Midterm Elections Made One Thing Clear—Trumpism Is Dead
After months of anticipation, the results of the midterm elections are finally clear.
The expected Republican red wave that threatened to snatch both chambers of Congress from Democratic control only managed to secure a slim lead in the House of Representatives.
To say this was a surprise is an understatement. With an unpopular president, high inflation and outrageous gas prices, nearly every poll indicated the Democrats were destined to receive their biggest beating since the 2010 midterms.
Having survived the red assault, democrats hope to extend their senate lead after a Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia, where incumbent Raphael Warnock will be on the ballot against controversial former National Football League star Hershel Walker.
The reason for the recent Republican disappointment is clear. Americans are fed up with Donald J. Trump and his conspiratorial rhetoric, as candidates throughout the nation endorsed by the former president severely underperformed.
In Pennsylvania, television celebrity Mehmet Oz crumbled against democratic challenger John Fetterman despite some polls indicating he held a slim lead heading into election night.
It didn’t stop there, as Republicans took their biggest blow in the Southwest.
In Nevada’s race for Secretary of State—a position that oversees state election results, Democrat Cisco Aguilar narrowly defeated Republican Jim Marchant.
Marchant, who claimed the 2020 election results were “rigged” against Trump, served as the president of the America First Secretary of State Coalition—a political alliance that supported election-denier candidates throughout the nation.
One of those candidates was Kari Lake, a former news anchor who ran to become Arizona’s governor. Her campaign was largely based on hatred toward the media and the voting laws that allegedly stole the 2020 election.
Lake’s populist campaign came crashing down after Katie Hobbs defeated her following days of controversy due to slow voting lines and ballot printing problems in Arizona’s most populous county.
When she learned of the result, Lake continued fomenting election-denier conspiracy theories by tweeting “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
She has still not conceded her race.
Ironically, the party that once used Trump to propel itself into power is now desperately seeking to get rid of him to avoid further political backlash.
Referring to the midterm results, senate minority leader Mitch McConnell attributed the GOP’s inability to attract crucial centrist voters to the radical agenda many Republican candidates spouted on the campaign trail.
More than a year after the infamous Jan. 6 insurrection, McConnell’s statement demonstrates that the Republican Party has finally acknowledged the corrosive power of Trump’s rhetoric.
In the search of Trump’s replacement, the Republican Party has found its savior—Ron DeSantis.
After crushing democratic challenger Charlie Christ in the governorship race and solidifying Florida’s status as a conservative stronghold state, the 44-year-old has been heavily discussed as a possible GOP presidential nominee for 2024.
Early polling has shown that the Florida governor could overtake Trump in a potential Republican presidential primary if he decides to run.
DeSantis has a career relatively free of controversy compared to the twice-impeached Trump. The governor is a sign of hope for a Republicans Party that wants to move on from the scandal fatigue of the Trump era.
America is no longer seeking someone to disrupt the establishment as it did in 2016. Instead, the country is scrambling to come back to a time when political polarization didn’t threaten the core tenets of democracy.
Despite being two years away from the next election cycle, one thing became clear this November—Trump and his attempts to undermine democracy have failed for good.
