OPINION:
On the same day that Ohio voters enshrined voter ID into their state constitution by a giant 65-35 margin, Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate in the state were defeated.
It is a twisted accomplishment — achieving a significant Republican policy win even as the party’s actual candidates were rejected by the same voters — but that was a recurring theme of the 2026 midterms.
In Tuesday’s elections, Republicans suffered an epic beating, turning both chambers of Congress over to Democrats, who now hold large majorities.
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The results, however, had some oddities that tell us a lot about the attitudes of the people who turned out. They voted in favor of right-of-center ballot questions in many states, as in Ohio, yet they also elected Democrats statewide in those same places.
By a 25-point margin, Nevada voters likewise added voter ID to their state constitution while tossing out Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in favor of Democrat Aaron Ford by 7 percentage points.
In Kansas, voters approved a constitutional amendment clarifying that only U.S. citizens may vote, by a massive spread of 64% to 36%. Although this conservative box was checked, Kansans elected Democrat Adam Hamilton to the U.S. Senate by a 5-percentage-point margin, replacing underwhelming Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
In North Carolina, voters approved two constitutional amendments to limit property and income taxes, and another one to expand voter ID requirements to all voters, not just those who vote in person. While this was happening, Democrat Roy Cooper was beating Republican Michael Whatley for Senate by nearly 20 points.
All this tells us two clear things. First, conservative ideas won the arguments in many states, and voters cemented them in state constitutions. Second, those same voters are angry and either abstained from voting in certain races or backed Democrats over the Republicans.
It was a terrible landscape for Republicans all along, which everyone knew for months leading up to Nov. 3, but Democratic candidates still had to be palatable to right-of-center voters to make the electoral blowout happen.
They did it by running as Republicans. The blue wave became a tsunami because it reached previously untouchable red states and districts through candidates who campaigned, in effect, as moderate Republicans.
Democrats obfuscated on the question of taxes by claiming they opposed the entirety of President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut Act but supported the tax cuts contained within it. They complained about the cost of gasoline while glossing over the fact that high fuel prices are a policy goal of theirs as leftist environmentalists.
Some even feigned regret over President Biden’s open-border policies, though they never uttered a word about them when they were happening.
They do not believe any of those things, so even as they prepare to take over the legislature in January, they are still trying to hide the ball.
On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said that “the American people don’t want us to get even” with Mr. Trump; “they want us to get things done on their behalf.”
Yet even as he said this, the rabid left gave away the lie, because retribution is definitely in their plans. Rep. Robert Garcia, the California Democrat who will chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, posted ominously on social media — warning the Trump administration — “Lawyer up.”
Oh, yes. In victory, they will be vicious.
In the wake of the carnage are various theories about why Republicans got waxed so thoroughly Tuesday.
Vice President J.D. Vance, in an extraordinary and lengthy post on X the day after the election, expressed his view bluntly: “The reason we lost is the war.”
Detailing the ways frustrated Republicans expressed themselves at the ballot box, Mr. Vance listed four action items he believes these voters will require before they’ll return to the fold: End the war in Iran, focus on the cost of living and inflation, put America first, and change the United States’ relationship with Israel.
All are related to or downstream of the war, and the vice president put a fine point on it.
Naturally, the media immediately tried to use that as a wedge between Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump, but the president told reporters that he already knew Mr. Vance’s position and was fine with it. On top of that, Donald Trump Jr. shared the post with his 16.1 million followers.
These are clear signs that Republican leaders received the message voters sent, and it contrasts sharply with the Democrats’ behavior as winners, since they are still carrying on the charade of the campaign.
As the completeness of the drubbing sinks in, there is at least one silver lining: Even if the Republican Party is in the political wilderness for a while, in many places, you still had to at least pretend to be a Republican to win.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and founder of Line Drive Public Affairs, where he advises political and corporate clients. He served as a senior adviser on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign.
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