Political commentator Bill O’Reilly suggested Friday that Tuesday’s blue election sweep can be tracked to voters’ issues with affordability and a rising cost of living just 10 months into President Trump’s second term, saying, “People are angry.”
Responding to “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s suggestion that Americans are looking for more “normal” leaders, O’Reilly said Democrats won because of broken promises.
“The reason that Democrats won is people are angry,” the former Fox News host said during Friday’s show. “They are angry, and not just in the three states and in New York City.”
He added, “They are angry because there were promises made by President Trump to lower food prices and gas prices.”
O’Reilly claimed that at “the place I’m staying in” Los Angeles, a cheeseburger costs $36.
“I can buy the cow for $36,” he said, met with applause by the audience. “…When you’re working for a living and you have to pay these high prices in the grocery store, you’re not happy. And excuses walk.”
“When you’re not happy, the incumbency loses every time, going all the way back to [former President] John Adams,” he added.
Maher prefaced O’Reilly’s comments with: “My takeaway from this is, if you were a Republican running on Tuesday, you had no chance, because people wanted to send a message.”
Democrats ran a victory lap after successful wins during Tuesday’s elections. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) won the race for governor in Virginia, as did Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (I), who was backed by Trump.
On the West Coast, Californians voted to overwhelming pass Proposition 50, a measure that allows the Golden State to redraw the House map in favor of Democrats ahead of next year’s midterms. The effort was a direct response to Trump’s redistricting campaign in a number of GOP-led states, including Texas.
“Democrats have all of the momentum in the world,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said at a press briefing on Wednesday. “Republicans woke up this morning and realized that they are no longer in a 2024 electoral environment. That’s over, and they’re done.”
Republicans have admitted defeat, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling the outcome a “disaster.”
“It was an electoral blowout. The results in New Jersey were disastrous, the results in Virginia were terrible,” Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview Wednesday night.
Vice President Vance said Republicans will need to focus more on addressing rising costs in order to win back momentum for the 2026 midterms.
Trump has rejected the affordability argument, however, and blamed the GOP’s losses at least partially on the ongoing government shutdown — which at 39 days is the longest lapse of federal funding in U.S. history.
“Last night, it was not expected to be a victory. It was very Democrat areas,” Trump told Republican senators earlier this week. “I don’t think it was good for Republicans.”
He added, “I’m not sure it was good for anybody. But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot.”
