OPINION: The recent ‘earth-shaking’ General Elections across America

By Ivory Phillips

JA Contributing Editor

When the dust settled Tuesday night, November 3, 2026, Democrats gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, 254 to 166, with 15 races still undecided. They gained control of the U. S. Senate, 54 to 44, with 2 races still undecided. (It is worth noting Mississippi stole the headlines by Scott Colom coming in ahead of incumbent Cindy Hyde Smith – months earlier nobody gave him a chance.) 

Democrats gained control of 28 governorships, compared to 20 by the Republicans. In addition to those state offices, Democrats gained significant positions in many state and local races. 

The sweeping changes are referred to as not just a “Blue Wave,” but a “Blue Tsunami.” It was further impressive because it made history on so many fronts, such as, the elections of the first African American female governor (Keisha Lance Bottoms), the first Hispanic American governor (Gina Hinojosa), the first Native American governor (Deb Haaland), expanding the group of African American governors to five (Keisha Lance Bottoms, David Crowley, Byron Donalds, Aaron Ford, and Wes Moore), the first Arab American U.S. Senator (Abdul El-Sayed), and an unprecedented number of females in Congress and in judicial positions.

On the other side of the ledger, however, there was Angie Nixon’s loss in the Florida Senate race, Justin Pearson’s loss of his Tennessee House seat, and James Davis’ loss in the Senate race in Louisiana. These very high-profile races were noteworthy because in them one can see the hopes of Black voters in those areas being crushed as a result of Republican gerrymandering and the lack of significant national Democratic Party support.

Generally, the revolt of the people, so to speak, reflected two very positive patterns. 

(1) There was a definite statement made which rejected the idea that wealthy individuals can just buy elections. There were many cases wherein candidates with little money succeeded while those with wealthy donors failed. That was very positive because many everyday people had started to lose faith, feeling that money and power had been politically solidified, especially after the initiatives of Donald Trump this second time around. 

(2) The second pattern clearly reflected was that many people voted their preference of having their political bodies mirror their population rather than the ugly caricatures of the MAGA mafia. 

Nevertheless, as we celebrate the tremendous victories of last Tuesday, we must also keep our feet on the ground, our mind on the alert, and our eyes on the prize, lest we fall prey to disillusionment, surprises, and disappointments farther down the road. Remember that politically roads are often very short.

Along the line of being cautious and alert, we offer four pieces of advice; the first two to African Americans in general, and the last two for Mississippians in particular. 

The first precaution is to remember many people did not all of a sudden wake-up and become altruistic and humanitarian. Hispanics and other immigrant populations have been treated worse than trash by ICE and the Trump administration; African Americans in urban areas as well as in the rural south have seen Black lives lost; and the plight of the poor has been literally swept under the rug. All of this and more, many Americans tolerated without the revolt that we witnessed last week. 

In a similar manner, Trump and his administration have flaunted the law in many regards, but especially in terms of political decisions and the acquisition of wealth. Trump’s blatant authoritarianism many tolerated, even after the demonstration of such tendencies during his first term in office, without an active upsurge at the polls. 

To cut through the chase, it was only after the administration launched initiatives directly and drastically hitting their pocketbooks that we see the upsurge. Many Americans quote the scripture that, “man cannot live by bread alone,” yet that is what motivates many of them, first and foremost. We must keep this in mind going forward, lest we be led over some unforeseen cliff by modern-day Pied Pipers.

The second precaution is that in all future elections actually getting out the vote and strictly monitoring the registration and the balloting process are crucial to any victory. The more important are the issues, the more effort there must be in getting people informed and to the polls. Had Black and other progressive Mississippians been more aggressive in both regards, it would not have been a need to spend days counting affidavit and other votes. Scott Colom could be further along in planning his agenda for January 2027 in Washington, DC.

Third caution is that the state-wide organizing it took to get Colom, Bennie Thompson, and others in office must be continued and expanded. It will be critical as Black and other progressive state legislators return to the State Capitol in January. They need to organize against being gerrymandered out of the legislature. They also need to organize to protect and advance other matters of human rights and civil rights, matters such as medical care, adequate and equitable funding of public and higher education, support for public services and public employees in municipalities and rural areas, and the protection of all marginalized people. 

Finally, caution four is that public hearings need to be held across the country so that the constituents who staged this revolt can get policy ideas to congressional leaders as well as to state legislators. State and federal officials need to be ready on day one of the convening of Congress with comprehensive agenda items in hand, if not already in legislative proposal forms. These agenda items should then be publicly presented so that everybody knows what is being proposed. Furthermore, public pressure can be brought to bear if and when there is opposition from opposing legislators and if and when the president vetoes or threatens to veto these items which grew out of the revolt of the people. 

Clearly, then, organizing is the key. While there are professional organizers, such as the NAACP, One Voice, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ACLU, they cannot and should not be expected to do it all by themselves. Individual activists must join them. Democracy works best when our efforts are united, freely and unsparingly. At least that is what this writer takes away from the November 3rd election and has nurtured him since his days as a student protester, a JSU Faculty leader, and with groups such as the Black Student Union, the NAACP, SCLC, MASE, and MIRA.