What this week’s elections could mean for the midterms
Consider This from NPR
NPR
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🗓️ 7 November 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
Tuesday’s election was the first time voters registered how they’re feeling since President Trump entered the White House.
And after Democratic candidates won marquee races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, the answer was clear: they are not happy with the party in power.
So what are the two major political parties taking away from this week?
NPR correspondents Domenico Montanaro and Tamara Keith break it down.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It might have been an off-year election, but this week, Democratic candidates won marquee races in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City. So does their big night mean something bigger? |
| 0:10.3 | Well, we're all going to pretend it does, because that's what you did. |
| 0:13.9 | That's Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, speaking with my colleague Lela Foddle. |
| 0:19.5 | We analyze elections, and we pretend to know |
| 0:22.5 | what's going to happen a year from now. But the truth is that the headlines will change so many times |
| 0:28.0 | between now and the midterm elections in November of 2026. That hasn't stopped Democrats and |
| 0:33.9 | Republicans from making meaning out of the results. For Democrats like California Attorney General Rob Bonta, this was a sign that voters are |
| 0:41.4 | unhappy with the current administration. |
| 0:43.5 | The status quo is not working for voters. |
| 0:46.7 | It was very much a referendum on Trump. |
| 0:48.8 | He wasn't on the ballot, but he was essentially on the ballot. |
| 0:51.4 | Meanwhile, most Republicans are downplaying the results. House |
| 0:54.3 | Speaker Mike Johnson during a news conference on Thursday. This is not a surprise to us. I mean, |
| 0:58.8 | blue state's elected blue leaders. I mean, yeah, so what? Off-year election results in isolated |
| 1:03.8 | places are never indicative of the upcoming midterm election. The GOP is an excellent position to win |
| 1:10.7 | big next year. |
| 1:12.0 | But whether Tuesday night was a blip or a turning point, both parties have to figure out |
| 1:16.4 | where they go from here. Trump got that started a breakfast with Republican senators on Wednesday. |
| 1:21.2 | I don't think it was good for Republicans. I don't think it was good. I'm not sure it was |
| 1:24.5 | good for anybody. But we had an interesting evening, |
| 1:28.7 | and we learned a lot. And we're going to talk about that. And we're going to talk about it, too. |
| 1:34.2 | Consider this. It's now less than a year from the midterms. How are the major political parties looking to ramp up the votes? |
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