What a great election day birthday birthday present.
The midterms have been a decisive, nearly unprecedented win for the Democratic Party, despite unprecedented efforts by President Trump nd billionaire campaign donors (especially Elon Musk) to thwart them and massive gerrymandering between censuses (with SCOTUS sanction) in an attempt to skew the vote in their favor, partially countered by counter-gerrymandering in blue states. Ironically, the five Congressional districts gerrymandered in August 2025 all ended up going blue.
It is mostly a strong reaction against President Trump, who is one of the most unpopular Presidents at this point in his term in all of U.S. history and is considered by most political scientists and historians to be the worst President of all time - the only one to have been impeached twice, a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapists in a civil case, profoundly corrupt, frivolously ignoring election results and trying to foment a coup on January 6, 2021, committing war crimes, pathologically lying, crass, suffering from dementia, pardoning serious unrepentant criminals for money, invading Venezuela to seize its President and steal its oil, mounting campaigns of revenge with the full power of the federal government against his perceived enemies, covering up his involvement in child rape and organized trafficking of children for prostitution involving many powerful people (including his current wife), betraying legitimate immigrants, waging war on academia, alienating our long time allies and favoring Russia, North Korea, and China, even when this leads to direct harm to U.S. troops, openly racist and making racism and neo-Nazi ideology and slogans part of federal government policy, ignoring Congress and the courts, appointing utterly incompetent loyalists, starting an unauthorized war that has driven up fuel and fertilizer prices, imposing illegal tariffs on a massive scale, ignoring the rule of law, and desecrating national architectural and natural treasures irrevocably and illegally. He was aided and abetted in doing so by a corrupt and ultraconservative U.S. Supreme Court that he appointed three members to serve upon.
Colorado turnout was more than 2,030,000 voters, which is very respectable for a midterm election in a state with no close statewide races and many not very close races for Congress.
Mischief between now and two months from now on January 6, 2027, when the newly elected Congress is supposed to take office, in the lame duck session, is a concern. One can hope that SCOTUS would discourage this given the mandate of the midterm elections.
Is MAGA broken now, or is this just a setback?
Will SCOTUS respect the voice of the people rejecting the policies and lawless conduct they let Trump put in place and get away with?
For all the gains made, Democrats still won't be able to override Trump's vetos, but can use the power of the purse and litigation to enforce its laws already on the books. It can refuse to consent to Trump's appointees. Their majority won't be quite filibuster-proof, but past precedent has proven that the filibuster can be dispensed with in the "nuclear option." Still, a major issue for them will be their difficulty in delivering despite a decisive win, without the Presidency or the Supreme Court. And, the Presidential succession calculus doesn't change until January 6, 2027, so until then, the demise of, resignation of, or disability of, Trump or Vice President J.D. Vance could actually help Republicans in the longer run.
Trump has said he will respect the election results, perhaps because they were so decisive that there is no credible way to spin or twist them. So that might discourage mischief over the next two months.
The Republican Party in Colorado is in a shambles.
Congress
As I write, Democrats have 54 Senate seats (34 of which were not up for election this cycle, and 7 of which were flipped), Republicans have 44 (31 of which were not up for election this cycle), and 2 seats remain to be called. Alaska and Mississippi is too close to call with the Democrat leading by 43 votes with almost all votes counted, and more votes to be counted in Alaska in a close race where the uncounted vote locations slightly favor Democrats. Democrats will have 54-56 Senate seats when it is all over.
Independent anti-Trump moderate candidates made very strong showings in Nebraska, Montana, and Idaho, and Democrats in Montana and Idaho should have followed the lead of Nebraska and not run a candidate of their own. Their own candidates in those states served as spoilers coming in third place in the vote. These independents could be the seed of a successor to the Republican party.
Democrats re-elected Hickenlooper to the Senate in Colorado with 60% of the vote after he survived a too close for comfort primary fight from a more progressive candidate.
Democrats won Senate races in states like Kansas and Texas that they haven't won for decades. In many case, Democrats in red states won by double digit margins.
Democrats have also done very well in U.S. House races with the called races running D 225 to R 139 as I write (218 seats is a majority), and are favored in 24 more competitive races. In the end it is likely to be D 255 to D 260ish. Democrats will have a large majority in the House, with perhaps a 75-85 vote lead over Republicans. Twenty-seven house seats have flipped so far.
Colorado has 8 house seats and went into the election with 4 held by Democrats and 4 held by Republicans. It looks likely that after this election Colorado will have either 7 or 8 Democrats in the House. CO-8 which is a northeast suburban Denver metro area district evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, was an easy red to blue flip. CO-5, which is Colorado Springs, is likely to flip blue. CO-4, which is roughly rural areas and medium sized cities in Eastern Colorado, is likely to flip blue as well. CO-3, which is roughly Western and Southern Colorado, is the closest race but the Democrat is currently leading by 0.2 percentage points in that race with 90% of the vote counted. There is about a 50% chance that all ten members of Colorado's Congressional delegation will be democrats, and a very high chance that it will be at least nine out of ten, flipping at least three seats in the House.
Denver's new member of Congress who successfully primaried a long time incumbent liberal but not progressive or activist Democrat, is a young democratic socialist progressive.
Governors
Democrats are on track to have at least 30 Governor's offices after this election, with another held by an independent. At least six Governor's slots will flip. Kansas is still a toss up in a very close race where the Democrat leads (which would be another flip). Two of the 20 Republican governors so far are from New England (Vermont and New Hampshire) and are moderates, not MAGAs. Five GOP Governor wins (FL, NH, TN, AL, SC) were by less than five percentage points.
Some of these states have not had a Democrat as a governor for decades.
State Elected Offices And Judges
In Colorado, every statewide office, every CU Regent seat and every state school board seat favors the Democrats, although the state school board seat in conservative Congressional District 3 is too close to call at this time. The new Democratic governor is more liberal than the outgoing Democratic governor. GOP candidates were trounced in statewide races. Democrat Phil Weiser got 61% of the vote.
Democrats are on track to win 49 of 65 seats in the state house in Colorado, which is more than a two-thirds majority, although several races are quite close. This flips six seats from before the election.
Tallying up the state senate results in Colorado is trickier since only half of the 35 seats are contested every two years for four year terms. A two-thirds majority is 24 seats and before the election, Democrats had 23 seats. There were actually 21 state senate seats on the ballot, since there were a few vacancies to fill. Democrats are leading or have won in 16 of them. But that doesn't get you to a total without knowing which parties hold 14 seats that voters didn't vote on this time. If Democrats hold 8 of the 14 seats not up for election this time (and they probably do), they have a two-thirds majority. There is no doubt, however, that Democrats will retain a majority in the state senate and a two-thirds majority is probably within reach when the dust settles, and at least probably gained some seats.
Four Colorado state court trial judges (none in Denver) will probably not be retained, which is the highest number in recent memorry. They are 10th Judicial District District Court Judge Alexander, 13th Judicial District District Court Judge Christiansen, 21st Judicial District District Court Judge Lawrence, and Crowley County Court Judge Boyce
Colorado State Ballot Issues And A Regional Ballot Issue
Colorado's ballot issue results are the only mixed bag. Measure NN diverting TABOR refunds to schools, and 7A funding an I-25/US-36 corridor passenger rail line and a measure to fund Denver schools will pass.
Amendment 87 to establish a graduated income tax may get a majority but won't get the 55% it needs to amend the state constitution.
The ICE cooperation amendment (81) will fail. The right to use natural gas amendment (82) will fail. The right to hunt and fish amendment (83) will fail. The mail in voting ID amendment (84) will fail. The ban on multiple redistricting per decade amendment (86) will fail. The "plain english" amendment (85) may get a narrow majority but not the 55% support that it needs, so it will fail. Proposition 136 (capping income tax rates) will fail.
Proposition 132 (mandatory minimum fentanyl penalties) and Proposition 133 (mandatory minimum human trafficking penalties) will likely pass, even though law enforcement opposed them, but aren't state constitutional amendments, just laws. Propositions 134 and 135, which are anti-trans measures (134 for sports, 135 for surgeries on minors), will likely pass and become laws.
Proposition 137, a sporting goods sales tax for conservation law, is too close to call.
Denver Ballot Issues And Offices
A candidate endorsed by the Denver Democratic Party won about 28% of the vote (for a decisive win) in a large field of non-partisan candidates for a city council at large vacancy that lasts until the next municipal election is concluded in the spring of 2027.
All of the Denver ballot issues (including Initiative 311 banning fois gras, which I opposed) will pass.
Notable results in other states
Missouri rejected an initiative to establish a strict abortion ban. Idaho voters rejected an initiative to lift their strict abortion ban. California's Billionaire Wealth Tax proposal will probably be defeated. A proposal to mandate voter ID in Ohio passed.
I don't have the data to back it up, but I suspect that Democrats made gains almost across the board nationwide in down ticket candidate races, shifting power in their direction at the state level.
There were lots of demographic landmarks. The first Muslim Senator. The first openly gay man in the U.S. Senate. The first black women governors in two states. Two Native American firsts. The first Latino governor of California. And so on.