Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

We’re not going back!

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Bark louder, little dog.

Please don’t feed the bears.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

The words do not have to be perfect.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Thank You!

Open Thread: Thank You!

by | 113 Comments

This post is in: ,

I know there are some who want to focus on what didn’t happen for Democrats, but I’m here to celebrate. First, to celebrate everyone here who donated, wrote postcards, canvassed, and texted until the last minute. You are my heroes. And WaterGirl for organizing everything here: fundraising, postcard writing, and general “stay strong” posts.

Second, celebrating Colorado, which went from deep purple to light blue last night. Governor, Senator, House (some TBD, but still majority blue), State House, Sec of State, Treasurer, and Attorney General all stayed blue. If Republicans stood any chance of making gains, this would have been the year, they did not.

I am keeping an eye on CO-3 (Boebert-Frisch), and CO-8 (Caraveo – Kirkmeyer) – the Dems have led through the night, and while Repubs have made gains, they haven’t caught up. I remain cautiously optimistic. Thank you to all who donated to Caraveo, if she wins, that made a difference because the attack ad money was strong against her. That Libertarian candidate will be the spoiler if Kirkmeyer loses. I’ll refrain from guffawing until we have a result.

In CO – recounts are at .5%.  But a candidate can pay for a recount at any point above that.

Third, Abortion Rights – it sure looks like that was a deciding factor (and fuck the MSM for ignoring it, minimizing and downright saying it wasn’t important) and that the ballot measures trying to enshrine anti-abortion laws at the state level have for the most part been defeated and those protecting the right to chose have won. I haven’t had time to check all the states, but it was looking good last night – feel free to update in the comments.

I have lots of thoughts on FL, but will leave that to Betty, Adam, and our FL jackals.

I’ll take any hopeful news from AZ and NV

I’m not sure how I’m going to spend my day on little sleep and a headache (fingers-crossed not a migraine) coming on. Probably catch up on some household chores, my mind might not be in a place to do actual paid work, LOL. My clients deserve better.

How did things look in your state? And what are you celebrating?

This is an open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    I’m celebrating because reliable GOP hack Henry Olsen is eating crow in his WaPo column today.

    Literally – that’s how he starts it off:

    “Crow – the avian white meat!  I’m eating a lot of it today as my prediction of a big GOP win comes crashing down.  The question is why.  What did I miss that others caught?”

     

    He goes on to note:

    • Dems did well with folks who somewhat disapprove of President Biden (ie, a majority of voters might not be happy about inflation, but they know the Rs are nuts)
    • Dems did well in the suburbs (ie, Dobbs turned the tide amongst suburban women in general)
    • the “Latino surge” did not materialize (see also bullet point #1 above)
    • GOP candidate quality – aka, trumpov’s choices – sucked

    He also sees a future with DeSantis and none with trumpov, to which I say…help me out here people…LET. THEM. FIGHT.

  2. 2.

    Lady WereBear

    I’m hanging onto the puddle the Red Wave turned into. But yeah, projections from before Trump & Dobbs were what they expected, and what they wanted.

    But so far, accepting the results? Because if so, that’s a national win…

  5. 5.

    Highway Rob

    Putting this out there now, without Googling to see if it’s been thought of before: DeSantis = Paul Ryan w/o the “boyish” “charm” and “reputation” as a “policy wonk”.

    (Shit, I think I broke my scare quotes key with that one, and I just bought this laptop.)

  7. 7.

    marcopolo

    Not around these environs much anymore but I too want to say thanks to everyone here who contributed to the better than expected results.  And an especially loud and large shout out to Watergirl who is pretty damned amazing!

    So, what are the chances we see Fetterman on the floor of the Senate in shorts and a hoody?  A boy can hope, right?

    Have a lovely Wed everyone.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    In California, both of the sports-betting referenda went down in flames, losing something like 3-1 with about 40% of votes counted (CA is very heavy vote-by-mail, so a full count will take a couple of weeks as the last few ballots trickle in). In LA County, Sheriff MiniTrump appears to be losing his re-election bid, which is great, and a ballot question that will give the County Board of Supervisors the power to axe sheriffs in the future if necessary also looks to be passing handily. So, good news there.

  9. 9.

    Sean

    Well, I live in Texas, and there is never anything to celebrate here. My election focus is never on this actual state, as it perpetually sucks. I vote, I donate, I do what I can, but I never actually believe anything good will happen here. I think demographic change is actually favoring republicans here post-pandemic, and wouldn’t be surprised if Austin slowly slips away over the next 10-20 years.

    Whether or not that is true, my wife and I dream of leaving this miserable place, run by criminals and loons. Hopefully before a winter storm or something kills us.

    Greg Cesar won, so that’s cool, I guess. But his district was drawn to compact all our votes and prevent them from diluting the adjacent crazy. I was glad to see that it looks like we got the win in the TX-34. I’m relieved last night wasn’t a blood bath, but for all of us in Texas, we’re still unwitting inmates in the asylum.

    I hope Boebert loses.

  11. 11.

    martha

    Tamara, all of those hysterical ads against Caraveo made me crazy! We couldn’t reach the mute button fast enough for months. If nothing else, if she wins (fingers crossed), I love and despise the fact that all that money was scattered into the void. We got moved from Neguse’s district (boo) but Brittany Peterson won handily (yay).

    and if Boebert loses, I may have to have a cocktail at lunch :-)

  14. 14.

    TaMara

    @marcopolo: Considering he looks like someone’s bodyguard in a suit…I hope he can find some kind of compromise. I know they have a pretty strict dress code, but I hope there is some enterprising designer out there salivating to make him look cool.

  15. 15.

    MobiusKlein

    I am pleased with the CA proposition outcomes.  We usually have one or five stinkers there, with all the assortment of hot button items.

    This time, nothing I’m too sad about.

  17. 17.

    JML

    Huge wins across the board in MN. The liars and racists were beaten back again, and the semi-fraudulent legal weed parties should be banished back to irrelevance after the session when the DFL majority passes a legalization bill. (republicans were recruiting candidates to run under their banner to sap democratic performance in targeted races)

    education & health care will not be defunded! no giveaways for millionaires! we might even get a good bonding bill (finally)!

  18. 18.

    Victor Matheson

    I played a perfect strategy – I went into the bubble last night at about 8:00 pm and totally shut off all news media (including BJ!). I did some reading, played a few video games, sat with the dog, and got a great night of sleep. I didn’t obsess about every new precinct reporting in the the Philly suburbs or each new drop from the AZ SOS until 3 am. I then I woke up to much better than expected results. A perfect evening.

  21. 21.

    jnfr

    Big hugs and many thanks to everyone here who worked for this victory. I do call it a victory, even though we lost here and there.

    I wish McCarthy many miserable nights trying to keep his razor-think majority in line, if that’s how it shakes out. Will be sweet watching his pain.

  23. 23.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Yeah it would be good to see a state by state breakdown. What about the House has it flipped. MSM Pundtwits say that’s where it is headed. But their track record has been terrible so far.

  24. 24.

    Mike E

    It’s a pyrrhic victory should the US House fall to the GQP, and in NC it appears to be so even though we delivered+2 Dems in our redistricted races… our supreme court was flipped by the repubs, they won all the appeals court races, our NC state senate is back to being a supermajority and the NC state house is just one vote shy of that now. All of Gov Cooper’s vetoes cannot be sustained now; the execrable Lt Gov is poised to take over the governor’s mansion in ’25; and, Medicaid expansion is completely dead.

    The next Mayhew On Insurance is gonna be lit!

  25. 25.

    Phoenix_Rising

    Kentucky Woman, she…goes to vote for a bizarre cross issue ticket to confirm that outlawing abortion is bad but she wants Rand Paul in the US Senate to bring that dystopian future closer to reality?

    Focus on the positive: Kentucky, like Kansas and Michigan before her, rejected attempts to outlaw reproductive rights.

    This gives organizers leverage with state legislatures in the saner states to regulate differently so both abortions and gender affirming care can be provided online to the people who need them: Abortion can win an election, lawmakers who make it possible to get an abortion (or puberty blockers) in Oklahoma can’t win a majority within the timeframes those medicines are needed, so…let doctors work.

  26. 26.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @jnfr: you’re assuming McCarthy will be the Speaker. They’re talking about Scalise making a play for Speaker if the GOP net gain is very small.

  27. 27.

    Kosh III

    Here in Tennessee our theocrat R governor got reelected-expect public education to be shredded.
    The 5th Congressional District flipped to a lunatic R because of gerrymandering. Now there is only one D in congress.
    The national D party ignored our races as has been the case for the last 30 years; we’re not worth anything to the national party.   The only time the state gets a mention is when our airhead Senator Marshamarshamarsha says something stupid.
    If we could we’d move somewhere sensible but that takes more money than two old pensioners can afford.

  29. 29.

    Alison Rose

    I mean, I’m in California, so you know…things went well here, heh. I will say that while I expected Prop 1 (protecting abortion rights) to pass, I’m pleased to see the wide margin it has. Right now with 41% reporting, the Yes vote is at 65.1%. As more mail-in ballots are counted, I expect that to go up.

  30. 30.

    Kyle Rayner

    Our Loudoun County School Board elections were a bit of a mixed bag. Two seats open. One was won by a narrow margin by a “parents choice” candidate over the gay “student rights” candidate – looks like the less contentious third candidate took a lot of votes from the front runners.

    But the other was won BIG by the candidate supporting trans students and a breadth of educational materials. In the second race, the “parents choice” candidate who lost had vastly outspent everyone using private family funds, so it was nice to hear no one cared about what they had to say anyway.

    Both candidates now join a board who was elected before the whole mess, who will likely temper the parent choice winner, but with VA passing down parent choice directives on trans issues, the progressive winner will also have their hands tied. Like I said, mixed bag, but it feels GOOD to live in an area where the Youngkin rhetoric couldn’t win an overwhelming majority despite our county being dissected and pinned at the center of the hubbub and hysteria that got him elected.

    Incumbent Jennifer T. Wexton kept her seat with 57% of the vote and boy that feels good. :)

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    How did things look in your state?

    Terrible!

    And what are you celebrating?

    The results in other states! But seriously, though, Florida sent the first Gen Z candidate to the House, Maxwell Frost, so that’s cool. :)

  32. 32.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Jeffro: Eh, my ideal scenario would be that Trump smears DeSantis with something utterly radioactive from his blackmail/extortion files, and then Trump gets convicted of something covered by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I want to see the GOP’s cows come home to roost.

  33. 33.

    BSR

    Last night’s red not-a-wave, Boebert might fall, and Russia is officially leaving Kherson. It’s looking like a good morning!

  34. 34.

    Bostondreams

    I’m grateful that the moms for liberty candidates lost their races for school board in my Florida district. Thank goodness.

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In WI, the Dems won all the major state offices and kept the GOP from a supermajority in the lege.  This is great news.  Barnes/Johnson is uncalled as of yet.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    New Mexico passed an amendment to increase public educaton funding, 70/30. That’s something to celebrate. 

    Public education is popular even with the litterboxes and 100% CRT/woke/transgender curriculum I have heard so much about in the NYTimes and other elitist prestige publications. Were they wrong? Impossible.

  40. 40.

    AM in NC

    Just like the male-dominated press treated Hillary like garbage and had a HUGE double standard for fellow dude and serial-assaulter Trump (how Lauer, Ailes, Rose, and all of these creeps/rapists put their thumbs on the scale was disgusting), the male-dominated corporate media also ignored Dobbs because women are not fully human in the same way men are, and their “women’s issues” just aren’t very important compared to “real issues”.

    Well, we women make up more than half the population, and the revanchists fucked around and found out.  Here’s hoping Gen Z continues to come through for us all, because we are at the edge of a demographic tsunami if these numbers hold, and my Alex P Keaton of a generation (Gen X), is thankfully tiny.

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    I think we can all agree with this analysis.

    Votes are still being counted but I think it’s clear that the American people want more crime, less police funding, wave of undocumented immigrants to replace the white population, unchecked inflation, and more wokeism. And more pronouns, many more pronouns.

    — Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 9, 2022

  43. 43.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Phoenix_Rising:

    Kentucky Woman, she…goes to vote for a bizarre cross issue ticket to confirm that outlawing abortion is bad but she wants Rand Paul in the US Senate to bring that dystopian future closer to reality?

    Can’t quite imagine Neil singing that! ;-)

  44. 44.

    Chetan Murthy

    I’m grateful, grateful like nobody’s business, that all across the country, young people, and young women, came out to vote for women’s reproductive rights.  That finally, we have a red line that we’re willing to defend and that the bastards must not cross.

    I dearly want us to retain control of Congress, so we can pass that nationwide right to abortion law.  Maybe it won’t happen this cycle, but maybe it will.  I really, really want it to happen.

    And I have to confess: I underestimated our fellow Americans.  I underestimated their decency, but especially, I underestimated their sense of self-preservation.  It’s good to be mistaken like this.

  46. 46.

    PaulB

    7 Republican gubernatorial candidates refused to say if they would have certified Biden’s 2020 win in their states. Here’s how their candidacy fared:

    Tim Michels, Wisconsin: lost
    Tudor Dixon, Michigan: lost
    Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania: lost
    Darren Bailey, Illinois; lost
    Dan Cox, Maryland: lost
    Lee Zeldin, New York: lost
    Kari Lake, Arizona: too close to call but she’s currently down by ~12,000 votes with 69% of the vote in.

    I’d call that good news.

  48. 48.

    Hildebrand

    It was a great night here in Michigan!  Up ballot, down ballot, the three propositions – it really couldn’t have gone better.  Maybe the national Democrats should take a look at what Gretchen Whitmer has been doing up here.

  49. 49.

    Chetan Murthy

    @AM in NC:

    Well, we women make up more than half the population, and the revanchists fucked around and found out.

    Huzzah!  Here’s to more of them “finding out”!

  53. 53.

    JanieM

    I’m happy with Maine’s results.

    Lepage got the slapdown he deserved, and both houses of the legislature stayed in control of the Ds.

    In House District 2, the last numbers I saw were with about 80% of the vote counted. They showed Jared Golden D 49, Bruce Poliquin R/snake 44, and the independent at 7%. Since it’s ranked choice voting, there will be a second round of counting if Jared doesn’t get over the 50% mark when all the votes are counted the first time.

    NYT site says if a runoff is needed, the second choice votes will be tabulated next week.

    MomSense may know more….

  54. 54.

    PaulB

    6 Secretary of State candidates refused to say if they would have certified Biden’s 2020 win in their states. Here’s how their candidacy fared:

    Kristina Karamo, Michigan: lost
    Kim Crockett, Minnesota: lost
    Audrey Mendonca-Trujillo, New Mexico: lost
    [Picked by governor], Pennsylvania: Republican Mastriano lost.
    Mark Finchem, Arizona: too close to call but he’s currently behind by 84,000 votes with 68% of the votes in.
    Jim Marchant, Nevada: too close to call but he’s currently ahead by 9,000 votes with 80% of the votes in.

  55. 55.

    eachother

    Our local candidates (3) won!

    In a bloody red republican Idaho ocean, Blaine County is Blue for another two. Whew.

  56. 56.

    cain

    @AM in NC: and my Alex P Keaton of a generation (Gen X), is thankfully tiny.

    May my generation stay unseen and in a closet and just repeat airplane! quotes to each other.

  59. 59.

    Josie

    In Texas, two Dems, Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, proved that the Republicans have not completely taken over the Latino vote. Hopefully, we can take a look at what they did right and replicate it for the future.

  60. 60.

    CindyH

    @Betty Cracker: Got the message from March for Our Lives – so happy those kids got a win there!  I’m in NC, so nothing to celebrate here though I’m fortunate to live in a blue bubble.  But I am celebrating PA where I was born and most of my side of the family still lives.  I hope when my daughter graduates from college, she’ll go to a blue state and hubby and I can relocate.

    I worked for OFA 2008-2012 and after I worked for Democratic party – OFA was so far and away superior to the Dem machine here in NC.  It was a bummer.

    But I am so happy over PA – I think it saved my sister’s sanity and health.

  62. 62.

    JPL

    Kemp won because the economy is strong in GA.   Although he was in a primary, he started running ads against Stacey early.   She waited until he had already defined her.   Just my two cents.

    Warnock has a good chance to win the runoff.   He needs to run the ads that he did late in the season.   Once is a domestic violence survivor saying she could not vote for Walker, and it continued with other constituents for different reasons.   The other ad was republicans against Walker.

  63. 63.

    cain

    @Chetan Murthy: I dunno, every time we’ve asked the people to save our democracy they have done it. We have a lot of problems but our young folks came out in force – and I hope they continue to stay engaged.

    What we need to do going forward is continue to build bridges to the Gen Z generation as they come into their political primacy.

    BTW my wife is getting a lot of pressure to run for office. From all sides. She is very much governor material – but they want her to run for anything and I’m all for it!

  64. 64.

    cain

    @JPL: Stacey will have her day – and she’ll learn from this. Not sure if that will be in Georgia – but she will be a force in this party. Perhaps she will be chair of the DNC – I don’t know – but something will happen.

  65. 65.

    Almost Retired

    @PaulB:  FWIW, I’m still in Nevada and the local politicos who helped herd us volunteers are not panicking about the SoS and Senate races yet.  Evidently, many of the uncounted ballots are mail-ins in Clark County  (Las Vegas), with a few from Washoe (Reno).  As you know, urban early-voting trends Democratic.  Votes from the rural Sheep-and-Brothel Counties are almost all in.  So there’s room to grow for us, so to speak.  I remain optimistic.

    ETA:  Arizona is doing another results-dump at 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight.

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    While they haven’t been called, the Massachusetts millionaire’s tax and the referendum to retain driver’s-license access for undocumented immigrants are still leading by small margins.

  69. 69.

    PaulWartenberg

    I have lots of thoughts on FL, but will leave that to Betty, Adam, and our FL jackals.

     

    Florida resident here.

    (INCOHERENT RAGE AND UNSTOPPABLE SCREAMING)

    We are now stuck with Ron DeSatan using the next two years to pander to every wingnut, racist, sexist, bullshit stunt to appease the voting base he’ll need to steal away from trump for his 2024 ambitions. He will break the public schools, shut down intellectual freedoms at the public universities, push for harsher anti-abortion laws to where the state constitutional guarantee is overturned, debunk every eco-friendly bill we need for the state to survive, and fail to do ANYTHING for the housing/insurance crises because the only viable solutions would involve raising taxes on big businesses in-state.

    Florida is going to become a worse hellhole than Mississippi. Gods help us.

  70. 70.

    PaulWartenberg

    Where the hell was Disney Inc?

    I thought after DeSatan nuked their favorable tax-exempt district, that the corporation would turn their dark powers towards smiting his arrogant ass.

    Dammit. I guess you CAN fuck with Disney after all.

    /cries

  71. 71.

    Hoodie

    As usual, it was a mixed bag here in NC.  We did flip 2 congressional seats in NC, so the delegation more reflects the 50/50 nature of the state.   However, Cherie Beasley lost to a nonentity.  Local political types I know don’t think she ran all that great of a campaign.  I’m not sure it made that much difference, as she suffered from the dual curse of racism and misogyny.   Unfortunately, the best way for dems to win in southern purple states like GA and NC remains to run centrist male democrats.  Roy Cooper is the template for that.  If he had run for Burr’s seat in ’22, he would have likely won.  The downside would be our raging lunatic GOP lieutenant gov taking over with GOP majorities in both house and senate.  Its a bit scary to think what might happen when Cooper terms out in ’24.

  72. 72.

    AM in NC

    Not much to be happy about here in NC, but one really bright note: Wiley Nickel winning the newly-created US House seat and bringing our Congressional representation to 7-7 split.  We owe this to lawyers fighting like hell to undo egregious racial gerrymandering and a Democratic State Supreme Court (which, horrifically became a 5-2 GOP dominant court yesterday).

    We have A LOT more work to do in rural and exurban areas to chip away at their margins in statewide races.  Nothing we can do about un-gerrymandering our fucked up state leg unless outlawed at the national level, because these cracker assholes in our General Assembly have that body locked up tight.

  74. 74.

    CaseyL

    @JanieM: I’m really pleased by Maine’s results!  LePage is LeGrotesque, and it floored me that he was back on the ballot.  (I do recall that the times he did win, it was only because there was a big fat spoiler on the ballot.)

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PaulWartenberg: Disney’s dark powers are diminished these days–Bob Iger put them deep in debt over the Fox acquisition and then handed the keys to Bob Chapek, who seems to be a reactive, unimaginative leader. The whole showdown with DeSantis was a story of Disney being jerked around by whoever tugged at them last; they will not have the courage of their convictions, if they have any convictions. Chapek seems to figure that the Florida parks are going to pull in money one way or another regardless of what happens, so as long as he can jack up the ticket prices to get more from their base of well-off loyalists, he’s fine.

  77. 77.

    Miss Bianca

    Really pleased that Brittany Pettersen pulled it out for CO CD-7, looks like Yadira Caraveo may pull it out for CD-8, and *Boebert may lose CD-3*, that would be the chef’s kiss.

    Overall, nationally…not as good as I had hoped, not as bad as I had feared. So…yay? Yay-ish? : )

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @PaulWartenberg:

    Florida is huge and complex and diverse where Ohio is relatively easy – to figure out the problem, not fix it, Ohio Dems can’t fix the problem but it’s not complicated– BUT the payoff in Florida is SO big I think Democrats should go the other way and really focus on it. Figure it out. It’s a difficult thing to figure out, all those ethnic groups and “leanings” and how half the state is ..”southern” and the rest is something else,  but it can be done, right?  “the Cubans- what’s up with them?” and on and on for 22 million people.

    I can’t do it but someone can.

  80. 80.

    JPL

    @cain: Definitely agree.   The other thing that hurt Stacey, unfortunately is here sex.   GA isn’t ready for a female governor.  Warnock proved that a black can win statewide office though.

  83. 83.

    Mike E

    @Hoodie: Yep, the misogynist/racist factor in NC erased the Dobbs 5% bump, you saw how Kay Hagen fared… also, candidates like John Edwards and Cal Cunningham being the best NC Dems can offer don’t inspire much hope in the statewide party either. Gov Cooper is a fine example of an individual with more than enough character and accomplishments to succeed but by the time Tillis’s seat comes up Lt Gov Robinson will be in the governor’s mansion and NC will truly be blaze red, and I doubt Roy will want to run at that point (happy to be wrong!)

    ETA or, what AM in NC said!

  85. 85.

    Kay

    Ned Resnikoff
    @resnikoff
    48m
    Results still coming in, but pretty clear message from the voters that they’re deeply concerned about cancel culture at our elite colleges and universities

    I’m sorry. I can’t resist. Anyone who wrote and sold an essay about the Oberlin student council or Yale law students with bad manners should be jeered at. As for the people that BOUGHT the essays, they’re even worse. They paid for this garbage.

  86. 86.

    Hoodie

    @JPL: Warnock proved that a black can win statewide office though.

    I wouldn’t be sanguine about that.  Warnock won in ’20 because of Trump, and may win in ’22 because Herschel is a godawful human being (who, of course, was anointed by Trump).  But it makes no sense that the race with Walker was even close.  I guess if Herschel had been a pedophile, Warnock might win without a runoff.  The real indicator is that Abrams could not even get close to Kemp, who is a pretty generic southern GOPer who (1) wasn’t real cozy with Trump and (2) isn’t a pedophile.

    While I’m happy we didn’t see a red wave, I feel like we dodged a bullet because Trump’s fingerprints  were all over the GOP candidates.   What happened in Florida is scary.   I can see most of  these GOPers jumping off the Trump train and on to DeSantis’ chartered plane, and DeSantis is not as self-destructive as Trump.  He’s more of a reincarnation of Nixon.

  87. 87.

    Suzanne

    @JPL: Can I say something heretical? I don’t think Abrams is a great candidate. I think she’s competent and I absolutely would have voted for her, but she doesn’t blow me away.

    The person who does, I think, the best job of responding to bullshit attacks is Pete Buttigieg. He does a good job reframing and responding in an direct, accessible, and compelling way. I think that’s something Abrams lacks a bit. She comes off like a high school guidance counselor to me, in a way that I don’t love.

  89. 89.

    AM in NC

    @Hoodie:   I thought that Democrats blocking GOP supermajority in the NCGA House meant that Cooper COULD sustain the veto.

    It was the one state-level “thank God” I was holding onto, because with the new courts, an unchecked General Assembly is going to turn us into Alabama within 6 months.

  91. 91.

    Hoodie

    @AM in NC: Yeah, losing those court seats was the real gut punch.  The legislature will likely go wild with gerrymandering again and there won’t be much to stop them.

  92. 92.

    dr. luba

    @TaMara: Michigan is blue, but gerymandered redistricting kept the GOPin control for years.

    Thanks to recent people’s voter initiatives, we fixed gerrymandering, we fixed voting rights, and have now enshrined women’s reproductive freedom into the state constitution.

    Oh, and we fixed the legislature, too.

  98. 98.

    UncleEbeneezer

    CA-27 was supposed to be the best pick-up opportunity for Dems, but as of now, Christy Smith is down 57-42, with only 45% of ballots counted.  Lots of mail-in left to count, but that is a substantial deficit that worries me.  And I’m a bit baffled.  SwingLeft had lots of people canvassing, writing postcards etc.  My only explanation is that Garcia had a TON of negative ads against Smith.  I was seeing them on Youtube and other places, even down here in Los Angeles.

    Will Rollins (CA-41) is leading 56-43 with 31% reporting.  I wrote postcards for him too.

    Cortez-Masto (NV) trails by 2% but there are still a lot of Clark County votes to be counted.  Looks like that one will be a nail-biter :(

  99. 99.

    SC54HI

    @Baud:

    In the South, it’s all about race.

    Same in WI where the white red rural rump appears to have re-elected RoJo. Itʻs all about race there as it is in many upper midwest states.

  100. 100.

    Andrew Abshier

    In Sarasota County, Florida, Congressman-For-Life Vern Buchanan won by over 24 points.  He has never won by more than 10 points in any previous election.  Granted, a perennial candidate (Jan Schneider, who first ran in 2004) was all the D’s here could muster for opposition, but the much larger margin is due to us getting a lot more new residents–and most of them are in the R +10 or more demographic.  Our school board is now all R, county board close to that.

    My feel is that all of the new residents Florida picked up since the last cycle are overwhelmingly Republican voters, and that may explain the D’s abysimal performance here.    I could be wrong, but I’m thinking Florida’s days as a swing state are over.

  101. 101.

    artem1s

    Big gap in turnout for African American and Latino districts in Cleveland. 10-20% vs. 60-70% in the white flight neighborhoods and suburbs. I expect Akron may have had similar issues. The black vote hasn’t turned out in CLE (except for Obama) since the days of Lou and Carl Stokes and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Old guard party white guys are being replaced with young white kids who think Nina Turner is a real Democrat. Their ‘older’ leaders are (marginally) Green party Occupiers, anti-Semitic woke socialists/libertarians, and ex-Ron Paul/Kucinich followers. Not a great pool of talent to draw from. Watch, they will try to tank Sherrod Brown in his next election as being a corporate shill.
    Worst news for Ohio is the State Supreme court was a GOP sweep. Jennifer Brunner lost her seat. We are doomed to live with the awful gerrymandering for probably the rest of my lifetime.

  102. 102.

    unrelatedwaffle

    I moved from Big City Blue Dot, Texas to Blue Soup, WA this year, but to a “purple” area in the ‘burbs, so I was a little anxious about this election. Turns out “purple” here means “the Dem only wins by 5 points,” so I’m feeling pretty good this morning. King County passed some good local shit, the state house and senate are safely blue, and Tiffany Fucking Smiley can take her ass back where she came from.

  106. 106.

    FelonyGovt

    @UncleEbeneezer: I was really disappointed to see how far behind Christy Smith was. I wasn’t thrilled she was our candidate again as she’s already lost twice- she’s not Katie Hill. Hoping the mail-ins make up the difference.

    My friend in Orange County says Katie Porter is comfortably in but the rest of the House races there don’t look great.

  107. 107.

    Quiltingfool

    @sab: Missouri says “hi.” (In re vicious racist whyte pipple).

    I figured Schmitt would win.  I don’t know if the best Dem candidate could win a Senate seat in Missouri.

    Disappointed about Jess Piper and Trish Gumby, thought they had a good chance.  But then I was reminded that they had an uphill battle in districts where “Democrat” is synonymous with “Satan.”  (I’ve often wanted to use this line with local Republicans – “Why, yes, I am an Agent of Satan, but only for ceremonial purposes!”  Lol)

    IMO, Kansas City suburbs are populated with white-flight folks.  I know this because we lived in one.  Kansas City, north of the river, was red-lined to the max.  It isn’t now, but the stench of racism lingers.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Dadadadadadada: You don’t have to listen to Cuellar to value his vote for a Democratic Speaker.

    Anyway, Cuellar has been a reliable voter for his caucus during this Congress. And this Spring his rating from the National Right to Life Commitee was 7 out of a possible 100. The Susan B. Anthony List and Heritage Foundation each gzve Cuellar a 0, and the NRA rates him a “C.”

  110. 110.

    Mimi

    I’m in Illinois where I don’t have to listen to Darrin Bailey’s whiny assed voice anymore.

    OTOH, the postal service delivered my new voter registration card today.  I voted by mail weeks ago, but really USPS? I know our mail service supposedly stinks, but I haven’t had any problems with them until the last month or so.

  111. 111.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Andrew Abshier: That’s exactly what Joy said on MSMBC last night – everyone who moves to FL these days is an R who doesn’t want to pay taxes.  It’s a red state now

    She was advocating for Dems giving more $ to Cheri Beasley in NC and not wasting their time in FL.

  112. 112.

    jnfr

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    That would be less entertaining but his caucus will remain utterly intractable.

    I know the next two years will be a PITA if they take the House, but things look much more promising than I expected.

  113. 113.

    JaneE

    It appears that younger voters went solidly Democratic.  Let’s hope there is hope for the country after all.  One thing that always gets me when people talk about abortion vs. the economy as a factor driving the voters.  Abortion is an economic issue.

    The ability to control whether or not you get pregnant was a big factor in allowing women to hold better jobs.  The ability to control the size of your family is a part of that as well, and controlling the size of your family may include abortion.  Some therapeutic abortions to maintain a woman’s health or preserve her life will happen even if the unborn child is wanted and planned for.  Gestation is not a perfect process.  And the cost of a simple D&C to complete a partial miscarriage is a lot less than a few days in the hospital waiting for your life to be sufficiently endangered so an abortion can be performed.

    Just because the economic side to abortion or the lack thereof only affects half the population does not mean that it does not have any economic effect.

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