Two days ago, we beat Trump badly and come January, Congress is ours. We took it from him. After another two years of Trump’s propaganda and lies, it was difficult to even visualize an enormous win like this. Some of us refreshed the results five times since Tuesday—just to be sure nothing has changed. So let me be clear.
Yes, this is real. An enormous blue wave hit. We won.
That includes a pediatrician Trump attacked by name who beat his hand-picked senator. An Army major, funded mostly by donors who gave $200 or less, beat the man running the entire Republican House campaign. They won because people like you kept showing up for them.
In January, Democrats will take over all of the committees in the House and the Senate. Subpoena power comes with them. For the first time in two years, Trump will have to answer to a Congress willing to use that power.
From here, 2028 looks bright. But we need the resources to keep leading the resistance until we get there. Being independent means we can always tell the truth about Trump without having to get permission from any corporate bosses or advertisers for it. It also means I have to rely on our amazing community here for all of our funding.
We’re going to lead the drive to hold Trump accountable for the crimes he’s committed, but we need all hands on deck. Paid subscribers fuel this work and get exclusive interviews and posts, plus behind-the-scenes access.
Let’s make sure Tuesday is only the start. Join us as a paid subscriber here:
Before we jump in, hit the like button and restack these wins. That’s the two arrows next to the heart—it puts this in front of everyone who follows you. Trump’s accomplices want Tuesday to be forgotten by the weekend. We won’t let that happen.
A Pediatrician Just Beat Trump’s Hand-Picked Senator
After GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham died in July, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham’s sister Darline to serve in his place. She had never held elected office before then. Trump wanted her to keep the seat. “I went to her and I said, ‘You got to run, Darline,’” Trump mumbled to a crowd in Myrtle Beach in August.
At that rally, he was begging his supporters to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.”
Trump’s super PAC spent $827,711 to help Graham. In October, he went after her opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician from Mount Pleasant. South Carolina “must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her,” he posted on Truth Social.
On Tuesday, South Carolina showed him. Dr. Andrews beat Graham 1,034,418 to 948,133 in the unofficial count. She’s the first Democrat to win a Senate race in the state since 1998 and the first woman South Carolina has ever elected to the Senate.
I went through the state’s results file. At least 98,597 South Carolinians voted Republican for governor but didn’t vote for Trump’s pick. That’s how many fewer votes Graham got than Republican Alan Wilson, who won the governor’s race.
Trump was talking to the New York Times when he found out that Graham had lost. “Wow, that’s amazing,” he said. He asked South Carolina to pretend he was on the ballot, and they voted like he was.
The Army Major Who Sent Hudson Packing
Rep. Richard Hudson chairs the NRCC, the committee whose whole job is keeping the House in Republican hands. In 2024, he won his North Carolina seat by nearly 20 points. Just a year later, North Carolina Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map, and they said openly that the point was to win one more seat in the House.
Hudson’s opponent was Richard Ojeda, a retired Army major who grew up in the West Virginia coal fields. He’s a fighter I’d vouch for, and I vouch for almost no one.
I pulled the federal filings for each campaign. Through October 14, Ojeda raised $2,895,423 from individual donors—most of whom gave $200 or less. That’s twice as much as Hudson raised from individuals. Hudson raised $2,001,397 from PACs and other committees, which included the PACs of Koch Industries, Chevron, and Marathon Petroleum. Three weeks before Election Day he still had $925,976 in the bank.
But it wasn’t enough. On Tuesday, Ojeda won 138,707 to 132,692, according to the unofficial count—with every precinct in. Ojeda said the district “looked at the guy running the entire Republican money machine, and they fired him.” Republicans gerrymandered the map to try and win one more seat. Democrats flipped at least five seats in the state, and the man in charge of saving the Republican House couldn’t even save his own. Good.
Michigan Elected Abdul El-Sayed Over Trump’s Smears
On October 25, Trump held a rally in Port Huron, Michigan for Mike Rogers. He smeared Abdul El-Sayed’s Muslim faith, tied him to terrorism with no evidence at all, and said El-Sayed should be the only senator who has to go through a metal detector.
That same day, Rogers told NBC’s Meet the Press, “I’ve never called him a terrorist.”
In October, I followed the money behind Rogers. On September 18, a 59-year-old Energy Transfer pipeline spilled about 630 gallons of crude oil under a gas station in Sterling Heights. Federal regulators ordered that the company check its repairs three days later. Just nine days after that order, billionaire chairman of Energy Transfer Kelcy Warren gave $50,000 to a committee raising money for Rogers.
Rogers had Trump, a pipeline billionaire, and more than $90 million in outside spending behind him. Two days before the election, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed him too. She didn’t have the pull she thought she had. El-Sayed’s campaign says it raised $2.4 million that day from more than 65,000 donors.
On Tuesday, Michigan elected El-Sayed. He led 51.9 to 46.1 percent when the AP called the race at 2:27 am. He’ll be the first Muslim American ever to serve in the Senate. Rogers has now lost two Senate races in two years. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough for him to run a third time.
“Donald, look, I know you struggled with my name,” El-Sayed said in his victory speech. “So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me Senator.”
Montana Just Kicked Corporate Money Out Of Politics
In 2024, more than $250 million poured into one US Senate race in Montana, a state with about 1.1 million people. After that, Jeff Mangan, Montana’s former commissioner of political practices, led the push for Initiative 194, called the Montana Plan. “The Montana Plan simply removes the ability for corporations to spend in our politics,” he told Montana PBS.
The plan is simple. Corporations, nonprofits, and trade groups can’t spend money on Montana elections starting in January. If one does it anyway, it loses its right to do business in the state. The Montana Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Mining Association fought the plan, and the state Republican Party wrote its opposition right into the party platform.
On Tuesday, in a state Trump won by about 20 points, two out of three Montanans voted yes on the plan. The Supreme Court threw out Montana’s old ban in 2012, so this time the state wrote the rule differently.
Montana’s not alone. Hawaii passed a similar law in May, and Adam Bojak, a Democrat who just won a New York State Assembly seat, wants his state to be next. “I can’t wait to bring this legislation to New York in next year’s session,” he said.
Corporations have spent more than a decade buying Montana’s elections. On Tuesday, Montana told them the state is no longer for sale.
Until Congress becomes blue in January, Trump’s Republicans still run things. So it’s on us to watch every move they make on their way out. Rest assured, we won’t let them get away with anything.
Since November 2024, our amazing community has sent more than 913,000 letters to the House and Senate on dozens of issues, on top of countless phone calls. We already launched a series of new pressure campaigns: no power grabs before January, investigations into Trump’s pardons and his family’s Pentagon deals, and a subpoena for the unredacted Epstein files on day one.
The real work starts now, and we’ve never been more ready. Over the next two years, we will lead the drive to take our country back and make the Trump regime answer for their crimes.
Like Montana’s new law, we keep corporate money out. No advertiser calls me when I write that a pediatrician beat Trump’s hand-picked senator. And no billionaire owner can tell me to shut down a story.
Republicans lost on Tuesday because enough people chipped in and showed up. This newsletter runs the same way. If you haven’t yet, join us as a paid subscriber and help us continue this fight:
Thank you to everyone who refused to quit. They told us it was over. You kept fighting anyway, and on Tuesday you took Congress away from Trump. This is real. We did it. And together, we’re going to save this country.
Before you go, hit the ❤️ like button and restack this. Somebody you know is still in shock and can’t believe Tuesday night’s win is real. Send them this.
Onward!
Scott
Should your state pass the Montana Plan and ban corporate money in politics? Let me know your thoughts:
Two days after the election, the people who covered for Trump are already counting on us to get tired. We’re not. These four letters line up the first fights for the new Congress. Each one takes about 30 seconds and goes straight to your members of Congress.
Impeach John Roberts: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts/
Investigate Don Jr. and the Trump family’s Pentagon deals: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-investigate-the-trump-familys-pentagon-deals/
Put Trump’s pardons under oath: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-put-trumps-pardons-under-oath
Subpoena the unredacted Epstein files on day one: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-new-congress-subpoena-the-unredacted-epstein-files-on-day-one
Tell me below which ones you sent.
I’ve been in these fights long enough to know how rare a night like Tuesday is. The relief is real. So is the work that starts now. Thank you for every letter, every restack, every dollar, and every time you refused to look away. We took the House and the Senate because enough people kept showing up. I’m exhausted and grateful and ready for the next two years. Let’s go.