The Democratic Senators Whose Defeats Hint at the Party’s Future

It was the party’s most impressive showing since the Clinton presidency, especially when taken with Nancy Pelosi’s simultaneous capture of the House of Representatives. That fall’s “thumping,” to recall Bush’s memorable coinage, saw Democrats finally revenge themselves for the Swiftboating of John Kerry, the Supreme Court’s intervention in the 2000 presidential race, and seemingly every other piece of outstanding family business since the Corrupt Bargain of 1824. And they did so in the most cathartic way imaginable, piling up victories in swing states and reopening possibilities of liberal governance that had been thought entombed in the Reagan era.

Whatever that moment represented, however, it’s as much of an antique now as “Morning in America” was then. With the defeats this month of Tester, Brown, and Casey (though the latter has yet to concede, with a long-shot recount underway), the last trickles of the blue wave have flowed back to the sea. Fellow ’06-er Claire McCaskill was herself bounced from her Missouri Senate seat in 2018 by Josh Hawley, who just cruised to a second term.

And Webb? Something of an enigma to begin with, he left the Senate in 2013 and quit the Democratic Party after an abortive presidential run two years later. Just a decade after appearing on the short list of Barack Obama’s possible running mates, he was being floated as a short-term defense secretary under Donald Trump.