2022 Midterms – A Win for the Democrats
I was disheartened when I saw the preliminary results of the 2022 Midterms. There was no “blue wave” like we had worked so hard to achieve. My home state of Texas didn’t oust Governor Abbott. We lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives and barely tied the senate.
Despite all this, I’ve titled this piece “a win for the Democrats” for a reason. This is one of the most impressive midterms yet. Traditionally, the party in the White House is slaughtered. 2006: Bush’s Whitehouse, “Blue Wave.” 2010 and 2014: Obama’s Whitehouse, “Red Wave.” 2018: Trump’s Whitehouse, “Blue Wave.” (Data sourced from the United States Federal Election Commission) From pundits and average election watchers alike, the consensus was that Republicans should have dominated the 2022 midterms. But they didn’t.
Even though losing the house allowed republicans to hinder Biden administration plans and launch senseless investigations into “Hunter’s Laptop” and similar, they won by a bare margin. 218/212 at the time of writing. Not only does this allow moderate republicans to vote alongside Dems on crucial legislation, but it also signals that voters are not as confident in the GOP as they once were.
The real victory, however, was at the state level. According to FiveThirtyEight’s Nathanial Rakich, all six potential 2024 swing states’ Secretaries of State who had denied the legitimacy of the 2020 Election have been replaced by democrats. The total number of democratic state governors in office has increased by one.
Additionally, voters flipped state houses in Michigan and Minnesota. Democrats only lost a minor amount of ground nationally (and gained some at the state level!) during what should have been a bloodbath—during one of the most critical elections in recent history.
This would not have been possible without democratic voters turning out in droves. FiveThirtyEight reports that the 2022 midterm turnout was more significant than every recent midterm except for 2018. Youth, women, and minority voters came out and made their voices heard against candidates who wanted to take away their rights—and volunteers also showed up.
Rideshare2Vote reached close to two million voters this election, gave over a thousand rides, and had hundreds of dedicated volunteers ready to combat voter suppression and increase turnout. But we’re not done yet. One crucial part of the 2022 midterms left is Georgia’s runoff. We need to take this momentum and secure the Georgia senate seat to bring the Dems to a comfortable 51/49 senate majority. We need dedicated drivers and volunteers to help bring this home: are you willing to help us confidently say that the 2022 midterms will be a win for the Democrats?
by Nayab Warach
