By Chuck Donovan

A remarkable victory for common sense in what remains a closely split nation are emerging themes from Election Day 2024. For Donald Trump, a torturous campaign of tens of thousands of miles of travel, two assassination attempts, vicious media assaults, and contentious public policy issues that often turned bitter have combined to produce: projected victories for Trump in the Electoral College and the popular vote, a clean Trump sweep of swing states, control of the Senate, and possibly retention of the House as well. Reports suggest that Trump’s victory in the popular vote, wholly unanticipated, could be more than 5,000,000 votes. Analysis of these victories will go on for days, but talk of this election being America’s last has evaporated. For many, the answer to prayers is particularly great: the results are not ambiguous.

For defenders of faith, family, and freedom, there was much good news but much as well that is sobering or even daunting. Pro-life ballot initiatives were debated in 10 states with 11 different propositions at stake. Unlike the disastrous experience for pro-lifers in 2022, three states rejected measures whose net results would have been to constitutionalize abortion on demand: Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota voters elected to retain legal protections for the unborn. But the losses for life in seven states are deeply disappointing, even if in most cases the losses were expected — New York, Colorado, Nevada, Maryland, Arizona, Montana, and especially Missouri, which has been a perennial powerhouse for pro-life laws and candidates.

How to interpret and react to these outcomes will tax social conservatives’ imaginations and energy, not to mention funding resources, for some time to come. There also remains the question of the meaning of this victory for the future of social issues in the Republican Party. In terms of weighty issues, a deliberate campaign to substitute the array of gender issues — men participating in women’s sports, sex-change surgeries, and so on — for right to life questions appeared to succeed. The Trump-Vance ticket pledged federal inaction on abortion in the 2024 campaign, but the success of pro-life incumbents and the vigorous participation of pro-life groups and leaders on Trump’s behalf, many of them swallowing their concerns over his lack of conviction on the issue, may allow an agenda for Congress and the states to emerge despite the GOP leaders’ demurrals. No matter what, drama lies ahead.

The night opened with news of the defeat of Amendment 4 and Amendment 3 in Florida. The victory on the abortion issue is the first after a string of stinging losses even in historically pro-life states since the Dobbs ruling in 2022. The victory was aided by the 60% threshold for adoption of constitutional amendments in Florida, but the real source of the victory in the Sunshine State was the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and his wife Casey, who relentlessly fought against forces with a massive funding advantage of 8-to-1 and an almost uniformly hostile media mix.

In addition to the ballot initiative victory on life, it was a banner night for GOP candidates in Florida. Not only did Donald Trump prevail by some 13 points in the now thoroughly red Florida, but Senator Rick Scott (R), who was challenged by a candidate, Deborah Mucarsel-Powell, who emphasized legal abortion, prevailed by a similar margin. This fact lends support to a pattern that emerged in 2022, where incumbent Republicans with pro-life records like Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) fared well as handpicked GOP candidates in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona went down to defeat.

This suggests that while straight up-and-down votes on legal abortion continue to be skin-of-the teeth propositions, candidates who are strong on the issue can prevail by doing the fundamentals of other issues well and speaking to people’s concerns about issues of crime, the economy, and illegal immigration. In an interesting aside on Fox News’s coverage of the election last night, the prime exponent of liberal abortion on its panel, Jessica Tarlov, acknowledged Florida “is an incredible place where my own friends are glad to be living.” Abortion remains an expression of despair, especially when it is articulated as the most important issue to personal well-being — the truth is that most people want something better and believe it can come to be.

Another illuminating comment came on the same program from GOP consultant and Fox host Kellyanne Conway, who said that the country is experiencing a “parental rights renaissance.” The insight is particularly apt to the issue of gender ideology for minors, where Democrats have unashamedly pursued policies that leave parents in the dark about name changes and “pronoun” usage in schools. But parental rights were also key arguments on the abortion initiative in Florida and elsewhere. The issues are indeed linked — the devaluation of the parents’ role and family integrity has proceeded with lightning speed in society as the result of a radical sexual agenda in America. The 2024 election may signal a change in this troubling trend.

A thousand factors likely played into the Trump-Vance triumph, but there is no doubt that there were down-ballot wins that reflected the public’s view of the main issues — the economy, illegal immigration, crime in the streets, and the extremism of Democrats’ positions on social matters. Particularly satisfying were the victories of Republican Bernie Moreno over incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio and the potential win for challenger Dave McCormick over household name Bob Casey, Jr. in Pennsylvania. An astronomical sum was expended in these two Rust Belt Senate races, and Moreno in particular benefited from radio spots that focused on Brown’s support for partial-birth abortion and radical gender ideology. On these issues Democrats are out of sync with their fellow Americans and, worse, use them to demonize their neighbors as misogynists and bigots. Will 2024 signal the end of such radical and defamatory tactics?

A few other notes of interest. Former New Hampshire Attorney General and U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R) prevailed narrowly in the race for the New Hampshire governorship. An opponent of abortion earlier in her career who endorsed the Dobbs decision to reverse Roe, Ayotte flipped and defended New Hampshire’s liberal abortion law this year. New England’s “blue wall” of abortion on request was not weakened in 2024.

Meanwhile, in solidly pro-life Indiana, pro-life House member Jim Banks (R) raced to victory in his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, whose website proclaims him “proudly pro-life,” won comfortably in Montana. Defeated in their Senate campaigns were the thoroughly pro-abortion Larry Hogan (Hogan’s father was a leading sponsor of a human life amendment during his time in Congress in the 1970s) in Maryland and Hung Cao in always-difficult Virginia (where the GOP message about drastically reducing federal jobs might have had a depressing effect on Cao’s vote total).

As this commentary goes to print this afternoon, a number of crucial Senate races remain too close to call, including Kari Lake (R) versus Ruben Gallegos (D) in Arizona, Eric Hovde (R) versus Tammy Baldwin (D) in Wisconsin, Mike Rogers (R) against Elissa Slotkin (D) in Michigan, and Dave McCormick (R) versus Bob Casey, Jr. (D) in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz (R) in Texas and Deb Fischer (R) in Nebraska overcame strong opponents and former West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) flipped his state’s Senate seat, meaning that no matter what the result of the remaining races Democrats will not have the chance to end the filibuster and pass and sign the horrifyingly permissive Women’s Health Protection Act.

It may be a cliché, of course, but now the hard part begins. Huge economic challenges loom with a massive federal deficit and national debt. North Korean troops have moved to the Eastern front in Ukraine. Iran continues to thunder massive retaliation in the Middle East. Families are under enormous pressure and the pathway to reverse America’s toll of one million abortions per year is unclear. President-elect Trump has emphasized transition efforts that may be led by additions to his party like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Elon Musk who have flirted with but not embraced Christian values on life and marriage. President Trump is likely to nominate more quality judges, and the strengthening of Republican national and state platforms is likelier today than it was a week ago, but neither of these outcomes is guaranteed.

The fact remains that the engagement of Christian, pro-family Americans — so scorned by the Left and maligned even by some former allies — in public affairs is more critical than ever. Signs of hope abound, but so does a sense of urgency. God has preserved us to fight another day for the things that matter most.

Chuck Donovan is a veteran family policy analyst and former Executive Vice President of Family Research Council.