— Robin Lucas Kuss (@robinkuss) November 8, 2017
House Minority Leader David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said, "It's quite an experience to experience a tsunami election, and this is it!"
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "The Trump election generated a strong response from women, who accounted for more than half of the Democratic challengers in House races. Of the 31 women who ran, 26 never had held public office before. About one-fourth of the candidates were people of color, and five were members of the LGBT community."
"The day after the Trump election, it began raining candidates for us in Virginia," Toscano said.
And perhaps the best news of the day is that the Diebold machines were gone - I voted on a paper ballot for the first time since I have voted in Virginia.
In other states:
Democrat and pro-public banking, ex-banker, Phil Murphy, won New Jersey's race to replace Gov. Chris Christie. Also in NJ, Vin Gopal became the first Indian-American state Senator in New Jersey history, flipping the 11th state Senate district from red to blue. African-American Democrat Sheila Oliver was elected NJ's first black lieutenant governor.
In New Hampshire, Dems won two state House special elections, including one in a former GOP stronghold. These are the third and fourth Republican-held seats that NH Dems have flipped this year. Erika Conners won in a close election in Ward 8, the fifth win in seven races in which Republicans outnumbered Democrats. .
In NYC, Democrat Bill DiBlasio won a second term as mayor.
In Washington state, Manka Dhingra won a special election, handing control of the state senate to Democrats. She is one of the many who became active in politics in the wake of last year's election. She promised to work on issues of women's reproductive health and gun control.
RT @RedTRaccoon: One seat is all it took.
Manka Dhingra's victory gave the Democratic party control of Washington State.
This shifts the… at
— Darth Ramen (@his40thieves) November 8, 2017In Georgia, three GOP seats flipped to Dems, breaking a Republican super-majority in the state Senate.
If this tidal wave continues, 2018 elections could end Republican control of the House.
Some may argue that sufficient change does not come soon enough, but we are moving forward, and headed in a better direction that we have been going in, in a long time. One twitterer noted, "This is the first day I've been happy in a year - to the date."
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