The 2017 Elections Should Give All Americans Hope

Tuesday’s sweeping victories for Democratic candidates can be viewed through many lenses. To be sure, the election results are a powerful repudiation of Donald Trump’s policies and divisive rhetoric, and a reminder that the coalition that twice backed Barack Obama is alive and well.
But Tuesday’s results are also the story of the remarkable diversity of candidates who sought elected office for the first time — and won. Behind the vote totals and exit polls is a new generation of public servants, many of whom were motivated by Trump’s election to seek office. Tuesday’s victors might not look like the traditional face of politics, but they unquestionably represent its future.

In Virginia, a House of Delegates that previously had 17 women out of 100 members, will now be comprised of nearly 30 women, including its first-ever Asian American and Hispanic female legislators. The stories of these winning candidates are quintessential American stories.
Kathy Tran came to the U.S. as a refugee fleeing Vietnam when she was just an infant. She spent a dozen years at the U.S. Department of Labor, working to expand the economic opportunities that helped her family achieve the American Dream.
A cybersecurity specialist, Hala Ayala ran on a platform of improving health care. As a single mother working at a gas station on minimum wage, Ayala saw first-hand how the Medicaid program had saved the life of one of her sons.
Among the new members of the Virginia House of Delegates is Danica Roem, the first openly transgender person to be elected to a state legislature. Running against a long-time incumbent who once called himself the state’s “chief homophobe,” Roehm focused her campaign not on social issues but on reducing local traffic congestion.
And in two dramatic races in New Jersey, voters resoundingly said no to the politics of bigotry.
In the election for the Edison school board, Asian American candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel were targeted with a pamphlet saying that voters should “DEPORT” Shi and Patel because the “Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!” Both won easily.
In the race for Hoboken mayor, a mailer attacked Ravi Bhalla, a turbaned Sikh candidate, with a warning: “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” Bhalla prevailed and will become the first Sikh mayor in New Jersey history.