A blue wave taking over Virginia and New Jersey, what's the impact on Indiana?

SOUTH BEND, Ind.- “A blue wave,” that’s how political commentators are describing democrats taking over the polls in Virginia and New Jersey.

Rick Klein, the political director of ABC News in Washington D.C. says Joe Donnelly, a democrat in a red state, and other individuals running similar campaigns are actually taking notes from yesterday’s wins.

Although New Jersey and Virginia are blue states, Klein says this win sets the stage for elections to come. “Running Indiana is a much different animal, they know that. They’re still going to have their workout, playing defense in places that are much more on the red scale.”

On Tuesday, Virginia and New Jersey welcomed new democratic governors. Dem say this has been their biggest pickup since 1899 and that was something Klein says shocked both parties.

“The degree in which they did was up and down the ballot, across the country that was unexpected and I think Republicans are frustrated by what they see as a no win situation,” says Klein. “Do you try to run with Trump? Do you try to run against Trump? Either way you might end up losing your race.”

Klein describes the Dems taking over as a blue wave, which at this point, seems to have come from President Donald Trump himself.

“You saw record numbers of people show up as part of the Democratic Coalition. You saw people say ‘We want to take our country back.’ And I think that’s a rally and cry for Democrats.”

This pair of wins is just the beginning. Klein says there’s no way this can predict what will happen in the 2018 elections, but it’s unquestionably a sign.

“It’s definitely a warning sign to republics across the country about how you run in the era of Trump and a template for Democrats on how to run against Trumpism,” says Klein.

So should democrats get comfortable?

“They get to take a deep breath after last night, but they don’t get to breathe too long in the era of Trump,” says Klein. “I think they should act as hungry as they felt last night.”