Goddess bless the Queen!
Longish read for a (hopefully) quiet weekend morning… Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:
If you care about whether the Democratic Party can rebuild itself anytime soon out of the smoking wreckage left behind by the disastrous 2016 elections, something very important is happening a lot sooner than you think.
There are more than three dozen gubernatorial races taking place in the next two years. And they could do a tremendous amount to set the party on the path out of the wilderness in the Age of Donald Trump — with potentially significant national ramifications that could stretch well into the next decade, for instance by having a substantial influence over the redistricting of House seats, which could help determine control of the Lower Chamber in the 2020s…
… The vast majority of these races take place in 2018 (only two, Virginia and New Jersey, take place next year), so we’re really talking about the 2018 map here. It has big transformative potential for Democrats, since many of the states in which Republicans are defending seats are ones Barack Obama (and to a lesser extent Hillary Clinton) won.
There are four reasons why these contests are so important to the long-term prospects of the Democratic Party:
1) They represent a major opportunity to reverse the tremendous state-level damage done to Democrats in 2010…
2) Winning back gubernatorial mansions could have real impact over the redistricting of the House in the next decade…
3) These races give Dems a chance to turn things around in swing states and “blue wall” states that Trump won…
4) Winning back states could have a big influence on policy…
Interactive map & full details at the link. Remember, those of you on (other) social media — Sharing Is Caring!
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Apart from preparing ourselves for the next battle(s), what’s on the agenda for the day?