Democrats Head Into Election Day Feeling Hopeful About the Midterms

Democrats are heading into Election Day feeling hopeful — a strange sensation for the party during the Trump era.

The feeling is cautious. It’s quiet. It’s tempered with caveats. But it’s real.

“We are in a state of nauseous optimism,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, told me this evening.

Two years after their party was soundly rebuked in the 2024 election, losing the White House and the Senate to Republicans, poll after poll is telling a story of a stunning reversal of fortune — and key party leaders are acting accordingly.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who could be the first Black speaker of the House if Democrats flip that chamber, has been breezily projecting confidence for weeks as his party competes in districts President Trump won by double digits in 2024.

The Senate battleground has grown, as national Democrats pour money into places like Kansas and South Carolina. Heavyweight surrogates like former Vice President Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg have deployed to outer-band reach states like Mississippi.

“We had to look at states that we usually couldn’t win, and Trump’s and the Republicans’ liabilities and actions that hurt those states helped us as well,” Schumer said.