AMNA NAWAZ: Well, for perspective now on how both parties are responding to last night's historic wins, we're joined by two strategists from both sides of the political aisle.

GEOFF BENNETT: That is Mo Elleithee, Democratic strategist and former spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, and Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

Good to see you, gentlemen.

DOUG HEYE, Republican Strategist: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Mo, Democrats didn't just win.

They won in places, in states and districts that Republicans thought were safe.

What did Democrats get right in this cycle and what can they replicate in election seasons beyond this Trump era?

MO ELLEITHEE, Democratic Strategist: Yes.

So we talked about this a little bit last night.

My party isn't always the best at message discipline.

But this cycle, boy, were they solidly on message.

Candidate after candidate, the most progressive to the most moderate, from Kansas and Texas to Maine and Michigan, every Democratic candidate was talking about cost of living and corruption, and, in many cases, tying those two things together.

All cycle long, Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does, just tossed out a bunch of crazy.

And we usually chase it.

We usually take the bait.

We didn't this time.

We stayed focused, and the results showed that.

GEOFF BENNETT: And looking at the scale of the losses, was any of this avoidable for Republicans, or was the environment just too politically toxic?

DOUG HEYE: The environment was too toxic.

And, ultimately, if it were going to be avoidable, Trump would have had to be the one to avoid it by telling voters, here's what's important that we're doing for you, not here's what I'm doing that's important to me.

So every time he talked about building an arch or reconstructing the East Wing or something about the Kennedy Center, all these things that voters don't really care about, especially when they're going through so much in their lives, is a real -- was a challenge to every Republican on the ballot.

And I always start with my home state of North Carolina.

Here's the most interesting thing to me about it, is that we have all seen the big losses, right?

You have lost the General Assembly.

The state Senate is still in question.

So many Republican members have lost, and we're still counting ballots.

But there were three constitutional amendments on the state ballot last night.

All three were fairly conservative.

One was voter I.D., and then two were about constitutional amendments limiting and capping taxes on property and income.

Those three passed was 60 percent of the vote.

So people voted for these conservative initiatives and then voted against every Republican that they could up and down the ballot to send that message to Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: To include Richard Hudson from North Carolina, who has the job of getting Republicans reelected across the country, congressional Republicans.

He also lost his seat.

DOUG HEYE: Sure.

And the dean of the delegation, Virginia Foxx, who's the chair of the House Rules Committee, my member of Congress, right now is behind by 99 votes.

They will go to a recount, but that's not an optimistic place to be in.

GEOFF BENNETT: The vice president, J.D.

Vance, was pretty blunt today.

He's saying that the war in Iran was the reason Republicans lost.

Here's the tweet.

He says: "The reason we lost is the war.

The president himself said so last night.

If you would like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so."

What do you make of those comments?

MO ELLEITHEE: J.D.

Vance is -- has got some real challenges moving forward.

The guy clearly wants to be president.

He wants to be the Republican nominee.

And his entire party got wiped out because of his boss and him.

So he's -- really interesting to see him try to put some distance between himself and the war.

And look, in fairness, J.D.

Vance, it's been reported, wasn't for the war in the beginning.

But I don't know that voters who repudiated this administration are going to see that, right?

They're repudiating Trump/Vance.

He's partly right.

It's partly the war, but it is also the long litany of broken promises that both Donald Trump and J.D.

Vance have made.

It is, as Maria Teresa was talking about, the inhumanity that we saw in the streets.

And, remember, just days ago, when Vivek Ramaswamy put out that terrible ad in Ohio that was repudiated by both parties, J.D.

Vance was the first guy to go into the state and hug it and embrace it and chastise the Republicans who were complaining about it.

So J.D.

Vance is going to have a hard couple of weeks trying to figure out how to position himself.

GEOFF BENNETT: And President Trump, his midterm closing argument was at the Reflecting Pool, as you mentioned.

Today, the morning after his party sustained these major losses, he was at the site of his reconstructed -- or in the process of being rebuilt here, this -- this future White House ballroom.

What does that choice tell you about how the president is processing these results and whether he's prepared or has a willingness to pivot?

DOUG HEYE: Well, it's not where we would want him to be consistent with his messaging, but he's been consistent that what is important to him as a priority of building things is somehow going to be important to voters throughout the country, and it just hasn't been.

And if we were having this conversation and there were no Iran war, or we're having it the day before it started, what would we be talking about?

Grocery prices.

We would be talking about gas prices, that everything is too expensive.

So was the war in Iran a contributor?

Absolutely.

You can't hide from that fact.

But there were still so many problems going into this midterm before that.

This just massively exacerbated it.

Maybe if we didn't go into this war in Iran, we'd be talking about a 25-seat Democratic pickup and three Senate seats, good night for Democrats, not the slam dunk they had last night.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

And, Mo, despite the Democrats' slam dunk, I mean, there were a couple of races where Democrats came up short, like in Florida, the Florida governor's race.

And it just raises the question, could more money, could better infrastructure have sealed the deal in those tight races?

MO ELLEITHEE: Look, some red states are -- we have got work to do still.

Florida's one of them.

But when you look at that Florida race, where you had two statewide Democrats who could not have been more different from one another, moderate former Republican member of Congress David Jolly running for governor, progressive Democratic Socialists of America-aligned Senate candidate Angie Nixon, both got $3.9 million -- or votes.

Both came within a point, maybe slightly more, from where their -- from their Republican opponents.

Compare that to where Democrats in Florida were last cycle.

You saw 12-, 15-point swings within some communities, if not more.

And it's an opportunity for Democrats to say, OK, this was a major step forward.

Just like the investment in Texas over multiple cycles paid dividends, just like investment in Georgia over multiple cycles paid dividends yesterday, I think you can see states like Florida become competitive again.

DOUG HEYE: And I'm looking at -- given past history.

What Republican members of Congress in Florida lost, so we will know who the Florida Democrats are going to nominate for governor in future years.

Clearly, that's a trend now.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Well, let's talk about that.

The midterms are beyond, behind us.

What do last night's results tell us about what's to come in 2028?

MO ELLEITHEE: Look, on the Democratic side, there's going to be a lot of energy.

I think you're going to see quite a few candidates jump into the race, maybe even more than we thought not long ago.

I actually think the Republican side is suddenly about to become a lot more crowded.

People are hungry for a change.

They want to turn the corner on the Trump era.

That much was made crystal clear last night.

Democrats now have two opportunities, one, to deliver on the promises that they made and hold the president accountable.

That's the job of those in Congress now, and those who are thinking about running for president to help paint a picture of what it -- what comes next.

For the past decade, what we have mainly been doing is playing opposition to Donald Trump.

Even when we took the White House for a couple of years, we were still in many ways playing opposition to Donald Trump.

Now we can paint a picture of what the future looks like.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see it, Doug?

DOUG HEYE: I start with what happens in the opening weeks of the next Congress, because they're going to be presented with the opportunity or the challenge of keeping the government open.

So how is this new Democratic majorities, how are they going to be able to cut a deal with Donald Trump, who tells us he's the great dealmaker, but's never been able to really do it, and especially given the numbers against him and his inclination to fight and find foils?

GEOFF BENNETT: Doug Heye, Mo Elleithee, thank you for adding so much to our election coverage... DOUG HEYE: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: ... both last night and, of course, right here at this desk.

MO ELLEITHEE: Let's do it again soon.

GEOFF BENNETT: I think we shall.