DETROIT -- The bold-faced headline over this election is: “TRUMP LOST!”

Voters turned out in huge numbers in Michigan and across the country to cast ballots against a president they’ve grown weary of.

In doing so, they turned against many first-rate Republicans and handed key offices to far-left Democrats and Democratic socialists whose values and progressive agendas they don’t share.

America has not moved as far away from the middle as the election results would suggest. They’ve just moved decisively away from Donald Trump.

The Blue Tsunami was almost universal. Republicans lost or were losing key races as of this writing even in the bluest of states like Texas, Florida, Iowa, South Carolina and Kansas, all places where Trump’s approval ratings are underwater. The GOP lost the House and was on its way to losing the Senate, assuring Trump will spend his final two years fighting impeachment and endless investigations.

This was a spite election, and voters seemed not to care about the damage they were inflicting on their states and their country.

That was true in Michigan, where the most radical U.S. Senate candidate ever to appear on the ballot, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, beat an experienced, mainstream Republican in former Congressman Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed prevailed despite concerns about his association with antisemitism. All that mattered in this race was Trump's endorsement of Rogers, and voters assumed he would rubber-stamp the president’s agenda.

New kids on the bloc

El-Sayed will go to Washington and join the new bloc of Democratic Socialists and their fellow travelers who are vowing to force Congress to march to its tune.

Along with El-Sayed, Michigan will contribute at least two other members to the bloc. Incumbent Rep. Rashida Tlaib will bring along her protégé, Donavan McKinney, putting socialists in both Detroit congressional districts.

The progressive bloc will try to force through the agenda articulated by El-Sayed of privatizing key industries and giving government full control over our health care. The only consolation is that they will be to the Democratic establishment what the Freedom Caucus has been to Republican leadership ― a major pain in the butt. It will be amusing to watch El-Sayed bump egos with his fellow Michigan senator, Elissa Slotkin.

More of the same in Michigan

Michigan knows what it's like to live with a Democratic trifecta in Lansing: the state falls in critical national rankings on education, wages, job creation and population growth. Yet that is what Michigan is poised again to experience with its election of a Democratic governor and perhaps Democratic Legislature.

Don't expect taxes to come down; they’ll go up. The Democrats will target the flat rate income tax and the Headlee Amendment, which keeps property taxes in check.

It's been under Democratic leadership ― specifically, since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's ill-advised experiments closing schools during the pandemic ― that Michigan's educational outcomes have plummeted to 45th in the nation. Absenteeism has become a chronic, statewide problem, reading and math scores are seriously concerning and enrollment in many districts has declined.

Without a mandate for change, the prospect of improving education in Michigan is grim.

When Democrats had total control of Lansing, they enacted a host of anti-growth policies that made Michigan more like California than its Midwestern competitors. The plunge to the bottom of economic rankings demonstrates the consequences of such progressive governing.

Reaping what Trump sowed

The great tragedy of the last two years is that Trump’s failures disproportionately affect his own base.

Just look at the Iran War. The entire nation feels the sting of rising fuel prices, but the farmers, truckers and freight workers who helped elevate Republicans to power have suffered most.

These men and women rely on diesel to run their equipment, and Trump’s incompetent handling of the conflict has pushed diesel to nearly $7 per gallon.

The same dynamic has played out across all the president’s constituent groups. The warehouse workers, tradesmen and manufacturers — blue-collar voters who largely broke Trump’s way in 2024 — can barely afford their cost of goods amid senseless tariffs and an unstable trade environment.

And many of the Gen-Zers who sided with Republicans two years ago because Trump said he'd make housing cheaper have been shut out of first-time homeownership.

The consequences of Trump’s blunders have hit his supporters faster and harder than his detractors.

It was a terrible night for Republicans. But maybe it was the beating they needed to convince them the MAGA boat is sinking. How they respond will determine whether they can regroup for the 2028 election and build a post-Trump GOP.

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Nolan Finley is editorial page editor at The Detroit News. Kaitlyn Buss is deputy editorial page editor at The Detroit News. Jack Brady is an opinion columnist at The Detroit News.

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