GOP does well in special elections for Congress
[See UPDATE below.]
Special elections are – well – special. Turnout is often different than in the general, for example. And this year they are especially special, because of the virus, which meant that these were almost entirely mail-in in California, and about half mail-in in Wisconsin.
Then again, mail-in at least theoretically would seem to favor the Democrats.
And yet, the GOP held into a red seat in Wisconsin and may have won a previously blue seat in California. I say “may have” because they’re still counting ballots, and even though it really isn’t close at all at the moment, we know the history of Democrats “finding” the requisite number of ballots marked “Democrat” and managing to squeak out a victory.
UPDATE 6:45 PM:
Garcia’s opponent Christy Smith concedes. I guess the Democrats couldn’t find enough car trunks with ballots in them. Or perhaps it just wasn’t worth their while, since this seat will be re-contested in November, and the House is dominated by the Democrats right now anyway.
One thing that Republicans and conservatives need to get over is this irrational fear that people who don’t regularly vote are all Democrats.
Mike
Beware of Buicks bearing ballot boxes.
Let us hope that democrat vote harvesting does not overturn a 9 point victory in CA25. It has happened before in other areas.
This is why the democrats want everybody to vote by mail, and why Botox Nancy’s bill includes making voter ID illegal.
Nice little republic you have here; it would be a shame if something were to happe to it.
There’s a third interesting race, a Dem primary to choose a candidate for the HoR.
Here’s the headline: “Kara Eastman wins the Democratic primary in Nebraska’s second congressional district”
She’s an AOC Dem, the other candidate was a standard Dem.
Good luck in November, Dems!
Not 1, but 2 special election races in California. One won by Melissa Melendez (Jeff Stone’s (R) old seat). The other Mike Garcia (Katie Hill Throuple’s (D) old seat). The second is of particular note as this flip hasn’t happened since 1998. Hoorah! Perhaps Cal is finally waking up.
Gina: “Perhaps Cal is finally waking up.”
I think it’s significant that the “bad Prop 13” (a huge and nasty tax increase) went down to defeat in the recent primary. Previously, all Dems needed to do was say “Repubs are agin it!” to get the support needed. I’ve lost the link but I heard that of (I’m making up numbers here …) 324 tax increase proposals state-wide, all but 89 went down to defeat. OK, I just guessed there but the proposal count was 3 digit and the success count was 2 digit, That I recall clearly.
I had completely forgotten about these two races until I saw Neo’s post. It is very welcome news.
I lived in WI-7 for many years and much of my mom’s family still does. It is, historically a blue-collar Democrat leaning district; inclined towards the kind of populist Democrat that is now extinct at the national level. Not surprisingly, it has been trending Republican for years. So, so many “Deplorables” in that district.
I know nothing about CA-25, except that it’s in Orange County, which is the epitome of demographic transformation affecting partisan affiliation. But it looks like, with the right candidate, the GOP still can succeed in what was once their bastion.
In any event, this all is wonderful. Last month, my liberal Wisconsin friends were crowing endlessly about their state supreme court win and insisting such was a harbinger for the fall. Today, they are oddly silent
One of the things which heartens me when others are pessimistic is that it’s so damn obvious that so many of the bad actors in our politics are so profoundly ignorant of their own country. The United States is a massive country with the third biggest population on Earth. We’ve got four to five times as many people as any European nation yet our population density is one of the lowest in the world. And we’ve got an extremely well developed civil society with a history of independence from central authority that simply doesn’t exist many other places.
All of which means those who dream of exerting dominance or control over the American people have no idea how much effort it would take to achieve and then how much more effort it would take to sustain.
Mike
parker on May 13, 2020 at 4:42 pm said:
“Beware of Buicks bearing ballot boxes.”
That sounds a little conVolvoluted.
Ackler-
CA-25 is not Orange County, but is Northern Los Angeles County and then zooms over to the Nevada border and follows it up to almost Tahoe.