Americans delivered a near-extinction event for the Republican Party in Tuesday’s consequential midterm elections amid a dire cost-of-living crisis, an unpopular war with Iran, and a ruthless immigration enforcement operation that has ignited tensions. Despite these sweeping successes, Democrats must use their unprecedented majorities to deliver substantive economic change, regardless of the threat of Trump’s veto.
Voters, who were deeply dissatisfied with Trump and Republicans writ large, gave the Democratic Party one of its largest majorities in Congress as well as a slew of victories in key down-ballot races all over the country.
Up and down the ballot, Democrats won in places where political analysts, including history itself, have written off as “ruby-red” states and districts where Democrats simply can’t win. But on Tuesday, Democrats defied that narrative and shattered Republican-led supermajorities and trifectas in a handful of states, including Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. Democrats were also able to secure trifectas in crucial battleground states like Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In the race for control of the Senate, the ‘blue tsunami’ captured an unprecedented number of seats, tipping the upper chamber away from Republican control. As of late, Democrats were able to secure a net gain of seven seats previously held by Republicans in states like Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Two seats, in Alaska and Mississippi, remain too close to call. However, as of Sunday morning, Democratic candidates Mary Peltola and Scott Colom are leading their respective Republican incumbents, Senators Daniel S. Sullivan and Cindy Hyde-Smith, by three-tenths of a point. If Democrats prevail in these two contests, their Senate majority grows to a whopping 56 seats.
In the House of Representatives, Democrats are on track to have their largest majority in Congress in nearly a century, with an estimated 259 seats accounting for a net gain of over 40 seats. Despite the Republican Party’s repeated efforts to push for mid-cycle redistricting and eliminate Democratic-leaning seats in so-called safe Republican states, their ‘dummymander’ maps did not sustain the historic backlash voters delivered on Tuesday. Democratic congressional candidates broke through in unexpected areas, including those who had voted for Trump by upwards of 15 percentage points over Kamala Harris just two years ago.
Despite being viewed as equally unpopular as the Republican Party, the tide has turned in favor of Democrats, and now the work begins with delivering the much-needed change voters have demanded at the polls.
With the party taking back control of Congress next January, we finally have real leverage over Trump’s second and final term. Democrats on Capitol Hill, and in their respective state capitols, cannot squander this year’s election victories by failing to govern with a real, substantive agenda. We’ve seen this happen before — in 2008, when Democrats won control of the White House and expanded their majorities in Congress in a huge ‘change election’; but by 2010, Democrats experienced a brutal ‘shellacking’ result, losing a net of 63 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate because of the Republican wave election and backlash against healthcare reform and poor economic recovery.
What Democrats choose to do with their majorities in the House and Senate will heavily impact the direction of the country going forward as we head towards the 2028 presidential and congressional elections. We can choose to either vote to pass Medicare for All, raise the minimum wage, abolish ICE, pass comprehensive immigration reform, end the Iran War, end support for apartheid and genocide in Gaza, and enact real and structural reforms for campaign finance, education, and taxation.
All of these ideas are possible if we have Democratic leaders in Congress who are not beholden to corporate interests like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Democrats may not have the blessing of the presidential signature, but the party has the leverage to challenge Trump to veto their popular policies. The democratic mandate should not be shortchanged because of fears of an “expected” presidential veto; if anything, it should embolden Democrats’ ambitions to push for more.
If Democrats can deliver and demonstrate that they can govern, we can win again in 2028 and beyond.
For now, change is on the horizon, and we must throw the ball in Trump’s court.
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
