Democrats Crush Republicans in Midterms

The Democratic Party won a spectacular, historic victory in the midterm elections, dealing President Donald Trump and the Republicans a crushing defeat. Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate, won several state governorships, won senate seats or governorships in what had been Republican states in the South and Midwest like Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Kansas, redrawing the country’s political map. In Michigan the progressive Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, whom Trump and the Republicans had called a jihadist and a terrorist, easily defeated Republican Mike Rogers.

The electorate shifted to the left by 13 percentage points. As many said, it was not simply a blue wave but a blue tsunami.

Victorious Senate candidate James Talarico, school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who won in Texas said. “We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. And we just sent a message to every billionaire mega donor, every trillionaire mega donor … power belongs to the people.”

The American people rejected Trump because of high fuel prices, the war in Iran, the violent immigration raids, and the rampant corruption. They voted for Democrats who promised to lower prices and to improve health care, childcare, and housing.

At the same time candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America won five seats in the House of Representatives. There will now be seven DSA members among the 435 representatives in Congress. Several other progressives won as well. DSA and other progressives hope to move the Democratic Party to the left, but their numbers remain small, and it remains to be seen what impact they can have.

Trump spent his second term fighting DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, but the American people voted in favor of those principles in this election.

The election saw a number of DEI firsts. Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, was elected governor of Georgia, the first Black woman ever elected governor of any state. Melat Kiros, 29, a member of the Democratic Socialist of America in Colorado, was elected to the House, becoming the first Gen Z woman to serve in Congress. Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Greg Abbbott for governor, became the first Hispanic to lead the state, with a 40% Latino population. El-Sayeed, the first Muslim Senator. Deb Haaland of the Laguna Pueblo people was Elected as Governor of New Mexico, becoming the first woman Native American governor in U.S. history. And Peggy Flanagan of the White Earth Nation became the first Native American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Trump did not interfere in the election as many had feared. He did not dispatch Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents or military troops to polling places, as he threatened, and he did not seize ballots, or otherwise intervene. In fact, Trump accepted the results without protest and attributed the defeat to the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot. Though he had told people repeatedly to vote as though he were.

While Trump and the Republicans lost big in the election, the president and the old Congress still have enormous power. Though the newly elected members of Congress will greatly diminish that power take office until January 3, 2027. For the next two years Trump will continue to rule as he largely has through executive orders, ignoring Congress. And he remains the commander-in-chief of the U.S. military. Still Republicans may now be willing to criticize and resist him as they have not in the past.

Democrats now have an enormous increase in political power, but how will they use it? Democrats in Congress can carry out investigations using subpoena power , such as investigating Trump’s corruption. They can also block Trump’s judicial nominations. But the Democratic Party leadership has been until now unwilling either to fight to change the country’s direction or to put forward a more progressive agenda.

Will the people who took to the streets by the millions in “No Kings” demonstrations now march to demand health care for all, child care for all, an increase in public housing? Will they now march to demand an end to the war on Iran or to stop funding Israel’s genocidal war?

The American people defeated Trump and the Republicans in this election. Can they now begin to overcome economic inequality and create a more egalitarian society, a fairer society? That will be our challenge.