As the midterm elections came to an end, the Democrats swept the House on the national level while the Republicans remained in control of the Senate. The house now has 230 Democratic seats and 199 Republican seats while the Senate has 47 and 51, respectively. Many young progressives won throughout the country, including a record number of women and minority candidates. In Georgia, a close gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams (Dem.) and Brian Kemp (Rep.) has led to a court case over ballot counts. Additionally, a recount in Florida is being called as Republican candidate Ron Desantis only won the election over Democrat Andrew Gillum by a difference of fewer than 35,000 votes.

In Massachusetts, on the other hand, things have remained the same for the most part. Republican Charlie Baker maintained his gubernatorial status in a convincing win over Democratic candidate Jay Gonzalez. On the congressional level, incumbent Elizabeth Warren won her senatorial race with 60% of the total votes. Besides Charlie Baker, all other elected offices of Massachusetts remained Democratic, including the State House and Senate, which are also both majority Democratic.

Senior Finn Rose was not surprised by these results, stating, “[The results] were exactly what I expected because I thought most incumbent candidates would get re-elected. I was only unsure about how people would vote on Question 1.” Like Rose, many MA residents were anxiously anticipating the outcomes of the three state referendums on the ballot. Question 1, which would have put a capacity on the number of patients nurses could see during a certain period of time, was not passed while Questions 2 and 3 were.

Question 3 asked whether a law protecting transgender rights in public places should be kept or abolished in the state of Massachusetts. Without this law, businesses and doctors could legally refuse to serve people they believed to be transgender.

Many students at CRLS, including sophomore Conrad Fischl-Lanzoni, are in support of Question 3 because “it helps prevents discrimination against transgender people.” Several students also demonstrated their support of this question with flyers with the information on the ballot question hung up near bathrooms around the school.

Though the “yes” vote overwhelmingly won the state with 68% of votes, guaranteeing that these protections remain, senior Abby Panzica noted, “When looking at the results of Question 3, I was surprised how large a percentage of people voted ‘no’ in some counties.” Panzica’s comments may seem surprising to the average CRLS student because of the left-leaning nature of the city, but over 30 counties were split almost evenly on whether or not Question 3 should be passed.

Rindge students on the left were fairly happy with the outcome of the elections in Massachusetts on November 6th. As senior Rachel Alexander put it, “Reflecting back on the state election results, I’m pretty happy about the ballot questions and the candidates elected. Nationally, on the other hand, I’m still hoping the recounts will swing in favor of the Democrats.”

This piece also appears in our November 2018 print edition.