Much remains to be concerned about in this country: the illegal alien invasion of America across our southern border; the worsening supply crisis which is leaving grocery shelves bare; the lack of new cars on new car lots and used cars which now cost a quarter more than they did a year ago; the rising cost of gasoline; an increase of 111.59% during 2021 in propane; a vaccine mandate that will worsen the already anemic job market; the teaching of divisive Critical Race Theory ideas to school children; the very real threat that terrorists have entered this country through the southern border and on Biden’s evacuation planes from Afghanistan; and a president* who is obviously suffering from dementia, falling asleep at important meetings with foreign dignitaries, stumbling his way through speeches, and often saying things like “They told me to call on the AP reporter first” or “I’ll get in trouble if I take any questions.” Americans — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats — alike are getting angry. And they are acting upon that anger.
On Tuesday, in elections around the country, we saw a ray of hope. The biggest and most touted, of course, was the sweep of the state offices of Attorney General, Lt. Governor, and Governor in Virginia. Glenn Younkin is the governor-elect; Winsome Sears, a black woman and daughter of an immigrant is the new Lt. Governor; and Hispanic Jason Miyares is the Attorney General —Republicans all! In addition, Republicans also handily gained control of the Virginia House of Delegates, giving Younkin a clear mandate to carry out his campaign promises to Virginians. Strangely, the completely diverse team of Younkin, Sears, and Miyares (a white man, a black woman, and a Hispanic) was called the result of “white supremacy” by several media sources. (The left just can’t allow a black man or woman, especially one in the public eye, to continue to support Republican ideas. So Princeton professor Michael Eric Dyson joined Joy Reid this week to smear Winsome Sears with the most despicable, racist things they could come up with. Dyson quipped, “The problem here is they want white supremacy by ventriloquist effect. There is a black mouth moving but a white idea running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimates the white supremacist practices.”). But average Americans aren’t buying their racist garbage.
In New Jersey, a deep blue state, things remain tight although the Governor’s race has been called for the Democrat. If that holds as mail-in ballots are counted, and a possible audit doesn’t change the outcome, Governor Murphy will have beaten his less known Republican opponent by less than 1%. In addition, Edward Durr, a Republican truck driver, has taken the seat of long time New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney to complete a sweep of District 3 as two GOP candidates, Bethanne McCarthy and Beth Sawyer flipped the district’s Assembly seats. (In true Democrat fashion, Sweeney has refused to concede and has discovered a box of several thousand uncounted ballots. Who would have guessed?) The three raised and spent about $10,000 in comparison to the more than a million dollars spent by the defeated Democrats. Durr spent $153 of his own money and filmed his campaign ad on an Iphone.
Also in New Jersey, a 19-year-old high school graduate, Nicholas Seppy, whose 2020 senior year was ruined by COVID-19 shutdowns, defeated an incumbent school board member by 17 points. Seppy says he want “to give them [parents] a voice on behalf of their children.”
In Ohio, Republican Mike Carey won a Special Election for the seat in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District.
Forest Hills Local School District in Southwest Ohio, replaced all three school board members up for reelection with new people as the parents raged against the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the schools.
Lakota School District, also in Ohio, replaced the three school board members running for reelection following some alleged campaign funding wrongdoing by the incumbents and the ouster from a school board meeting of United States Senate candidate Josh Mandel after he had spoken out against mask mandates.
In Colorado, teachers’ union-backed school board candidates won in some major cities, but candidates backed by Republicans replaced incumbents in several Colorado Springs districts, the Greeley Evans School District 6, as well as some smaller districts.
A conservative “Kids First” slate of candidates in Douglas County, Colorado replaced two incumbents, installing a new board majority that promises to listen to parental input on what goes on in their schools. This was a hotly contested race because this county had seen some heated debates during school board meetings.
In Minneapolis, voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to replace the police department with some as of yet undefined social organization.
In Buffalo, democrat socialist and “defund the police” proponent India Walton had defeated incumbent Mayor Byron Brown in the primaries, but he defeated her as a write-in candidate. Brown is in. Defund the police is out.
On Long Island, New York, Republicans flipped district attorneys’ races in Nassau and Suffolk counties as they focused their campaigns on the Legislature’s move to limit judges’ abilities to set cash bail for minor charges.
In Seattle, Republican Ann Davidson won the city attorney’s race in a deep blue city. Her opponent advocated not only abolishing the police, but also jails and prosecutions for misdemeanor offenses. She also professed hatred for the police.
Pro-police Republican Nicole Ziccarelli won the District Attorney spot in Westmorland county, PA, which hasn’t seen a Republican DA in decades, although the county had gone for President Trump 63% to 35% in the 2020 election.
This was an off-year election, so there were not as many races to look at, but although a few progressives won mayoral races or were reelected to other positions, by far, progressives, the far-left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democrat Party which seems for now to be running the show, lost out to Republicans or to moderate Democrats. Joe Manchin warned Democrats that the United States is a moderate/right leaning country and they castigated him for it. But he is right. The vast majority of Americans, those who do not drive a Lexus and send their children to private schools, value America’s greatness as a nation, accept her faults, and love her anyway. They cherish liberty, sing the National Anthem standing, hands over their hearts, and salute the flag as a flag of freedom. They are no socialists nor Marxists, nor do they want their children to be. They want any bad apples out of police departments, but they want police to protect them, arrest criminals, and they want DAs and judges who will mete out punishment, not “get out of jail free” cards. And they spoke loudly and clearly in this off-year election, especially in Virginia, the home of many government employees.
Don’t lose hope. This is only the beginning. The best is yet to come!