Death knell for the Trump era has rung |
I moved to Ireland in the autumn of 2008, weeks before Barack Obama’s election as US president. Having come here partly to escape George W Bush’s United States, I found myself celebrating Obama’s victory with many Irish people who, it turned out, shared my obsession with American politics. On the Wednesday after the election, I was surprised to discover just how many others here had lost sleep watching its results. I didn’t experience the same sense of collective elation again until last Wednesday morning when the results of the midterm elections became clear.
If 2008 promised the arrival of a new United States with the election of an African American president, 2026 saw that promise realised. The midterms brought the election of the first Muslim and first Native American woman to the US Senate, the first Latina governor and of more black governors than had been elected in the country’s history, including the first African American woman. Democrats won by reassembling the Obama coalition, winning back young voters and Latinos while turning out African Americans in large numbers.
These midterms repudiated Donald Trump just as thoroughly as 2008 did Bush. The scale and geography of the Democratic victory was staggering. Since 2024, the swing towards Democrats is estimated to be around 15 points, the largest since 1974 when the Watergate scandal discredited Republicans. Despite all the gerrymandering in the run-up to the election, Democrats stand to have an advantage in the House of Representatives not too far off two Democrats for every Republican. They regained control of the Senate too, flipping at least seven seats and possibly nine (it may be some time before we have the results in Alaska and Mississippi). Democrats won in states where they have rarely been........