Home / On the Results of the US Midterm Elections
On Tuesday 6 November, the people of the United States went to the polls to elect all 435 Members of the House of Representatives, 35 of 100 Senators, and 36 of 50 State Governors, and to decide numerous other local elections and statewide initiatives.
As a result, the Democratic Party gained 28 seats and took the majority in the lower House of Representatives. The Democrats also gained control of seven additional governorships, including in the crucial Upper Midwest states of Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
We commend the people of the United States for repudiating President Trump and the Republican Party, which, after two years advancing a radical-right political program designed around corporate profit at the expense of working people, again showed its true face by running the most openly racist, xenophobic and misogynist campaign in recent memory.
We particularly commend the election of an unprecedented crop of left-wing Democrats, led by Democratic Socialists of America members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, who respectively become the youngest woman and the first Palestinian-American ever elected to Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib will join a record number of newly-elected women and minority candidates to carry forward the progressive electoral revival led by Senator Bernie Sanders, whom we also congratulate for winning his re-election bid, again as an Independent, with 67.4% of the vote.
We also acknowledge that, despite these gains, the Republican Party expanded its control of the Senate and won its own share of important governorships, most notably in the crucial swing state of Florida. The balance of power in the United States continues to favor the right, and the battle going forward will continue to be difficult and punctuated by defeats, for the American people and indeed for the world, as we are all affected by Trump’s pro-corporate, militaristic and anti-climate policies.
The Party of the European Left reasserts its support for and willingness to participate in Bernie Sanders’ call for a Progressive International Front. Yesterday’s election serves as the latest reminder of the need for us to come together to defeat this new authoritarian axis that threatens the world. It also reminds us of the possibility for a progressive democratic response, against exploitation and hate, and for justice and equality for all.
