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O'Donnell traces Bottoms's Georgia victory through her family's history

MS NOW's post-election commentary connects the winners' personal stories with their promises to serve voters who opposed them.

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MS NOW Story of November 6, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Why this story? One of MS NOW's most watched videos since yesterday, with 999,271 views.

Lawrence: ‘The bad guys lost’ in the midterm elections

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1:01Sanders-Townsend explains why Bottoms's victory matters to Black women who felt rejected by the 2024 presidential result.
2:01O'Donnell connects Bottoms's election to the history of her enslaved great-great-grandfather in Georgia.
4:55Victory speeches foreground candidates' personal backgrounds, beginning with Talarico's account of childhood with his mother.
11:44O'Donnell builds his political interpretation around El-Sayed's declaration that "the bad guys lost."
14:13Winning candidates promise to represent and respect voters who did not support them.

Keisha Lance Bottoms invokes her ancestors before making a promise to Georgia: "I know I am standing on shoulders made of steel." Lawrence O'Donnell makes that family history central to his MS NOW commentary on the Democratic midterm victories.

The segment offers a different perspective from seat counts and congressional projections. O'Donnell reads an account of Bottoms's great-great-grandfather, who was enslaved in Crawfordville, Georgia, then turns to footage of his descendant celebrating her election as governor.

Symone Sanders-Townsend explains the emotion behind her own election-night reaction. For Black women who experienced the 2024 presidential result as a rejection, she says, Bottoms's victory carries particular significance.

O'Donnell broadens that theme through a montage of winning candidates. James Talarico recalls his childhood with his mother and tells supporters, "Always bet on the underdog." Speeches from Gina Hinojosa, Troy Jackson, Josh Turek and Amy Acton add other accounts of hardship and perseverance.

The commentary, which has drawn about a million views since yesterday, takes its title from Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed's declaration: "The bad guys lost." O'Donnell adopts that explicitly partisan interpretation, presenting the results as a rejection of Trump and wealthy political influence.

His closing selection of speeches turns from opponents to obligations. Bottoms, Hinojosa, Roy Cooper, Turek and Sherrod Brown pledge respect or service beyond their own supporters. Bottoms puts it plainly: "I will be a governor for all of Georgia."