VIDEO: Morning Joe Panel on Democratic Governors’ Midwest Success: “We’re Back to Blue”
On Morning Joe yesterday, MSNBC political analysts John Heilemann, Robert Costa, and host Joe Scarborough discussed the success of Democratic governors in the Midwest, saying that “we’re back to blue” in “big, important, industrial Midwestern states.”
Heilemann pointed out that these Democratic wins point to electoral problems for Donald Trump in 2020. Costa highlighted Scott Walker’s defeat as emblematic of the trouble Republicans are having in the Midwest where “that old-school Republican message doesn’t win.”
Watch video of this segment HERE and read excerpts below:
John Heilemann: “If you think about those Democratic governors who took back control of Wisconsin, after being out of office for eight years while Scott Walker was there; Michigan, after being out of office for eight years when Rick Snyder was there; keeping Pennsylvania. Three big, important, industrial Midwestern states that Donald Trump eked out his electoral college victory. And that’s one thing: we’re back to blue in those states, which those states had been, on the presidential level, blue for some election cycles before, so now they’re controlled by Democrats again… The map gets really tricky for Donald Trump if the blue states are back to blue and some of these red states are starting to look purple.”
Robert Costa: “A real quick point, John, that is spot-on, the Wisconsin race: Scott Walker’s defeat hasn’t gotten enough attention. You think about Scott Walker, in 2010, 2014, Republican hero. He’s just aligned with Paul Ryan on the fiscal issues, the tax issues. For him to go down in Wisconsin, you gotta look at his Instagram feed. Governor Walker’s posting pictures of the snow, very reflective right now. No, he is. And when I saw that over the weekend, I thought this is where the Republican party is, reflective. Where do they go in the Midwest? That old-school Republican message doesn’t win. And Democrats had a candidate in Tony Evers running on healthcare and education, and he was victorious…
Joe Scarborough: “Yeah, and Scott Walker, my gosh, the guy won three elections if you count the recall. He’s had pretty remarkable success going back to 2010 for a Republican in that state. But you know, the headwinds of Trumpism, too much even for him in Wisconsin.”