Tuesday, Nov. 8, another Election Day came and went. A few days after all the ballots were cast, we finally got the senatorial results for all the states while there are still some congressional races to be called.
One of the biggest takeaways has been how well the Democrats — the incumbent party — have done. According to an article from CNN, this is the best an incumbent party has done in 20 years, and among one of the best turnouts for an incumbent party in the last century.
The Democrats are expected to keep the Senate and to lose the house by a small number, which is very uncommon for the party which had control of the legislative and executive branches.
A fair deal of credit for this goes to young voters, who voted for Democrats by a wide margin. Eighteen to 29 year-olds voted for Democrats over Republicans by a 28-point margin, along with the second-highest turnout for the age group in the past 30 years, according to an article from NPR.
There were still some close races like the Nevada senatorial race, the Arizona gubernatorial race and the Georgia senatorial race, which will go to a runoff election like it did in 2020.
The Arizona race for governor is notable not only for how close it was, but because Republican candidate Kari Lake came out with claims of a rigged election. Lake narrowly lost to Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate — after which Lake claimed the election was rigged.
Calling an election rigged is becoming more common in the Republican party, ever since former President Donald Trump infamously declared the 2020 election “stolen”. The former president has gained support from many other hopeful GOP candidates since then, who also claim the 2020 election was stolen.
Despite Lake’s loss, there are still a number of election-deniers who were elected. The house is projected to have 156 GOP members who questioned the results of the 2020 election, as well as nine senators who claimed foul play for the election, according to a CBS article.
It’s important to remember how these ideas and claims can affect the country. Denying the results of these elections and trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power — like what happened Jan. 6 — is fundamentally anti-American.
No matter who wins, it is our duty as Americans to uphold the true results of the election, whether we like who won or not, as we’ve done since our country’s inception.
