of the red areas. The Jack Cittarelli strongholds. Only 48% of Ocean county, which is a stronghold for Republicans that is not fully in. Only 37% of Warren county, which is one of the redder districts, is in. But one of the biggest strongholds for the Democrat for Mikey Sherrill would be Essex county, only 36% of that in. So we're just gonna keep watching. I'm just gonna keep refreshing and refreshing and refreshing until we see how that goes. Because that one. What's at stake there is that Jack Ciattarelli has vowed to remove the sanctuary state designation for New Jersey, which would essentially open up that state to cooperation between the police in New Jersey and ice. And right now, New Jersey has been holding strong as a sanctuary state. And I can tell you that my sourcing today was saying that a lot of police officers in the state of New Jersey want it to remain that way because it would make their job extremely difficult if they were cooperating openly with ice. Good luck trying to get cooperation and community policing to function because it really won't work if people believe you're with the kidnappers. Gary, how do we get people to start think a little thinking a little more strategically when it comes to these elections. You don't get the person you wanted in the primary and now you're faced with a general election where you're. It's a lesser of two evils. You just saw a race in New Orleans in which a candidate was sort of thrown aside because of flaws and sort of legal issues in his past and now people are complaining about who won.

[F]

You know, I think that if Zoran Mandami is successful in New York, it will show that if you are willing to go and engage people in non traditional ways or really the old school way and knock on doors, engage with people in the community, talk to people where they are. A year ago he was on the street talking to New Yorkers who didn't vote. People who were not participating in the process, some who voted for Trump and he was having meaningful dialogue with them. I think that we've got to stop this logic that you can throw TV ads on, radio ads on, fly by in the community and turn a vote that you haven't engaged in an authentic way and Democrats have not. I've done that legwork. And I think that that legwork has to happen at every level because people are living their lives like Reverend Mark just said, that he's reaching out to family in Virginia because people are going about their day. They're doing their thing, they're raising their kids, they're in school, they're working, they're nine to five. And government is an afterthought. Right? And if that's an afterthought, how do I come into your community and get you to see the things that the government should be doing for you and that it's not doing and how I can help make that happen in this role? And I think the absence of doing that is the absence of the energy. I think that the energy that we want to see happen within communities isn't going to fabricate out of thin air. It's not going to happen because you had a rally with a celebrity come in. It's not going to happen because you had a bunch of pop stars retweet you. It's going to happen because you came in the community, had a conversation with people, and Ms. Jackie and Mr. John decided that you were worth their time to go down the street and give you a vote.

[A]

And David, this is instructive for you because obviously you are mounting a race and to me, maybe the hardest state for a Democrat to win. There was a time when Democrats could actually win in the state of Florida. Barack Obama did it twice. So it's not impossible, but it's gotten a lot more difficult as Democrats have become much more disengaged. But I saw this on the ground that Democrats, typically, they don't go everywhere. There are a lot of people who don't ever get a visit. You know, Democrats are not in Liberty City. They're not necessarily in Overtown. They're going where college educated, existing voters are. So how do you change that dynamic? And have you started thinking through that in your race for governor?

[B]

Yeah, Joy, you're exactly right. I just want to say amen to everything Gary has said because this is so important. Listen, I think I mentioned earlier I've done 113 community events in the last four months. I have gone where no candidate has gone in the last 20 years. I was in a little town of Molino on the Alabama border as a Democratic candidate in a town of 600 people, 90% registered Republicans. And we turned out 50 people, you know, a year out. And those 50 people are now talking about our message. But we have to go into Democratic communities that we have overlooked as well. People who are simply begging, begging for. For leadership. And, you know, Gary said something earlier in the show about people want to know that you've got a plan and you're willing to fight for them. And I want to point something out. In the 49 minutes we've been together, this is such a different cycle than, say, 2018, when we were having this circular firing squad over ideology. Are we left, are we right? Are we center left, center right, are we far Left? Even in 2020, right. These conversations about where is the party on the left right spectrum, that's not the conversation right now. It is the urgency of who's willing to fight for everybody. It's not whether we're going left or going right. It's whether we're lifting everybody up. And as Democrats, what I do, what I go into communities across Florida, speaking to Democrats, Independents or Republicans, I talk about the same three values, values, values that are rooted in Democratic traditions but should be bigger than our party. The first value is the economy should work for everybody. Now, look, as Democrats, I don't think we should condemn success. We shouldn't. We should congratulate it. People worked harder, they got lucky, whatever it is. We don't need to condemn success, but we need to recognize the economy is not working for everybody. That, As I mentioned, 50% of our state doesn't have two weeks worth of savings. People can't afford their homes. They're having to leave their homes because of insurance or taxes. The economy should work for everybody as a value, not a policy. The second value is government has a responsibility in our lives, kind of Bill Clinton 92 right to provide for access to affordable health care, excellence in public education, fighting crime, but not fighting communities like our Republican friends are doing, right? So the economy should work. The government has a responsibility. And the third value is we should be a place where everybody's empowered and lifted up, regardless of the color of your skin, where you were born, who you love or who you worship. Those are Democratic values, generational Democratic values, but they're so much bigger than our party. So, yes, as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, I go into deep red communities and I say these are the values that we're going to fight for Republicans. Tell me where I'm wrong, because I don't think you can. Independents who feel disaffected by major party dogma and the handcuffs you've been asked to put on if you join one of the parties, tell me where I'm wrong on the values. And for our Democrats, who we have to excite and get out the vote and mobilize our base, these are our values. This is the Democratic Party. When we do that, we build an emerging political coalition that doesn't exist in the country right now. Right. Florida's Democrats cannot win the Democratic governor, the governorship by ourselves. We have to build a coalition bigger than our party. And when we do that, we not only shock Florida, but we change national politics by leading a new political coalition founded on Democratic values, but so much bigger than our party. That's why this race in Florida for a governor is already in the margin of error. Joy, this race is even up in the state of Florida right now. That was my goal for next summer. That's where we're at one year out.

[A]

I have to go to Gary real quick before, because he is the expert on races in the Deep south. And I know people don't like to put Florida in the south, but Florida is the South, y'. All. Don't kick it out. But before I do that, let me just give you guys an update on the J. Jones, Jason Mearez race. Jay Jones now distancing himself just a tiny bit. He's up for 51% to 48.6%. There's a third person right in sort of line there that's got 0.4%. This is a very, very tight, tight race. It is now considered too close to call, and it is not over yet, but we will see what happens there. Gary Johnson, you know, there are places like Florida that, you know, Florida's now finally been written off. It's considered a great place to raise money, but not a place to ever win when, as far as Democrats are concerned. What is your thinking about that? Because Florida is a difficult state to try to get people to turn out. The voter turnout is generally very, very, very low.

[F]

You know, Gary Sr. Lives in Duval county and so does my sister. And I deeply understand that Jacksonville and Ocala and places like that are not considered in the Democratic messaging. But Jacksonville has a Democratic mayor. They flip back and forth over the last 20 years between Democrat and Republican leadership. And if there was a serious investment within that community, you would see a higher yield of voter turnout. I think that the issue is the same in every Deep south pocket that has been unsuccessful, that there is an undervaluation of the black voter in the Deep south, that their concerns are not heard and leveraged in a way that turns that vote out at a percentage that would give them the harvest that they're looking for. I think that we have walked away from identity politics when Trump does nothing but put us into little pockets of our identity.

[A]

Right.

[F]

And the truth is everybody's little rainbow of personality and identity makes up the quilt and the fabric of America. And we should want all of that in the gumball. Because I'm from Louisiana, we throw a little bit of everything in and you get a good roux and you've got something that's worth eating. I think that's gotta be the message of Democrats within the Deep South. I think that when you look at the only place in the Deep south that they have seen a harvest is where they have invested 100 plus million dollars in the candidates, where they have put the time in the grassroots infrastructure and where they were unafraid to deal with working class issues and ensuring that working class voters understand that. When we say working class, we're not talking about white union workers, we're talking about farmers that are Hispanic in communities, we're talking about black laborers that are working as welders. We're talking about nurses and educators of every hue, shade and background in this country. And when we talk that way, that is when we're going to get more people to say I see myself in that message and show up for it. We're going to have things where we disagree on policy. Conservatives had an all out war to get to where they are today. And Donald Trump won that war and now the party has moved in that direction. I think that we have shied away from some of the policy conflicts and some of the things that we have that's a part of the sausage making. Now, should that play out as publicly as we do? Sometimes maybe not. But conservatives did it and they came out with a victorious no policy, but they did come out with a victorious slate of candidates and they're able to move an agenda that moves our country backwards rather than forward. So we've got to make a decision if we want to see a map that gives us the math to 270. I think that math becomes easier when you play Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida into those conversations. And the reason being it's cheaper to turn a vote in every one of those states that I just mentioned than it is in California than it is in New York City, than it is in Pennsylvania, than it is in Wisconsin. And so if it's cheaper to turn a vote in the south than it is to turn the vote there, we need to come be sensible, bring new strategies to the table and go get in the communities and talk to these people. Joy.

[A]

Yeah, and by the way, in Florida where you want to buy is Tampa. That's the secret. People think you to just want, want to buy Miami but you really buy Tampa. But you're absolutely right. And the south is actually a less expensive investment that would actually yield more results.

[D]

Strategy.

[A]

It's got to be a 50 state strategy, Mark. And for some reason Republicans aren't thinking about it. They are very excited though about Virginia because it's the Upper south and it is the sort of suburbs of D.C. mark. And so you do see a big fixation on that. Democrats are going to be taking a, a big victory lap about winning back this governor's race. I don't know how they're going to feel if they lose this AG race. Is there a message if Abigail Spanberger and also Mamdani wins? They are on polar opposite sides. Maybe not polar opposite side but they're very different kinds of candidates. What's the message to Democrats if there is a message?

[D]

Well, I think the message is and Gary alluded to it and I didn't speak to you brother. Good to see you as always. By the way, I thought this was election night coverage. I'm wondering now if this is not a recruitment for me to come and relocate in Florida and help David because David's exciting me. He's enticed me. I might even go down there, man.

[A]

I think the four of us on this, we need to literally we need to marshall strategy. I think we need to have a weekly call, David, so we can, we can make this happen. I'm telling you, I, I did two, two national elections down there.

[B]

We can win this. We can win this. We can win this. I would not be in this race if I did not know we could win it.

[A]

And by the way, on the other side it's probably going to be either Byron Donalds fancy that great debate with.

[F]

Him last year, Joy.

[A]

I remember it was epic and it was, it was very one sided, Carrie. It was a very one sided victory for you or it could be the current first lady of Florida that those are the two. So anyway, I'll let you finish your thought, Mark and then I want to ask David if he has a, a preference for an Opponent.

[D]

Lord have mercy. Okay, but, but what it says if you get a span burger and a Donnie and a Mikey Cheryl and we win, it. It says that people are fed up with Trump. But it also. I was talking to someone the other day and they were actually called into my show. They were complaining that the, the reason Democrats can't win and the reason we can't be successful is because our 10 is too big and it's hard to please everyone. But this may show something different, that you can have this diversity of personalities and candidates. I mean, they have labeled Mamdani as straight up socialist. We've been getting text messages every day in New York about that. If you can have that diversity and win across the board and run the table, maybe we can work with this big tent. Because the other tent is for one constituency. It's not even for the constituency they pretend it's for. It is for the rich, the billionaires. It's not for the everyday folks who call themselves maga, who are working class, who are out here struggling every day and, and don't have their SNAP benefits and about to lose their health care subsidies. It doesn't represent them. So I think I would take that. I, I wonder if David and Gary would agree. I would take the diversity of candidates who are winning tonight and we're claiming victory, even though everything's not closed as a sign that people want something different, that we can address all of the diverse groups in these cities, counties and states and win some of these big races.

[A]

Absolutely. Last word to you, David, and feel free to also give your website, let people know how they can support, support you in your journey to try to become the governor of Florida.

[B]

Yeah. Thank you. Davidjali.com Very simple. My name. Listen, I want to talk about this, this big tent a little bit because I didn't see room for myself eight years ago in the Democratic Party. I didn't, but I have in the last few years. And yeah, I think Joe Biden helped with that. But you know who unlocked it was Vice President Harris. Vice President Harris at the convention last year was the president who, the presidential candidate who brought in former Republicans who, who brought back the flag and strong national defense and the veterans community, whatever it was. Right. It wasn't a pivot from where the party was. It was allowing more people to see themselves in the party. And so the reason I talk about those three values, the economy should work for everybody. The government has a role in our lives for education, health care, safe communities, and we should be a place where we stay out of your bedroom, in your doctor's office. And everybody should be welcomed, regardless of the color of your skin and where you were born, because those values are strong enough to tether together the Democratic Party, right? The emerging young progressive with the last Blue Dog standing. Those are our values. But they're so much bigger than our party. They allow us to bring in independents and Republicans. And so, yes, we get a Span Burger, we get a Cheryl, and we get a Mandami on exactly the same night. And that's great. Look, Mandami's answers in the city are not the right answers in Florida. They're not. Spamberger's answers in Virginia probably aren't the right answers in the city. That's fine. But the values, the values of watching Democratic candidates tonight say, I don't want the economy to leave anybody behind. I want to make sure government is there to provide for food security and health care and education. And yet, regardless of what you look like, who you love or who you worship, you deserve to have your rights protected and your dignity restored. Those values are universal across Democratic candidates. It's what I'm fighting for in Florida and. And why I know we can win.

[A]

David Jolly, best of luck to you, my friend. I think we're going to have to convene another meeting of this group so that we can figure out how to get you over the side. Because the other thing is, you know, Florida is a nice state. It shouldn't have an asshole as a governor. I mean, I'm just keeping it real. That guy is terrible. He just makes you not want to go to Florida other than to visit Gary Chambers Senior and the cousins. I'll go specifically to see them, but other than that, not with that guy there. He makes you not want to go to Disney World. That's how much of an asshole he is. So we want to see a nice governor that we actually makes you. Encourages us to want to go.

[D]

Who doesn't wear lifts in his boots.

[A]

Listen, don't. If you take out some white, tall boots.

[D]

Real quickly.

[B]

Listen, I'm not wired to think about when we win. I really don't. This is about fighting every day to win. But I have thought on some late night drives back home to my kids, I thought, I want to be the governor that on election night stands in front of the world and says, after eight years of culture wars, we apologize. We apologize to the world and everyone is welcome back. That's the governor I want to be of the state of Florida.

[A]

When you do that, I will make a specific Trip to Disney World to visit the once again welcoming and nice and kind state of Florida. David Jolly, I appreciate you. Gary Chambers Jr. Appreciate you. I'm going to hostage situation. Mark Thompson, for just a few more minutes.

[D]

Never hostage to you, Joy.

[A]

Thank you very, very much. But I want to go through just a little, a bit more. Mark, I'm having you ride with me just as a co host just for a little bit longer. New Jersey Governor's race is at 57. 6, 41 9. That is the race that seemed like it was going to be a little closer. It's a little bit wider than I think what I at least expected. It's a little bit better. I think Mikey Sheryl is doing a little bit better than I at least expected her to. J. Jones, on the other hand. Let me just refresh, refresh, refresh. He's still hanging on to a very slight lead, 51 to 48.6. What do you think the consequences are if he does not win? Because it's kind of hard to imagine a Democratic administration in New Jersey, but a Republican attorney general.

[D]

Yeah, that won't work. You know, I'm, I'm feeling optimistic. The Washington Post, you, you have a little bit more. The Washington Post isn't as updated as you are, but they're saying 50.9 to 48.6%. He's, he's got to pull this out and hopefully he will. It. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for Abigail Spanberger to win and for that ticket to be split that way. That's a little confusing. I'm not.

[A]

But it's happened before. It is. Ha. And also not just in that state. I mean, we did see, we've seen before where the one black candidate on a statewide ticket doesn't win when everyone else is able to win. So. And he had an issue with these text messages where it felt like the party was somewhat throwing him under the bus and I think losing sight of the bottom line, which is, you know, he's. You don't need a perfect candidate. You don't need a saint. You just need a Democrat in this point.

[D]

Yeah, right, right. Well, we can only hope he pulls it out. It's going to be tight as it, as it's trending. The New York Times is reporting, Joy, that they're predicting that of the votes remaining in New Jersey for governor, they forecast that the remaining ballots outstanding is that Cheryl has more outstanding votes than Citarelli and is on track to receive 56 of the votes. So for whatever reason, however they're doing this process. They're looking at the remaining votes and where they are and suggesting the New York Times is where they're actually projecting that if those remaining votes follow their analysis, she'll win with 56% of the vote.

[A]

Yeah, and it's looking. I'm going now to just refresh on the New York Times page. Apologies, I don't have this live on the screen. I'm going to turn around just so you guys can sort of see it. I don't know if you guys can see that. If I just hold it up there. What it basically shows is the white is what has not come in at all. And the blue are the sort of bluer areas. Obviously, the red are the redder areas in New Jersey. So all I'm doing is I am just clicking on each of these areas. Newark is this deep, deep blue area. Essex county is very, very blue. 61% of that vote is in. Mikey Sherrill getting 75% of that vote. That is her stronghold. That is Ross Baraka's Newark, New Jersey, where you've seen a lot of these ice stops, where you've seen a lot of that controversy, you've got Union county, which is just below the newark area. Only 20% of that vote is in. Of Mikey Sheryl winning an overwhelming 60, 66% of that vote. But let me go to a redder county. Jack Cittarelli winning in Morris county, which is sort of north northwest of of Newark, Jack Cittarelli getting 51 to 48. So it's actually pretty close. Only 22% of that vote in. But what I'm basically saying to you is that Mikey Cheryl is performing more strongly in the places where she, she has a base than Chitarelli, who is performing more evenly with Mikey Cheryl, even in places that are red leaning counties. I'll give you one more example. Well, just this is he's doing better here, 78% of the vote. In Ocean county, which is a very conservative part of the state, Chitterelli is winning that 65% to 34%. But the bad news for him is that 78% of that vote is in. So he's not going to yield a lot more vote out of that county. Monmouth county, which is another county that's very, very much a Jack Cittarelli county, he's winning that 54 to 45. But unfortunately for him, 87% of that vote is already in, meaning he's not going to yield a whole lot more. Whereas in Essex county, where Mikey Sherrill is getting 75% of the vote to 25% of the vote. Only 61% of that vote is in. So there's still a lot more vote as they as as they used to say on on Ms. Now on the former MSNBC, there's still a lot of vote that's left out in Essex County. And if she can close really strongly in Essex county, that is the really the heart of blue New Jersey. I'm going to go down to Cumberland county, which is another place where Mikey Sheryl is doing very well. She's getting 60% of the vote to 39% of the vote. Only 31% of that vote is in. So you see it on this this is the way the math basically works is that you want to be doing better in the places that are your strongholds and have a lot more vote left so that you can presume that that remaining vote will go your way. So, okay, let's actually go ahead and bring in Maurice Mitchell.

[D]

Maurice Mitchell, Math is mathing, Joy.

[A]

The math is mathing in Mikey Sherrill's direction. Maurice Mitchell of the my probably my new party very soon, the Working Families Party, because I'm telling you, Democrats be trying me. I think I got to go with Maurice's party. But what do you make of what you're seeing so far tonight? Because it does feel like whether they are a more moderate sort of doctrinaire Democrat like Abigail Spanberger, or what we anticipate, we don't know yet. Polls have closed in New York. We don't know how that's ultimately going to go, what we think is going to happen with Mamdani. What do you what do you make of what you're seeing on tonight?

[C]

Well, Joy and hello, brother Mark, I see two things, and of course, we still need to count ballots in New York as polls have closed. But I think this is, to me, a clear repudiation of Trump and MAGA and their politics, as well as a confirmation of what we saw in June's primary when Zoram Hamdani's defeat of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, like, had political consultants ripping up their playbooks and understanding that if you wanted to win in 2025, you had to focus on affordability. And even those more traditional Democrats, one of the things that they did was focus on affordability. And I think there's just a real affordability crisis that's taking place in this country, even in Georgia, the Public Service Commission races. And one of our endorsed candidates is a Black woman that won a statewide race in Georgia. Right. To me, the Public Service Commission race, one of the reasons why so many people swung in that direction were the outrageous utility prices that so many Georgians are facing. And so I think the combined reality of an affordability crisis that's facing Americans everywhere and just the horrific toll that almost a year of Trump and MAGA rule.

[A]

I think we just, just, I think we just had a freeze happen. We're gonna, we're gonna try to, try to get Maurice back. But let me just. While we're trying to unfreeze. Well, he's used to unfreeze, I think.

[C]

Wait, I'm unfrozen.

[A]

Internet. Oh, there you go. You're unfrozen. You're unfrozen. Go ahead, finish your sentence.

[C]

Yeah, so I don't know where last I left, but I do think it's the combination of those two factors, right. It's the, the unmistakable affordability crisis that, that working class Americans are facing across race and in every region of the country. And what I think what Americans have now experienced, we're in the, you know, we're in the, the ninth month, almost a year of rule by and for one man, the authoritarian rule of Trump and maga. And I think this is a repudiation of Trump. Trump is politics and a continued reminder that everyday working people are feeling the weight of this affordability crisis. And it's clear that the way that Americans are attempting to show their frustration with affordability is by punishing Republicans.

[A]

Let's give you an update here. Of course, we mentioned that Ghazala Hashmi has become the first Muslim woman elected to be Lieutenant governor. She's going to be Lieutenant governor of the state of Virginia. So she's the first Muslim woman to ever be elected statewide in the United States, which is crazy. It's 2025. The New York City Board of Elections says 2 million people have cast ballots in New York City for the first time since 1969. Let's go to the great state of Texas. Texas voters have approved a parental rights amendment to the state constitution. So a conservative victory in Texas. And so we're still waiting, obviously, to see what happens in New York City. California redistricting, we're not probably going to know that until very, very late tonight. That is Prop 50. So we're waiting to see how that goes. We're obviously still waiting to see if the New Jersey governor's race is going to go in the direction of the Democrats, which is Mikey Sherrill or in the direction of Republicans, which is Jack Cittarelli. I'm going to refresh one more time. I enjoy doing this. I'm going to refresh it one more time. I don't have a big board, but I'm still going to play around with this map. Essex county, which I told you all about, which is Mikey Sheryl stronghold. She's winning 75% to 24%. 74% of that vote is now in Union county, where Mikey Sheryl is winning 66% to 34%. Only 20% of that is in. So there's still a lot of vote that she can still get out of there. Middlesex county, which is also a Mikey Sherrill stronghold. 64, 35. Only 67% of that is in. Going though to a Red County, Morris county, which is a Jack Ciattarelli county, he's only winning that 50% to 49.4. So he's basically tied there. And only 24% of that is in. If it keeps going like that, Jack Chitter really is not going to get a lot out of that 5,148. He's winning in Warren County. That's a little too tight. Only 30% of that vote is in. But it's not not good news if he's basically splitting that county with her. So it's starting to look a little bit more comfortable. Mark, for Mikey.

[D]

Cheryl, I'm looking at New York and good to see our brother Maurice and appreciate all the hard work he's been doing on the ground here in New York. What the New York Times is reporting right now. And this is. And obviously still it's only about 38%, just under 40% of the vote that has been counted in New York. Cuomo is losing every borough except Staten Island. At this hour, Mamdani is up 26 points in Brooklyn, 8 points in Manhattan, 10 points in Queens, and 13 points in the Bronx. Cuomo is up 26 points in Staten Island. So, Maurice and Joy, I'm pretty sure we can count on victory here in New York tonight.

[A]

And it's gonna be an earthquake. Maurice, not just for Republicans, but also for Democrats who were very reluctant to support Mamdani, very hesitating in terms of endorsing him, even though he's the Democratic nominee. And also for billionaires. The billionaires, they came to the table in the end. This super PAC that lined up for Cuomo at the end, you know, you name it, Michael Bloomberg, you know, every anti DEI billionaire got behind him and even some Trump Cabinet folks, Stephen Miller Nosferatu came out and threw his weight behind Cuomo. It seems that maybe that hurt them rather than help them.

[C]

I mean, we had Stephen Miller, President Trump, Elon Musk in the final hours get into this. And also Elon Musk is slowly recognizing that New York has a fusion voting system and was confused by the fact that Zoram Hamdani appeared on the Democratic Party line and the Working Families Party line. And this is, I have to say, this is a, a really like a groundbreaking hurricane inside of the Democratic Party. And there's going to be a lot of, inside of different Democratic Party circles. There's going to be a lot of spinning. There's no spinning inside of the wfp. This is a, a undefiable, undeniable victory for the Working Families Party today. Zaram Dani, who is likely to be the incoming mayor, Jumani Williams, who was the public advocate and the outgoing controller of New York, the three citywide seats in New York, they all voted on the Working Families Party line and they're all proud members of the Working Families Party. So this, to me is a watershed moment in our politics. And it suggests that there are a set of new politics that people can either embrace or get left behind.

[A]

Can you just explain a little bit more the fusion politics, the way it works? Because I think people don't understand that, that a lot of Democrats in New York are both in the Democratic Party and Working families. How does that work?

[C]

Well, yeah, in New York and Connecticut, there's something called fusion voting, and it allows for a party to endorse the candidate of another party. So at the Working Families Party, it allows us to recruit people, people like Attorney General James to run on the Working Families Party line. And when she wins, it allows for the Democrats to then in turn cross endorse her. That's how she actually got into politics. On the other hand, it allows us to endorse Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, even though we hold a different set of politics and values because we recognize that at the end of the day, we are attempting to join forces with the Democrats to defeat MAGA and at the same time challenge the Democrats from the standpoint of the issues of working people. It actually provides a real space for independent politics in a way that doesn't get caught up in the spoiler effect. That has made it really hard for a lot of third parties to show up and have real power and be able to govern. In New York and Connecticut, we have the ballot line and we've been able to use it. And that's part of the story of New York today and why we're able to have so many progressives run and win at the highest levels.

[A]

We need to get that in more states. Work on that for us, please, because we need that in every state in the union. Mark Thompson, before I let you go, I want to try to get one more update out of you. What are you hearing inside of Virginia? I'm looking now at the map that's on. I'm looking on both NBC News site. I'm going back and forth between there and the New York Times site and it's still looking like J. Jones is hanging on to a small lead. Still too close to call 51.6% to 47.9%. But it looks like every single count, you know, sort of precinct is accounted for. It's just not all counted. So it's, it's still a squeaker.

[D]

The New York Times is reporting 79 has of the total vote has been reported in Virginia and he's up by almost precisely a hundred thousand votes in Virginia. So that's where we are right now. We've got to watch this very, very closely. I don't know, you know, where this is headed, but he's up for now.

[A]

He's up for now. I want to also give you all some breaking news. Three polling sites in New Jersey stayed open an extra hour due to, as I reported earlier, the bomb threats across New Jersey. It's some school locations that received these, what they said were fake bomb threats actually had to close temporarily. So they weren't able to be open for the entire time that people had the opportunity to vote. And so because of that, three polling sites in New Jersey are. They stayed open an extra hour. So we're probably gonna, that's gonna delay getting the results there unless it's a very clear victory for one side or the other. And so go ahead and then let.

[D]

Me just share this. The New York Times again is they're doing in New Jersey, they're counting outstanding votes. So the New York Times says, our forecast, the New York Times says their forecast thinks Jones has more outstanding votes and is on track to receive 53% of the vote. So the New York Times is feeling confident that Jay Jones is going to pull this out.

[A]

And I'll give you an example of what they're talking about. I'm going to blue Arlbermarle County. I'm going to turn this around just so that you guys can see it. I apologize if we don't have it live for the full screen. I don't know if that's going to be clear enough for you guys to be able to see it, but this is what I'm just. So that you guys can see what I'm working from. I'm just going on this map. If you go to Aral Burmarl County, I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Arlbermar county, this is a J. Jones majority county. 57.2% for him, 42.2% for Meares, but only 37.8% of that vote is in, which means there's a lot more to come in in a county that he's clearly winning. I'll go to the neighboring county, which is Nelson county. That is a majority Miaris county, but he's only winning that 53.1% to 46.6. And 97.4% is that of that is in. So what I'm just sort of cruising around on this map. What I'm seeing is that the Miares counties seem to have more of their vote in. There's one county here where he's doing really well, where it's a little less Rappahannock County. It is a tiny, tiny, tiny county. He's up 69 to 30.2%, but only 59.5% is in. But it's such a tiny county that he's not going to get a lot of vote out of there. Where you want to look is the place where there are big cities where you've got like a hundred thousand voters for one person or another. That's places like Luden county or Loden County. That's 59.1% for Jones. Loudoun county to 40.4% Loudoun County. Jones is winning that outright. And, and, and a lot of that is in 96.7%. So that's really what, that's what all of these. These guys are doing. They're going through and they're looking at how much vote is left and also how tiny or how large the county is. That is how they're projecting who is going to win. And if you just do it that way, it does seem, just my cruising over it, that in the counties with the big numbers of people, J. Jones is winning with a clearer margin of victory, a wider margin of victory than the places where Miarez is winning and Miars is winning in a lot of the smaller counties with your population. Right. So, I mean, that's a weird way to look at it, but that's how.

[C]

I'm looking at it.

[D]

Decision Des Joy at this moment is called it for Jay Jones on New York Times. Yeah, no, not New York Times, the decision desk. Hq.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Has called. Has called it for. For J. Jones.

[A]

That. Very interesting. Yep. And if you go through even on the New York Times website, It's saying that 80% of votes are in at this point for governor. 80% of votes are in for attorney general. 59% of votes are in for New Jersey Governor Mikey. Sheryl. Kind of walking away with it a little bit in New Jersey, but it's looking better and better for Jay Jones. He's up now 51.6%. Sorry. To 48%. And so it's getting better and better for J. Jones. Mark Thompson, what will it mean that Democrats did not fully embrace J. Jones after. I mean, Donald Trump is literally a felon, and the Republicans had no problems wrapping their arms around him. He's an adjudicated sexual abuser. Not a problem for Republicans. But Jay Jones sent some stupid text messages and Democrats went into a catatonic state.

[D]

Well, and that's, that's what Democrats do, unfortunately. But, you know, we got to get beyond that. Those text messages didn't matter. They were some time ago. And, you know, if people can make those kinds of excuses for Donald Trump, this is. This is politics. All. It's not for the faint of heart. I'm a minister. This ain't church. This is politics. So you got to get over some of that stuff and get over even some of the hand wringing, as you know, Maurice, people did about Mom Donnie. Oh, he's this, he's that. That just doesn't work.

[C]

No.

[D]

So nobody cares.

[A]

They want him to make their rent cheaper. They. They really don't care. Even the stuff where they were demanding that he announced that he was going to go to Israel and he's like, I'm gonna go to the Bronx. Can I go to the Bronx first? Can I go to Brooklyn first? You. You're hounding me that I'm going to. When am I going to go to Israel? I'm the mayor. I want to be the mayor of New York.

[D]

Right? Right.

[A]

I want to go to Staten island first. Can I. Can I do that? Can I go to Queens?

[F]

The chat is saying that Cheryl won Jersey.

[A]

Mikey. Cheryl, looking good. Let me give you guys a couple updates. This is the New York Times numbers. 52% of the votes now in. In New York City, Maurice. And so far, a healthy 49.66% to 41.5% lead for Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa, the guardian angel guy with the red hat, he's got 8.1% so far. So it's 49. 6 to 41.5. It does seem that. Let's see if Mikey. Sheriff, they're going to call for Mikey. Sheryl, let me go back and see if we can get that call.

[C]

They called it for her.

[D]

She won.

[A]

Yep. It looks like Mikey. Cheryl. Mikey. Cheryl. Mikey Sherrill has now won. She is officially going to be the governor of New Jersey. And it turned out it wasn't as tight as maybe some of us thought it was going to be. 56.9% for Mikey Sherrill, 42.6% for Ciardarelli, who was vowing to turn New Jersey into a MAGA stronghold for ice. That will not happen. New Jersey will remain a sanctuary state. Good news for the if you are brown in New Jersey, tell the Lord thank you, Mikey Sheryl will be your governor. And really kind of all we're waiting for, really is now New York mayor. The New York mayor's race. We still need that. And that is also. Mom, Donnie's in the lead. Your thoughts on all of this so far, Maurice?

[C]

Well, that lead, that commanding lead is good news for us at the Working Families Party. And you know, there's still, there's still votes to count in New York. I think, you know, just zooming out. I do think there's a story to tell about what all of these results mean in aggregate. And there's, there's local races that most people aren't talking about that I'm focusing on.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Like again, the, the public, the Georgia Public Service Commission. Right. Yep. Alicia, Dr. Alicia Johnson. Right. A black woman has one statewide in Georgia. Right. That's to me, a critical proof point in the fact that, number one, black people and black women can run statewide in the south and win. And the fact that the politics of this moment suggests that our people running on our issues and focusing on affordability can align a number of people, including people who didn't vote for Democrats just in last November. I'm also looking at like two black women who are WFP aligned and endorsed black women who will be making history. So there's Sharon Owens and Dorsey a players. Now these are will be likely be the first black mayors in Syracuse and Albany history in New York State. And there is an opportunity that when all the dust is settled, all the votes are counted, we will have a new mayor in New York City that is aligned with these grassroots politics. But Also mayors in Albany, in Syracuse and in Buffalo, and two of them being the first black women to ever hold those seats. So we're making a lot of history today, and we're making a lot of history on our terms with outsiders who were challenged by a lot of corporate money, who were not the people that folks thought should be the Democratic sort of soft, the safe Democratic person, somebody who actually built a labor and community coalition and are poised to be executives in all these cities. So there's a story to be told about a different type of politics, as well as a story that I think is about the American people and the fact that they are fed up with Trump and they are, and the rents are too damn high and people are tired of a lack of affordability and they're using the ballot to both challenge Trump and Trumpism and challenge the economy, which under Trump has only gotten worse for everyday people.

[D]

Joy, can I ask brother Maurice a question? Maurice, so do what do you attribute the success of the Working Families Party tonight? How much of it has to do with people actually seeing and recognizing what the party stands for? And maybe it's showing a little more backbone than some some of the Democrats have one, too. I'm going to ask you a question Joy asked me earlier. What do you make of the extreme diversity in these candidates? Zoran Mamdani is not Mikey, Cheryl and Abigail Spanberger, but yet they're all going to win tonight. What, what does that forebode, do you think?

[C]

Sure. Well, the thing that does connect just about anybody that wasn't a Republican that was running tonight is the fact that and I do think that this is also a story about Zoran and how he's, he's transformed the politics of the Democratic Party, including the Democrats that want nothing to do with them. Because everybody after that election, everybody was all they could talk about is affordability. All they could talk about is running on affordability. Some of them like, like Zoron ran on affordability in a way that has created a movement politics. But even Mikey, Sheryl and all the others are running basically on affordability. And that was something we were arguing in 2024, that, you know, the number one, two and three things that Americans across race are talking about was the economy, Right. And I think Democrats have gotten the memo there. And what I will say is another thing that's clear, another thing in polling, as well as what I'm seeing in every neighborhood that I'm in. And I'm not just in New York. I'm crisscrossing the country is that people are tired of status quo politics. People are fed up. Every day, people are fed up with the status quo. And they want to believe that there are a group of leaders that are willing to fight for them and are willing to take the fight to the corporations, to MAGA, to Mr. Trump, you name it. And all of those folks that have proven in this moment to be willing to take that fight on have been rewarded by the American people. And I think we're seeing that with the outcomes with many of the Working Families Party elected officials that have gotten buoyed into these positions in this particular political moment. And we've been, we're kind of like a broken record in some ways. We've been arguing these politics for more than 20 years. And it just turns out that the moment has finally, I think, validated the argument that we were making back in 1998 when the Democrats were aligning with NAFTA and the 94 crime bill and all these things and lurching towards Wall Street. And we said then that this was going to cost us working people. And here we are in 2025 having those chickens come home to roost, but then also having this new crop of young and exciting folks are willing to run on those, those like basic values of working people and they are being rewarded for it.

[A]

Indeed.

[F]

Projected the winner.

[A]

Mom, Donnie has already projected the winner. Let's bring in. Let's bring in Dean Obadala de. Dean Obeidallah, host of the eponymous Dean Obeidallah show, is here right on time, Dean, as we are seeing projections that Mamdani will indeed become the first Muslim mayor of the city of New York. The great city of New York. I'm looking at the same things on the screens right now. It appears that it is a fate accompli. Dean, your thoughts on that and also the history that Ms. Hashmi made in, in New Jersey, in Virginia.

[G]

Good to see you. Good to see Mark, Good to see Maurice. Nice to see all of you. And now Joy. My name is. Now I'm using my formal name. It's Dean. Allah Akbar.

[A]

Obid.

[G]

That's right, baby. That's it. It's on.

[A]

Sharia law for everyone. I'm not saying.

[G]

Look, folks, BLTs are banned. Just LTs.

[A]

That's it.

[G]

It's better for you. Four spouses forever. Not four wives. Four spouses mix and match whatever you want because ZORA is progressive. This is going to be fun. This is every nightmare of the right has just come to fruition. I can't be happy that they are triggered and Gazella Hashmi won Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. I know Gazelle. She's on my show countless times. The first Muslim American and first Asian American to win statewide in Virginia. Look, America evolves, right? We have four Muslims in Congress now. Latifah Simons, my buddy, comes on my show all the time. She's the fourth Muslim. America keeps moving forward and some on the right and even the center don't want that. Now New York is a little unique in that we had Democrats spewing anti Muslim bigotry openly Andrew Cuomo traffic in it, having fun with Sid Rosenberg on wabc. Had not having any problem with Eric Adams's hateful stuff. You had. We talked about a join my show today. You were on, you know, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Ackman, someone spending money on the super PAC dispute. Vile stuff that I can't believe in 2025 they thought it could still work. So this election is so important that in New York, the most vibrant, diverse city in the nation, that anti Muslim bigotry is not going to win the day. I'm really hoping the gap gets bigger. But as of now, with about 70% of the vote in joins at 50% to about 40% for Cuomo. The turnout, by the way, you probably saw 2 million people, the biggest since 1969. Younger people. This is the most remarkable thing for Democrats if they want to learn anything. Exit poll of 18 to 29 year olds. 75% voted for sore on. Yes, 75%. That is accurate. 75%. So it's huge.

[A]

I will know the New York Times reporting that even on election day. Chuck Schumer is mum on Mamdani. The top Senate Democrat never endorsed Sorhan Mamdani, his party's young left wing nominee for mayor and declined to even say who he had voted for. Mark Thompson. I'm not sure what sense it makes to have the mayor of New York owe you nothing, have no need to have allegiance to you, to you as a leader, as a United States Senate leader. He didn't help, he didn't endorse, he didn't even say whether he voted for him.

[C]

Your thoughts?

[D]

Yeah. No, it doesn't, it doesn't make any sense at all. And it, it shows as, as good to see you, Dean. It alludes to this, this younger generation. It's a generational election. Younger voters. Chuck Schumer, God bless him. But time's up and, and he's, he's out of it. He is completely out of touch. I, I just want to ask Maurice one More question. Did Barack Obama kind of a little bit endorse the Working Families Party? Is that what we saw? I was trying to, you know, see if that's what that was. How did you receive it? Did you claim that, Maurice, or What?

[C]

I'm still discerning 100 what happened there. But I. I mean, again, I think, you know, over the next 48 hours, we're gonna see a lot of folks inside of the Democratic Party try to make meaning of this. Some of them are having a harder night than others. Again, like I said before, this is a great night for us and I think a great night for democracy and a great night for this new politics. And the thing that's interesting about Barack Obama, the thing that's interesting about even somebody like Hakeem Jeffries, many of these people, they actually started off as outsiders. They started off as disruptors inside of their party. And people start off as disruptors and then they become some of the forces that are most troubled by the necessary change and turn that have to happen inside of their party. But I think if, again, I am representing the Working Families Party, but if I was representing the Democratic Party, I would want an environment that allowed some of the best and brightest talent to emerge and look like when your team is winning and you have a young upstart and they're on fire, you give them the rock. You just give them the rock. Right? And some folks in the Democratic Party still might be confused by that, but we certainly aren't like, look, folks aren't asking for permission anymore to lead. And we think that that's it.

[A]

Dean Obadallah. Not only is Zorhan Mamdani the first Muslim mayor, he was born in Africa and his middle name is Kwame. There is nothing about him that is not fully triggering to right wing people. He has been openly embracing the fact that he is a democratic socialist. He doesn't run from the socialist term. As almost all Democrats, they're so terrified they can barely defend Social Security because it's got the word social in it. They're terrified to talk about the poor. They only talk about the middle class. They won't speak speak about the poor. Zoran Mamdani talked about broke folks, people who can't afford their rent. And he took on every single billionaire that was at the Mar a Lago Great Gatsby Party. And beyond all the billionaires, to me, it's humiliating. All these billionaires, Michael Bloomberg, etc. Bill Ackman, the whole anti DEI. This dude is African. Bill Ackman, somebody Need to do a wellness check on him because he probably the guy black Muslim and also African. He's. I don't know if he's gonna make it through the night.

[G]

And look at, I mean Trump was a big part of the. All the election wins tonight because the Democrats ran against him in New Jersey, in Virginia, in Zoran here. And I think Maurice was mentioning before I came on the exit polling in New Jersey showed affordability was a top issue.

[A]

Yes.

[G]

Why Zorn led the path on that. Look, Zorin a year ago announced that he was going to run. I got a. I knew, you know, we're not buddies, but I know him. I remember he texted me, I'm like, I'm not gonna have you on my show. You're like, no percent. Like, I mean, I didn't say that, but I'm like, come on. And so a year ago and I had him on the primary early on and he's a really good guy. Then it became impossible to get him back on same. He captured something, you know, he. Young people and middle aged people are tired of the system being rigged. And what he did was not just offer that kind of term terminology that gives you traction. He gave specific things that he was going to do and he wasn't going to back down. And at his rallies, people would. I never saw at a rally where people like filling in the blanks on policy prescriptions like free what you know, freeze the rent, free buses, child care free. Like the kind of things where you're like, you leave and know that he's, he's serious about what he's doing. And they would, and I'd see Democrats, corporate Democrats who are in Congress, in New York who won't endorse him or, or they endorse Cuomo. I hope people wake up. Corporate Democrats are about status quo. That's why the big money people give them money. They want maybe incremental change to make you feel a teeny bit better. They don't want transformative change because the billionaires made their money in our system. They don't want to change the system that's worked for them. So that's where you get corporate Democrats. Look, Zorin, Democrats should look at this as a big victory on affordability. But different candidates can run a different campaign. I mean, Zorin running in Virginia maybe wins, maybe not, I'm not sure. In Jersey perhaps. And Mikey, Cheryl running here or Spanberger running her campaign in New York City probably doesn't win. But they're about affordability and being authentic and taking the fight to people in power. There's a lot there for Democrats.

[A]

There is a lot there. I'm going to also report to you all that it's 860,000 votes and counting for Zorhan Mamdani, who is now officially been declared the winner. 50.4% to 41.3 7.5% for the guy with the hats, Leewa. But the thing that is exciting about this and oh, there goes the ticker. Okay. Because what I was going to say is Zoran Mamdani is on track to be the first New York mayor to win with more than a million votes. Hard to believe that this is since John Lindsay. No New York Mayor and this is the city of New York. You would think everyone wins with no, most of these guys get in with under a million votes. He now has 913. It literally ticker just ticked up just as we were speaking. 913, 885 votes. When all is said and done, that's with 80% of the votes in. Zorhan Mamdani will get more than a million votes, meaning he will be the most popularly elected mayor of New York in any of our lifetimes. Dean, this is a huge repudiation of the people who did an ad at the end putting him in front of the World Trade Center. 911 tried to tie him to terrorism, tried to claim he was in fact a terrorist. Related. Every Islamophobic attack was thrown at this guy. He's going to be the most popularly elected New York mayor in our lifetimes.

[G]

But Chuck Schumer won't return his calls. No, I mean that's the. Look, the, the personal part for me as a Muslim American is I, I was really worried about younger Muslims seeing this anti Muslim hate and not wanting to run for office or going into the shadows instead. The skin of Muslim Americans. Like I'm older, I've been through a lot. Right. I'm also half Sicilian, so I'm half Palestin, half Silan. I've been through a lot. The younger Muslims, you see them on Tik Tok Instagram, they are more defiant than ever. They are not going to be quiet. They, most of them are born here or raised most of their lives. They are American. American. And they're not going to let bigotry go unanswered. So the bigots out there in your organizations, I think you're coming for us. You've lost here, you're going to lose everywhere. We're not. There's going to be more Muslims. And at some point, some other group will replace us. The boogeyman. We all know that. But what I saw now, 25 years after 9 11, this garbage. And Congressman Ogle is a Republican. But I mean, Eric Adams saying, wake up, this isn't Europe. Look what they're doing for a man like that. Who knows Muslims, who. I performed at events for Muslims in Brooklyn when he was Brooklyn borough president where the Muslims loved this guy at one point. To do that to me was just despicable. And I don't know why Adams did it. He did it while endorsing Cuomo last week. I couldn't believe that.

[A]

Yeah. And by the way, millionaires, complete rebuke, Maurice, to the billionaire. Not the millionaires, the billionaires. Just a thorough rebuke of the oligarchs.

[C]

Yes. And look, I think it's going to hopefully be a wake up call. Because if the Democratic Party really wants to leap into this moment where affordability is an issue and a candidate like Zoron has built this movement around them, one of the realities is that the Republican Party is funded by a group of elites, right? And oligarchs and corporations. And it is a fascist party for sure. But the Democratic Party is a status quo party that has its own set of elites, corporations and oligarchs. And there's a new wave of folks who are elected officials who are resisting and who are saying, we're not going to be funded by corporate PACs. We're not going to be funded by APAC or AI or crypto or Farmer or the real estate lobby or the Fraternal Order of police. We're going to be funded by our constituents. We're going to be funded by everyday people. And we're going to use the dynamism of people power in order to build a movement that could take on corporate power. And that contrast is something that I think is on full display in New York. And there's a lot of performative fighting taking place inside of the Democratic Party. But when it comes to actually challenging aipac, for example, people are quiet. Or the crypto lobby or the burgeoning AI lobby folks are quiet because a lot of those folks in the Democratic Party are trying to figure out how they might be able to win back over big tech. Right. When they should be focusing on winning back the trust of working people. And I think that's also on display with the pretty impressive victory that Zoran is about to sail to. And that's going to create a governing mandate for the freelancer, for child, for childcare, for all the things that Zoran ran on, he will have a mandate, which is why it was so important that so many people came out. So nobody could argue that this was a fluke or anything like that. This is a powerful mandate for a new type of politics.

[A]

I can't wait to see what the backlash is going to look like. Frank Luntz throwing in the towel. Conservative pollster Frank Luntz reporting that every single county in the great state of Virginia shifted blue word tonight. Loudoun county went 12 points to the blue side. Prince William County 16 points in that direction. Portsmouth County 8.1. Even conservative Washington county shifted blue by 4.5 points. Louisa county shifted by 6.5 points. Orange county, which winsome Earl Sears won by 15 points. It still went 9.3 points in the other direction. Powhatan County. Earl Sears won by 40 points, but it shifted 4.4 points. Mark Thompson to the left. So what you're seeing is the way that Donald Trump seemed to create this effect, including in Virginia, where everything went red, where people decided they didn't want just Trump, but they wanted Trump and all Republicans. This feels like a complete rejection of him and a message to him that his policies are hurting people and are pissing people off.

[D]

A complete rejection and repudiation. People are fed up with it. And I think, again, this, this, this means a lot, even, I mean, and, and, and Democrats, if they're smart, they'll figure out a way to embrace all of these victories and stop, you know, cherry picking who. Which is an acceptable victory versus an unacceptable one. Because, I mean, these locales are different. New York City is not Virginia. And that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. So we don't need to fall out. And, and, and the Senate obviously is, is, is, is not New York City either, where Chuck is holed up. You know, he's out of touch with reality, too. So people need to get over themselves. Just a bit of other, other bit of news, Joy. Chris Menifee is forced to run off to succeed Sheila Jackson Lee's seat in Texas. The votes are just being counted in Minneapolis, where we may get another Muslim mayor tonight, the young brother Omar Fateh, who is Somali. The large Somali population in Minneapolis, and as Maurice said, the Georgia Public Service Commission, the sister, Alicia Johnson won. So we, we may very well. I, I can't, I'm. Look, I can't. I don't see a loss tonight. Yeah, I don't see anywhere where anyone has lost, where we've lost a step. Am I wrong about that, Maurice?

[C]

No, not at all. And there's, there's some other seats further west that I'm going to be looking at.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And these are municipal seats that may not be in Everybody's radar. Denzel McCampbell, a brother in, in Detroit City Council. So he's a young progressive upstart that's running with that same type of independent politics. And he has a great shot to be, to be a new representative in Detroit. Dion Foster, who's a sister in Seattle City Council, she's somebody who I'm going to be looking at. So all of these are indications as we look at these races that, I mean, this, I mean, even without knowing what happens in those races, the story is that this is a wave election without a doubt.

[G]

What a difference from a year ago. Remember a year ago where we were with Donald Trump won and the pain we were going through and the soul searching. Now this is, the world's gonna see this. And I hope the world says, look, they are course correcting a little bit. There's some hope there. You know, maybe they're not gonna go down the fascist path that Donald Trump wants. But Joey, we talk about this show. Does this make Trump expedite him to becoming a lame duck or make him more dangerous and desperate to hold on to power between now and the next midterm where he does things that we can't even think about? No one thought of January 6th terrorist attack. What will he do to stay in power and keep Republicans in power between now and November? So we have to be on higher, higher double secret alert because he's going to try to steal the midterm elections because he knows that we're coming for him. We get the House, it's impeachment. Whatever, you know, whatever we can do. We're going to make him, lock him in his back.

[A]

I don't even need impeachment. You don't have 60. You don't have 67 votes to convict. And so impeachment is impractical. What I want is the House to cut off his allowance. I want them to say the allowance. It's like when your kid misbehaved. Cut the money off and the House has the power to do it. No more money for ICE. ICE's budget just went to zero, my friend. You get nothing. Your budget, your coin purse for remodeling the White House. Leave the East Wing in rubble. I hope rats and bugs come in through the hole because we're not gonna rebuild it. You're not getting a permit. No permits, Nothing's happening. You're not going to get any more money. We're not going to, we're going to cut your travel budget down. You want to go play golf? Get in that thing that gutter gave you. You take, let clutter fly you to go play golf. Literally. I think that what the House should do is to start cutting the money off.

[C]

That'd be great.

[A]

Don't give them more money because that's what they have the power to do. They have the power to start restricting. And I really would love the Senate before do not cave without getting something on the books, a law that he has no choice but to sign or become law without his signature, that if you do not spend the money as the House and Senate designated it to be spent, money is cut off. There have to be punishments and penalties for him to be disobedient. Donald Trump is a bad toddler and he's disobedient to the Constitution. And we need the House and Senate to man up and run woman up and start to force him to comply. Let me give us some data that Mark brought up. The Texas 18. This is the soon to be completely gutted 18th historic district in Texas which is going to be basically merged with, with 9, with District 9 Al Greens District Christian Menifee has 12,599 votes, or 32% of the vote. Amanda Edwards has 25.2% of the vote. And our friend Jolanda Jones, who's been on this show a lot, she's the one who brought us those maps to show what was going to happen to these districts. She is running third with 18.9% of the vote as no one has gotten to the 50% threshold. I do believe that you are saying, Maurice, that that means it's going to be a runoff.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

So that will be a runoff. So we're going to keep watching that. If anybody has eyes on the Atlanta council race, we had Rohit for Atlanta on last night. I'm very curious to see what happens there. So if one of the producers, if neither could maybe do a quick, a quick search to see what we've got on that. But this has been a really historic day, Dean. This is historic for Muslims in two different states and counting, but historic for America and for New York City city.

[G]

Well, look, you have Nitha Khan working for you, who's Muslim. So you're gonna be fine. We're all, you know, we're making a list right now. We're feeling pretty good. Like whoever's been nice doesn't be fine. But Others. I got my eye on a few people.

[C]

I actually saw something. You know, one of the fear mongering takes was about like mandating Halal. I'm like, actually I like Halal. That's not a bad name.

[A]

I'm like, that's like when they said taco trucks on every corner. Yes please, taco trucks on every corner. And mandated Halal. Halal is delicious, man. Turkey bacon's better.

[G]

Eat turkey bacon, you'll still live longer. It's not even about religious. It's health reasons, believe me. Pork is going to kill you. It's a dirty animal, let's not even get to it. But turkey is going to keep you living longer.

[C]

I mean, I mean, I don't know if you all have been tracking this. This is something that I got a lot of text messages this weekend from black New Yorkers who got this, these messages, this mail. There's been radio ads by this like black, this sort of black organization that was basically a APAC front group, you know, spewing all of these. Yeah, all of these really, you know, problematic messages about, about.

[D]

How do we find that out, Maurice? That it was APAC front group? How did we discover that?

[C]

Okay. I mean they didn't hide it too well. Basically it, it took like three, three clicks and a Google search. You go to their website, you look at the two individuals, they're both black men who claim to be the people behind this. And then, you know, a cursory look at their backgrounds and it turns out most of their political career has been spent in apac. And this thing is funded by APAC donors and apac and it just shows the desperation at, at the last minute. And all the, you know, APAC is basically a corporate billionaire lobby. So all the billionaire money went to all of these really like problematic attacks. And it's, you know, silly season is something that always happens, you know, at like the final, final buzzer. You're going to see all types of weird things. But I think this has been in some ways some of the darkest and most racist and Islamophobic messages and coming from, and sometimes coming from Democrats. Yeah, I think I've seen in recent memory. And the good news is none of them worked. The millions and millions and millions of dollars in race baiting, Islamophobia and xenophobic attacks, they all backfired. People were more inspired to turn out. People were disgusted. And those, those politics of the past, I think have been discredited. And I think those billionaires might think twice before they decide to spend like 20 something billion dollars on attacks in this fashion. You know, the other thing I think is going to be really interesting to look at is given the fact that Trump's approval is under 40%, you have this clear rebuke. How is it going to impact the politics of the shutdown? Because there will be sitting Republicans in the House of Representatives.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And even sitting senators that are going to be thinking about their own politics more than Donald Trump's because of the outcomes of today's election. And it's going to be interesting to see how they spin this, but also privately, what they're going to be talking about and whether or not the negotiations might change based on where the politics are going.

[A]

Yeah. And the two members of Congress who are talking about attempting to deport Zorhan Mamdani. Good luck. He's going to be the mayor of the great city of New York. He's going to be the New York mayor. You're not going to deport him. I'm sorry, I know that is your fever dream that you think you're going to somehow denaturalize and deport him.

[C]

They declared Jay Jones the winning.

[A]

Jay Jones is now officially the winner. There you go. Thank you, Jason, very much. There we go. That's a.

[G]

If you add up Cuomo and Sliwa, they don't equal what Mandani got as of now. So that's very true. That's an important thing. And I saw the exit poll. Black voters went for Zoron a big chunk, maybe it was about 12, 15 points. He beat Cuomo by in that. So that's really. And he put his time in. Zoran went, you know, Reverend Allen, others all over the community, all over New York after the midterm, after the primary, because he had not had done as well the black community. And it paid off. People are giving it, they want to see him deliver. Now we're going to see the corporate Democrats stand in their way. That's the problem. Mayor of New York is not governor of New York.

[A]

Right.

[G]

You have to go to New York governor and the state assembly and Senate to get approval of things you want to do on so much. And people are not going to be aware of that. That's going to be the challenge for Zoran.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. And we should note that the, the economy of the New York metro area is equivalent to the economy of Canada. This 34 year old young man who's gonna be the mayor of. It's almost a city state, New York City. It operates almost like a city state Donald Trump says he's going to, as president, not want to send money to New York City. Bullshit. Wall street is in New York City. He's not gonna do anything because New York City is the financial capital of the United States. He has to deal with Zohan, but he won't be able to operate freely in terms of immigration raids. You're now going to have the cop in town. It's not going to be the mayor who's got legal issues and you can bribe him and push him around as you had with Bling Bling Mayor Eric Adams. Now you're going to have somebody with some integrity and who has to answer to a very young and very anticipatory young audience who expects him to do big things. I think it's a huge deal. It's one of the biggest deals in American politics in the modern era. I want to thank everybody. Let me give you all the last word, if anybody's got a last thought. Maurice Mitchell, your thought, you know, Well.

[C]

I think, number one, the governing. I'm looking towards the governing project that's going to take place in New York and the governing mandate that Zoran has. And it's true that there's going to have to be a lot of conversations in Albany, but again, Albany is going to have a mayor that is aligned with Zoran as well as Buffalo, as well as Syracuse. And there's going to be a statewide appetite for more revenue from these billionaires. And I call bullshit on all the billionaires and multimillionaires that were whining about the fact that they were going to leave. Listen, part of being a billionaire is living wherever the hell you want. And those. They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere.

[A]

First of all, Maurice, I'm sorry to cut you. They live in New York part time because they have homes all over the world. And if you go to Millionaire Mile in midtown Manhattan, most of those beautiful high rises are empty most of the year because they're. They're in Dubai. They don't even live there. So the idea that we're going to leave. No, you're not. You're going to. And by the way, if you do, it will drop real estate prices to where regular folks can buy brownstones and beautiful. So please go. If you're going to go, just make sure that you discount the price of your properties because some of us would love to go and buy real estate in New York. So please leave it for us. I'm sorry, continue.

[C]

Absolutely. And then the last thing is you know, the Xoran victory as well as some of the other victories tonight, I think demonstrate the power of when somebody articulates something devote for for. Right. So a lot of the messaging inside of the traditional Democratic Party, a lot of the messaging in 2024 was fear based. How bad Donald Trump was, how bad MAGA was. Right. And actually giving people something to vote for. It turns out it really matters.

[A]

Amen. Dean Obedala, last thought.

[G]

I'm very excited. The idea that Democrats are going to fight, I think they're going to embrace this populism that Jones talked about. It's a good populism fighting for the working class. And you have to term it as class warfare. FDR had no problem embracing class warfare. Go back to the roots Democratic Party, where a party that believes in the government can help people. Don't be afraid of that. Don't be afraid of helping people. Don't be afraid of saying the wealthy got to pay their fair share and getting big money out of politics. So look, I think it's a great day. It's been a tough year. Let's be blunt. It's a tough year with Trump. We've been fighting every day. He's aging me. Look, I'm 21 years old. Look what he's done to me. I look like this. So I'm kidding. I'm not 21. I'm much older. The point is though, this is a great night. Let's savor it and let it propel us, I hope, to bigger victories going forward.

[A]

I will announce that now. Zoran Mamdani, as we reach the 10 o' clock hour, Eastern Standard Time is at 999,313 votes. He is just shy of that million votes. He is going to get to the million 87% of the votes in Zorhan Mamdani will have will be the first New York mayor to be elected with more than a million votes in two generations since John Lindsay. Even David Dinkins, who we loved, didn't get a million. Even Rudy Giuliani. People think of him as America's mayor. I hate that a black woman named him that. He never got a million votes. Mayor Ed Koch never got a million votes. This is going to be the most popularly elected Mayor Mark Thompson in the history of New York. And he's going to be an object lesson for Democrats who I wonder if they'll now even feel free to say, free Palestine, stop killing Palestinian children. You can actually say end the genocide and free Palestine. It's perfectly fine. The Water is fine. You are allowed to stand against the genocide. It won't. It don't hurt. You might even win. Go ahead, Mark.

[D]

Well, I think that's a fair question, folks. And we have to be careful because you know our side, whether we're black or left or progressive, we go from one extreme to the other. The deep depression and despair from November 2024 now to the euphoria of tonight. And then there's nothing in between. The key to all of this is eternal vigilance. So we have to make sure all these people who are elected continue to live up to our ideals and push them not to give in. Because money comes in, Maurice and Dean, and folks start to change people's minds. The consultant class takes over. Right? And we've got to stop that. And so, folks, you voted tonight, but we still have to hold this party accountable. Everybody who was elected Tonight, the great Dr. Ron Walters, who was the greatest political scientist of the 20th century, said we on our side, we genuflect too much. When elected officials come into the room, we need to be holding them accountable. So we've got a lot of work to do. The work begins tonight. It doesn't end tonight. We can celebrate tonight, but we've got a lot more to do to push back against the fascism that is continuing. White House just announced today, probably before the end of the week, they're going to do some other executive order on voting. They are eroding. They want to make sure we don't vote again anyway.

[A]

Oh, 100.

[D]

I don't believe he's leaving in 2028. He has no plans to leave, so we got to be prepared for that. And also the young brother, the Somali Muslim brother in, in Minneapolis is a thousand votes away. He's. He's just behind the front run, about a thousand votes, the incumbent. So we may get another victory tonight, but it's, it is good news. But folks, the real work that we gotta do begins tomorrow.

[A]

Do not make the same mistake that people made when Barack Obama won his election in 2008 and people thought the work was over, they didn't need to show up in the midterms. There was nothing else to do. Recall that the Flint water crisis happened because after 60% some odd turnout in Michigan in that midterm, it dropped to 40%. People did not show up. And Republicans took over Michigan and Flint happened because with a black president, with Barack Obama sitting in the White House, people thought that there was nothing else to do and they did not show up. 2010 was an Armageddon event for the Democratic Party. It was a census year and Democrats laid back and said, let Obama handle it. He's got this. We're just excited to have him. And they let it all slip away. Democrats, by the way, when Barack Obama came in and finally Al Franken won that contested race in Minnesota, Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate. It's the only reason you got Obamacare. And they let all of it slip away. They let it all go. And by 2014, African Americans lost more political power in the 2014 election than they did since the 1960s. 60s majority of black state elected officials were serving in majority legislatures. The south did not flip in 1968, it flipped in 2014.

[D]

That's right.

[A]

Do the math. When the south finally went to the Republicans, it was in 2014 because voters sat back and said Obama is some sort of mad magician and he's just going to do things without their, without our help. That ain't how it works. Now the work begins. You've got your Democratic governors in Virginia, New Jersey, you got an attorney general and a lieutenant governor. You got a full Democratic slate in Virginia. You retain Democratic control in New Jersey. You now have a Democratic mayor of New York. And you've got a lot of great victories, Democrats. But the work, as Mark said, has just begun, as all of these panelists have said. Now your work truly begins because you have to deliver. Because if you don't deliver, the American people are quite fickle and they get real mad. Ask Donald Trump where his approval ratings are because he ain't delivered on none of the stuff he said he was going to do.

[C]

We want to thank Leslie hower for the $50 tip.

[A]

Leslie Hower, thank you for the tip. We appreciate it. Let's let our guests go to their evenings. Dean Obidala of the Great Dino show on SiriusXM, you're gonna want to watch that at all times and stay stick with it. Maurice Mitchell of the Working Families Party, probably my new party soon. I'll probably make an official announcement on the Joy reacho sometime soon as I convert over to your side and my co host, my, my co host on tonight. I, I, I said can you do an hour? And then I just kept him for a second hour. It literally was a hostage situation. But you know, Mark, my friend, so.

[D]

Happy to have to be your hostage. Anytime, Joy and thank you for staying in this lane and doing what you're doing and remaining eternally vigilant yourself. We need you and we're thankful you're still on the Air.

[A]

Thank you so much. Mark Thompson, the Rev.

[F]

Thank you, brother Mark.

[A]

Thank you so much. To everybody in the chat. Want to thank. Thank you, Mark. Let's thank all of our great guests on tonight, Gary Chambers Jr. And big ups to Gary Chambers Sr. Who's in Duval county in Florida, David Jolly, who is running for governor of Florida, probably the most difficult, one of the most difficult statewide races run. So let's go David Jolly. He is one of our spicy white friends. And so with the spicy whites have got to rule. We've got to put the spicy whites in a position to run things because he's a good guy. He's a genuinely good guy. Great dad, great friend, good man. Will it make make Florida nice again? Because he's very, he's a very nice person. So we want him to be able to win. We've also had folks on that are running Senate races in Mississippi coming up in 2026, Kentucky, some very interesting things that are happening in Kentucky. We're going to be talking about that in future shows because we don't want to be triumphalist on tonight. But tonight was a total and thorough rebuke and rejection of Donald J. Trump. I tried to really quickly go on. I don't go on truth Social, so I cannot do a wellness check the way I probably should. But y' all gonna need to do a wellness check on Donald on the 31st. He was throwing a Great Gatsby party. And tonight he realized the Great Gatsby is a tragedy. It's a tragedy, buddy. It's not a story about the rich winning. It's a tragedy. So maybe you might want to read the book. Donald, I'm not sure you're a great reader, but you might want to do it because you did that on the eve of people losing their snap and now snap. All those races went the other way because of you. Whether you endorsed them or not, every Republican who ran on your line went down to defeat. And that means nature is healing. Thank you all for watching this special edition of the Joy Reid Show. Thank you to everybody in the chat. Y' all in the chat were really great. We got some let's go. Jolly in all caps. We appreciate it. Thank you all for hanging out. Thank you all for the tips. Everybody who threw a little coin in the tiller. We appreciate. We're still trying to figure out what nice thing we're going to do for our wonderful team. Big ups to Niva. Niva is going to have a piece that we're going to publish on@joann reid.com on the substack because she's also an incredible writer as well as a fantastic producer and a very happy young Muslim woman who is celebrating behind the scenes. Yes, he's behind. She's behind the scenes that we consider tonight Nida Night on the Joy Reid Show. So big ups to Nidda Khan. You can find her on Twitter. She's still on Twitter. Acting up. Thank you all for watching. Be sure to hit like and share. Yes. And we will see you all tomorrow night. Same bad time, same bad channel, but not the Same bad time. 6:00pm Eastern Standard Time, normal time on the Joy Retro. If you want this shirt, you can get it in the shop. Hey, shop.joy re.com. it's cute. It's short sleeve. Get yourself a mug. Just saying. Everybody's saying they want shirts in a bag. Anyway, love y'. All. See you guys on the next show on the Joy Reed Show. Bye, Jason. Thank you all. Good night.

[D]

Okay.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

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