400,000.
See? Just like I told you guys, being nicer works!
Trump’s not here. For a couple days, the East Coast hasn’t been basking in the dark energy of Trump’s psychedelic asshole aura. Its like negative sunshine. So, on election day, people who went to the polls hadn’t been so exposed, and were less likely to vote as assholes!
In South Korea, couple of days from now, people will wake up and think “Wow, I have really been an insufferable bowl of rancid kim-chee last couple of days! Feel better now…”.
A big night for progressives on the East Coast.
This makes the GOP civil war more interesting. Trump won by being Trump, and Bannon has been goading Trump to double down on Trumpism. But it’s clear now that progressives are not just sitting at home on election night, and they sure as hell won’t do that if they see more of the same in 2018. We’ve now seen the limits of Trumpism tonight. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be some asshats who win some GOP seats. I expect Roy Moore to take Alabama and there will probably be some kooks who win reliably GOP districts. But cross-over country, the Obama-to-Trump districts are in serious jeopardy right now.
So, you’re saying Trump is a Horcrux? Makes sense.
I’ve been following Dave Wasserman’s feed, and the count is 47D, 46R in the House of Delegates races that he’s called. In the remaining races:
So might not want to wait up to see if the Dems can take control of the HoD.
And jsgoddess - that is great news from Maine!
People need to pay attention to two things: Spread and turnout. We’ve known this since Ossoff’s race in Georgia. He didn’t win, but he lost by a whisker – in a district that was supposed to be 20 points safe!
Yes, Roy Moore will still likely win in Alabama. But the fact that it’s even a horse race tells us that districts where there is less than a 20 point spread are winnable! Right now with 99% of the vote in, I see Northam has prevailed by 9 points – and by more than 200,000 votes. And it can only get worse for Trump going forward, as the Mueller investigation snowballs and Republicans begin to abandon him as they (finally) acknowledge the writing on the wall. I imagine cowardly Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell really won’t be that disappointed to distance themselves.
A big night, indeed.
They just called it. 
Yeehaw!! What a night!!
I don’t know if this is the beginning of the end of what I’ve been calling Our Time of National Shame, but at a minimum it looks like the end of its propagation.
All right - I well understand the desire for SOMETHING to be happy about. But let’s make sure this is just a very initial and very small step!
Health care was big in Virginia, and obviously in Maine. That and guns were the two biggest issues cited by VA voters (breaking evenly on guns and strongly for Northam on health care).
100% agree. But it is possible!
A group in Utah is trying to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot.
A group in Idaho is trying to get it on the ballot.
Kansas nearly overrode a governor’s veto.
The Maine results might not mean anything, but they might embolden advocates and inspire voters.
ETA: Heck, I forgot efforts in Tennessee (the legislature) and North Carolina (the governor).
I’ve been busy in meetings all day in TX today (I voted early). Glad to see things are going well and looking forward to reading full analyses later this week.
How would that work in NC? My understanding is that the NC legislature has very nearly turned the governor into a figurehead; are you saying he may have the power to unilaterally expand Medicaid in our state?
Not just any run-of-the-mill bigot-- the bigot who literally wrote Virginia’s transgender bathroom bill! Lost to a trans woman! For a seat he’s won handily every year since Bush was president! The first Bush!
I don’t know. I know that he said he was going to do it and there were lawsuits flying and then he either withdrew the request or never filed it, but my understanding, which is vague, is that he still intends to try to get it into place and force the legislature to sue.
Which they might be infinitesimally less likely to do now.
Happy to be corrected on the score in NC or any state that might be looking at expansion.
One thing that bothers me about the Democrats, is I couldn’t for the life of me say who is the head of the party. And yes, I think a leader is important. Obama was great for Obaman, but he wasn’t very good for the Democrats. He’s gone, anyway, so that’s water under the bridge. Someone needs to pull the sword out of the stone and hold it up high so folks can rally 'round!
Happy Dance! I feel like some small part of my stomach just unclenched for the first time in a year. The end of the nightmare has begun.