The Midterms Were a Referendum. Trump Failed It

Photo: Phil Hearing via Unsplash

Every midterm is a referendum on the president. Every single one. The party in power either keeps the public's trust or loses it, and on Tuesday the public gave its answer. Donald Trump failed the referendum. Not by a little. By a lot. Democrats picked up 43 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, and the map of this country looks different this morning than it did a week ago.

Start with the numbers, because they do not lie. Democrats look likely to hold 258 seats in the House, a gain of 43. In the Senate they are likely to hold at least 55 seats, a gain of eight. That is not a wave. That is a landslide with a voter registration card. And it happened in states where the experts said it could not happen.

Look at the governors. Democrats flipped five governors seats, including Georgia, Nevada, Texas and Iowa. Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms. Nevada elected Aaron Ford. Texas elected Gina Hinojosa. Those are not blue states. Those are states Republicans treated as their own. The voters of Texas looked at Donald Trump and said no, and they meant it.

Why did it happen. The same reason it always happens. People vote their lives. Gas was four dollars and sixteen cents a gallon on Election Day, and voters connected it to a war in Iran that has already cost 47 billion dollars and 18 American lives. Trump told Fox News he knew the war and the gas prices had hurt him. He was right about that one thing. The voters were not confused. They were angry.

And the party knew it. Chuck Schumer told Senate Republicans that Tuesday would look like a cakewalk compared to 2028 if they kept blocking what voters chose. Thom Tillis, a Republican senator, called Stephen Miller's promotion to chief of staff an absurd mistake. Even the redistricting scheme collapsed. Republicans tried to redraw the maps and steal the next election before it happened, and the plan fell apart under the blue wave.

Here is what the referendum actually said. It said the war is a failure. It said the prices are a failure. It said the cruelty is a failure. And it said the people who stood up, from Jon Ossoff in Georgia to the new senators in Michigan and Mississippi, are the future. Trump spent the campaign calling his opponents names and picking fights. The voters spent the campaign picking a different direction.

So what happens next. A new House and a new Senate, and a president who just learned that the country does not belong to him. The work starts in January, and it will not be easy. But the verdict is in, and it is written in 43 House seats and eight Senate seats and five governors seats. The midterms were a referendum. Trump failed it. Now it is our turn to make the win mean something.

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