The 2022 midterm results are yielding new, battle-tested Democratic leaders

The lead­up to Elec­tion 2022 was a peri­od of self-induced intox­i­ca­tion for politi­cians and pun­dits of the Amer­i­can right, cit­ing Repub­li­can polls pre­dict­ing a “Demo­c­ra­t­ic blood bath” come elec­tion day. With the votes being count­ed, how­ev­er, much blood on the floor comes from the GOP’s inter­nal battles.

As well, the “red tsuna­mi” pre­dict­ed by the likes of Don­ald Trump and Newt Gin­grich hasn’t even turned out to be a red tide.

The elec­tion will hope­ful­ly stir the blood of Democ­rats and inject new blood par­tic­u­lar­ly in the party’s lead­er­ship in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The mass media has had a fix­a­tion with Don­ald Trump and his poten­tial GOP rivals. It’s high time they devote some atten­tion to emerg­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic talent.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Josh Shapiro was elect­ed gov­er­nor of Penn­syl­va­nia in a land­slide. Okay, he beat an ultra MAGA extrem­ist aban­doned by the Repub­li­can Gov­er­nors Asso­ci­a­tion, but Shapiro court­ed Penn­syl­va­nia vot­ers who had turned away from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party.

He won over blue col­lar work­ers, promis­ing that a col­lege degree will no longer be pre­req­ui­site for a state gov­ern­ment job. Look at his big mar­gin in Erie County.

An obser­vant Jew, he talked of his faith and faith issues. He held down Doug Mastriano’s mar­gins in con­ser­v­a­tive coun­ties that were big for Trump.

We know Shapiro in the North­west, as col­lab­o­ra­tor with our Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son in dozens of law­suits against excess­es of the Trump Administration.

Com­ing from a bat­tle­ground state, he was not afraid to do bat­tle with a Pres­i­dent who had car­ried Penn­syl­va­nia in 2016.

Gov­er­nor Gretchen Whit­mer of Michi­gan has been a tar­get, of Trump and armed demon­stra­tors protest­ing COVID-19 restric­tions, and of a botched kid­nap­ping and assas­si­na­tion plot.  She proved fear­less before the wrath of the right and won a 170,000-vote vic­to­ry on Tuesday.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mau­ra Healey was elect­ed gov­er­nor of Mass­a­chu­setts by a land­slide margin.

Sure, the Bay State leans Demo­c­ra­t­ic, but has a habit of putting Repub­li­cans in the state­house. Healey was anoth­er Bob Fer­gu­son com­pa­tri­ot in thwart­ing Trump regime bids to roll back envi­ron­men­tal and work­er pro­tec­tion laws.

Healey is the first “out” les­bian to win a guber­na­to­r­i­al election.

Defy­ing pre­dic­tions of a Repub­li­can break­through in New Eng­land, Democ­rats appear to have swept all twen­ty U.S. House seats from Mass­a­chu­setts, Con­necti­cut, Rhode Island, Ver­mont, New Hamp­shire and Maine.

Sen­a­tor-elect John Fet­ter­man of Penn­syl­va­nia is a larg­er-than-life fig­ure, with his hood­ies and tat­toos and pop­ulist politics.

What a fight­er he turned out to be, over­com­ing a stroke and best­ing celebri­ty Dr. Mehmet Oz, despite a $30 mil­lion injec­tion of mon­ey by Mitch McConnell. If McConnell is to remain Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader, it is because of Fetterman.

Fet­ter­man is unabashed­ly of the pro­gres­sive wing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. He does not, how­ev­er, come from a sol­id “D” dis­trict, and stress­es eco­nom­ic jus­tice over self-defeat­ing cul­tur­al caus­es. He took his pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics to coun­ties that had turned away from the par­ty. He also won in afflu­ent coun­ties around Philadel­phia, despite a del­uge of adver­tis­ing by Dr. Oz and Repub­li­can PACs.

Sen­a­tor Michael Ben­net of Col­orado has now won elec­tions in three dif­fi­cult years for the Democ­rats. He went nowhere as a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date in 2020, but has been a major force in turn­ing a pur­ple West­ern state blue.

If Ari­zona Sen­a­tor Mark Kel­ly wins reelec­tion – he’s 220,000 votes ahead at this writ­ing – he deserves a nation­al spotlight.

Kel­ly and his wife Gab­by Gif­fords (a for­mer U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive) have been fre­quent North­west vis­i­tors boost­ing our gun safe­ty ini­tia­tives. Kel­ly is a for­mer Navy offi­cer and astro­naut who has won tough elec­tions in 2020 and 2022.

Class acts and wor­thy pub­lic ser­vants, all.

It’s dis­ap­point­ing that can­di­dates Cheri Beasley (North Car­oli­na) and the bold Tim Ryan (Ohio) won’t be join­ing them in the Senate.

In the House, keep an eye on Hakeem Jef­fries, D‑New York, as Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi’s prob­a­ble suc­ces­sor as House Demo­c­ra­t­ic leader.