Tuesday’s midterm elections have already been given a name: the “blue tsunami.” Democrats won the House by a margin not seen in years and picked up Senate seats in states from Kansas to Texas, where few expected them to. At least one foreign-policy file could come out of the wave stronger rather than more divided. On Sudan, Democrats and Republicans have stood on common ground for decades, and this may be the best moment in years to stand there again.
The 2002 Sudan Peace Act, written by Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo and Democratic Rep. Donald Payne, passed the House 359 to 8 and opened the road to a peace that President George W. Bush brokered and President Barack Obama completed. President Bill Clinton sanctioned Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist regime, Bush kept the sanctions, and on Darfur the House spoke with one voice, 422 to 0. When Sudanese toppled Bashir in 2019, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) wrote the Sudan Democratic Transition Act together. Four presidents, two parties, one policy.
