Comment After years of watching Republicans dominate down-ballot races, Democrats have turned the tables in their favor in the midterm elections, wresting some legislative chambers from GOP control and thwarting efforts to build veto majorities in others. In Pennsylvania, where vote counting continued, Democrats are on the brink of taking control of the state House for the first time since 2008. Democrats also won the Michigan House and Senate, as well as the Minnesota Senate. The re-election victories for the Governors. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich.) and Tim Walz (Minn.) give Democrats total control of those two states — a first in Michigan since the 1982 election. If early results hold in states where some races remain undecided, Democrats won’t have lost control of a single legislature they previously held, a feat the president’s party hasn’t accomplished during a midterm election since 1934. The victories softened Republican plans to push further restrictions on abortion, transgender rights, school programs and spending, and in some states expanded the ability of Democrats to pass their own priorities. Among those newly elected in districts key to the Democratic surge in the Pennsylvania House was Tim Brennan, who prevailed by 5,000 votes over a Republican challenger who had worked for state lawmakers who opposed abortion rights and supported voting restrictions. Brennan, 45, who lives in Bucks County, a suburb of Philadelphia, ran unsuccessfully in 2018 and lost in the primary by 55 votes. After the 2020 election, he served as an attorney in a local county where Donald Trump challenged the results. He credited his victory Tuesday to the 10,000 doors he personally knocked on, out of 40,000 from his campaign, and to voters who split their tickets because of their distaste for extremist Republican candidates, especially GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano. “People told me they want a functioning government. They upset the top of the ticket in the Republican races. They were upset with the denials of the election and the loss of choice,” Brennan said, attributing the Democrats’ success to “talking about functional government and not going down these rabbit holes.” Brennan was excited by the prospect of a Democratic House with the power to pressure Senate Republicans to moderate on abortion, education and other issues. “Being there and having your voice heard is one thing, but being part of the majority and having the opportunity to shape policy is something I’m really looking forward to,” she said. With some states still counting, Republicans control both houses of 26 state legislatures, up from 30 before the election. Democrats outright control 19, up from 17 before Tuesday. “A couple of legislative battles won by a few votes means the difference between some of the most draconian abortion laws being passed, election restrictions, stops eroding a state’s ability to protect people from polluters,” said Daniel Squadron, former senator. from New York and founder of the super PAC the States Project, which helped fund some of the fights. The Democratic victories appeared to have been fueled by a wave of liberal outrage over the Supreme Court ruling that returned the power to determine abortion rights to state capitols and Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election. At polling stations across the country on Tuesday, voters expressed frustration with the rising cost of living, but also said their biggest fear was government extremism on the right. For Matt Crosky, 43, who dislikes both major parties, Tuesday was about voting against the candidates more than anything else — and these days, he said outside a Phoenix polling place, Republicans scare him the most. “I’m looking for people who are more in tune with the public and more in tune with what’s right for the people, rather than what’s right for their pocketbook,” he said. In Grand Rapids, Cody Canfield, 30, a self-proclaimed independent who leans Democratic, said his vote was largely driven by his support for the successful referendum enshrining reproductive rights in the Michigan constitution. “I have a girlfriend that I’m going to marry and I don’t need her life in danger just because someone says so,” he said. “It scares her to have that right taken away from her.” The party’s unexpected legislative successes came after a new laser-like focus on state races by both longtime operatives in places like the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which rarely gets much help from the national party and others newcomers to this lower-profile battleground. Democrats have complained for years that while Republicans have targeted state legislative races with huge financial investments, their own party and its donors have instead focused on higher-profile contests with more polished candidates, even those doomed to near-certain chances of defeat. Last year’s redistricting, in which Republican-controlled legislatures were able to draw maps in their favor, brought a fresh reminder of the stakes of ignoring these races. “State legislatures are viewed by national Democrats as the minor leagues,” Squadron said. The midterm elections “proved that it’s a game of its own and you have to focus on it.” The Squadron team spent about $60 million on state legislative races, particularly in Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, believing those legislatures were most at risk of flipping GOP lawmakers in favor of Trump or another Republican . Another Democratic PAC, Forward Majority, took in $20 million. The DLCC spent $50 million and its Republican counterpart, the Republican State Leadership Committee, spent $30 million. That combined budget pales in comparison to how Democratic donors are focusing on long-shot Senate races — Democrats running in Iowa, Maine and South Carolina two years ago raised more than $250 million combined for their Senate bids, with all three losing by wide margins. Republicans had some reason to celebrate this week. In Kansas, they maintained veto-proof supermajorities in the legislature, allowing them to impose their will even after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was re-elected Tuesday. In Ohio, not only did Gov. Mike DeWine (R) win another term in a landslide, but the GOP-controlled Legislature maintained supermajorities in both chambers and may chart a deeply conservative course in the coming years. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott won re-election to a third term as fellow Republicans expanded their majority in the legislature. The party also made gains in Iowa and South Carolina. And in Florida, as Gov. Ron DeSandis (D) won a second term in a showdown, Republicans claimed supermajorities in both chambers, their largest in a decade. “The days of Florida being a swing state are over,” said Dee Duncan, chairman of the Republican legislative campaign group. But Republican hopes for a trifecta of victories — governor and both houses — in several other states were dashed. Their efforts to win supermajorities in the legislatures of North Carolina and Wisconsin so that they could overthrow the Democratic governors in those states failed. In Nevada, where votes were still being counted, experts say Democrats can retain their legislative majority despite a loss to Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). And although Vermont re-elected its Republican governor, a coalition of Democrats and members of the state Progressive Party in the legislature maintained its supermajority. Arizona’s gubernatorial and legislative races remain very close. Some of the Democratic victories came after redistricting battles that ended on more favorable lines than the districts drawn from the previous decade, either through the strength of Democratic governors who had a say or through successful legal challenges to GOP-drawn maps . “A fair map is everything,” said Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, D-Farmer-Labor. Hortman said Democrats outside Minnesota’s blue towns also received targeted help from those in safer areas. The representative of the state of Somalia, Mohamud Noor of St. Paul contacted Somali voters in St. Cloud and connected them with volunteers and fundraisers on behalf of state Rep. Dan Wolgamott. He eventually won re-election with 540 votes. “What he did to help us overcome that language barrier was what helped us win,” Hortman said. “This is how we should govern. We will have a wide variety of opinions. We are a party with a big stage.” In Michigan, the Democratic takeover benefited from Whitmer’s re-election upset, the wide margin given to referendums that put reproductive rights in the state constitution, and district lines drawn by a nonpartisan committee. The GOP candidates against the Democrats have also taken some extreme positions, such as denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which have prompted many voters to overcome their concerns about the economy under President Biden. “It just really leaned into the culture wars and voters are tired of it,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D). McMorrow gained national attention last spring with a viral speech denouncing Republicans’ “hollow, hateful agenda” against LGBTQ rights after a colleague accused her of “grooming” children. “Inflation and gas prices are things that change, but the loss of a fundamental right never goes away.” McMorrow, 36, noted that this is the first time in her lifetime that Democrats have taken full control of the levers of power in Lansing. For more than 20 years, Pennsylvania Democrats have dominated the biggest races, winning five of six gubernatorial contests, all in blowouts. The Democratic nominee has won seven of the last eight presidential races there. However, Democrats were largely powerless in Harrisburg, as…
