11/5/2026: The Hot Wash

After a major operation or exercise, members of our military begin the After Action Report (AAR). It’s a way to review performance, and rank isn’t supposed to matter. That being said, I saw majors brilliantly flame out when they itemized the mistakes some general or admiral made during an exercise (for our young military readers: if someone with stars on their collar says, “I want you to speak freely,” they are lying).

It’s an incredibly valuable tool for improving performance, and the first step in the AAR process is the “Hot Wash” (and I don’t know exactly why it’s called that). It’s held immediately after the event to capture participants’ initial reactions. This will be my Hot Wash on Tuesday’s elections. Let’s start with the positives from Tuesday night.

Let’s all acknowledge that there was a MASSIVE blue wave, and the best part was that the GOP’s brilliant plan to gerrymander Democrats out of seats backfired in the most spectacular way. Here in Alabama, Shomari Figures won his newly gerrymandered seat easily. Across the country, the plan cost the GOP as many as 10 House seats.

We took control of the House and the Senate. That means Trump won’t get another Supreme Court Justice without Democratic approval in the Senate. Our winners were young, people of color, and women, all of whom truly represent the people who elected them. Even though I lost this race and Mike Rogers will still be in office, he won’t be the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. There are also rumors that Trump is going to throw Pete Hegseth under the bus, blaming Hegseth’s inept handling of the war in Iran for the shellacking the GOP took. The men and women of our armed forces deserve better than those two; now they might get it.

But how did we do in Alabama? Huntsville was the bright spot. They flipped three seats in the Alabama legislature. They also elected the first transgender member of the Alabama legislature, and the first openly gay sheriff in the state. Those are great wins for all Alabamians.

But how did we perform in the 3rd District?

First, like the rest of the state, we significantly increased Democratic turnout. We did better than in any midterm election since 2018, when Mallory Hagan pulled 82,000 votes, just 2,000 more than we did, but we spent one-fifth the money she did. We doubled Kamala Harris’s vote total in the district from 2024, and the initial feedback I’m getting from party chairs in our rural counties is that we did better than we ever have in those counties.

Second, we had awesome support and volunteers. Our people moved mountains. They set up events, handed out push cards, and spread my name as much as they could, all without me asking. They were incredible, and I’ll never be able to thank them enough. And our volunteers truly reflected the diversity of the great people in our district.

Overall, we had a fantastic cohort of candidates running at all levels. Everyone I worked with was out there every day, working to get the message out. We all ran on the same plan, stayed consistent, and hit those points repeatedly.

So, what do we need to improve?

First, we need a state coordinating office for campaigns, especially for midterm elections. As a congressional candidate, I shouldn’t learn from a Facebook post 48 hours in advance that a statewide candidate will hold a major event in my hometown. That’s a missed opportunity for mutual support. This will require effort and commitment from the state and county parties and from candidates. I am also aware of legal limits on how state and federal candidates can work together, but there were many instances when I could have simply shown up, sat in the audience, and offered support if I had been given advance notice.

Second, we must make the Democratic Party relevant to ALL Alabamians. Many of the candidates I spoke to said they were drawing crowds at their events, but attendees were almost entirely committed Democrats. We’ve got to get out of our bubble. Holding monthly meetings to talk with each other and setting up a table at public events are good tools, but they won’t bring in the swing voters we need to win elections. The Democratic Party needs to be integrated into our communities. People have to see us regularly and know we’re committed to improving life in the state, and that commitment is year-round, not just before an election. Seeing us only when we’re campaigning won’t get us the votes we need.

Finally, we have to make a concerted effort to bring young people into the party. Some party members aren’t comfortable with that because young people can have radically different priorities than seniors. We’ll have to get comfortable with the Democratic Party being a party of debate and divergent ideas, all working for the common good. We’ve been that party before; we need to be that party again. Leave ideological purity tests to the other party. We don’t need them.

I freely admit these are broad generalizations that don’t apply universally. You may disagree with some or all of them, but we must ask ourselves: if we had such a great slate of candidates up and down the ballot and if those candidates ran so many great campaigns, why didn’t we win more seats? We have two years to find the answers. Business as usual won’t win elections in 2028.

Now, we need to get to work.