The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

No ‘Wave’ for Democrats; GOP Gains in Senate; Some Races Still ‘Too Close to Call’

Posted on | November 7, 2018 | Comments Off on No ‘Wave’ for Democrats; GOP Gains in Senate; Some Races Still ‘Too Close to Call’

Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but their gains were not enough to called a “wave,” and Republicans managed to expand their Senate majority, while also winning key gubernatorial races. The anti-Trump backlash in the House was smaller than the anti-Obama backlash of 2010, when Republicans gained a whopping 63 House seats in the “Tea Party” election.

As my friend John Hoge points out, #MeToo was a loser — Democrat senators who voted against Justice Brett Kavanaugh were defeated in Indiana, where Mike Braun beat Joe Donnelly, and Missouri, where Josh Hawley beat Claire McCaskill. The only Democrat who voted for Kavanaugh, Joe Manchin, survived in West Virginia.

Three “rock star” candidates for Democrats — Beto O’Rourke in Texas, Andrew Gillum in Florida, and Stacey Abrams in Georgia — all went down to defeat, although Brian Kemp’s margin in the Georgia gubernatorial elections was close enough that some networks still considered the race “too close to call” as of Wednesday morning. In Florida, Republican Rick Scott’s victory over Sen. Bill Nelson was another slender win rated “too close to call” by the networks. Out west, Republicans lost the Nevada Senate seat of Dean Heller, but were leading in Arizona and Montana, both still rated “too close to call.”

UPDATE: Among Tuesday’s winners was Montana Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte who, uh, body-slammed his Democrat opponent by a margin of about 37,000 votes.

UPDATE II: One of the House races I had called attention to was Texas 23, where Democrats nominated a Filipino-American lesbian against Rep. Will Hurd, the only black member of the Texas Republican delegation. It appears Hurd survived that challenge by a margin of 700 votes. Democrats flipped two Texas House seats, defeating Pete Sessions in the 32nd District and John Culberson in the 7th District.

UPDATE III: Two of the early indicators that Tuesday would not be a “wave” election for Democrats came in Virginia 5 and Florida 18.

In the Virginia race, Democrats nominated far-left journalist Leslie Cockburn (her father-in-law was literally a Stalinist) in a largely rural district where the incumbent Republican had retired, citing personal problems with alcoholism. Cockburn’s daughter is actress Olivia Wilde, and the Democrat got a lot of Hollywood money. Unfortunately for the Hollywood Commies, Republicans nominated businessman Denver Riggelman, and he won by about 20,000 votes.

In Florida, incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Mast faced a challenge from former Obama administration staffer Lauren Baer, a lesbian who is married to a Federal Election Commission lawyer, Emily Meyers. Between them, Baer and Meyers have four Ivy League degrees (Harvard, Yale Law, Brown and Columbia Law). “It’s a breakthrough race for our community,” one Florida gay activist gushed in a September interview, calling Baer “one of the most exciting and qualified candidates running for Congress in Florida this year.” Democrats used to be the “party of the working man,” but now they’re the party of Ivy League lesbians. Florida voters said, “Hell, no.” Mast was re-elected by a 30,000-vote margin.

By the way, I wish to apologize to readers for the lack of blogging on Tuesday. What happened was this: In July, my 17-year-old son got a speeding ticket in southern Virginia, while he and a friend were coming back from a trip to North Carolina. He had originally been scheduled for an October court date, but that conflicted with one of his soccer games, so he rescheduled it for November, without noticing that the date was Election Day, and I had to accompany him to court.

So I thought, OK, we’re going to drive four hours for this early-morning court appearance, and then turn around drive back in time for me to blog the election. However, the plan was changed and I didn’t realize it until we were leaving out Tuesday morning with one of my older sons driving. The trip was extended so that we could drive down to Fort Bragg, hang out with my Army son and his wife, then bring back his wife and new baby for a visit. So it was about 7 p.m. before we got on the road, and past 2 a.m. before we got back home. Because I hadn’t anticipated this, I’d left my laptop at the house, and the only way I could follow the results Tuesday night was on my phone.

As to my teenage son’s ticket, the judge liked him, and agreed to continue the case for six months. If my son goes without any further driving infractions between now and May, the charges will be dropped. Otherwise, I’ll be the one going to prison, because I’ll strangle the boy. Make me miss an Election Day? That’s justifiable homicide!



 

Category: Congress, Election, Senate

Comments

Comments are closed.