Voters under age 30 swung back to Democrats by more than 30 percentage points. All inroads that Trump made in 2024 with non-white voters is gone. The Republican party has no future.
In a state like Colorado, with the Colorado General Assembly controlled by Democratic supermajorities in both houses, and all statewide executive branch offices (and possibly all statewide elected boards) controlled by Democrats, and either one or no federal elected officials, being a Republican politician looks pretty bleak. Also, Democrat in the Colorado General Assembly can propose partisan constitutional amendments, override vetos from Governor Weiss that they don't like, and can discipline Republicans who behave badly on a partisan rather than bipartisan basis. They also have the effective power to impeach any state officials who behave badly. Republicans in the General Assembly can't accomplish anything without cooperation from Democrats so they have an incentive to play ball on non-controversial issues. Their lack of power will discourage good people from running on their ticket or investing in developing a support base within their party.
The healthy Democratic majorities in each house of Congress means that conservative Democrats like Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, or former Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, can't undermine the Democratic majority, and can be effectively subject to party discipline for failing to toe the party line. Especially in the House, the Democrats don't need dissenters like Haley Stevens from Michigan, who endorsed the Republican in the Michigan Senate race, for anything with a 59% or so majority, so they can hold them to task without concessions.
Congress is now in a position to bring lawsuits in federal court against the Trump administration when it fails to follow the law. It would have standing to bring emoluments litigation against Trump and his cabinet for gaining personal financial benefit from public office, could sue for impoundment of Congressional appropriations, and could sue to enforce Hatch Act violations (which prohibits campaigning with public resources). Congress is going to be much more effective in court litigating separation of powers issues in its own name.
Congress has broad investigative power and the power to issue subpoenas. Congress absolutely has the power to force embarrassing and politically damaging releases of the Epstein files and to put particular prominent people named in them on the spot in Congressional hearings.
Bringing an impeachment is easy now for the Democrats, although securing impeachment convictions requires bipartisan support. One good strategy would be to start at the bottom, for example, impeaching ICE agents who have engaged in misconduct, before working their way gradually up the ladder. Impeach mid-level Department of Justice lawyers who bring revenge prosecutions. Impeach Department of Defense officials complicit in war crimes and corruption. Eventually, impeach Justice Thomas, not for his horrible rulings, but for his corruption. Then Justice Alito after that. Justice Thomas may decide that it isn't worth it to fight and resign, and Senate Democrats don't have to let Trump fill that seat with anyone they don't approve of.
Democrats can, and should, use the nuclear option to abolish the filibuster and other counter-majoritarian privileges in the U.S. Senate, so that they don't have to negotiate with Senate minority Republicans to enact their agenda.
Trump can't make appointments to the federal courts, or to other high federal offices, after January 6, 2027, without the consent of the Democratic Party controlled Senate, and the Senate should insist on getting what it wants before approving any of Trump's appointments.
Trump can't pass treaties, not that he is inclined to get Congress to sign off on a treaty, when he can write an executive order instead.
Trump can veto legislation passed by a Democratic Party controlled Congress, and no doubt, he will. But passing popular legislation only to have it vetoed will help Democrats to show that they have a positive agenda to govern, and will keep Republicans unpopular.
The Democrats in Congress can deny Trump funding for anything they want in budget and appropriations legislation and can use that as leverage for almost any demand. Democrats could, for example, defund the White House secret service security detail, funding for Trump's vanity projects, and Presidential travel. Democrats can pass funding legislation that denies Elon Musk's companies federal contracts. Democrats can cancel funding for the Trump-class battleship, for steam powered aircraft carrier launcher conversions, and other of its pet projects. Democrats can insist on reinstating Medicare and Medicaid and Affordable Care Act funding. Democrats can defund ICE. Democrats can disallow spending for private company run immigration detention centers. Democrats can condition science and higher education funding on independence for researchers and universities.
Trump is a lame duck who has proven himself to be a political liability. Therefore, some of the remaining Republicans in Congress, particularly those who won elections by only small margins, like Florida's Senator who won by less than three percentage points, may decide the cooperating with Democrats on select issues makes them more re-electable by putting distance between them and Trump. We were already seeing this in the months before the election.
Some Republicans remaining in Congress may decide not to run for re-election or could even resign, because the job isn't fun anymore when they have no power.
If there is a vacancy in the office of President, and J.D. Vance ascends to the Presidency after January 7, 2027, Vance needs the cooperation of the Democratic Party controlled Congress to appoint a replacement Vice President, which it has no incentive to grant to someone they don't support. Otherwise, the Democratic Speaker of the House becomes the de facto Vice President.
Trump almost surely has progressive dementia and is in generally poor health as well. He will only get worse over the next two years. At some point, Vance may utilize the 25th Amendment to get him out, or may talk him into resigning, perhaps with the promise of a pardon.
Republicans could pass a lot of legislation in the lame duck session over the next two months. But it isn't clear to me that they have the unity and organization or vision to pull it off. Every day Congress isn't in session over the next two months is an opportunity that they lose.
Also, Republicans have very thin majorities in the House and Senate to start with, and have dissenters (including those who have just lost their elections or did not seek re-election) with nothing to lose by not playing ball with the Republican Congressional leadership or President Trump. Indeed, one of the main reasons that Congress has been in recess so long, going into the midterms, despite controlling the House and the Senate and the Presidency, has been to prevent dissenters from allying themselves with Democrats over the thin Republican majorities in both houses, from passing legislation on matters like the Iran War, impeaching Trump appointees, and releasing the Epstein files, that would be politically damaging. And, the situation could be worse now for members of Congress who lost their elections and attribute that to meddling and incompetence from Trump and the Congressional leadership. Trump is very attached to executive orders for emotional reasons and doesn't recognize the benefits of going through the proper legislative channels instead.
Voters who have always voted Republican without much thought, or who have usually not voted, may like what they see in the next two years and cease to be such die hard yellow dog Republicans.
Democratic Party Governors in Republican states, have immense power to curb conservative excesses. We've seen that in the recent past in places like Arizona and Kentucky.
This is a Democratic Party high water mark fueled by the exceptional mendacity and maladministration of Trump 2.0. Democrats can expect a retreat from some of their gains in 2028, even if they do a good job.
Most of what tipped this over the edge, sadly, was not the issues that matter to Democrats and independents, but economic hardships like high gas prices and fertilizer prices arising from the Iran War, and international trade driven harms to the economy especially driven by unilateral tariffs. But imminent degradation of public health care funding and Trump's decision to side with Putin against Ukraine may also have been factors. And corruption and Trump's vanity projects may have played a role too.
So, to deliver, Democrats need to end the Iran War, shut down Trump's tariff and trade policies, restore health care funding, curb Trump's corruption and vanity projects, and take a hard line against Russia. Another of its agenda items is accomplished most easily by simply defunding ICE. But they are on a tight clock, so there is no time to waste to limited opportunity to prove themselves and to take a hard line against Trump's abuses which the Republican Congress did nothing to stop.
Also, while Democrats in the face of the veto power and an ultraconservative U.S. Supreme Court, have some limits on what they can accomplish legislatively at the federal level, their down ticket gains in state houses across the country can demonstrate their positive legislative agenda.
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