, welcome to a Holiday Edition of the last word. 1934 congressional elections, because 2022 was the First Time Since 1934 that first term president saw every senator in his party reelected. Every senator who is running. In 1934, first term democratic president Franklin Roosevelt sought every democratic Senator Running for ev election get reelected. President biden saw the same thing this year. And the democrats added a seat to their control of the senate when John Fetterman won in pennsylvania. A very difficult state for democrats to win. As is arizona and georgia. But, Democratic Senate candidates won in those states to. From my race in arizona, i had wide support by republicans. Republican mares and county supervisors, business leaders, law enforcement. You know, theyve come up to me frequently. But also, endorsed me. Republican mayors. Because, you know, theyre tired of what theyve seen over the last, well, six years now. And they just want to get things done, and you know, they just want the noise to be, you know, in the past, and they want folks thatll focus on the future. We knew we needed to make this race about two individuals. And given the choice of who georgians wanted to represent their families, they had to pick between the reverend or the running back. We set out to do that from the very beginning. We were clear about where we needed to go in the state to do that, who we had to talk to in the state to do that, and im very pleased with the result. I actually think when we pivoted to the runoff election, our team did a lot of work to prepare. We knew a runoff was a possibility we wanted. To win outright in november, and we put in the wake. We know what we had to do in the early vote period to bank the votes that we needed to to have in the bank before election day. We were successful in doing that. So i think its discipline. And i think voters in the state of georgia. And heres a republican explanation for why they lost. Well, President Trump lost again. And i know a lot of people in our party love the president , former president. But hes if you will, The Kiss Of Death for someone who wants to win a general election. Donald trump chose horrible candidates like Herschel Walker and dr. Oz to run for senate, which some republicans admit. Ive always said that there is no substitute for quality candidates, it all starts there. Its clear to me that among the voters in the middle of the electorate, which are the ones that decide national elections, and certainly swing state elections, they just werent having it. And then, of course, theres Donald Trumps breathtakingly stupid idea that no republican should ever vote before election day. Weve gotta find a way to get our people out earlier. We have got to do a better job as republicans of selling to our voters, go vote early. Dont wait to the last day. Dont wait till possibly rain, dont wait for bad weather. Again, weve gotten hammered, early vote. You just look. We got hammered. Joining us now, the strategist who hammered the republicans in every state won by the democrats. Gary peters of michigan, hes the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee. Thank you very much for joining us once again, senator. I have to say, ive watched people do this job, the impossible job of trying to manage successfully every Democratic Senate campaign. And ive never everyone can say now, theyve never seen anyone do a better job of it. When did you know that this was gonna be the outcome . Well, lawrence, i was actually very confident right from the getgo. We have to realize we would have to do a lot of work. We have to be disciplined. We have to be focused. But as we went into the campaign, i thought were in states that joe biden had won, you know, they may have been close races, but he had won. We had outstanding camp visits. Our incumbents were people have incredible character. Theyve had a record of we had good candidates running in open seats. So i felt that. And then when we looked at who is emerging out of the republican primaries, basically trump appointed candidates, and the fact that there were so extreme and had such deep flaws, i felt very good about this contest. But on the other hand, i also knew wed have to run really good campaigns, and all of our candidates clearly did. Because as you know, you can still be a flawed candidate, and unfortunately, still win an election. So you asked to run a disciplined campaign focused on your objectives and dont let noise get in the way. Just keep your head down, and certainly, as a dscc chair, you should never be making noise. You should just be focused on making sure that our candidates and our incumbents have the resources that they need, and ways we can help out. Whether its trying to define our opponents, but the thing we really focused on was making sure that we were fully supporting very aggressive Ground Campaigns to get those voters out early, make sure that their voice was heard, and do that in a systematic way to keep encouraging people will get out to vote. As you know, in the midterm, you already have a drop off and vote. So it was a critical strategy, and its why the dscc we made a strategic decision early to put more money into the Ground Campaign and the Field Campaign than we ever have. And it certainly paid dividends, both in the general and certainly paid dividends in the runoff. Do you look back at the campaign and think, maybe we shouldve put more resources into North Carolina or to any of the other states where you came up short . Well, we did put money into those states, and we wanted to play as aggressively as we could. But as you know, lawrence, that money is not infinite. So you do have to make some hard decisions about where the money goes, and i was very focused to make sure that we were putting money just into those races that we knew were right on the edge, that we could win. My philosophy always is if youre gonna win the race, you dont need the dscc, if you cannot lose the race, we cant help you. But if youre on the edge, we want to make sure we get you over the hump. And so, in the end, you have to make some tough decisions, but certainly, we did provide so we put in what we could put in. But i never wanted to take the eye off the ball. First and foremost, we wanted to bring all of the incumbents back. That would keep us at 50, and then we go on the offense. But the number of central focus, everything we did with in the dscc was to bring every incumbent back, and that of course was a great success. Im pleased to be focused on that strategy. But we went on the offense and we were successful and helping John Fetterman who had a great race himself, and a great team that we worked with in order to have that very important 51st seat. Do you think youre gonna continue to stay lucky with donald trump as the cheerleader of the Republican Voters out there telling them all to stay home and dont even think about casting a vote until election day . I hope he keeps doing that. Its curious. Actually, in the past, republicans did that fairly well. They had early vote, specifically with senior citizens. It was part of the strategy. It makes no sense not to, because you want to make sure people are voting. Its convenient for voters. People have busy lives. Lets make it so that they can make sure their voices are heard, and they can do it in a convenient way. It also allows us to be focused and systematic. We identify first off those folks we know are gonna be voting for our candidate. And then, we keep reminding them to vote, and when someone is reminded to vote and they know someones watching them, as to whether or not they cast their vote, theyre much more likely to actually do it. So the numbers come through for you. And then, if anything happens on election day, bad weather event, or whatever may happen on election day, it really is comforting to know you have votes in the bank. Senator, ive seen some people take on this job in the past when the issue was, can they hold on to the majority, or increase the majority. Never under the level of pressure that you are under. Because this is the first time i have seen this job done where democracy itself was on the ballot. Did you feel that extra pressure . Oh, theres no question about it. I definitely felt that. And actually, thats a major reason why i was willing to take this job. You know, i just came off a really tough election in 2020, and the last thing you want to do after that is to get back into elections. I was humbled by my colleagues, who said, gary, you know how to win tough elections. Youve done that throughout your career in the house and the senate, in the key Battleground State of michigan. My wife, in particular, colleague, to make sure were gonna be in this together. But ultimately what made the decision, this is a pivotal time in the history of our country, where the Very Foundation Of The Great Democratic Republic is being shaken by the other side, who are Election Deniers, and trying to move this country in a very dangerous direction. And we thought, this is a time, let me use the experience, i will do what i can, i will work as hard as i possibly can, because so much is at stake. We have to win. And thats why i took the job, and why i was very fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people at the dscc. Kristie roberts, our executive director, everyone working there also shared that sense of mission. This was a mission to uphold democracy in this great country of ours. Senator gary peters, ive never seen a senator who has more people owing him big time, from the president of the United States to every democratic senator, to the people of the United States. Because this election was about democracy. And thats the side that you are on. Senator gary peters, thank you once again for joining us tonight. Its a pleasure. Thank you for having me on. Democrats also won big in state legislatures. Democrats won control of the state house and senate in michigan, the state senate in minnesota, and control the state house in pennsylvania. Here is incoming pennsylvania speaker, joanna mcclinton, in the Winners Circle at the last word. Future speaker, what did it mean for the democrats to be able to control the house in pennsylvania, a legislature that donald trump was turning to in 2020 to see if there was some way they could grab pennsylvanias electoral votes for him . It means that were turning the page to Election Deniers. When 60 of my colleagues, including our Speaker Of The House and all of the Republican Leadership in the senate and the house, signed a letter urging our congressional delegation to overthrow the election, it was completely outrageous. That was my introduction to being the minority leader. Its like, are we gonna start the session trying to throw out votes . Thats what happened. But voters in this election, this november, they are turning the page to it, and so are we. Joining our discussion now, jessica post, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign committee. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. What were the Lessons Learned in your winning season . Well, lawrence, thank you so much for having me. One of the big lessons for us was no surprise. Similar to what senator peters said. We wanted to make sure that every state legislative chamber that was a democratic majority, we held. We watched everything from washington to oregon, which republican said at the beginning of the Election Cycle that they could bring home a win in. We also wanted to make sure that we were taking every opportunity to Flip Chambers on new maps. And that was a really key, important piece of the Election Cycle. We felt like we definitely had a winning message, and that was a key piece as well. So, we started with the no surprises philosophy, and similar to the folks in the u. S. Senate, we were able to hold every democratic majority since 1934, and win four new democratic majorities. The Republican Party has been concentrating at the state legislative level for a very long time. And thats why they have as much control as they do around the country. Has it been difficult to get democratic voters to concentrate on this . Because usually, in democratic campaigns, there tend to be political rock stars higher up on the ballot. Gavin newsom types for governors, barack obama running for president , and so it becomes difficult to get the concept across about how important your state representative and your State Senator is. It definitely is a challenge to get people to vote down ballot. We have a phenomenon we call ballot rolloff. Folks will vote at the top of the ticket, but they may not vote at the bottom of the ticket. So one thing we have to do with the dlcc, is communicate with voters to make sure that voters understand the stakes. Most of the policies that affect your daytoday life, these are made in state legislatures. So were always looking for ways to make sure we have the resources to communicate with voters, to make sure that people understand the stakes, but also understand the binary choice, that a republican might be an Election Denier that attended the insurrection, and we may have a great candidate in the democrats, someone who really wants to represent their community. And thats part of the reason why we cant just run trickle down campaigns. We have to run strong campaigns on the ballot. Jessica post, thanks very much for joining us in this Winners Circle discussion tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much, lawrence. Have a good one. Thank you, you too. Joining us now is simon rosenberg, democratic strategist and president of the new Democrat Network and new policy institute. Simon, thanks for joining us once again. Tonight, you are of course, as our audience knows, the person who never fell for the red wave propaganda, i think we can now call it, that was out there. And you were not surprised by the way the election turned out. What are the Lessons Learned for you in this election . Well, i think the most important thing is the Democratic Party is very strong today. I mean, we strengthened our standing in the key Battleground States for the president ial election. We showed Tactical Advantages i thought senator peters did a great job of explaining why what we did on the ground we you know, our campaigns are much bigger than they used to be. Much more money. And were spending it wisely, right . By focusing on turning out lower propensity voters and creating more democrats. You heard him talk about how we pushed the early vote, and the republicans just wont be able to catch up to us in the next two years on the ground. The third thing is that the party itself, you look up and down, gretchen whitmer, gavin newsom, to westmore, raphael warnock, i mean you and i have been doing this a long time. This is as strong a party as weve probably seen in our lifetime. So ive come away from this election thinking the Democratic Party is really strong, and the republicans still are all full of maga. And theyve got a great problem heading into 2024. Why wouldnt the republicans be able to immediately catch up on early voting just by telling people to vote early . Well, its not that simple. Right . As the senator said, you have to Contact People many times. We have large, developed field organizations. You grew up in the democratic side, you know a lot of us, including me, i got my start as a field organizer. Republicans have more regular voters. They dont have to work as hard to get their people to vote. And yes, they will be able to tell people, but its a shift in the way the party operates, the way their campaigns operate. They dont have heavily funded campaigns. Most of their money is in these outside groups. So at least for the next two years, and maybe even beyond, weve got a very significant Tactical Advantage in the Battleground States over republicans, which is why youre hearing them freak out so much. They dont know that this is gonna be easy to solve for them. It wasnt just one time thing. I mean, this is a bigger structural problem for them, i think, heading forward. So, are you saying, among other things, that the tv Advertising Campaigns that they run are geared toward election day . So like, in the old days, they were all kind of geared toward election day. So they became very, very heavy in october. But for early voting, you need them much earlier. Well, you also need to campaign. The thing is, our campaigns are raising far more money than their campaigns. Our politics is different from this. Ours are heavily funded campaigns and building out, so the outside groups, you know, spend in addition to the strong campaigns. In some of these house races, we had six to 7 to 1 cash in hand advantages over the republicans. In the senate races, we outspent them two, 3 to 1, right . By not having strong candidate campaigns, that means they cant do the stuff on the ground. The outside groups and the media cant do the ground stuff that we do. And so, we have a better system. And whats happened, the big change, lawrence, since weve been in this business, is the amount of money that the grassroots democrats are giving our candidates. Theyre making our campaigns muscular, stronger, an