The blue wave was helped along by some extraordinary good fortune for Democrats

Sen.-elect Troy Jackson, D-Maine. Photo (cc) 2023 by ArenLeBrun.

Democrats have nailed down 54 seats in the Senate, and that number could climb to 55 or 56 depending on how the counting progresses in Alaska and (gasp!) Mississippi.

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But even if Republicans hold on to both, Democrats have achieved something of great importance: They’ve made the Senate Fetterman-proof. That is, their majority is large enough that the Trump-curious Pennsylvania Democrat will be unable to demand concessions in return for his support, as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema did during Joe Biden’s first two years as president.

There are many, many observations to be made about the gigantic blue wave that came crashing over the Republican Party’s heads Tuesday night and this morning. One that I want to make involves the extraordinary good fortune the Democrats enjoyed in a number of races that they may not have otherwise won even with a deeply unpopular president looming over the election. Here are three:

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A Muzzle to Ken Paxton for targeting a Mass. company in his Texas Senate campaign against James Talarico

James Talarico speaks at a rally in Texas. Photo (cc) 2025 by H. Michael Karshis.

If you lean left and have ever “liked” a liberal social media post, you and your email inbox are probably familiar — oh, so familiar — with ActBlue, a platform that serves as a fundraising platform for Democratic candidates. And it’s only worse if you’ve actually donated to a candidate — something I don’t do because I’m a journalist.

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But if you’ve wished that ActBlue would just go away, be careful. Ken Paxton, the floridly corrupt Republican Senate candidate from Texas, wants you to believe that he’s coming to your rescue. Acting in his capacity as his state’s attorney general, he sued ActBlue in December 2023. Now he’s trying to use that suit as a cudgel in his campaign to defeat his Democratic opponent, James Talarico. So far, that suit isn’t going anywhere.

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