The November election saw a blue wave flash throughout the country, including right here in Erie County.

Democrats won many of the key races, including Erie County Executive and city of Erie Mayor.

Erie News Now caught up with Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Sam Talarico and Erie County Republican Party Chairman Tom Eddy to get their thoughts on the election outcome.

“I think the national mood changed an awful lot in the last 12 months,” said Talarico.  “I think that had a lot to do with it.”

“Last year, was a huge energetic election,” said Eddy.  “Everybody was interested and I think people were burnt out this time, especially Republicans, because they had to work very hard to try to get their candidates in, which they did, and this year, maybe they didn’t see this election as important, but it is”

We asked both chairmen if the ongoing government shutdown and PA budget impasse may have played a role in the election’s outcome.

“I think it may have,” said Eddy.  “Obviously, some people are being affected more than others, especially if you’re on food stamps now, and if you work for the government and you’re not getting paid and maybe that just made them upset.”

“If you look at the No Kings protests across the nation, in and of themselves, they don’t make much of a difference,” said Talarico.  “It did display what the national mood was.  I haven’t seen the numbers yet, but apparently there was a big surge in Democratic turnout.”

Could the Democratic sweep be indicative of next year’s midterm election?

“It’s kind of early to make any predictions,” said Talarico.  “I think the midterm, we say everything kind of flip upside down in 12 months, and it might do the same again.”

“I think when people start to look at what goes on in New York over the next two years, they are going to say, maybe we want to go a different direction,” said Eddy.  “In New York City, with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and his socialist, communist views, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Both Eddy and Talarico tell us what their hope is for their parties moving forward.

“I want everybody to get back to common sense,” said Eddy.  “That’s my big thing.  Let’s do things that make sense.”

“We’ll just have to focus on the economic issues with our candidates,” said Talarico.  “If we get our message across, I think we’ll be fine.”