The Day After.

By now, you know what happened last night. Democrats won and won big. Republicans are licking their wounds and trying to figure out what went wrong and how to respond.

First off, let me congratulate Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on her victory. Many politicians consider their election “historic,” but Mayor Bottoms actually made history as the first African-American woman elected Governor in U.S. history. That it happened in Georgia is something we should celebrate. We’ll have plenty of time to debate and disagree on the issues, but she broke a barrier that should have been broken long ago. Congratulations!

Other observations in no particular order:

• My standard warning to election winners is to be careful how you interpret why you won. Democratic voters were clearly motivated to vote for their nominees, but also to stick it to Trump. Republicans were unmotivated and, frankly, angry about Trump’s broken promises. Look at this polling from Echelon Insights:

• State-level Republicans, in my opinion, did almost everything they could to address the cost of living and kept their promises.
• As best as I can tell, GOP candidates up and down the ballot had plenty of money and worked very hard. Don’t overcomplicate things; these losses were driven by national politics, not local.
• To build on my point about not misinterpreting elections, Democrats will need to be careful. A large slice of their base wants them to do battle with Trump. But opportunities to do that at the state level are limited. Focus on the economy, cost of living, jobs, and keeping the momentum we have on literacy and numeracy – things our state can do.
• Republicans, on the other hand, need to rebuild their party from the ground up. The state GOP is in shambles, with activists focused on the wrong things. All Republicans have is the State Senate. Instead of plotting to root out “RINOs” or “anti-MAGA” get behind them and help them.
• Senate and House Republicans need to come up with an agenda the people of Georgia care about, and quickly.
• Democrats must resist the temptation to adopt the agenda of the far-left of their party. The DSA has energy and momentum, but their policies are not broadly popular, and not why they won last night. Many voices nationally and within our state will want them to go this way. Don’t.

Those are my day-after thoughts and a few pieces of advice for members of both parties. Do with them what you will.