Category: 2018 Elections

What We Can Take Away from Election Night

Yes, Democrats had a great night:

    • At least 29 House seats flipped.
    • 7 governor seats flipped.
    • 6 legislative chambers flipped, and 7 this cycle.
    • 4 Republican super-majorities in state legislatures broken
    • 3 state Supreme Court seats flipped
    • 1 Senate seat flipped

Oh, and we flipped more than 330 (!) state legislative seats this cycle.

DEMOCRATS EXPANDED THE MAP: The Democratic Party is a 50-state party again. Democrats are organizing everywhere, and we organized everywhere early.  We’ll continue to expand the map in 2019 and 2020.

  • We flipped House seats from upstate New York to Texas to Oklahoma.
  • We took back governors’ mansions from Maine to Kansas to New Mexico.
  • We flipped state legislative chambers from New Hampshire to Colorado.

Continue reading “What We Can Take Away from Election Night”

It Was a Really Bad Night for Trump

WE ALL KNOW TRUMP WAS ON THE BALLOT:

Trump: “In a certain way I am on the ballot.”

THE FACTS:

  • At least 32 Trump-backed candidates lost last night.

  • Democrats had resounding wins in the states that carried Trump to the White House — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.

  • Exit polls made it clear that Trump was on the ballot. Many more voters showed up to oppose him than to support him.

Continue reading “It Was a Really Bad Night for Trump”

DNC Celebrates Record-Breaking Night for Democratic Women

DNC Chair Tom Perez issued the following statement:

“Democrats made history last night. We took back the House, and women led the charge. A record number of Democratic women are headed to Congress, and women made up the overwhelming majority of congressional seats we flipped from red to blue.

“The DNC was proud to invest in female candidates and organize women voters across the country, and I want to congratulate all of the newly elected Democratic women for running extraordinary campaigns on the issues that matter most.

Continue reading “DNC Celebrates Record-Breaking Night for Democratic Women”

Strong suburban showing puts DFL in control of House

The DFL will control the Minnesota House of Representatives in the 2019-20 biennium.

Winning a number of key races in the Twin Cities suburbs, the DFL picked up 18 seats in Tuesday’s elections and will hold a 75-59 advantage when the House convenes Jan. 8, 2019.

Much of the change occurred in the Twin Cities suburbs, especially near and just off the Interstate 494-694 corridor, where DFL candidates beat incumbent Republicans in places like Burnsville, Eden Prairie, Edina, Lakeville, Plymouth, Rosemount, Stillwater and Woodbury.

Three races were within 250 votes: Rep.-elect Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn (DFL-Eden Prairie) beat Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie) by 241 votes with 20,577 votes cast; Rep.-elect Kelly Morrison (DFL-Deephaven) beat Rep. Cindy Pugh (R-Chanhassen) by 216 votes with 23,372 cast; and Rep.-elect Shelly Christensen (DFL-Stillwater) beat Rep. Kathy Lohmer (R-Stillwater) by 137 votes in a race where 22,630 votes were cast.

View the complete November 7 article by Mike Cook on the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services’ website here.

Dave Hutchinson Poised To Become First Openly Gay Sheriff In Midwest

The 39-year-old progressive appears to have narrowly defeated pro-Trump Sheriff Rich Stanek in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

Dave “Hutch” Hutchinson on Wednesday appeared to have narrowly defeated three-term incumbent Sheriff Rich Stanek in Hennepin County, Minnesota, all but guaranteeing his title as the first openly gay sheriff in the Midwest.

After an incredibly tight race, the 39-year-old veteran police officer declared an unofficial victory over Stanek, a President Donald Trump supporter whose critics say he was too amenable to federal immigration authorities.

By early Wednesday morning, 100 percent of the county’s precincts had reported their election results, suggesting Hutchinson had won roughly 2,300 more votes than Stanek, a former Minnesota House Republican.

View the complete November 7 article by Hayley Miller on the Huffington Post website here.

Sen. Tina Smith Victory Speech

Army assessment of migrant caravans undermines Trump’s rhetoric

Soldiers install protective wire at a bridge between the United States and Mexico on Friday in Hidalgo, Tex. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Military planners anticipate that only a small percentage of Central American migrants traveling in the caravans President Trump characterizes as “an invasion” will reach the U.S. border, even as a force of more than 7,000 active-duty troops mobilizes to prevent them from entering the United States.

According to military planning documents, about 20 percent of the roughly 7,000 migrants traveling through Mexico are likely to complete the journey. The unclassified report was obtained and published by Newsweek on Thursday. If the military’s assessment is accurate, it would mean the United States is positioning five soldiers on the border for every one caravan member expected to arrive there.

“Based on historic trends, it is assessed that only a small percentage of the migrants will likely reach the border,” the report says. It was prepared by U.S. Army North, a component of U.S. Northern Command, which oversees the mission dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot.

View the complete November 2 article by Nick Miroff and Missy Ryan on the Washington Post website here.