Leading Dem on midterms aftermath: “We’re still in the fight of our lives”

November 8, 2026 / 9:24 AM EST / CBS News

There were echoes of history in this year's midterm election, one of the biggest rebukes of Republicans since 1974, when Watergate, inflation and unemployment dominated the campaign. That year, Democrats won 291 seats in the House of Representatives (flipping 49 GOP-held seats), and picked up four Senate seats.

Following last Tuesday's elections, Democrats now have robust majorities in both houses of Congress. Florida's Republican Governor Rick DeSantis called it "close to an extinction-level event for Republicans."

There were also stunning upsets in red states, including Kansas, South Carolina and Texas. It was, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz said, "a Watergate-level repudiation."

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, says his party is at a crossroads. He says the dynamic of many Republicans in the Trump Era being fearful of getting too far away from the president has changed. "Oh, I think it changed on Tuesday," he said, calling this year's midterms "the most disastrous election for Republicans ever."

He added that, of Republicans still in office who don't want to fight Mr. Trump directly, "Like the Cowardly Lion, they'll find that they actually had courage all along."

Hogan was asked…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/