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‘We Saw The Red Wave Coming’: Don Lemon Says He’s Not Surprised DCCC Chair Was Ousted

[Screenshot CNN]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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CNN’s Don Lemon said Thursday he was not surprised that Republicans did fairly well in New York while speaking to Congressman-elect Mike Lawler.

Lawler ousted Democratic Congressional Campaign Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, a five-term incumbent, in a nail biting election. Lawler was running in the state’s newly drawn 17th Congressional District which covers Rockland and Westchester counties.

“Are you hearing from Democrats? For those of us who live, you know, in New York, not necessarily in the city, I live on Long Island, I work in the city, I don’t think any of us, a lot of folks in the studio, we were not surprised,” Lemon said. “We saw the red wave coming. You go out to dinner and restaurants, you felt it. Are you hearing from Democrats about your win?” (RELATED: Famous Dem Strategist James Carville Says Party Should Have Lost 57 Seats But Were Saved By Trump)

“Oh, absolutely. My district has 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans. So I wouldn’t have won it without the support of many Democrats and Independents and, you know, I think people are excited about the opportunity and really looking for change and, you know, this district is home to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, so it’s a very diverse district.”

Maloney’s status as DCCC Chair placed him in charge of winning House elections for Democrats. New York’s congressional map was altered after a New York Court of Appeals decision in Harkenrider v. Hochul struck down the Democratic state legislature-drawn congressional maps for engaging in “partisan gerrymandering.”

Maloney, who originally represented the state’s 18th Congressional district, switched districts and displaced fellow Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones.