It wasn’t so close after all. Despite the insistence of many professional pundits and most major media outlets, the 2024 elections for President and control of Congress were called relatively early. By Wednesday morning, the word “mandate” was being used frequently as part of the instant analysis.

Six days later, California has managed to count only 72% of the state’s total votes, so the overall numbers could still tighten a bit. There aren’t enough votes outstanding that will change the fact that Donald Trump won not only the electoral college in a landslide, but the popular vote total as well. As of this writing, he also had a majority of the total votes cast, leaving Vice President Harris and all other candidates combined below 50%. Republicans have flipped the Senate convincingly. Some Democrats are getting dangerously close to “election denier” territory by refusing to concede the Pennsylvania race picked up by Republicans.

They’re joined by some much more comfortable with denying results in Arizona. Republican Kari Lake came amazingly close to flipping that seat despite spending most of her time in South Florida at Mar-A-Lago and upsetting much of the traditional Arizona GOP power structure at the beginning of her failed campaign.

With the White House and the Senate come judges. Republicans may continue to thank former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for setting the precedent here. Note you’ll now hear scarce talk from Democrats about expanding the Supreme Court or ending the filibuster.

With Republicans taking most of the top offices in Puerto Rico, you have to wonder if both parties’ positions on Puerto Rican statehood will now flip. You can also see from the results nationwide and in Puerto Rico that the media’s late fixation on a comedian’s poorly timed joke about Puerto Rico didn’t seem to matter much anywhere except where Democrats were grasping at last straws.

Exit polls trashed many other narratives and beliefs of partisan leanings. Republicans have made huge gains with Hispanic voters over the last few election cycles. Members of national media should spend more time differentiating between legal immigrants and those who chose to break in front of the line. It appears those who have achieved citizenship and vote don’t appreciate their tax dollars being used to open the borders either.

The support of Native Americans swung heavily in Republicans favor as well. Perhaps all the “land acknowledgements” popularized among the left to begin meetings are only sending virtue signals to their own insular groups, where the signals that should be sent should include policies to make improvements on modern day quality of life? Per usual, the losing side is working through their stages of grief. Circular firing squads were formed before the votes were counted. The blame game is now in full force. Clearly, Republicans have a lot to be happy about. And they are. For those who perpetually look ahead, there are concerns that should temper this enthusiasm.

The MAGA base of the GOP will now expect everything they want, and nothing they don’t. They will look at the electoral and Senate maps and repeat the word “mandate” as often as possible. They will not want to focus on the apparent narrow majority in the U.S. House, which has been a constant problem of leadership and execution for any GOP led agenda for the past two years - To be honest, a lot longer than that.

Republicans will walk a fine line between appeasing that base, while holding together the collation of swing voters who flipped from supporting Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024. Too many ultra-partisans refuse to acknowledge that swing voters more often are trying to stopwho is in power because they want rational policy, not overreach.

In Georgia, there are specific warning signs that will matter in 2026. All statewide constitutional officers will be on the ballot, as well as a U.S. Senate seat. If the courts will get out of the way, a majority of the Public Service Commission should be as well.

There was a map going around in the early hours of vote counting showing the tilt toward Republicans or Democrats from 2020. Much of the country was red, showing a decided shift toward the GOP. Georgia, specifically among the Atlanta suburbs, had a recognizable concentration of blue.

Republicans have earned the right to celebrate after a successful 2024 campaign. Those interested in keeping Georgia red need to contain their gloating as much as possible.

Voters are more fickle than the partisans would have you believe. There’s also usually a bit of a course correction in the mid-terms after a Presidential election.

It’s easy to pretend that the future will be a trend line upward from the present. The reality, especially here in Georgia, is that the 2026 campaigns will face a very different environment from today. Candidates need to be very aware from the beginning that there is a lot of work required from both parties to be acceptable in any form to swing voters.