How Callais brought black voters to the polls.

Voters in the 2026 midterm elections delivered a resounding rebuke to the Republican Party on Tuesday, giving Democrats control of the House and Senate, in addition to a majority of state legislative chambers, governors, attorney general’s offices and more. A Democratic victory of this magnitude — one that turned even staunchly red states like Texas blue — has not been seen in generations. And a new memo circulated Wednesday among top Democratic National Committee officials acknowledges that voters of color were “the driving force” of this massive victory.

This feat is all the more astounding given that the voters of color who contributed to the Democrats’ success were doomed to failure. In July 2025, Donald Trump’s Justice Department began pressuring Texas officials to split congressional districts where Black and Latino residents made up the majority of eligible voters. In August, Trump declared that Republicans were “entitled” to five additional congressional seats and called on the state to redraw district maps to give the Republican Party a structural advantage.

Texas, led by Governor Greg Abbott (who just lost his re-election campaign) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (who just lost his Senate campaign), did what he was told. And at Trump’s urging, several other Republican-led states quickly redrew their district maps, aiming to maximize partisan gains at the expense of meaningful voter representation. Experts have predicted a sharp drop in people of color in elected office and warned that 20 of the 62 members of the Congressional Black Caucus could lose their seats.

Then, in April 2026, the Supreme Court added fuel to the fire by gutting the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana v. Callais. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the Republican majority that district maps only violate the VRA if there is an “objective probability” of “intentional racial discrimination.” He pointed out that maps designed to achieve partisan goals easily pass this test, “even though the most loyal Democrats happen to be black Democrats.” And he stressed that restoring the political power of people of color targeted by gerrymanders is illegal, because that too is “intentional race-based conduct.” In other words, Alito gave Republicans the green light to deny black people an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.

Many advocates feared the worst: Between the 2024 and 2026 elections, Republican-led states reassigned more than 25 million people, or about 7.5 percent of all Americans, to different congressional districts. One report concluded that “the only realistic path” for Democrats to avoid decades of Republican rule – and for black voters to have any chance of electing candidates who represent their interests – would be “a rare ‘blue wave’ election scenario” where “voters would rally at an overwhelming rate.”

Tuesday wasn’t just a wave. It was a tsunami. Preliminary data from the University of Florida Election Lab indicates that approximately 48.8% of eligible voters participated in the 2026 midterm elections, making it the second highest midterm turnout in more than a century. Other early reports indicate that voter turnout among blacks in particular has soared, rivaling the numbers from Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.

And black people are furious: In a poll of 700 black women shortly before the election, for example, 87 percent said the rollback of the Voting Rights Act and the surge in racist attacks on voting rights motivated them to vote. A New York Times analysis of midterm trends for 2026 shows that 91% of black voters supported Democrats — a significantly higher percentage than any other racial group.

Republican elites underestimated black voter turnout and overestimated their own levels of support. Now, instead of collapsing, black representation should remain relatively stable in Congress. Black candidates have made historic inroads in statewide elections for positions like the Senate, which are not affected by the redrawing of individual district maps; and in the House, black candidates won many contested seats, gerrymandering be damned.

With Tuesday’s election of Juliana Stratton, for example, three black women will serve in the Senate simultaneously. For reference, Kamala Harris was only the second Black woman to be elected to the Senate, and between 2017 and 2021, she was the only one to serve there. As more ballots are counted, Mississippi also appears poised to send a black Democrat, Scott Colom, to the Senate. The last black man from Mississippi elected to the Senate was born a slave in 1841.

In Louisiana, the state that fought for racial gerrymandering in CallaisRepublican lawmakers responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling by eliminating one of the state’s two majority-black districts in order to send five Republicans to the House of Representatives. They can only send three: Rep. Troy Carter, a black Democrat, handily held his seat in the only remaining majority-black district. And in two other districts, black Democratic candidates maintain narrow leads and advance to runoff elections next month.

Alabama imposed a new map after Callais also, intending to dilute the black vote and oust Rep. Shomari Figures, a black Democrat. Figures was re-elected by 8 points. Overall, Republicans are expected to win at most three of the 15 seats they targeted in Trump and Alito’s redistricting plan.

Even though the results of the 2026 midterm elections are incredible, Americans should not be fooled into thinking that Callais It wasn’t so bad after all. Yes, as usual, black people have achieved something extraordinary. But as usual, we shouldn’t have to. Democracy cannot survive if it depends on persisting in overcoming enormous racist obstacles. The good news is this: Black voters have given Congress the numbers it needs to limit the power of the Court and protect the power of the Court. people.