President Donald Trump said that he wasn’t on the ticket and can’t be blamed for the poor Republican showing on Nov. 4. A majority of voters, however, begged to differ. They told pollsters that Trump and his policies were very much on their minds.
Voters sent a message to Trump and Republicans in Congress by voting against their candidates in significant margins. The Democratic candidate for the governor of New Jersey received 56.6% of the vote; for the governor of Virginia, 57.3% of the vote; for the three Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania, plus-61% each of them; for the mayor of New York City, over 50% in a three-way race; and Proposition 50 in California won with 64% of the vote. The margins were so large that even Trump had to admit that they lost, while not accepting any responsibility.
Virginia Democrats flipped 13 House of Delegates seats. New Jersey Democrats flipped three State House seats. Mississippi Republicans lost their super-majority when Democrats flipped two seats in their State House, and Democrats won two statewide seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission — the first time since 2006.
Turnout broke records, even in California, where there was just one item (Proposition 50) on the ballot; almost 10 million voters showed up. Voters were motivated, and, as during the No Kings protests, Americans showed up.
Trump and his Republican supporters must have thought that Americans were not paying attention over the last 10 months. It was like they thought they could give tax cuts to the rich while increasing taxes for the rest of us in the form of tariffs, form a secret police force to intimidates U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, tear down parts of the historic White House, hold parties at Trump’s resorts while keeping food from American children, cancel federal funding for programs like the tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey and the wind farms off the East Coast, cover up Trump’s involvement with a serious pedophile, make life a living hell for trans kids, and we would not notice.
Republicans thought they were the untouchables. Democrats, however, reached out and grabbed them by the seat of their power.
A recent CNN poll found that 67% of registered Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents say they are highly motivated to vote in next year’s midterm elections, compared with only 46% of Republicans. If those numbers hold up and Democrats turnout like they did last week, both the House and the Senate will flip to the Democrats.
The majority of Americans are tired of watching ICE agents separate a dad from his 2-year-old son for not having proper identification and then driving the toddler away in an unmarked vehicle. We are tired of watching ICE agents pull teachers and children from their schools. How do they sleep at night? Americans can imagine how they would feel if these were their children and took those feelings to the polls on Nov. 4.
The Trump administration is using ICE to target anyone who looks Hispanic or has dark skin. Is there any wonder why Democrat Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey won Hispanic voters 68% to 31% and Democrat Abigail Spanberger won Hispanic voters 67% to 33%? Republicans can kiss the Hispanic vote goodbye in 2026.
Multiple sources have documented that at least 170 American citizens have been violently arrested in error by ICE agents during their anti-immigration operations. In many of these arrests, citizens have been injured as ICE agents employ unnecessary physical force, pepper spray or, in one example, breaking the ribs of a 79-year-old by pressing their knees into his neck and back.
Americans are upset and disgusted by Trump’s police tactics of intimidating ordinary Americans. Republicans are allowing him to do these things with their silence. This is why Republicans lost by such large margins on Nov. 4.
Trump came into office 10 months ago, promising to be a boon to the U.S. economy with more jobs and lower prices. Instead, the only folks benefiting from Trump’s economy are the rich with large tax cuts. For everyone else, layoffs are the highest they’ve been in more than 20 years. A Thursday report from the firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas shows job cuts last month (October) increased by more than 153,000, up 175% from October of last year under President Joe Biden. In total, companies have announced more than one million job cuts in 2025, up 65% from the same time period last year under Biden.
Trump says that we are all wrong and that the economy is excellent. He also said he has cured inflation, that gasoline is $1.98 per gallon, and that his tariffs are making us rich. Americans know better, and that is why Republicans lost.
Republicans lost because Americans are tired of their cozy relationships with people like Nick Fuentes, a well-known white supremacist, anti-Jewish, Holocaust-denier and pro-Hitler Republican. Fuentes should be condemned by all Americans, but has been frequently elevated by many prominent Republicans, like Tucker Carlson, who gave him a two-hour interview.
Most Americans were appalled by the comments of Vice President JD Vance, stating that the antisemitic and pro-Hitler remarks by Republican officials aged 18 to 40 were “kids doing stupid things.” His lack of condemnation speaks to the tolerance, if not acceptance, of these beliefs within the Republican Party. It also reflects on the future of the Republican Party as these young MAGA party officials move into leadership roles.
I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again: Why do these people feel at home within the Republican Party? Most Americans understand why, and that is why Republicans lost.
Americans are tired of a small minority of parents, like Moms for Liberty, pushing their culture wars into our schools. Other parents pushed back and kicked many of them off school boards in places like Bucks County, Pennsylvania; Douglas County, Colorado; Cy-Fair, Texas; and Albuquerque and Denver.
In Houston, Texas, where conservatives held a 6-1 majority on the Cypress-Fairbanks school board, progressive candidates won and now have a 4-3 majority. Americans are tired of the book bans and anti-vaccine stances of Republican school board members.
Republicans have been waging an anti-gay, anti-trans campaign for the past 10 months, including the Republican nominee for Virginia governor, who made this her central campaign — ignoring the economic struggles of voters — and this is why Virginians voted for the Democratic candidate with over 57% of the vote.
Americans are tired of seeing the rich get tax breaks while school lunch programs, along with SNAP funding, are cut. That is why, in Colorado, a majority of voters increased taxes on the rich to pay for free school meals for all public school children.
Even some Republicans are tired of being associated with a political party that covers up the evidence of sexual abuse of underage girls. David Shuster, formerly from CNN and Fox News, posted on his X account last Wednesday that “a few GOP House members say they’ve heard from FBI/DOJ contacts that the Epstein files are worse than Michael Wolff’s description of Epstein photos showing Trump with half-naked teenage girls” sitting on his lap. Worse? No wonder Republicans in Congress are working so hard to hide those files.
Trump and his supporters in Congress are hiding evidence of child trafficking and sexual abuse by the rich and powerful, and this is why Republicans lost last week. When the files are finally released, Republicans will have some explaining to do, which is why they are going to lose the midterms in November 2026.
Tom Zirpoli is the Laurence J. Adams Distinguished Chair in Special Education at McDaniel College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.
