Tuesday was not just a Republican wave, it was also a conservative wave. All across the country, conservative incumbents and challengers, won in races that they were supposed to lose. Conservatives won in gubernatorial races on down the ballot U.S. House races and state legislative races.
Scott Walker???s conservative policies have been supported by voters in Wisconsin three different times since 2010. Sam Brownback, despite facing a mutiny from RINOs he helped defeat, showed that conservative policies will be supported at the ballot box. Brownback cut taxes with one of Kansas???s largest ever tax cut, eliminated agencies, increased jobs in Kansas, and personal incomes rose. Liberals were hoping to continue their drumbeat that even in solid Republican states like Kansas conservatives could not push truly conservative public policy.. The liberalsand their media allies were wrong.
Rick Scott squeaked out a victory in the most expensive gubernatorial race in the nation. Paul LePage, another conservative who many in the liberal media were saying was destined for defeat, increased his vote share by 40,000 votes from the 2010 election in the usually reliably liberal state of Maine. John Kasich???s race wasn???t even a contest. Even in Maryland, years of progressive economic policies lead to possibly one of the biggest gubernatorial upsets in the nation with the election of Larry Hogan.
Conservatives won in Senate races across the nation as well: Gardner in Colorado, Cotton in Arkansas (beating incumbent Senator Pryor by about 17 points), Joni Ernst in Iowa, Inhofe and Lankford in Oklahoma, Scott in South Carolina, Perdue in Georgia, Sasse in Nebraska, Sessions (who didn???t even have an opponent) in Alabama, and Tillis in North Carolina. And in a stunner in Virginia, supposedly centrist incumbent Mark Warner (who actually voted with Obama 97% of the time) holds a slim lead over Ed Gillespie who supposedly didn???t have a chance. Louisiana will have a runoff in December between incumbent Mary Landrieu and Republican Bill Cassidy.
In the House, conservative candidates have led the charge in adding to the Republican majority by 13 seats, a total of 243 seats. The Republican majority could get even larger with 10 contests still undecided (including 2 in Louisiana that have a runoff) as this is being written. A number of strong new conservatives will be joining the House majority including Ken Buck of Colorado, Alex Mooney of West Virginia, Mia Love of Utah, Jody Hice of Georgia, Gary Palmer of Alabama, and David Rouzer of North Carolina.
Most will point to Obama???s unpopularity in states that had Senate races, fear in the electorate, and all of the ???crises??? the Obama Administration faced or ignored over this past year as reasons for this wave. However, last night???s wave demonstrated, liberal statist policies will always eventually fail and conservative governance works. American people value their freedom, their ability to pursue their own lives as they see fit, and they work hard for their money and wish to keep it. They don???t need an Obama bureaucracy to direct their lives and make decisions for them.
Conservative governance works, sometimes Americans just need to let liberalism rear its ugly head before we wake up.
Ron Pearson has been a campaign manager, political consultant, and is Executive Director of Conservative Victory Fund. Dr. Trevor K. Smith is an Adjunct Professor of Government and Research Director of Conservative Victory Fund.
