PBS host Christiane Amanpour welcomed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver to Friday’s episode of Amanpour and Company to not only promote her new book but also to engage in the type of election analysis that says that Tuesday was not just a good night for Democrats; it was a victory for democracy itself.
Amanpour began, “I have to start by asking you, because your books have been, you know, not just massive hits but also, you know, political about the American condition in various different forms, cultural certainly. What is your reaction to the incredible tsunami by the Democrats this week in the midterm elections?”
Kingsolver replied by claiming, “It's a really happy morning to wake up in the United States of America.”
PBS with the type of election analysis that says democracy itself won on Tuesday. Christiane Amanpour asks Pulitzer Prize winning author Barbara Kingsolver, "What is your reaction to the incredible tsunami by the Democrats this week in the midterm elections?"
Kingsolver says… pic.twitter.com/63Y6NPE1LH— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 7, 2026
For Kingsolver, the fact that Democrats won in Texas is not just a big deal for the blue team but a win for all lowercase-D democrats as well, “And I'm going to say that for several reasons. One is that we saw that money cannot buy elections. Texas is a really good example, where I think Elon Musk spent $500 million to try to buy that election, and that election was won by integrity. That's Texas.”
Kingsolver is trying to claim that if voters had agreed with Elon Musk that would’ve been undemocratic, which is not how democracy actually works. Voters are allowed to agree with Musk like they did in 2024 and still believe the U.S. has a functioning democracy. The fact that two years later they disagreed with him does not mean democracy has been fixed because Musk’s preferred candidate winning in the previous election cycle does not mean it was broken in the first place.
As it was, Kingsolver added, “The same has happened in a lot of rural parts of this country, which gives me a lot of hope. I'm a rural person. I represent, in my writing, rural America. And I think that we've gotten a bad rap. I think that we've shown our true colors today.”
If people were to take Kingsolver’s argument to its logical conclusion that democracy wins when Elon Musk or any other GOP big donor loses, then they would have to conclude that no future Republican win can ever be viewed as good for democracy. Who’s the undemocratic one now?
Here is a transcript for the November 6 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
11/6/2026
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I have to start by asking you, because your books have been, you know, not just massive hits but also, you know, political about the American condition in various different forms, cultural certainly. What is your reaction to the incredible tsunami by the Democrats this week in the midterm elections?
BARBARA KINGSOLVER: It's a really happy morning to wake up in the United States of America. And I'm going to say that for several reasons. One is that we saw that money cannot buy elections. Texas is a really good example, where I think Elon Musk spent $500 million to try to buy that election, and that election was won by integrity. That's Texas. The same has happened in a lot of rural parts of this country, which gives me a lot of hope. I'm a rural person. I represent, in my writing, rural America. And I think that we've gotten a bad rap. I think that we've shown our true colors today.
