Health

Democrats swept three key statewide races during Tuesday's election, propelled by voters expressing "buyer's remorse" over President Donald Trump's second administration, according to one analyst.

CNN's Van Jones joined the network's election night coverage to discuss Democrats winning key races in New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New York City. His comments come at a time when Democrats are seeking to ride the wave of enthusiasm into the 2026 midterm election.

"One of the things that I think people are seeing, not just from [Zohran] Mamdani, but from the moderates as well, is this focus on kitchen table issues," Jones said. "We used to talk about this in weird ways. Income inequality, wealth disparity, economic justice. It was people describing a problem that they didn't have."

"Now you got people who are talking like the people who have the problem," he continued. "I can't afford nothing. And somebody who can talk that way, whether on the left of our party or the middle of our party, is going to have a big audience. And this buyer's remorse that's setting in now from other people is a big problem for the Republicans."

Democrats picked up some big gains in statewide elections on Tuesday.

In Virginia, Democrats won the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General races. The race for Governor was called less than an hour after the polls closed, and experts have suggested that enthusiasm for Democrat Abigail Spanberger helped buoy other Democrats down the ticket.

Voters in New Jersey also elected Democrat Mikie Sherrill over Republican Jack Ciattarelli. CNN's John King said the election results were "a warning shot" for the White House.

Democrats also picked up seats in Georgia's Public Service Commission, which is the first time Democrats have controlled a non-federal office in the state in two decades.

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani also won the mayoral election in New York City over Trump-backed former mayor Andrew Cuomo. delete

A pair of extreme new Trump administration rules aimed at functionally banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth could force even more hospitals to close down.

NPR reported Thursday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) drafted a proposed rule that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than 18 and prohibit the same from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for patients under 19.

Another proposed rule goes even further, blocking all Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youth.

As Erin Reed, an independent journalist who reports on LGBTQ+ rights, explained, this “would effectively eliminate access to such care nationwide, except at the few private clinics able to forgo Medicaid entirely, a rarity in transgender youth medicine.”

The policies are of a piece with the Trump administration and the broader Republican Party’s efforts to eliminate transgender healthcare for youth across the country.

Bans on gender-affirming care for those under 18 have already been passed in 27 states, despite evidence that early access to treatments like puberty blockers and hormones can save lives.

As Reed pointed out, a Cornell University review of more than 51 studies shows that access to such care dramatically reduces the risk of suicide and the rates of anxiety and depression among transgender adolescents.

The new HHS rules are being prepared for public release in November and would not be finalized for several more months.

But if passed, the ramifications could extend far beyond transgender people, impacting the entire healthcare system, for which federal funding from Medicare and Medicaid is a load-bearing piece. According to a report last year from the American Hospital Association, 96% of hospitals in the US have more than half their inpatient days paid for by Medicare and Medicaid.

It is already becoming apparent what happens when even some of that funding is taken away. As a result of the massive GOP budget law passed in July, an estimated $1 trillion is expected to be cut from Medicaid over the next decade. According to an analysis released Thursday by Protect Our Care, which maintains a Hospital Crisis Watch database, more than 500 healthcare providers across the country are already at risk of shutting down due to the budget cuts.

Tyler Hack, the executive director of the Christopher Street Project, a transgender rights organization, said that the newly proposed HHS rule would be “forcing hospitals to choose between providing lifesaving care for trans people or maintaining the ability to serve patients through Medicare and Medicaid.”

“Today’s news marks a dangerous overreach by the executive branch, pitting trans people, low-income families, disabled people, and seniors against each other and making hospitals choose which vulnerable populations to serve,” Hack said. “If these rules become law, it will kill people.”