Wisconsin state legislative races will be something to watch in 2022. The anti-democracy side is 2 (of 17 up for election) senate seats and 6 (of 99) assembly seats short of a veto proof super-majority.
The Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature passed gerrymandered maps, which Evers vetoed. It looks like it’s now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, whose conservative majority required parties to submit proposed maps that make the least changes to the existing maps necessary to account for population shifts.
I must be seeing things - the GOP trying to prop up an actual moderate / centrist / whatever-the-hell-you-call-them?
I mean - what’s this dystopic world coming to?
I was hoping that Hogan would run for president on the GOP ticket, but that will never happen.
This is just Mitch McConnel daydreaming. Hogan would have no chance – a deep blue state like Maryland may occasionally elect a moderate Republican governor, but voters tend to make a more partisan calculation when voting for Senator. I can’t see Hogan letting himself be used as essentially a diversionary tactic just to make Democrats spend at least some money on the race.
Doubtful, those to whom it matters would just think he’s “one of the good ones”; especially if Trump endorse him. 
I’m now seeing local gossip that GOP leaders are urging Larry Hogan to run against Chris Van Hollen in the Maryland US Senate election this November (Hogan is term limited as governor).
This is a little concerning. Hogan has high approval ratings among Maryland Democrats (an approval I don’t share) but I’m hoping the liberal and educated electorate here will remember what they’re doing if they put another Republican in the Senate, never-Trumper or not.
Hogan has failed in previous Senate runs, iirc.
This Congressman is likely to be the Dem nominee, and I think he’s got a decent shot, but it’s gonna be tough for him in an Ohio midterm with a Dem in the White House. I certainly expect to vote for him: https://timforoh.com/
House, quite awhile ago, but not Senate: Larry Hogan - Wikipedia
@Guest-starring_Id posted an article about this four posts up. As I mentioned, while it’s not too uncommon for a deep red or blue state to elect a governor of the “wrong” party, it’s much less common for the state to subsequently elect them to Senate, particularly in the last decade or so. Examples in the last ten years of “wrong party” Governors losing Senate races include Linda Lingle in Hawaii, Phil Breseden in Tennessee and Steve Bullock in Montana.
The best counterexample is Joe Manchin, who was the incumbent governor of WV when he was elected to the Senate in 2010. But as in all things, Manchin is the exception to the rule. . .
Another candidate in the Keystone State:
Grrrrrr.
Larry Hogan announced today that he won’t run for the Senate this year.
Moreno’s ads are bad. Gibbons’ ads are worse. Both are non-stop dog whistles to their unapologetic, racist bases. I actually shudder when they air.
Gibbons adds a bit of football on top, just to round things out for the center of the state. He all but says, “O-H!”
Moreno has dropped out.
Hell, one is too many “Trump candidates.”
Republican Senator Rick Scott has put out an, “11-point plan to rescue America” that would (in addition to things like abolishing the Department of Education and finishing the border wall and naming it after Trump) raise taxes on tens of millions of working Americans. That’s because it would require every American to pay federal income tax, whereas currently about half of working Americans pay no federal income tax due to low wages and credits/deductions (although they often still pay federal payroll taxes and state and local taxes). While Scott presents this as just his plan, he’s not just any Senator – he’s the Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee charged with getting Republicans elected to the Senate.
All-in-all, this is a pretty dumb move. The joy of being the minority party in a midterm election is that you don’t need to have an agenda. You just shit talk everything the ruling party does and let the voters fall in your lap. Mitch understands that. But now instead of having to constantly defend what they’re doing (or not doing), Democrats can go on the attack regarding the “Republican plan” to raise taxes on millions of working Americans – including plenty of blue-collar workers who voted for Trump.
Repots are that Senator Jim Inhofe will resign from the Senate effective at the end of this Congress, triggering a special election to fill the remainder of his term (he was just reelected in 2020). Of course it’s Oklahoma, so the only question is how bat-shit crazy his inevitably Republican replacement will be.
I came here to post that. I suppose the Ukraine has me distracted from US politics.
Alaska should be interesting. Kelly Tshibaka (I swear I heard it as ‘Chewbacca’ on the radio) is a Trumpanista that caterwauled at CPAC and she is running against the moderate Lisa Murkowski. It will be a bizzare election in that the top four in votes in the non-partisan primary run in the general. The general election will then conducted as ranked-choice voting.