I'm cautiously optimistic so far about minimizing losses. Warnock is in a close race for GA Senate but looks to be maintaining a narrow lead, and results look decent so far in PA. Also noteworthy is that the pro-choice options for amendments in Michigan and Kentucky(!) are both winning.
Also, looks like the MA governor seat just got called as a blue flip. Congrats to our nation's first openly lesbian governor!
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
Guess Georgia wants to prove that Tommy Tuberville in Alabama wasn’t an anomaly. So let’s elect another dumb as bricks football guy for elected office and other a pastor no less.
Not to mention you should’ve given up on us decades ago.
You guys managed last time, I wanted to hope.
@Jabberwok said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Also, looks like the MA governor seat just got called as a blue flip. Congrats to our nation's first openly lesbian governor!
I wasn't particularly worried about our governor. Baker only won last time because his opponent was an icy bitch and he's more centrist than anything.
If Walker wins in Georgia I won't know what to think. He's legitimately a less credible candidate than Trump. I am comfortable saying that The Republican Party is repugnant. Anyone voting for them is voting for hate and callousness.
Right now in Georgia its 49-49, with Walker about 20K votes ahead. It's probably going to be too close to call until mail in ballots are counted. If it follows the same pattern as 2020, well... Gerogia flipped to blue with the mail ins, but I have no idea if the balance is going to be as heavy this time as it was in 2020 since "the panedemic is over" and all.
Either way the libertarian party looks to be the spoiler.
From what I've heard the Republicans need to flip a net 5 seats in order to take the House. As of this post I believe they're at a net +3 (they flipped 4, but dems flipped 1)
Also, a little side-note in local races, the Idaho Lt. Governor race, the candidate for the Constitution party is on the ballot as "Pro-Life". Not his stance, his name
https://ballotpedia.org/Pro-Life_(Marvin_Thomas_Richardson)
Looks like AP has called Idaho Governor for Brad Little (R, incumbent). I'm okay with this as turnout was heavily Republican and the alternative was Ammon "Y'all Qaeda" Bundy.
Or just plain dumb. Which I don’t know if that’s the type of stereotype Georgia wants to play into.
Bad enough Kemp is getting re-elected.
California enshrines abortion rights in state constitution
California voters passed a ballot initiative to enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in their state constitution — including the right to have an abortion and use contraceptives, NBC News projects.
The approval of Proposition 1 was expected in the heavily Democratic state, which strengthened abortion protections hours after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Already under California law, abortion is legal before viability, usually defined as around 24 weeks of pregnancy or when a doctor determines that the fetus could live outside the uterus without extreme medical measures.
The state passed additional legislation in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision protecting residents from civil liability for providing, aiding or receiving abortion care.
Vermont voters also just passed a similar referendum.
All six members of the ‘squad’ win re-election
All six members of the so-called squad have won re-election to their House seats, NBC News projects.
The four original members of the group — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — were later joined by Reps. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Cori Bush, D-Mo.
The group has pushed progressive policies, most of which are in line with those promoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., like the Green New Deal.
Greg Landsman declares victory over incumbent Steve Chabot in Ohio's 1st congressional district race
Democrat Greg Landsman has declared victory in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District.
Landsman was running against Republican incumbent Steve Chabot.
Landsman said Chabot called him and conceded the race.
Landsman was elected as representative for the congressional district after five years of serving as a Cincinnati city council member.
A friend who follows politics more closely than I noted that Landsman only had a 16.1% chance of winning, so expect some screaming over that one. Also it's a flip so it's a seat gained by Democrats.
That friend also reports another flip, Democrat Wiley Nickel, "who sounds like a Zootopia character", has flipped a Republican House seat in North Carolina.
https://abc11.com/midterm-elections-wiley-nickel-bo-hines-us-house-district-13/12431916/
The NC state legislature also apparently has narrowly avoided a Republican supermajority by 1 seat.
Election denier loses secretary of state race in New Mexico
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/live-blog/elections-2022-live-updates-rcna55757#rcrd7116
Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the Democratic secretary of state in New Mexico, has defeated Republican challenger Audrey Trujillo, an outspoken election denier, NBC News projects.
Trujillo had called Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election a "coup" and has compared the U.S. system of voting to those in "any other communist country like Venezuela or any of these other states where our elections are being manipulated," according to The New York Times.
Trujillo is a member of the pro-Trump America First Secretary of State Coalition, a group (led by Republican Nevada secretary of state nominee Jim Marchant) of candidates for secretary of state and other offices that wield power over elections who have all falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
@Robby said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Right now in Georgia its 49-49, with Walker about 20K votes ahead. It's probably going to be too close to call until mail in ballots are counted. If it follows the same pattern as 2020, well... Gerogia flipped to blue with the mail ins, but I have no idea if the balance is going to be as heavy this time as it was in 2020 since "the panedemic is over" and all.
Either way the libertarian party looks to be the spoiler.
It's an absolute dead heat, which is probably a decent result for Warnock. He's likely to gain a bit from mail-ins though I imagine not enough to avoid a runoff, but Walker might have been buoyed by other Republicans on the ballot in a way that Warnock wasn't. Warnock should have solid odds in the runoff.
Yeah If that race comes to a run-off we’re truly back to the drawing board with that seat.
Fetterman just defeated Dr. Oz.
Well, right now its too close to call but
SENATE
Dems 48-Rep 47
At this hour a 49th for Dems is super likely, hard to call the rest. Gonna be a 50/50 split or near enough again. Possibility Dems get 51 to make Manchin irrelevent, but not the 52 needed to cancel out Manchin and Sinema. Not that it really matters without also having the House. If we can keep it out of McConnels control that's at least something.
HOUSE
Dems-188 Reps 207
Reps are almost certainly taking the house, but we knew that six months ago. Will make it really hard to get anything done the next two years, and they'll be spending that time attacking what we did accomplish in the last two. At the very least its impossible for Reps to get a veto proof 60% at this point. Sucks but its part of the process,
GOVERNORS
Dems- 21 Reps 24
Split down the middle pretty much as expected.
In my homestate of Texas, piece of shit "lets let the power grid fail" Greg Abbott has trounced Beto by about a million votes which is what I expected since he has an R in front of his name. Beto is wasted on my home state. For all that everyone wants to believe Texas is purple, it really really isn't. In purely local races it can go either way but statewide its just too red. Cities are 60/40 blue, but the rural areas are 90/10 red and there's a LOT of rural. It's just no contest.
Well we can hope if democrats do keep the senate in couple years “should” Trump & DeSantis fuck each other’s chances.
Sinema pays the price for all her ratfucking bullshit via primary.
Well, looks like the Senate might be a push. Cortez-Masto is slowly slipping behind Laxalt in Nevada but Mark Kelly seems to have a good lead in Arizona. Looks like control of the Senate might once again come down to a Georgia runoff.
Could things have been better for Democrats? Sure. But this has certainly been one of the better-case scenarios for the midterms.
Optimistically it could have been better sure.
Realistically though it's about the best midterm a sitting party has had outside of 9/11.
I've been following some german media coverage of the elections, and was kind of amazed that they mostely were talking about the presidental eclections in two years, Trump Santis Biden... but no word about Harris. Why?
Hey, looks like Lauren Boebert lost her race. So, that's one wacko right-winger gone.
I'm glad Kelly won in Arizona. The GOP candidate looked like a sexual predator and was another pro-Trump nutter.
Well done, Fetterman!
@onemoment said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Hey, looks like Lauren Boebert lost her race. So, that's one wacko right-winger gone.
I don't see it being called yet.
@Candide said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
I've been following some german media coverage of the elections, and was kind of amazed that they mostely were talking about the presidental eclections in two years, Trump Santis Biden... but no word about Harris. Why?
Call down it hasn't been a decade since the last - progressive by age/appearance/innate born characteristic. Too soon for Biblestan to consider a female president.
Crucial Georgia Senate race between Warnock, Walker heads to December runoff
I think this was expected, really.
Waldorf: You know Statler, after watching the last one thousand episodes of One Piece, I think I've come to a conclusion.
Statler: No you haven't.
Both: DOHOHOHOHOHO!
@Candide said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
I've been following some german media coverage of the elections, and was kind of amazed that they mostely were talking about the presidental eclections in two years, Trump Santis Biden... but no word about Harris. Why?
Sitting president is the presumptive nominee, and that carries a LOT of weight behind it in re-elections, even with less popular presidents. Current pres almost always gets re-elected, unless they're the third term of a previous one.
Biden hasn't really said anything about not running a second time, so there's no reason to assume at this point he won't be the nominee.
Even if Biden decided he wasn't running again for health or age reasons... unless Biden dies in the next two years and Harris becomes defacto president, Dems aren't running a woman on the head ticket again anytime soon.
@sgamer82 said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Crucial Georgia Senate race between Warnock, Walker heads to December runoff
I think this was expected, really.
God fucking dammit
God fucking dammit
Look at it this way at least this isn’t as bad as when we had to wait what 2-3 days for the 2020 election to be called.
@Satsuki said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Well done, Fetterman!
@onemoment said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Hey, looks like Lauren Boebert lost her race. So, that's one wacko right-winger gone.
I don't see it being called yet.
Yeah I may have jumped the gun here.
Can someone explain to me why people are being so positive about this election? It looks like we'll end up with a Republican House and possibly Senate. But people are like "We avoided the Red Wave!1!!". The way I see it, even though the Republicans did not pick up every seat they wanted, and it's a strong midterm showing for Democrats being the party in power, but... all of that can not make me feel better about us losing the congress. It's like, sure pat yourself on the back for it not being the worst case scenario... but Republicans are extreme, and Republicans in the majority in anything is very dangerous and nothing I can feel good about.
We're not getting abortion rights back in my state. There's no chance of a bill passing that would codify abortion laws nationally anymore.
@Envy said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Can someone explain to me why people are being so positive about this election? It looks like we'll end up with a Republican House and possibly Senate. But people are like "We avoided the Red Wave!1!!". The way I see it, even though the Republicans did not pick up every seat they wanted, and it's a strong midterm showing for Democrats being the party in power, but... all of that can not make me feel better about us losing the congress. It's like, sure pat yourself on the back for it not being the worst case scenario... but Republicans are extreme, and Republicans in the majority in anything is very dangerous and nothing I can feel good about.
We're not getting abortion rights back in my state. There's no chance of a bill passing that would codify abortion laws nationally anymore.
From some of what I've seen coming from various sources, there are a few things that are seen as a positive even with Dems losing power in the House and potentially senate. Biggest thing is that certain states that could have had a MAGA Republican come in and have a hand in election tampering in 2024 did not happen in certain key states, something that is good that was avoided.
It is hard to be completely positive though, as even though it's not worse case scenario, the fact that certain elections were so close or still swung Republican despite all that has happened in the past bunch of years doesn't give me confidence in the general population. Also, being in Texas while not expecting much for Republican loss, still sucks that it wasn't even a close call.
@Envy said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Can someone explain to me why people are being so positive about this election? It looks like we'll end up with a Republican House and possibly Senate. But people are like "We avoided the Red Wave!1!!". The way I see it, even though the Republicans did not pick up every seat they wanted, and it's a strong midterm showing for Democrats being the party in power, but... all of that can not make me feel better about us losing the congress. It's like, sure pat yourself on the back for it not being the worst case scenario... but Republicans are extreme, and Republicans in the majority in anything is very dangerous and nothing I can feel good about.
We're not getting abortion rights back in my state. There's no chance of a bill passing that would codify abortion laws nationally anymore.
True, most major national legislation will grind to a halt, but Sinema and Manchin we're already blocking much of that. A Democrat-controlled Senate will still allow Biden to appoint and confirm most judges of his choice, and sets up the Democrats better for 2024 and 2026. The House by itself can't enact anything, just stop stuff. And who knows, Pelosi might be able to strike deals with a few moderate Rs here and there.
There are also a number of victories on the state level. Democratic Governors in Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania will be able to counteract GOP efforts in those states to undermine elections, women's rights, and more; we still have competitive races in Arizona and Nevada to watch too. There are notable pickups or successful defenses, like preventing a legislative supermajority in North Carolina, taking both houses in Michigan, and finally taking the House in Pennsylvania. The fact that gains were made anywhere in midterms, after gerrymandering, is impressive.
This doesn't solve things for a lot of people, but it's genuinely good and important for many others. The odds were quite low that Democrats would hold on to both houses of Congress, but this is basically the second-best case scenario. And a lot of us are quite happy after expecting much worse.
Right now we're taking any silver lining we can get.
Yeah seeing Trump Republicans and Shit Republicans having a Rocky & Mugsy esque showdown is a hell of a silver lining.
@Envy said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
Can someone explain to me why people are being so positive about this election?
Barring WW2 and 9/11, the party in power always, ALWAYS loses seats in the midterms. It doesn't always lose control, but it ALWAYS loses seats. For 150 years since the current two parties stabilized.
But this is the smallest loss in decades. We don't have final numbers yet, but already it's a smaller drop than Obama or Clinton had... and thats with Biden being an unpopular president and inflation being high an no policies having time to take effect yet. Polling from two days ago indicated Reps might take 60% of the House and they're nowhere near that.
Young people turned out to vote and in huge numbers. That never happens. They can be expected to do so again in two years, And more of them will have passed the 18 threshold, while more of the older conservatives will be gone.
Most of the "Trump-like" candidates lost. Not all, but a lot of them. It's enough to show that's not the popular path the Reps think it was. Trump was an anomaly, not the future.
Dems were always going to lose the midterms, but this is about the mildest loss possible. We might still hold the senate which is neat and that was in no way expected given how tight it is.
Basically, It's the best possible outcome that could have been realistically expected, and way better than history and polling gave any reason to hope for.
(Yes, optimistically you get out the dems in presidential election numbers and in theory they could have won everything, but its a midterm. We're talking realistically)
Yeah it sucks for getting anything done the next two years, but it bodes VERY well for 2024.
Wednesday's WTF Just Happened Today, to put the recent news into one place:
1/ Senate control hinges on three states, while Republicans have picked up fewer seats than predicted in the House. Republicans, however, are still poised to win a narrow majority in one if not both houses of Congress. In the Senate, Democrat John Fetterman flipped a key seat in Pennsylvania, while Republican Ron Johnson secured reelection in Wisconsin. Democrats currently control 48 seats to the Republicans 49, meaning whoever wins two of the three elections in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada will control the Senate. In the House, Republicans are expected to win the five seats they needed to take control, but a large number of the most competitive races remain uncalled. In midterm elections since World War II, the president’s party has almost always lost seats, but Democrats seem to have avoided the so-called “red wave” that some strategists predicted was going to be fueled by record inflation and economic woes. Only three times since World War II has inflation been as high as it is today heading into the midterms, and in all three cases the president’s party lost between 15 and 48 seats in the House. “It was a good day for democracy,” Biden said. “And I think it was a good day for America.” (Politico / Bloomberg / New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / CNN / NBC News / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / MSNBC / ABC News)
https://www.npr.org/live-updates/midterm-election-results-2022-11-09
Takeaways from the 2022 midterm elections: New York Times / NPR / CNN / NBC News / Politico
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/midterm-elections-takeaways.html
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135451246/6-takeaways-from-an-election-night-thats-not-over-yet
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/politics/2022-midterm-election-day-takeaways/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/midterm-election-takeaways-rcna55915
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/09/2022-election-results-analysis-and-takeaways-00065878The candidates who made history in the midterms: the first female governors in Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York; the first Black person to be elected governor of Maryland; the nation’s first openly lesbian governor in Massachusetts; the first openly LGBTQ person to represent Vermont in Congress; the first member of Gen Z to be elected to Congress. (Washington Post / NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135479163/2022-election-results-history-making-winners
2/ Georgia’s Senate race is headed to a runoff after neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold needed to win outright. The runoff between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will take place on Dec. 6, with the Senate majority potentially at stake for a second straight election cycle. With more than 95% of ballots counted on Wednesday afternoon, Warnock had 49.4% of the vote to Walker’s 48.5%. About 35,000 votes separated the two candidates. Georgia law requires a runoff if no candidate clears 50%. (Politico / Axios / Bloomberg / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / NPR)
3/ Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont enshrined abortion rights in their state’s constitution in the first nationwide election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Voters in Kentucky – where abortion is currently banned – rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution to say that it does not “secure or protect a right” to abortion or the funding of abortion. Kentucky is the second state in the post-Roe era to reject an anti-abortion ballot measure. In August, Kansas voters rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have allowed the legislature to ban abortions. (New York Times / Associated Press / Washington Post / Axios / CNN / CNBC)
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-8779f3ee57d4d20d54861a5ed6ba72ff
4/ Democrats flipped governorships in two states, while Republican governors Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and Brian Kemp all easily won reelection. As of Wednesday afternoon, gubernatorial contests in Nevada, Oregon, and Arizona remain uncalled. Thirty-six states states voted to elect governors last night. (Politico / Wall Street Journal / FiveThirtyEight)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gubernatorial-races-were-a-mixed-bag-for-each-party/
5/ Trump was reportedly “fuming” at Mar-a-Lago last night after at least 14 of his endorsed candidates were projected to lose in their races. Trump was particularly upset as Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano both lost their elections in Pennsylvania. Out of 39 competitive races in which Trump endorsed a candidate, his candidates won 12 races and lost 11, with 16 still undecided as of Wednesday afternoon. Prior to any races being called last night, Trump send an email blast boasting of “unprecedented successes.” Later, however, Trump acknowledged that the results were “somewhat disappointing.” (CNBC / Forbes / ABC News / Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / Axios)
How can you not smile when Trump doesn't get his way?
While Zeldin did manage to fuck Long Island's local candidates in getting Republicans to show out(multiple people in "lets go brandon" apparel when I went to vote), at least the rest of my State saw how much of a disengenious liar my congressman is and gave his gubernatorial run the proper boot.
I mean dude literally had a drunk veteran try to take his microphone while holding a plastic Hello Kitty keychain, framed it as an attack on his life, had his campaign co chair- the DA of the county where that occurred- purposefully charge him with a non violent crime. All so Zeldin could blatantly lie about "Bail Reform" being responsible for his "attempted murderer" being on the streets.
Thank the heavens I don't have to listen to another one of his bullshit ads while watching Pluto TV. "Lee was a former prosecutor. So you KNOW he's tough on crime". He was a prosecutor in the military. Not a member of any DA. The extent of his "tough on crime" was prosecuting recruits with discharges for smoking weed while home on leave. He never saw combat because of his role as a military attorney, spent years campaigning while portraying himself as a combat vet, then tried to have his cake and eat it by bragging about his experience as a prosecutor, leaving out WHO he was prosecuting.
Glad you got fucked Lee. You deserve it. Signed, a student of the college you purposefully flooded with fliers with the incorrect date of election day two congressional runs IN A ROW in an attempt to get younger voters to not show up to vote. While blaming his volunteer staff each time.
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1590693791576358912
Dave Wasserman
@Redistrict
After last night's NV mail ballot trend, excellent chance now that Dems will have 50 Senate seats/control in hand heading into the GA runoff.
Now, this guy's predictions tend to be right. If it holds again, this is very good news.
Really glad Fetterman defeated Oz.
I think we all are.
I think we all are happy that Fetterman won in Pennsylvania.
Kelly just won Arizona. Also Cortez-Masto is almost caught up to Laxalt in Nevada.
Cortez Masato has won the race in Nevada which means democrats have retained the Senate. Fuck McConnell, Fuck Trump, & Fuck their collaborators Manchin & Sinema.
Hopefully Warnock wins his run-off so the humiliation conga continues.
The House is going to be down to the wire as well. Not impossible that Democrats hold it or that the GOP margin is so slim that they can't do anything without Democratic votes. I'm talking "the GOP can't even vote for a Speaker" levels of incompetence.
I'm also hoping that Warnock wins the runoff.
If the Democrats win the Senate runoff in Georgia then we get a 51/49 majority, which drastically weakens the ability of Manchin or Sinema to screw things up (both could still cause problems, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it)
Waldorf: You know Statler, after watching the last one thousand episodes of One Piece, I think I've come to a conclusion.
Statler: No you haven't.
Both: DOHOHOHOHOHO!
Yes... but anything that was going to be such a narrow vote that it needed Manchin to pass the senate... is also going to need a majority in the House.
They were able to get a handful of bipartisan votes the last two years like for covid relief or building domestic microchips, so maybe its possible? There's a chance the younger senators can actually read the room, maybe. But its unlikely they get anything really big or controversial through.
Regardless, another two years where Moscow Mitch is worthless is a good two years.
@Ubiq said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
The House is going to be down to the wire as well. Not impossible that Democrats hold it or that the GOP margin is so slim that they can't do anything without Democratic votes. I'm talking "the GOP can't even vote for a Speaker" levels of incompetence.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy in Kevin McCarthy.
@Robby Unlikely, true. But not impossible. A thin GOP majority might force some Reps to buck the party line for the sake of their potential re-election and/or only a small number would be needed to join with Democrats on certain bills (which can and does happen on the less sexy bills that pass through the Houses).
Case in point - Some of the incoming GOP reps are from New York districts. They might need to be more progressive than the rest would like or risk their constituents' ire.
It doesn't get us the house, but I'm always happy to see a Trump-backed douche lose:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/12/democrat-wins-washington-swing-district-in-major-blow-to-trump-and-gop-00066621?fbclid=IwAR1aSeZXfnyUYv8MWErD9ejQu-vrWH_3RrNbCyeZRHAUSZH6jGTKbt3INGI
@Time-Control-Magician Democrats are not better either............
"Wahoo!" —Klonoa
@Nitwit said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:
@Time-Control-Magician Democrats are not better either............
Yes, they are.
Like, objectively so.
By a country mile.
There is no Democrat so heinous I would consider a current-day Republican a preferable alternative.
Waldorf: You know Statler, after watching the last one thousand episodes of One Piece, I think I've come to a conclusion.
Statler: No you haven't.
Both: DOHOHOHOHOHO!
