Every Democratic candidate represented in this image won on November 8.
On Nov. 8, six years ago, I went to bed heartsick and devastated, knowing not only that Hillary Clinton had lost the Electoral College vote but that Michigan’s 16 votes would be allotted to her opponent. Our margin of defeat, a mere 10,704 votes, could have been made up through better turnout in my own county, where I was active in Democratic leadership.
Thankfully, this Nov. 8, I went to sleep around midnight feeling more sanguine about our prospects. I woke up at 5 AM on the 9th, however, to check later results, and what I saw then caused me to weep tears of joy and relief. It was already clear that we had passed the two critical ballot proposals, Prop 2 (expanded voting rights) and Prop 3 (abortion rights!), and that we had reelected our fabulous slate of executives and retained our majority on the state Supreme Court.
Since then, we have heard the even more gratifying news that we now have a trifecta in the state, having flipped the state Senate and the state House. To cap it off, we have secured a majority of the 13 congressional seats, with incumbent Democratic representatives Elissa Slotkin and Dan Kildee fighting off strong challengers, and Hillary Scholten flipping Michigan’s 3rd District.
What made the difference this year? While we had excellent candidates, compelling proposals, and a much stronger political infrastructure than ever, I believe that the record turnout we had for a midterm election would not have happened, and would not have had the same impact, without the hard, strategic organizing that local activists have pursued for the past six years.
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