A predictable failure, but not in these terms. Although the defeat in the midterm elections for an incumbent American president is certainly not news, the dimensions of last night’s election defeat give an idea of how much Trumpism itself is being questioned, even in its strongholds. In Texas, for example, a state that traditionally favors conservatives, the Republicans lost twice in the same night.
Republican Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth term as governor, had to recognize Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s victory. Meanwhile, James Talarico beat the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, bringing a Democrat elected in Texas back to the Senate for the first time since 1988.
The double defeat in one of the party’s strongholds gives the measure of the result of the mid-term elections on November 3. The Democrats have won the majority in both houses of Congress and, for Donald Trump, the last two years in the White House will also be those of coexistence with a Congress led by the opposition. And the feeling is that we will also have to deal with many of the protagonists of the democratic victory in the coming years.
How Democrats Won Texas
Talarico is 37 years old, taught middle school and studied in the seminary. During the election campaign he used the language of the Christian faith to talk about inequalities and the weight of billionaires in American politics. After the victory over Paxton, he resumed the same register in front of the supporters: “We defeated Goliath,” he said after the victory.
Hinojosa, a lawyer and state legislator from Austin, has instead conducted her campaign on issues on which she will be able to intervene directly as governor. He promised to increase funding for public schools and put new data center projects on hold. She will be the first Latina governor of Texas and the first Democrat to hold the office since Ann Richards, who lost her re-election bid in 1994.
In Georgia, the first African American female governor of the United States
Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and then in the Biden administration, beat Rick Jackson, a private healthcare entrepreneur in Georgia. Bottoms harped on the cost of living and the difficulty families have in making ends meet. She will be the first woman and the first African-American to lead Georgia, as well as the first African-American woman elected governor of an American state.
In the same state, Senator Jon Ossoff, 39, was re-elected. He had won the seat in the January 2021 runoff, a few months after Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Since then the state has returned to voting for Trump in the 2024 presidential elections. The Republicans also hoped to take back Ossoff’s seat, who instead beat his challenger Mike Collins.
Healthcare at the center of the campaigns in Ohio and Michigan
In Ohio Amy Acton, the doctor who headed the state Department of Health during the pandemic, defeated billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, supported by Trump. Acton said he spent part of his childhood homeless and has made access to care and the cost of living two of his campaign themes. She is the first woman elected governor of Ohio and the first Democrat to win the race for that office in twenty years.
In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist born in the state to Egyptian parents, beat former Republican congressman Mike Rogers and will be the first Muslim senator from the United States. Among the proposals he will bring to Washington is Medicare for All, the project supported by the progressive wing of the party to extend public health coverage to all.
New Hampshire also confirmed its Senate seat to the Democrats. The winner was MP Chris Pappas, who during the election campaign spoke above all about prices, healthcare spending and corruption. He will be the first openly gay man to enter the Senate. The first openly gay person elected to the upper house was Tammy Baldwin, senator from Wisconsin since 2013.
And from civil to social rights, the demands represented in the new Congress seem very distant from the world of Donald Trump, but also from that of many of the old leaders of the Democratic Party.