The Political Map Is Shifting as Both Parties Battle for New Ground

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, what the heck is going on in New York? Those elections are coming up in nine days. With us today is Jesse Arm, and he is the vice president of the Manhattan Institute, one of the most powerful organizations in the nation. Jesse, election, nine days. What the heck is going on in New York? What the

0:21 heck is going on in the country?

0:25 Speaker 2 Well, John, we’ve got a big election coming up. The eyes of the nation are not so much on New York this time around, though it wouldn’t be shocking if we saw some surprises in our own neck of the woods.

0:37 Four years ago in the midterm elections, we saw a little bit of a surprise in New Jersey. Nobody anticipated that Jack Chiarelli, the Republican candidate, would only lose by three points, and it really took everyone for a surprise.

0:49 And I think we may anticipate some surprises here in New York as well. There’s been a lot of buzz around Teresa Comitoretti, the Republican candidate for attorney general, who really did just a phenomenal job in her debate with Tish James, really kind of wiped the floor with her.

1:04 And then even Bruce Blakeman is getting some attention. He’s kept his waist closer in some of the polls more recently. He appears to be approaching single digits a couple of months ago, a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t look that way. It looked to be more of a double-digit blowout. But, of course, more of the focus is going to be

1:21 on some of these purple and even redder states around the country, where there are really going to be some dogfights that determine control of Congress and especially the United States Senate.

1:33 Speaker 1 I understand. And, you know, we got the Congress, the Senate is both at stake. New York City, New York State, where me and you live, that’s at stake. You know, what bothers you more at 3 o’clock in the morning?

1:49 Speaker 2 Well, one of the things that I’m really kind of anticipating is going to be a trend that doesn’t necessarily stand out to just anybody quite yet, but is going to be something we have to reckon with come election night, is that according to this polling, I’m seeing a lot of Democrats overperforming how they’ve traditionally done in red states, right?

2:08 Places like Texas, places like Iowa, places like Nebraska, places like Kansas, where the Democrats really do seem poised to make a bit of a dent and where they look pretty positioned to win comfortably in places like North Carolina and Georgia in the Sun Belt. These are places that are not traditionally blue states. And meanwhile, Republicans are keeping

2:30 things very competitive in Maine with Susan Collins, in Michigan with Mike Rogers, and even in Minnesota with Michelle Tafoya, places that have been traditionally much more blue. So I think that this is a headline or an insight from the race that may get lost in the shuffle if a guy like James Tallarico in Texas comes up just

2:52 shy and gets really close but doesn’t get quite over the finish line, or a guy like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who’s a pretty extreme candidate, a pretty far-left candidate, I would say even a candidate who’s expressed certain sympathies with enemies of America abroad, if he gets just over the finish line, just barely wins, and you know, say the

3:12 Democratic governor candidate in Michigan who’s more mainstream wins by like 10 points and he only wins by one. I don’t know that anybody really learned the lessons of this election, which are that maybe voters are telling both parties they want something a little different. They want something a little bit more anchored toward the middle of the political spectrum.

3:30 Speaker 1 Understood. Well, what’s going to keep you up all week? What do you think? We have one minute left. What do you want to say to all American people?

3:43 Speaker 2 I think everybody should remember to go out and vote, even if you’re feeling kind of dejected with respect to how political the world in Washington, the world of the government, has been operating to date. Your voice still does matter.

3:56 And obviously, things can always get worse, even if you’re not thrilled with how they currently are. So your voice matters. Policy preferences need to be put into action through elections if you want any kind of change. and even if your party that you generally vote for is not always delivering for you, sometimes it makes sense to go and

4:17 give them another shot to continue developing what they’re working on. Of course, all of that will be determined very soon, John. We’re only a little bit over a week out from Election Day in this country.

4:28 Speaker 1 Jesse Arms, the Vice President of the Manhattan Institute, thank you for your wisdom, and we pray for common sense in our country, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

4:39 Speaker 2 Good to be with you, John.