The Week in Quotes (Nov. 4 – 10)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Alla Diab, 23. Turnout for this year’s midterm elections surpassed the turnout of the 2014 midterm elections.

“It’s really in the hands of young people. When you actually see the results of polls, you’re like, whoa, because one person really can make a difference.”

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Kevin Madigan, Harvard Divinity School’s Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, on the role President Trump’s incendiary rhetoric plays in far-right extremist violence against Jews, like at the Tree of Life synagogue.

“I think when the President uses that term, he means to suggest that he intends to maximize the self-interest of the United States, as in ‘America First.’ He may or may not be aware of the multiple significations of that term, which, among other dangerous things, might imply or be inferred to mean: immigrants and strangers are not welcome here; ‘we’ (the country) can only win if others lose (zero-sum thinking). One danger, realized this past weekend, is that people, like the man who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue, can interpret this to mean that those perceived to be strangers or ‘cosmopolitans’ ought to be exiled—or murdered.”

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Beto O’Rourke speaking to his supporters as he conceded to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz before a raucous crowd of supporters.

“I f—ing love you guys!”

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Ralph Reed, head of the far-right Faith and Freedom Coalition, declaring victory for the religious right, claiming that a record turnout of evangelicals, backed by conservative Catholics, was the key to Republican victories.

“I think the White House and the RGA and the National Republican Senatorial Committee and certainly Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott are very grateful tonight that the rapture didn’t happen before the early voting began because if it had, they would have lost in a landslide. The evangelicals delivered this vote in a big way.”

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Kathy Miller, president of TFN, on Tuesday’s election results.

“The future of Texas is a rising generation that looks different and sees the world very differently than the generations before it. (Tuesday’s) election results show they care far more about policies that promote progressive values like economic and social justice in Texas than they do appeals designed to promote anger and fear.”