Many women and first-time runners stormed to victory in a revolt that came from the suburbs, the university educated and those fed up of Trumpism in the era of #MeToo
It wasn’t quite the Blue Wave some were expecting, but Democrats wrested control of the House back from Republican hands on Tuesday, helped by a record surge of women and minority candidates.
Women are set to win 96 seats in the House, CNN projects, which would be a record. The total comprises 31 newly elected candidates and 65 incumbents. The previous record was 85. As of early Wednesday, the Democrats led the House with 219 seats — 218 is a majority. The GOP held 193, with 23 races not being called.
Many women and first-time runners stormed to victory in a revolt led by suburban voters, the university educated and those fed up with Trumpism in the era of #MeToo. With the dust settling, the Democrats look to have reclaimed seats in areas outside Chicago, Denver, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, taking 26 seats in the House on the back of this surge alone.
Democratic women in particular and independent women, progressive women, upscale suburban women were clearly energized by the Trump victory and the Trump presidency in a negative way
“Democratic women in particular and independent women, progressive women, upscale suburban women were clearly energized by the Trump victory and the Trump presidency in a negative way,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Bloomberg.
“Powered by a massive turnout of women and fuelled by our incredible candidates, House Democrats gained several seats in the heartland,” Democratic Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois said in a statement.
The 2018 elections exposed an extraordinary political realignment in an electorate defined by race, gender, and education. The president’s party normally suffers in the first midterm election, but if the vote didn’t quite deliver the stark turnaround expected, it did offer insight into what voters thought of Trump’s views on women and the hysteria he has stoked about migrant caravans.
The new Democratic House majority will end the Republican Party’s dominance in Washington for the final two years of Trump’s first term. Who were the big winners?
Thank you, #KS03.
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The Kansas Democrat beat Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder in her House race. The former Mixed Martial Arts fighter becomes, in the process, the first gay Native American woman to win a seat.
Along with Davids, New Mexico Democrat Haaland becomes one of the first two Native American women voted into Congress.
“Thank you New Mexico. Thank you to my family. And thank you Team Deb, for your tireless work to get us here! Together, we made history!” she tweeted after the result.
Thank you New Mexico. Thank you to my family. And thank you Team Deb, for your tireless work to get us here! Together, we made history! #nmpol #nm01 pic.twitter.com/SJLg5GFNlV
The House is also getting its first two Muslim women.
Tlaib claimed Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, and in doing so becomes Congress’s first Palestinian-American female. She had previously served in Michigan’s House of Representatives, and claimed the seat after fellow Democrat John Conyers resigned over sexual harassment allegations.
A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Omar defeated Republican Jennifer Zielinski for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District. The long-safe safe Democratic seat had been left open by the departure of Keith Ellison.
Massachusetts elected its first black congresswoman in Pressley. The rising Democrat star was unopposed in Tuesday’s vote, having already beaten Republican stalwart Michael Capuano in a state primary.
Texas, meanwhile, is set to have its first two Hispanic women in Congress, Escobar and Sylvia Garcia. Democrat Escobar won a race to replace Beto O’Rourke, who had given up his seat to run for the Senate (losing his run against Ted Cruz).
Democrat State Senator Garcia won a Houston-area district. Despite Texas being almost 40 per cent Latino, Garcia and Escobar are, remarkably, the state’s first even representatives from this huge segment of the population.
Meanwhile in a big gubernatorial race in the south, in Georgia, Brian Kemp was neck and neck with Democrat Stacey Abrams in a race that may go to a runoff. Abrams, if elected, would become the first black woman to lead any state. In Kansas, Democrat Laura Kelly was elected governor over Kris Kobach, who received heavy Trump backing.
Several ambitious Democrats easily won re-election, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. “This resistance began with women and it is being led by women tonight,” Warren remarked.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who many suspect could be the next speaker of the House, called the election a sea change, remarking that Americans would be waking up to “a new day in America.”
“When Democrats win — and we will win tonight — we will have a Congress that is open, transparent and accountable to the American people,” she proclaimed. “Are you ready for a great Democratic victory?”
Are you ready for a great Democratic victory?
But it wasn’t all Democrat successes; In a big win for GOP women, Tennessee now has its first female senator, with Marsha Blackburn beating former Governor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat.
The GOP did actually extend its lead in the Senate and also kept a hold on governorships that it was reckoned had been in the balance. In Kentucky, one of the top Democratic recruits, retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, lost her bid to oust to three-term Rep. Andy Barr.
Overall, women voted considerably more in favour of congressional Democratic candidates — with fewer than 4 in 10 voting for Republicans, according to VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 115,000 voters and about 20,000 nonvoters — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
In suburban areas where key House races were decided, female voters skewed significantly toward Democrats by a nearly 10-point margin.
The GOP’s successes were fuelled by a coalition that’s decidedly older, whiter, more male and less likely to have college degrees. Democrats relied more upon women, people of colour, young people and college graduates.
Aside from the House and Senate, Letitia James was overwhelmingly elected as the attorney general of New York on Tuesday, shattering a trio of racial and gender barriers and placing herself in position to be at the forefront of the country’s legal bulwark against the policies of Trump.
