Democrats Celebrate Elections Except...

The November 8, 2022 elections were a major victory for Democracy, Decency, Freedom, Knowledge, and the Working and Middle Classes.

All the election deniers lost their quests for the Governorship and Secretary of State's in the battleground states that President Biden and Vice President Harris won in 2020.

Reproductive Freedom prevailed through several ballot initiatives including in Political Prince of Darkness Mitch McConnell's Kentucky.

The Democratic Party, whose members are the ones actively working for reality and to uplift the working and middle classes, beat history and maintained their control in the United States Senate, minimized their losses in the House of Representatives, increased their number of held Governorships, and expanded their membership in some state legislatures.

Most important, the people turned out and said yes to Democracy and no to Trump's Authoritarian Republicanism.

That is great news.

Democrats exceeded the expectations of most pundits and "experts" who foresaw a Trump Republican wave in this year's elections because they had a good story to tell (the achievements of the Biden/Harris Administration) and a cause (Democracy and Freedom) to fight for.

However, while the results in Arizona and the country were great at the top ticket statewide races and in some legislative races like in Michigan, results on some statewide races in Arizona and across the country remind everyone that more work needs to be done to make sure voters pay attention to all the candidates on the ballot.

Take the House of Representatives for example. It is entirely possible that the Democrats could have maintained control of that chamber if swing voters had not bought the bull fecal matter coming from Trumpists ads about crime and voted for Republican candidates in states like New York.

It is also important to note that the election deniers that did win, did so in safe House Republican seats, making that caucus more fringe than it already is.

Turning specifically to Arizona. While it is wonderful that Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontes, and Mark Kelly beat the Trumpist trifecta of Kari Lake, Mark Finchem, and Blake Masters, voters for some reason, switched ballots for Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Arizona Corporation Commission.

This is a total mystery.

Kris Mayes, Kathy Hoffman, Sandra Kennedy, and Lauren Kuby are far superior candidates to their opponents.

Kris Mayes's opponent, Abe Hamadeh is a Trumpist election denier who would prosecute physicians who perform abortions. This race, with Mayes leading right now by a small margin, is probably going to a recount.

Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, who ably presided over the state's schools during a pandemic and worked to increase funds for schools and teachers, has actually received more votes than her election victory in 2018. Unfortunately, her opponent, former Superintendent Tom Horne, a person that lied about how his test scores compared to current results, voted to reinstate the teaching certificate of an individual who watched porn in the classroom, and defended his association with a known sexual predator, is currently leading this contest. This race is also probably going to a recount.

The opponents Sandra Kennedy and Lauren Kuby faced for the Corporation Commission are not exactly friends of clean energy. One of them said communities ravaged by the coal industry should have to fend for themselves to recover and rebuild. What a guy.

The Republicans also appear to have had their wishes granted (at least for this cycle) with redistricting as Schweikert and Ciscomani edged out Hodge and Engel in their House Races.

The Democrats also did not make any advances in the State Legislature. They held their 29-seat number in the House but appear to have lost a seat in the State Senate. What is worse is that the new Republican members of the next Legislative session (including returning member Wendy Anti Semite Rogers and new arrival Justine Elvira Wadsack) can be called either the Insane Caucus or as Blog founder Michael Bryan wrote, "Free to be Dumb" Caucus.

Voters as well as local, state, and national Democratic leadership need to do a better job at educating voters on all races just not the top-of-the-ticket ones.

If voters had treated all races as equally important, it is a good bet that there would be no discussion of recounts for the Mayes and Hoffman races.

There may also have been different results in the Corporation Commission, Congressional, and State Legislative contests.

2022 was a great year for Democrats. It will be better if candidates like Kris Mayes and Kathy Hoffman emerge victorious after likely recounts.

2024 can be better if Democrats still have a good story to tell and if voters and party leaders remember to promote all the Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.