Election Results

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, last night, the American people sent an unmistakable message to the Democratic Party: We don't like your agenda, we don't want your agenda, and we won't vote for your agenda or for you.

During this election, the Democratic Party was exposed for what it has become: a party that holds police, parents, and patriotism in contempt. And now the Democrats have paid the price. The Democrats will continue to pay that price until they reject the repugnant radicalism that has infected their party.

The Democratic defeat last night was not in a single State or one county or some isolated municipality. It was not some isolated incident. It was not the result of just a single quirky issue or a bad candidate. It was a nationwide disaster and wipeout for the Democratic Party.

After 12 years of uninterrupted statewide victories in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Democrats appear to have lost not one, not two, but all three statewide races this year, along with control of the Virginia House of Delegates. And the only reason they didn't lose the Virginia State Senate is the State senate wasn't on the ballot last night.

I would remind you that Virginia is not a swing State, as you may have heard this morning to excuse the Democrats' terrible performance. Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points. It has been 12 years since Virginia voted for a Republican. Virginia is a Democratic State and has been for more than a decade. Yet, now, Joe Biden's acolytes have been soundly defeated by Republican Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, Lieutenant Governor-elect Winsome Sears, and Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares. It is remarkable how quickly the President's party has frittered away all of the good will in Virginia.

Now, I have also heard some Democrats try to explain away the loss in Virginia by saying Terry McAuliffe was a bad candidate. Now, I certainly have no grief for Terry McAuliffe, but I would say that Terry McAuliffe was such a bad candidate that he also is causing the Democratic Governor in New Jersey to lose. Joe Biden won that State by 16 points, and at this moment, the Governor's race is too close to call--too close to call. So it is at least a 16-point swing even if the Democratic Governor squeaks it out.

Oh, by the way, the Democratic State senate president, one of the key power brokers in New Jersey, appears to be on his path to losing to a Republican truckdriver who spent a grand total of $153 on his campaign but someone who said: I am a dad and I am a grandfather, and I think that we are taxed too much and that we need better representation.

If anyone had told Governor Phil Murphy and the Democrats yesterday that this would be a close race, he would have been laughed out of the room. Yet outrage against Democratic policies is rampant even in deep blue New Jersey.

Looking across State lines in New York, there was a similarly shocking outcome, with Republicans apparently sweeping every office in Long Island--every office in Long Island--driven in no small part by the insane, pro-criminal policies of the New York Democrats who want to eliminate cash bail and defund the police and go soft on criminals and let them out of jail early.

Speaking of that, let's turn to deep, deep blue Minneapolis, MN, where the BLM riots got kicked off last summer, where Democratic ``defund the police'' radicals have waged an unrelenting war on their city's police force. In a referendum to replace the police department, 56 percent of voters revolted and voted to keep the police department just the way it is--thank you very much.

This should teach the Democrats an important lesson. If ``defund the police'' can't win in a city that has been run entirely by Democratic mayors for nearly a half-century, it is not going to win anywhere.

Now, if this was a bad night for Democrats, it was an even worse night for the woke, far-left progressives who dominate in the Democratic Party. In Buffalo, NY, voters appear to have rejected this Democratic radicalism. Self-proclaimed socialist mayoral candidate India Walton had actually beaten the incumbent Democratic mayor earlier this year for the nomination, but now India Walton is losing to the current mayor in a write-in campaign--a write-in campaign.

Again, if your far-left policies can't even win when you are your party's nominee and in a city that has been run entirely by Democrats for a half-century, you had better believe they are bad and unpopular policies that will cost you your next election.

Finally, as far away as San Antonio, Republicans have flipped a largely Hispanic district long considered a Democratic bastion in a clear sign that Republican inroads with Hispanic voters last year were not a fluke.

So what is responsible for this astounding red wave unlike anything we have seen in years? Well, if you listen to some in the media this morning, the answer is the same as always: It is Republican racism. Glenn Youngkin is apparently a smiling, fleece-jacket wearing reincarnation of Democratic demagogues. But if you look at the map and you look at the actual results, this laughable attack is exposed for what it is: dishonest propaganda.

As part of this supposedly racist or White supremacist backlash election, more than half of Hispanic voters appear to have pulled the lever for Glenn Youngkin. Not one but two plurality-Black Virginia State House districts flipped to the GOP. Best of all for this supposedly racist or White supremacist backlash election, Virginia voters just elected the State's first Black female Lieutenant Governor. That woman is Winsome Sears, a gun-toting immigrant, Marine veteran, and a proud conservative Republican.

So much for the media spin. Now for the truth. According to exit polls, the top issues on voters' minds were the economy and education. Both spelled disaster for the Democrats.

For months, Americans have watched with alarm as Democrats have shoveled trillions of dollars into liberal priorities while inflation has surged upwards. They have suffered skyrocketing costs at the grocery store and the gas pump.

First, the Democrats said this is merely transitory inflation. Then they laughed it off as a joke, and they said: Sorry. You will have to lower your expectations. It may take you a while to get your treadmill.

Then they demanded trillions of dollars more in their so-called Build Back Better initiative, which should perhaps be called ``build back broke'' if you are a working family.

So when Glenn Youngkin offered to eliminate Virginia's onerous grocery tax and cut the progressive gas tax, normal Virginians listened, and they voted.

American parents have also been ignored and mistreated by the schools that are supposed to be teaching their kids. Remote learning was a disaster for America's children. Some have fallen months behind in their development, and many more have suffered the consequences of social isolation. But if there is a silver lining in this tragedy, it is that parents were finally able to see the nonsense that their kids were being taught: critical race theory, indoctrinated to see everything and everyone first and foremost by the color of their skin and to hate their country. Parents were outraged, and parents were right to be outraged.

Now, the Democrats' response to this controversy reminds me of the old line that that dog didn't bite you; he is not my dog; he kicked you first. Their first response was that critical race theory is a figment of your imagination. And they said it is not taught in Virginia. And they said: Well, it should be taught anyway because our schools and our institutions are so racist.

Then again, they also said that there was no threat of having teenage boys in girls' bathrooms. We now know that Loudoun County didn't just cover up one rape--one rape--of a teenage girl by a boy dressed as a girl but then transferred that boy to another school, where he committed a second assault. Not surprisingly, parents in Loudoun County didn't take too kindly to the woke Democrats in charge of that school system.

When their arguments failed to persuade, the Democrats tried a different tactic: silencing parents. Terry McAuliffe boldly claimed that parents shouldn't tell schools what they should teach their kids. Attorney General Merrick Garland even tried to sic the FBI on parents who showed up to protest at school board meetings.

So it is no wonder that parents voted for Republicans in Virginia and across the country when the alternative was nothing but contempt and spite for parents raising their children as they see fit.

So, yes, the American people are disappointed, dissatisfied, and, frankly, disgusted with the modern Democratic Party, which sneeringly claims that it knows best always and about everything. Now, if it did, it would have seen this coming.

I would simply caution my Democratic colleagues, especially four future former one-term Senators, that if they don't change their ways, if they proceed with this reckless tax-and-spending bill, which includes over a trillion dollars in wasteful spending and which is littered with woke projects and leftist schemes, next year will be even worse. That chill you feel is the voters walking over your grave.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source