Democrats were quick to claim Tuesday’s election results as a resounding victory, indicating that Americans are dissatisfied with President Donald Trump. Such a claim is a vast oversimplification, lacking substantial grounding in reality. It’s typical Democratic performative antics and hyperbole. Sure, there may be some warning signs of voter contempt for Trump and Republicans. But for the most part, the election results were primarily a matter of maintaining the status quo, despite Democrats’ claims to the contrary.
Vice President JD Vance shared such sentiments in a post on X on Wednesday.
“I think it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states,” he said, before listing several points of feedback. However, Vance’s takeaway is important, and a narrative that was lacking in much, if not all, of Wednesday’s overreactions regarding the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. For example, consider the words of CNN commentator Van Jones.
“Buyer’s remorse is real. Independents gave Republicans a shot,” Jones posted on X after the election results. “Latinos gave Republicans a shot. Black men gave Republicans a shot. They all tried it — and now they’re coming home.”
“Tonight’s elections prove that people are tired of the status quo,” Jones said.
Let’s pump the brakes, shall we?
California voters, the state with the highest number of Democratic voters, voted for a Democrat-led initiative. New Jersey voters, a state with predominantly Democratic voters — who are so left-wing, they voted to keep Sen. Bob Menendez in office after multiple FBI investigations and indictments for corruption — voted for a Democrat as governor to succeed the Democrat who had just served two terms as governor. Then there was Virginia, a state where Glenn Youngkin won by less than 2% in 2021 and where voters have supported Democrats in five of the seven gubernatorial elections in the 21st century.
As for the election in New York City, does that really need an explanation? New York City has jokingly been referred to as the People’s Democratic Republic of NYC for years. It’s about time they officially confirmed that moniker.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats hailed the results of the state Supreme Court’s retention vote as a referendum, particularly on women’s rights, specifically the right to kill a child in the womb under the guise of sexual reproductive rights. Yet, in reality, ever since the retention vote was amended to Pennsylvania’s constitution in 1968, only one judge has not been voted to be retained — and even that was 20 years ago in 2005. It would have been a shock had the judges been voted not to be retained.
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Virginia’s state legislature did see a bit of a blue wave, and that might be cause for some concern, but it’s hardly a reflection of some vast political pivot among the electorate. And as for Jones’s comment about voters being tired of the status quo, Tuesday’s election arguably did nothing but uphold the very status quo Jones said people were tired of. Democrats voted for Democrats in states and cities where voters are predominantly Democratic. That’s not a rejection of the status quo, not even a little bit.
Are there lessons to be learned and warning signs for the 2026 midterm elections? Perhaps. But to label Tuesday’s election as some kind of national referendum against Trump and Republicans, that’s as honest as Sen. Chuck Schumer blaming the Mexican Navy training ship crash into the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on the Department of Government Efficiency — which is to say, not honest at all.