Trump’s cruel and reckless behavior leads to massive rejection
As a political milestone, Tuesday was a night to remember. In what’s been aptly described as a “blue earthquake,” Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats to capture a decisive majority, 54-44, with two undecided races in Louisiana and Alaska, but both currently leaning Democrat.
In the House, Democrats’ success was far greater than even the most optimistic pre-election forecast. As of mid-day Wednesday, Democrats currently have secured 237 House seats to 139 for Republicans. Projections suggest Democrats will end up with 254 seats. Anything over 257 would be the largest House majority for either party in more than 30 years.
The reason was undeniable: voters issued a stunning repudiation of the most corrupt, anti-democratic president in America’s history.
“In sweeping and decisive victories,” said Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, a Democrat who won re-election, “the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame duck President Donald J. Trump.”
The breadth of the blue wave was extraordinary in how it reached into states long thought to be impenetrable Republican bastions, like Louisiana, Kansas, South Carolina and Texas, and making Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Alaska and others into legitimate swing states.
Democrats also flipped five gubernatorial races in Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, Texas and Georgia, with Kansas leaning Democratic and Alaska’s Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins expected to easily win his race. With the five new seats, that gives Democrats the top post in 29 states and possibly 31, the first time in 16 years they’ve held that edge.
In the two undecided U.S. Senate races, which pre-election leaned Republican and which most Democrats considered long-shots, the races are incredibly close. In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, trails Democrat Scott Colom by less than 100 votes with 95% of the vote counted. It remains anyone’s race. Provisional ballots are still coming in, so it may be days before that outcome is known. In Alaska, Mary Peltola currently leads Republican Dan Sullivan by a half percentage point—48.18% to 47.88%—with 77% of the votes counted. Because Alaska uses ranked-choice voting that process, which won’t happen until Nov. 18, will likely be the deciding factor if no candidate receives a majority in Tuesday’s election.
Florida also saw huge swings toward Democrats, resulting in closer-than-expected races. In the U.S. Senate race, Republican incumbent Ashley Moody beat Democrat/Progressive firebrand Angie Nixon, 50.9% to 48%, a 2.9% spread. And Democrat candidate for governor, David Jolly, narrowly lost to Republican Bryon Donalds, 50.0% to 48.7%, a 1.3% spread.
In Kansas, not only did Democrat Adam Hamilton beat Trump-backed incumbent Roger Marshall, 50.9% to 46.1% (a shellacking by any measure in that conservative state and the first time Kansas has elected a Democratic senator since 1932!), but Democrat Cindy Holscher is leading the favored Ty Masterson, R, by 5,600 votes with 95% counted out of 1 million votes cast. Holscher leads 50.3% to Masterson’s 49.7% in a race still too close to call. Masterson, a popular president of the Kansas Senate, had aligned himself closely to President Trump. Three western Kansas counties turned blue in the Senate race, largely because, news reports suggest, of recent illegal ICE raids deporting migrant workers with no criminal records.
Dr. Annie Andrews, D, stunning victory over Trump-picked Darline Graham, R, in South Carolina’s senate race was a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the night, and it wasn’t a nailbiter. Andrews beat Graham, 51.1% to 46.7%.
Texas may have been the sweetest victory for Democrats because of the excessive amounts of money Republicans poured into those races, including a half billion dollars from Elon Musk. Democrat James Talarico prevailed over Ken Paxton, who was hounded by allegations of corruption. Naturally, Trump hand-picked Paxton as well, handing two Senate seats to the Democrats because of his inherently corrupt instincts. Adding dynamite to top off the Texas shebang, Democrat Gina Hinojosa bested incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, R, 52.8% to 45.7% in a dominant rejection of the governor’s ironclad control over that state’s politics.
Talarico’s stirring victory speech included these two snippets: that “love is not weak” and that the rich and powerful (aka, tech and media giants, Elon Musk, etc.) look to divide people “so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets.” He added that America’s economic and political systems were broken “because the most powerful people in the world want it that way.”
And in Georgia, Democrats soundly ousted a Republican hold on all statewide offices by claiming a clean sweep for the first time in three decades. Notably, all statewide offices were won by Democratic black women, including the governor’s office, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, school superintendent, labor commissioner and public service commissioner. Democrats also have a good chance to win control of Georgia’s House. Shocking.
In a nutshell, it was a wave election of epic proportions that has the potential to reshape the political landscape, all thanks to a narcissistic, deeply flawed wannabe dictator who put himself at the center of this election.
Angelo Lynn
