Google page telling people to “Go Vote” on Election Day
If the Devil had shown up Tuesday morning and had said to Democrats, “I’ll give you control of the House of Representatives, but my price is the loss of a few more seats in the Senate where you’re already in the minority,” that would have been a good deal all day long. That result is just what happened in the 2018 midterm elections. While all the votes have not yet been processed, we know that Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives, and that Republicans have kept their slender majority in the Senate, possibly improving on it by several seats. The flipping of the House to the Democrats, however, represents tremendous change, while Republicans keeping their Senate majority, even possibly winning a few more seats, does not. Moreover, at the state level, the Democrats won numerous victories which could change the political landscape further. Additionally, many of the victors this year were women and people of color (often both), the vast majority of them Democrats. Finally, younger voters came out in much bigger numbers this year.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the changes favoring Democrats that occurred in the 2018 midterms:
290+ State leg seats flipped
29+ House seats flipped
7+ Gov flipped
7 State leg chambers flipped
4 GOP supermajorities in state legislatures broken
4 States to expand voting rights
3 State Supreme Court seats flipped
3 Red states to expand Medicaid
2 States raising the min wage https://t.co/iWC92LqwGq— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 7, 2018
Some of those totals have already been increased. Indeed, yesterday the Daily Kos indicated that the Democrats have flipped a net of 32 Republican House seats thus far, representing the most GOP House seats gained by Democrats in a single election since Watergate (1974). With more races yet to be called, that total is almost certain to rise even higher.
Moreover, the Democrats defeated some very objectionable Republicans, including:
–California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who is so pro-Russia that we like to call him “Dana Russiabacker.”
–Kansas former Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an anti-immigrant, white nationalist who authored Arizona‘s “Show Us Your Papers” law. This vote could be seen as a rebuke to Donald Trump‘s divisive attacks on minorities and immigrants. Instead, Kansas voters elected a Democratic Governor, Laura Kelly, after the state has also suffered for years as a failed Republican testing ground for tax cuts oriented towards big business and the wealthy.
–Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who lost his bid for a third term. Ironically, or perhaps not surprisingly, Walker, who is notoriously unfriendly to labor and unions in Wisconsin, appeared to lose ground over a controversial factory deal with Asian company Foxconn, after plans for the factory were downgraded, and it was revealed that many jobs that were promised to Wisconsin workers might instead go to Chinese labor.
Furthermore, some important things favored by or favoring Democrats happened at the state level, such as:
–In Florida, most ex-felons will have their voting rights reinstated. This is important for democracy and the country as a whole. Additionally, since those convicted of crimes are disproportionally people of color, the new law will likely lead to many more Democratic votes in Florida.
—Colorado, where anti-gay bakery owners refused to bake a cake for a gay couple getting married, elected the nation’s first openly gay male Governor, Jared Polis.
—Michigan voted to fully legalize marijuana, while normally conservative Missouri and Utah legalized marijuana for medical use.
—Nevada voters approved making voter registration automatic when a person applies for a driver’s license or identification card. This step to increase voting stands in sharp contrast to Republican efforts to suppress voters, especially likely Democratic voters, which have gone on around the country for years and which continue to this day.
The 2018 midterm elections indicate that America continues to become more diverse, and more Democratic. The writing of change is on the wall.
Photo by F Delventhal, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/A2MxfO
