Commentary: Ayoub: Now comes the governing part

Last week’s national “blue wave” stayed mostly off on Nebraska’s reliably red shores. The changing tide, however, moved closer. 

That was not only evident in Democrat Denise Powell’s victory in the 2nd Congressional District, the state’s “Blue Dot,” but also in the vote totals of three closely watched races: for governor, U.S. senator and 1st Congressional District representative. Each winner did so with less than 51% of the vote as of this writing. 

In the 2022 governor’s race, the winning percentage was 59; in the U.S. Senate races in 2024, one of which was a special election, the percentages were 53 and 62; and in the Ist District election in 2024 the percentage was 60.

Change is afoot elsewhere. The NINO (nonpartisan in name only) Nebraska Legislature will no longer sport 33 GOP senators, a political cudgel supermajority and enough to end a filibuster. GOP senators will now number 30 (that’s likely but unofficial at this time), enough votes if everyone toes the party line to change the body’s rules or override a veto, the latter perhaps moot because the state’s corner office has a very red door.

Draw your own conclusions about what last week’s results mean for Nebraska, but across the country, voters clearly had change on their minds. I’m not smart enough to know for sure what the exact takeaways were. My best guess is that what American voters (including some Nebraskans) told exit pollsters was what most reasonable Americans already knew. 

Governing poorly has consequences.

People are tired of high prices, an incomprehensible war and bewildering tariffs. They have had enough of Congress capitulating to the White House. While they want immigration problems solved, they are not here for the administration’s policy of cruelty and violence. They reject taking food and medical assistance from the working poor. They do not believe some of us are more equal than others, and so have grown weary of the undermining or erasing of policies that promote diversity. They want our history, all of it, to be taught exactly as it happened, not rewritten to assuage the uninformed and the iconoclastic. They want AI-peddling, ring-kissing, data-center-building tech bros to stay in their lane and out of voters’ backyards. Finally, and most emphatically, they want the corruption to end.

Winning elections is the easy part; governing is the hard part. The winds of change may be softer in Nebraska than the gales blowing in Texas, Kansas and Iowa. Still, how a new Nebraska Legislature reads the prevailing breeze will be key to its success as it faces a variety of issues, including the daunting task of making a state budget add up with current and forecasted deficits. 

How a new, blue Congress navigates the next two years with a lame-duck GOP president whose policies took a serious beating at the ballot box will require a steely but deft hand. As we said above, voters want affordability, an end to wars and tariffs, and a return to food programs and healthcare options. And maybe throw a little agency into their own lives.

Some have already counseled that any investigations should wait until affordability issues are addressed. Maybe, but part of Congress’ responsibility is oversight, which it derives from Article I in the Constitution, the necessary and proper clause. Plus, Congress can’t multitask? Really? One senator scoffed at the notion of having to choose, reminding us that they can indeed “walk and chew gum at the same time.”  

Finally, especially given the change that is afoot even here in Nebraska, I offer a modest proposal with apologies to Jonathan Swift. Every elected official has a team of advisers (or at least should), those who gather information, read the tea leaves and offer opinions on policy, legislation, public relations and the aforementioned wafting political winds. 

The wise among these leaders should always have a “devil’s advocate” among their most trusted inner circle, someone who says no to groupthink, who reminds decision-makers of the consequences — especially the unintended ones — of a new idea that might become law, who tells not just the other side of the story, but even promotes it. 

Here’s why: The headline is the blue wave, and, as in any election, we had winners and losers. But unlike football, a footrace or fiddling contest, where there are winners and losers, whoever prevails at the ballot box doesn’t get a trophy or a medal or even a record contract.

They get a job … the description of which includes representing the hopes and dreams not simply for those who voted for them, but also those who voted against them and even those who didn’t vote.