The blue wave is here and it came in on a tide of progressives, women of color, and history-making victories. Last night, the Democrats took control of a deeply gerrymandered House of Representatives after nearly a decade out of power, flipped 333 seats, swept into multiple governor mansions, and laid down the foundation for a 2020 ground game.
Women of color, in particular, were the core of the Democrats’ wave. Ilhan Omar out of MN-05 was elected as the first Somali American to the House and joins Rashida Tliab of MI-13, as the first Muslim American women elected to Congress. From our own Afghan-American community, Aisha Wahab was elected to the Hayward, CA City Council, and Safiya Wazir was elected to the New Hampshire State Legislature. Wazir’s story from refugee to champion of marginalized communities is an inspiration.
The midterms also saw the ousting of regressive politicians who have stood as impediments to racial, gender, economic, and environmental equity. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whose voter disenfranchisement became the blueprint for the GOP’s new Jim Crow across the country, has done irreparable damage to Wisconsin’s higher education and was ousted in an upset. In ruby-red Southern California, climate change-denying Dana Rohrabacher lost his seat in a district that has never elected a Democrat to Congress. Trump-embracing Dean Heller lost in Nevada to Jacky Rosen and Kris Kobach, who led the Trump administration attempt at national voter suppression, lost in a political upset.
Let us celebrate the triumph of last night, especially after a harrowing two years of the Trump regime.
Let us also remember that we have more work ahead of us. Last night we saw on display massive voter suppression efforts by the right-wing aimed to disenfranchise people of color. In Georgia, Brian Kemp misused his office as Secretary of State to lead one of the most openly corrupt campaigns of voter suppression to benefit his own campaign. The man running for governor was also overseeing his own election. Yet, despite all the systemic and structural obstacles, Stacey Abrams created a winning coalition that will hopefully lead to a runoff election. She is an inspiration and her campaign should be the blueprint for progressives in 2020.
In Florida we saw a highly qualified, forward-thinking African-American man go up against an entitled, unfit candidate who embraced racists. The choice could not be more obvious. Yet Andrew Gillum and Ron Desantis are neck-in-neck in a race too close to call. In Southern California, Duncan Hunter ran an openly racist campaign while being indicted for fraud and yet still won against his challenger and in Iowa white supremacist Steve King sailed into re-election.
Midterm postmortems will call this a deeply divided country. We aren’t. We are a country where the majority favors healthcare for all, environmental justice, income equality, criminal justice reform, and affordable education, but who have a vocal and structurally powerful minority that has ensconced itself through a system of voter suppression and racist appeals. The ugly campaign leading up to the midterms is a reminder that as the country becomes more and more diverse, as people of color work for progress and equity, white supremacy will fight hard to maintain its grip on the nation.
We should all be heartened by last night’s election, but we should also be prepared to do the hard work of dismantling the systems of inequality and regimes of exclusion. Marxist Antonio Gramsci reminds us to cultivate a pessimism of intellect alongside an optimism of the will.
Last night was a reminder that the fight is not won or lost in one night. It’s a battle that started a long time ago and that continues tomorrow. For a brighter future for us and our children, one that is more open to immigrants, queer folks, and those who cannot speak as loud as some of us.
As always, the fight continues.
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