Van Jones: Democrats’ elections sweep demonstrates ‘buyer’s remorse’ against Trump
CNN commentator Van Jones says Democratic victories seen across the country in Tuesday’s elections signal “buyer’s remorse” after President Trump was voted back into the White House last year.
“I’m a lot happier than you are sad,” Jones told conservative commentator Scott Jennings. “You’re angry, I’m happy.”
“You know why? Boyer’s remorse from independents,” he continued. “Independents gave Donald Trump a shot.”
Jones continued to say that Latino voters, Black voters and voters “sick of the status quo” who voted for Trump have “buyer’s remorse.”
“People want change,” he told Jennings. “And Donald Trump said he was going to do something about prices. He‘s done everything but. He‘s putting in gold toilets in the White House he‘s tearing up. He‘s gallivanting around the world.”
The commentator added that with Trump in the Oval Office, basic needs seem “to be under fire from the administration.”
“And if they think they can spin and talk and spin and talk, and nobody‘s going to notice that, they just got proven wrong tonight,” Jones said. “People‘s basic needs are not being met.”
He added that the “kitchen table issues” are being addressed by the candidates who won, rather than by their Republican opponents.
When asked about New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory, Jones dismissed his acceptance speech as a missed opportunity.
“I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent,” the commentator said. “I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that‘s not the Mamdani that we‘ve seen on TikTok and the great interviews and stuff like that.”
“So, I felt like it was a little bit of a character switch here, where the warm, open, embracing guy that‘s close to working people was not on stage tonight, and there was some other voice on stage,” Jones added.
He concluded that he would not “write off” Mamdani, who is a Democratic socialist, but said this missed opportunity “will probably cost him going forward.”
Mamdani won 50.6 percent of the vote on Tuesday, triumphing over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who ran as an independent. The New York assembly member during his mayoral campaign became a progressive icon focused on affordability and pledging to freeze rent, make buses free for riders and establish city-owned grocery stores, among other things.
A vocal critic of Israel’s with Hamas in Gaza, Mamdani’s condemnation of the conflict and support for the Palestinian people drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans, including Cuomo.
In a speech that referred to former New York City Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia and socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs, Mamdani said his administration will chart the “most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.”
“We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small,” he told supporters in Brooklyn.
“Indeed, New York will remain a city of immigrants,” the mayor-elect continued. “A city built by immigrants, a city powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, a city led by an immigrant. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
Democrats also saw victories across several other states.
Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) defeated Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) to become the first woman elected governor of the Old Dominion State. In New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) won over Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli to become that state’s next governor.
On the West Coast, California voters said yes to Proposition 50, which allows the state legislature to redraw congressional lines that are more favorable to Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms. The effort was sparked after Texas passed legislation to authorize mid-decade restricting earlier this year that would give Republicans an opportunity to pick up five more seats next year.