Breaking down the midterm election results

Meanwhile, Amendment 3 passed with 62 percent of the vote. It needed 60 percent to pass and it achieved that, even went over. It was one of the most closely watched issues with divided opinions on both sides. The amendment expands the homestead exemption, providing property tax relief for homeowners. The change will take effect on January 1st. Governor Ron DeSantis, of course, a big proponent of this. Meanwhile, many local law enforcement agencies were against it. I think that was a bit of a surprise for a lot of people to get 62. Well, Florida is interested in Entering a new chapter right now, Republican Byron Donalds is set to take over the state's next governor, but it was close here against David Jolly. You can see 50% to 48.7%, and that was a pretty common theme across the state last night. Republicans may have come out on top in a lot of those races, but Democrats made them a whole lot closer than they needed to be. Let's talk to Dr. Larry Walker. He is our political analyst and former senior congressional staffer, and he joins us this morning. Doc, good to see you. Appreciate you joining us today. Thanks for having me, John. Okay, let's start with this one. We talked about this yesterday, but what are your big takeaways, first of all, from today? Well, in terms of the state of Florida, you're right. In terms of the governor's race and the Senate seat, the Republicans were able to essentially hold serve. They don't have the supermajority anymore, which is really important. And we've seen similar situations in other traditionally red states where they lost the supermajority. But also highlights, which is most interesting, you know, we talked about it yesterday, is really ideologically the state of Florida is, you know, obviously still really red, but also to the right of more center, left. Leading states and some of them, maybe you can describe Georgia, which is not too many years ago was that was a red state. Major implications for not only policy, but also ideological views throughout the country. Hey, Larry, I've been poring over these numbers all night. I got one here. You and I kind of briefly talked about it yesterday about Republicans going Democrat, Democrats going Republican. So think about this. David Jolly, race for governor, got 4.0 million, right, 4 million votes, but only 2.8 million Democrats voted. That means a lot of Republicans and maybe all the independents broke to the Democrats in this case. you're right john you and i chatted about this yesterday and I and I talked about individuals who may not necessarily be Republicans and will be interested to see how they vote it and I think you highlighted that I think that that probably relates to the concerns relating to inflation which it's not going to be an issue going to solve them overnight but yeah you saw in the state of Florida a lot of independents you know swung towards Jolly but as you highlighted it it's not enough and we'll have um you know Governor Donald's Now, let's go across the country here. A lot of places that were red two years ago are blue this morning. That's in Florida and across the country. On a national scale, what do you think about this shift in power? Divided government slows things down. A lot of people like that. So, John, I've been working in politics for a number of years. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this on election night. Look at Kansas. They elected a Democratic senator for the first time in almost a century. You saw the look in South Carolina, that Senate seat. Democrats are going to hold the House and Senate and have, you know, these, particularly in the House, have significant, I would describe as significant numbers. And so it really highlights, once again, you and I chatted about it, I brought up a few minutes ago, inflation and certainly the war in Iran. We see some polling numbers from Americans throughout the country. And so how does, you know, President Trump, he's going to have to negotiate a bit now with Democrats in the House and Senate when he was sworn in in January. So it's going to be very interesting to see how things play out over the next two years. And then, John, 2028 is this down the line. There are a couple more Senate seats that will be up, obviously members of the House, but we'll also have a presidential election. So it'll be interesting to see if this particular trend, the centrist left trend, is... The outside of Florida is consistent. People move more to the center and to the right. So what you're saying is we'll be talking about DeSantis once again. That's a different story, different day. Somebody asked me, have you ever seen something like this before? And I said, yes, 1994. Newt Gingrich, Contract with America. Republicans hadn't been in office for years, and then they came into power. So this is kind of that all over again. It's just taken a couple of decades for it to happen. I think that's a great example because you talked about essentially the Democrats that are, you know, stranglehold on the House for, it seemed like forever, and the contract with America with Gingrich, that Gingrich revolution, Joe Scarborough, former congressman from Florida, among other, among those Republicans. And essentially, that's a great example in terms of this shift. The challenge is in terms of the numbers in the House and Senate. And not just 2028, but 2030 and 32. If you're a Republican, you have to figure out a plan to move more to the right. What's the pathway in some of these states? So I think that certainly Republicans have had to reflect this morning and figure out what the path is over the next two to six years. Yep, once again, Dr. Larry Walker, political analyst, former senior congressional staffer. He was in studio yesterday. I won't say where you are, in Exotic Island today. That's how you know when you're a big deal. I'm at a conference, John, John. I'm at a conference. I'm at a conference. It's a conference. I know where you are. Enjoy the beach. Age. Take care, Doug. Everybody wants him to speak. All right, Doug, good to see you, man. We'll talk to you soon.