As election ballots continue to be counted, many are wondering what happened to the “blue wave” that was expected this year. 

Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) tells Inside the Issues though both Democrats and Republicans “turned out in droves” this year, and Democrats won the House, the Senate could remain in Republican control and some states await final tallies. 

“We talk about the blue wave in two ways. First of all, there was a big blue wave because it’s impossible to unseat an incumbent Republican president without a massive turnout, especially in those states we needed to get in, as we sit here, and you’ve alluded to it, I think we’re poised to see a Democratic president.”

She understands the disappointment from candidates and their supporters who lost their seat to Republicans, but as years in politics have shown her, it’s par for the course. 

“I have to say, I’m a realist. Having been elected four times to the Senate, and five times in the House and twice to local government, I’ve been through ups and downs,” she said. “When I was in the United States Senate, I was there so long our state grew to be so huge, near 40 million people, and, I have to tell you, every decision that is made by the Congress impacts our state more than any other,” she said. 

She’s confident that if Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who she has known since the 80s, wins the presidency, he will be able to work in a bipartisan manner for the good of the country.

“He has a quality of working with everyone across the aisle and I will tell you, it’s going to be such a change and I’m optimistic about that,” she said. “He’s the man for the moment because we need that type of bipartisanship, we need that type of calm. You’ve seen him — he’s calm when he comes out. We need the empathy. You know, today we had 100,000 cases of COVID. Think of what follows that. People are going to die and we have a president who came out and never even said a word about and just talked about how everything is being taken from him, which isn’t true. The ballots are being counted.”

According to today’s vote count in Los Angeles County, President Donald Trump has secured roughly 27% of the votes. Republican delegate and campaign management specialist Robert Foster (R) cast his ballot for the incumbent.

He said as a delegate he has seen the impact of Republican leadership across the country, something that Californians don’t see since the legislature in Los Angeles County is majority Democrat. 

“Meaning the mayor is Democrat, the Senators are Democrats, the Congress people are Democrats, the Assembly are Democrats. If we have a conglomerate of a trifecta inside of any specific city that is only Democratic,” explained Foster. “They will never allow anything of a positive nature to be seen by this president."

He said a second term for President Trump would give people a chance to see his policies and ideas put into place. But, if the president loses this election, Foster said, he hopes to see more Republicans in place so the party can grow.

“The Republican Party is not based on one individual person. The Republican Party is made up of a conglomerate of individuals who have a like-minded thought process. There’s a God, there’s a family, there’s your country, there’s your business. And those individual things that are put before the Republican Party,” he said. “President Trump staying in the seat, which we have an opportunity to do, he stays in the seat, the party’s going to grow. They turn around and say President Trump has to come out of the seat, the party is still going to grow.”

“Joe Biden becomes president? You know what’s funny?,” Foster asked. “Most people will say, ‘Well a Republican will never support him.’ I’ll look and say, ‘That’s our president, let’s move forward and let’s make sure we can continue, because I’ll tell you, ‘We still have the Senate.’”

So what does this election mean for progressives? Hans Johnson, president of Progressive Victory said being progressive means that politicians are responsive to the issues they prioritized during their campaign, and those who identify as progressive will not lose sight of that.

“Responsiveness to the urgency of the issues that they prioritized including homelessness here in the city and county of Los Angeles, including health care access and fighting back against some of the cuts to health care inflicted by this cruel, criminal and corrupt presidency, which we are bringing to the end right now, and protection of our public schools,” he said.

“Those are key issues for progressive voters and ones on which we expect not just responsiveness but dialogue and community input in the decision making to help alleviate these crises at the county and city level,” he continued.

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