Blue Tsunami

A Blue Tsunami has just hit the United States.

In an unprecedented midterm election, the Democratic Party won control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives by margins that even the most optimistic polls had not predicted.

In key battleground states long dominated by Republicans, Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor. Her great-grandparents had been enslaved in Crawfordville, Georgia. She declared, “I know that I am a descendant not only of survivors ... I am the hope of the slave.”

In Texas, the Democrats swept major offices (senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, land and railroad commissioner, and all open seats on the State Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals) as more than 1.8 million additional voters turned out and all 254 counties shifted toward the Democrats compared to 2022.

Democrat Deb Haaland made history in New Mexico, becoming the first Native American woman elected governor. Abdul El-Sayed became Michigan’s first Muslim US senator; Amy Acton became the first woman elected governor in Ohio’s 223-year history; David Cowley became Wisconsin’s first Black governor; Gina Hinojosa became Texas’s first Latina governor and Penny Flannagan became the US Senate’s first Native American woman.

Others broke historic barriers, including Senator-elect Adam Hamilton, who became the first Democratic senator in Kansas in 94 years; James Talarico, the first Democratic Texas senator since 1988 and Scott Colon, whose “I’d pick another senator” television advertisement is slowly pushing him toward victory in the Mississippi senatorial race.

There is no single explanation for the Blue Tsunami, but it is clearly a rebuke – a slap in the face to President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump urged Americans to vote as if he were on the ballot, and they turned out in record numbers to defeat his candidates.

Much of the anger focused on Trump’s policies, which affected Medicare and Medicaid, made housing and childcare less affordable and fueled tariff wars that raised the cost of goods and hurt American exports. It also centered on the forever war against Iran, which sent pump prices soaring and harmed ordinary Americans in ways the administration could never explain. 

Corruption became a major issue, and grassroots donations and mobilization went toe-to-toe with the $2 billion in campaign contributions from Elon Musk and super PACs to Republican candidates.

Although many issues were raised against the Trump administration, public anger varied across regions and states. Tariffs hit many Midwestern states that depend on agriculture and livestock, while Republican strongholds such as Texas, Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Tennessee saw the largest increases in per-household tariff costs.

ICE immigration crackdowns – which resulted in the deaths of American citizens – shifted public opinion in Minneapolis, Texas and Los Angeles. Attempts to redraw districts in Texas and Florida to create safe Republican seats and reduce Democratic representation became an election issue, backfiring on the party in power.  

Does the Blue Tsunami give us hope for the 2028 elections here?

Well, this gives some politicians and political parties hope that they can still win the next election. They continue to dream that the US Blue Tsunami can somehow be replicated in the Philippines through a Kakampink movement. But they face a problem: instead of riding a wave of public discontent to victory, their support for PBBM – and their hope of being anointed – could leave them washed away by public anger in 2028.

It will also thwart the political ambitions of Filipino politicians seeking Trump and Republican support with fiery anti-China rhetoric. Some presidential hopefuls were reportedly promised backing from Republican hawks such as Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio in exchange for their anti-China declarations. I have bad news for them: Hegseth is about to be impeached and Rubio may soon leave the Trump Cabinet.

Democratic control of Congress, voters’ opposition to foreign wars and pressure to prioritize domestic issues will make the US more inward-looking through 2028. Trump will be better off spending his energy fending off impeachment attempts than backing candidates in the Philippines.

The ambitious Pax Silica project will now be viewed through the lens of the recent US election results. AI data centers emerged as a surprising political issue in the 2026 US elections. The central question was whether to build massive AI data centers that require vast amounts of land, electricity and water, given their impact on communities, and whether local communities should be left under the control and mercy of major technology companies.

More than 40 data center-related ballot measures were filed in 13 states to ban or suspend construction, restrict electricity and water use, tighten zoning regulations or require additional local approvals. Thirty-nine passed, imposing restrictions on data centers. If Americans are reluctant to host them, why are we so eager to build them in the Philippines?

Expect the opposition to Pax Silica to intensify following the US elections.

The Blue Tsunami shows that, for Americans, the election was about gut issues: food on the table, monthly electric and water bills, grocery prices, access to health care, affordable child care, gas prices and housing. These were issues a corrupt, narcissistic and incompetent president never addressed; he cared more about redecorating the White House and building a reflecting pool than about listening to people’s problems.

They say Filipinos are too patient and forgiving.

Will we continue to suffer, or will we produce our own Filipino tsunami in 2028?