The November 2 elections sent political shockwaves across the country. In statewide and local elections, voters rejected Democratic candidates and their policies. This happened for a variety of reasons, including the Democrats running bad candidates and taking some elections for granted. But one thing is clear: voters across the country rejected lawlessness and defeated candidates that opposed law and order.
Take the city of Seattle, for instance. On Tuesday, Seattle voters elected their new city attorney. This particular race featured Democratic candidate and police abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and law-and-order Republican Ann Davison. Davison walloped Thomas-Kennedy, defeating the far-left activist by almost 17 points. Seattle is hardly a Republican stronghold. It is quite the opposite. Seattle’s U.S. representative is Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In the 2020 presidential election, over 88 percent of Seattle voters opted for Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Despite this, Davison ran a campaign that focused on restoring law and order to Washington’s largest city, including by cracking down on crime in the downtown area. This message resonated with voters, who elected her instead of the anti-police, anti-enforcement Thomas-Kennedy.
In Minneapolis, the Police Department itself was on the ballot. In that deep blue city, voters were asked whether they wanted to abolish the police department and replace it with some vaguely defined Department of Public Safety. Voters soundly rejected the ballot initiative by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin, with opposition to the idea spearheaded by many black city leaders.
Voters in Long Island, New York, also chose to embrace law and order and reject chaos. There, voters coalesced around Republican Ann Donnelly who defeated Democratic state Senator Todd Kaminsky. Kaminsky’s support for a controversial bail reform plan alarmed voters and many worried it would release dangerous criminals back onto the streets after committing violent crimes. Remarking on her victory, Donnelly said that “the voters are sending a message. Safety first. Our children and families come first.”
But the biggest political story was the upset of former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, who lost to political newcomer Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin’s message in the late campaign focused on education and reducing crime in Virginia. Youngkin’s campaign touted endorsements from sheriffs and police chiefs from across the commonwealth, highlighting his commitment to restoring law and order. One of Youngkin’s key promises was to reform Virginia’s parole board by replacing criminal-sympathizing Democrats with Virginians committed to enforcing the law and keeping communities safe.
Youngkin’s campaign highlighted that McAuliffe embraced the support of New Virginia Majority, a political organization that advocated for eliminating prisons and defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), even as the U.S. saw the highest amount of illegal immigration in decades at the Southwest border. Groups like New Virginia Majority are selling chaos as a political promise: no police, no immigration enforcement, no law and order. As we saw in the Seattle election, even the most reliable of Democratic voters do not want this. Youngkin won by appealing to common sense and a restoration of order and principle in state politics.
Nowhere is a lack of order more evident than in our immigration system. At the national level, immigration is a sore subject for the Biden administration. In the RealClearPolitics polling average, a full 58.9 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of border security and immigration issues. A similar Quinnipiac poll found that 67 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s immigration policy moves. A Morning Consult/Politico poll asking the same question found that 58 percent of self-described independents disapprove of Biden’s immigration policies.
Our immigration system is in a state of complete chaos. After taking office, President Biden issued a deportation moratorium for 100 days – meaning that any illegal aliens caught in the U.S. would remain in the country. The Biden administration ended popular and successful asylum agreements with the Northern Triangle countries that prevented people from making the treacherous and dangerous journey to our borders. The administration ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) which kept asylum-seeking illegal aliens in Mexico while their court cases were underway, preventing them from disappearing into the interior of the United States through catch-and-release. President Biden’s team issued new enforcement guidance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that prevents them from doing their job and renders the agency toothless. While stopping short of abolishing the agency itself, President Biden and his team have done everything in their power to abolish the functionality and effectiveness of ICE.
Is any of this popular with the American public? Do Americans want politicians to prevent law enforcement agencies – from local police departments and ICE – from doing their jobs? Do these policies make Americans safer, protect our communities, and bring the Democrats success at the ballot box?
These elections give a clear answer to these questions: no. The American public does not support these policies, and candidates who ran against this lunacy found electoral success. It is clear from Tuesday’s election that even in some of the most progressive parts of the country, Americans rejected the radical left’s assault on laws and law enforcement.