OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Oregon Republican State Senator Dallas Heard abruptly announced his resignation this week.
“Heard is citing the need to spend more time with his family, stating it had nothing to do with the party’s poor performance in Oregon during the midterm elections. Democrats maintained control of both the state house and state senate while winning the most high-profile state senate contest by nearly four percent. Heard’s resignation is effective Jan. 1. He had two more years left in his term. Heard has openly expressed his disappointment at low conservative voter turnout during the November midterm elections,” MSN reported.
“I am writing to inform you that I will be resigning my elected position as State Senator for Oregon Senate District 1 effective 12:01 am January 1st, 2023. Thank you for being the kind of people who made it easy to stand up in Salem for the freedom and rights of all citizens during the COVID era. I never had to question if the overwhelming majority in my district was with me in standing up for the few, the weak, the poor, and the oppressed,” Heard said in a letter to constituents.
“The country as a whole has seen an ever-growing movement of evil rising that is determined to take our children’s hearts and minds away from their parents,” Heard added in the statement.
In national news, the midterm elections were not good for Democrats.
A brand new poll found that young voters, who have been critical to Democrats in prior elections, showed signs in November’s midterms of their enthusiasm waning. The poll offers possible warning signs for Democrats that they will need to make adjustments heading into the 2024 presidential race.
“Voters under 30 went 53% for Democratic House candidates compared with only 41% for Republican candidates nationwide, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping national survey of the electorate. But that level of support for Democrats was down compared with 2020 when such voters supported President Joe Biden over his predecessor, Donald Trump, 61% to 36%. And in 2018, when Democrats used a midterm surge to retake control of the House, voters 18 to 29 went 64% for the party compared with 34% for the GOP,” Breitbart reported.
“Biden’s party nonetheless exceeded midterm expectations, holding the Senate and surrendering only a small Republican House majority. The president himself hailed young voter turnout as “historic.” Still, the trend line for younger voters may be an early indicator of the Democrats’ challenge to maintain the coalition of Black people, women, college-educated voters, city dwellers, and suburbanites that has buoyed the party in the years since Trump won the White House,” the outlet added.
“Indeed, VoteCast shows only about a quarter of Democrats under 30 say being a Democrat is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important to them, compared with roughly a third of older Democrats. The data showed that voters under 30 did not support Democrats decisively enough to sway key races nationally, but the news wasn’t all bad for the party. Midterm voters under 45 — an age bracket that includes Generation Z and millennials — backed Biden’s party at rates that exceeded his 2020 support in races for governor of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Kansas, as well as the race for Senate in Pennsylvania,” Breitbart added.
The polling is bad for Biden, who is already limping into the 2024 election with low approvals.
In November, an Ipsos poll found that just 39 percent of respondents approved of the job that Biden is doing as president.
Only 9 percent said they believe the country is heading in the right direction under Biden and Democratic leadership, with a whopping 74 percent saying America is on the wrong track.
Meanwhile, 54 percent disapprove of Biden’s job performance and just 25 percent of Independents say they approve of Biden’s performance. Americans are feeling the pain, economically, without question.
“We’re your typical middle-income average American family,” mother and wife Briana Howard told the New York Post. “We’re more mindful at the grocery store … It’s like, ‘What do we have a coupon for?’ I mindlessly picked up a pack of $10 grapes, that’s not something I can continue to do.”
