it's election day in America for the highly anticipated midterms. Yeah.
And many key races are being watched today and will continue
to be watched in the coming days as votes are counted.
So here to break it all down for us
as democratic strategist and vocal group Principal brad Howard,
Thank you so much for being here.
And as a Democratic strategist,
what do you think democrats did right ahead of Election Day?
And what missteps did they take and getting their message across?
Well, look, I think what we did right, was how we governed.
And I think that's how the voters should look at it.
What we, what have we done Over the last two years?
We've passed historic funding to get us through the pandemic.
We've reopened schools safely. We put money in people's pockets.
We've allowed Medicare to negotiate with prescription drug pricing,
lowering prescription drugs for seniors.
Made the boldest and largest investment in
our infrastructure and climate change initiatives.
In the last 40 or 50 years, Democrats have delivered for American families. Yes.
Gas President Hi. Yes, inflation is stubbornly high.
But compared to the rest of the global advanced economies were doing very,
very well.
Like the president has been a strong leader on uniting NATO and opposition to Putin.
He looks great on the world stage.
And so I'm proud of what President Biden and
Congressional Democrats have accomplished over the last two years.
You know,
my criticism would be that I think we're still seeing residual effects from
the far left of our party from the defund the police messaging,
uh, you know, from a lot of the stuff they said over the last few years,
but moderate democrats across the country, you know,
I used to be spokesperson for the Blue Dog democrats,
which are the national security focused, moderate democrats on Capitol Hill,
you see cops in their ads are putting their arms around long enforcement.
We know public safety is a problem in this
country working together with republicans to solve it.
I think democrats have shown they can govern.
I looking back, I wish we had more time to tell voters what we have done for them,
but also what we're going to do in the next two years.
If the gavel remains in our hands,
it already looks like just based off a lot of democratic strategists are pointing
out based off of the early vote totals that we've already seen so far,
democrats might have built just a little bit of a firewall today,
given the fact that republicans likely you're going to turn
out higher numbers of people to the polls today.
Are there specific house races that you're
watching today that you're most interested in that
might be sort of a bellwether as to see if this is a red wave,
a red ripple or you see potentially democrats keep both chambers?
Yeah, I mean, I would look at the group of members that gave us the majority of 2018,
these national Security Democratic women.
I'm looking at Abigail spanberger and Elaine Lauria in Virginia,
two fantastic members who are working hard across their districts,
looking at least Slotkin in michigan and angie craig in Minnesota.
Those those women swept us into power in
2018 and I work for congresswoman Stephanie Murphy,
Orlando got elected in 16, running on national security messaging.
I ran her campaign and we took that model and branched
it out across the country and had great success with it,
showing that democrats care about security,
that democrats care about your family and economy.
So looking at those women in Virginia,
michigan and Minnesota are on the eastern central time zones.
I think those are an indication of how the country's gonna
go that night if they're doing well and holding strong,
that's a great indicator across
the nation. If they, if these members start losing,
that's a problem. That's when the firearm gets pulled.
That's when we're really nervous.
So I think those are key pivotal races for democrats
and there are key states out there that are important
because all eyes will be on states like Georgia,
Wisconsin, Arizona and pennsylvania.
So what states do you think democrats actually have
a best chance at winning in all races?
So if you're looking at the Senate. I think we feel most bullish on Arizona.
Mark kelly is a great senator. He's been a great candidate.
He's running a smart campaign. He tacked to the middle very early on.
I'm not getting swept up in the far left messaging. Um, and he's holding strong.
So we feel great on Mark kelly's chances are coming back to the Senate.
I think all eyes have and will continue to be on Georgia and pennsylvania.
You talk about two very volatile races.
Lots of x factors involved there lots of october surprises,
lots of stuff in the news on both candidates were monitoring.
Fetterman is a strong candidate. He's Pennsylvanian through and through.
He doesn't look like a traditional politician,
which I think is helping him in pennsylvania dr Oz
has shown he's out of touch time and again,
but pennsylvania is a bellwether.
It's gonna be tight.
And of course we're knocking walker uh,
in Georgia has been one of those races that's just been fascinating to watch.
Um, you know, all the polls have these race is dead.
Even those are two very, very pivotal ones to watch.
I think the one I'm most concerned about the Democratic side will be Nevada,
but I'll have a lot of friends there on the ground right now who are telling
me that the latest indicators show that the
trends are moving in the democratic direction.
So we're feeling more bullish about Nevada and new
Hampshire than say we did two weeks ago.
So that's very promising looking at the early voting turnout,
enthusiasm is growing among democrats.
I think a lot of democrats are waking up to what's on the line
and how important is to come out to vote everything from abortion rights too.
Climate change
to the possible return of donald trump.
We've got to stand up and hold the senate of the house. Yeah.
And don't forget, of course in Georgia,
if neither Warnock or herschel walker get 50% plus one in the vote,
there's a runoff that will happen in december, which is most likely the case.
That's going to happen here brad. Just with the last few minutes I have here with you.
What do you want to say to voters out there who haven't maybe cast their vote just yet?
What do you want them to know heading into the polls today?
I'll say, I'll say two things.
The first being no matter your party affiliation,
no matter where you fall on the political spectrum vote, it's your civic duty.
People have fought and died for this ride.
Um, whatever minor inconvenience may keep you from voting.
Thinking about the minor inconvenience of our veterans who
fought across wars and defending democracy across the globe.
It's nothing in comparison to that. So please get out and vote. Do your research.
There's a ton of websites out there. You can go to um, get to the polls.
Don't don't keep putting it off because next thing, you know,
it's the time in the polls are closed.
So go vote.
I think the second thing I would remind voters is look at what the parties have said
or have done and what they say they're gonna do,
democrats have delivered for american indians.
We are fighting to put money in your pockets.
The Republican party has time and again,
so they're only loyal to donald trump and not your family.
And so whatever donald trump says it goes is where the Republican party will follow.
So think about what we have done.
Democrats have delivered time and again and we
have real plans out there to reduce inflation.
You know, again,
the republicans every single congressional Republican
vote against the inflation reduction act,
they voted against lower
student drug pricing, they voted against investments in climate change,
they voted against uh you know, covid funding to help
schools and stuff. So these are the things we need to keep in mind. We look forward
and I encourage everyone to get out and vote no matter your party though.
Alright, well, we thank you for all the tips and advice.
Hopefully people get out and vote Democratic
strategies and vocal group Principal brad Howard,
appreciate your time.