A stunning election and its potential implications

Photo description: Members of the social media response team from Jessica Killin’s congressional campaign pose for a group photo at an election night party on November 3. Our main job was to help the campaign monitor social media, capitalize on opportunities, and respond to attacks, but we unavoidably also became close friends through thousands of chat messages. Killin became the first-ever Democrat elected in this congressional district, defeating incumbent Jeff Crank by 51 to 46 percent.

 

On Tuesday, November 3, the United States held its midterm elections. They are called “midterm” because we are in the middle of the president’s four-year term. There was no election for president, but all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats were up for election.

Both the Republicans (Donald Trump’s party) and the Democrats spent billions of dollars trying to influence voters. As registered Republicans, Nancy and I especially enjoyed one mailing from a Republican group that contained an unusual threat: “Whether you vote or not is public record … if you don’t show up for the election, your neighbors will know that you didn’t vote!”

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As the election approached, one poll found an unusual pattern. The economy (especially rising costs of gas and groceries) was the leading concern among US voters; that part is not unusual. But about 30 percent of voters said the state of US democracy was their top issue. That hasn’t happened since the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. The poll reflected widespread dissatisfaction with how President Trump has been running the government.

About 30 percent of voters said the state of US democracy was their top issue. That hasn’t happened since the Watergate scandal

Consistent with those poll results, US voters handed the Republican party their biggest defeat since the post-Watergate election of 1974. Democrats took over majorities of both chambers of Congress. They gained 7 to 9 seats in the Senate (two elections are still undecided) and about 45 seats in the House. Democrats won races in highly conservative parts of the country where they almost never win, including the states of South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas. My congressional district elected a Democrat for the first time in more than 50 years.

In April 2025, I tried to warn my own congressman, first-term evangelical Republican Jeff Crank, about this possibility. I wrote him a message in which I began by quoting from one of my Substack posts:

Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved in a strongly authoritarian direction. Those who supported Trump’s election could not have known that in his first two months in office, he would pardon violent offenders, cut off global humanitarian aid without warning, humiliate a courageous Ukrainian leader, anger friendly countries with threats of annexation, contrary to international agreements regarding respect for national borders, disturb the US and other countries’ economies with erratic tariff policies, deport people without normal due process of law, and use his authority and position to seek retribution against lawyers, judges, media sources, and universities he does not like.

I then addressed Crank directly, in a manner that sounds surprisingly prophetic 19 months later:

I include you among the people who didn’t realize these things would happen. However, if you continue to tolerate and even enable this behavior, you will be held responsible for it. I realize you may feel that if you take a principled stand, you’ll be defeated by Dave Williams [the even more strongly pro-Trump Republican who had run against Crank in 2024] or someone worse in a 2026 primary. But this episode is going to end as badly as McCarthyism, and if you are connected with it, it will end badly for you.

Unless Trump’s tariffs perform a miracle, Republicans will be fleeing from him a year from now. You can establish your position for a rebuilding of a truly conservative Republican party by being one of the first to make a principled statement, not one of the last.

If I can help in any way, I’d be happy to talk with you with stricter confidentiality than Pete Hegseth [the US Secretary of Defense, who had just been involved in an accidental disclosure of military strategy] seems capable of. If not, I would appreciate a brief response explaining why you continue to support the Trump administration so that I can share it with my global audience.

My congressman did not answer me. This week, he lost his reelection bid.

As I reflect on what the US most needs at this time, two recent examples come to mind: South Africa after apartheid and Rwanda after the 1994 genocide

The Democrats’ overwhelming victory may help to restrain the negative impacts of Trump’s remaining two years in office. But it could also initiate a new chapter of contention. Democrats will face popular pressure to impeach President Trump and initiate investigations into Trump administration corruption.

Such actions are not hard to justify. But as I reflect on what the US most needs at this time, two recent examples come to mind: South Africa after apartheid and Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. On both occasions, one ethnic group’s dehumanization of another group had horrible consequences, and a long, painful period of transitional justice was needed to facilitate national healing. In the contemporary US, the division is primarily along ideological rather than ethnic lines (though with some racial and religious overtones) and the direct violence has been far less extensive, but the anger, distrust, and need for reconciliation are great.

I hope that victorious Democrats will recall US President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural message, delivered on March 4, 1865. With a bloody civil war nearing its end, Lincoln urged a gracious attitude toward those who had tried to separate from the United States and form their own nation:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

To restore a civil, respectful society rather than deepening division, we need to give reasonable Republicans a pathway back to realism and responsibility

Republicans’ politically driven, nearly unquestioning fealty to Donald Trump has left Democrats angrily suspecting their basic integrity. Those who have engaged in corruption should be held accountable, but to restore a civil, respectful society rather than deepening division, we need to give reasonable Republicans a pathway back to realism and responsibility. This imperative is even more urgent as many of the most moderate Republicans have been defeated in this week’s election.

One striking aspect of the Democrats’ efforts this year is that many of their candidates have highlighted their Christian faith. Historically, Democrats have had many African-American pastors among their leaders, including current Georgia senator Raphael Warnock, but in 2026 they also nominated prominent white Christian candidates. Most notably, two of them achieved convincing victories in conservative states: Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas and seminary student James Talarico in Texas.

These are all mainline Protestant Christians, however. Evangelicals remain strongly connected to the Republican party and strongly suspicious of Democrats, as Daniel Williams discusses (supported by 2026 exit poll data) in his Substack post of November 6. That is unfortunate. It is not good for any group, but especially for a group of Christians whose top priority should be to share the gospel with everyone, to be dismissed by one party and taken for granted by the other party.

On the other hand, evangelical Christians—without abandoning their sincerely held views on abortion and sexuality—should move beyond a culture-wars mentality

For Democrats and evangelicals to have a warmer relationship, both sides need to change. Thirty years ago, many Democrats in Congress held prolife views on abortion; now there is only one. If the Democrats want to expand their coalition, they should welcome people who appreciate Democratic positions on healthcare or social justice, even if those people feel unable to embrace abortion rights or same-sex marriage.

On the other hand, evangelical Christians—without abandoning their sincerely held views on abortion and sexuality—should move beyond a culture-wars mentality and show proportional concern for other crucial issues such as global religious freedom, fair treatment of refugees and immigrants, equal justice for all racial and ethnic groups, and honest government. Peter Wehner has masterfully pointed to a better way in his recent essay, “The Issues Christian Voters Are Neglecting.”

I have been asked many times this year how I could support a candidate from the party that is pro-choice on abortion. I responded, “One party is pro-choice and the other one is actively subverting US democracy. Which one should I choose?” I hope that both options will be somewhat more attractive two years from now.

Bruce Barron, author or coauthor of seven books on religion and politics and a former US congressional aide, was editor of the World Evangelical Alliance’s theology journal from 2018 to 2024. Subscribe to his blog at brucebarron.substack.com.