DNC chairman says ‘big tent’ approach in midterm sweep could fuel 2028 gains

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin credited an absence of purity politics for his party’s landslide wins in Tuesday’s midterm elections, suggesting that a similar approach could be used to expand blue power in 2028.Democrats seized majorities in the House and Senate and are on track to gain governing trifectas in at least five battleground states, meaning they will control both the governorship and state legislature. In two of the most shocking outcomes from the night, Democrats clapped up South Carolina’s Senate seat and the governor’s mansion in Texas, marking a stunning performance in deep red areas Republicans have long taken for granted.Martin said this week that building a culture accepting of diverse perspectives, voters, and candidates put Democrats in power, a strategy he suggested could work again in 2028, when his party will seek to flip the White House in the presidential election. There’s “no one way or one stripe of being a Democrat,” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. In the most recent elections, midterm candidates were given “leeway to actually run the type of campaign that they know fits their district or fits their state,” Martin said. In 2028, whoever clinches the Democratic presidential nomination will need to adopt “a big tent approach” and keep “bringing more people into the conversation instead of pushing them out,” he said.“That doesn’t mean there isn’t a core set of values that unite all the Democrats,” Martin said. “It just means we need to be smarter about how we build power.”Results continue to trickle in from Tuesday’s elections.Only two Senate races have not been called as of Wednesday afternoon: Alaska, where the results will likely be contested due to two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, and Mississippi, where the two top candidates are separated by under 100 votes. In the House, several dozen races still haven’t been called, including in Florida, Michigan, Arizona, Alaska, and North Carolina.The top House Republican, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), has said he plans to step away from his leadership role in the wake of the GOP’s sweeping losses in the lower chamber.Following the dismal results for his party, President Donald Trump struck an unusually conciliatory tone for the White House, saying he always has the option to veto legislation passed by congressional Democrats, but offering to strike deals with the opposition, as he hits a legislative wall in his last two years in office.TRUMP HEADING TO NASA EXPO ON FRIDAY FOLLOWING BLUE WAVE ELECTIONDuring a late-night interview with Politico, the president pledged to work with the opposition to “make sure things go well for our country.”“They’ve already called, and they want to work with me,” Trump said of Democrats. “I have the right to veto everything, but I don’t want to be just sitting there for two years vetoing everything. They want to see things happen too. So I’ve already spoken to certain leaders of the Democrat Party, and we’ll probably, you know, I have a lot of friends at the Democrats also.”