Liasson calls the result the biggest shift in power since 1974
Democrats plan to lead the next Congress — where they will hold significant majorities in both chambers — with bills to lower prices on housing, health care, food and gas, NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson said in an interview with host Ayesha Rascoe. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, promoted his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, to be his new chief of staff.
Liasson described the midterm outcome as the biggest shift in power since the 1974 elections that followed Watergate. More than a dozen House races remain uncalled, but Democrats could hold a House majority as large as 80 seats when the new Congress convenes in January, she said. In the Senate, Democrats have 54 seats so far, with Mississippi and Alaska still to be called — a tally that could reach 56.
The sweep reached deep into Republican-leaning states, with Texas the most dramatic example: Democrats won the governorship, the lieutenant governor’s office, the attorney general’s post and seats in the state legislature. The party also claimed six new state trifectas — control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion — in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, big states Liasson noted are important for the 2028 presidential election.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the governor-elect of Georgia, will become the country’s first Black female governor. “And no matter who you voted for tonight, I will be a governor for all of Georgia,” Bottoms said in her victory speech. In Texas, senator-elect James Talarico told supporters, “We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas.” In Michigan, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who introduced himself to the crowd by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, said, “And I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect from the great state of Michigan.” Bottoms, Talarico and El-Sayed were three of many Democrats who gave victory speeches last week.
Some of the starkest descriptions of the result came from Republicans. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called it a “Watergate-level repudiation.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans.” And Henry Olsen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center wrote in a column for The Washington Post that the midterms “were not just an earthquake, they were a continent-wide rupture of the Earth’s crust, allowing molten lava to spill out across the nation and burn Republican bastions to the ground.”
Liasson attributed the Democratic gains to the collapse of the coalition that carried Trump in 2024. Latino voters, the biggest swing toward Trump two years ago, moved back to Democrats. Liasson said white non-college voters, young Black men and African American voters were angry about the war and the economy. She said African American voters were particularly angry that the Supreme Court had weakened the Voting Rights Act and allowed Republicans to gerrymander away congressional districts long held by Black representatives. White non-college voters, young Black men and African American voters — especially in the once-solid Republican South — turned out in huge numbers, even better than in the 2024 presidential election, Liasson said.
Inside the Democratic caucus, the Democratic Socialists of America grew their House membership from four to eight, but Liasson said the democratic socialists were not the majority makers. That role belonged to centrist Democrats who won in red states and rural places. Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become the next House speaker, said he expects the caucus to work together to find the “highest common denominator.” Because of the size of his incoming majority, Jeffries will not be beholden to any one group inside the Democratic ranks, as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was with his three-seat majority, Liasson said.
Democrats say their first priority is affordability — passing bills to lower prices for Americans on housing, health care, food and gas, in hopes that Trump will sign them. Their second priority is accountability. “There are going to be a lot of investigations,” Liasson said, and Democrats want to tell a story about the connection between high prices and corruption.
Trump, who says different things at different times, as he often does, according to Liasson, has said he is willing to work with Democrats to make deals. If the two sides cannot agree, she said, he will become “Mr. Veto.”
Trump’s staffing choice may communicate more about his plans than his words do. Miller has promoted the hardest of hard lines on any number of issues, primarily mass deportations, and believes in unchecked executive power, Liasson said. By choosing Miller, she said, Trump is showing that he is ready for a lot of confrontation with an opposition Congress.