'Biggest wave' in 50 years, says US political analyst Bruce Stokes on US midterm election results

In the United States, the midterm elections were not only a referendum on Donald Trump. They could also prove to be a defining moment for the Democratic Party, forcing it to confront some difficult questions about its leadership, its identity, and its strategy for the future. Who speaks for the Democrats? And can the party turn electoral gains into a coherent political alternative? And what lessons will it draw as it looks ahead to 2028? Earlier, I discussed this with Bruce Stokes, associate fellow at Chatham House, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Here's what he said. There was an American comedian in the 1930s named Will Rogers, and he was once asked what political party he belonged to, and he said, I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a Democrat. And there will be, as you suggested, tensions between the progressive wing of the party and the moderate wing of the party going forward in terms of priorities. I think realistically, It would appear now there might be maybe eight or more, nine, maybe 10 Democratic socialists in the Democratic caucus of now 240, 250 people. So they'll be very vocal. They'll claim the election is an endorsement of their agenda. But I think the reality is that The Democrats and the more moderate Democrats are really the ones who prevailed. So Democrats succeeded largely on the message of being against Trump. But going forward, they're going to have to decide what they want to stand for when he won't be on the ballot. Your take? I think you're right. You know, we have a long saying in the United States about it's the economy stupid. And clearly the exit polling data showed that people thought the economy was the principal issue. But in this case, it was also Trump's stupid that people by three to one said that they had voted against Trump in this election. So the question is going to be, what do the Democrats stand for going into the 2028 election? How do the various contenders position themselves? Thank you very much. Because they can't just continue to talk about Trump, because as you say, constitutionally, the president can't run again. So it's going to be a question of what are we going to do to win the voters support in 2028 when we don't have Trump to beat up? Well, even with this week's big victories, Democrats are going to be limited in what they can do with their new congressional majorities because Trump can veto everything. How do you see this divided government play out? Well, it'd be very interesting to see whether the Democrats can fashion some initial legislation that addresses the cost of health care, for example, or food stamps, which, yes, it is true that in the Senate they would need 60 votes because otherwise you can block things in the Senate if you don't have 60 votes. But it puts at least some Republicans who are up for reelection in a bit of a bind. Do they want to vote against it? Food stamps. Do they want to vote against Medicaid, which is our health care for poor people? Do they want to vote against subsidies for Obamacare, which have gone up dramatically? On that note, I know it's early, but who do you see as the candidate leading the Democrats into the next presidential election? So it's very early at this point, but you're right. There's going to be more than a half a dozen, maybe even 10 people are going to throw their hats in the rings in the next couple of weeks. I think the clear winner from this election in terms of raising his profile and exciting people is John Ossoff, who is the senator from Georgia who won by 18 or 19 percentage points And he's young, he's articulate, he's from the South. And I think the initial excitement is going to be about him.