Donate Now!

Oklahoma makes it official

“Unfortunately the United States is one of the few countries in the world without an official language. So having official English in a state constitution is important to protect it from being thrown out by activist judges who want to substitute their own rule for that of the people.  This landslide vote confirms national polls reflecting that a vast majority of Americans – Democrat, Republican and Independent— reject costly and confusing multilingualism and support English as our nation’s official language.”

During the 2011 session, the Oklahoma state legislature will consider legislation to specify how the new constitutional amendment will be implemented.

Republicans pulled off the largest single day gains in the House of Representatives since 1948, as well as the largest gains of any political party in local, state, and federal races combined in more than 100 years.  Democrats not only lost dozens of seats in the House, a handful in the Senate, and hundreds in the state legislatures, but they lost several decades worth of seniority in both chambers.

The House of Representatives for the 112^th Congress will be comprised of approximately* 239 Republicans and 186 Democrats (*with 10 House races still undecided). Thus far, the GOP gained over 60 seats in the House and 8 seats in the Senate, leaving the Democrats with the smallest number in the House since 1946 and effectively ending Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Speakership, making her the shortest serving Speaker of the House in the nation’s history.

The 2011 U.S. Senate currently stands at 50 Democrats, 2 Independents (who caucus with Democrats), and 46 Republicans.  This means that the Republicans have increased their filibuster power in the Senate.  Of course, two Senate races remain undecided—Washington State and Alaska.

With regard to state politics, Republicans picked up 680 seats in state legislatures across the country, the most in the modern era, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (www.ncsl.org).  To put that number in perspective:  In the 1994 GOP wave, Republicans picked up 472 seats. The previous record was in the post-Watergate election of 1974, when Democrats picked up 628 seats.

19 state legislative bodies ultimately flipped to the GOP.  Historic changes include the North Carolina Legislature flipping to a Republican majority for the first time since 1870, and the Alabama Legislature flipping to Republican for the first time since 1876.  Also flipping from Democrat to Republican were the Wisconsin and New Hampshire state legislatures, the Maine and Minnesota Senates, and the State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado. Tennessee and Texas went from virtually even numbers of Republicans and Democrats to massive GOP majorities.  The GOP won 23 Governorships while the Democrats won 10.

It is very good news that the 112^th Congress’ Freshman class will include a substantial number of strong official English advocates, including (but not limited to) soon-to-be Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Rand Paul (R-KY), as well as soon-to-be Members of Congress Jeff Landry (LA-3^rd), Allen West (FL-22^nd), Mo Brooks (AL-5^th), Tim Walberg (MI-7^th), Lou Barletta (PA-11^th), Scott DesJarlais (TN-  ), Steve Womack (AR-3^rd), Bobby Schilling (IL-17^th), Bob Gibbs (OH-18^th), Tom Marino (PA-  ), and Vicky Hartzler (MO-4^th).

Additional Election resources:

Interactive Map:  Complete Election 2010 Results (Senate, House, Governor seats)

Map of Post-Election Partisan Composition of State Legislatures