Whew!

After last night, I feel better about the country than I have in a year.

This morning, I feel better than I have in a year. It’s a huge sense of relief really. The voters rejected Trumpism and the authoritarianism threatening our country. They sent a clear message in a Democratic wave of historic proportions. God bless the American people.

While the 2026 midterm is still a long ways away, Republicans know that they just got a loud warning. The election showed that their voters don’t show up when Trump is not on the ballot and moderate voters reject him when he’s in office. A wave like last night indicates that Democrats were motivated, Republicans were not, and swing voters broke hard for Democrats— and it happened everywhere.

Democrats won up and down the ballot across the country. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s office by 15%. All the council state seats went Democratic and the party flipped thirteen seats in the House of Delegates at last count.

In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill defeated her Trump-endorsed Republican opponent by thirteen points. In Pennsylvania, three Democratic judges retained their seats with 20+ point margins. In Georgia, two Democrats flipped seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, the first time in almost two decades Democrats have won statewide constitutional offices in Georgia. In California, the referendum to allow the state to re-draw Congressional districts won by a wide margin.

We’ll be analyzing these results for days or weeks, but here are a few of my first thoughts.

These races show a broad dissatisfaction with the direction of the country and Donald Trump’s governance in particular. Whether it’s masked men snatching people off the street, blowing up people in boats, selling pardons, or jerking around the world’s economy by playing a game of musical chairs with tariffs, people are not happy and they blame the GOP.

The young people, Hispanics, and African Americans that seemed to be moving toward the GOP came home to the Democrats last night. They weren’t embracing Trump or the GOP last year. They were rejecting policies and ideas that they thought were outside of the cultural norm. Unfortunately, they got something they liked even less.

Moderates win elections in swing states. The left flank of the Democratic Party criticized Spanberger and Sherrill earlier this year, saying they should be winning blowout elections, but polls showed them only winning marginally. Instead, they won by larger numbers than Democrats have in decades and, in Virginia, Spanberger pulled even embattled candidates across the line. The change voters want is a focus on kitchen table issues, not radical transformation of social norms or government function.

The most important numbers in national polls are the president’s approval rating. Generic ballot questions and even head-to-head questions might offer a general direction, but the approval rating tells us more about how people are going to vote. Trump is underwater by huge margins. Last night’s results reflect that dissatisfaction.

Democrats won the shutdown. There’s no reason for them to vote with Republicans to open government unless they get something. Voters are clearly with them and Republicans will get even more blame if SNAP is delayed too long or insurance premiums go up too much. After last night, Republicans can’t afford more rebukes.

Democrats and the interest groups that fund them need to resist the urge to believe that people voted for them. They voted against Republicans. Few people know what Abigail Spanberger or Mikie Sherrill stand for. They just know that they aren’t Republicans. Wave elections are almost always a rejection of the status quo. Democrats should spend the next year reminding voters of everything Republicans are doing wrong and not spend valuable energy making promises voters don’t believe they’ll keep.

Donald Trump’s lame duck status just got real. If Republicans hope to salvage anything in 2026, they need to start governing. The voters clearly want a check on the executive branch, whether they would call it that or not.

Nobody expected Trump to invade cities with the National Guard and military units. Nobody wanted masked men snatching people out of their homes and jobs, operating like paramilitary goon squads. Nobody believed that Trump would threaten and alienate our neighbors and allies with tariffs that rocked the economy. Nobody voted for a president who sells pardons to people who can make him billions of dollars in crypto currency. Most importantly, nobody thought that the entire Republican Party would roll over for that guy.

That’s what people voted against and if the GOP in Congress doesn’t quickly reverse course, they’ll vote them all out of office next year. As of last night the Senate is in play and so are a bunch of Congressional, legislative, and down-ballot seats that weren’t yesterday. Let’s roll.