Astead Herndon

And in the key areas, particularly his handling of the economy, of prices, of discontent around tariffs, Donald Trump has taken what has been his best issue as kind of a safe and prosperous manager of country and made it among his worst.

And Democrats were able to seize on that all across the country.

So Sheryl and Spanberger are both members of the same class in the Democratic House of Representatives.

They came in in 2018 in that wave against kind of Trump's first election.

They really embodied, I think, Democrats' first attempts and first efforts at resistance.

They both have national security backgrounds in the Navy and in the CIA, and they've really led with that.

I think these campaigns represent kind of the early seeds of showing how the more centrist wing, the more moderate wing of Democrats has even started to stretch some new muscles.

Sheryl in New Jersey really focused on electricity and bringing down those prices.

As a 20 percent utility rate hike crushes New Jersey families.

In Virginia, Spanberger really focused on the contraction of the federal government and the ways that, you know, the firing of government employees particularly affected folks in Virginia.

That was successful there.

And so put New Jersey and Virginia together.

And it wasn't just a good night for progressives and the mumdonies of the world.

It was a good night for, I would say, the moderate wing of the party as well and just Democrats broadly.

Well, the answer is all the above.

I don't think that anyone can blanket say that a 2018 Democrat cannot work in 2025.

But I think it's also important that who Sheryl and Spanberger were represented a different type of Democrat than I think they were in 2018.

And that time, the focus was largely on Donald Trump, his actions, and not necessarily presenting an affirmative vision on their own.

I think both of those candidates did so and made a point.

to not simply be running against Donald Trump's actions.