Sometimes, when you're on the losing side in an election, it can be challenging to regain perspective. And after the one we had last Tuesday, it was easy to feel like all hope was lost.
I know I spent probably 48 hours or so dooming and glooming (which I blamed partly on lack of sleep), thinking to myself that we had come so far only to see the pause button hit on the conservative agenda in so many ways after November 3. "How in the world are we going to dig out from this mess?" was a question I asked myself often.
Over the course of time, though, and after a lot of prayer, I reached a point where I had a clarity of mind about things, a peace about what the future would (hopefully) hold for both the state and country that I love.
I'm only one person, and I don't have all the answers. Nor am I a political expert. But I do remember back to 2010, when Republicans swept into power here in North Carolina for the first time in over 100 years amid a rash of Democrat corruption scandals - on maps drawn by Democrats.
Expectedly, they were ruthless once they got in and changed the trajectory of the state, making it more business-friendly while lowering taxes across the board. They helped usher forth school choice gains around the state, advanced pro-life and pro-Second Amendment goals, protected women's sports, strengthened support for law enforcement, and worked to rein in DEI at higher ed institutions. They fought tooth and nail for voter ID and to preserve redrawn redistricting maps throughout their time in power, having many successes even through eight years of Roy Cooper as governor.
In 2022, the projected midterm red wave across the country didn't happen, but we had one here in North Carolina (incidentally, at a time when Michael Whatley was the head of the NCGOP), where we retook control of the state Supreme Court and increased our margins in the state legislature to the point that certain local media outlets fretted over judicial activism and how, with "the balance of power in the legislature now tilted further right, Democrats’ power has weakened significantly."
Lmao, after years of a Democrat-dominated, wildly partisan NC Supreme Court, @WRAL editorial board is suddenly concerned about judicial activism...now that the GOP won majority on the court Tuesday. Never change, WRAL! 😂😂 #ncpol #ncga https://t.co/8zbz30jsFS
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) November 11, 2022
In today's print edition of the @newsobserver: #ncga #ncpol https://t.co/agUD6ohK5F
— Dawn B. Vaughan (@dawnbvaughan) November 13, 2022
Statewide races are where we sometimes run into problems, though, particularly in gubernatorial races (as we saw in 2024) and, now, Senate races. There's something to be said for candidate quality, effective messaging, and ground game, and such arguments are already playing out after how poorly Whatley performed in a race he probably would have lost anyway, even had he been the ideal Senate nominee.
State parties almost always get blamed when these types of blowouts happen, and there are already calls for top-down leadership changes at the NCGOP, which might be warranted. I don't know. I just know that for several election cycles, there appeared to be a good ground operation here (which was reflected in the results of those elections), something that didn't seem to be the case in 2026.
Hope is on the horizon, though, with the silver lining for North Carolina Republicans being that - assuming unofficial election results hold - it looks like they held on to the state senate, which is going to make the Democrats' jobs a lot harder once they officially take control of the state house, for reasons I explained here.
I get the frustration out there about the national landscape after last week, and the feeling that all the gains we've had are going to be wiped out over the course of time. But in my opinion, that only happens if we resign ourselves to it.
For me, knowing what's on the line, coupled with seeing the Democrats' cockiness and their overreaching, is inject-in-my-veins kinda stuff, and it keeps me motivated from a political standpoint to continue using the tools at my disposal to help begin the process of digging out.
It starts at the local level and, in my view, especially in southern states. So do yourselves and the future of this country a big favor and pay as much attention as you can to what's happening at the local and state levels with your representatives and your various party leaders - and speak out accordingly, not just in the court of public opinion but at the ballot box.
