In his final speech before the Nov. 8 midterms the first general election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol President Joe Biden warned that American democracy is under attack from extreme MAGA Republicans who would seek to suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself.

This is no ordinary year, Biden said. So I ask you to think long and hard about the moment were in. In a typical year, were often not faced with questions of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. But this year, we are.

The press and some Democratic Party allies panned the presidents remarks. His speech was head-scratching, according to CNNs Chris Cillizza . It was important but puzzling, said Politicos Playbook newsletter . [As] a matter of practical politics, I doubt many Ds in marginal races are eager for him to be on TV tonight, tweeted David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama s top political aide.

The results of the election, however, speak for themselves. The predicted Republican red wave disappeared before it reached shore, with the GOP only picking up 8 seats to narrowly take control of the House. It could still lose one seat in the Senate. Democrats flipped control of more governorships and state legislature chambers than Republicans. And, most importantly, nearly all high-profile election deniers lost their races, including competitive secretary of state competitions in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada and gubernatorial contests in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Now, one poll of the 71 most competitive House districts backs up the importance of the democracy issue in Democrats midterm success. Concerns about threats to democracy motivated Democrats and independents to turn out while also helping independents decide to vote for Democrats, according to a voter survey from Nov. 11-16 by Impact Research, a Democratic polling firm.

The biggest takeaway here is just how important protecting democracy was for voters in this House battlefield immediately coming out of the election, said Molly Murphy, the president of Impact Research, which conducted the survey for Democratic Party-aligned political action committees End Citizens United and Let America Vote.

Six in 10 voters cited protecting democracy as an extremely important reason that they decided to vote in November. This put the issue ahead of inflation (53%), abortion (47%) and crime (45%). When asked to choose the top two issues that motivated them to vote, 50% chose protecting democracy, second only to inflation at 55%.

These findings are largely in line with preelection surveys from The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , CBS News , NBC News , Quinnipiac University Poll and the Grinnell College National Poll , as well as exit polling from The Associated Press , NBC News and CNN .

The issue of democracy was really one of the most dominant factors for Democrats and independents in determining whether they would turn out and decisive in decision-making in terms of whether independent voters were going to vote for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate, Murphy said.

Among Democrats, 73% cited protecting democracy as an extremely important reason that they decided to vote. Fifty-one percent of independents similarly cited it as extremely important, on par with the 53% who cited inflation.

Forty-one percent of voters who cast ballots for Democrats said protecting democracy was one of the top two reasons for voting as they did. It was the top reason among voters surveyed, listed only slightly above abortion (39%) and not liking the Republican candidate (38%).