So Republicans had both houses in Virginia and now Democrats have both. When does redistricting happen?
In Kentucky, where Trump campaigned for the incumbent Matt Bevin, he lost anyway.
Will this convince some Republicans Congressmen & Senators that blind public support of Trump is not to their benefit?
Republicans still have no choice but to super glue their lips to Donald’s orange tush. If they fail to pledge perpetual fealty to the Orang-a-Don, they will be primaried by someone who is willing to do so. So they have the devil’s choice- continue to hold tight to Donald and lose in a general election, or split off from him and lose in a primary.
Or Republican office-holders can do what they believe is right for America and oppose other Republican politicians’ gaslighting of Republican voters. Then, they can defeat primary challengers who will look like delusional traitors in the thrall of a con man and they can see if voters in the general actually want the real Republican policies they support. Maybe there is a way for Republicans to be decent people without trashing democracy. I recognize that this is not their game plan now.
Thanks for not fucking that up for once, Kentucky.
Or pass “voter ID” laws, close voting sites, re-write state constitutions after they lose, gerrymander, scare minorities away from answering on the census, and lie, lie, lie, lie until there aren’t enough democrat votes left to matter.
Which seems to be the current plan, and it’s working nicely for them in most places.
This will be the first time the Democrats control the Virginia House of Delegates since 1997, and the first time since 1993 that Democrats will control all three elected elements of the Virginia government.
Democratic control of the Virginia Senate is by the 21-19 minimum. One of the essential Senators will be Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim woman ever to be elected to the Virginia Senate.
Let us hope and pray that this glimpse of light is a harbinger of escape from our horrid national nightmare.
Kyle Griffin, MSNBC:
Sweet
Narrator: They let that happen to him.
I disagree. Most of the Republicans who have been supporting Trump are just opportunists. They’ve been following him because he’s been winning. The second they no longer see an advantage out of riding Trump’s coattails, they’ll abandon him. And deny they ever supported him.
As for primary threats, let’s not forget these are Republicans. They know how to rig elections. They’re not even going to break a sweat outmaneuvering Trump’s base.
A Democrat won the race here in Upstate New York for Monroe County Executive, the head of the country legislature and effectively the county boss, beating the incumbant. That’s the first time in almost 30 years and I didn’t expect to see another one in my lifetime.
So Donald threw a tantrum and held his breath until Kentucky turned blue.
My takeaways:
The suburbs of Cincinnati and Louisville abandoned the Republican in Kentucky, suburban voters in Virginia did as well. I don’t see this as anything but good news for Democrats. If urban and suburban areas vote solidly blue, there simply aren’t enough rural voters to carry the day in states like OH, PA, MI, WI, and FL to save the day for any Republican nominee. We could be entering the golden age of Democratic rule.
Mississippi played true to form and it’s hard to see that state flipping in the next decade.
Even before the rise of Trump, the Tea Party proved that a determined group of single-issue fanatics can primary out any reasonable Republican candidate or hound them so badly, veteran Congress members and Senators decided it’s not worth the political and personal wear and tear to fight the nuts’ craziness every single day.
Trump simply put a face on a movement. Even if every single living Republican politician found Jesus, there are more nuts waiting in the wings to take them down.
Of course, it affects the Dems, too. Just ask Al Gore about the 97,000 Florida voters who voted for Ralph Nader, or Hillary Clinton about the Bernie Bros who stayed home in November.
The county council of Delaware County, Pennsylvania is 5-0 Democrat for the first time since the Civil War.
The woman who flipped the bird to Individual 1’s motorcade and lost her job got elected to the Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors.
Several Somali women have won seats in various boards and state legislatures in various states.
None of that actually contradicts what BobLibDem wrote.
The Libertarian Party was crowing on twitter that their candidate received 28,000 votes in an election decided by five thousand. I never know how to interpret data like that but I do find it interesting if true.
edit: in Kentucky, I mean.
Democrats didn’t win any of the county legislature seats in my county. [ETA: which is not surprising.]
However, Democrats ran for county legislature seats in three out of four districts; which often doesn’t happen. And they all pulled a significant number of votes, on the same order as the winning R’s.
Absolutely. And let us further hope Virginia will pass serious, meaningful legislation addressing such issues and gun control, health care, infrastructure building, etc., that will show obvious benefits, that other states will take notice, and that my home state will be a leader in bringing the US into the 21st century. But I’m not overly optimistic.
Not to rain on your parade (well, kind of), but I think you’re reading far too much into this Kentucky win.
Kentucky has a long history of electing dems for governor (only 3 Republican governors in the last 70+ years)
Bevin’s loss has far more to do with his own personal unpopularity than some party realignment in the suburbs. While Bevin was losing his race by ~5,000 votes, the Republican candidates were trouncing the dems in statewide races for Secretary of State (by ~65,000 votes), Attorney General (by ~221,000 votes), Treasurer (by ~301,000 votes), Auditor (by ~205,000 votes), and Agriculture Commissioner (by ~276,000 votes)
I suppose you *could *be entering “the golden age of Democratic rule”, but it’s more likely that you’re not. Kentucky hasn’t “turned blue”.
So the Libertarians pulled 2% of the Kentucky gubernatorial vote which is way more than the margin of victory for the Dems. Strange to see the Libertarian party actually affect something.