Last night (Nov 7) was Election Night for many areas across the nation.
Just as we saw last November when the “red wave” completely fizzled and Democrats outperformed against all expectations, last night’s results reinforced that American voters are tired of the divisive (and invented) social issues that have dominated the Republican agenda these past few years and want leaders who actually get to work on real issues that affect every household in this country. They want serious government, not theatrics.
Despite all “polling” that warned about impending doom for Democrats:
- In Kentucky, where Trump won by 26% in 2020, voters overwhelming reelected Democratic Gov Andy Beshear
- In Ohio, despite every effort to submarine the ballot initiative with rule changes and misleading wording, voters enshrined abortion rights into the state constitution following a string of other states who did the same thing when putting the question directly to the voters. Voters also legalized recreational marijuana in a separate ballot initative.
- In Virginia, where Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin promised to fast-track abortion restrictions if the voters delivered him the state House and Senate, Democrats actually won control of both houses in a clear rebuke of that message
- In Pennsylvania, a Democrat won a State Supreme Court spot, which ensures a barrier against partisan gerrymanders and other dirty tricks
- In New Jersey, Democrats have won control of both the Assembly and Senate, including a flip of a Senate seat that was lost in 2020.
- And New York, in the most inspirational story of the night, Yusef Salaam (one of the Central Park Five) who was only a teenager when Donald Trump took out a full page ad calling for his death, won a seat on the New York City Council in an incredible story of injustice to victory.
But this isn’t just a win for Democrats. It’s a win for Democracy itself. While the Republican US Congress shut itself down for over three weeks due to internal disarray, emerging with a new leader even less effective than the previous, voters are thirsting for actual vision and leadership. And as we’ve seen these past few years coming out of the worst global crisis of our generation, we’ve continued to grow stronger as a country with each passing month thanks to the steady hand and hard word of the Biden administration. We still have a far way to go, but the trajectory is clear as day.
Change often is incremental and is only noticed over many years of effort. But it’s nice to see when those efforts do pay off like we saw across our great nation last night.
