On Tuesday, the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy hosted a panel called “What Happens Next? Unpacking the Midterm Elections.” The panel included CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, Democratic strategist Xochitl Hinojosa and Republican communications specialist Matt Gorman. The conversation, which was moderated by Taubman Center Director Eric Patashnik, centered around the impact of the 2026 midterm elections.
The event opened with a description of the Democrats’ sweeping successes across the country. Democrats won the House popular vote by approximately 12 percentage points and flipped over 40 Republican-held House seats.
“I think the midterm was primarily a referendum on Trump’s performance,” Patashnik, who is also a professor of public policy and of political science, said in an interview with The Herald. “The most important issue was (the) economy and affordability. I think Democrats had exceeded expectations.”
Hinojosa said many Democrats won by developing their own localized messages instead of leaning on the national party’s brand. Hinojosa has previously held senior positions in the Department of Justice and the Democratic National Committee. Her sister is Gina Hinojosa, who won the Texas gubernatorial race.
“These individual candidates saw an opportunity in each of their states and ran very localized races in order to win,” Hinojosa said. “And that’s how we’re going to win Mississippi. That’s how we won Texas. This is how we won some of these red states, was because of that very localized message.”
“I was like Democrats finally understood cost of living was the issue,” she explained. “Everything had to be connected to cost of living in order for it to resonate with people.”
Affordability was a key theme of both the panel and the election.
“We got Republicans to switch and not only vote for (James) Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, but for the first time (vote) for Democrats down the entire ticket,” Hinojosa said. She cited voters’ concerns for data centers “taking over their communities” and rising electricity costs.
“Democrats were able to stay really disciplined about cost of living and connect corruption and Trump’s actions to higher prices,” said Christopher Ho ’27, who had also attended the previous iteration of the event with the same panelists before the elections.
The war in Iran was a significant theme of the panel, particularly its influence on everyday expenses such as gas prices. “It appears that Vice President Vance is trying to sort of pin the loss on the war,” said Gorman, who previously served as the communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In a statement posted on X last week, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote that “The reason (Republicans) lost is the war” — referencing the Republican party’s midterm defeats.
Hinojosa believed that the war itself was not a motivating factor for enough voters to have caused the blue wave, but “when people started seeing gas prices go up and not coming down,” the conflict’s significance was felt more deeply.
“There are more democratic socialists in the House than there have ever been,” Dovere said. “However, that number is less than 10.”
“They have all of this power now. They have to deliver on bringing costs down everywhere they can,” Hinojosa said. She argued that Democrats should focus on people’s everyday lives, while also balancing oversight of the Trump administration.
The future of the Republican Party was another key point of the discussion. “What is the Republican Party after Donald Trump?” Dovere asked. “There is no answer to that question.”
The panelists discussed how the Republican party might define itself going forward, including the chance for a more competitive Republican presidential primary in 2028, with candidates like Vance and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis potentially entering the race.
The panelists also discussed significant leftward shifts among Latino voters and other constituencies who had moved toward the Republican Party in 2024. Hinojosa said that there is a widespread atmosphere of fear among Latino voters in the United States.
“Candidates matter, message matters, the environment in which our candidates are running matters,” she said. “It was definitely an ‘us versus them,’ and (Democrats) stood with the Latino community this time around.”
Gorman said that Republicans would need to learn from the midterm results without “overcorrecting” their campaign strategies. “I think the silver lining for my party is that there is no silver lining,” he said.
“Smart campaigns are informed by past campaigns, but winning ones don’t overcorrect the next campaign they run based on the past,” Gorman added.
The event was crowded with students and faculty. Hailing from Texas, Ho was particularly surprised that Gina Hinojosa won the governor seat in Texas over Greg Abbott. “I think psychologically, Greg Abbott has such a lock on the state,” he said.
“I feel so privileged to have been able, as director of Taubman, to moderate events with extremely insightful journalists and political practitioners — both from the Democratic and Republican side,” Patashnik said. “It’s great to bring experts together to have civil conversations about our democracy.”
Annika Melwani is a metro senior staff writer covering state politics and justice. She is from New York City and plans on concentrating in English and International and Public Affairs. In her free time, she can be found reading or drinking an iced vanilla latte.
Nate Barkow is a senior staff writer for the Youth and Education beat and a co-chief of The Herald's social media team. He is from New York City and plans on concentrating in International and Public Affairs and Education Studies. In his free time, he loves trying new restaurants and watching Survivor.
