How the Midterms Represent a New Age for American Beliefs

Last Tuesday, after the Democrats delivered a sweeping victory in the midterm elections, many Americans felt a sense of relief and hope for the future. Even a few months ago, this level of optimism seemed so out-of-reach. Countless people were losing faith in the notion that Americans still valued the core principle our country was built upon: democracy. Since 2016, Donald Trump has cast a long and destructive shadow on American democracy. Now with the midterms, the Democrats have fought back and secured a much-needed victory. 

But I’m not here to argue about why Democrats, including myself, are experiencing this cathartic feeling. Rather, I believe that the recent midterm elections shouldn’t just be a source for hope for Democrats, but for all Americans, no matter their political affiliation. The results of the midterms show that the general public still respects the pillars of liberal democracy. 

Trump has sought to undermine faith in elections for a decade now, starting in 2016. After his loss in the GOP primary in Iowa to Ted Cruz, he tweeted that either a re-election needed to occur, or the results needed to be nullified. Later that year in the general presidential election, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Even after winning the electoral vote and the election, he stated, “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Trump has continued in his efforts to delegitimize elections to this day, including the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. (This was ultimately a key component that contributed to the January 6th Capitol attack.) His tactics have also been adopted by other Republican candidates, like Republican Kari Lake of Arizona who claimed her win in the 2020 primaries was only due to her own supporters “out-voting the fraud.” 

So what makes the midterms so important in helping to strengthen America’s belief in elections? After Trump’s countless claims of voter fraud and rigged elections, it seemed that many of his supporters, and even non-supporters, became skeptical of electoral processes themselves. This is a dangerous idea: if Americans believe our elections—and in turn, our democracy—are illegitimate, what’s stopping them from denying every other amendment and law? While plenty still believe the midterms were rigged, this big win for the Democrats represents how voters have become suspicious of Trump’s claims and are no longer feeding into his desire to delegitimize the government. The scope of the win—Democrat Congressional candidates received a whopping 13% more of the vote than Republican candidates—made it difficult for even Trump to challenge the results. In fact, at first, on the phone with the New York Times while watching the election results roll out, Trump said that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the election. His subsequent claim of voter fraud seemed like a half-hearted Trumpian reflex that even FOX News didn’t take seriously. 

Along with allegations of voter fraud, attempts from billionaires to buy elections have largely defined our modern political landscape. According to PBS News, Elon Musk spent $445 million to support Republican candidates. More than a third of this was spent in an effort to help Republican Ken Paxton defeat James Talarico. That huge sum of money didn’t matter as Paxton didn’t just lose, but got crushed. (Talarico won 55% of the vote, compared to Paxton’s 43%.) After receiving the worst return on investment in the history of the midterms, Musk went to X with a post that read, “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time” in what was a lame and laughable attempt to save face after trying to threaten the integrity of our democracy. For the first time in over a decade, the American people pushed back decisively, showing that you can’t always buy votes. 

Musk’s bad investment has far-reaching implications. Not only have Americans shown that we can overcome money’s hold on politics, but also, we, mere mortals, have shown the tech billionaire class that they don’t hold all the power. In a time when wealth inequality is more apparent than ever, it is important that the American people decide what their values are. And after the midterms, we now know that we still value fairness in a democracy. Even though we have a lot of work to do, we now know that we’re (at least a little bit) on the same page.

Genevieve Eisner is a member of the class of 2030 and can be reached at geisner@wesleyan.edu.