Anticipated to be a Red Wave, the November 8 elections turned out to be more of an orange puddle; the GOP won control of the House of Representatives by the narrowest of margins, and many of the MAGA candidates backed by former President Donald Trump were rejected at the polls. Nowhere were the reasons for optimism more apparent than in the following Midwestern states.
Illinois
Voters handily approved an amendment to protect the right of workers to “organize and bargain collectively,” including a prohibition on so-called right-to-work laws. Jonathan Jackson, the son of the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., was elected to a seat in Congress after winning a competitive Democratic primary in June. Delia Ramirez, a state lawmaker who has pushed for LGBTQ+ rights, also won a seat in Congress.
Michigan
Democrats won re-election in races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state against an array of extremist Trump-backed Republican challengers. They also flipped control of both houses of the legislature, putting Dems in charge of state government for the first time in forty years. And voters in the Wolverine State approved two important state constitutional amendments—one to protect a “fundamental right to vote,” including early voting and the availability of ballot drop boxes; the other to affirm “that every individual has a right to reproductive freedom.”
Minnesota
Democrats clinched control of not just one but both houses in the state legislature, while holding on to the offices of governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. In Congress, progressive incumbent Angie Craig won a race that was considered a toss-up against a challenger backed by Trump. And voters in Minneapolis elected career public defender Mary Moriarty, who has called for diverting people from the criminal justice system, in a nonpartisan county attorney race against a candidate with a lock-’em-up message.
Ohio
In a state that delivered a U.S. Senate seat to Trump-backed GOP contender J.D. Vance, voters managed to elect progressive Cincinnati City Council member Greg Landsman to a seat in Congress. Landsman called for hiking the minimum wage, strengthening worker and union protections, and codifying the right to reproductive choice at the federal level.
Wisconsin
Republicans in this heavily gerrymandered state retained firm control of the legislature, and Democrat Mandela Barnes, an occasional contributor to The Progressive, failed to oust the singularly unqualified U.S. Senator Ron Johnson. But the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, survived a challenge from an extreme right businessman, and Dems also held on to seats for attorney general and secretary of state, offices seen as key to making election-rule changes that would benefit Republicans.