Texas turned blue.
Democratic victories in the Lone Star State Senate and governor’s race, as they ran the table on other statewide offices, is the most extraordinary event in a midterm election packed with extraordinary events, as the party captured unforeseen big majorities in both houses of Congress, while shattering decades’ worth of conventional wisdom about the politics of red states and blue.
Mark Z. Barabak, star political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, returned to Newsmakers TV on Thursday to break down the Texas shocker, as he offered analysis, insight and judgment about the most sweeping and consequential midterm since the 1974 Watergate election that followed Richard Nixon’s scandal-ridden resignation.
While Democratic Senate wins in deeply red South Carolina, Kansas and Mississippi — Mississippi! — rank high on the list of dramatic surprises, the long-standing role of Texas as the unshakeable foundation of national Republican politics - the equivalent of California for the Democrats - made the historic sweep there the most momentous wave roaring amid the party’s coast-to-coast blue tsunami on Tuesday, Barabak said.
Sifting the debris of Trump’s shattered political base, he also looked ahead to discuss the challenges Democrats now face in proving to voters that they deserve support and in following through on promises to install a more just and serious form of governance in Washington.
“The Dems have an opportunity,” California journalism’s most canny pundit said, “not a mandate.”
Check out our conversation with Mark Barabak via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
Image: Donald Trump’s favorite newspaper reported the news of his repudiation in Tuesday’s election.