The voters delivered what Democracy Now called a “stunning rebuke.” Democrats regained control of both chambers of the legislature. It has happened only two other times in the last half-century.

Texas elected a Democratic senator for the first time since 1994 and its first Latina governor. Kansas sent a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. Maine unseated a five-term Republican. South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate in a result no one predicted. New Hampshire elected the first openly gay senator in its history. Ohio rejected a candidate who used his opponent’s childhood abuse in an attack ad.

The machine spent $474 million from one person. It spent $4.2 billion from the top. It sent 3,000 agents a day. It built a voter database. It sent lists that caught citizens. It filed lawsuits to block elections before they happened. It opened criminal probes against candidates. And the voters flipped both chambers anyway.

Seven court rulings said no. The Nobel Committee said no. Millions marched. And on Tuesday, more than 100 million Americans said no at the ballot box.

The machine is still in the White House. But it no longer controls the legislature. The voters took it back.

BREAKING

The Candidate the Machine Tried Hardest to Stop Became the First Muslim Senator in American History

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Senate race and became the first Muslim member of the United States Senate. Democracy Now devoted a full segment to his victory on Wednesday.

The machine threw everything at this race. A foreign lobbying group spent $9 million and timed the disclosure to land after the vote. A sitting Democrat from his own party endorsed the Republican two days before the election. The president held a rally for his opponent. A gift-card scandal made headlines from the same race. And El-Sayed won.

In the 24 hours after the betrayal, he raised $2.4 million. The voters heard the machine and chose the opposite. They sent a progressive, a doctor, a Muslim, and a first-generation American to the Senate.

The machine spent $9 million to stop him. His own party member endorsed the other side. The president came to campaign against him. And the voters sent him to the Senate anyway. That is what the machine cannot control: who walks through the door.

EXPOSED

The Country Elected Its First Black Woman as Governor — After “Over a Decade of Organizing”

Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected governor, becoming the first Black woman to hold the position in American history. Democracy Now devoted a full segment to her victory on Wednesday, calling it the result of “over a decade of organizing.”

The same election that sent a Muslim senator to Michigan, a Latina governor to Texas, a Native American woman governor to another state, and two democratic socialists to the House… also sent the first Black woman to a governor’s mansion.

This newsletter has tracked 92 issues of the machine at work: the revolving door, the donor class, the enforcement apparatus, the conflict, and the courts. This is the issue where the people who built the opposition walked through the door themselves.

The machine runs on money and power. The organizers ran on a decade of door-knocking. The organizers won.

DEVELOPING

Voters in Multiple States Approved Measures the Machine Spent Hundreds of Millions to Block

Voters in multiple states approved ballot measures expanding reproductive rights. Similar measures in Colorado and Washington are leading with votes still being counted. Democracy Now reported the results in its Wednesday headlines.

In California, voters weighed in on Proposition 40, the billionaire wealth tax. The billionaires spent $200 million to stop it. Alaska, North Carolina, and Nevada approved measures requiring identification or proof of citizenship to vote.

More than 150 ballot measures were on the table across the country. The voters did not just choose candidates. They chose policies. They wrote the rules themselves, in the spaces the legislature left empty.

The machine funds the candidates. The ballot measures go around the candidates. When the machine controls the legislature, the voters write the law directly. That is what 150 ballot measures in one election means: the public is no longer waiting for permission.

They rely on the shadows.
It’s time to turn on the lights.