“Morning After” at Eagleton: Democrats Promise Oversight, GOP Looks for New Leadership

Democrats rolled to big wins in the 2026 midterm elections on Tuesday night. The following morning, Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics brought together strategists and journalists to make sense of the results.

The panel, called “The Morning After,”, is a long-running Eagleton tradition. After Tuesday night’s results, there was plenty to unpack.

CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter moderated the panel, which included Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, New Jersey journalist Colleen O’Dea, New York Times congressional correspondent Robert Jimison and Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto.

Before the election, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would run for minority leader if Republicans lost the House. However, during the panel, he reversed course and said he won’t seek the job. Jimison said that move was telling of where the Republicans are.

“I think it means that there’s an understanding, or a desire at least, to find new leadership and to find someone who can chart the path forward for what happens next for Republicans,” Jimison said. “A lot of Republicans wanted a slightly more independent leader. A lot of Republicans also felt like they didn’t get many things to take back to their districts and deliver on.”

Jimison says rank-and-file Republicans often felt shut out. “There were lots of instances where Republicans would go to the speaker’s office and try to get something accomplished and felt like they didn’t have as strong of a partner there,” he said.

Democrats have tension at the top too. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have taken criticism from progressives and moderates alike. Jimison says Tuesday night’s margins make it hard to argue for pushing them out.

“In the current moment, I don’t see it. It doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but it’s also a really hard argument to make given the margins [on Tuesday] night. I mean, the margins were so wide, so definitive,” Jimison said. “They overperformed, and so it makes a difficult argument.”

Morales Rocketto runs Maremoto, a group that builds political power among Latino voters. She has advised the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.

She says the new Democratic majority should get ready for oversight. Her cue was a two-word message House Oversight Democrats posted overnight. “We should be having an historic number of hearings. There should be no stone unturned because Donald Trump is the most corrupt president we have ever had, and this is the most corrupt administration,” Morales Rocketto said. “And so, yeah, it is time for them to lawyer up.”

She says the investigations will reach the president’s closest allies, including Elon Musk. “This is about to be just an absolutely bananas investigation into every single facet of the administration, as it should be,” she said. “Elon Musk, you should be pretty scared, because we have now a massive majority in the House and in the Senate that, at the very least, can bring back some sanity to checks and balances in our democracy and hold him accountable.”

Still, she added, Congress has limits. “Ultimately, Donald Trump is still in the White House and will still be in the White House. That’s how our democracy works,” she said.

Musk spent heavily this cycle. Morales Rocketto says the spending backfired, and that voters sent a message about money in politics. “Millionaires and billionaires, and in Elon’s case, trillionaires, are not in vogue. That’s not what people want,” she said.

“That growing inequality, I think, is at the core of why Democrats won [Tuesday],” Morales Rocketto said. “And the way that they will continue to win is if they are able to actually do something for the people at the bottom and take on those people at the top. So that has to be corruption, but it also has to be cost of living and affordability.”

Young voters were another big part of the story. In 2024, young men shifted toward President Trump. However on Tuesday night, they swung back the other way. Morales Rocketto says that puts pressure on Democratic leaders, even the younger ones.

“Representative Jeffries’ example is a really good one because he’s not old. He’s young. He’s young, but he is at the head of the establishment,” she said. “If you’re in Washington and you’re Jeffries at all, you are not in touch with what’s going on with young people.”

Rocketto also described the young men she meets as frustrated and looking for direction. “When I talk to young men in particular, they’re pretty mad. … They’re kind of bummed out. They don’t really have any friends. They haven’t left their parents’ house. They’re playing on their video games all the time. They’re getting all this information, and they’re sort of like, ‘But what about me? What do I do? How do I put my life forward?’” she said.

“And I think you saw that in their vote [Tuesday], even just the fact that they turned up, honestly,” Rocketto added. “So now Democrats really have to work to engage those voters, and that can’t happen two weeks before the presidential election. It’s got to kind of continue to be on.”

Newspapers reached for strong words this morning. The New York Times went with “rout.” The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press used “rebuke.” Asked for a headline of their own, both panelists went big.

“Trounced,” Jimison said. “I mean, it was so overwhelming and so convincing that I think there’s a tendency amongst journalists obviously to not editorialize and to be clear, but also to be clear means to be clear when it’s just an overwhelming spanking almost, and that’s what we saw [on Tuesday].”

“I worked at the DNC in 2010, and we called that night the ‘Great Shellacking,’” Morales Rocketto said. “I would say this is the Democratic thumping.”

The new Congress, the 120th, convenes in January. That’s when the fight over leadership on both sides, and the oversight Democrats are promising, will begin.

Story by Anna Deriabin and Rahil Chatterjee