Elon Musk reportedly spent close to a half billion dollars to keep Republicans in power for Donald Trump’s last two years in office.
Voters, though, had the final say. And they chose decisively.
Across the country, voters shifted left — sharply in many places. They wanted change. They wanted a check on Trump’s power.
They delivered one.
Democrats won Senate seats from South Carolina to Kansas. They broke the Republican supermajority in the Florida House. And Floridians elected a historic seven openly LGBTQ people to the state Legislature.
But even amid those victories, Florida Democrats lost their statewide races. The work is far from finished.
Keeping this new coalition together will require listening, delivering and accepting criticism. It will also require self-restraint.
Democrats should resist interpreting this election as a mandate to push the country to the far left. Overreach invites a backlash, and the pendulum can swing back quickly.
Focus instead on what mattered to voters this election: affordability.
Remember, just two years ago, Trump won in part by promising to bring down prices. Then he steered the Republican Party off a cliff with his tariffs and his foolish decision to plunge the country into yet another war, this time with Iran.
Democrats should learn from that failure. Don’t get cocky. Don’t get complacent. Work for the people. Address their hardships and needs. Give them tangible reasons to keep their trust.
Musk’s spending is a reminder of how much wealthy donors and special interests are willing to invest in shaping our government.
They expect access. They expect influence. They expect elected officials to remember who wrote the checks.
But the people who mailed in their ballots and stood in line to vote must matter more than the billionaires and trillionaire who wrote the checks.
They have given the incoming Congress an opportunity to demonstrate whose interests come first.
Musk could afford to lose nearly half a billion dollars.
Millions of Americans cannot afford a government that ignores them.
