Oh, What a Night!

I’m hopping on a plane to SoCal for the next few days to attend Human Rights Campaign events, but I wanted to share with you some of my joy, delight and thoughts on yesterday’s resounding election results.

By now you know, Dems had a big night. We won the marquee races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey. We walloped the GOP on Prop 50 in California. We won down-ballot races and flipped lots of seats. And NYC has a young, charismatic Muslim mayor-elect—a historic first.

There’s a lot to celebrate, so let’s start wide and work our way down!

A massive, national blowout

So just how big was this win? Election analysts, including yours truly, were all a bit obsessed with a “point” system chart put up by analyst Ryan Brune. So how did we do?

Well, we did as well as we possibly could!

This is actually quite insane. So let’s break it down even further to appreciate how bad a thumping the Republicans got.

A blue tsunami in 2026?

In Georgia, Democrats won two statewide races for Public Service Commissioners, which will help determine the power of utilities in the state. The Commission’s stated mission is to help “consumers receive safe, reliable and reasonably priced telecommunications, electric and natural gas services from financially viable and technically competent companies.” But as utility costs soared, voters paid closer attention and delivered a surprise blow:

These weren’t just wins. They were blowouts that flipped two red seats on the Commission. If you’re Sen. Jon Ossoff, you’ve got to be liking these results.

Take a look at Connecticut, too, which no one was really talking much about because it’s a blue state, right? Well, it’s still got a lot of towns, and the GOP had held power in many of them. But they got their clocks cleaned. Here’s a list from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT):

And in the Deep South, things were afoot as well!

Lots of attention was on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court retention vote, which won easily. But look what happened down ballot!

That shift is what we are all marveling over.

Here’s a right-leaning pollster reporting on what happened down ballot in Virginia:

As the New York Times noted,

the Democrats did quite a bit better than the polls suggested. In New Jersey, the polls underestimated Democrats by 10 points; in Virginia, by five points. It continues a pattern of polls underestimating Democrats in recent off-year elections, while badly underestimating Republicans when Mr. Trump is on the ballot.

These stunning moves have got to have the GOP wondering. Did they do the right thing by gerrymandering Texas and North Carolina so aggressively?

The dummymanders

A dummymander is a gerrymander that goes too far and backfires. And the red state dummymanders were pushed by the chief dummy himself, Donald Trump. His cronies couldn’t say no.

And this is what I’m wondering today, too:

The GOP got cocky in Utah, too.

If we work hard, we can make the GOP eat its own dummymanders next year with a win that’s too big to rig. Last night was a taste of the medicine the GOP may be forced to drink next year.

Of course, this was an off-year election. Dems traditionally do better in them thanks to more engaged voters. But news flash: The midterms also tend to demonstrate Democratic strength.

Heinz 57 moment

There’s no way to sugarcoat or deep fry it. Donald Trump was a big orange drag on races around the nation. But of course, he’s neither ready to accept responsibility nor capable of doing so.

Trust me, Trump was on the ballot. If you don’t believe me, ask Fox.

On top of the president’s own awful persona, his policies are proving highly unpopular.

And this just had to be said:

Did we win back voters we lost in 2024?

A big question on everyone’s mind is whether voters who had swung hard for Trump last year would come back to the Democratic fold. This was especially worrisome among young men and Latino voters.

The results are in, and we have some reason for optimism! Look at how young men, who broke for Trump in 2024, voted this election.

And while we’re still sifting through the electoral tea leaves, some counties that are heavily Hispanic swung back hard for the Dems this time and look, well, normal again. Look at the comparison, election to election:

We need to work on how to keep these voters in our camp for 2026 and 2028.

Democrats of all stripes won

There’s a tendency to look for a one-size-fits-all explanation for a political party’s big win. Voters love progressive positions! Voters appreciate common-sense moderates! It’s about affordability! It’s about opposing Trump!

AOC’s words last night met the moment. This is about the future of our country, and we need to do this all together.

“We have a future to plan for. We have a future to fight for. And we’re either going to do that together, or you’re going to be left behind. This is about ‘do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now?’ And the assignment is to come together across difference no matter what.”

In my hometown, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spoke the words many in the immigrant community, who have experienced the daily trauma of ICE and CBP in their communities, needed to hear:

And he set the tone for the battle ahead that we all know is coming:

It was wonderful to “hope scroll” instead of “doom scroll” for a change. So let’s take this win, cherish this feeling, fill ourselves with that hope and determination, and take back our country in 2026.

We just showed the world who has the real power.

Jay