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As the first results came in, Democrats were picking up seats and seeing signs of a strong night. But a wave can give a party power without settling what it should do with it. If Democrats take Congress, what should they do first? And how do they deliver on the cost of living while holding the Trump administration accountable?
I spoke with Democratic strategist Lis Smith, who helped launch Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign, about what she’s seeing in the early returns and what she wants her party to do next. We talked about tariffs, a congressional stock trading ban, and whether Democrats can investigate the administration while keeping voters’ everyday concerns front and center.
We also got into the party’s own divisions and what its most competitive candidates might teach Democrats about 2028. Lis’s argument: the party has spent years giving voters reasons to oppose Trump. It needs to give them a reason to vote for Democrats.
Jessica:
Hi, I want to start off with some big wins I can share with you now in Georgia. John Ossoff, the Democrat, has won his race there. He was the one Democratic incumbent senator who faced a real challenge in this race, and he handily won it. That is quite a bit of a surprise.
We’re looking in Florida, where Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat, has won in the 14th district. Now, I’m spotlighting this because this seat was gerrymandered by Republicans to make it easy for Republicans to win and the Republican lost. They’re calling it a dummymander because the gerrymander is some rigging that didn’t work. There are a few more of those we’ll be talking about in a moment.
Senator Chris Pappas will win in New Hampshire. That’s a Democratic hold. He will be the first openly gay man in the U.S. Senate. CNN is currently reporting that right now Democrats are currently leading in 50 districts that Republicans held. That does not mean they’ve already won them, but they’re leading in 50 districts, according to CNN count. Republicans are leading in only two districts Democrats held. Now, keep in mind that’s a 48 seat gap. And Democrats only needed to pick up three seats to take control of the House. So guess what’s happening after tonight.
Joining us now to talk about all of this and what comes next is Democratic strategist and political commentator Lis Smith, who has worked on some of the biggest Democratic campaigns in the country, including Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential run.
First of all, Lis, how are you feeling right now?
Lis:
After 2024, it’s hard not to feel pretty nervous and pretty burned. But I’m feeling pretty good because of some of the results that we’re about to talk about.
Jessica:
So let’s talk about some of them right now. It looks like Democrats are poised to have a very good night, even a blue wave. We’ll talk about that.
What are some of the races that you’re watching?
Lis:
The first Democratic pickup of the night was Florida’s 22nd district. You were talking about the dummymander in Florida. I first heard it this cycle actually, and I’ve worked in politics for 22-ish years.
Florida’s 22nd district is one of those districts that was created and didn’t have an incumbent. It was created because they thought it would give them a new seat and that they would win the seat. It’s about 27% Latino. Pia Dandiya just won it. She’s a 36-, 37-year-old Indian American woman. She was a teacher, a principal who then went into the private sector and is a first time candidate, which is going to be a trend tonight. You’re going to hear about a lot of first time Democratic candidates. It’s a district that is a Trump plus-ten district. So that is a big, big district.
I think it’s going to be interesting as we get to Texas, where, again, they tried to gerrymander a lot of districts, in part because of Republican strength with Latino voters in 2024. If this tells us anything, it’s that maybe Republicans were taking the Hispanic Latino vote for granted.
Jessica:
Yes. Perceived strength, not real strength.
Lis:
Correct.
Jessica:
If Democrats do have as big a night as it seems it’s shaping up to be. You know, winning elections is one thing, governing is another. So if we look at a scenario in which the Democrats do take the House and the Senate, what do you think they need to do immediately after to capitalize on the momentum?
Lis:
I get it. A lot of people are going to say, throw out the subpoenas, do the investigations, etc. Of course, people in the administration need to be held accountable. I agree with that. But most importantly, from my perspective, as someone who has advised The Bench, which worked with a couple dozen candidates this cycle, is that we’ve got to deliver on some of the things that we promised, or at least try to deliver on some of the things that we campaigned on.
Democrats should really, really push on: Trying to end the war in Iran. Voting to roll back these tariffs. Making data centers pay for the energy that they’re using. Ethics reforms. Corruption was a huge, huge theme in so many of these races. And one thing that they can do is try to pass a stock ban, that bans members of the House, Senate, executive branch, their family members, their staff from trading in stocks.
You might say, “Oh, well, okay, Donald Trump’s going to veto all these things.” With the stock ban, what they could even do is just in the House, pass it so that House members themselves can’t trade in stocks. That would be a big thing. But even if the president vetoes this, it still sends a message: We are fighting for this. And it gets every Republican in the country on the record. It gets the president on the record on whether you are actually serious about that promise you made in 2024 about lowering costs. Are you actually serious about no more dumb wars?
So I don’t think that we should just throw up our hands and say, well, if he is going to veto everything, we shouldn’t do anything. Let’s try to show the American people something that they think Democrats don’t do anymore, which is that we can fight and we will fight for them, and we’ll fight for them on the priorities that they care most about.
Jessica:
I hear you, and I also look at the landscape out there, and I know there are a lot of people who are very eager for these investigations into Trump as well. I’m curious, because I’ve talked to a bunch of people who are also saying Democrats have to move straight into addressing affordability and cost of living. They cannot get distracted with investigations. And there are people who feel the opposite. Are you worried that if they take on the investigations, that Trump will turn that into a fight that becomes a political spectacle and distracts from what voters want the most?
Lis:
No, because I think Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s possible to do these two things at the same time. But make sure that we’re going out and communicating to people that we heard them loud and clear. Because the reality is this. I live here in New York City. I live in the bluest of the dem base. My mom is one of those people who wants to see all those investigations and people on the Oversight Committee, all those people, they will do that. But let’s make sure that we are connecting with not just the base, but with the swing voters who said, “Right, I want people who care about my ability to be able to pay my energy bills, my health care bills, my mortgage, all of these things.”
People really care about corruption. By the way, corruption isn’t a one party thing in politics. Yes, what we’re seeing from Donald Trump and the Republicans is a historical grift. He and his family have made billions of dollars in the White House, and we see his former personal lawyer, Alina Habba charging $50 million to get a pardon. That’s disgusting. We’ve never seen anything like that. I mean, $50 million.
But we also need to make sure that we’re doing something that Donald Trump didn’t do. And that’s why he’s being punished right now, because he went into the White House and said, I’m going to lower your costs. I’m going to stop dumb wars. So let’s make sure we’re focused on those things.
And at the same time, we can hold all these people who did these unconscionable things, this historic grift, accountable — but put the people and the voters first.
Jessica:
Let’s shift focus from what’s going on with the Democrats versus Republicans, and talk for a minute about Democrats who may be united against Trump but deeply divided about the party’s own direction.
We’ve seen some very bitter falling out in the last few days. It got quite ugly. Do you think a big win helped settle that debate, or do you worry that the infighting is about to get worse?
Lis:
I don’t think the debate is settled. I don’t think the infighting is going to get worse either.
This is the reality. For years we have been talking about building a big tent again. Jessica, how long have we known each other? How long have we been doing this?
Jessica:
Too old to say.
Lis:
You know what? I was at MS NOW earlier in a green room now with Claire McCaskill. We talked about how 20 years ago today, I was on her campaign when she won her race for U.S. Senate. But back then, right, the Democratic Party was more of a big tent party. We won U.S. Senate races in Missouri, in North Dakota, in South Dakota, in Kentucky, all across the country.
We’ve gotten away from that. I think we’ve got to realize that we need a big tent. But if you want to get a big tent of voters, you need a big tent of candidates. And that sometimes is going to cause a little bit of tension. But a little tension is okay. I will take a little bit of tension any day of the week over what we’re seeing on the Republican side of the aisle, which is this complete and total fealty to Donald Trump, to the point that they’re willing to walk off the cliff with him. Support him on the war in Iran. Support him on these tariffs in states like Texas, Iowa, Kansas — three of the biggest agricultural states in the country, where both the war and these tariffs are absolutely killing the economy.
Jessica:
Point taken on Donald Trump. I would disagree with you that it’s a little disagreement internally, but we will litigate that another day. You’re doing your work as a Democrat there, I appreciate it.
I want to ask you one last question, which is, We all know that the ‘28 race basically starts after the last vote is called. Not long ago, you helped introduce Pete Buttigieg to a national audience when he was first looking to run nationally. Looking ahead to ‘28, do you think Democrats should be searching for the best fighter against Trump and Trumpism, the best messenger on affordability, or someone who can change the conversation entirely?
Lis:
The third thing. There is this view that Donald Trump has been so harmful to the Republican Party. My hot take is that he may have been even worse for the Democratic Party, because ever since he went down that golden escalator in in Manhattan, it feels like everything that we’ve done in the Democratic Party has oriented around him and galvanizing people against Donald Trump, so much so that we almost forgot what we stand for as Democrats. We forgot to give people, sometimes, a reason to vote for us.
Politics isn’t just about being against stuff. It’s about inspiring people, making them believe in you, making them see themselves in the future that you’re leading. I would really like to see that. I do think that that’s what a lot of people are looking for.
You brought up the internal division in the Democratic Party, which is real. I do a lot of things — I’m not here to spin, and to hide any of the things that are going on in the Democratic Party. I just think that the big story of tonight isn’t necessarily the conflict. It’s the fact that we’re competitive in Iowa, the fact that we’re competitive in Kansas, the fact that we’re competitive in Texas. This is going to come back to your question. Why are we competitive in those places? It’s not because these candidates were going out and saying Donald Trump is a fascist. It’s not because they were going out and saying Trump voters are the enemy. It’s not because they were going out and just doing constant warfare. It’s because they were going out and saying things like: James Talarico, when he was asked about Ken Paxton, saying, I love Ken Paxton because he is a child of God. It’s like Adam Hamilton, Scott Colom in Mississippi, going and shaking hands with Trump voters outside of a Trump rally.
There is so much decency in our Democratic candidates right now and in the American people that we frankly need to channel again. The races that we’re going to win back, the majority makers in the House, potentially in the Senate, are going to come from that approach, not just the constant warfare, anti-Trump approach. Yes, your point, a lot of it’s going to be talking about affordability. But we’ve just got to put the American people first, and center them. Don’t center the personalities. Don’t center Donald Trump. Don’t center whoever the Democratic candidates are. Make sure that the American people are at the center of this conversation. We are at our best when we channel people’s better angels.
Jessica:
I was just going to say that. I’m so hopeful you’re right. This is the first time I’ve heard somebody say this, and it does make sense, because it would be the inverse of what we’ve been enduring for the last basically six, eight years. So maybe the pendulum will swing back that way.
Lis:
Well, it should, because we’ve got to look at what actually worked this election cycle. Again, you and I have been doing this for a long time. It’s really frustrating as a Democrat to think, we lost to Donald Trump in 2016. We won in 2020, which was a year of a global pandemic. Then we lost again in 2024. So like, what happened in all of that time?
A lot of it was that we focus so much on Donald Trump — not articulating what we stood for, not trying to make people feel better about themselves. This constant warfare that we have in politics, this constant need to turn anyone who thinks differently from us, votes differently from us, into the enemy is really exhausting to a lot of the American people. I really do think that someone who can channel something different, something fresh, that makes people hopeful about the future again is going to be a winning ticket in 2028.
Jessica:
And may it be. Thank you so much. It’s always good to get your perspective and it’s really nice to see you tonight. Thank you.
Lis:
Yes, thank you so much Jessica.
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