Takeaways From Democrats’ Election Wins Up And Down The Ballot

Summary

The NPR Politics Podcast

Episode: Takeaways From Democrats’ Election Wins Up And Down The Ballot

Date: November 7, 2025
Host(s): Miles Parks, Steven Fowler, Domenico Montanaro, Tamara Keith

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the surprising breadth and depth of Democratic wins in recent off-year elections across the country, examining not just headliner races but important down-ballot victories. The hosts analyze why these results happened even as national polling shows Democratic unpopularity and discuss what they're likely to mean for both parties as the crucial 2026 midterms approach. The conversation also examines how Trump’s continued influence shapes Republicans, the centrality of affordability as a top campaign issue, demographic trends, and what lessons Democrats might draw for future candidate selection and messaging.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Down-Ballot Democratic Wins: What Happened?

• Democrats outperformed expectations even in “sleepy” local and state-level races—shocking margins in places like Georgia, New Jersey, and Orlando, Florida.
• Georgia’s Public Service Commission: First statewide Democratic win in a non-federal race since 2006; two Democrats took 62% of the vote.
• Local victories: From city councils to state legislatures, Democrats made headway, flipping Republican-held seats and breaking GOP supermajorities.

“In Georgia... there were two statewide elections... And a lot of people showed up, and most of them were Democrats... For Georgia being such a purple state, this one wasn't even close.”
— Steven Fowler [01:55]

• National pattern: Even in swing counties and local offices, Republican candidates were ousted in favor of Democrats.

2. What’s Fueling This?

A. Dislike for Trump, Not Love for Democrats

• Despite strong results, Democratic unpopularity remains high in polling; the results are more about anti-Trump sentiment.

“Your choice is the party that I'm kind of mad about but agree mostly with, or Trump. And... they really, really, really dislike Donald Trump.”
— Domenico Montanaro [04:43]

• Off-year voters tend to be more enthusiastic and “activated,” aiding Democrats at the polls.

B. Changing Demographics Help Democrats

• White, college-educated voters—now core Democratic supporters—vote at much higher rates, especially in lower turnout elections.

“Those voters vote at the highest levels, participation rate wise, traditionally throughout history. ... That’s advantaging Democrats right now.”
— Domenico Montanaro [06:02]

C. Affordability as The Central Issue

• Across the board, cost of living and affordability overtook esoteric or ideological issues.

“Clearly affordability has been... the common theme throughout this entire... election. And I think it's really refocused and recentered how each party is likely to talk about affordability...”
— Domenico Montanaro [08:21]

• Even Republican candidates in Tennessee framed their message around bringing down prices and creating jobs.

3. Implications for 2026 and Party Strategies

A. Democrats' 2026 Outlook

• The current turnout patterns are likely to continue favoring Democrats in midterm elections, as more consistent voters remain in their coalition.
• But higher midterm turnout will still be lower than presidential years—activist voters have outsized influence.

“Does that hue closer to the presidential election rules, or does that hue closer to this?... They're also advantaged in the midterms.”
— Domenico Montanaro [07:07]

B. Republicans and The Trump Effect

• Trump, despite not being on the ballot, still casts a “big shadow.” His popularity is low, but he energizes a base others can’t—creating a dilemma for GOP candidates.

“Trump is very, very unpopular. But isn't it kind of a death sentence a little bit to try to go against him?”
— Miles Parks [14:34]

• Trump demands loyalty and hasn’t given candidates the freedom to run independently, unlike past leaders (i.e., George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich).
• Republicans' gains with Hispanic voters in 2024 appear to have receded, with Latinos again favoring Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin; cost of living remains their #1 issue.

C. Lessons for Democratic Messaging and Candidates

• Common denominator for winning Democrats: a focus on bread-and-butter issues, especially affordability, regardless of ideological differences.
• Success doesn’t mean the party is popular—leaders have lost trust post-Biden, and there’s no clear leader yet.
• Drawing parallels to 2005-2006: A scattered party can still make big gains with disciplined, unified messaging.

“Winning is one hell of a drug because they were... sad and depressed, and then all of a sudden they win a bunch of elections... and they're like, hey, we have a map out of the wilderness. And it is affordability and cost of living.”
— Tamara Keith [20:53]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why Dems are winning but remain unpopular:

  “I don't think it's inconsistent to have an unpopular Democratic Party and wildly large turnout for people voting for Democratic candidates...”
  — Steven Fowler [05:27]

• On the challenges for Republicans running in the Trump era:

  “It is a death sentence that will be delivered by President Trump himself. He is demanding ultimate fealty... anyone who strays... can run into the buzzsaw.”
  — Tamara Keith [14:49]

• Highlighting a shift in Latino vote dynamics:

  “Affordability, cost of living were everything that we heard... and the Latinos who did show up at the polls... went 2 to 1 for Democrats.”
  — Domenico Montanaro [16:03]

• On what Dems should look for in 2026 candidates:

  “There are a lot of similarities between them in message that they were putting out there... They both talked about affordability as the issue. They weren’t talking about this kind of esoteric ‘democracy is dying’ message.”
  — Domenico Montanaro [20:22]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Down-ballot Democratic sweeps and Georgia results: [01:55–03:25]
• Disconnect between Democratic wins and party unpopularity: [04:24–06:39]
• Implications for 2026 midterms & turnout dynamics: [06:39–08:07]
• Affordability as the core issue: [08:21–09:10]
• Trump’s continued influence & Republican Party predicament: [13:15–15:15]
• Latino voters and the cost of living: [16:03–17:24]
• Democrats’ message discipline and lessons from 2006: [20:53–22:43]

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Tone & Style Notes

The episode maintains the NPR Politics Podcast’s signature blend of sharp political analysis and relaxed, conversational banter. The hosts joke about bowling and birthdays, but swiftly pivot into insightful, data-driven observations and personal reporting. Both skepticism and cautious optimism infuse the conversations—especially as they parse conflicting signs for both parties.

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Final Takeaways

• Democrats’ recent wins, especially down ballot, are a major story—reflecting both demographic shifts and anti-Trump energy more than strong loyalty to Democratic leaders.
• Affordability and economic anxiety are the unifying issues nationally, shaping not just who votes but how candidates frame their campaigns, regardless of party.
• Both parties face uncertainty heading into 2026: Republicans must navigate Trump’s powerful but divisive influence, while Democrats need to translate issue-based momentum into lasting voter trust and organizational unity.
• Historical parallels suggest that even an unpopular out-party can win big when focused and disciplined—a lesson both sides seem to understand as the midterms approach.

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This summary captures the major substance, tone, and touchstone moments of the episode for listeners who missed the discussion.

Transcript

[A]

This week on Consider this a big few days for the Democratic Party, decisive wins on Election Day and Nancy Pelosi announces she'll retire next year. What it all can mean in 2026. Plus the latest action from the Trump administration to limit the flow of refugees into the US Catch up on the news you've missed. In short, daily episodes of Consider this. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

Hi, this is Madeline from Sarasota Florid. I'm currently at Thursday Night Bowling league.

[A]

Where we are down one game of our three games.

[B]

This podcast was recorded at 12:40pm on Friday, November 7, 2025.

[A]

Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but hopefully we'll win this game and then we'll go to dinner afterwards. Enjoy the show.

[C]

Strike dinner afterwards. You need the bacon cheeseburger at the.

[B]

Bowling alley and two pitchers of Coorsley Such a Miles coded Timestamp Rec Sports, Sarasota, Florida. Like these are my thing.

[C]

Hey, there's three of us in here. You know what that means. We just need one more for a fourth. We got a team.

[B]

Hey there. It's the NPR Politics Bowling podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.

[D]

I'm Steven Fowler. I cover politics.

[C]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[B]

And we are going to talk politics today. But first we just got to say happy Birthday, Stephen.

[D]

Oh, thank you so, Stephen.

[B]

Happy birthday, Stephen.

[D]

I am 32 years young. Happy to be here. No place I'd rather be on my birthday.

[C]

All right.

[B]

Well today on the show cause we have you both here. We are going full election nerd. Earlier this week we talked about the main headlines, the Virginias, the new Jerseys, the California redistrictings. But today we are going down ballot. Stephen, you were watching a lot of these races that not everyone was talking about on Wednesday morning. Get us up to speed.

[D]

So down the ballot across the country, across the ideological spectrum, Democrats did well in these races too. In Georgia, there were special elections for the Public Service Commission, which is the five person state utility regulator. These elections have been canceled for a few years because of lawsuits over how those districts were crafted and who got to vote for them. So long story short, there were two statewide elections on otherwise municipal sleepy like mayor here, county here, elections. And a lot of people showed up and most of them were Democrats. In fact, Myles, for Georgia being such a purple state, this one wasn't even close. Two Democrats got 62% of the vote in flipping counties in South Georgia and urban and suburban areas and that was really one of the other big eyebrow raising things because it hits at a lot of big things that we're watching as far as what voters are thinking and feeling. I also was looking at places like Orlando where they had the city council elections where the last Republican held district was flipped. There were county legislatures and state legislatures where Democrats had big gains in Mississippi, state court ordered redrawn districts led to a super majority being broken in New Jersey, Democrats gained a super majority in the lower chamber there. So there were combinations of races and places and margins and points in time to refer to that we have never heard from before.

[C]

I think it really speaks to the power of the out party in off year elections when a president is under 50% and his approval rating just not very good, not very popular. And this really encapsulated just how wide a sweep these elections where it was really our first big electoral test of Trump's political power and just how much of a drag he's been on the Republican Party.

[D]

And another thing I want to mention as a perfect example of that, Domenico, is in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania voters there opted to retain three state supreme court judges that were first elected as Democrats. Down the ballot. You have several swing counties that everybody likes to talk about in big presidential election years that had Republicans ousted and Democrats win big. These sort of RO offices in some of these counties and even all the way down to local municipalities where you just had at every single level, people vote for Democrats against Republicans.

[B]

What I don't understand though is if we're seeing this massive, what looked like a very large blue wave as you're talking about, Stephen, at every level on the ballot. But when you look at polling, Domenico, the Democratic Party is still very unpopular. Democratic leadership is still very unpopular. How do you square those two things?

[C]

Well, you only got a couple choices in this country, right? So your choice is the party that I'm kind of mad about but agree mostly with, or Trump. And if that's the case, and those people who are kind of meh about the party they wound up voting for, they really, really, really dislike Donald Trump. And I think that that's been the entire story here. And some of those meh voters may have stayed home. And the fact is these are lower turnout elections and more activist voters go out to the polls. And I think you're seeing a little bit of nuance in pol. Yeah, Democrats might feel like they're not that thrilled with Democratic leaders, but when you ask them about their enthusiasm in voting in these elections, they're more enthusiastic than Republicans. Are about voting against the party that they don't like.

[D]

And a lot of these people that are driving the unpopularity with the Democratic Party are these super voters that will vote in every single election up and down the ballot all year long. And these are people that are using their vote as a way to express displeasure with the way the party's doing things and with Trump. And so I don't think it's inconsistent to have an unpopular Democratic Party and wildly large turnout for people voting for Democratic candidates who will change both the partisan makeup of these offices and the direction of the party.

[C]

This is also one way where the political realignment in the country has advantaged Democrats. Because while Democrats have been at a disadvantage in presidential elections in some respects because they haven't done as well with blue collar voters, they have done much better with white college educated voters than they ever have before. And those voters vote at the highest levels, participation rate wise, traditionally throughout history. And so if more of those voters who tend to vote more in elections are now voting more for your party, then you're more likely in off your elections when you have lower turnout and those lower propensity groups stay home. That those higher propensity voters go out to the polls. And that's advantaging Democrats right now.

[B]

Yeah, 100%. That makes a lot of sense to me. Ever since 2024, I think I've been excited to see, I guess, what the elections would look like after that because Trump's victory was so buoyed by, you know, quote unquote, low propensity voters that in these other elections I was really interested to see that. How much does that translate to 2026? I mean, that is going to be a high profile midterm election. Does that hue closer to the presidential election rules or does that hue closer to this? Like the party that does well with the high educated super voters are also advantaged in the midterms.

[C]

They are also advantaged in the midterms. There was going to be a higher turnout likely in the midterms than there were in this off off year election. But it's still some significant percentage off from what the presidential election turnout is. And that we've seen advantage Democrats, for example, in 2022 when people thought that there'd be a red wave and really Democrats were able to use that type of voter who turns out more to mitigate their losses.

[D]

And I think if you wheel out the metaphorical whiteboard here to look at the combination of voters in 2022, like you mentioned, there were a lot of primary challengers that Donald Trump endorsed that took what could have been winnable races and made it much more difficult for them to win, even though Republicans were the party out of power. But this is probably in many ways more comparable to 2018 when you have Donald Trump in the White House, Republicans in Congress and this surge of people trying to express their vote against the administration's policies.

[B]

All right, so we're talking about a pretty diverse range of offices as well as a bunch of different states from the Georgia Public Service Commission, City Council seats in Orlando, Florida Supreme Court seats in Pennsylvania. What are the common themes here?

[C]

Well, clearly affordability has been, you know, the common theme throughout this entire, you know, election. And I think it's really refocused and recentered how each party is likely to talk about affordability or need to talk about affordability as they try to sort of reimagine what each party needs to be and do ahead of the 2026 midterms.

[D]

And I think you can get another glimpse of that coming up in just a few weeks. In Tennessee, there is a special congressional election in the first week of December. And this is one of the ads from one of the candidates that was just released. I didn't risk my life for this country just to watch career politicians wreck it.

[C]

Matt Van Epps, nine Combat tours, True American hero.

[B]

Now I'm on a new mission to.

[D]

Bring down prices, create good paying jobs.

[C]

And lower health care costs for working families.

[D]

That's the Republican in the race. Miles, sounding an awful lot like a Democrat.

[B]

Yeah. Well, Stephen, you are based in Georgia, so I'm curious. Like that is a state that Democrats were not feeling great about post 2024. But as you mentioned, these down ballot wins that weren't these the first time they've won a statewide race like this that wasn't a federal election in like over what, 10, 15 years or so since 2006. Yeah. So looking ahead to next year, there are a couple high profile statewide races. Are Democrats feeling like those are potentially winnable In a way? Maybe they weren't pre.

[D]

This week they are feeling a lot better about things. But at the same time, because Georgia's been a purple state for so long, there was just this shock from Democrats and Republicans at such a lopsided margin. At the same time too, there are so many people running for an open governor's race on both sides of the aisle that there really is this microcosm in Georgia of what is happening with the Democratic Party, what is happening with the Republican Party, what is happening with the Senate race because Jon Ossoff is the most vulnerable Senate on the ballot. That really there are so many things to watch for in 2026 that, you know, selfishly, I'm watching in Georgia because I'm there, but just in places all around the country that really it's kind of a new ball game when thinking about the state of American politics.

[C]

You know, Miles, you mentioned wins. And it reminds me that there is a maelstrom that's happening in the country and it's about afford, it's about cost of living is part of that ad, obviously, that we heard there. And when the president is a Republican, that's gonna advantage Democrats, just like when the president was a Democrat, it advantaged Republicans. And this has all been stemming from the pandemic. Still not able to really bring prices down to any kind of pre pandemic level or close to it. Things feel like they're just more out of reach for a lot of people. And when you're in charge, you get more of the credit and more of the blame than you deserve.

[B]

Okay. Well, we can leave it there for now, Stephen, on your birthday, thank you so much. And go do something fun, you know.

[D]

Like talk more about politics or get.

[C]

A cake or something.

[B]

Get a cake or a cookie or a cupcake or something.

[D]

All right.

[B]

All right. Let's take a quick break. More in just a moment.

[C]

On the Throughline podcast from npr. The story of the undersea cables that run the Internet.

[A]

Other historians have compared it to the Apollo missions of going to the moon. Listen to Throughline in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

This message comes from Cook Unity. Enjoy high quality culinary masterpieces for a fraction of restaurant takeout prices, subscriptions start as low as $11ameal. Skip deliveries, pause or cancel anytime. Get what you're craving. Try fresh great tasting meal delivery made by your favorite celebrity chefs. Go to cookunity.com public media or enter code public Media before checkout for free premium meals for life terms and conditions apply. Go to cookunity.com for details. Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air.

[A]

Hey.

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Take a break from the 24 hour news cycle with us and listen to long form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians and musicians. The people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times. So listen to the FRESH AIR podcast from NPR and whyy.

[B]

And we're back and senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is here with us. Hi, Tam.

[A]

Hello. Hello.

[B]

So earlier we went through some of these results. But I want to look forward and talk a little bit more about what this means for elections and midterms and then beyond. And I want to start with you, Tam, and look specifically for Republicans, because President Trump was not happy with how the results went on Tuesday. He said as much on social media. He was not on the ballot. But how much did his presence impact, or lack thereof on the ballot impact? What happened?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, by his telling him not being on the ballot was a big problem. But guess what? Donald Trump was not on the ballot this week. He won't be on the ballot in 2026. And frankly, he won't be on the ballot in 2028 either. He is done. But he does cast a pretty big shadow. His popularity is underwater, but he's also this incredible force. He's someone who can turn out voters that other Republican politicians simply can't. It's, it's actually kind of like former President Obama, who was a superstar, but then his party had a lot of trouble in the midterms and off year elections, and they lost a lot of governorships and all of this because when he wasn't on the ballot, people just didn't show up. So I think for Republicans, there is now this question of what do you do while President Trump is casting this large shadow, but also isn't there to boost turnout?

[C]

We're somewhat in this era of, you know, the celebrity politician or the celebrity president, but also this era of anger. I mean, six of the last seven midterm elections have had presidents with approval ratings under 50%. I mean, that's really unique for our history. And what that's meant is that the party out of power has had a huge advantage in these midterms.

[B]

Well, it's really tough, right, Tam, for people who are running for these offices, there's not much. They're kind of between a rock and a hard place a little bit politically, because Trump is very, very unpopular. But isn't it kind of a death sentence a little bit to try to go against him?

[A]

It is a death sentence that will be delivered by President Trump himself. He is demanding ultimate fealty ult loyalty. And anyone who strays from him even a little bit can run into the Buzzsaw. And as a result of that, you know, normally a president will give members of his own party some space. Will, will say, yep, you can run against me as long as you can win. Trump hasn't given that permission yet.

[C]

I think that's a big point, right? I mean, when you talk to Republican Strategists they talk about the fact that, you know, whether it was George W. Bush or Newt Gingrich, for example, when they became political lightning rods, they were fine with letting, you know, a Susan Collins run the race that she needed to run in Maine, or, you know, a Mitt Romney needing to run a race because they wanted to have somebody who voted with them 85% of the time rather than 0% of the time.

[B]

Well, digging a little bit into the demographics of Tuesday, one of the points you made, Domenico, after the fact, was the fact that it seems like a lot of the gains Republicans made in 2024 with Hispanic voters specifically kind of dried up. I know it was notable in New Jersey, especially. What can Republicans do going forward to try to get those voters back into the fold?

[C]

It's so funny because for the years that I've been talking to Republican strategists about how to win over Republican voters, since the Bush era, they talk about all of these things like abortion rights and that the group is actually more conservative than they're maybe given credit for. That. The polls tend to show none of that is why Latinos. Latinos crossed over to vote for Donald Trump. Affordability, cost of living were everything that we heard on the campaign trail and what we saw in polling, and that was 100% what we've seen again this time around. And the Latinos who did show up at the polls, and I give that qualifier because there's a likelihood that there's a lot that did not show up. And those who did show up at the polls, though, went. Went 2 to 1 for Democrats.

[A]

The exit polls found Trump and his party actually have a very similar problem to what President Biden had back when he was in office, which was the president was trying to say, actually, the fundamentals are good. The economy's okay. Yes. Inflation has slowed down. We've got this. And now President Trump is delivering a very similar message. The problem is you can't sit in the White House and tell people the economy is good if they open up their power bill or they go to the grocery store store and they are experiencing sticker shock.

[B]

I mean, that makes sense to me, but there's also the, like, the elephant in the room a little bit is tariffs. President Trump at any point could just decide, not that that is not gonna be such a big priority for him, but that is clearly, or it seems to be to me, why voters are blaming him on some of his cost of living stuff.

[C]

Look, we've been talking for a long time since Trump got into office about his seeming lack of focus on bringing prices down. He, in fact, when would he be asked about it? Say, how often can you talk about the price of apples? You know, yeah, they're up, but how often can you talk about this? My advisors told me, you know, the economy was the most important thing, but I didn't really believe that. I think that the most motivating factor was immigration. Well, I mean, now you're talking about a presidency where he's put in place tariffs in all of these trade wars. Poll after poll after poll has found that people think that tariffs are gonna be worse for their pocketbook. And he's actively, you know, taken steps to make things more expensive in this country. You have a Treasury secretary and Scott Bessant who went out there and said that the ability to buy cheap goods is not the American dream. Easy for a billionaire to say, right? When things are more expensive.

[A]

Yeah. And President Trump is getting a little defensive about it. Last night he was at the White House for a foreign policy related event, but he started talking about affordability and he was like, I don't wanna talk about affordability.

[C]

I don't wanna hear about the affordability. Because right now we're much less. If you look at energy, we're getting close to $2 a gallon gas.

[A]

And he seemed to say that the real issue isn't the economy, but is just messaging.

[C]

The affordability is much better with the Republicans. The only problem is the Republicans don't talk about it. And Republicans should start talking about it and use their heads because we have great numbers, we have great. And they're going to only get better.

[A]

Which is also very familiar to what we heard from the Biden administration. Yeah, the point he's trying to make there is he thinks that eventually his tariffs will onshore a bunch of jobs to America and then the economy will be great. But that is like, maybe not something that could even possibly begin to happen by 2026 when people are making decisions.

[C]

One past president used to say, I feel your pain. You don't feel someone's pain by putting your head in the sand and saying, you know, this is just a problem that other Republicans have because they're not messaging about it. And gas prices are down in the stock market's doing great. That's not what the message of this election was.

[B]

All right, well, I want to about talk, talk for a second about the Democrats and what they can take away going into midterms. I think a lot of people have been focusing on candidate choice because I think at first glance, there's not a lot of similarities between the Democrat that won in New York City, Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, and Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat who won in Virginia, who is a former CIA agent. You know, what do you think Democrats are gonna take away in terms of the people they should be running in races in 2026?

[C]

I disagree. I think there are a lot of similarities between them in message that they were putting out there. Yeah, sure, Abigail Spamberger wasn't talking about very specific things to New York City, like making buses run faster because maybe Virginia's buses run fine, I don't know. But point is, they both talked about affordability as the issue. They weren't talking about this kind of esoteric democracy is dying message. And they have again, the advantage of not being the people in power in the White House when people are upset about. About the cost of living.

[A]

I guess my takeaway from the way Democrats are talking this week is that winning is one hell of a drug because they were like out in the wilderness, sad and depressed, and then all of a sudden they win a bunch of elections up and down the ballot, and they're like, hey, we have a map out of the wilderness. And it is affordability and cost of living. And it's just a dramatic transformation. As the chairman of the DNC said, Democrats are back. Now. This does not solve all of the problems that Democrats have. Democrats are also very unpopular, in particular, the party itself very unpopular in large part because of the sort of lost trust that happened with Joe Biden running for president, having that terrible debate performance, Kamala Harris being sort of thrown in. There's just a dramatic concern among Democratic voters about the Democratic Democratic Party. But this is a very similar time to 2005, 2006. In 2004, Democrats lost the presidency to George W. Bush, who was an unpopular president. They couldn't believe how did we lose, how did we lose? And they didn't have a leader. And there wasn't a lot of clarity. And that's exactly where they were are now there isn't a clear leader of the party, cuz they haven't had a primary yet. Well, well, Barack Obama emerged from that primary in that cycle and Democrats won back the house in 2006. How did they do it? I talked to a former chief of staff to Nancy Pelosi, who became speaker of the House as a result of that election, and he said they were very focused. They had a message that they decided on and they stuck with it. And Democrats all over the country ran on basically the same message. And he sees the possibility they could do the same thing. Now.

[C]

It wasn't a hard message. In 2006, there was a civil war going on in Iraq. A lot of people were very upset with the direction that that war was taking. President Bush's approval ratings had spiraled way down. And so it was really easy and was advantageous to Democrats not to have a leader for someone to point to and say, oh, that's exactly the kind of person that we are all aligned with because they could run their own races individually in all of these places and say, look at how bad Bush has made things with Iraq in very specific districts. There were a lot of ethics issues that Democrats were able to run on, which is why when John Boehner came into office, he wound up focusing very heavily on ethics issues. The Republican who became speaker later, it's very similar, I think, to 2026, where you have a disparate set of Democratic candidates who are going to be running on two things, Trump and affordability. And it's very easy to do when the Republican Party doesn't have one person to point back to and stereotype the entire party as, although they'll try to say that they're all Zoran Mamdan. But Zoran Mamdani was fine for New York City, but not for everywhere else in the country.

[B]

All right, let's take one more break and then it's time for Can't Let It Go.

[A]

I'm Rachel Martin. If you're tired of small talk, check out the Wild Card Podcast. I invite influential thinkers to open up about the big topics we all think about but rarely talk about. Tune in this fall to hear Mel Robbins, Malala Yousafzai and Brene Brown talk about everything from grief and God to ambition and forgiveness. Watch or listen on the NPR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[C]

On this week's books we've loved, we're headed to the Open Range with Morning Edition's Michelle Martin to break down Charles Portis classic True Grit. Find books we've loved in NPR's Book of the Day podcast feed on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Making time for the news is important, but when you need a break, we've got you covered on All Songs Considered, NPR's music podcast. Think of it like a music discovery show, a well deserved escape with friends and yeah, some serious music insight.

[D]

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[C]

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[B]

And we're back. And it's time for Can't Let It Go, the part of the show where we talk about things we cannot let go of, politics or otherwise. Tam, why don't you start us off?

[A]

Yeah. So what I can't let go of this week is that former Vice President Dick Cheney died. He was 84 years old. But. But the thing that I can't stop thinking about is just how his story is, in a way, the story of American politics and presidential power and the Trump era. Cheney was actually chief of staff to President Gerald Ford long, long, long ago. And when he was chief of staff, he really bristled at all of these reforms that were going into place that were meant to limit presidential power. So then he comes in as vice president to President George W. Bush, and by then his unitary executive theory is very well refined. And he believes that presidents should have more power, that they should sort of claw back power. And they did. And then President Trump comes into office and puts it on steroids. And the remarkable thing is Cheney was, you know, very Republican. Very, very Republican. But at the end of his life, he ended up endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for president, which is just like, whoa. And his concern was what Donald Trump would do with all this power.

[C]

He really believed in a strong American foreign policy, interventionist foreign policy. And, you know, we've seen presidents take steps back since the Iraq war, which is something that he was instrumental on pushing George W. Bush to go and do so. A very mixed legacy from Dick Cheney.

[A]

Miles, what can't you let go of?

[B]

You know, it's interesting. I almost never on Can't Let It Go talk about politics, but yours is about politics. And I'm gonna do a politics. I feel like it's an election week. I feel like, perfect.

[C]

This makes my this makes my Can't Let It Go even better.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

They're really, really building up the suspense here. Domenico.

[B]

So my Can't Let It Go is about a ballot measure that failed in Maine, which I don't know if you guys even saw this. This was to change the voting rules in Maine. And this would have gotten rid of a couple days of early voting in Maine, it notably would have added a strict photo ID requirement for Maine voters. So it failed pretty resoundingly. And what's interesting is one of the rules that it was proposing was to roll back this automatic program that Maine has for voters who are over 65 to be able to have a mail ballot mailed to them automatically each election cycle. I wonder how much that impacted why this thing failed. Because Maine is the oldest state in the entire country. That was going to be a hard sell, always. You probably could have gotten everyone on board with photo ID that is generally bipartisan. People are pretty in favor of it. But I just wonder about whether the fact that they tried to repeal this one specific aspect of voting policy in that one specific state, whether that was the reason this thing failed.

[A]

It's not just an old state. It is a rural state, a very rural state. And so it makes sense that people might want mail ballots.

[B]

Well, it also makes me think, you know, I hear a lot from experts who always say, once you offer voting options to people, it's really hard to roll them back. And that was the other thing that I was like, it is always gonna be a hard sell once people have a more convenient way to vote to try to, like, roll that thing back anyway. Domenico, what can't you let go of?

[C]

Well, you know, get your eye rolls ready.

[B]

Ready.

[C]

And I will just say that the average age in Maine, since you said is the oldest, might be six, seven.

[A]

Oh, no, don't, don't, don't.

[B]

This is your. Can't let it go. It's just seven.

[C]

You nerds. You nerds. Yeah. Six, seven. You know why I want to talk about six, seven? Because it's annoying, number one. And number two, it got named word of the year by whatever.

[A]

It's not even a word.

[C]

It's not a word. Exactly. It is brain rot nonsense that means absolutely nothing. But the thing that I really can't let go of about all of this is how much older people are talking about it. Like me. And I am so hopeful. I think we've gotten.

[A]

You're gonna kill it, right?

[B]

Yes. This is right now, by bringing it up.

[C]

I am so here for it. I want to be super cringe. Ick. Whatever my daughter thinks of all the things that I say, let's do it. Because I will tell you right now, every time I have brought my son and my daughter to an amusement park, these kids are screaming, six, seven. For no reason at all. It means absolutely nothing. I've looked into all of the deaf of all of this. And it like it is mind blowing. And I love that Stephen Colbert on CBS is talking about it and did an entire monologue and his hope was to kill it. And he said, because you know what, the median age of CBS viewers is 6, 7 and does the whole so annoying. It is the biggest example of the latest of our brain rot. And I'm here for it. I'll say it as often as possible if people will stop saying it sooner.

[B]

Listening kids. That's all for today. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Our producers are Casey Morell and Bria Suggs. Our editor is Rachel Bay. Special thanks to Krishna, Dev Kalamer and Kelsey Snell. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.

[A]

I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

[C]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[B]

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

[C]

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[B]

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[C]

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[B]

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[C]

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[B]

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[A]

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