Save this story Save Story Save this story When, in late October, Ohio’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy ran an ad featuring Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother —who stood by Acton’s stepfather after he was found guilty of raping Acton when she was 12—it seemed that political campaigning had reached a dramatic new low.
Ramaswamy’s ad was widely condemned , and on Tuesday, he lost the race for governor to Acton. “The healing begins today,” she said as she became Ohio’s first-ever female governor-elect.
Indeed, the victories that made up last night’s blue wave felt like a riposte to a range of Republican transgressions. Democrat Allie Phillips, who flipped a key House seat in Tennessee’s District 75, was motivated to run after her state’s near-total abortion ban prevented her from terminating a wanted but nonviable pregnancy in 2023. In Michigan, meanwhile, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the country’s first Muslim senator just over a week after President Donald Trump referred to him as a “jihadist” who was “on the side of terrorists,” doubling down on the Islamophobic attacks that dogged El-Sayed throughout his campaign.
When El-Sayed delivered his victory speech on Tuesday night, he wasted no time rebuking that hateful rhetoric, telling supporters: “Up until right about now, you might have noticed, I always say ‘Inshallah,’ or ‘God willing,’ whenever the outcome of this race was mentioned. But today, tonight, we can turn that ‘Inshallah’ into an ‘Alhamdulillah.’ For the right-wing ops, that just means ‘Praise be to God.’”
The queer community, too, had a lot to celebrate on Tuesday. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire became the country’s first openly gay senator , and at least three trans people were elected to public office: Allison Montgomery, who became the first openly transgender person ever to join the Alabama Legislature; Joanna Whaley, the first trans person elected to Michigan’s state legislature; and Washington State’s Jaelynn Scott, the nation’s first Black trans state lawmaker.
Given that few groups have been targeted by Republicans than trans people , these victories sent a strong message. As Scott put it in an interview, “This is not just about identity politics here in Washington. It’s actually about, in the face of these anti-trans initiatives that they’re pushing in our state and coming after our communities, that we’re actually throwing the finger at them.”
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Source: Lifestyle
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