I

n 
the 
2022 
midterm 
elections, 
Michigan 
voters 
showed 
up 
in 
record numbers. On campus, 
students made headlines for 
waiting up to six hours after 
the 
polls 
closed 
for 
last-
minute voter registration. And 
ultimately, voters ushered in a 
new era of Democratic control 
in Lansing. This historic shift 
in the legislature’s makeup is 
a unique opportunity, which 
last happened nearly 40 years 
ago, 
to 
bring 
meaningful 
change to Michigan. Despite 
the excitement around these 
electoral successes, however, 
it is critical that people do 
not 
get 
complacent 
with 
Democratic power, and instead 
remain engaged and motivated 
while Democrats sort out and 
start work on their policy 
agenda.
This election was marked 
by historic wins for Michigan 
Democrats. 
Gov. 
Gretchen 
Whitmer beat her opponent 
Tudor 
Dixon 
by 
over 
10 
points. 
Whitmer 
had 
big 
wins 
in 
many 
historically 
conservative 
counties 
that 
she barely won four years ago. 
Democrats at the top of the 
ticket were also successful, 
with Attorney General Dana 
Nessel and Secretary of State 
Jocelyn Benson beating their 
opponents by large margins. 
There was also the passage 
of Proposal Three, to codify 
abortion into the Michigan 
Constitution, which passed by 
a significant margin, despite 
the 
coordinated 
opposition 
campaign 
that 
pushed 
the 
narrative that this bill was “too 
confusing and too extreme.”
Overall, one of the biggest 
and most historic events in 
Michigan this election was the 
flipping of both houses of the 
Michigan State Legislature. 
Democrats won the Michigan 
Assembly by 56-54 and the State 
Senate by a 20-18 majority. The 
last time that Democrats had 
control of both chambers of 
the Michigan Legislature and 
the governorship was in 1983. 
Michigan 
Democrats 
also 
made history by selecting a 
diverse party leadership. State 
Rep. Joe Tate, D-Detroit, will 
make history as the first Black 
lawmaker to serve as House 
speaker. State Sen. Winnie 
Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, will 
serve as the first female Senate 
majority leader.

It is impossible to talk about 
the 
Michigan 
Legislature 
flipping without recognizing 
the 
role 
of 
the 
Michigan 
Independent 
Redistricting 
Commission. In 2018, voters in 
Michigan approved a proposal 
to 
form 
an 
independent 
redistricting commission that 
would draw both congressional 
districts 
and 
state 
House 
and 
state 
Senate 
districts. 
This commission allowed for 
Michigan districts to be drawn 
fairly and not be influenced by 
partisan gerrymandering, in 
stark contrast to 2018 where, 
despite Whitmer winning by 
over 400,000 votes, Democrats 
still lost both houses due to 
the gerrymandered maps. This 
midterm was different, as the 
fairly-drawn House and Senate 
districts are representative of 
the will of Michiganders. 
With both houses of the 
legislature and control of the 
governorship, the Democrats 
have 
the 
trifecta 
needed 
to 
implement 
important 
policies that will help all 
Michiganders. Some important 
issues that they may address 
include infrastructure, school 
funding, 
gun 
control 
and 
repealing Michigan’s right-to-
work law. 
Democrats led by Whitmer 
have 
sought 
to 
increase 
funding for schools and help 
reform the education system 
in Michigan. They may make 
changes to how school funding 
is 
calculated 
and 
increase 
funding 
for 
lower-income 
schools. The Democrats have 
also 
spoken 
about 
giving 
bonuses 
to 
teachers 
and 
expanding 
early 
childhood 
education programs.
One issue that Democrats 
hope to address, which is 
very 
important 
to 
many 
young voters, is gun control. 
Whitmer has indicated that 
implementing common sense 
gun control measures is one of 
her key priorities for the new 
session. Possible legislation 
would include requiring adult 
gun owners with children to 
securely store their firearms 
or face a criminal penalty. The 
issue of unsecured guns was 
seen last year with the Oxford 
High School shooting, where 
the 
teenage 
gunman 
had 
access to unsecured firearms. 
Other legislative gun control 
policies include red flag laws, 
which allow law enforcement 
to 
remove 
firearms 
from 
people at risk. 
Another 
important 
issue 
that will likely be addressed is 

right-to-work laws. Michigan 
is currently a right-to-work 
state. This means that labor 
unions are prohibited from 
requiring 
workers 
to 
pay 
union dues as a condition 
of 
employment. 
Right-to-
work was passed in 2012 by 
Republicans 
and 
supported 
by 
former 
Governor 
Rick 
Snyder. The law is viewed 
by many Democrats as an 
attempt to reduce the power 
of labor unions. Over the 
past few years, we have seen 
a growing interest in labor 
unions and workers’ rights at 
companies like Amazon and 
Starbucks as people recognize 
the importance of organized 
labor. Repealing the right-to-
work law is an important step 
Michigan can take to protect 
organized labor.
As we look to the future of 
the Democratic trifecta in 
Michigan, it is critical that 
voters stay engaged. 
In these midterms, we saw a 
surprising rightward swing in 
a Democratic stronghold, New 
York, showing the importance 
of 
omnipresent 
awareness. 
New York had a lower turnout, 
and 
Republicans 
flipped 
several congressional seats. It 
is possible that in New York, 
where people feel safe in their 
liberal bubble, constituents may 
be less likely to take the time to 
go out and vote. For example, 
for voters in New York, the issue 
of abortion rights may have felt 
less relevant since the state 
legislature 
already 
codified 
Roe v. Wade in 2019. This was 
different from Michigan, where 
so many voters were mobilized 
by Proposal Three. As we move 
into a Michigan with codified 
reproductive protections, we 
need to remember that voters 
cannot get complacent and 
unengaged. 
This 
upcoming 
session, 
Democrats have an amazing 
opportunity to make important 
changes 
that 
will 
help 
Michigan. 
However, 
they 
only have two years and a 
slim majority. While they will 
definitely make a major impact, 
they 
will 
need 
continued 
support to ensure that we don’t 
get complacent and recognize 
that if we want to create a 
better Michigan, we need to 
stay engaged. The results of 
these midterms demonstrate 
that when voters turn out, they 
can bring about major changes. 
Michiganders understood the 
power and importance of their 
vote in this election, and that 
passion must be sustained.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 — 13
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

W

hat 
many 
predicted 
would be a midterm 
shellacking 
à 
la 
2010 turned out to be the most 

impressive 
midterm 
shocker 
in 
decades. 
The 
bad 
omens 
that typically foreshadow poor 
midterm performance simply did 
not affect Democrats this election 
cycle. President Joe Biden, their 
party leader, was saddled with 
historically low approval ratings; 

inflation and gas prices, which have 
dominated the news media and 
voter consciousness, continued to 
be astronomically high; the stock 
market has tumbled since the start 
of the year.
A “red wave” of epic proportions 
was all but spoken into existence 
by pundits from the left, right 
and center. Predictions about 
the House centered around 
the Democrats losing 30 seats, 
possibly even more. Republicans 
taking the House was treated 
by some, including Frank Luntz 
(and me!), as all but a foregone 
conclusion. Republicans were 
favored to take the Senate, with 
some major pollsters projecting 
53 
seats. 
Betting 
markets 
were all in on a Republican 
House majority and a more 
than 
50-member 
Republican 
Senate Conference. Biden and 
the Democrats were expected 
to take a beating of historical 
proportions. That wasn’t close to 
what happened. 
Instead of a majority of 30, 
40 or maybe even more seats, 
Republicans are on track for a 
majority of less than 10 seats 
in the House. They didn’t gain 
three, two or even the one seat 
needed to flip Senate control, 
and it remained in Democratic 
hands. Not only that, but there’s 
a better-than-even chance that 
Democrats will actually gain a 
seat. Throw in the dominance 
of Democrats in state legislative 
races, and you have results 
that would have been close to 
unfathomable just last week.

In attempting to hypothesize why 
Democrats had such a defiant 
night, it is important to understand 
that potential explanations for the 
surprise are nearly infinite, and 
no single issue is to blame for the 
GOP’s failure. Many races were 
extremely close, with margins that 
could be explained by a multitude 
of issues. However, I believe some 
issues were of special significance. 
GOP candidate quality is one. In 
statewide battleground races this is 
no doubt true. In Georgia, Herschel 
Walker, a decades-long ally of the 
former president, failed to meet 
expectations and earned far fewer 
voters than Donald Trump rival 
Brian Kemp. In Pennsylvania, 
Mehmet Oz lost to Lt. Gov. John 
Fetterman in a race that didn’t 
end up being all that close. Doug 
Mastriano, the GOP gubernatorial 
candidate who was in lockstep with 
Trump, lost by almost 15 points. 
Examples in other states also exist.
But when you consider House races, 
the candidate quality explanation 
falls short of fully explaining what 
happened. Sure, extreme right-wing 
candidates like Lauren Boebert and 
Joe Kent struggled. But so too did 
many more relatively mainstream 
House Republican candidates who 
were not as closely aligned with 
the former President. It also falls 
short of explaining another issue 
— for the first time since 1934, the 
president’s party did not lose a 
single state legislative chamber.
A crucial reason that explains 
this is that, to my surprise, voters 
nationwide correctly decided that 
Democrats were not to blame for 

issues that were not their fault. 
Going into the election, far and 
away the biggest concern for 
voters, according to polling, was 
the economy, specifically inflation. 
I do not doubt that the polling 
was 
accurate. 
Near-consensus 
thinking was that, as the party 
in unanimous power, Democrats 
would take the fall for worsening 
economic conditions. The GOP 
blamed Democrats for rising prices 
nonstop.
But in the end, voters did not fall 
for the Republican charade that 
unfortunate worldwide economic 
conditions 
were 
Democrats’ 
fault. Given that the issue was 
rated as of utmost importance by 
voters time and time again, the 
likely explanation is not that the 
polling was wrong, but rather that 
prognosticators errantly assumed 
voters would blame Democrats for 
the issues.
A big reason for voters’ not linking 
inflation concerns to Democrats is 
the fact that the Republican plan to 
reverse these apparent Democratic 
wrongs was nonexistent. While 
Republicans have railed nonstop 
against Democrats on the issue 
for months, they failed to present 
concrete ways that they would fix 
inflation if they were in power. This 
makes sense, of course, since there 
is no sound policy to articulate. 
Worldwide inflation as a result of 
external conditions cannot be fixed 
by one American political party.
Moreover, voters had clear evidence 
that inflation and gas concerns 
were not unique to America — 
indeed, many countries are faring 

worse than we are. If voters had 
no evidence of inflation elsewhere, 
then it would have been a uniquely 
American problem, and blaming 
Democrats would have been much 
easier. 
Other issues that Republicans tried 
to pin blame on Democrats for, like 
violent crime, were also ineffective. 
Exemptions exist — take New 
York, for example — but in places 
like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin 
where the issue was pushed heavily, 
Democrats performed better than 
expected. The biggest problem 
for Democrats in New York was 
messaging and a fear of opining on 
the issue, not policy. The reality is 
that both of these issues — violent 
crime and inflation — are not so 
easily pinned on Democrats. 
Republicans often try to argue that 
violent crime is more prevalent in 
areas of Democratic control in an 
effort to blame Democrat policies 
for the problem. But lots of evidence 
exists contrary to this point. Take 
the fact that Oklahoma’s murder 
rate is nearly 50% higher than 
California and New York’s. Or that 
Republican-led Jacksonville has 
had more murders than liberal 
San Francisco. Or that, as of 2020, 
Donald Trump won eight of the 
10 states with the highest murder 
rates. While it is true that crime has 
gone up in Democrat-controlled 
regions, it’s risen in Republican 
regions as well. Violent crime is an 
extremely nuanced issue that can’t 
simply be chalked up to the party 
ID of mayors or governors. 

DEVON HESANO
Opinion Columnist

Democrats won Michigan, now it’s 
time to keep it up

O

n Oct. 28, the Ethical 
Investment 
Front 
published an op-ed in 
The 
Michigan 
Daily 
calling 
for the University of Michigan 
administration to cancel Young 
Americans for Freedom’s Nov. 
15 speech with Ben Shapiro at 
Rackham 
Auditorium. 
Though 
the authors cited “threat(s) to 
safety” as justification for their 
demand, their piece was clearly an 
attempt to stifle the free speech of 
conservative students on campus.
They 
compared 
Shapiro, 
an 
Orthodox 
Jew 
who 
has 
experienced some of the worst 
kinds 
of 
antisemitic 
attacks, 
to Richard Spencer, the neo-
Nazi and white nationalist. It is 
hard to find a more mainstream 
conservative figure than Shapiro. 
With the authors calling his 
visit 
“regrettably 
reminiscent” 
of Spencer’s attempt to speak at 
the University and claiming his 
“presence will only cause harm 
to our campus and communities 
in Ann Arbor,” one has to wonder 
what conservative commentator 
they would deem acceptable.
The 
Young 
Americans 
for 
Freedom’s board had a discussion 
about how we should respond. We, 
as well as Shapiro, took to Twitter 
to publicize our disagreements, but 
we wondered whether we should 
do something more, such as write 
a counter op-ed. In the end, we 
concluded that the best response 
was to prove the authors wrong. 
We decided to focus our energy 
into putting together a successful 
and safe event that bettered the 
political discourse of the campus 
community. On the night of Nov. 

15, we did just that.
Over a thousand people, most 
of 
them 
students, 
filed 
into 
Rackham to hear from Shapiro. 
People who got their free tickets 
on Eventbrite lined up on the east 
side of the building and were let in 
first. Though we gave out nearly 
1,100 tickets, fewer than 500 of 
those who reserved them put them 
to use, presumably because of 
leftist efforts to suppress turnout; 
as expected, Nota Fascist, a 
registered attendee whose email 
is notafascist@conservativessuck.
com, did not intend on coming to 
the event.
Once the ticket line dried up, we 
let in the line of standbys, who were 
unable to order tickets in time but 
came in the hopes of seats opening 
up. That line wrapped around the 
block, and the people in it braved 
the cold temperatures, rain and 
snow for a chance to see Shapiro. 
Thanks to their enthusiasm, we 
filled the venue.
In between the two lines were 
a dozen or so protestors, holding 
signs 
and 
chanting 
various 
slogans. There was some jawing 
back and forth between the line 
occupants and protestors, but 
nothing ever escalated.
Only one attendee was the 
slightest 
bit 
problematic. 
A 
woman decked out in leather and 
sad clown makeup attempted 
to take a bag of frozen condoms 
into the event. After they were 
confiscated, she vandalized one 
of the restrooms with graffiti 
that read, “BEN SHAPIRO GOT 
POUNDED IN HERE.” Thanks 
to the security at Rackham, she 
was escorted out to prevent any 
disruption.
With all attendees seated, the 
speech began on time. Shapiro 
came on stage to give his speech, 

“Exposing the Great Reset,” about 
the World Economic Forum’s 
(WEF) corporatist plan to revive 
the world after the COVID-19 
pandemic.
Though the 20-minute speech 
was edifying, the highlight of 
the night was the question-and-
answer portion. Shapiro allowed 
a full 45 minutes to discuss with 
students the important political 
issues of our day. Due to his usual 
policy of allowing those who 
disagreed with him to cut to the 
front of the line, we found three 
people willing to discuss their 
disagreements 
with 
Shapiro’s 
ideas. They brought up the policies 
of the WEF, transgender issues 
and abortion. Each person did so 
respectfully, and their discussions 
were pleasant and productive.
After the Q&A ended, the 
attendees left the venue, and the 
members of our chapter celebrated 
an immensely successful event at 
which we furthered the campus 
dialogue in a responsible manner. 
Rather than making a bunch of 
noise over the Ethical Investment 
Front’s op-ed, we provided a 
higher rebuttal. Our actions spoke 
louder than complaints about the 
calls for censorship ever could.
When I introduced Shapiro, 
I called him one of the great 
spokesmen 
of 
the 
American 
conservative 
movement. 
The 
work of our chapter members 
demonstrates that our campus 
is thirsting not only for visits 
from these spokesmen but for 
conservative and other heterodox 
opinions more broadly. Young 
Americans for Freedom at the 
University of Michigan is made up 
of incredibly dedicated students 
ready to provide that, and we 
know there are people here who 
want to listen.

Letter to the Editor: Don’t be afraid 
of conservative voices on campus

ISABELLE SCHINDLER
Opinion Columnist

JENNA HICKEY/Daily

CHARLES HILU
Opinion Contributor

Democrats shocked the political world. 
Clear-eyed voters are to thank for it.

Opinion

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