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David Weigel retweeted
Tucker was right.
The Iran war was the most idiotic thing we’ve done in a long time.
It exacerbated the cost of living crisis and made the midterms infinitely worse.
I don’t care if you’re offended. You cost us everything.
Have posted a lot this week, will post more next week, but here's how I'm thinking about the Dem factional fight over credit.
The Bernie wing has the most chips when "the establishment" loses. That's 2015, after Dems lost the Senate and Obama's presidency petered out. That's 2025, after the establishment lost to Trump *again.* Yes, Bernie was a Biden ride-or-die guy, and Biden implemented a lot of domestic policies Bernie wanted. But Bernie wasn't holding the wheel in 2024, and after Harris lost he quickly, smartly organized "Fight Oligarchy" to move the party in his direction.
This week, the Bernie wing won. So did the establishment. They all won! Jeffries and Schumer are no longer the schmucks who keep getting dunked on by Trump with pathetic press conferences outside buildings getting hollowed out by DOGE. They led the party into the biggest midterm swing since the disco era.
The left's take here is that the winning messages came from them - economic populism with no hemming and hawing a-la 2024. And its worry is that Schumer/Jeffries could run things like Keir Starmer, taking the mandate and futzing around, giving the populist right another opening.
So, eyeball to eyeball, Schumer and Jeffries have the votes to lead the new majorities. But the left wants a fight here because it's seen how Dems can fumble those majorities.
The *point* of the 2025 sombrero memes was that Dems were opposed to Medicaid rules would stop states from giving coverage to non-citizens. That's how it started - let's raise the salience of one of the blue state Dems' least popular positions.
At some point it kinda became "we are using your taxpayer dollars to make fun of Mexican-Americans," not a great strategy
Mamdani getting elected and spending a year on extremely popular projects helped Dems everywhere imo.
He was supposed to be on the new Mount Rushmore of scary liberals. Saw him on lots of attack mailers. Didn't scare people at all.
When I sat down w Mamdani during the 2025 primary he said his model was Bernie in Burlington - the "ooh, scary socialist" mayor who capitalizes on all the attention he gets and makes civic improvements so it stops being scary. And so far that's clearly worked. semafor.com/article/06/12/20…
David Weigel retweeted
"yeah guys we should do revolution instead of voting!" *proceeds to do nothing but post insanely cringe tiktok videos*
David Weigel retweeted
In January, the leading pro-Talarico PAC noticed they could have problems in South Texas.
It didn’t take them long to find a winning message.
They quickly went up on air with an anti-ICE ad, before the Talarico campaign was on air w/ immigration messaging. The ad ended up staying on air through October, their longest-running spot — and as headlines about ICE enforcement consumed Texas through the summer, it was a major key to Talarico's victory.
“It really moved voters,” Garry Jones, director of Lone Star Rising PAC, told POLITICO.
David Weigel retweeted
Very important point here from Jared Abbott: Democrats did not win by closing the education/class gap, and in fact that gap was quite a bit wider this year than in the 2018 wave.
David Weigel retweeted
NEW: @POLITICO spoke with 10 prospective 2028 candidates and people in their orbit about how they’re thinking about AI and tech.
Here’s what they told us:
w/ @__gabbymiller
politico.com/news/2026/11/06…
Obviously nothing House Rs did to save the majority worked, but the “condemn socialism” resolution *really* didn’t work.
Every swing seat D who voted against it won. Its sponsor, Jeff Crank, lost a seat that had been Republican since the Jurassic era. congress.gov/bill/119th-cong…
David Weigel retweeted
2015 (all GOP)
Flake
McCain
Ducey
Reagan
Brnovich
Gowan (house speaker)
Biggs (Sen pres)
2027 (all Dem)
Kelly
Gallego
Hobbs
Mayes
Fontes
De Los Santos (house speaker)
Sundareshan (sen pres)
Ladies and gentlemen, the Trump effect.
David Weigel retweeted
This story is also another data point in the "electoral overperformance" conversation.
Victoria Broderick ran in 2024, and lost by 43.
The district was redrawn, added a bit more Nashville, but still was Trump +24. And she won it.
Is she an overperformer or an underperformer?
Incredible story here.
Victoria Broderick & Lakesha Womack are working-class women; Womack was homeless and living in a motel 7 years ago.
They each spent less than $100k on their races.
They're both going to Congress.
prospect.org/2026/11/06/angi…
Yes, this is accurate. Also, Casar has quickly become one of the most inventive policy/strategy thinkers in the caucus. Months ahead of the pack on AI.
DWS is, uh… also a member of the caucus.
David Weigel retweeted
VoteHub obtained North Carolina’s list of voters with provisional ballots still to be counted from the State Board of Elections office. They are heavily Democratic and could help Democrats hold NC-05 and flip NC-03.
David Weigel retweeted
Of all the crazy things I’ve seen covering House races for 20 years, watching sitting DCCC and NRCC chairs lose in consecutive midterms is up there.
Bernie wing W here
Jane Kim wins race to be California's next insurance commissioner latimes.com/business/story/2…
