SAN DIEGO — As pundits analyze the results of the midterm elections, there is one unmistakable takeaway: Diversity is back, baby!

— In Mississippi, it took nine days from the Nov. 3 election, but Democrat Scott Colom was officially declared the winner in a close Senate race. Colom is the first Black person elected statewide in the Magnolia State since Reconstruction.

— In New Mexico, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was elected the first female Native American governor.

— In New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas' election to the Senate will make him the first openly gay male in the upper chamber.

— In Iowa, Democrat Josh Turek, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist for Team USA who is confined to a wheelchair because he was born with spina bifida, was elected to the Senate.

— In four states, voters elected Black governors. Democrat Aaron Ford will lead Nevada, and Democrat David Crowley will take office in Wisconsin. In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms made history twice, becoming the first Black person — and the first Black woman — to be elected governor. And in Florida, Republican Byron Donalds was elected the state's first Black governor.

— In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was elected to the Senate, where he will be the first Muslim to serve in that body in U.S. history.

— In Minnesota, Democrat Peggy Flanagan will soon be sworn in as the first Native American woman in the Senate.

— In California and Texas, the two most populous states, Mexican American Democrats were elected governor: Xavier Becerra in California and Gina Hinojosa in Texas.

It's tempting to say that diversity has made a comeback. But to be fair — even with the Trump administration's whiny war against DEI, which it claimed was responsible for systemic discrimination against white men — it's likely that high-minded concepts such as diversity, equity and inclusion never really fell off the menu for most Americans.

I can see how you might have been led to believe otherwise. For the last two years, the administration has thrown a series of public tantrums to advance the lie that diversity is a four-letter word, and argue that grievous wrongs have been committed against white people. And white men in particular.

Someone needs help with fractions. Take a good look at who is running government, business, education and the media. We don't have to start a "GoFundMe" for white men. They're doing just fine. The problem is their mentality. Not content with having 95% of the pie, they'll fight for the extra 5%.

That's one reason that President Donald Trump got elected to a second term. Soon after taking office in January 2025, he signed executive orders directing federal agencies to terminate all DEI offices, positions, programs and grants. Diversity celebrations at government agencies were scrapped, contracts were canceled and anyone who worked on DEI initiatives was placed on leave and slated to be fired.

At the Pentagon, senior Black and female officers had their promotions blocked or were dismissed without cause. At the Department of Education, race-conscious programming and student support were declared unlawful under Title VI, and any college or university that failed to comply risked losing federal funds. At the Interior Department, funding for the Smithsonian — especially the National Museum of American History — was threatened because the White House said the institution advanced "thinly veiled anti-Americanism." And at the Department of Homeland Security, Black refugees from Haiti were turned away at the border, while white refugees from South Africa were given a royal welcome.

When Trump promised voters on the campaign trail that he would be their "retribution," he must have been talking directly to white people who felt stung by diversity and marginalized by changing demographics.

Whenever demographers project that white Americans will become a statistical minority by 2045, the WASPs panic. That fear is the fuel that drives the MAGA movement. Trump understood the assignment, and he has done his best — or, depending on your perspective, his worst — to turn back the clock and restore white Americans to their proper place at the top of the list.

Unfortunately for the aspiring time travelers, Trump's efforts to bleach the federal government may have met their Waterloo in the midterm elections. Many of the folks who wound up in the winner's circle made for a diverse bunch.

What makes the outcome sweeter is that it doesn't seem to have happened by design. It wasn't orchestrated. It's not a conspiracy. It just turned out that way.

Political observers got it wrong. This wasn't a blue wave. It was a rainbow.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Vitalii Abakumov at Unsplash