Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk, an evening email that provides you with the most recent coverage and commentary from the campaign trail, Capitol Hill, and the White House by the NBC News Politics team.
Politics correspondent Alexandra Marquez’s dispatch from the annual gathering of the Democratic Governors Association, where the party’s state leaders were brimming with ideas and concerns about how to approach upcoming elections, is included in today’s edition. We also explore Senate math and the implications of the Democrats’ 2006 class losing seats or fading away.
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Democratic governors want to set a different tone for their party in a second Trump administration
By Alexandra Marquez
This year, Democrats are still in shock and contemplating what went so wrong for their party. However, at the annual meeting of Democratic governors in California, they unanimously agreed that their party needs to evolve in order for one of them to have a genuine chance to win the presidency in 2028.
In an interview with NBC News, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy stated that Democrats must first lay the groundwork, construct the infrastructure, and choose a DNC chairman who is dedicated to achieving this goal. He said that we can worry about policy changes or who we run for president [in 2028] later.
Additionally, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear cautioned Democrats about a major barrier to their goals for redefinition: President-elect Donald Trump. This was during a pitch to recommit the party to a focus on improving voters’ daily lives by addressing important issues like inflation, health care, infrastructure, transportation, and education.
According to Beshear, during the previous Trump administration, people paid too much attention to Trump and the events in Washington, D.C., and not enough attention to [Democratic] concerns.
“Avoid becoming divided between them and us,” he advised. It’s not a successful tactic.
There is already widespread consensus at various levels of the party, especially among some of the resistance movement groups that rose to prominence during Trump’s first term, that Democrats cannot respond to Trump in the same manner as they did eight years ago.
However, after Trump’s election, some of the most well-known governors—who also happen to be among those who have been discussed as possible presidential candidates—moved swiftly to position their states as barriers against Trumpism. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker discussed ways to support his state against Trump, while California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a special legislative session.
Others in red and purple states have adopted less combative positions. Beshear and fellow red-state Democratic governor Laura Kelly of Kansas stated at the Democratic Governors Association conference that they would seek opportunities to collaborate with Trump in areas that would benefit their constituents.
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Democrats’ famed Senate class of 2006 has all but disappeared. Here s why it matters.
By Mark Murray
The renowned Democratic Senate class of 2006, which included some of Democrats’ greatest electoral overachievers in the most difficult states, helped pass the party’s legislative accomplishments over the following ten and a half years, and included the six Senate Democrats who overthrew GOP-held seats in that midterm cycle, fueled Democratic majorities over the previous 20 years.
Only Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island will be in the Senate starting next year following the 2024 elections.
In addition to highlighting the Democratic Party’s difficult journey back to the Senate majority following their defeats in November, that attrition provides a significant narrative about the geographic shift in American politics over the past 20 years.
Jim Webb of Virginia was the first member of the 2006 class to leave; he chose not to run for reelection in 2012, but Tim Kaine retained his seat in the Democratic Party.
Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who was re-elected in 2012 but lost six years later in 2018, was the next to leave.
Additionally, three more members of that illustrious class—Montana’s Jon Tester, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey—lost in 2024 as Donald Trump won their states.
Senate Democrats won in Missouri, Montana, and Ohio at the start of the twenty-first century. (Republicans also held Senate seats in states like Virginia and Rhode Island, which was equally significant.) Right now? In addition to North Dakota and West Virginia, it is incomprehensible how Democrats could win statewide federal elections in those three states.
And that fact highlights Democrats’ struggle to regain the Senate in 2026, 2028, and later. In every state that Kamala Harris won, the party now holds all but one Senate seat following the most recent election. (The exception? Maine’s Susan Collins.) In the seven crucial presidential swing states, Democrats also hold 10 of the 14 Senate seats.
However, that only lands them 47 Senate seats. That comes to a maximum of 52 Senate seats, even if they beat Collins and flip the other four in battleground states (two in North Carolina, one in Wisconsin, and one in Pennsylvania) while keeping the others. Democrats will need to find out how to win again in areas like Missouri, Ohio, and other now-reliable red states if they want more than that.
Another noteworthy fact of the Democratic class of 2006 is that, at the start of the election season, few commentators believed that Democrats would be able to flip more than two Senate seats, much less six.
However, the Senate battleground was greatly enlarged beyond earlier projections because to the unpopularity of the Iraq war and George W. Bush’s administration.
This serves as a reminder that political maps are subject to change. It is always evolving.
Today s top stories
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R-N-C you later:
Lara Trump, Trump s daughter-in-law, announced that she will step down as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee amid mounting speculation that she could be picked to fill a coming Senate vacancy. And the RNC s treasurerannounced a bid
to replace her.
Read more
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Threats to lawmakers:
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said that she and her family were targeted by a bomb threat and that local police are working with the U.S. Capitol Police to investigate.Read more
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Court watch:
The Supreme Court sidestepped a new dispute over race in education by declining to consider whether an admissions program for public high schools in Boston unlawfully considered race.Read more
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Fact-check:
Here s a look at a fact-check of Trump s wide-ranging interview with Meet the Press on Sunday.Read more
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He s a businessman and a business, man:
Trump will return to the White House next year with a more sprawling business empire than he had during his first term, but he and his team have provided no details about how or whether he will separate his business interests from his work as president.Read more
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A somber memorial:
President Joe Biden announced plans to create a monument in Pennsylvania marking the federal government s oppression of thousands of Native American children in boarding schools.Read more
For now, that’s all from the Politics Desk. For comments, likes, or dislikes, send an email to [email protected].
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