This is In Conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shamita Basu.
Today, what the massive midterm blue wave means for American politics.
Democrats are walking away from the midterms with stunning victories.
They took control of the House and Senate, securing wins in several states that President Trump won by double digits
in 2024. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, including in Republican strongholds like Texas and Kansas.
Many political analysts are calling this a punishing loss for Republicans, a rebuke of President Trump.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the outcome as, quote, close to an extinction-level event for Republicans.
So I wanted to take a bit of a step back and talk about what these results
signal about the state of American politics today and moving forward.
I sat down with Molly Ball.
She's a veteran political journalist who, up until last year,
was the senior political correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
She's written for publications like Time magazine, The Atlantic and Politico.
And she's currently working on a book about America's political realignment
set to publish in 2027. We spoke on Wednesday afternoon.
So, Molly, we're already seeing the headlines trying to capture what happened in these midterm election results.
They're calling Tuesday a total collapse of the Republican coalition, the dawn of a new era in American politics.
How does that all strike you?
How do you see it?