Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” that he believes protests in the U.S. marked the most significant moments in 2018, saying the movements had an impact on turnout in the 2018 midterm elections.
“It’s going to be the footsteps that went from the town squares,” Swalwell told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball earlier this month, referencing movements such as the Women’s March and March for Our Lives, as well as health-care and tax law protests.
“[They] went to the town halls for stopping the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and standing up for other issues as it related to stopping the tax bill, and then those footsteps went to the ballot box, and sent 40 members of Congress, who flipped the House, 27 of them in their 40s or under,” he continued.
“I think it’s going from the town square to the town hall to the ballot box, and bringing change to Washington, D.C.,” he said. “That was the most significant moment of 2018.”
The Women’s March, which launched the day after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, and March for Our Lives, which was spurred by the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla. in February, drew thousands to Washington, as well as cities across the U.S.
The movements, which were formed as a rebuke to various Trump administration policies, urged their followers to vote in the elections, largely playing in Democrats’ favor.
The United States Election Project reported in November that 49.3 percent of the eligible voter population in the U.S. turned out to vote this year, marking the highest voter turnout percentage since 1914.
— Julia Manchester
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