Across America, the GOP Dominates (Updated again)

The GOP victory on November 8, 2016 was historical in a multitude of ways. First, a little recap. At about 8:30 Eastern Standard Time Tuesday evening, when Trump took the lead in Florida, liberals started to get uneasy, if not nervous. Just before 9, when Trump’s lead in Florida was north of 100k votes, and he was shown to be performing well in Pennsylvania and Michigan, liberal commentator Peter Beinart tweeted out a “reality check:”

A little after 9, Trump had the lead in Virginia, and The New York Times election data guru Nate Cohn warned:

At about 9:30 Tuesday evening, election forecasts began to favor Trump. Closer to 10, women—and presumably men who pretend to be women (surely they were welcome to join in!)—in the ladies room of the Javits Center, headquarters of Hillary’e election night party, began to check on one another:

By 10:30, Trump was leading in Michigan and Wisconsin: 

By 11, Florida and Ohio had been called for Trump and for liberals, full-on panic began to creep in. Around 11:15, North Carolina was called for Trump. Near 11:30, when Ron Johnson was declared to have retained his U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, and Georgia was called for Trump, the election projections were overwhelmingly pointing to Trump. As of 1 a.m., according to 270towin, the electoral map looked like this:

For several hours, the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were closely watched. When Pennsylvania was called, it was over. Upon his inauguration, Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States. In addition to Trump’s historic victory, republicans also had strong showings in the U.S. House and Senate races. For months Democrats were given a better than even chance of taking control of the U.S. Senate. Republicans had to defend 24 seats while the Democrats only had to defend 10. With a four seat advantage, and only two narrow losses, the GOP retains a 52 to 48 Senate seat advantage.

And their prospects for keeping control of the U.S. Senate are excellent. In 2018, Senate democrats must defend 25 seats (plus uber-liberal Bernie Sander’s seat), while republicans must defend only eight. Of the 25 seats democrats must defend, 10 are from states Hillary lost, and four of those are from states Obama lost twice (Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia). In addition, the House is solidly republican.

However, while the overwhelming media coverage focused on the history made by president-elect Trump and the GOP hold on the U.S. Congress, other significant history was being made by the Grand Old Party. After Tuesday evening’s results, a stunning political outcome was revealed: At the national and state level, the GOP will soon control more of the U.S. government than at any other time in American history.

Going into the election, as the Washington Post noted, republicans occupied seats in 31 of 50 governor’s mansions. According to the Post, the GOP only needed to take one gubernatorial seat to set a modern-day record. They took three (with one—North Carolina—still in doubt). Republicans also won the last remaining legislative chamber in the south controlled by democrats: the Kentucky House. In addition, the GOP won control of the Iowa Senate, and per a likely favorable recount, the Minnesota Senate.

The wins in Kentucky and Iowa mean a political “trifecta” in those states: control of the governor’s mansion and both legislative houses. Upon swearing in next year, republicans will control every branch of government in 25 U.S. states. Entering Tuesday’s elections, democrats held the governorship, and both state houses in only seven states. That was their fewest number with such control since the Civil War, when there were 15 fewer states. After Tuesday’s results, democrats now hold total political control of only five states: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon and Rhode Island.

In short, as noted yesterday in The Washington Post, under the watch of Barack Obama and his like-minded liberal cohorts, the Democrat Party has been "decimated."

With Donald Trump getting to nominate at least one Supreme Court Justice (Scalia’s replacement), and likely a few more (Ginsburg and Kennedy are over 80), the GOP has an opportunity to entrench conservatism as never before in U.S. history. My advice: don’t blow it!

Update (courtesy of Townhall): More details on "The Total Destruction of the Democratic Party:"

Republicans today hold 31 out of 45 lieutenant governor offices – with three open-seat victories and two re-elections on Tuesday.

Voters reelected Dan Forest as lieutenant governor in North Carolina -- the first time a Republican has ever been re-elected to this office in state history. 

Spencer Cox was elected as Utah’s lieutenant governor, to continue leading in this role in the state, alongside Governor Gary Herbert. 

State Auditor Suzanne Crouch was elected as Indiana’s next lieutenant governor, alongside Governor-elect Eric Holcomb, currently the state’s lieutenant governor. 

Mike Parson, an Army veteran and current state legislator will succeed Republican Lt. Governor Peter Kinder as Missouri’s next lieutenant governor. 

Alongside Governor-elect Doug Burman, Brent Sanford was elected as North Dakota’s next lieutenant governor. 

[…] 

Republicans will hold as many as 31 out of 50 secretary of state offices after four pickups, with one reelection still pending a final call. 

Oregon voters elected Dennis Richardson as secretary of state last night, marking the first time in 14 years a Republican will hold a statewide office in Oregon and the first time in 20 years that a Republican will hold this secretary’s office. 

Voters flipped the secretary seat in West Virginia, electing Republican Mac Warner and ousting Democrat Secretary Natalie Tennant from the position. 

Jay Ashcroft was elected Missouri’s next secretary of state, winning the seat back from Democrat control. 

The secretary’s seat in Montana flipped from blue to red with the election of Corey Stapleton. 

Although the race has not yet been officially called, Kim Wyman is in the lead to be reelected as Washington state’s secretary of state for four more years. 

[…] 

State Legislative Chambers: 

Just seven weeks ago, Democrats staked a claim projecting a net pick up of a dozen chambers. So far today, Republicans have flipped three new chamber majorities and brought the deep-blue Connecticut Senate to a split chamber, depriving Democrats of that outright majority. We currently remain at 69 of 99 legislative chamber majorities – an all time record for the party. Results in many chambers are still being finalized. 

Flips: 

Kentucky House: Republicans won the majority for the first time in nearly 100 years, to now give Republicans complete legislative control in all Southern chambers. 

Republicans also defeated longtime Democrat Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, who had been in office since 1980. Now the GOP holds the trifecta in Kentucky: the governor, state House and state Senate. 

Iowa Senate: Republicans also completed a trifecta in Iowa, flipping the state Senate for the first time for outright control in 12 years. They also defeated Democrat Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, chair of the DLCC who had been in office since 1983, with a superior candidate in Dan Dawson. 

Minnesota Senate: Republicans gained six seats in the chamber and will take control of the chamber. They will now serve as a legislative partner to the state House, also under GOP control, to provide balance to the governor’s liberal agenda. 

Retained: 

Alaska House
Alaska Senate
Arizona House
Arizona Senate
Arkansas House
Arkansas Senate
Colorado Senate
Florida House
Florida Senate
Georgia House
Georgia Senate
Idaho House
Idaho Senate
Indiana House
Indiana Senate
Iowa House
Kansas House
Kansas Senate
Kentucky Senate 

Maine Senate: Republicans defended the majority in a chamber heavily targeted by national Democrats, where the GOP was outspent 2-1. 

Michigan House: This chamber was heavily targeted by Democrats as a top-10 offensive pickup opportunity. 

Minnesota House: This chamber was heavily targeted by Democrats to flip, including endorsements in local races by President Obama. 

Missouri House
Missouri Senate
Montana House
Montana Senate
New Hampshire House
New Hampshire Senate
New York Senate 

North Carolina House: Republicans maintained a chamber supermajority. 

North Carolina Senate: Republicans maintained a chamber supermajority. 

North Dakota House
North Dakota Senate 

Ohio House: Republicans gained enough seats in the supermajority to reach an all-time party high. 

Ohio Senate
Oklahoma House
Oklahoma Senate
Pennsylvania House
Pennsylvania Senate
South Carolina House
South Carolina Senate
South Dakota House
South Dakota Senate
Tennessee House
Tennessee Senate
Texas House
Texas Senate
Utah House
Utah Senate
Washington Senate
West Virginia House 

West Virginia Senate: Democrats heavily targeted this chamber which Republicans won for the first time since 1931 in 2014, but could not deliver the voters. 

Wisconsin Assembly: Republican gains will give the party its largest chamber majority since at least 1956. 

Wisconsin Senate: Republican gains will give the party its largest chamber majority since at least 1970. 

Wyoming House
Wyoming Senate 

The GOP controls of 66/99 of the state legislatures (Nebraska’s is unicameral). This is an all-time high. Check out the square miles of U.S. congressional districts under GOP control:

Update 2: It can now be safely said (as Rich Lowry points out in the New York Post), Obama's chief legacy is the total collapse of the modern Democrat Party.


Copyright 2016, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the brand new book The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com