Episode 435, The Andrew Parker Show, Off-Off-Year Elections: What Really Happened — Minneapolis vs. New York & What It Means for 2026

In this episode, Andrew breaks down America’s “off-off year” election results — and why the headlines don’t tell the real story.

Yes, Democratic Socialists scored big in New York. But in Minneapolis — one of the most far-left major cities in the country — voters pushed back. Jacob Frey won. The veto-proof DSA bloc on the City Council is gone. And in St. Paul, the pendulum nudged back toward common-sense governance.

Andrew also warns Republicans: 2026 may be far more dangerous than it looks. Because without Donald Trump on the ballot — will Trump voters actually turn out?

Transcript

Episode 435 Transcript, The Andrew Parker Show

Welcome to another episode of the Andrew Parker show. Thank you very much for joining us every episode we talk politics Israel and the law And around the November period of time each year. Yeah, I mean it's unbelievable. You it is pretty much each year ⁓ It's election season so we talk politics and we talk it quite a bit ⁓ This is

Not just an off year election, but it's an off off year. It's not a presidential that happens every four years. And as you know, coming up in twenty twenty eight, it's not a quote unquote off year election, which is every two years electing ⁓ House representatives, the entire House and usually a third of the U.S. Senate. That's coming up in twenty twenty six a year from now.

at this time in November 2026. So what is this off-off-year election? Well, it's in the odd year 2025, in this case, a year before the off-year elections, and there are certain states that might have gubernatorial elections. There are cities that might elect their local

⁓ leaders, city council and mayors alike.

And ⁓ all of that happened in the last several days.

And so let's, let's do a little survey. Let's little, do a little run around the, the different competitive races. You've been reading about it and the Dems are screaming and hollering about the great victory that, ⁓ they were able to secure. ⁓ yes. yeah.

Big, big victory. Big victory. They're cheering. But what does it tell us? You know, we had the gubernatorial race in Virginia that the moderate Dem won. And I use the word moderate even though where on the scale moderate falls has shifted in the Democratic Party, I would argue, has shifted far to the left.

So moderate or centrist Democrats are now one time very liberal Democrats. Now they're moderate and centrist. They're the sane ones. Not the wokesters on the far left, the anti-Semites who are part of the party, but the more middle, the mainstream. Sadly, as I've talked about before, it appears that

⁓ Things have tipped the scale has tipped and we now May be in a place of no return for the Democratic Party Yeah electing and becoming stronger socialists ⁓ Anti-israelites anti-zionists Have taken a real hold of the party

But in Virginia and New Jersey, the Democrats beat the Republicans pretty soundly. And they were moderates. So there are many in the Democratic Party that are saying, our party is not lost. We are back. The moderates are back. I don't know. I don't know so much if that's the case.

Virginia and New Jersey are both Democrat states. They are both blue states and the fact that the Democratic candidates for governor in both of those states won isn't hugely telling, although it does pour a bit of cold water on the Republicans who thought, ⁓ the Dems are done. They're not going to win another election. No, they will win in blue states. And they are not done.

Although it does appear that the party may be taking, be being taken over by.

the democratic socialists. Maybe. Well, let's take a look at that. The governors who won in Virginia and New Jersey were not democratic socialists of America. They were not Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, acolytes.

However, the mayor in New York City certainly was and he got elected as such. He got elected by attacking the state of Israel, by attacking the victim after October 7th.

the moral corruption of it ⁓ it can't be overstated

and mom, Donnie, my mom, Donnie. ⁓

is the poster child for

an elected official who is openly anti-Semitic.

openly anti-Zionist, openly supportive of the destruction of the state of Israel by virtue of things he has failed to say and some things that he in fact has said, particularly regarding boycott, divestment and sanctions which all are intended to destroy the state of Israel. That is who was elected mayor of New York City. It's astounding how ignorant

So many are who hear, we're going to create affordability and we're going to give you everything for free.

We're going to destroy capitalism because we do not believe in it. And what does that mean? That means the exponential increase of the number of people in poverty. That's what that means. You think it's bad now? Wait. How bad it will become. If Mamdani's ideas take hold, and they have taken hold in a number of places across the country.

And now I turn to what I also want to talk about today, not just the general overall view of the Democratic Party and what the outcomes tell us about the Democratic Party. I would say the primary thing it tells us is the Democratic Party is not done yet. Democrats can beat Republicans.

Democratic Socialists of America have a strong hold. A foothold at least.

in the Democratic Party and arguably are taking over the party. They are not going to go away soon, easily, quickly.

And so what that means and whether or not democratic socialists can beat republicans, in many places they can. Nationwide, not yet, for sure. How do we know that? Well, take a look at the city of Minneapolis.

And don't let the media or those on the far left understate what happened in the city of Minneapolis as exciting or excited as Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez types and the Democratic Socialists of America are after the win by Mamdani in New York.

They should be concerned about what occurred in Minneapolis. It was a repudiation, not an entire slap down, no, but it was a repudiation of what was going on in the city of Minneapolis and the direction it was taking. There can be no doubt about that. And frankly, in the Twin Cities, because it happened in St. Paul by removing the mayor.

and replacing him with someone who is a bit more centrist than the mayor in St. Paul Melvin Carter.

He lost to someone who is a bit more common sense and a bit more centrist, more moderate, to the right of where he is.

Jacob Fry who won in the city of Minneapolis despite all the headwinds that he had he won because his opponent was rejected for his affiliation and connection to them Democratic Socialists of America now mum Donnie Was able to carry New York because of that connection sadly

But that may be an anomaly. don't know. It may not be. But in Minneapolis, it was a rejection of the DSA by the election of Mayor Jacob Fry. But more than that, and do not allow again, do not allow this to be understated. The 13 member city council was restructured, reformed.

by who was elected to each of those 13 seats in this election. The overall picture.

It used to be that the city council was controlled by policies of the democratic socialists of America. Policies that I talked about on the last episode prior to the election and how dangerous those policies are. They are entirely anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish. But beyond that, they hurt everyday Minneapolis.

Twin City ins both in Minneapolis and st. Paul the Democratic Socialists of America policies hurt and They had a veto proof majority because fry was vetoing things that were coming out of the City Council and the City Council would reverse those vetoes And

If I could do little about it. Well now he can do something about

rather than having what about eight members fairly consistently voting together against Jacob Fry.

There are now only six who ascribe or are connected with the democratic socialists of America.

Now only six. And there are six who are connected to Jacob Fry and that he fully supported their elections. That's 12. And then there is what appears to be the swing voter on the city council in the city of Minneapolis now, Jamal Osman, who represents the sixth ward in the Cedar Riverside area.

a large large population of Somali Americans that Mr. Osman represents. We're to try to get Mr. ⁓ Jamal Osman on the Andrew Parker show coming up. But again, six to six on the rest of the vote, who is going to be the president of the council as the

Minneapolis City Council will be voting on that at the beginning of their term. ⁓ It has been Paine of the first ward in the city of Minneapolis, a consistent voter with the Democratic Socialists of America agenda. And Paine was president of the city council. An important role sets the agenda.

⁓ but, ⁓ I don't think Payne will get any of the six votes.

that are in the quote unquote fry camp.

and none of the others who are connected with the DSA are going to get any of those six votes.

And so Osmond will have a key vote to make seven.

for selection of the president of the city council. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out. So in this election.

You had all 13 seats up. Three of them were open seats because the incumbents were not running.

Ten of them incumbents were running.

and the incumbents were re-elected in nine of those 10, but in one of those 10 with incumbents running, the incumbent lost, and she voted often with the Democratic Socialists of America, and she lost. It was a repudiation. The person who beat her,

⁓ was clearly running as a supporter of Jacob Fry, as a common sense DFL member, as someone who wasn't anti-business and isn't going to be. She's going to be an excellent member of the Minneapolis City Council. And she flipped that seat.

And what about the three open seats? How did those go? Well, two of them went for

the Jacob Frey group and campaigned against the Democratic Socialists of America agenda. One of them

Soren Stevenson in the Eighth Ward is much more closely aligned with the DSA and may well vote consistently with them.

We'll see how long he lasts in that ward, ward eight.

But the point is two of the three open seats went to common sense good government side of the equation and only one went to the DSA and this other seat was flipped. And so what was a veto proof majority for those on the far left in the city of Minneapolis no longer is. And this is a big, big deal. And the fact

that both the mayor of Minneapolis and the mayor of St. Paul are ⁓ much more mainstream Democrats. The Republicans really don't have play in the two highly, very, very liberal ⁓ cities in the metropolitan area in Minnesota. ⁓

Yeah, they really don't have place. So it's going to be a Democrat who's going to be the mayor. It's been 60 plus years since a Republican ⁓ was mayor in the city of Minneapolis, I believe.

So Jacob Fry winning, the candidate who defeated Melvin Carter in St. Paul, common sense a bit to the right of Melvin Carter winning as mayor in St. Paul. And then most importantly, the newly aligned city council in the city of Minneapolis.

was altogether, if you view it, I think it's fair to say.

was a repudiation to some extent of the democratic socialists of America. Yes, they were able to retain six seats on the 13 seat city council, but that will not cause their policies to be adopted and acted.

I will tell you that

When you look at the Republicans, when you're looking nationally, I have one final comment.

The Republican Party don't rest on your laurels at all because I think you're you may well be in a bit of trouble looking at the midterm elections which come down the pike here in one year. One short year.

Yes, it's always headwinds for the party who holds the White House in an off-year election, which in this case is the Republican Party, Donald Trump, President of the United States.

In the off-year election, the Republican party should lose seats. Now everyone's saying, wow, the Democratic party is lost, they aren't connected to people, they've got these crackpot crazy ideas, they've shut down the government, et cetera, et cetera. Well, they just won in Virginia and New Jersey. And I will tell you what the biggest headwind is.

Normal years in the off-year election It's a headwind against the the party who's in the White House It's even worse this time. Why? because Donald Trump is not on the ticket and The only way Donald Trump was elected in 2024 Obviously, he was on the ticket, but he had great energy for the Republican Party and it's the way that

the House and the Senate fell to the Republicans, along with Donald Trump winning the presidency. Without Donald Trump on the ballot, will people show up?

Will they show up? Will Republicans show up in the type of numbers that they need in order to hold the House, to hold the Senate, when Donald Trump is not on the ticket? And it's simply a vote for a Republican.

And my answer to that is I don't think they will show up. And it's not just the standard Republican president. This is the unique Republican president. In fact, he disagrees with many of the policies of Republicans that Republicans now have. J.D. Vance and he seemed to disagree on Middle East policy.

Tucker Carlson clearly disagrees with Donald Trump on Middle East policy.

Donald Trump is not just the leader of the Republican Party, he is ⁓ the leader of Trumpism, he is the leader of MAGA.

Maybe he's the leader of the Republican party, but what the Republicans end up doing...

After Donald Trump is gone is going to be very interesting. Are they going to be able, this is the question, are they going to be able to energize their base, the base that Donald Trump put together as a coalition to defeat the Democrats? He may have been the only man to be able to do that. If another Republican attempted to, I dare say it may not have worked. It may not have been possible.

and White House may have gone to the blue team. Remember, he did win all seven swing states. He did win a majority of the vote. However, would that have happened if it weren't Donald Trump?

Interesting question. When you look at the total number of votes in the seven swing states that Donald Trump won by, and you figure out how those votes might have flipped, I think it's about 150,000 votes that allowed him to win those states. Total. Flipping.

And if you don't get

those huge, enormous, energized Trump supporters out?

The supporters that for many, many years didn't vote, those who don't show up at midterm elections because Donald Trump is not on the ballot, those who are Donald Trump supporters first. Not so much Republicans.

Certainly not mainstream Republicans, but may not be Republicans at all. They're Donald Trump supporters. If you don't have him on the ballot, you can get beat by the blues, by the blue team.

No question. And so the headwinds are strong a year from now when he will not be on the Yet we need people to go out if the red team expects to win and vote Republican.

Hmm. We'll see if that energy exists.

I'm not so sure. However...

Common sense, while it didn't rain in the city of New York, and it's not surprising what occurred in Virginia and New Jersey, what happened in the city of Minneapolis, one of the most far left cities in the entire country, certainly in the top five, maybe in the top two.

a rejection of the democratic socialists of America, at least a pushback.

They had control, they don't anymore.

At best, they're even.

with Fry in the mayor's seat.

it was a good day for many at Minnesota.

And I suggest again to you to go to theandruparkershow.com, click on resources. You'll see some various resources, recommendations for you to read and to watch, including the Precarious State documentary created by Rick Copchella, who was on the show a couple episodes ago. You should take a look at that. The Precarious State, you can go to precariousstate.com and

get the documentary as well there. But go to the Andrew Parker Show, subscribe, like, follow us, let us know what your email is. And we'll include you and you'll have the episode drop each week so you can take a look at it at your leisure.

It was big election. It was an instructive election, educating us on the fact that in some respects we've tipped over like in New York City. It's going to be very difficult.

But we'll see what Mamdani ends up doing there. But it looks like we have a reprieve and hopefully with the next election we will have a full repudiation of the Democratic Socialists of America, which needs to happen in this country for the ⁓ betterment of all. Until next time, be kind to your neighbor. Thank you once again for joining us.