Today is Election Day. Unlike two years ago, the presidency is not at stake. But the consequences of this year’s elections are high nonetheless. Republicans are poised to take back at least one chamber of Congress, possibly both. Divided government is the likeliest outcome of today’s elections, rendering legislative action even more difficult than it has been under a period of unified Democratic control of government.
And this is only at the national level. Americans across the country are electing governors, attorneys general, secretaries of state, state representatives and senators, and myriad local officials. The outcomes of these elections will go largely overlooked, but they are arguably more important to the daily lives of the vast majority of our neighbors than what happens in our nation’s capital.
Longtime readers know my feelings on calling any election “the most important of our lifetime.” This year’s midterm elections are no different. They are important, yes, but in the same way that any election is important. They will give most voters the chance to weigh in on the first two years of the Biden administration. They will affect the trajectory of government for the next two years, perhaps longer. But when every election is the most important of our lifetime, none is.
Still, it does seem like this year’s elections will give us evidence on the strength of our commitment to democratic norms and proceedings. Yes, the chaos following the 2020 election is behind us, and the architect of that chaos—Donald J. Trump—is not on the ballot this time around. But we have yet to see how the remnants of 2020 will affect future elections, in terms of accepting the results of free and fair contests when we lose.
Political scientist Lynn Vavreck identifies this challenge in a column for the New York Times. She notes that while previous elections did not lack controversy, the example by the losers set the tone for the resulting political climate. Following his 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon pledged his support to his opponent. In 2000, following one of the most contentious presidential elections in our country’s history, Al Gore conceded the race. In 2016, following a humbling loss to a political neophyte, Hillary Clinton admitted defeat.1
Vavreck continues:
What made the aftermath of 2020 stand out from previous elections was the interaction of calcification with political action. Specifically, Mr. Trump did the opposite of Nixon, Mr. Gore and Ms. Clinton: He insisted that he won. Other partisan leaders echoed his claims about a stolen election, and voters, appreciating both the differences between the parties and the fact that outcomes were turning on very few votes, followed.
She concludes her column ominously:
It is of great consequence who wins elections, but the candidates who lose are equally important to the future of free and fair elections in the United States.
Following the 2020 election, I was convicted to write a letter of encouragement to Christians despondent about the outcome of that election. Titled “We Need to Be Better Losers,” it was a reminder that while electoral defeats sting, that does not justify a refusal to accept the results. “The legitimacy of the American government is rooted in the legitimacy of our elections, I wrote. “If more and more people turn to conspiracies and outlandish and unsubstantiated claims of fraud to explain electoral outcomes, then a collapse in self-governance may not be far behind.”
Specifically, I called on Christians to lead the way in losing well:
Rejecting nonsense and embracing truth, however dispiriting, is essential to our witness to a skeptical world. If Christians are broadcasting conspiracy theories about elections, what credibility do we have when telling the world of the Good News of a resurrected Savior? When it comes to making sense of controversial things like presidential elections, we Christians should not be naïve or bury our heads in the sand, but neither should we be searching for comforting explanations in far off places in lieu of realistic explanations right in front of us.
I concluded with a reminder of where our hope lies:
While we absolutely should fight for justice and truth in the public square, we should also be prepared to lose from time to time, and do so with confidence that comes from our identity in Christ. After all, we are inheritors of a greater victory than the world could ever provide.
Today’s elections will elate some and deflate others. Some will rejoice in the outcome of specific elections, while others will lament the direction of our country. But no matter the results of today’s elections, we must commit to losing well. As Americans, losing well is essential to strengthening the guardrails of our political experiment. And as Christians, losing well is essential to how we faithfully engage our world.
Let’s take a moment today and pray for our country, our neighbors, and ourselves, that we would accept electoral outcomes with humility and, whatever the outcomes, pledge to continue the ongoing work of building a more perfect union, together.
Yes, both Gore and Clinton vehemently disagreed with the process leading to their defeats, with Clinton going so far as later saying that Trump was “an illegitimate president.” This, however, is far different than refusing to concede at all and using the mechanisms of government and the presidency to oppose the peaceful transfer of power following a free and fair election.