Oh, What a Night

Last night's massive victory for Democrats gives U.S. a democracy a fighting chance.

Donald Trump thought he could gerrymander his party's way to victory.

The Supreme Court thought they could strip voting rights from Black Americans.

Elon Musk, the billionaires, and the crypto lobby thought they could buy this election.

And these villains would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling voters.

It was, says The New York Times, a rout.

In the Senate, where the Democrats needed to flip four seats, they have already, as of Wednesday morning, flipped seven. Two more are still on the cards.

Mary Peltola seems on track to win in Alaska, as many predicted.

And in Mississippi, Scott Colom could become the shock "giant killer" of the night. If he defeats Cindy Hyde-Smith as many now expect, he would become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi for 44 years — and the first Black senator from the state for 145 years.

A night for the history books

As the AP reports, the 2026 midterms brought about "a wave of historic firsts." Among them:

• First Native American female governor: Democrat Deb Haaland in New Mexico.
• First Native woman senators: Democrat Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. And likely also Democrat Mary Peltola in Alskaa, who is Yup’ik.
• First Black female governor: Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia.
• First Muslim US senator: Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
• First openly gay male US senator: Democrat Chris Pappas in New Hampshire.
• First Latina governor of Texas: Gina Hinojosa.

In the upcoming Congress, three Black women will serve simultaneously in the Senate for the first time and Hakeem Jeffries is poised to become the first Black Speaker of the House.

Democrats cracked Republican strongholds in multiple states:

• Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since 1932.
• In Texas, James Talarico became the first Democrat elected to the Senate since 1988.

• South Carolina elected its first Democratic senator since 1998.
• North Carolina and Iowa elected their first Democratic senators since 2008.
• The Texas governor win was the first for Democrats since 1990.
• In Georgia, the governorship went to the Democrats for the first time since 1998.
• Ohio and Iowa elected their first Democratic governors since 2006, with the win in Ohio being especially sweet as the noxious Vivek Ramaswamy was trounced by Amy Acton.

Now comes the hard part

Unlike Jonathan Alter, I'm not claiming "the great national nightmare is over."

None of the problems Trump has created will go away overnight.

Many, including the Iran war, may get worse.

We're still a country where affordability is a crisis, healthcare is being denied to millions, infectious diseases are spreading, where food safety cannot be guaranteed, and future shortages may be on the cards.

We're living in an age of rapid, society-altering technological change in which the titans of business are morphing into evil supervillains.

Democrats have a long tradition of failing to tell their story properly when in power. That will only become more challenging under the new "ministry of propaganda."

Trump and his goons won't go quietly.

Elon Musk will fight as hard as Trump ever did to avoid being punished for his crimes.

If the next two years bring more problems than solutions, Democrats will end up sharing the blame instead of getting the credit for cleaning shit up.

But for now, let's celebrate.

Last night's massive victory for Democrats at least gives U.S. a democracy a fighting chance.

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