Today, we mourn. Tomorrow, we organize.
I won’t sugarcoat it. The results from last night's election were bad. At the Federal level Donald Trump won both the electoral college and the popular vote, including all 7 swing states. Democrats lost control of the Senate, and Republicans will maintain control of the House, meaning that Republicans will control both houses of Congress and the Presidency. This will give them a much greater ability to move their right-wing agenda forward nationally.
At the state legislative level, it appears that Democrats have lost 17 seats in the VT House - including two of their committee leaders. Progressives held our 4 seats, but did not win the two competitive races we were engaged in. The new makeup of the House will be 88 Democrats, 4 Progressives, 55 Republicans, and 3 independents. This means that the Democratic ‘supermajority’ to override Republican vetoes is gone. The same is true in the VT Senate where it appears that Democrats lost 6 seats and Progressives held our 1. The new senate makeup will be 16 Democrats, 1 Progressive, and 13 Republicans.
None of this is good news for our ability to address the crisis of houselessness, housing affordability, renter rights, property taxes, or progressive taxation. It is not good for our ability to move rapidly to address the climate crisis. It unfortunately means that BIPOC and LGBTQIA folks, women, immigrants, and all at-risk and historically marginalized community members are less safe today than they were yesterday.
While we have clearly lost ground this election, the truth is that progressives have never held a majority in Vermont or nationally. We have never been able to count on the ruling elites of the Democratic or Republican parties to act in the interests of working class people and the planet, or as good faith allies to our collective movement.
Any progress we have ever made towards economic, social, and climate justice has only been achieved through organizing our communities to demand justice from our leaders. The context of our work over the next two years has shifted, but our broad strategy remains unchanged. We must continue building a powerful movement of working class people across race, gender, and sexual orientation to take on the ruling class in Vermont and across our Nation.
And, there is opportunity in the badness. It is clear that many people are hurting and voted to reject the status quo. We agree that the status quo has not worked for working-class people, and we too have fought for change. We also know that many working-class people who voted for Republicans in this election are open to our populist progressive message of taxing the wealthy, addressing income inequality, and achieving economic justice. Our job now is to organize them into our movement.
The stakes are higher than ever before, so we hope we can count on you to continue organizing with us over the coming years and months. The first step in the road ahead is our upcoming State Convention on Sunday, November 17th, at 11am, at the Old Labor Hall in Barre (46 Granite Street, Barre). We will debrief these results, discuss our path forward, and prepare ourselves for the work ahead. Please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.
It makes sense if you are upset, distraught, and angry. I certainly am. Please take the time you need to process the results however you need to. When you are ready, we will be here to organize with you to continue fighting for economic, social, and environmental justice for all people.
In solidarity,
Josh Wronski
Director, Vermont Progressive Party
