US Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) speaks to members of the media on the day of the Senate Republican caucus leadership elections at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, November 10, 2026.
While we pick away at the bones of the dead Republicans, who were casualties of last Tuesday’s monstrous Blue Wave, it’s worth discussing if it is actually possible that this odious political party of lowlifes and cheats will go the way of the dinosaurs.
As I type this, Democrats are on their way to a gargantuan 80- to 90-seat majority in the House and an 8- to 12-seat majority in the Senate. So dominant were their victories that the party now holds trifectas (governor and both branches of the legislature) in 22 states, to the Republicans’ 18.
Democrats have also gained 452 state legislative seats since last Tuesday, and that incredible number is increasing by the hour. The party is on track to flip five attorney general seats, and three secretary of state seats, and has won every key state supreme court race, while flipping four lieutenant governorships.
Republicans DID NOT FLIP ANYTHING on Election Day.
And consider this sparkling gem:
Democrats now hold the governor’s seats in all 10 traditional presidential battleground states.
This is where I tell you to read that one again, because it is truly mind-boggling. I also ask that you consider the use of the word “traditional” here, because after Tuesday’s wipeout, you can easily add 5 to 10 states that fall into battleground territory, including, and mostly, TEXAS.
And one more time for the people in the back: It will be virtually impossible for Republicans to win another presidential election without winning Texas and its 40 electoral votes.
When the counting is finally over, this midterm election will be talked about for many decades to come as the most historic wipeout in our nation’s history.
And while the size of this victory was significant, the stakes that proceeded it are what lifts it into a category all its own.
Just eight days ago, we were having serious discussions about whether this would be our last free and fair election in the United States of America. Had Donald Trump’s grotesque, and dehumanizing regime been given a mandate to continue to murder and pillage America, I believe it is safe to say his gutless, cruel Republican Congress and Senate would have acted with alacrity to dismantle our election infrastructure, much as they did our federal government immediately following the 2024 election.
Troops in the streets would have been the least of our problems.
Instead, Americans rose up and declared with a holler that they were not done with our Democracy yet.
In just one day, America went from wrestling with Republican fascists and the future of our country, to battering them into submission thanks to an overwhelming Democratic vote.
So with these massive victories safe in our bulging pockets, let’s talk about 2028, and the extinction-level event for Republicans I hinted at earlier.
To start with, the 2028 Senatorial map is a terrible one for Republicans. There are 32 seats in play, and only three will feature Democratic senators up for reelection in battleground states: Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Republicans, meantime, will be defending in places like Wisconsin and North Carolina, and a host of other states that we now know are winnable after Tuesday’s Blue Wave.
I’ll slip in this graphic from The New York Time's Nate Silver that lays out the GOP’s predicament. If Democrats were to win the popular vote in the vicinity of what they just did (+13), take a look at the final column of all of the state’s that would be leaning Republican, and very much in play.
If Democrats can flip just four more states, they would have a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate and we would be living in a world where everything is possible.
In this scenario, a Democrat would certainly be president, and because our crooked Supreme Court has ruled that they should be treated as kings and queens, could damn well do whatever they want.
So let’s picture a powerful Democratic president, who has an overwhelmingly dark-blue House and Senate, to work with, along with Democratic governorships in 30 states.
The mandate for significant change would echo throughout every hill and dale of the country.
And because I know I am driving quickly here, and some might say even recklessly, I’ll duck in this quick caveat and let Brookings do the talking:
Despite the dramatic results of the 2026 midterm election, Democrats would be well advised to curb their enthusiasm and Republicans to restrain their despair. The reason: History shows that the midterms do not predict the results of the ensuing presidential election. For example, Democrats lost more than 50 House seats in 1994, but Bill Clinton went on to win reelection easily in 1996. Democrats lost more than 60 seats in 2010, but Barack Obama’s standing rose in 2011-2012, and he won a comfortable reelection in 2012. On the other hand, after large Democratic gains in 2006 and 2018, Obama and Joe Biden both won the presidency by significant margins.
While I think this an important addition to the conversation, I also don’t think it is relevant in this political environment. For one, Trump is now the lamest lame-duck president in history. None of the presidents above were in their second term.
Two, when faced with daunting midterm losses every president in history has acknowledged the defeat, admitted their failures and went to work to get things right. Not Trump. No, Trump is still re-litigating the 2020 election that he lost by more than 7 million votes, and telling everybody how great everything is in America right now.
Clinton and Obama acknowledged their defeats and vowed to reach across the aisle to get things done.
In fact, here was the post Trump put up on Truth Social on Election Night:
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Doesn’t sound like an conciliatory, introspective guy to me. Just two days later he escalated further and installed a Nazi, Stephen Miller, into the Chief of Staff’s chair in the White House.
Does anybody really think Trump is going to humbly scour out the lunacy that is anchored deep into his sick and narcissistic brain that he was the greatest president ever, and will remain quiet, while Republican try to pick his replacement on 2028?
The would-be king, will want to pick his successor, and I haven’t seen a Republican yet who has the guts to tell him to just shove it.
Trump is signaling he plans to continue trying to burn everything down. He’s an 80-year-old maniac with a blowtorch and nothing to lose. This still makes him incredibly dangerous, yes, but mostly to his Republican Party that just got walloped at the polls because of him.
Because here’s the rub, my friends:
If Trump refuses to moderate his extreme and sickening positions …
If he continues to execute Vladimir Putin’s talking points ...
If he continues to tell everybody he is doing a terrific, stupendous job, and everything is great, while Americans starve and borrow money to pay for healthcare insurance, or worse, go without …
… Republicans will once again pay a terrible price at the polls in 2028.
That, or they can they can grow a pair right now, and finally kick the anti-American Trump to the curb.
So now the crucial question: Will they?
Not likely. Some will undoubtedly try, but how far will they get?
In fact, on Tuesday Republicans elected Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio to be their leader in the House, which is as comical to type as it must be to read. Jordan is a far-right loudmouth. Former Republican Speaker John Boehner, once referred to Jordan as a “legislative terrorist.”
And can you really imagine a leading Republican candidate for president verbally assaulting Trump and his abysmal record on the campaign trail?
Which brings me to the most delicious part of this piece.
Instead of killing the United States, which has always been his goal, Trump could very well be responsible for murdering the Republican Party, instead.
Because the party either carries on very openly as a collection of bigots, hustlers, billionaires, fascists, crooks, misogynists, warmongers, and creeps, OR it tries to push forward as a party that at least says it is reasonable and accepting, and runs candidates that will hit the campaign trail trying desperately to cruise along in the moderate lane.
If they can do the latter, they should survive, albeit far less powerful than they were a week ago.
If they do the former, however … If they comport themselves like they have learned nothing from this wipeout … They will lose so catastrophically in 2028 that the Republican Party will find themselves in the same predicament as our endangered species that are now threatened by the poisonous legislation they have passed in Congress.
Just eight days after America’s Democracy was threatened with extinction, it’s the Republican Party that is now dying right in front of our eyes ...
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and was an awarding-winning journalist at several newspapers before finishing up as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.
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