Making sense of the midterms: What voters are trying to tell Albany and Washington

The results are in (mostly).

The red wave narrative that fueled Republican expectations for gains across the country largely failed to crash ashore. Some exceptions involved a handful of congressional seats outside of New York City, including suburbs in Long Island, the Hudson Valley and Central New York. The Republican victories there, flipping seats from blue to red, could be what secures GOP control of the House of Representatives.

Democrats knew it would be a tough midterm election, given inflation and other economic worries this year, along with an unrelenting Republican message about the threat of rising crime. The conventional wisdom is that the party running the White House traditionally loses seats in the midterm elections. Few people expected that the biggest losses would be in deep-blue New York.

Even incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul, elected as New York’s first woman governor, only notched a five-point victory over Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. That’s despite her party’s overwhelming enrollment advantage.

The win required a recalibration of her campaign strategy as the election loomed. She leaned in hard to her support of abortion rights, while barnstorming the state with boldfaced surrogates like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, both Clintons — Hillary and Bill — and even progressive all-star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who hit the campaign trail with Hochul on Election Day itself.

On this week’s episode of The People’s Guide to Power, host Brigid Bergin and political experts will tease out what messages voters were sending in this midterm election and what their sentiments could mean for the agendas in Congress and here in New York.

Guests will include Dr. Christina Greer, a political scientist at Fordham University, author of “Black Ethnics”, co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast and host of the The Blackest Questions for The Grio. She will be joined by Kai Wright, host of WNYC’s Notes from America, Politico's New York editor Joseph Spector, and your calls.

The phones will open starting at noon on Sunday, Nov. 13 to hear what message you hope your vote sends to elected leaders.

Were you hoping for a red wave or did the narrative that it was coming inspire you to vote? Were you voting to protect abortion rights and democracy? Are you a Gen-Z voter who wants to keep climate change and student loan forgiveness on the radar in the next congressional and state legislative agendas?

We want to hear from you at 212-433-WNYC (212-433-9692) or tweet @WNYC.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly defined a Republican House seat flip. A Republican victory flips a seat from blue to red.