Summary
- Leftist politicians insist America is racist, but the election results should put that to rest.
- From the first Republican black governor to the first Muslim U.S. Senator to a record number of Hispanics, the number of elected minorities continues to grow.
- Election Day signaled that U.S. bigots remain a decreasingly significant minority group.
“DEI is back,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., declared after Democrats dominated the midterms. These words are as touchingly antiquated as an anti-Vietnam War protest in 1985. Khanna also missed the only silver lining in an election that reminds Republicans of pig iron: The Nov. 3 winners are inclusive enough to quench Khanna’s thirst for diversity—one hopes for good.
I do not pray in the Church of DEI. My holy place is Sphere in Las Vegas, where I worship Eagles. However, for DEI’s parishioners, Election Day must have been a religious experience.
Start with Khanna. His first name is Rohit, not Robert. His surname reflects his parents’ Indian birth. These traits might have been prohibitively exotic a generation or two ago. But they did not stop Khanna from steamrolling Republican Ritesh Tandon for a sixth term—72.7% to 27.3%.
Scores of other people of color secured top seats across the country.
In the U.S. Senate, black Democrat Juliana Stratton of Illinois will succeed Democrat Dick Durbin. Even more impressive, Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom squeaked past incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, 49.3% to 48.6%, in a face-off not decided until Nov. 11. Colom will serve as Mississippi’s first black senator since Republican Blanche Bruce departed in 1881, as Democrats unleashed Jim Crow.
Colom and Stratton will join five black incumbents: Democrats Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina. These seven black senators (a record) will represent a combined 49.4 million constituents, or 14.5% of America’s 341.8 million people.
Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., was re-elected. Along with Hispanic incumbents Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., their 96 million shared residents constitute 28.1% of Americans.
Among governors, five blacks will lead their states. Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will become Georgia’s chief executive and America’s first black female governor. Democrat David Crowley was elected Wisconsin’s first black governor. Byron Donalds will head Florida as the first black Republican elected governor. Nevadans picked Democrat Aaron Ford, who will become the first black governor elected west of the Mississippi River. Maryland re-elected Democrat Gov. Wes Moore.
These five black governors (another record) will conduct the public affairs of 50.3 million Americans or 14.7% of the population.
Democrats Xavier Becerra of California and Texas’ Gina Hinojosa also prevailed and will be inaugurated as Hispanic governors. Native American Indian Democrat Deb Haaland, of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, will replace Hispanic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M. Their 73.2 million constituents cover 21.4% of the U.S. population.
Democrats warned that Republican redistricting would blast blacks out of the U.S. House. Hardly. Black members of Congress will slip from 61 today to 59 on January 3. With a dozen races too close to call, this could change. Since congressional districts officially average 761,169 people, these 59 would represent roughly 44.9 million people or 13.1% of the populace, resembling America’s 13.5% black complexion.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus projects an increase from 44 House members to a record 55 in January, pending recounts. They will work for 41.9 million Americans or 12.3% of us.
So what?
For all of these firsts and the ethnic bean counting, will these elected officials do any good? Fingers crossed. While Republicans Tim Scott and Byron Donalds will champion individual liberty and free markets, these black and Hispanic Democrats most likely floor their gas pedals for Big Government.
Here is the silver lining: These blacks and Hispanics atop America’s commanding heights—plus officials of Asian ancestry and Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, D-Mich., a Muslim son of Egyptian immigrants—prove, once and for all, that this is no racist nation.
As much as leftists like Ro Khanna demand DEI to exorcise America’s ethnic demons, Election Day signaled that U.S. bigots remain a decreasingly significant minority group.
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