The Democrats are back… but will it last?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the first time since the presidential election there is renewed optimism among Democrats after a big election night on Tuesday. Alongside Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York and the governor races in New Jersey and West Virginia, the party also won important - albeit less glamorous - races in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

In this episode, Justin, Anthony and Sarah unpack how and where the Democrats won, and what it means for the party and next year’s midterm elections.

For Republicans, the inquest has already begun into a bruising night for the party that has raised fears ahead of the 2026 midterms and the party’s congressional majority. Donald Trump is blaming poor results on the ongoing government shutdown and his name not being on the ballot.

And we’re joined by Jim Messina, a Democrat strategist and former deputy chief of staff to Barack Obama. He gives his take on what he thinks lies behind Tuesday’s wins, what he thinks the party has learned since 2024 and whether he agrees with Prop 50 - the redistricting measures passed in California to redraw the state’s political lines to favour Democrats.

HOSTS: * Sarah Smith, North America editor * Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter * Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent

GUEST:

* Jim Messina, Former deputy chief of staff to Barack Obama

GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email [email protected] * Or use #Americast

This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:05.9	Two things we can say about the Democrats.
0:07.9	First, they are back.
0:09.1	They have won elections, real elections with real people, and they've done much better
0:13.9	than the Republicans thought they were going to do in areas right across the country.
0:19.3	Number two, the Republicans appear to be having a kind of mini
0:23.1	meltdown. So what's happened to American politics? Is it all just completely changed overnight?
0:28.8	What are the Democrats still need to do to put themselves in a position to win the next
0:33.8	presidential election? All of this coming up, welcome to AmeriCast.
0:40.9	AmeriCast from BBC News. When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir, right away, sir,
0:47.5	happy to lick your boot, sir. We are the sickest country in the world. Oh dear, are you worried
0:53.1	that billionaires are going to go hungry?
0:55.4	Of course the president supports peaceful protest. What a stupid question. Are you still talking about
0:59.5	Jeffrey Epstein?
1:05.7	Hello, it's Sarah here, and I'm in the BBC's Bureau in Washington.
1:11.8	And it's Anthony. I'm right next to Sarah here in Washington, D.C.
1:14.9	And it's Justin, all on my own in the worldwide headquarters of AmeriCast in London, England.
1:19.1	And later on in the program, Jim Messina is going to join us.
1:22.6	Jim Messina, who was, of course, Barack Obama's chief when it came to being re-elected in 2012.
1:30.0	We was in charge of that re-election campaign, but it also held posts in the Obama White House before then.
1:35.6	But more importantly than any of that, he's also a friend of our podcast and he's talked to us before.
1:40.1	Rather memorably, as I was saying the other day, he came on and said right at the beginning of Donald Trump's run for re-election,
	...

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