For a while there, it was looking like déjà vu all over again, with Democratic hopes raised only to be dashed. But by golly, if the Dems didn’t snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to come back late in the evening of a nail-biting election day to take back the House of Representatives.
Hey, I’ll take it. I was also encouraged by the gubernatorial races, such as the Kansas contest in which Laura Kelly defeated Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who ran a Trumpian campaign.
The other big news was the number of new faces — female faces, minority faces — black, Indian, Muslim, lesbian. Again, we go to Kansas where LGBT Indian-American Sharice Davids defeated four-term Rep. Kevin Yoder. Hey, what’s up, Kansas? Feeling blue?
Yes, it was terrible to see Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum go down to defeat in Texas and Florida, respectively. And there will be more doom and gloom over Washington D.C. gridlock.
But I’m encouraged. Dems scored victories last year. They were impressive tonight in an election that was in part a referendum on the president. And they’re making real inroads in the suburbs.
Does it matter that rural America is red? I don’t think so. Most people don’t live on farms. And white people will become a majority-minority in this country in the next decade.
The Repubs may be the present, but the Dems are the future.