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Political analysts predicted a blue wave in this year’s midterms, but the results have pundits upgrading that to a “blue tsunami.” Democrats swept nearly all of the competitive congressional races, setting the stage for divided government for the two remaining years of President Trump’s second term.
The shocking blue wave flipped Senate seats for Democrats in not only purple states like North Carolina and Ohio, but also red states like Iowa, Texas, Kansas and South Carolina. By the time Maine was called just after 1 a.m. this morning for Troy Jackson over Sen. Susan Collins, Democrats had already clinched control of Senate.
Democrats also took back the House of Representatives. As of this morning, Democrats had 10 more seats than the 218 needed for a majority, with a number of races yet to be called. Notably, Democrats won at least three seats in Florida districts that the state’s Republican Legislature had redrawn to gain an advantage.
Perhaps less surprisingly, Democrats also rolled here in Massachusetts. The Associated Press called a few of state’s top races a minute after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Gov. Maura Healey won a second term. Sen. Ed Markey won a third (and, he says, final) term. And the North Shore elected Dan Koh to be the state’s newest member of Congress.
Now, let’s shift gears from the votes for lawmakers to the votes on laws themselves. Massachusetts’ had a record-tying nine ballot questions. The multi-page ballot contributed to long lines at some voting locations last night. Here’s where results stand as of this morning — and what’s next for the questions that passed:
✅ Question 1 to expand Massachusetts’ public records law to include the Legislature and governor’s office passed by a massive margin. (As of this morning, the “yes” side was up about 86% to 14%.)
✅ Question 2, the culmination of a long-running effort to allow employees of the state’s public defender agency to unionize, also passed.
- Up next is a multi-step process for the Committee for Public Counsel Services workers to actually form a union, bargain with management for a contract and potentially ask the governor for extra funding.
❌ Question 3 on all-party primaries met the same fate as the 2020 ranked choice voting ballot question, with voters opting to keep the current election system. Question 3 supporters conceded defeat just after 11 p.m., with a statement blasting the state’s “political machine” for “defending the status quo.”
✅ Question 4 to bring Election Day voter registration to Massachusetts (after years of unsuccessful grassroots advocacy) was called by The Associated Press for the “yes” side just before 2 a.m. The system, offered in 20 other states, will allow Bay Staters to register to vote and then immediately cast a (provisional) ballot at the polls on Election Day in both state and municipal elections.
- The law takes effect in Jan. 1, 2028, meaning the state’s presidential primary that March would be the first election it could be implemented.
⚠️ Question 5, the proposal to tweak the state’s obscure revenue cap to make rebates to taxpayers more frequent, remains too close to call, according to the Associated Press. However, the Question 5 campaign conceded defeat just before 7:45 a.m.
✅ Question 6 cruised to victory, directing lawmakers to create a nature conservation fund using sales tax revenue specifically from sporting goods, recreational vehicles and spending at golf courses.
- Experts estimate the fund could be around $65 million a year once fully phased in, though lawmakers ultimately still have control over how it’s spent.
⚠️ Question 7, a proposal to override local zoning rules to make it easier to build single-family homes on smaller lots, is locked in a tight race. The measure is sharply divided at 50% of votes for and 50% against.
- The law would take effect 30 days after the election is certified, which Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office says will likely happen on the first Wednesday in December.
❌ Question 8 was rejected by voters in a landslide, defending the state’s multi-billion-dollar legal marijuana industry against an out-of-state repeal effort. Unofficial results show roughly three-quarters of voters opposed the measure.
✅ Question 9, the effort to repeal the state’s 2024 gun law, failed by a similarly wide margin. More than two-thirds of voters want to uphold the law.
P.S.— You can take a closer look at how your community voted for governor, for Senate and on all nine ballot questions in our town-by-town results maps.
