Morning Brief: Democrats Sweep, The Rise Of The Radicals, & The Longest Shutdown In History

The 2025 election results are in, the Democratic Party has taken a hard-Left swerve, and as the government shutdown breaks records, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warns of massive air travel chaos.

It’s Wednesday, November 5, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire:

Democrats Sweep Tuesday Elections

Topline: On Tuesday night, Democrats scored a number of significant victories in statewide races across New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California. 

Republicans were facing an uphill battle. The party in control of Washington almost always struggles in off-year elections, and the biggest races were in blue states. But there’s no doubt Democrats in many ways exceeded expectations as they easily won both gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, passed a significant ballot measure in California, and scored an overwhelming mayoral victory in New York City.

New York City: NYC’s election was defined by an enormous turnout. By 5 p.m., four hours before polls closed, there had already been more votes cast than in any mayoral race in more than three decades. That enthusiasm benefitted one man, Zohran Mamdani. The self-avowed socialist trounced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa by significant margins.

Republicans intend to make the best of a bad situation, however. Many of Mamdani’s policies are wildly unpopular nationwide, so the GOP will likely work to promote him as a new standard-bearer for the Democratic Party.

New Jersey: Democrat Mikie Sherrill scored a decisive victory over Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, with the race being called within the first hour of polls closing.

This election was decided by women. According to exit polls, Ciattarelli won with male voters by a comfortable six-point margin. Among female voters, Sherrill won by a stunning 20-point margin.

Democrats also won big on two of the most important issues, healthcare and the economy. Exit polling showed that nearly half of New Jersey voters listed those issues as their top priority. Sherrill won those folks by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Much like Donald Trump, Ciattarelli did best among working-class voters and white men.

Virginia: Democrats’ candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general all came out on top. The governor’s race ended up a blowout, with Abigail Spanberger defeating Republican Winsome Earle-Sears handily. The last few votes were counted early Wednesday morning, and it appeared to be among the largest margins of victory for a Democrat gubernatorial candidate in the state in decades.

Republicans ultimately struggled to drive turnout in the state’s deep red rural counties, while Spanberger ran up the score in heavily populated blue counties near Washington, D.C., outpacing former Vice President Kamala Harris’s performance from a year ago.

Rise Of Democrat Radicals

Topline: This election cycle has highlighted a growing appetite for socialism among young Democrats and the growing influence of progressives over the Democratic Party.

Socialism takes NYC: Mamdani won the NYC mayoral race, which is not altogether surprising in a deep-blue city like New York. And there’s an argument to be made that Cuomo could have pulled out a win if he hadn’t split the anti-Mamdani vote with Sliwa. But regardless, the Democratic Party has given its tacit or explicit approval of Mamdani. For as radical as Mamdani is to the mainstream of American politics, he faced essentially no public resistance from Democrats. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries even endorsed him.

Still, many Democrats didn’t appear pleased with Mamdani. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer never endorsed him. Neither did former President Barack Obama, though Obama did call Mamdani to compliment his campaign. All of this speaks to a tension these politicians see between Mamdani as a broadly unpopular figure, but very popular among the Democrats’ left-wing base, which, with Mamdani’s win, is in its ascendency.

Loyalty over decency: In Virginia, Spanberger never distanced herself from the Democratic nominee for state attorney general, Jay Jones, despite his scandals. The Washington Post wrote in a Monday evening editorial: “If Jones rides Spanberger’s coattails to victory, it would be a sad reflection of a discomfiting willingness among voters to prioritize partisanship over human decency.”

This is currently a trend in Democratic politics. In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner hasn’t felt Democratic backlash, except within his own campaign staff, from having a Nazi tattoo.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, dismissed Platner’s tattoo last month. “Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues,” Sanders told Axios.

Shutdown Hits Air Travel, SNAP Benefits

Topline: The government is still shut down, potentially causing major problems for upcoming holiday travel and delaying SNAP benefits for tens of millions of Americans.

The Senate voted on a continuing resolution that passed the House, and for the 14th time, it failed. Only two Democrats, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez-Masto, voted alongside Republicans to open the government.

Dem’s message: Democrats say it’s Republicans who are keeping the government shut down, and they are essentially arguing that the shutdown is happening because Republicans aren’t on board with certain healthcare subsidies.

“There’s nothing to be optimistic about, relative to the cruelty and the pain that Donald Trump and Republicans continue to inflict on the American people,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “They refuse to address the health care crisis that Republicans have created.”

GOP’s message: Republicans have stuck to their original message —that the CR bill is “clean,” maintaining current funding levels without any policy changes. Democrats refusing to vote for it are clearly the ones keeping the government shut down.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also said that Democrats want to force American taxpayers to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants, and that’s why there is a stalemate.

“In addition to their refusal to vote for the CR and reopen the government, the Democrats have had the audacity to demand something new. They demanded $1.5 trillion with a ‘T’ in new spending obligations,” said Johnson. “Included in that is nearly $200 million of taxpayer funds that they want to use to restore free health benefits to illegal aliens.”

Shutdown on air travel: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday that if the government shutdown continues, air travel will be severely restricted during the holiday season.

“You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” said Duffy.

Shutdown on SNAP: Trump said on Tuesday that a potential delay for this month’s SNAP benefits will continue for 42 million Americans until the “Radical Left Democrats” reopen the government, which he said they can “easily do” at any time. USDA’s main website similarly says they don’t have funds to distribute benefits because of Democrats.

Trump’s message comes one day after the administration said it would dip into emergency funds to partially fund SNAP with a $4.65 billion payment, following a federal judge’s order. A court filing said that the process could take “a few weeks to up to several months.”