Midwest states that elected Trump kick Republicans to the curb

Call it the “Midwest Massacre.”

Rust Belt states that handed Trump the White House by the thinnest of margins in 2016 registered their collective buyer’s remorse on Tuesday and delivered Democrats a string of key victories.

Democrats won Senate and governor’s races in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — three states that were key to Trump’s win in 2016.

Only a narrow Democratic loss in the Ohio governor’s race prevented the party from posting a four-state Midwestern sweep on Election Day.

In total, Democrats won seven of the eight marquee races in those four Midwest states.

With Trump now deeply unpopular in many Midwest states, Republicans failed to build on their 2016 success. In many cases, saddled with weak candidates and lackluster fundraising, they failed to even compete with Democrats this year.

In Wisconsin, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin won re-election with ease, as did Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Sen. Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, and Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.

Michigan elected a new Democratic governor, picked up seats in the state’s House and Senate, and claimed victory in the Secretary of State race, an office the party hasn’t held in three decades.

The biggest news out of Wisconsin was the defeat of the notoriously anti-worker Gov. Scott Walker, who once had presidential aspirations and has served as a Trump loyalist.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania was an electoral disaster for the GOP.

Thanks in part to a court-ordered redistricting of the state’s blatantly gerrymandered congressional districts, Democrats dominated on Election Day.

Not only did Casey win his U.S. Senate contest by a huge margin, but Democrats also retained the governor’s mansion and flipped four House seats in the Keystone State.

Trump’s disastrous policies — especially his reckless trade war — helped doom any chances the GOP had to compete in the Midwest.

In Michigan for instance, Ford has announced it has already lost $1 billion thanks to Trump’s trade war. The American auto giant is now looking at thousands of layoffs as part of a reorganization strategy.

For years, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have formed a “blue wall” that Democrats could count on to back them up in the electoral college. Trump barely managed to break through that wall in 2016, becoming the first GOP presidential candidate in nearly 30 years to win those states.

Even though Trump won by a margin of just 78,000 votes total between all three states, reporters spent the next two years scouring Midwestern diners trying to identify the allure Trump held for voters there.

But it’s clear now that the blue wall is as strong as it’s ever been.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.