Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard that the midterm elections just happened this past Tuesday. I should preface this with the fact that there are still some votes being counted, some runoff elections, and some recounts, so some things might be different by the time you are reading this. It was a big surprise for many people; they thought it would be a red wave or tsunami. That ended up not happening; the Democrats kept a red wave from happening. All over the country, Democrats came out and voted against Republicans. Republicans thought they could win by making the midterms about the economy, inflation, and gas prices. That’s what they did; they tried to tie Democrats to Joe Biden, whose current popularity is not too high. Democrats turned this election around and used the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Multiple states had ballot initiatives about abortion; the two main ones were Michigan and Kentucky. Both of those states ended up voting to help protect abortion rights. Democrats made this election about a women’s right to choose, and since that is now up for states to decide, Democrats did a historical thing. Democrats flipped state legislatures which the party holding the White House has not done in a midterm election for a long time. Democrats got people to come out and vote by talking about women’s right to choose and gun control.

One group that came out in full force to vote for Democrats was Gen Z. 70% of Gen Z voters voted for Democrats. They were tired of Republicans pushing them around and trying to take away rights or a mentally unstable person buying a gun and shooting up a high school, so they made their voices heard. 

Okay, now let’s walk through a couple of races and who won and who lost. Democrats will be holding the Senate, they lost no seats at this point, and John Fetterman beat Dr. Mehmet Oz, flipping Pennsylvania. There will also be a runoff for the Georgia Senate race in December, but the Senate is now at 50 seats for Democrats and 49 for Republicans. For governor races, Democratic candidate Maura Healey became Massachusetts’ first female governor and the country’s first openly lesbian governor. In Maryland, the Democratic candidate also won and also made history. Wes Moore became the state’s first Black Governor and the country’s third Black governor. Democrats held off tough challenges in Michigan, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Oregon. The Arizona governor’s race is still too close to call at this point, but the Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs is up by about 1%. 

Now, let’s move on to some Republican victories. Republicans flipped the Nevada governor seat with Joe Lombardo beating Steve Sisolak. Also, at this point, it does look like the Republicans will take the House, but it does not seem like it will be by as much as Republicans were hoping. It looks like that Republicans will only take the House by a slim margin. There is also no guarantee that Kevin Mccarthy will become the new speaker. He might be challenged by someone to the right of him. Also, a Democrat could still get elected speaker if two Republicans run and split the vote. In the Senate, there also looks like there could be a mutiny; a lot of Republicans are annoyed at the big loss and blame Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell for it. Some are trying to get him voted out of his leadership position.

Donald Trump did not do very well this election, and many Republicans blame him for their big loss in the midterms. But there is a Republican that, in my opinion, did very well this election, and that man is the Governor of Florida Ron Desantis. He won Florida by a considerable margin and looks like a strong candidate to run for president in 2024.