POLLSRepublicans earned some goodwill in the election, and most voters haven’t reacted to Donald Trump’s cabinet picks with the hair-on-fire horror of Democrats and liberal pundits. One in eight Harris voters have, right now, a favorable view of Kennedy and Gabbard, Democrats who left the party and are persona non grata now. Gaetz, who has since withdrawn, was the least-liked Trump nominee among independents, but more voters were unfamiliar with him than viewed him negatively. A plurality of voters simply don’t know who Hegseth is; 56% of Republicans view him favorably, keeping his rating above water. Republican senators and aides might worry about how these nominees will play when more vetting is done and Democrats can challenge them in hearings, but they are starting from a solid baseline. ADS- Mikie Sherrill for Governor, “Build Something.” The 2025 race for governor of New Jersey was underway before anyone voted for president this year; Jersey City’s mayor started running in April. But Sherrill, one of the highest-profile members of the Democrats’ 2018 House class, raised more than $600,000 as soon as she jumped in. The only references to her job in Congress are images from Fourth of July parades in her old campaign gear; the messaging is all about her military service, ways to “make life more affordable,” and the role a new Democratic governor would play in resisting Donald Trump.
- Josh Gottheimer for Governor, “Jersey’s Problem Solver.” Gottheimer, whose House district borders Sherrill’s, is a much more controversial figure inside the party. He leans into that in his launch videos, citing his creation of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus that clashed with progressives by cleaving the 2021 infrastructure bill from the Biden Build Back Better agenda – and his other big clash with progressives, battling New York’s congestion pricing in Manhattan. “Every candidate shares the same goals” on abortion and opposing Trump, he says; the difference is that he’s a price-fighting moderate.
- Miyares for Virginia, “My Announcement.” Virginia Republicans solved a potential problem this week when Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that he was running for re-election, giving Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears a clear path to the gubernatorial nomination. While Miyares ran behind the ticket in 2021, he’s used the office to go after the reform prosecutor movement, in Virginia and elsewhere, and frames his re-election as the way to keep fighting it. If he loses, Virginia could return to a place “where our law enforcement heroes were reviled, where criminals came first while victims came last.”
SCOOPEDSimon van Zuylen-Wood’s walk around New York City, to figure out why some neighborhoods surged right, has the most enlightening set of post-election interviews. It takes discipline to listen to so many contradictory voices, understand them, and quickly capture what they’re saying in a way that illuminates the whole election. One example, from a first-generation American whose take turned out to be very popular: “On the one hand, he had heard Biden would give amnesty to 15 million undocumented immigrants already in the country and was disappointed he didn’t. On the other hand, he supported Trump because he hoped to block further arrivals.” NEXT- 59 days until Inauguration Day
- 347 days until off-year elections
- 711 days until the 2026 midterm elections
DAVID RECOMMENDSThe old rule for presidential nominees was that the best candidates had short paper trails. That is not how Donald Trump approaches this process. His picks for major roles have recorded untold hours of podcasts, live-streamed their speeches, and guest-hosted prime-time Fox News shows. Jonathan Chait’s read of Pete Hegseth’s four books is full of revelations: “Hegseth’s notion of unfair tactics used by the left includes not only enacting administrative policies that he disagrees with, but the basic act of voting for Democrats.” It’s also one cube chopped out of a vast iceberg. We have rarely seen nominees who explained themselves so thoroughly before they got picked. |