All across the South, Southwest, Midwest, West and East Coast the Democratic Party made huge gains setting the stage for a majority within the House of Representatives and Senate. It was the phenomenal turnout among African Americans which turned the tide against the MAGA Republicans
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
November 11, 2026
Political Review
During the months leading up to the midterm elections on November 3 the level of discontent among large sections of the electorate in the United States has been quite evident.
Since 2025, millions have shown up at demonstrations opposing the policies of the administration of President Donald Trump relating to military affairs, immigration enforcement, institutional racism and the deteriorating economic situation.
However, the elections provided yet another opportunity for the people to express their disapproval of the present course of the US. Participation within the African American community around the country rivaled that of previous presidential elections in past decades.
The African American electorate was key in reshaping the legislative branches of the government slated to be sworn in during early January. Of course, the concept of African Americans voting in a bloc is not new since it has been documented going back to the late 1920s and 1930s.
Despite the passage of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1870 which provided the legal basis for African American men to cast votes in local, state and federal elections, the abandonment of Reconstruction legislation after 1877 and a series of Supreme Court rulings of 1883 eviscerated legal notions of African American political power.
This is why the elections of African Americans to statewide and federal offices in the deep south states such as Georgia and Mississippi reaffirms their determination to claim basic civil rights in the 21st century. Results from the midterms also served as a response to the Supreme Court ruling known as Louisiana v. Callais earlier in 2026 which authorized the redrawing of congressional districts in the South.
A principal focus of the Trump administration has been the denigration of African American women who have lost hundreds of thousands of public and private sector jobs from the federal government to the corporate sector. The attacks on the policies of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) by the administration have been implemented in a fashion which suggests that African Americans are unqualified and unfit to hold certain jobs within the broad labor market inside the country.
With specific reference to the state of Georgia, one media source noted:
“The wins in Georgia were part of a blue wave that swept the country. Multiple Black women made history, notably former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who will be the first Black woman governor in U.S. history. In addition to Bottoms and Brown Reynolds, the six other Black women who ran for statewide office in Georgia and won are Tanya Miller, who will be attorney general; Katherine Juhan-Arnold, who will be agriculture commissioner; Keisha Waites, who will be insurance commissioner; Nikki Porcher, who will be labor commissioner; Sheila Edwards, who will be public service commissioner; and Lydia Powell, who will be state school superintendent.” (https://19thnews.org/2026/11/
The termination of approximately 300,000 jobs within the federal workplace during the opening months of the Trump administration’s second non-consecutive term under the tutelage of Elon Musk through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an estimated one-third were African American women. This disproportionate impact on African American women would not go unanswered.
DOGE and its former leader made numerous outlandish statements about the character of the civil service and various congressionally approved entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Unemployment Compensation, Retirement and Compensation Funds were somehow wracked with fraud. Musk went as far as proclaiming that Social Security was a “ponzi scheme.”
The Social Security Act was passed by Congress in 1935. Other programs grew out of the New Deal and later Great Society era when various administrations and congresses approved them.
In addition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by Congress under the administration of former President Barack Obama has been under attack by the MAGA Republicans in Congress and the White House. In 2027, millions of people in the US will either be ousted from the program or negatively impacted.
However, in response to these attacks, the American Prospect news website said on November 10 that:
“Black voters helped propel Democratic candidates to major wins, and Black women candidates to historic ones. Black women turned out to vote—as they always have—so all these ingredients fueled a dynamic and decisive repudiation of the White House–led attempt to turn the clock back on African American voting rights. The latest wave of racial gerrymandering had the opposite effect on Election Day. After the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling destroyed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision that prohibited discriminatory voting laws, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Southern states redrew their congressional maps to spread Black voters out into adjoining white districts to dilute their political participation and representation, and to ensure victories for Republican candidates. NBC’s exit polls indicated that 93 percent of Black women voted for Democratic candidates. States that offer early voting found that more Black voters took advantage of it this year. In Georgia, more than 560,000 Black women voted before November 3, up 31 percent from 2022. More than 330,000 Black men also voted early, up 27 percent from 2022.” (https://prospect.org/2026/11/
Even in the states of Florida and Tennessee where Angie Nixon ran to take a Senate seat and Justin Pearson sought to enter the House of Representatives, they lost only by small margins. If the blue wave continues, they could easily capture positions within the Congress in 2028.
In the state of Mississippi, Democratic Senatorial candidate Scott Colom has dominated the race since November 3. A full week after the closing of the polls, the race had still not been called by the Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson.
Incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith remained silent as the Mississippi race remained uncalled by the Secretary of State. Hyde-Smith, a longtime Republican and ally of Trump, while growing up attended an all-white academy. These schools were established in various parts of the South in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement which broke down legalized segregation in public education. Undoubtedly, these schools were designed to circumvent desegregation which was mandated by The Brown v. Topeka decision of 1954 as well as other subsequent rulings by the federal courts during the 1960s and 1970s. (https://www.politico.com/
Prospects for Reversals and Reforms Moving Forward
With the opening of the 120th US Congress on January 3, 2027, the legislative branch will be facing a monumental task of addressing several pressing issues related to healthcare, housing, agricultural, educational and military expenditures. The Trump administration and the 119th Congress decimated the ACA along with other programs which provide food, housing, energy and education to tens of millions in the US.
While entitlement programs have been slashed by the Trump administration, monumental tax cuts and other wealth transferals from the working class to the capitalists have continued having a devastating impact on people around the US. In regard to foreign policy, the wars in West Asia and Eastern Europe have drained the national budgets of the US and the other capitalist states in Western Europe.
In a report published by the Center for American Progress, it says of the present crisis:
“On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed congressional Republicans’ regressive One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law—enacting the largest-ever cuts to basic needs programs for vulnerable families to fund tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. One year later, the Trump administration’s policies are bleeding the revenue of the American tax system and have left millions of Americans without health coverage and food assistance, on top of the rising prices and economic uncertainty caused by the administration’s harmful economic, trade, and national security policies.” (https://www.americanprogress.
Consequently, to reverse these policy choices imposed by the MAGA-dominated White House and Congress, it will require mass interventions by those most affected by the Trump program of austerity for the workers and poor while the rich continue to accumulate wealth. The mobilization of the people during 2025-2026 must proceed on a programmatic level.
Efforts to end the wars against Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, etc., must continue with added energy and focus. The lack of food, housing and medical care will result in a social crisis which will warrant the immediate attention of Congress.
Trump and his allies in Congress have rejected the electoral mandate for the reversals of its reactionary policies and the adoption of sweeping reforms. As a result, it will be up to the people to raise these critical issues while creating the conditions to impose political consequences on those who want to maintain the status quo.
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Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT–
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