The broad repudiation of Donald Trump, his policies and the Republican party, focused on Trump’s personal unpopularity, high costs of living and the Iran war, offer Democrats an opportunity to reset the US domestic agenda. But what will they do with it?
Here, Democratic leaders and seat-flipping victors from Tuesday’s “blue tsunami” offer their post-election comments.
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1. Hakeem Jeffries, set to be House majority leader
“We’re going to fight to make sure that we make this country affordable for every single American,” the New York Democrat said during an election night watch party in Washington DC. “This is a change election. And we understand as House Democrats we need to deliver dramatic change. Things are broken. We need a Congress that puts the American people first.
“We’re going to bring accountability to those who have visited unprecedented corruption on this country,” Jeffries added. “Because if you have people in high office who are so focused on enriching themselves, their family members, their friends or their donors, then they are not focused on making life better for the American people.”
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2. Chuck Schumer, new Senate majority leader
“The American people reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks, and as a result, there is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and on into the future,” the New York senator said late Tuesday night.
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3. Barack Obama
“Tonight, the American people sent a clear message – they want a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face,” the former US president said.
The results, he said “were only possible because outstanding candidates stepped forward in every region of the country – including in areas once considered long shots. They came from different backgrounds and represented a range of political perspectives, but were united by shared values, a belief in public service, and a commitment to putting the people of their districts and states first.”
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4. Troy Jackson, elected to be Maine’s new senator
“Trump and the billionaires need to understand one thing very clearly about your new senator … I don’t owe them a damn thing,” Jackson said after defeating senator Susan Collins in her bid for a 6th term in Maine.
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5. James Talarico, elected Texas senator
“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We have just shown that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love,” he told supporters at an election night party in Austin, the state capital and his home city.
“We just sent a message to every billionaire mega-donor, every trillionaire mega-donor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system, in this state, in this country: power belongs to the people,” Talarico said in his remarks.
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6. Abdul El-Sayed, elected senator for Michigan
“We want our taxes spent here, for schools here, and healthcare here, and infrastructure here. We don’t want our money sent to do apartheid, or genocide, or war,” he said at a victory rally in Detroit.
And he took a swipe at JD Vance: “JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”
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7. Amy Acton, elected Ohio governor
“This entire campaign has been a movement by and for the people. This win is for every Ohioan who has longed for public servants again, who solve problems instead of making them and do not mistake kindness for weakness,” she said at a victory party in Columbus.
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8. Deb Haaland, elected to governor of New Mexico
“New Mexicans are working hard, doing everything they’re supposed to do, and yet we still struggle to get ahead,” Haaland said. “Right now, there is a president in the White House who has enriched himself beyond comprehension while working his hardest to make New Mexicans sicker, poorer and hungrier. But time and again, we have said no. It is our time.”
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9. Adam Hamilton, elected to represent Kansas in the US Senate
“This election is a rebuke of unkindness and cruelty in Washington,” Hamilton said, adding that Americans were tired of Trump’s chaos. The pastor-turned-politician referenced the parable of the Good Samaritan. “I figure I got six years. I’m going to do all I can to love boldly – I’m going to help us as a nation to love boldly – to serve joyfully and lead courageously,” he said.
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10. Roy Cooper, senator for North Carolina
“I’m not going to Washington to be something; I’m going to Washington to do something,” the former governor told supporters. “Tonight, we showed the country that when everyday people come together, we can make change.”
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11. Annie Andrews, elected to South Carolina.
“South Carolina, you have shown the nation what is possible. You have shown the nation that in this era of partisan divides, of vitriol and name calling, in a politics dominated by billionaires and special interest groups and insiders in Washington DC, that we will not bow down, that we will not back down, and we will chart our own course,” the pediatrician, who defeated Darline Graham.
Andrews called her candidacy a defense of South Carolina against external forces. “Tonight we here in South Carolina sent a clear message that this Senate seat does not belong to one family, one party, or to Washington DC.”
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12. Gina Hinojosa, new governor of Texas
“When I started this race, I asked `Is Texas by and for the people, or is this the billionaires world and we just live here?’ Does Texas belong to parents and their children, or the billionaires trying to dismantle our schools? Does Texas belong to farmers and ranchers who have worked this land for generations, or corporations trying to buy it up? Does Texas belong to working families who pay their taxes, or the wealthy and well-connected who play by different rules?’”
To each question, she said, Texas had answered “and we did not whisper…. Texas belongs to us.”
