Notable & Quotable: A ‘Normie’ Wave

If this was a wave election, it might be considered a “normie” wave election. After a pandemic, widespread economic disruption, and years of hyper-polarized conflict in D.C., voters often rewarded candidates with political experience and a record of governing.

Joe Biden

in part won the White House by promising a return to “normalcy,” and if “normalcy” didn’t quite arrive by 2022, signs suggest that voters are still looking for it. Many Republican candidates were far from optimal from that perspective. In a number of GOP primaries,

Donald Trump

intervened to back candidates with whom he had a close personal relationship or who were willing to join in his campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election. Many of these candidates—from

Mehmet Oz

in Pennsylvania to

Tudor Dixon

in Michigan—ended up washing out.

Gubernatorial races often exerted a significant gravitational force on other elections. Having held almost the entirety of Ohio’s political offices, Governor

Mike DeWine

embodies the “normie” Republican, and he won a smashing reelection victory—which probably helped boost political newcomer

J. D. Vance

in the Senate race. Georgia governor

Brian Kemp

defied Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State and crushed a Trump-backed primary challenge. With a record of governing and opposing election nullification, Kemp beat Democratic Party favorite

Stacey Abrams

by eight points—significantly outperforming Senate nominee (and political newcomer) Herschel Walker. . . .

Tuesday’s results show how many voters are turned off by candidates who try to delegitimize past elections. For years, Stacey Abrams discounted the legitimacy of the 2018 election she lost by a razor-thin margin—and Brian Kemp won his rematch against her handily. Kemp and Georgia secretary of state

Brad Raffensperger

burnished their images as responsible holders of power by defending the results of the 2020 election.