Election Decompression
The good, the bad, the next right step
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How y’all doing?
The 2022 midterms have been a wild ride thus far. Ballots are still being counted, but here’s what we know so far.
The 2022 election was a referendum on abortion. Five states codified abortion rights and protection into law. It turns out that bodily autonomy matters to people.
Young voters showed up (and saved our assess). Were it not for youth turnout the so-called red wave would have been a real wave. Young voters are organized and engaged.
We gained local ground. Democrats gained state control of four state governments Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Progressive policies are winning. Around the country, we saw major progressive wins on everything from minimum wage (DC, Nebraska, Nevada) to the right to organize (Illinois) to legalizing cannabis (Maryland and Missouri) to expanding voting rights (Connecticut, Michigan) to Equal Rights Amendment (Nevada) to protecting abortion rights (Vermont, Michigan, Kentucky, California, Montana) to expanding Medicaid (South Dakota). Woo!
The big lie lost. Every gubernatorial candidate who said they wouldn’t have certified Biden’s victory in 2020 LOST tonight (AZ has yet to be called, but Hobbes has a gigantic lead over Lake).
History was made. Maura Healey (first openly gay person AND first woman to be elected Governor of MA), Maxwell Frost (the first Gen Z US House member, representing FL -10), Wes Moore (first Black Governor of Maryland), Summer Lee (first Black woman elected to Congress from PA), Anthony Brown (first Black Attorney General of Maryland), Becca Balint (first woman elected to Congress from Vermont), Zaynab Mohamed (youngest woman elected to Minnesota Senate), Ruwa Romman (Georgia’s first Muslim woman in the state house and first Palestinian ever elected to any public office in the state), James Roesener (first openly trans man to be elected to a state legislature in the U.S), Zooey Zephyr (Montana’s first openly trans woman in the state’s legislature), SJ Howell (first nonbinary person elected to the state legislature in Montana), Leigh Finke (first trans person elected to the Minnesota state legislature). Give them their flowers!
It wasn’t a red wave, it was a trickle. Thanks to the relentless organizing efforts by BIPOC, women and young folks, we held our ground and staved off what would have been a devastating minority takeover. But our work is not done. Holding electeds accountable, fighting gerrymandering, protecting voting rights and restoring democracy is the long game toward building a progressive future for #allofus
We’re gathering tomorrow night for some election decompression and to explore what’s next and where we go from here. Join us!
Kerri (she/her)
Art by @shopsocialgoods
The 2022 midterms confirmed a new reality about American congressional elections: Whoever controls the courts could well choose the winners. How the Supreme Court Likely Handed Control of the House to Republicans. [click to tweet]
Farther down the ballot, progressive candidates and ballot measures supported by progressive organizations rolled to one victory after another. Don’t Let the “Red Ripple” Overshadow the Local-Level Progressive Victories. [click to tweet]
Voters rejected some of the biggest-name election deniers, even as extreme maps may help the GOP win the House. A Democracy Crisis Was Averted. But Gerrymandering Could Still Save the GOP. [click to tweet]
Leading up to the midterm election, strategists publicly worried that a laser focus on abortion could backfire for Democrats. It turns out abortion rights win elections. [click to tweet]
“I mean there’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers–at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.” A Few Rules For Predicting The Future by Octavia E. Butler. [click to tweet]
Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. It is a muscle that needs to be worked out and nourished everyday. The threats to our democracy have real consequences the lives of millions of Americans. Partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression cost us critical elections in 2022. And yet this is the third cycle in a row that Democrats have outperformed expectations (and in many cases, outvoted voter suppression). Imagine what we could do if we actually had a voting rights act, the end of gerrymandering and campaign finance reform? The mandate for tomorrow is to protect each other at all costs, to hold our elected officials accountable to leading for the many, to defending our democracy so that we the people can shape our futures. The mandate for tomorrow is to keep going and fight for the future that we all deserve.
Art by
Leaving the last word on the revolution to Angela Davis:
The electoral process is something that should be utilized. It’s not something that should be seen as the solution. Because I don’t think that simply by changing the faces and changing the figures in the government there’s gonna be any kind of fundamental change. When we talk about a revolution, we’re talking about a fundamental change in the system, a complete and total overthrowing and transformation of the system. I feel like the electoral process is significant in the sense that it serves to measure the level of consciousness that Black people and people of color and white people, as well, have achieved. Angela Davis
Art by @nataleecooper
Thank you to the organizers, poll workers, candidates, canvassers, and to YOU. For showing up and caring.
Art by
CTZNWELL is community powered and crowd-sourced. That’s how we keep it real. Please consider joining us on Patreon for as little as $2/month so that we can keep doing the work of creating content that matters for CTZNs who care.
Thanks for the election recap and sharing my artwork out!