Unruly Women Won the Midterms

I started watching Steve Kornacki’s Election Board livestream on YouTube with a full glass of wine at 5 p.m. PST on Tuesday, November 3, while starting to make my Election Night ritual pot of ragu. Rather than luck, I make ragu because it’s the kind of recipe that I can either focus on intently if in need of a distraction or ignore in favor of focusing on voting trendlines in a tight race. In the end, it’s a comforting meal that’s served me well these past ten years of Trumpian turmoil.

Truth be told, I had no idea what kind of night we were in for when I began dicing carrots as the first results of the night rolled in from Hamilton County, Indiana. Pundits predicted if the Democratic candidate, JD Ford, was down by just a little in this traditionally red district, we were in for a Blue Wave. I wanted to hope. But my hopes had been dashed on the rocks of a 3 a.m. tumbler of whiskey before. So, I held my breath.

At 5:09 p.m. with half the votes in, Ford wasn’t down by a little. 

He was ahead by 13 points.

What came next was a swell that even this Unruly Woman and surfer failed to imagine in my wildest dreams. And, as the night progressed, it became clear that more than Democrats, women were the election’s biggest winners. 

It began in earnest at about 6:30 p.m. when Keisha Lance Bottoms gave her MAGA opponent for Georgia Governor the political equivalent of a piledriver, beating him by nearly 10 points in a race many thought she would lose. For one, I was certain Bottoms would win. But I can’t say I had the same certainty about Dr. Annie Andrews, running for Senate in South Carolina. 

These lingering doubts were perhaps the reason that at two minutes to seven, I screamed “SHE WON!!!!!” at the top of my lungs, then did a Rocky-style lap around my house, yes, singing the theme song. My husband and sons high-fived me.

Returning to my ragu, I stirred constantly as the recipe and my nerves dictated while I watched Dr. Amy Acton’s tenuous lead over the odious Vivek Ramaswamy shrink while votes trickled in from rural Ohio. But holy Toledo, did Toledo deliver and once this industrial county’s ballots were tallied, I was singing “Hang on Sloopy,” the odd yet jovial theme song of my home state’s Buckeyes.

Finally, dinner was ready. And look. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t eat with my family, instead sequestering myself with what my children affectionately and adorably call “The Map Show.” Because, despite all the wins so far, I was waiting for Texas. Not for James Talarico, who admittedly is cute as a button, but for Gina Hinojosa, who was running against Greg Abbott for Governor. 

Abbott, 12 years in office, had already promised to redistrict Texas again if he won, potentially costing Democrats their Congressional majority. If Hinojosa won, she could veto those maps. In many ways, this whole election, and the fate of American democracy, came down to this one race.

Comparing Talarico’s numbers to hers, things were looking up, but rural counties were slower to come in than urban ones. I waited. I poured another glass of wine. I shoveled a plateful of pasta into my face. My husband started bedtime with the kids. 

Then, they called it. I took my earphones out, went into our bedroom where my husband and boys were snuggled up reading a book, and fell to my knees, weeping with joy and relief. 

We had done it. We had won. Women had won the most decisive election in my lifetime and saved democracy for our children, who encircled their arms around me. 

In the hours and days that followed, in electoral victory after electoral victory, the fact that women had won the midterms became ever more apparent. 

The 120th Congress will seat a historic number of women including three Congresswomen from Iowa, a state that has a total of four Representatives. Women secured Democratic trifectas in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania; flipped the state houses in Georgia and Texas; and broke the GOP supermajority in Nebraska, Ohio, Kansas, and New Hampshire. Women won Governorships in lean and solid Republican states including Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, and Michigan. They won a record number of races for Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Supreme Courts. And they absolutely transformed city councils and school boards from Florida to Washington. 

Up and down the ballot, women took on the toughest battles and beat the steepest odds. Behind them were 59 percent of all women voters, 70 percent of women between 18 and 29, 93 percent of Black women, and 74 percent of Hispanic women. 

To be sure, election night secured a mandate. But not for Democrats. America has finally called on Unruly Women everywhere to lead. God bless the United States.