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David Fair: This is 89 one WEMU, and it has been a long night of counting votes. I'm David Fair, and as you well know, most of the nation's eyes have been fixed on the presidential race, but control of the U.S. Senate was at stake as well. And it has flipped. It is now in control of the GOP. On the other end of the WEMU news line is one of the general election winners. Debbie Dingell is an Ann Arbor Democrat, and she cruised to victory, winning another two-year term representing Michigan's sixth district. And congratulations on your personal win!
Rep. Debbie Dingell: Thank you, David! Good morning! Although it still feels like night. I haven't been to bed.
David Fair: I would imagine that you haven't. And while you did win your personal race, I suspect that you have some sense of loss now.
Rep. Debbie Dingell: How do I say this? I always knew it was going to be tight. I repeatedly said it was going to be tight. I repeatedly said either candidate had won the state. I've used the word cautiously optimistic over the weekend. It was that close. And we still have not called the state of Michigan.
David Fair: No, it is trending Trump right now, but that certainly could change. They're expecting final results sometime midday today. As you mentioned, you said it was going to be tight, but did you have a gut feeling that perhaps the Democrats were losing control of the presidential campaign?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: You know, I didn't know it was going to be tight because I talked to my friends in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And you know I know my state. But in 2016, I knew we said that we weren't going to win. Nobody else expected that. But I knew we weren't. In 2020, I knew Biden was going to win, and I just didn't know what was going to happen because you know I talked to people. Okay, that's how I am, David. You know how I am. So, when I went to the center this week, the parking attendant had a long talk with me. And she's someone that you would think would automatically be for Harris. And she had real concerns. I'm at the Panera cash register here in Washtenaw, and a very nice man starts talking to me--another person you might look at. And he is. He was a Harris voter at his church. I go where the people are--at the farmer's market, at the hardware store at Kroger. As I talk to everybody, nobody--nobody--tells me we're going to be okay. I either got I haven't decided how to vote or I don't know what's going to happen. This is going to be really tight.
David Fair: One of the complaints that many liberals have put forward is that former president and about-to-be president again, Donald Trump, has a sincere lack of accountability. But my question to you is what accountability should the Democratic Party take for the outcome of this race?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: Well, we're going to have to take some. I'm known as sort of the blunt truth teller in Michigan, in the party, in the caucus--Democratic caucus as well. And people get mad at me sometimes and don't agree with me when I tell them there's going to be a vote. I mean, I'm not going to give names, but let's just say it's the governor. And the leadership of the state told me I was being negative, and I needed to get on the bandwagon. And I don't get on bandwagons. I listen to people. I hear what they need. In the elections, I try to say we got a problem here and I've been working on a problem. I listen to what people say they need, and I try to go and work with. And I don't think anybody expected this win. I probably get a little scared because of the vitriolicness of this election. And there are times that I find myself unmarked, but I accept the results of this election. The people have spoken, and I hope that we all try to work together on issues that people care about in this country.
David Fair: And that's exactly where I want to go. We're talking with sixth District Congresswoman Debbie Dingell on 89 one WEMU. She won reelection in the general election and is headed back to Washington for another two-year term. The Republicans have taken control of the Senate. The House has yet to be called. When you do return to Washington, there's going to be a few months of a lame duck session. As you talk about trying to work together, what, if anything, do you expect to come from that?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: David, it's too early to know for two reasons. It's going to be very difficult for Democrats to get anything they want to get done in the Senate because it's very clear that the Senate will have a Republican majority. What is not clear yet is what's going to happen in the House. Will we have a Democratic or Republican speaker? I think the Freedom Caucus is going to try to lobby how they feel about many things. So, I think it's going to be difficult to get much done. The budget expires on December 20th. I'm going to have to do something. Is it a continuing resolution, or do we really try to get some appropriation bills? It remains up in the air. There are some things that should be authorized or renewed. It's going to be hard. We're going to have to see. A lot of people are going to have to start to think about what they're going to do. Let me give you an example of something that's very important in the state of Michigan, which is the Tips Authorization Act. Mike Jackson, when he was in the New York district, said, "Yes, we'll probably look at repealing that." He corrected himself later. But we need to build our tip capability in this country. Money has been invested in that. What's going to happen to that debt, our jobs and manufacturing. Tim Walberg reached out to me at 3 AM this morning and said he's going to be the dean of Republicans. I'm going to be the dean of the Dems. And we're committed to working with each other. We got to take what the Michigan agenda is and figure out how we're going to protect the Great Lakes, protect the auto industry, the farmers, and work together in a bipartisan way to try to protect the people that we represent.
David Fair: Well, as you mentioned, the auto industry is central to the economy in Michigan. The campaign that was just conducted was very heavy on rolling back or halting the EV movement. It was a big part of the Republican strategy. What are you hearing from auto industries about fear of the transition to Trump and moving forward with something that has been making progress?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: Okay. Here's what the auto industry needs: certainty. All of these companies need certainty and trying to deal with the volatile political environment where they don't know what the rules of the road are is a real problem for them. Donald Trump has clearly indicated he doesn't like the electric vehicles. Yet, the global marketplace wants electric vehicles. So, we got to make sure that we are staying competitive in a global marketplace, and we're going to need to build EVs. Remember the 70s when the consumer wanted small cars, and we didn't have them? We're competing in a global marketplace. I'm not ceding our leadership at all, So, what is the policy that we're going to pass that, so once you're down from once internal combustion engines, we have to produce electric vehicles because it's the vehicle of the future. When Donald Trump is president we're going to be dealing with hurricanes and wildfires and flooding because of global climate. And we've got to work together to mitigate the impacts on America's climate.
David Fair: U.S. elections have impact that expand around the globe. The war in Ukraine continues. The Middle East is fighting with tensions on high and could further escalate. It's another issue that may have benefited the Trump campaign. How hamstrung is the U.S. right now as we move into a period of transition in leadership?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: I'm very worried about international affairs. We'll have to see what happens in the Middle East, which is just torn apart. There are people with such strong feelings on both sides, and I don't know what's going to happen there. I think we got a problem with Ukraine. I think Ukraine is going to be very worried about what the United States is going to do. Some people say what we do may cause NATO to be stronger than they've ever had because they'll realize they gotta be unified. But I think we need to worry about what is going to happen to Ukraine, and we need to worry about Russia. And there is evidence Russia was trying to interfere in our elections. I mean, it's been documented that there have been some troublemaking to try to impact what happened.
David Fair: Well, I thank you for taking time. As you mentioned, you've been up all night, and I know you're tired. But I thank you for speaking to us and giving us your sentiments as we head into another transition. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Dingell!
Rep. Debbie Dingell: Thank you very much, David! Be safe!
David Fair: We will talk again as the transition moves forward and we live and work under new leadership in January. That was Ann Arbor Democrat Debbie Dingell. She has won re-election to the U.S. House from Michigan's sixth district in the general election and will serve another two-year term. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station. And for more election information, all you have to do is go to our website at wemu.org or look at our Facebook page. And you'll get all you need to know. This is 89 one WEMU FM Ypsilanti. Listener supported public radio broadcast from the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
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