If you're a Democrat, it was a pretty good night. When all races are called, it looks like about a 30 seat majority controlling the house, all of the committees and chairs and the ability to block Trump's every move. There wasn't a lot of fanfare over the fact that the Dems flipped 7 state houses as well, including getting majorities in most of those legislatures and I heard several comments about getting redrawn congressional districts on those agendas right away. The Senate was a bit of a disappointment, though if you look at the number of seats the Democrats had to defend in red states, once all the ballots are counted and all the races called, it may be just a loss of two seats. Put in a numerical perspective, 21 Democrats were elected to the Senate last night by an average margin of over 16%, while 9 Republicans were elected by an average margin of 6%. Blue wave, yeah, enough to call it that.
From a personal perspective, for the first time that I can remember, every Democrat I voted for won. No senate race here, though back in Pennsylvania, I did send contributions to the Casey campaign and he won by a landslide. Illinois was a gubernatorial flip, and was responsible for a couple of the congressional district flips. The congressional district where I grew up in Arizona was also a flip to the Democrats and for some reason, Arizona stopped counting ballots at 75% and decided to wait until Thursday to count the rest, so the senate race, which was a dead heat, won't be called until 400,000 ballots from Maricopa County are counted.
Disappointment? Yes, that the African American gubernatorial candidates in the deep South didn't get across the finish line, though Georgia is also apparently still counting votes. That Beto O'Rourke didn't get elected, though he did a whole lot better than anyone expected and the voters he managed to get out helped pick up three congressional districts. He got the attention of the national progressive movement though, and he will be back.
The country is polarized. Legislatively, last night means gridlock, at least potentially. Or maybe orange hair, who is committed more to popularity than principle, will work with the Dems to get things done so he can take credit for it. Gridlock doesn't have to be a bad thing, especially with orange hair in the WH.