By Kathleen Crawford,
Chair, Placer County Democratic Central Committee
The Democratic national election results are not yet finalized due to the Georgia runoff on December 6, 2022. However, the Senate Democrats are in a better position at this time with 50 Democratic Senators and only 49 GOP Senators. In the last election it took the Georgia Senatorial Democratic win to achieve the 50 vote split Senate, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to be the tiebreaker. Now, if Senator Warnock succeeds, there will be 51 Democratic Senators which will help to diminish the impact of Senators Manchin and Sinema. The House majority looks to be slim for either side with the GOP having a slightly easier path to electing a House Speaker. Clearly, the Red Wave did not materialize and this was the best midterm election for the incumbent President’s party since the George W. Bush midterm in 2002, when Bush had high favorability ratings and the 9/11 attacks on our nation had unified the country behind him.
In my analysis of the national results in 2022, this is a clear vindication of Democratic policies and agenda despite an unpopular rating for Biden and the overall anxiety on the economy and inflation. Democrats were successful in Governors’ races, statewide offices and lost very few contested House seats, denying the historical trend which had the prognosticators justifying a “Red Wave” which turned out to be a dripping pink trickle.
Locally, our endorsed candidates (Kermit Jones, Paula Villescaz and Rebecca Chenoweth) organized strong grassroots campaigns with only the Congressional race for Kermit Jones still awaiting results at time of publication. Each has exceeded the Democratic registration numbers while engaging new activists and volunteers. Our local nonpartisan candidates had both victories and losses. The Rocklin School Board races were hotly contested and possibly 2 of the endorsed candidates look to be seated on that board. A significant factor for nonpartisan candidates is the lack of resources available to help them run campaigns and win their races.
Our Campaign Services Committee is looking to start nonpartisan candidates’ recruitment and training in 2023 so that these candidates can identify additional volunteers and fundraise more successfully. If this is something you would like to support, please consider joining the Campaign Services Committee which is open to any Placer Democrat. You would have a committee vote by attending 3 committee meetings and then approval by the Central Committee. Melissa Gaian is chair and can be reached at melissa.ross84@icloud.com – she’ll welcome your participation.