https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/04/texas-democrats-blue-wave-no-spaces-short/
Gov. Greg Abbott, the most powerful and well-resourced governor in modern Texas history, was unseated by Gina Hinojosa.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in past elections cast off impeachment, indictment and infidelities, fell to James Talarico in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the iron-fisted ruler of the Texas Senate, went down to a little known state representative.
Republicans lost the attorney general’s office, one of the most influential conservative legal positions in the country. The new congressional map Republicans drew yielded them no gains — in fact, they lost one seat overall.
…nothing could have prepared either side for what happened Tuesday night — a full flip of statewide political control on a scale unseen in this state since Reconstruction
Elections in the US aren’t about if people like one candidate over the other as much as they are about attendance. Dems outnumber republicans. But republicans show up, Dems don’t.
If the Dems turn out, republicans loose.
So the rule of GOP evil for years has been keep their misdeeds subtle and dismissible. Crank up the heat gradually. Then trump came along and blew that up since he’s about as subtle as a tornado in a trailer park.
Now everyone understands the GOP tactics, the Dems have enough power to fight back, and many of the red voters won’t fall for the same tricks anymore.
The GOP just died.
One thing must be very clear: if the democrats fail to substantially improve living standards, the president after the next WILL be republican again.
They have a pretty clear path forward. They can’t fix everything easily but there are some huge wins that are easily doable and noticeable in this state. From there, it’s just a matter of chipping away at him over the rest. Considering the number of surviving republicans looking for a way to sell redemption to their constituents, the Dems are likely going to get plenty of cooperation this time around.
When the GOP falls, it’s not going to be a one party system, at least not for very long. What’s more likely to happen is the momentum from this election will want to pull Dems back to the left, eatablishment Dems will refuse and it wall cause the party to fracture.
Hard disagree, to improve living standards there are some very tough fights that need to be won - including a wealth tax (or any other form of redistribution of top .001% wealth), or breaking up of various monopolies. To achieve this, Democrats will need to make some very bold, very swift changes, the moment they install their own president.
The problem is that Trump pissed the rest of the world off so much that the rest of the world isn’t going to prop you up anymore. Over the next few years you’re going to lose your central role in international banking, your military contracts, your media dominance, etc. Things are going to be rough regardless of who’s in charge, and while we’re aware that that will mean that you’ll just elect another variety of populist authoritarian, we’ll be ready for it next time.
Exactly. They are putting pressure on us to deal with our shit rather than enable its bad behavior. Exactly like they should be doing.
Woah, that same thing was said back in 2008 when dems won the senate, the house, and the white house. They clearly didn’t die, the evolved to become even worse.
The current iteration of the GOP did, at least. Trump is toxic politically, but they’ve all been riding his dick for 10 years now. They’ll have to figure out a new way forward.
Yeah. It was initially thought that the collapse in 2008 was going to be similar to the ones in 1932 and 1968, but it turns out that the shift from Republicans to Democrats were more tied to demographics. A demographic cause to a shift in political power has generally been more dangerous to the republic.
Dems back then also still claimed repubs were blocking them from being able to do anything. It was pathetic.
…but it was true? Democrats did not have filibuster proof majority, except for a few months or something like that. And that only by the slimmest possible margins, with Joe Lieberman acting as spoiler sabotaging Obamacare.
Doubt.
They have a bad habit of coming back from the dead in an even more horrific version.
McConnell has an opinion on this he’s unable to express…for reasons.
They have a serious lacking of candidates with any charisma left. They’re too ghoulishly out of touch.
Trump was their most charismatic candidate (lol), and when he’s gone they have a bunch of unlikable dweebs who don’t even know how to pretend to be relatable.
The Republican party was in a very similar position in 2008, with Bush being toxic. Yesterday’s election is in fact being compared with the wipeout in 2008. And yet, the Republican party did not die in 2008.
Bush II campaigned on “no foreign adventures” and “no nationbuilding”, then went into Iraq and did exactly that. Along with all kinds of corruption and incompetence.
Don’t get me wrong, the Republican party absolutely deserves to die - anybody who votes for them is evil and an idiot. But recent history teaches us that pronouncing their demise can be premature.
It’s a little different now though because of how Trump committed various political sins. He was unapologetic. He doubled down. He was a dismissive jackass and a bully. He pulled every political trick republicans have always used, but the execution was so poor even his own base knew started to recognize what he was doing, like sexualizing candidates to make them seem more desirable to dumbfucks.
But he’s so loud and obvious there was never any chance to launder those behaviors into anything other than “Trump is a dumbass.” So next time the republicans try this shit, it will compared to Trump and dissected immediately.
Trump ruined it for all of them by being the worst political magician imaginable.
The GOP was dead when they stood behind Trump in his first impeachment. We just have to hope it completes dying before America does.
It will be interesting to see what they do between now and next year. Trump has his entire party looking for a redemption arc so the knives are out, nobody is doing him any favors now.
There is no final victory, just like there is no final defeat. We are fighting the same battles our parents fought and our children will struggle with the same. Just as it is important to learn from the past, we need to prepare the future as well.
Declaring victory is how we got Obama betraying the working class, which ultimately lead to Trump and the MAGA Republicans gaining power. We won the battle for the House and Senate, and now the battle will be between the Progressive and Centrist Democrats. If the Progressives are unsuccessful in making things better and holding MAGA accountable, the pendulum will once again swing back to fascism.
Yes and no. Democracy require never end vigilance, obviously. But specific dangerous political movements do actually often die. In Europe, political parties die and new are born all the time. The US is an anomality, with the current static 2 party system.
That’s why the #1 strategy of the GOP is voter supression. The easier voting becomes, the more they lose.