A night to remember

Published 6:22 pm Thursday, November 5, 2026

By Deborah Mitchell/Contributing Columnist

To borrow a phrase from Frankie Valli, “Oh what a night!” Ever the political junkie, on Tuesday, I was up until the wee hours of the morning watching election returns. I would call it a once-in-a-lifetime event, but for me, it was the second. In 1974, after Watergate, when Nixon resigned in disgrace, “Democrats gained 43 seats in the House, at least three seats in the Senate and four new governorships” (https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal74-1222893#_). This year? Still to be determined, but at minimum, Democrats picked up 41 House seats, seven Senate seats (two still outstanding), and five governorships.

While Trump’s administration hasn’t been plagued with a scandal that stirred the population similar to Watergate, they certainly have been tempting fate. A recent UMass Amherst poll found, “66% of Americans do not trust Trump to avoid using his position … to benefit his family’s business interests and 61% lack confidence in his ability to make decisions that serve the public interest” (https://www.umass.edu/poll/about/reports/2026-09-national-public-opinion-poll#toc-presidential-corruption). Additionally Gallup reports that “Americans’ perceptions of government corruption in the U.S. are at their highest level in 20 years, with 89% of U.S. adults saying it is widespread” (https://news.gallup.com/poll/713933/record-high-say-government-corruption-widespread.aspx). Based on these numbers, Tuesday night’s eruption could have been expected. In fact, it was. Poll after poll showed that Democrats stood to make huge gains in the midterms. I don’t trust the polls that previously had reliably told us what to expect, though. Ever since 2016, when Nate Silver told us that Hillary Clinton had it wrapped up in Michigan and Wisconsin, I’ve been more than skeptical. And because I object so strenuously to most of what goes on in the current administration, I tried to pay no attention to the polls so I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

But the polls were right, and the eruption swept the country, including here in Missouri.

You’ll recall that the Missouri legislature acceded to Trump’s wishes and tried to gerrymander the state to rid Missouri of the pesky Democratic seat held by Emmanuel Cleaver and replace it with a Republican US House member, taking Missouri’s US House delegation from six Republicans and two Democrats to seven Republicans and one Democrat. The legal brouhaha caused by that, engendered by Denny Hoskins’ shenanigans, came to nothing.

Except! The legislature outsmarted itself.

Using the 2022 Court-mandated map, Missourians rejected one incumbent House member. Instead of the 7/1 split they hoped for, Missouri voters elected a Democrat from the Second District – a mostly-St. Louis suburban area that Wikipedia reports as “the wealthiest of Missouri’s congressional districts.” So when the new Congress convenes in Washington in January, Missouri will send five Republicans and three Democrats.

But at least one of those five Republicans received many fewer votes this year than he did just two years ago. Mark Alford won in 2024 with about 71% of the vote. On Tuesday, his margin shrank to 61%, according to KBIA, with 97% of the vote in and counted.

At least 16 Missouri Republican legislators were also unseated by Democrats, breaking the Republican super-majority they have held since 2012. And two Democrats ousted Republican senators, breaking that chamber’s super-majority. Additionally, legislators will now have to listen to the voters. About 60% of Missouri voters approved Amendment 6, requiring that the Missouri legislature respect the voters’ voice, meaning that when Missouri’s voters speak, the legislature cannot overturn that vote unless they have 60% legislative support and then approval by the voters.

And Proposition A, causing all the uproar these past few months, won with 60% of the vote, meaning the legislature can wave goodbye to the gerrymandered map they hoped would make Trump happy.

All the other amendments were voted down, except the one dictating that sheriffs be elected and only the Attorney General can remove them from office. Two of these amendments had already been voted on by the public. The voters affirmed their earlier votes, but with larger margins.

This political upheaval was caused by, according to the University of Florida Election Lab, at least 124 million people who voted – 12 million more than in the midterms in 2022. This goes to show that when the people raise their voices, things change. Let’s remember that. 2028 isn’t that far away.