We talked to dozens of voters about the midterm results. Here’s what they want to see now

Fear was the word Daisy Alcazar used most during an October visit CNN’s All Over the Map made to her ice cream shop near the US-Mexico border in South Texas.

Hope is what she voices most now, when she can stop crying tears of joy.

“Texas has turned BLUE!” Alcazar wrote in a celebratory post-election message.

“The Latino community showed up,” she said later. “We have the first Latina woman going into the governor’s mansion. Do you understand what that means?”

Joseph Knowles was on the losing side of the midterm reckoning. He is a union autoworker in Michigan, voted Republican and watched as the map for governor, Senate and his House district filled in blue.

“I’m disappointed and Trump shares the blame,” Knowles said of the results. “Hopefully Democrats will use their power to deliver real change, not political revenge.”

Alcazar and Knowles are among more the 150 voters who participate in our All Over the Map project, an effort to track elections and major issues through the eyes and experiences of everyday Americans.

Our travels these past 20 months, since Trump returned to the White House, took us to 15 states from Maine to Alaska, some two or three times, and to many of the places that delivered the most stunning and consequential change.

“The voters have put checks and balances back in place,” said Michele Pegg, the Democratic chairwoman in rural Louisa County, Iowa. Democrats flipped the governor’s office, a Senate seat and three of Iowa’s four House districts, including the 1st District, where we visited with Pegg twice in recent months.

“Serve the public – don’t forget that,” was her morning-after message.

Some of the responses to a survey sent to our voters on Election Day and a follow-up Wednesday were illuminating and reinforced a giant lesson since we began All Over The Map 38 months ago.

The Democrats in our project are obviously gleeful and the Republicans predictably disappointed. But voters across the spectrum are willing and eager to search for consensus on the big issues and blame the politicians for exacerbating polarization instead of making tough choices.

“The majority of the voters are not as extreme as the officials who get elected,” said Joan London, an attorney in Berks County, Pennsylvania, who switched her registration from Republican to independent in 2024 after Trump clinched the Republican nomination for the third time.

An example: Chris Mudd is a Trump supporter since 2015 and voted a straight Republican ballot Tuesday in Iowa. Alcazar is the Texas Democrat who loathes Trump.

During a Zoom conversation Friday, Mudd nodded in agreement as Alcazar voiced hope the midterm upheaval might somehow create momentum for a new guest worker program and creating a path to legal status for undocumented workers who have no criminal history since illegally crossing the border.

“We need the work to get done,” said Mudd, who since the beginning of our project in the summer of 2023 has listed border security as his top priority. “There are workers that want to come do it. We should have a plan to bring them in to do the work.”

Across party lines, there are voters who expect more gridlock and inaction regardless of which party controls Congress.

“Time for Washington to go back to going around in circles chasing each other’s tails,” said Deven McIver, a heavy equipment operator and New Hampshire Republican.

Here are some other lessons we learned.

Reform has deep and bipartisan appeal

“Term limits, maximum age for Congress and Senate,” is part of the wish list sent by Craig Thomas, a coastal South Carolina Republican.

“Speak out specifically for anti-corruption legislation by passing anti-stock and prediction market investment by members (of Congress) and federal employees,” was a priority Maine Democrat Brenda Garrand listed for the next Congress. Garrand said her “most important action” would be to “gut Citizens United,” the landmark Supreme Court decision that helped usher in a new era of big money in American elections.

Latinos feel empowered in Texas and beyond

“Enjoying the Bright Blue moment in Nevada,” said Las Vegas real estate agent Zoila Sanchez, a onetime Reagan Republican who switched parties because of Trump.

“Latino voices must be heard,” said Rogelio Regalado, a Spanish-language radio host in Nevada.

“We showed up at the ballot box, now we expect them to show up for us,” said Victor Martinez, a Spanish-language radio personality in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“JoAnna Mendoza unseating Juan Ciscomani is everything,” said Melissa Cordero, an Air Force veteran who lives in Tucson, Arizona. Mendoza is a Democrat who defeated Republican Ciscomani in the 6th Congressional District.

“Now we have two badass Latinas, Adelita Grijalva and JoAnna Mendoza, on the Hill to make better decisions for Arizona and Tucson and especially for veterans,” Cordero said.

Democrats have differences

Impeachment is one of them.

“Impeachment proceedings will be a hot-button issue,” said Ed Winebarger, a farmer and chef in western North Carolina. “I hope we can make it happen.”

Emily Bruce Plumb, a Maine Democrat and brand management expert, has a very different take.

“My biggest fear is that Democrats will waste their shot by getting caught up in impeachment dramas,” said Plumb. “I want them to take the high road and do the most good for the people and stay out of personal vendettas or acts of retribution.”

Some Republicans expect Democrats to push for impeachment.

“I see two years of anti-Trump rhetoric, impeachment-palooza and none of the important things we American citizens want,” said Debbie Katsanos, a New Hampshire Republican.

Leadership doubts are also an issue for the winning team.

“Please don’t let this end up being two years that end with another Republican president,” said Mary Ann Horvath, a Pennsylvania retiree. “Choose stronger and better leaders than Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.”

Anushka Jalisatgi, a law student in Michigan, said El-Sayed’s win in Michigan adds to the momentum progressives received from the election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “The status quo establishment Democratic position is not permanent,” she said.

Republicans aren’t sure what comes next

South Carolina Republican Billy Pierce said high gas prices powered the revolt against the GOP and that they were the result of a war “that Trump promised the United States would not keep getting drawn into.” Plus, he said Trump’s choice of Darline Graham to replace her late brother as the Senate candidate in his state “was a fiasco from the start.”

In Texas, Marine veteran Richard Contreras said he voted “red and (is) somewhat ashamed by it” because he sees the party drifting from conservative and moral principles.

“I went to a Trump rally in Corpus Christi, and I didn’t or I wasn’t able to identify with anyone in the crowd,” Contreras said. “It was almost cult like.”

Mudd, the Iowa Republican, was one of a number of longtime Trump loyalists who late in this campaign began to share more concerns about his conduct.

“I think we need to have laws that we all live by, including the president,” Mudd said. “I think the president needs to follow all the laws. I’m not so far on Trump that he can do anything that he wants to do, and I’ll be okay with it. I want our country to run the way it did when I was a kid.”

Michael Pesce was a Reagan Republican until Trump emerged. He has voted for the Democrat every time Trump was on the presidential ballot, but in every one of those elections he also voted for moderate GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District. This week, stopping Trump mattered most.

“I was sitting in the booth with my hand hovering over Fitzpatrick’s name, like this is where it’s supposed to go, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it,” Pesce said. He had plenty of company in a district Fitzpatrick easily won two years ago. “I think in this area …. people were like, “Nope, we’re gonna change this.”

Of course, the next campaign begins as soon as the current one ends. Can Democrats hold these big gains? How will the 2026 reckoning impact the 2028 presidential nomination contests? How will the volatile electorate that delivered Trump a stunning comeback in 2024 only to repudiate him and crumble his coalition two years later feel the next time?

“I want my party back,” is the early marker placed by Pesce. “The race for president starts now and I hope whoever is considering running learned a lesson from the past two years.”