“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Winston Churchill
Sometime after eleven o’clock Tuesday night, you could almost hear it.
A long, slow breath rolled out of Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas, crossed the Atlantic, and settled over London, where Mayor Sadiq Khan congratulated Democrats on a “huge victory.” Allies who spent two years reading American news through their fingers finally uncovered their eyes.
Two weeks ago, I wrote the evidence pointed to a wave, but the verdict wasn’t in. The jury came back. It didn’t even need the dinner break.
Democrats flipped seven Senate seats, skipping the low-hanging fruit. They climbed the tree, cut it down, and sold the lumber.
Kansas, which hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since the Hoover administration, elected Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton.
South Carolina retired Lindsey Graham and chose Annie Andrews.
Iowa chose Josh Turek.
North Carolina picked Roy Cooper over Michael Whatley, the president’s handpicked candidate.
In Maine, Susan Collins, after years of being deeply concerned, conceded to Troy Jackson. Ohio sent Jon Husted packing, and Amy Acton beat Vivek Ramaswamy for governor, freeing up his schedule for podcasts.
Then there’s Texas. TEXAS!
James Talarico beat Ken Paxton, becoming the first Democrat to win statewide there in 32 years. Elon Musk spent roughly $224 million backing Texas Republicans. For a fraction of the price, I would have told him how it ended and thrown in a coffee.
In the House, NBC News projects Democrats will hold about 258 seats, a number the party last reached in 1993, when your phone still plugged into the wall. They did it on maps Republicans redrew to prevent exactly this. In Florida, at least three districts Republicans drew for themselves went Democratic anyway.
Twenty years of police work taught me something about staged crime scenes. If you rearrange the furniture and still lose the case, the problem isn’t the jury.
The president’s explanation arrived right on schedule. Republicans lost, he posted on Truth Social, because he wasn’t on the ballot. “If I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” This is from the man who spent the fall telling supporters to vote like he was on the ballot.
Voters took him at his word. They just didn’t vote the way he hoped.
Treat the next two years as a revenge tour, and you will hand the 2028 ballot right back to the people you just beat.
Joe Broadmeadow
Before the polls opened, he promised to accept the results “if they’re honest.” They are. Seven Senate seats, a historic House majority, and governors’ mansions from Austin to Columbus to Atlanta.
The count is honest. The only open question is how people will react.
Why did it happen? Analysts point to the war with Iran, gas prices, and a cost of living crisis nobody in charge seemed able, or willing, to fix. In September, I wrote the check always comes after the election. The promised dividends, the cheap gas, and the war ending any day now. Voters stopped waiting for the check. They sent the bill instead.
Now, a word to my Democratic friends before the champagne goes flat.
If you look at this as just a big win, you’re missing the point. It is an invitation from the American people. Show them what sound government can do. They want solutions, not victory dances. Keep that close to your heart after the celebration, or you’ll live to regret it.
Voters did not fall in love with you Tuesday night. Let me say that again! Voters did not fall in love with you Tuesday night!
They broke up with the other guy. A rebound is not a marriage. One political scientist told Northeastern University’s news service she sees no clear mandate for the party’s agenda, and she’s right. A rejection is not an endorsement.
Treat the next two years as a revenge tour, and you will hand the 2028 ballot right back to the people you just beat.
Oversight matters. For two years Congress behaved like a valet parking attendant for the executive branch, handing over the keys and waving. The Constitution expects more. But do it the way good investigators work. Follow evidence, not grudges. A subpoena is a tool, not a trophy. Cases built in anger collapse at trial, and in this courtroom the public sits in the jury box.
Look at almost every criminal “revenge” case this administration has filed. They all fell apart and rightly so. Follow the evidence. Don’t act like them. Demonstrate what the true administration of justice entails. If the evidence warrants it, charge them. If it does not, let it go.
Here is the part some readers won’t like. Asked before the election how he would work with a Democratic Congress, the president said, “We’ll figure a way.”
Take him up on it.
Put a bill to lower gas and grocery costs on his desk. Bring a plan to end the war. Bring a plan to address prescription drug prices, the fentanyl crisis, and the crumbling bridges in every district, red and blue. Make him sign it or make him explain to the country why he won’t.
Cooperation is not surrender. Sometimes it’s the sharpest weapon in the room.
Republicans have a choice too. Byron Donalds won the Florida governor’s race, becoming the state’s first Black governor, and Ashley Moody held her Senate seat. The party can still win when it offers something besides grievance. The members who survived Tuesday now answer to voters who just proved they will fire anyone. A few of them may discover they enjoy legislating more than genuflecting.
The rest of the world exhaled Tuesday night. Fine. Exhaling is the easy part.
When I reached the summit of Katahdin at the end of the Appalachian Trail in 2014, it felt like the finish of everything. Then I looked down and remembered I still had to walk off the mountain.
Democrats stand on that summit this morning. Enjoy the view. Then start walking. On second thought, start running. There is a lot to do.
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