PORT ANGELES, Wash.—A cheer erupted from the crowd watching the midterm election returns the night of Nov. 3 when it was announced that Amy Acton had won the election as Governor of Ohio. And again when Sherrod Brown won the Ohio Senate race. A crowd gathered in the storefront office of the Clallam County Democratic Party, watching the election returns on television.
A gasp of outright amazement greeted the news that Texas Governor Gregg Abbott conceded to his challenger, Gina Hinojosa. Also cheered was the election of James Talarico to the U.S. Senate, crushing the crooked Ken Paxton handpicked by President Donald Trump.
An even louder gasp came when it was announced that Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor of Atlanta, had just been declared the winner of the governorship of the State of Georgia—the first African American woman ever elected to the top post in the Peach Tree State, the great-great-granddaughter of Sheppard Peeks, an enslaved man immortalized in the book Rough Side of the Mountain.
And the crowd broke into cheers and applause when NBC displayed a graphic showing that the MAGA Republicans had lost majority control of both the House and Senate—and not by narrow margins: 54 Democrats to 44 Republicans in the Senate, 259 Democrats to 176 Republicans in the House. It was enough to block any further dirty tricks by Trump to pack the Supreme Court with other corrupt servants of the billionaires like Justices Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Yet there were victories to cheer closer to home. Brian Heywood, the hedge-fund millionaire, spent millions of dollars to win approval of I-645, his ballot initiative to repeal the “Millionaires Tax.” Approved earlier this spring by the Washington State Legislature, the measure imposes a 9.9% tax on all income above $1 million annually. It is expected to bring in over $3.5 billion in added revenue each year when it takes effect next year. The money is earmarked for public education, health care, nutrition, and other programs that assist low- and moderate-income people. Statewide, I-645 was being rejected 57.9% to 42.1%, or at this writing, 1,2898,553 to 936,309.
It is urgently needed because Washington State has the most regressive system of taxation in the nation. The State lacks a state income tax, so it relies entirely on a “soak the poor” sales tax and excise taxes to fund public education and all other vital government services. The poorest 20% of the population pays 13.8% of income in taxes, while the wealthiest 1% pays only 4.1%.
Washington State suffers from chronic deficits, forcing the state to sharply cut funds for education, health care, nutrition, and environmental protection. This crisis was aggravated by President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful” spending bill that slashed funding for Medicaid, SNAP nutrition, and other human needs by $300 billion while handing the billionaires over a trillion dollars in tax cuts over the coming decade. Rep. Adam Bernbaum and other progressive Democrats voted for the Millionaires Tax partly to replace these human need funds cut by Trump and his MAGA cronies in the House and Senate.
The following county-by-county returns, in percentage terms, indicate the strong grassroots support for the Millionaires Tax in the vote against I-645: King County (Seattle) 66.5%; Pierce (Tacoma) 54%; Clallam 60.9%; Jefferson 72.1%; Snohomish 56.9%; Spokane 54.2%; Walla Walla 53.5%; Clark (Vancouver) 58.8%; Yakima 50.2%; Pacific 56.6%.
Only in a handful of counties east of the Cascade Mountains did voters bow to Heywood and MAGA. And for good measure, voters in Seattle approved by a margin of 72.6% to 27.4% a ballot initiative to raise the sales tax to pay for improved and expanded mass transit.
The Evergreen State reelected all eight of its Democratic members of the House, including Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Vancouver along the Columbia River. She triggered sharp anger with her repeated votes in support of Trump-MAGA legislation. Gluesenkamp Perez was one of a handful of Democrats who crossed Party lines to vote for the Trump-MAGA “Save Act,” an ultra-right scheme to deny ballot rights to millions by requiring voters to produce IDs that prove citizenship and that would have undermined voting by mail.
She and five other Democrats joined the MAGA Republicans in voting for a hateful, anti-LGBTQ bill denounced by the House Equality Caucus as the “Don’t Say Trans” bill. She also broke with Democrats by voting to approve Trump’s $1.15 trillion military budget. Many in her own District denounced her as a “turncoat.” Nevertheless, she won.
Another cheer went up when the NBC announcer informed us that Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Seattle won reelection in a landslide. She garnered 87.6% of the vote.
She was interviewed on the BBC. She told her interviewer that the movement for basic change is not letting up. The demand is that the new Congress restore funds slashed from human needs programs like Medicaid and SNAP. Time for “Medicare For All!” she said. Slash funding used to murder innocent people! Stop the war on immigrants! “Abolish ICE!”
Jayapal’s demands ring out! She was letting everyone know that the midterm elections set the stage for the 2028 election of a President who upholds human rights, not billionaire profits.
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