By Kanach Peterson
Election day in the United States have come and gone but not without Democrats winning big in key elections in states such as Virginia and New Jersey. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was also victorious in his mayoral election. This is Democrats first big bounce back since Donald Trump’s election and a boost in their odds for the 2018 midterm where the US and senate will be ripe for the taking.
In Virginia, Ralph S. Northam a physician and Army Veteran won a triumphant victory for governor overcoming his opposition the republican Ed Gillespie. Northam clinched the election with a bigger margin than most democrats expected finishing at 9 percentage points above the opposition, the biggest win for a Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia in decades. Ed Gillespie has been in the spotlight of controversy more than once. Gillespie shared multiple talking points with Donald Trump which many Democrats thought would increase his voter turnout on Tuesday. But in truth, his similarities to Trump politics were his downfall. Ralph Northam referenced this in his victory speech where he stated, “Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry, and to end the politics that have torn this country apart.” This is referring to several ads put out by the Ed Gillespie campaign advising against sanctuary cities, drawing from people’s disdain towards protesting NFL players, and the preservation of confederate monuments. However, Gillespie’s loss had multiple factors almost guaranteeing its occurrence. Gillespie’s fondness and use of Trump politics in his campaign only hurt his chances of becoming governor in a Virginia that went blue in November. This made it easy for Northam to capitalize on the people’s disdain towards Trump and by association, Gillespie.
This was Democrats first big test in their quest to bounce back from Trump’s presidency, and they passed it with flying colors. Democrats responded with a boom around the country winning several defining elections along with firsts in politics. Danica Roem, a former journalist, defeated Republican candidate Bob Marshall making her the first openly transgender person to hold a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates. Roem led by 9% against Bob Marshall who is seen as the most Anti- LGBTQ politician in America. Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham also made history on Tuesday, both becoming the only black and openly transgender members of city council of a major U.S city. Both candidates won seats on the city council of Minneapolis. After this election day we have learned one thing, that Democrats are beginning to act politically on their disdain for President Trump and his beliefs.
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