Democratic and GOP strategists on how parties should respond to midterm results
Channel: PBS NewsHour
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Read a transcript preview of “Democratic and GOP strategists on how parties should respond to midterm results” from PBS NewsHour, uploaded on 2026-11-05.
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Language: English (creator captions)
[0:00] Well for perspective now on how both parties are responding to last
[0:03] night's historic winds. We're joined by two strategists from both
[0:06] sides of the political aisle. That is Mo Elleithee, Democratic strategist
[0:10] and former spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, and
[0:13] Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former spokesperson for the
[0:16] Republican National Committee. Good to see you, gentlemen. Thank
[0:19] you. So Mo, Democrats didn't just win, they won in places in states
[0:22] and districts that Republicans thought were safe. What did Democrats
[0:26] get right in this cycle, and what can they replicate in elections.
[0:30] Seasons beyond this Trump era. Yes, so we talked about this a little
[0:34] bit last night. My party isn't always the best at message discipline,
[0:40] but this cycle, boy, were they
[0:43] solidly on message
[0:46] candidate after candidate, the most progressive to the most moderate
[0:49] from Kansas and Texas
[0:52] to Maine and Michigan.
[0:55] Every Democratic candidate was talking about cost of living and corruption
[0:59] and in many cases tying those two things together.
[1:02] All cycle long Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does, tossed out
[1:07] a bunch of crazy.
[1:08] And we usually chase it. We usually take the bait. We didn't this
[1:12] time. We stayed focused and the results showed that and looking at
[1:18] the scale of the losses, was any of this avoidable for Republicans,
[1:21] or