From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Wednesday, November 5th.

Let's talk about the election results and their national implications with USA Today's Washington

Bureau Chief Susan Page, who is called this

election a proof of life for Democrats. I guess that means at least they have a pulse. Susan also has a

forthcoming book called The Queen and Her Presidents, which is going to be published next April

about Queen Elizabeth and her United States presidents, I guess that refers to.

Right, Susan. Hi, welcome back to WNYC.

Hey, it's great to be with you. Yes, U.S. presidents and their dealings with Queen Elizabeth.

So was this a collection of local elections, or was this some kind of national election?

Well, it was both. I mean, of course they were local elections, but they almost all went one way.

All the marquee races went one way. And that reflected how nationalized our politics have become.

Trump was an issue in the New York City mayor's race, in the two governor's races,

in New Jersey and Virginia, in the California referendum, in the utility board elections in Georgia,

in the judicial vote in Pennsylvania. So I think it's fair to see this as sending a kind of national

message, although we should always

remember that off-year elections are kind of like the Iowa caucuses and that they are an

imperfect venue to draw big conclusions about what's going to happen in the bigger elections

that happened next year. Was New Jersey a bellwether in any of the ways that you look for bellwethers?

We were talking with our previous guest about the big swing in Latino voters, Latino voters who had

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