The Miscellany News

As I watched the election results pour in on Tuesday, Nov. 5, I was horrified. It quickly became clear that not only would Donald Trump win this election, but he would win every swing state, the popular vote and contribute to a Republican trifecta. As someone who put in a lot of time to help Democrats up and down the ballot get elected, these results were a huge gut punch. More importantly, though, I was terrified about the future of America. Could Trump get to appoint more far-right justices to the Supreme Court? Would Trump and Republicans go through with their proposals of mass deportation? Would Trump’s tariffs shoot up inflation? Needless to say, I did not fall asleep that night.

However, as I accepted reality and became more level-headed, I saw some signs that made me optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party and liberal politics in America in general. At a time when many on this campus are disappointed, anxious and frankly, scared about the results of this election, I wanted to share some positives where I could.

For one, Democrats will be entering Trump’s second term with much stronger positions down the ballot than in 2016. Heading into Trump’s first term, Democrats held 47 Senate seats, 194 House seats and full control of just six state governments, per The New York Times and Ballotpedia. Now, we are heading in with 47 Senate seats, at least 212 House seats, and full control of 15 state governments. This will give Democrats much more leverage in pushing back against Trump, but also gives us a chance to further expand our position at the state level in 2026. Even though 2018 was largely a successful election for Democrats, our weak position at the state level meant resources had to be spent trying to win back control of legislatures in normally blue states like New York, Washington and Colorado, according to The New York Times. However, because Democrats already have full control in most blue states, greater efforts can be made to win in swing and possibly even traditionally red states at the state level in 2026. Similar logic applies when it comes to the House of Representatives—in 2018, much money had to be spent trying to claw out of a deep minority, whereas this time we are only a few seats shy of a majority, so a real effort can be made to build a large and durable majority.

Another reason I am optimistic about Democrats’ prospects is because down-ballot Democrats generally overperformed Kamala Harris. There were four states that split the ticket between Trump and a Senate Democrat and there appear to be about roughly 20 Democrats who won in districts that voted for Trump. The reason for this is twofold; down ballot, Democrats ran a lot of strong candidates. In fact, many received more votes than Harris. As Democrats regroup and look for new party leaders, I suspect many of these talented, younger voices will be brought forward. Conversely, for Republicans there was a down-ballot undervote—there appears to be a non-negligible number of voters who showed up to vote for Trump and left the rest of their ballot blank. These are voters Republicans will likely struggle to get in future elections when Trump is not on the ballot.

Finally, our geopolitical position remains strong. For instance: In both 2016 and 2020, the electoral college heavily worked to Trump’s benefit—in 2020, the decisive state of Wisconsin was nearly four percent to the right of the nation! This cycle, it appears the “tipping point state,” Pennsylvania, voted almost identically to the nation. We also still see underlying demographic changes helping Democrats in key places—per The New York Times, in Georgia 12 of the 16 counties that make up the fast-growing Metro Atlanta area shifted left from the 2020 election. It appears Georgia will end up just under one percent to the right of the country, meaning that in every presidential election since 2004, Georgia will have turned bluer relative to the nation, largely thanks to Metro Atlanta’s growth. This suggests that long-term, Republicans will struggle to win statewide elections in Georgia outside very Republican-friendly national environments. Even in red-leaning Texas where Trump over-performed with Latino voters, there are still some signs of optimism for Democrats around the margins. Kaufman County, a suburb of Dallas and the fastest-growing county in the country, shifted six percent leftwards from 2020. I do not believe it is a coincidence the fastest-growing county in the country hosted one of the strongest leftward swings.

This article is not to say there is no real reason for concern or that we should just sit back and assume things will get better by default, but I hope to offer optimism about the longer-term prospects of left-wing politics and the Democratic Party in America, at a time when it may seem hopeless. I strongly encourage everyone to stay politically engaged regardless of what their beliefs are.