I was raised under a big sky, on a long flat prairie. As a child, my parents taught me to stick out my tongue when anyone said the name "Bill Clinton." Everyone I met, everyone I knew and loved for my whole entire childhood, was a Republican, except for the few libertarians. Sure, people may have grumbled about our invariably Republican elected officials—be it Bush or Perry or Abbott—but they still voted for them. Republicans ruled Texas in the same inexorable way the sun rises each morning. The alternative was basically unthinkable. Until last night, when all of a sudden it wasn’t.

I knew the place where I grew up was changing. But as the returns came in Tuesday night, I felt like I’d been hit by lightning. Steve Kornacki pointed at my home county, Denton, and declared that James Talarico was up by almost 13 points in the early returns. That margin wouldn’t stay, but the lead did. With 95 percent of the vote counted, Talarico won Denton County with a little over 53 percent of the vote. And it wasn’t just him. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for governor, took Denton County by a narrow margin. Both took the state. 

They were not alone. In every statewide race in Texas, the Democratic candidate won. As Forrest Wilder wrote in Texas Monthly on Wednesday, “It seems like Texans went into the voting booth with a vengeance, voting against anyone with an R next to their names.” In addition to the national Senate seat and the governor’s mansion, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who has been an incredibly adept and evil politician my entire adult life, got destroyed by Vikki Goodwin. Democrats won the attorney general’s office, the comptroller, the railroad commissioner, and the fucking agriculture commissioner. They flipped suburban counties, including Paxton’s own home county of Collin.

People across America rejected data centers during last night’s midterm election. Proposals related to data centers were explicitly on the ballot in more than 40 races across 13 states. People voted against data centers in 38 of them and counting. Six cities voted to ban data centers outright and 12 put limits on the amount of megawatts such buildings could draw. In addition to specific ballot measures, candidates who supported data centers lost across the country.

One of the most striking repudiations of pro data center politicians was in Texas, where Gregg Abbott lost a bid for a fourth term as governor. Abbott had made Texas a data center friendly place. The state has more than 300 working data centers and there are plans to double that number. “Texas is the epicenter of AI development,” Abbott said in 2025 at a press conference with Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen.” He went on to accept more than $9 million from data center-related donors.

When public sentiment turned against data centers, Abbott attempted to ride shifting political winds by issuing a “pause” on new projects. The pause wasn’t real. Texas regulators continued to approve data center projects after Abbott’s announcement and only shut down the state’s permitting web portal when 404 Media reported it.

Gina Hinojosa, Texas’s Democratic governor-elect, made Abbott’s stance on data centers a central part of her campaign. Abbott’s words about making Texas a data center-friendly AI state played on TVs and the internet over and over again. He lost by more than 700,000 votes.

Anti-data center candidates overwhelmingly won statewide races across the country. In Burgin, Kansas, mayoral candidate George Hensley lost his bid after voting to approve a hyperscale project—to a write-in candidate. Hensley was the only name on the ballot, and he lost to Joe MonroeTK, who ran an anti-data center write-in campaign. Emporia, Kansas — where police arrested a school teacher for clapping during a data center related city meeting — passed a ban on high impact data centers. In Yukon, Oklahoma the mayor lost a recall election after he supported a hyperscale data center project.

"These midterms sent a clear message — people don't want to see data centers in their backyards,” Michael Whitesides, the deputy communications director for Local Progress, told 404 Media. “Across the country, people do not see the promised benefit of these data centers, and the AI they power, playing out in their daily lives. They're seeing basic goods and services get more expensive while these billionaire backed monstrosities take up space in their community, poison their air, and drive up their utility bills.”

Local Progress is a network of local elected officials. Over the past year, its members have become increasingly focused on data centers as a top political issue. “Last night, we saw local, state, and federal officials who backed data center deals lose their seats,” Whitesides said. He noted that Kim Rooney in Asheville, North Carolina and Amanda Rodrigues in San Marcos, Texas (both members of Local Progress) were elected mayors in their cities after running anti-data center campaigns.

“Big Tech will continue its typical playbook of trying to buy and bully local officials into complying with their demands for more data center development, but our hope is that last night's results are a clear signal to local leaders that they can resist and their community will back them up,” Whitesides said.

American voters in the communities where they’re being built hate data centers. They run up power bills, burn through water, and power Silicon Valley’s  AI apparatus. America rejected data centers last night as both symbols of the big tech oligarchy and a physical manifestation of the future it wants to build. It’s a future Americans seem willing to fight.

Elon Musk, one of the night’s big losers, took a break from a weeks-long posting spree on X as the election results rolled in. Musk spent half a billion dollars on the midterms, $224 of it in Texas, the state where he lives and does a lot of business. The world’s richest man wanted to cover the state in data centers. Those plans aren’t looking good now that Abbott is out and Hinojoa is in.

Musk broke his election day posting silence a little after 1 am. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” he said on X. Chased off the land by its people, the billionaire looks to the sky.

James Talarico, the Democratic Texas senator-elect, not only managed to flip the state in yesterday's midterms but prevailed in the most expensive Senate election to date. More than $573 million was spent on advertisements between Talarico, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton, and their aligned PACs. And a big chunk of that money came from just one man: Elon Musk.

Musk reportedly spent more than $445 million supporting Republicans in the midterms, making him not only by far the biggest donor in the 2026 election cycle but also in American history. And most of his money was spent in Texas, his home state and the headquarters of both Tesla and …

Read the full story at The Verge.

When Donald Trump began his second term as president, Silicon Valley gratefully embraced moral nihilism. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and more collectively donated millions to Trump's inauguration fund to ensure his favor in a new era of gangster tech regulation. Meta overhauled its content policy to allow calling gay people mentally ill and women property. Elon Musk started throwing Nazi salutes - yes, allegedly, but he would soon be posting nonstop about protecting the white race from extinction, so that's the most fragile of fig leafs.

As of mere months ago, this was working out pretty well for them. The Trump administration took a mostly …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Six transgender and nonbinary candidates made history on Election Day by winning races in states that have never elected a trans person into their legislature before. These candidates will expand LGBTQ+ political power at a time when their rights are increasingly under attack nationwide. All races are called according to projections by Decision Desk HQ.

Georgia

Bentley Hudgins will be Georgia’s first nonbinary and first Japanese-American lawmaker after winning their bid to represent State House District 90 in east Atlanta. They easily defeated their opponent, Republican Samantha Boston, in the deep-blue district.

Hudgins, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, spent the last three years advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in the Georgia statehouse through their work with the Human Rights Campaign. But LGBTQ+ issues were not core to their campaign: They ran on affordability, expanding healthcare access and broadly protecting civil rights. Those issues are personal for them. As they had told The 19th, Hudgins faced homelessness and barriers to accessing care for cluster headaches and seizures. They were diagnosed as legally deaf at 19, and had to have their eardrums rebuilt.

Many of Hudgins’ campaign goals, like raising the state minimum wage to $20 an hour or creating an earned income tax credit to give money to lower-income Georgia families, depend on whether Democrats gain enough leverage in the state House to influence policymaking. The party needs to gain 10 seats in the chamber to reach a majority — and as of Wednesday morning, that feat looks possible. 

Michigan

Joanna Whaley, a hospital chaplain, will be the first trans person elected to Michigan’s state legislature after winning her race for House District 2, outside Detroit. A former megachurch pastor who has spoken openly about surviving years of “conversion therapy” as a young adult, Whaley acknowledged after winning her primary in August that her victory was “a defining moment for state history,” but added that her campaign “has never been about history.”

She handily defeated her opponent, Republican Ron Kokinda, with 63 percent of the vote.

Whaley ran on securing fair wages for workers, supporting statewide job training programs and lowering the cost of utilities and medical debt. She was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the only trans member of Congress, and Abdul El-Sayed, who became the nation’s first Muslim senator on Tuesday. She was also backed by progressive advocacy groups and Democrats in the state legislature.

Whaley’s primary was contentious at times. In April, her Democratic opponent, former Michigan state Rep. Frank Liberati, claimed Whaley had violated state campaign law by omitting her deadname, or the name she used before transitioning, from the affidavit of identity she submitted to run for office. A county clerk denied Liberati’s challenge to Whaley’s candidacy in May.

Alabama

Allison Montgomery will be Alabama’s first trans lawmaker after winning her bid for state House District 25, defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Phillip Rigsby. A software engineer and lifelong Alabamian, Montgomery ran on broadening access to healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights and eliminating the state’s grocery tax.

“I know the headlines tomorrow are gonna be provocative and catchy, but let’s focus on the most important part of this victory: we showed that a truly grassroots campaign that stands on its policies and its principles has a real shot in Alabama,” Montgomery said in a statement on Tuesday after her race was called. “We the people are tired of attempts to distract us with culture war issues, whether we’re in a minority group or not. We the people know corporate interests use these issues to pit us against one another while they pick our pockets.”

She added: “I’m going to work especially hard for those who hate me, because they deserve a better Alabama as much as anyone.”

Washington

Jaelynn Scott will be Washington’s first trans state lawmaker — and the first out Black trans state lawmaker elected in the country — after winning her bid for state House District 37 in southeast Seattle. She easily defeated her opponent, independent Evon McCorkle, a college student, with 88 percent of the vote.

Scott, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is the executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, a Black- and trans-led civil rights nonprofit based in Seattle. Her pitch to voters centered largely on affordability, universal healthcare and taxing large corporations and billionaires. In an interview with The 19th on election night, Scott said she plans to lead “with love and compassion and empathy.”

“It’s pretty surreal,” she said of her barrier-breaking win. “The fact is, people that look like me and have my identity in 2026 are used to being under attack — not leading. I think it was because of what’s happening to us, and really maybe even a bit of fear about what might happen to me and my community, that inspired me to run. I never thought we would get this far.”

Wisconsin

Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford will be the first trans person elected to the Wisconsin state legislature after winning her race for state House District 76. She defeated her opponent, Republican Nina Chat, with more than 90 percent of the vote in the deep-blue district.

Martinez-Rutherford, a former food service worker, comedian and small business owner, made history in 2023 as the first trans woman elected to the Madison Common Council in the state capital. She’s spoken previously about experiencing housing and financial insecurity.

Martinez-Rutherford’s campaign centered largely on economic issues, promising to fight for a living wage tied to inflation, affordable housing and access to quality healthcare.

Florida

In a hyperlocal race that still breaks national barriers, Quinnie Perez is projected to win her seat on the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District. This humble board lacks a budget and has little power, but Perez winning the position in Seat 1 makes her the first trans woman ever elected in Florida.

Perez ran on supporting farmworkers with fair wages and safe conditions, highlighting her family history as the daughter of Mexican farmworkers, as well as wetland restoration and building green infrastructure.

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Several other transgender candidates still made history, although they didn’t win. They ran in deep-red, conservative districts, taking on difficult fights without any guarantee of success. Some were the first Democrats to run for their seats in decades, signaling a new energy to run for office among trans people even as their identities become increasingly politicized. Others have had their candidacies or ability to vote questioned by local authorities due to their gender identity. 

Georgia

After Bella Bautista decided to run for Georgia State House District 14, she went on to become the first trans woman to win a legislative primary in Georgia. Her race was a long shot: Her district hasn’t elected a Democratic state representative since 1996. She ran anyway. 

She is the first Democrat to run for this seat since 2010 — and it put a target on her back. As she told The 19th, this campaign cost her privacy and peace, leaving her feeling isolated in her rural and heavily conservative district. But she said she was determined to challenge the status quo. Her campaign focused on affordability, protecting rural land and fighting data centers. 

Kansas

Bobby Robertson Jr., a trans woman and financial analyst, lost her race for Kansas House District 73. But she still broke barriers as the first Democrat to challenge this seat in 10 years. 

She decided to run for office after the statehouse passed SB 244, a law that invalidated thousands of trans Kansans’ drivers licenses based on gender identity, over the governor’s veto. She wrote several letters to her state representative, Republican Rick Wilborn, explaining how the law would hurt her and her family. According to Mother Jones, she asked him to meet. She never got a response. So she decided to act. 

Avery Rowland, another trans woman in Kansas, ran to represent House District 2, in the bottom-right corner of the state. According to a report by Kansas Reflector, a state GOP official questioned her eligibility to vote over the state law that targeted trans residents’ drivers licenses. 

Ohio

Arienne Childrey previously challenged Republican incumbent Angie King in Ohio’s House District 84 in 2024 and lost. She lost again this election cycle. 

Trans Ohioans have seen overt efforts to keep them off of the ballot in the state. Childrey’s ability to run for office was challenged in 2024 because she omitted her deadname on petition paperwork. She had legally changed her name years ago and had no idea about the obscure Ohio elections law that brought her candidacy into question.

Arizona

Aiden Swallow, a military veteran of nearly two decades, lost her bid for Arizona House District 19 to former Republican state Sen. David Gowan. Swallow previously ran for Congress in Arizona’s 6th district, but dropped out of that race last year to run for the statehouse.

In this race, she faced two Republicans on the ballot as well as another Democrat, Jackie Anderson, a retired emergency room nurse.

Swallow’s campaign took a hard line against President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in a GOP-controlled district — and that stance was personal. She was kicked out of the military in 2025 due to Trump’s nationwide ban on trans service members, which was allowed to stay in place by the Supreme Court. She was removed from her military position without retirement benefits, according to her campaign website.

It started quickly, with Georgia's Senate race being called for Jon Ossoff 18 minutes after polls closed, and never let up. One by one precincts returned blue. The map was bluer than you've ever seen. Places went blue that haven't gone blue in a lifetime. It was bluer than a Lenny Bruce set. By the time it was called in Michigan for Abdul El-Sayed at 1:00 a.m. EST and Steve Kornacki was propofol'd and dragged off air for the night, both the House and the Senate were firmly in the hands of the Democrats, a blue wave not seen since the post-Watergate midterms of 1974, and for many of the same reasons.

If a race held any uncertainty, it broke left. The long-held dream of blue Texas is here, and resoundingly. The North Carolina House, redistricted last year by Republicans to safely go 11-3 in their favor, is going to end up something like 10-4 Dems. Washington D.C. elected a democratic socialist mayor. Michigan elected the nation's first Muslim Senator, New Hampshire our first openly gay man. It is hard to overstate how complete and far-reaching this blue tsunami was. Alabama elected a transgender woman to the House. One Maryland county's Democratic candidate for sheriff barely campaigned—he says he hates public speaking, and bought no ads—and won.

Democrats largely stayed on message and campaigned smartly on the real things people care about—the economy—but that Maryland sheriff race best illustrates what was actually being voted on. This was a nationwide referendum, on Republican rule and on Donald Trump. And it turns out that while voters may be prone to touching a hot stove, they will not keep their hands on the burner for ever.