Thoughts with Junius Williams: 2026 Election Recap | The Power of the Vote

I want to deal with that race in Mississippi. There's a man named Scott Cullum who is about 1,800 votes ahead of the current representative. And that brings back memories because I'm old enough to remember when people were going to Mississippi to fight for the right to vote and people in Mississippi were fighting for the right to vote. And now you have a situation where a black man who is about to become the first senator coming from Mississippi since a man named Blanch K. Bruce in 1875. Not the right to vote, but the power to use your vote. What's happening with that? Well, Scott Cullum feels betrayed because the Democratic establishment didn't pay enough attention. If they put some more money in that race, he might already be declared senator elect. What's the story on that?

the head of Black Voters Matter, a man named Cliff Albbright, says that the Democrats, the black Democrats in all of these states, not all, not all of them, but some of the the other states, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, they also feel betrayed because they didn't recognize the strength of the candidates who were running and only came late to the I'm going to talk about Florida a little bit more in a minute in the middle, but Cullum is still in the race and right at the cusp of becoming that first black senator since 1875. And this was a this was a this was a tide. Some people say it was a tide fueled by issues, but it was a tide also fueled by the situation with back black people saying, "Hey, you can't take my vote. We fought too hard for this." And came out in unprecedented numbers.

Let's stay right there for a minute. If you look at Georgia where you have you're about to have the first black woman governor and not only will she do that but uh her name is Kesha. Can you imagine a governor called Kesha? Well, she is Kesha Bottoms. Governor Kesha Bottoms all down ballot. We have black women in all of the seats of most of the most important state agencies who have been elected to serve. This couldn't have happened without organization and support from from the other people who were there like the whites and and the Latinos and the Asians. But that goes to the point about the the the the rage that people felt when folks felt that they were going to lose the right to vote. People showed up and I'm happy.

Now, let's go a little bit further. Ron DeSantis, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida said the Republican party is just about extinct in some areas. And he's talking about he's talking about Georgia, but he's also talking about the state of Texas. State of Texas where a young woman Gina Gina Hosa Ena Hosa is the governor elect in that huge state. a Latina. First Latina. We got the first black in Georgia woman, first Latina in Texas who have won. In addition to that, James Telerico, uh, a minister who is going to be the state rep, I'm sorry, the Senate representative from Texas. Very important combination there. the blacks and Latinos work together to help make that happen as well as the whites. So, we're going to see a new group of people coming out of the south.

So, one of the the the things that we can look at is go back to what Ron DeSantis said. Uh he felt like he was okay in Florida. Well, if the Democrats had taken a notice of Angie Nixon in that state and put some resources there, she didn't have the firepower with the with with the things that money can buy. Advertisement, television present. She needed that. Democrats didn't do it. But he said Florida is safe. Angie Nixon said, "I'm an organizer. I'm not a politician. So, you haven't heard the last of me." two years she will have another chance because this was a holdover seat from when somebody went into the Trump administration and the seat was vacated. So she was running to fill that that uh vacation that vacated seat.

But let's talk about what else it means. It shows that we've got the power. People who vote have got the power. folks have come on and said right on this show and said that we don't have the power and other people came on and said well we we do have the power and here we are in in November of 2026 and shows that we do have the power. People were wrong when they say my vote doesn't mean anything. And I watched with pride when young people came out of the woodwork and started doing their thing. I think about what I saw with the H.B.CU. The uh people students from were marching from the from the campuses to the polls. The polls had been the polling site had been changed where you go to vote and they just marched further away. So we said we going to march and they did it of course in style with the music and the chance even had in one case I think I saw a band. Hey that's the way we do it. We roll up. We roll up. When we do roll up we roll up hard and that's very important. It means that the Democrats have an opening in the South that they haven't had in years.

all those states that I mentioned important to build and Ronda Santis knows that the empire that President Trump and the Republicans built took a long time to do. And here we have in in October, I'm sorry, November of 2026, the Denver tracks have the possibility of doing the same thing. So, what do we really have here? Uh, like I said, it's a it's a seismic opening. It's by no means a revolutionary change. Now, in the New York Times, I saw just just open this up today. Some of the media has been calling this a left populist rage. And you heard what the young man from Black Votes Matter saying that it was a a rage built upon the fact that some very important leadership or organization of people in the in the population said this is rage based based upon the fact that you're trying to take our vote. And here's the New York Times saying was quote capital sweep may give lift to moderates. Hm. Now, that's an interesting spin.

I didn't see that much moderation in the calls from some of the people who were campaigning hard and who got the attention not only of black folks, not only of young people, but from Republicans who saw that they had been given the share and they came over to the other side. Tales abound of people going to the services, the celebration services of some of the folks who were recently elected and found people that they have been taught to hate here. They said, "We found some of the nicest people in the world and we're glad we have seen the light." Does that mean moderation? Well, perhaps it does because there is a difference between a Democrat from Kansas and a Democrat from Michigan, moderate, radical. What then will become of this soup? What then will become of this political stew?

Now the the the the times went on to say that the moderates were responsible for building this kind of a dramatic change. We can all agree that it is a dramatic change. If there are ingredients that are too moderate, some of the people who voted and participated to make that happen are going to drift away as they have been doing for many years. So we got to watch that. We got to watch to see what's going to happen. If it's just warmed over stew, it's going to get left sitting there on the stove.

I want to talk about a couple of other things that to me are very important. People begin to understand that they have power and that there's power in their voice. The the power in your voice that you have and you want to see change, you want to see change instantly. That's not going to happen. But what the Democrats are in a position to do is to show that they are concerned about the issues that are affecting people. Forever wars, uh the the the the price of your groceries, the price of your gasoline, the the the the lack of health care. They got to do something. They got to do some kind of Shakespearean arresting action to keep people wanting to see the rest of what's going to happen with the play. And that's going to have to happen in January when they get there. So, I'm wondering just how moderate this can be.

I want to finish with one other thing in this little quick analysis. I want to talk about women, particularly black women. They already know, the pundits have predicted that 91% of black women voted Democrat in this election. That's not unusual because black women have been the the the the the most staunch supporters of of uh black women have been the most staunch supporters of the Democratic party for as long as I can remember. But I also remember that 300,000 black women lost their job when Doge came running through the federal government and cut them out of employment. Democrats, what are you going to do to win back those women's seats? That has to happen. That has to happen. Angie Nixon ran for Senate in Florida. black woman, but for the fact that the Democrats looked the other way, she too would have been where Scott Cullum is right now. They were just that close.

So, I want to say that this is a fun time for me cuz I like to watch these things. I like to be a witness to history and my new position here on the podcast. What will you do? What do you see as the possibility of a longlasting coalition from all the disperate people who are now under the Democratic party tent? And what are you going to do out there to keep track at least to find out which side the country would be on? There's another possibility as well. Just like that lady who went to uh Kesha Bottom's victory party and found so much love. We might be bringing be some Republicans over to stay. We may be bringing Republicans over to join to form a coalition that is based on love and respect for each other. Well, I hope we have been able to talk about some of this stuff and I hope you have enjoyed it. So, for now, bye-bye.