Fresh from a sweeping set of victories in the US midterm elections, leading Democrats used election night remarks to sketch an agenda built around affordability, accountability and a rejection of divisive politics. Eleven prominent party figures, from congressional leaders to newly elected senators and governors, offered a glimpse of how Democrats intend to govern.
Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat set to become House majority leader, told a watch party in Washington DC that the vote was “a change election”. “We're going to fight to make sure that we make this country affordable for every single American,” he said. “Things are broken. We need a Congress that puts the American people first.” He also vowed to “bring accountability to those who have visited unprecedented corruption on this country”, saying officials focused on enriching themselves, their family members, friends or donors “are not focused on making life better for the American people”.
Chuck Schumer, the New York senator who emerged as the new Senate majority leader, said late Tuesday night that voters had “reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks”, producing “a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and on into the future”.
Former president Barack Obama said Americans had “sent a clear message” that they want “a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face”. He credited “outstanding candidates” who stepped forward in every region, including areas once considered long shots, united by “shared values, a belief in public service, and a commitment to putting the people of their districts and states first”.
Several Senate victors struck a populist note. Troy Jackson, who defeated senator Susan Collins as she pursued a sixth term in Maine, declared: “Trump and the billionaires need to understand one thing very clearly about your new senator: I don't owe them a damn thing.” In Texas, James Talarico told an election night party in Austin, the state capital and his home city, that the result proved “all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas” and that “a politics of division is no match for a politics of love”. “Power belongs to the people,” he told wealthy donors and defenders of what he called a broken political system.
Abdul El-Sayed, elected senator for Michigan, told a victory rally in Detroit: “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 also aimed a jab at JD Vance: “JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”
Amy Acton, elected governor of Ohio, told a victory party in Columbus that her campaign had been “a movement by and for the people”, dedicating the win to “every Ohioan who has longed for public servants again, who solve problems instead of making them and do not mistake kindness for weakness”. Deb Haaland, elected governor of New Mexico, said residents were “working hard, doing everything they're supposed to do, and yet we still struggle to get ahead”, and accused the president of enriching himself “beyond comprehension while working his hardest to make New Mexicans sicker, poorer and hungrier”.
Adam Hamilton, a pastor-turned-politician elected to represent Kansas in the US Senate, called the election “a rebuke of unkindness and cruelty in Washington” and said Americans were tired of Trump's chaos. Citing the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said: “I figure I got six years”, vowing to help the nation “love boldly” and to “serve joyfully and lead courageously”.
Roy Cooper, the former governor elected senator for North Carolina, told supporters: “I'm not going to Washington to be something; I'm going to Washington to do something.” Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who defeated Darline Graham in South Carolina, cast her win as a defense of the state against outside forces, saying voters had shown that “we will not bow down” and that “we will not back down, and we will chart our own course”. The Senate seat, she said, “does not belong to one family, one party, or to Washington DC”.
