Credit: Pexels / cottonbro studio

The people are speaking and when it comes to President Donald Trump and the GOP this midterm election, the message is clear: “Enough.”

Fed up voters across the U.S. came together in an incredible rebuke of Republican leadership on Tuesday’s midterm elections, handing over the House of Congress to Democratic rule. It’s not yet known how truly bad of a night this will ultimately be for Republicans—we’ve gone from blue wave to blue tsunami—but for many Democratic candidates? 

This was one for the history books. 

The path has been set for New York’s Hakeem Jeffries to become the first-ever Black Speaker of the House, with the Dems securing enough wins in contested seats to take the chamber.

And while the U.S. Senate is still up in the air at this hour, the historic wins keep coming.

Democrat James Talarico defeated the GOP’s Ken Paxton in Texas, helping turn the state blue with his huge U.S. Senate win. Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988.

And right beside him? Texas’ first-ever Hispanic woman governor-elect, Rep. Gina Hinjosa, who defeated three-time incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

Democrat Annie Andrews defeated the sister of the recently deceased Republican senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina to become the first elected Democratic U.S. Senator from the state since 1998.

Rep. Chris Pappas beat incumbent Republican John E. Sununu in New Hampshire to become the first-ever openly gay U.S. Senator.

Illinois Democrat Julianna Stratton became the fifth Black woman to reach the U.S. Senate.

Democrat Stacey Plaskett became governor-elect of the US Virgin Islands.

And Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, is the first Black woman to become governor of a state.

She’s also the first Black person, first woman, and first former Atlanta mayor to ever become governor in Georgia. 

Also, in an historic win on the GOP side, Byron Donalds beat Democrat David Jolly to become the first Black governor of Florida.

These wins are huge. And in the South, it’s still not over; Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith are still slugging it out for the top spot for U.S. Senate in Mississippi.

It cannot be overstated that the South, especially Black and Hispanic voters in the region, stood up and rejected Trump 2.0’s agenda. Hopefully the Democratic Party will see these wins in Georgia and Texas—as well as how close Angie Nixon came to the U.S. Senate in Florida—as pathways to winning statewide in the South. 

As to what led to these wins? Apparently, all it took was the threat to our democracy (the no. 1 concern of Democratic leaning voters according to CNN), an immoral, aggressive anti-immigration campaign, massive job loss, rising inflation, a failing economy (well, for workers anyway), and an unpopular war to get a plurality of voters to reject the GOP in various races across the country.

If there are any takeaways from tonight, the biggest might be that maybe you shouldn’t push to redraw districts based on voter data that’s only a year old. In this case, I’m talking about Texas, but also Florida and North Carolina, which redrew their districts to make them “safe” for the GOP only to face massive losses in the House. Much of this is due to Hispanic voters, who had a significant percentage break for Donald Trump in 2024, only to ditch Republicans in 2026 and back the blue.

How will the night ultimately end? Stay tuned to We The Many tomorrow, when I break down the wins and losses on both sides this midterm.

MORE FROM URL MEDIA