-Last night saw the first major elections
of the Trump era, and Democrats won big,
trouncing Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
That's right.
Democrats had major victories in the governor's races
in New Jersey and Virginia last night,
which means it's cool to be a Democrat again.
Right, new New Jersey -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Isn't that right, new New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy?
♪♪
[ Laughter ]
Oh, my God.
Democrats are such nerds.
He looks like he just won a chess meet.
[ Laughter ]
But, hey, at least New Jersey finally has a governor
who can catch air. [ Laughter ]
But Democrats can be forgiven a little
awkward enthusiasm because they've spent the last two weeks
absolutely freaking out over the governor's race in Virginia,
where it seemed like Republican Ed Gillespie
was gaining ground on Democrat Ralph Northam
by running a Trump-inspired, race-baiting campaign.
Pundits a day before the race were already gloomy,
like this panel on "Morning Joe,"
during which, Mika Brzezinski could not contain her panic.
-We're gonna go around the table now.
-Oh, no. -Elections tomorrow.
Let me just start with this question.
-I don't know.
-Does anybody here think that the Democrats
are gonna win the governorship in Virginia tomorrow?
-I don't know, and I'm alarmed that this is a question.
-What about you? -I don't think so.
-And is it the Donna Brazille stuff?
What is turning people at the last second?
-Do you think Ed Gillespie or Northam wins?
-It doesn't look like Northam wins.
-Oh, my God.
[ Laughter ]
-You got to love how Mika sounds in that clip,
like she just heard some dirty gossip about a friend
while holding a glass of Pinot Grigio.
"Oh, my God!
With the pool boy?!"
[ Laughter ]
So, even before the results came in last night,
Democrats were certain they didn't have a chance,
which of course is how you know they actually had a chance.
They won, but at least the Democrats were wrong again.
In fact, Democrats went on to victory in several states,
first, in New Jersey, where Murphy, the Democrat,
overwhelmingly won the race
to replace GOP governor Chris Christie.
Christie is so unpopular in New Jersey that,
on election day, he found himself bickering
with a voter on the street over a local issue,
merging a township and a borough after he cast his ballot.
-Anything else?
Sure, ma'am! Why not?
Yeah.
'Cause I can't. -In eight years.
Well, as governor, I can't. -So, why didn't you?
-I can't.
I understand. You're so frustrated.
And you know what? The easiest thing in the world--
The easiest thing in the world is to stand where you stand
and stand on the sidelines and critique.
Run for the township committee of Mendham Township
and be the voice to do it.
No, I know, 'cause that's too hard.
It's easier -- It's easier to sit here --
It's easier to sit here and complain.
-It's whose hand in whose pocket.
-It's easier to sit --
-And I don't have the money like you.
-Oh, really, I'm sure. I'm sure.
Easier to sit here and complain. But you know what?
That's the joy of public service.
It's serving folks like you that is really such a unique joy.
-Man, it's nice that success hasn't changed Chris Christie.
You know, the best thing about Christie living in New Jersey
is knowing he'll never be able to go anywhere in public again
without someone giving him [bleep]
[ Laughter ]
"Hey!"
[ Cheers and applause ]
Hey, Governor, I got a bridge right here!
Let me raise it for you! There you go.
There's another one over there.
There you go." [ Cheers and applause ]
"There you go. You can cross from New Jersey,
right over to go [bleep] yourself.
There you go." [ Cheers and applause ]
And that wasn't the only big result in New Jersey.
There was also the case of a local Republican official
named John Carmen who mocked the Women's March in January
with a Facebook meme that said,
"Will the women's protest
be over in time for them to cook dinner?"
And that inspired first-time candidate Ashley Bennett
to run against Carmen, and last night, Bennett won.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-So now John Carmen will be home in time to make dinner.
[ Laughter ]
Though he doesn't look like he'd nail it.
"Good news, honey. I made fire bread."
[ Laughter ]
Democrats also had big wins in Philadelphia,
where a civil rights lawyer who defended
Black Lives Matter activists just became district attorney,
and in Maine, where voters overwhelmingly
approved a ballot measure to expand Medicaid
over the objections of their GOP governor Paul LePage.
LePage vetoed the Medicaid expansion five times
in support of President Trump's attempts to repeal Obamacare.
In fact, LePage made his name by telling voters
he would fight Obama's agenda tooth and nail.
-Well, last night, Maine voters told LePage, "You first."
[ Laughter and applause ]
And let's not forget New York City,
where the result, a win for Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio,
was essentially guaranteed.
But there was an especially fun wrinkle
in the fate of former Fox News pundit
and Trump supporter Bo Dietl, who ran against de Blasio
and has a history of making racist comments.
Dietl got crushed last night,
which might've had something to do with his closing message,
a bizarre video of him dancing on the subway.
-♪ No curses in my verses ♪
♪ Didn't have time to rehearse this ♪
♪ We just came to uplift your mind ♪
♪ Scratch the surface ♪
♪ Go ahead, Bo ♪
♪ Tell 'em what you know ♪
♪ All I know, I love the street music ♪
♪ When I become mayor, there'll be more street music ♪
Man, you got to love New Yorkers.
They know the first rule of an asshole on the subway is,
ignore him and hope he goes away.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
And with Bo Dietl, it worked.
"Hey, I'm running for mayor.
You guys want to watch my dance?"
[ Laughter ]
And Dietl has not been handling his loss very well.
This morning, he took to Twitter
to attack the chairman of a third party
that refused to endorse him, tweeting,
"Good morning, Frank Morano.
I lost last night, but I'm still a multimillionaire.
You're still a fat loser in the loser Reform party.
And you know you're the real loser
when you can't even spell the word "loser."
[ Laughter and applause ]
But by far, the biggest rout was in Virginia,
and even aside from the governor's race,
Democrats had a huge night there.
For example, a transgender woman named Danica Roem
was elected to the Virginia state house,
becoming the first transgender lawmaker in the country.
And not only that, she beat a Republican incumbent,
Bob Marshall, who sponsored a transgender bathroom bill
and once referred to himself as Virginia's "chief homophobe."
He also refused to debate Roem
and referred to her with male pronouns.
The best part of Roem's victory was her response
when she was asked if she had anything
to say about Marshall after she beat him.
Roem said, "I don't attack my constituents.
Bob is my constituent now." [ Cheers and applause ]
Damn.
She threw so much shade, his face turned even whiter.
[ Laughter ]
Virginia's also elected
the state's first two Latina lawmakers,
and in a truly shocking result, a Marine veteran,
who calls himself a Democratic Socialist,
upset one of the most powerful Republicans
in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Republicans got beat so bad in Virginia,
last night, even the statue of Robert E. Lee
was chased out of town.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
By, apparently, a very slow mob.
[ Laughter ]
And that's what's especially interesting
about last night's results in Virginia,
because Gillespie very much ran a Trump-inspired campaign
that openly embraced Trump's racial-grievance politics.
He aired ads connecting Northam
to the MS-13 gang and sanctuary cities,
sent out mailers attacking kneeling NFL athletes,
and made keeping up Virginia's Confederate statues
a centerpiece of his campaign, with ads like this one.
-For governor, there's a clear choice.
Ralph Northam wants to take down Virginia's Civil War monuments.
-I will do everything that I can
to remove the statues at the state level.
Remove the statues at the state level.
-Ralph Northam will take our statues down.
Ed Gillespie will preserve them.
-I'm for keeping them up, and he's for taking them down,
and that's a big difference in November.
-November of 1866?
[ Laughter ]
Trump, of course, enthusiastically embraced
Gillespie's race-baiting campaign,
tweeting that "Northam is fighting
for the violent MS-13 killer gangs and sanctuary cities"
and that Gillespie
"might even save our great statues/heritage."
Well, you'll never guess how Trump feels about Gillespie
now that he's lost.
Last night, he tweeted, "Ed Gillespie worked hard
but did not embrace me or what I stand for."
Don't worry, Ed.
Trump's only upset because the election is still fresh.
The good news is, in Virginia, when you lose,
150 years later, you get a statue.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Of course, this is just one election night,
and there's still a long way to go,
but last night's results were promising
for a Democratic party in desperate need
of something to give them hope.
And if there's one thing Democrats are good at,
it's celebrating victories.
♪♪
Scratch that. This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]