This week’s editorial cartoon gallery is all about last week’s midterm elections. Predictions of a “red wave,” putting Republicans back in charge of Congress, did not materialize. At week’s end, as votes were still being counted in some states, the GOP was favored to achieve a slim majority in the House. The Senate was still in play for Democrats, as the Georgia Senate race went to a December runoff election.
Republicans’ underperformance relative to recent midterm elections led pundits, both on the left and the right, to point the finger at former President Donald Trump for elevating weak, extremist or election-denying candidates. Trump-backed candidates in key swing states lost or were trailing in close races.
“Was it something I said?” asks Drew Sheneman’s GOP elephant — wearing the fur hat of the so-called QAnon Shaman and carrying a Trump flag in one hand and a torch in the other. Dana Summers draws a small wave and the legend, “This is the red tsunami?” Bill Bramhall sees Trump looming behind voters relieved that the 2022 elections are over. Steve Breen sees the Republican Party tripped up by Trump’s long, red tie. Michael Ramirez draws both Trump and President Joe Biden as millstones dragging their parties under water.
Bramhall noted an exception: Republican candidates flipped, or were close to flipping, four seats in the House.
Several editorial cartoonists celebrated voting, poll workers and democracy. Scott Stantis contrasts a demonstration for freedom and democracy in an authoritarian society and an American voter too lazy to get out of his recliner to vote.
The gallery ends with Joey Weatherford’s tribute to veterans for Veterans Day.
Cartoons were drawn by Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Steve Breen, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.
