GREAT READS → US MIDTERMS: 2022 Issue 935 · November 9, 2022

No Red Wave, but Definitely a Black One

Republicans may be disappointed at the outcome of Tuesday’s election. But for the Orthodox community, it was a grand slam

No Red Wave, but Definitely a Black One

Forget what you heard anywhere else. Republicans may be disappointed at the outcome of Tuesday’s election. But for the Orthodox community, it was a grand slam. Records for voter turnout weren’t just surpassed, they were swept aside in a stampede. It will be hard for any politician to ignore the community in the future, askanim suggest.

Here are five takeaways that came to mind as I watched the results trickle in.

1) Slumbering No Longer

The sea of black hats that headed to the polls was not just unprecedented, it was unexpected as well. For years, a 15 percent turnout in frum areas was the high water mark. “If we get that number,” one prominent askan deeply involved in get-out-the-vote efforts told me just Monday, “I’ll be thrilled.”

Instead, the 48th Assembly District, which covers Boro Park, got an eye-popping 50 percent — about 29,000 of the district’s 59,000 registered voters showed up at the polls, and the coming days will reveal how many more voted by absentee ballot.

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