And in the morning, the good, almost unbelievable news was confirmed. Democrats carried all the major races in Virginia, with Abigail Spanberger winning the Governorship by over 15% of the vote. Mikie Sherrill won the governor’s race in New Jersey with a 13% majority. Zohran Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo by 8.8% to be Mayor of New York City. And possibly most consequential of all, Prop 50 won handily in California, allowing the state to redistrict to favor Democrats and provide a fairer representation of the views of the people of the state.
And this followed 7 million people demonstrating on October 18th against DT attempting to crown himself King. Last week, progress was made in the Senate, where 4-5 Republican Senators showed courage and refused to follow DT’s dictates. Last Tuesday, the Senate voted 52-48 to end DT’s tariffs on Brazil. On that Wednesday, they voted 50-46 to end the new tariffs on Canada. And on that Thursday, they voted 51-47 to end DT’s reciprocal tariffs on over 100 countries. Will this GOP resistance encourage the rest of the party to remember the oath they took to protect the constitution?
And before that, the President and his party were already facing anger, loss of trust, and disappearing polling numbers, even from their own supporters, over the economy, violations of the rule of law⎼ and especially, their lies about, and reneging of their campaign promise to release, the Epstein material. This fear about what releasing all the information might reveal led Mike Johnson, the GOP Speaker, to close the House. He cut short the summer session on July 22 and then the fall session on September 19. The House has been closed ever since.
Supposedly, the latter move was due to the looming government shutdown, but the shutdown didn’t occur until October 1. By closing the House for business, Johnson blocked the constitutionally required swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, a newly elected Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, who would be the deciding vote on releasing the Epstein records. As Lawrence O’Donnell argued on MSNBC, is it possible that not only the closing of the House but the shutdown of the government was done to erase the truth and remove Epstein from the news cycle?
DT had pressured Texas to create 5 new GOP seats in the House, and the state went ahead and did that. This started a battle between the parties, to see who could better manipulate election districts to favor their own party. After Texas and California, who would be next? Some have criticized Democrats for fighting fire with fire by joining the gerrymandered war. They argued this would turn future elections into a joke and make impossible the election of candidates who would cross party lines and look out for the good of the nation instead of the power of their party’s leader. It might guarantee extremism.
But this argument misses the essential, even existential point. If DT’s GOP are allowed to continue on their present course, there won’t ever be a fair election again. They have been working for years to make voting more difficult, restricting who can vote. and they’re speeding up their efforts. They’re working to criminalize dissent, criminalize the constitution, end free speech and the free press, so people can’t get accurate, reliable information on candidates and issues. So, if the argument is that we must protect our democracy not only today but tomorrow, then Democrats must⎼ they have the absolute responsibility to⎼ aggressively counter the GOP. The only way to protect the constitution right now is to gerrymander for Democratic districts.
We need to enjoy these wins. Celebrate. Call our friends and family. Get energized.
And know: the more resistance there is, the more vicious DT might become. Yet, the only chance we have to protect what’s left of our rights and rule of law, make sure we can afford our healthcare and living expenses is to be as strong as we can. To stand up and speak out; to protect and get out the vote in 2026. That’s it.
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