The NPR political correspondent and the conservative columnist joined UMB President Bruce Jarrell at the President’s Panel on Politics and Policy.
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University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, opened the President’s Panel on Politics and Policy on Nov. 17 by reciting that tally — the midterm election results for the House of Representatives as of that morning, with Republicans taking control of the House by a slimmer-than-expected margin.
Over the next 95 minutes, Jarrell engaged in a wide-ranging conversation at the SMC Campus Center Elm Ballrooms with guests Mara Liasson, National Public Radio political correspondent, and Jonah Goldberg, conservative syndicated columnist, political analyst, and commentator. The topics during the discussion, which also was livestreamed, included the 2024 presidential campaign and the midterms, which did not produce the red wave that many expected as Democrats appear poised to retain control of the Senate.
The simplest take on the midterm results, according to Liasson: “Voters just voted against crazy.”
“If you took the exit polls without knowing who won, and you looked at them, and then you were asked from these exit polls who won this election? The exit polls showed people thought Republicans were better on the economy, immigration, inflation, crime. President Joe Biden was very unpopular, and Democrats still won. People who thought all those things still went into the booth and voted for Democrats,” she said.
Goldberg said in races where voters thought election deniers would have an impact on law, such as abortion legislation, those candidates were punished. An endorsement from former President Donald Trump was a “penalty” that cost candidates five percentage points, he added.
“It was a great night for what we in the Trump skeptical conservative community call Republican normies,” Goldberg said. “For someone like me who has stayed out of the pro-Trump stuff for seven years and paid quite a price for it, this was a great election because everyone who I thought was ruining the Republican Party took it on the chin. Election deniers conceded defeat, which was great for the country.”