Republicans are mostly grappling with the reality that many of their candidates lost, and some lost badly, in last week’s midterm rout. But amid the ruins they’ve also found a silver lining: across a smattering of states, voters approved ballot measures that affirm conservative views — including bans on transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports — and rejected some progressive initiatives, like one in California that would have imposed a tax on billionaires.
That pulse check on the American people, even in states where Democratic candidates won big, could be the basis of the new conservative movement that will emerge from the electoral wreckage.
