By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
FEB. 16, 2024 | In reality, we need to remember, “Trust the people.”
So far little has been made about the swing that has been made in the 118th Congress. The results should warm the hearts of Democrats.
For in four elections to fill vacancies in the current House of Representative, Democrats have won three of four seats, making it even tougher for the Republican-controlled House to win routine votes.
Former Congressman Tom Suozzi won Tuesday’s election to replace George Santos for a Long Island seat in the House. And he won by a significant amount, 54 to 46 percent.
While a single election doesn’t mean that much, only in thickly-Republican Utah have the Republicans won a special seat since the 118th Congress began. Democrats have also taken special elections to fill vacancies in Rhode Island and Virginia.
The win reduces House Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority to 219-213, making his job of managing an unruly caucus a bit more difficult. His challenges were on full display last week, when the chamber failed to pass a measure to impeach President Joe Biden’s top border official, Alejandro Mayorkas, in an embarrassing setback. [Via Ballotpedia.org]
There will be two other special elections for Congress this year, one in California and the other in Ohio. Republicans held both seats previously. There are nine candidates seeking former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s seat in California:four Republicans, two Democrats and three with no party affiliation. This election will be in March, with the winner needing 50.1 percent to take office. Anticipation is that there will be a runoff.
In the Ohio race, the filing date for candidates for a seat in Congress will be in March, and the election in June. A Republican held the office before.
Now turn to thinking nationally about politics in general. With this apparent Democrat trend in the Congressional elections, coupled with victories for Democrats on abortion issues in several states, this is something Democrats can be pleased about.
Granted, much of the national political talk these days centers on the border; the fact that MAGA Republicans are not thinking of the nation’s defense and are playing uppity and causing big problems in the House. Add to this Republicans trying to shift the focus to President’s Biden’s age, when their own Donald Trump is only three years younger, who has lately started to show his mind is not as agile as it once was. Add to that the problem the Republicans have with Trump spouting off about not wanting our country to back NATO, and it just makes you realize that Trump has thoughts counter to what many Americans believe about our country and our defense pact with other nations. Do we really want to gut NATO?
If there is a basic political element that the most essential of Republicans, Abraham Lincoln, taught us, it is that we must “Trust the people. Always trust the people.”
So review how the people have voted recently: the Santos outcome, the results from two other Democratic Congress members winning special elections for the current Congress, and the results from the various abortion issues showing the strength of female voting.
All of this says to this corner that indeed, our country will be safe for democracy when we trust the people.
Mulberry Vote: Gov. Brian Kemp, we have learned, has signed the bill allowing for a vote on whether the citizens of the northeastern part of Gwinnett should become the City of Mulberry. The referendum on this question will be put to the voters on the date of the General Primary, which is May 21, 2024.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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