The election’s other message
In states and counties, a desire for governing by consensus compels more listening to opponents.
Voters wait in line to cast ballots in Scranton, Pa., Nov. 5.
AP
On Tuesday night, American voters handed Republicans the White House, the Senate, and – it looks likely – the House. That tilt toward one-party rule in Washington hides another political realignment that may be just as consequential. According to Edison Research, the share of Independent voters in this election equaled Republicans and – in a first – surpassed Democrats. The electorate’s changing composition may be why, despite the rancor of campaigning, many people in the country are bending more toward unity and reconciliation.
Pause for a moment in Michigan. The state flipped from blue in 2020 to red in 2024, but for local officials in Manistee County, something else seemed to matter more. “We don’t need to hyphenate being American; we’re all Americans,” a Republican member of the County Board of Commissioners told the Manistee News Advocate. “That’s the vision I wish to see realized – a united America rather than a qualified or divided one.”
Judy Cunningham, treasurer of the local Democratic Party, struck a similar note. “In the end, I was relieved that democracy won last night,” she told the newspaper. “We have the opportunity to put our country together and heal the wounds. It’s not about what party wins. It’s about continuing our democracy.”
In Alaska, the election reshuffled what may be one of the United States’ most novel approaches to state government. Bipartisan majorities will control both chambers of the state legislature. In both the House and the Senate, Republicans, Democrats, and independents will share leadership jobs and set rules together for passing bills. “Alaskans have spoken clearly and we will work together, representing residents of all regions,” incoming Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent, vowed in a statement.
A similar experiment in shared governing is underway in Oregon. During the campaign season, Gov. Tina Kotek went on a “listening tour” across all 36 counties and nine sovereign tribal nations. Several lawmakers made similar voyages, including all members of a joint legislative committee on transportation – seven Democrats and five Republicans.
“The next step is for members of the committee... to pull together all the information they learned on the tour and create a series of consensus recommendations” for the next legislative session in the new year,” wrote Senate President Rob Wagner in a newsletter.
One place to look for a reset of consensus-based governing in Washington, D.C., is the Senate. The chamber flipped. For the first time in two decades, the incoming Republican majority will choose a new leader. Yet its outgoing boss, Mitch McConnell, marked that transition with a nod to the chamber’s long-standing norm of protecting the minority’s right to be heard. “The filibuster will stand,” he said.
In his first comments after the election, President Joe Biden said from the White House Garden Thursday that “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.” Halfway across the country in South Dakota, that message found an echo. “As we move away from campaign season and back toward government,” said Dusty Johnson, a Republican member of Congress, “let us never forget that this country was not built on anger and fear, it was built on imagination, courage, optimism and freedom.”
In a national reset, the opportunity for reconciliation hangs in the air.