Democrats significantly outperformed in elections this week, but the media ignored it while overhyping Trump
You’ve seen the same headline dozens of times this week, from different major news outlets on the left and right: JD Vance’s win in the Ohio Republican primary race means that Donald Trump still controls politics. Of course in reality, 70% of Republicans voted for someone other than the candidate Trump told them to vote for, suggesting his influence is fading even within the Republican base.
Even as the media was busy this week insisting that Trump is powerful, the real story is that it was the Democrats who outperformed in elections this week. Check out these results:
To be clear, these are actual gains that the Democrats made this week against the Republicans, in comparison to the results in the same seats in 2020. When four out of the five races show gains for the Democrats, and two of the five show major gains, that’s a good sign for Democratic Party enthusiasm and turnout. It’s something to build winning momentum upon.
This is the kind of thing we have to focus on, even as the media (on the left and right) begs us to sit home and stare helplessly at our screens while they tell us that Trump and the Republicans have somehow already won the midterms. MSNBC, CNN, and Twitter aren’t the real world. Out in the real world, the numbers show that Trump struggled to get Republican voters to listen to him this week, even as the Democrats made major gains this week. Let’s put in the work and win more upcoming elections.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report