These Democratic Wins Are Flying Below the Radar. They’re Way Too Important for That.

For obvious reasons, Democrats’ total dominance in the race for Congress has been the main story of the midterm elections. Team Blue has clinched 252 House seats so far and is on track for its biggest majority since the 1990s. Vote counting continues in the Alaska and Mississippi U.S. Senate races, but Democrats there look poised to pad their party’s newly won majority. In Mississippi, Scott Colom’s lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has grown from 65 votes to 1,813 over the past day, according to the Associated Press. That makes it likely that Colom will become this deep-red state’s first Democratic senator since the 1980s—and its first Black senator since Reconstruction.

Outside Washington, though, the blue tsunami crested just as high and in ways that could be similarly consequential. Let’s survey the governor’s mansions, state legislatures, and other down-ballot seats Democrats have picked up around the country so far.

Five new governorships (and counting):

At the start of Donald Trump’s first term, Democrats held the governorships of 16 states. They’re now on track to control nearly twice that number. Most impressively, Democrats flipped two states—Nevada and Texas—away from GOP incumbents while also winning open seats in Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio. And although two governor races remain uncalled, in Alaska and Kansas, Democrats lead in both.

Governors can make appointments, call special legislative sessions, and sign (or veto) bills that directly affect millions of lives. Democrats are about to have that power in 13 of the country’s 14 most populous states. Governors also certify the results of federal elections, which turned out to be a critical bulwark against Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. After Tuesday, Democratic governors will sit atop every single presidential battleground heading into 2028.

Hundreds of state legislative seats:

Democrats appear to have won up to 800 additional seats in state legislatures nationwide, although a full accounting could take a while. Starting next year, the party will hold governing trifectas in Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and probably Arizona (which remains uncalled). Democrats also broke up GOP trifectas in New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas while ending Republican supermajorities in Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and South Carolina. Democrats are set to control North Carolina’s state House for the first time since 2010, Georgia’s for the first time since 2004, and Texas’ for the first time since 2002.

Winning state legislatures matters for Democrats’ ability to turn their campaign promises—from moratoriums on data centers to expanding healthcare access—into law. In most states, legislatures are also in charge of redistricting, meaning that newly empowered Democrats could try to unwind Republican-friendly gerrymanders or even rejigger districts to advantage themselves. A word of warning here, though: The GOP, at Trump’s behest, redrew maps all over the country before Tuesday’s elections, and it didn’t work out how they’d planned. The maps backfired in several states, and Democrats managed to win several of those redrawn districts in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.

Many, many other races:

Democrats prevailed in key state Supreme Court elections in North Carolina, Ohio, and elsewhere.

In another major shift, Democrats narrowly seized control of the Texas State Board of Education, which sets curriculum for the state’s 5 million public school students. According to the Texas Tribune, the board’s GOP majority recently pushed through a host of controversial changes, including requiring the teaching of Bible stories to young children and eliminating a requirement that students learn about Muslims’ contributions to mathematics and astronomy.

Few things in politics are permanent. But after steadily losing ground in many of these states, and then paying for those losses on the federal level, Tuesday gave Democrats a chance to make meaningful change right away—and set the stage for more to come.

Want even more midterms? Follow the rest of Slate’s election coverage here.

OK, time for a break. Enjoy these fun reads, watches, and listens to help you take your mind off (real-life) politics for a little while.

Indulge in the fantasy (now reality!) of Blexas: Seven years ago, Texas voting for a Democrat was a plot point in the gay romance novel Red, White & Royal Blue. Now, what once seemed limited to the realm of fiction has happened IRL too. Madeline Thames-Ducharme spoke with author Casey McQuiston about their reaction to the blue tsunami.

Turn the whole internet off and on again: If you’ve heard rumblings about the cybersecurity vulnerability threatening the web but don’t know what’s going on, senior tech editor Tony Ho Tran is here to explain. Listen to his conversation with ICYMI host Kate Lindsay about how nervous we should be about a possible digital apocalypse.

Get some modern dating help: What do you do when you discover you aren’t very good at flirting? Advice columnist Steffi Cao counsels a letter writer who fears she has no game.

Watch an Oscar-worthy performance: The filmmaker behind The Banshees of Inisherin is back with another pitch-black buddy comedy. In Wild Horse Nine, a pair of CIA agents take a break from planning to overthrow Chile’s Marxist president to take a vacation on Easter Island. Predictably, things go off the rails. Film critic Dana Stevens raves about one actor’s performance in particular.

Easter Island sounds like it’s about as far away as you can get from American politics, so I endorse! Enjoy your visit, and see you back here tomorrow.