most definitely. It’s not just because of turnout. The Electoral College and Citizens United fuck up our entire process. Midterms and specials are easier to flip because the party apparatus is more willing to support those races with money, staff, etc. During a presidential year, it’s all about the swing states.
I’m not saying this is a good strategy, but it is what happens because of the electoral college.
I’m seeing it in my district here in CA. In 2018, we had money and help and with no presidential election soaking up the oxygen, we came 4 points from flipping the seat. Now, the DNC doesn’t give a shit about CA. And I don’t blame them. Why bother spending resources in a state that is solid blue, and where a majority of the races in the general are dem vs. dem anyway? And there are more high-profile seats to defend now, like in OC where they flipped so many last time.
It’s definitely tougher to be a dem running in a red district this year than 2018 for those reasons.
I was actually thinking about being more likely to vote for R senator when you already voting for R president, but your reasons are probably a bigger reason why it’s easier.
I don’t know, man, given a choice between a child molester and a guy who lost the Iron Bowl 36-0, I think a lot of Alabamans might have to think about it.
Let me tell you a little anecdotal story about ‘Big John’ Cornyn. Back in probably 2015, I had to judge about a dozen of his terrible campaign commercials for the Telly Awards. As a judge, you can just give a score and move on, or you can give a score and give comments. I gave comments. I don’t remember what they were, but I gave a lot of comments about how terrible they were as political advertisements. The ads did not make it to award level, at least on my ballot.
“It’s a serious fundraising disparity that jeopardizes our Senate majority, and Republican senators need to wake up and develop a small-dollar program or they’ll be out of a job,” said Michael Duncan, a Republican digital strategist who works with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign.
The red you see is all Republican incumbents. The races have shifted from “these Republicans will definitely get reelected” to “they could lose.” The upshot is that Dems have a chance of increasing their already large majority in the House.
Yeah - that’s why redistricting and the state elections are going to be huge. For instance if D’s get control of Texas house, which supposedly is possible, that could be 4+ seats alone in 2022.
Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but I read about this a while ago and the backup mechanism for Texas redistricting if the house/senate/governor don’t come up with a plan and get it signed is that a 5 person commission consisting of the lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, attorney general, comptroller and land commissioner draws the lines. So yeah, Ds could win 100% of the seats in the Texas house and still have exactly 1/5 of the seats at the table and get fucked over.
EDIT: I did some more reading and it appears this commission only draws the line for state legislative/senate districts. If there’s no agreement on federal congressional districts the courts draw them. So TX at the state legislative level will be R for at least another decade, but maybe we’ll luck out and get some semi-fair maps from the courts assuming Ds can bink the TX state house this once.
Since the 2016 primary, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been fighting off progressive challengers — and 2020 is no different.
But Perelman’s campaign hit a snag earlier this month when she realized two websites that use her name — jenperelman.com and jenperelmanforcongress.com — had been purchased by someone else. The sites now forward to Wasserman Schultz’s official House website.
Wasserman Schultz was the head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2011 to 2016. During that time, Democrats lost a staggering 1,000 seats across the U.S., according to a 2017 piece in The Intercept.
Despite the controversies that have dogged Wasserman Schultz over the past four years — from a ballot scandal to the email leak that led to her resignation as DNC chair — the American Hospital Association, the Broward Teachers Union, and many other Democratic institutions have endorsed her in this year’s race, as have the Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel.