Tag: 2018 elections

Trump’s Summer Campaign Priority: Target Red-State Democratic Senators Image

The following article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin was posted on the New York Times website May 29, 2019:

President Trump at a rally on Tuesday in Nashville. He plans, for now, to campaign where he can have an immediate effect.Credit: Tom Brenner, The New York Times

NASHVILLE — President Trump is planning to focus his midterm campaigning this summer on red states with competitive Senate races where he has a deep reservoir of support and can bring a message devised to stoke partisan outrage.

The strategy is intended to take advantage of his star power among core Republican supporters while minimizing his exposure in states with competitive congressional races where his polarizing presence could help motivate Democrats as well as independents and moderate Republicans. Continue reading “Trump’s Summer Campaign Priority: Target Red-State Democratic Senators Image”

Worried GOP views Trump trade war with angst

The following article by Alexander Bolton was posted on the Hill website April 9, 2018:

President Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House on Friday. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

Republican lawmakers are returning to Washington this week with their eyes focused on an escalating trade war with China that has roiled the stock market and put them on edge over the economy and this fall’s midterms.

Congressional aides say Trump’s tariffs will be the hot topic of conversation at party caucus meetings this week, even as they wonder what leverage they can exert on a president who vowed to put his stamp on trade.

“I don’t know there’s much you can do there,” said one senior Senate GOP aide. Continue reading “Worried GOP views Trump trade war with angst”

Women and young voters will decide the 2018 elections. If they actually vote.

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website March 3, 2018:

Protesters participate in a Women’s March on Jan. 20 in Cincinnati. Credit: John Minchillo/AP

President Trump continues to define the political conversation of the country with Twitter blasts, public statements and often alarming reports of his behind-the-scenes behavior and moods. But two groups of voters — women and young people — will define the politics of this year, and probably 2020 as well.

These are the voters who stand most apart from the president and who are most at odds with many of the priorities he has advanced in office. Their opposition and energy will determine the level of losses Republicans suffer in the November midterm elections. Come 2020, they are likely to determine whether the president wins a second term, should he indeed seek reelection. Continue reading “Women and young voters will decide the 2018 elections. If they actually vote.”

Analysis: Will the Suburbs Flip the House? Watch These Seats

The following article by Stuart Rothenberg was posted on the Roll Call website February 28, 2018:

If Trump keeps bleeding suburban support, GOP House majority could be at risk

If elections and national surveys over the past year have shown us anything, it is that suburban voters could well be the key to the 2018 midterm House elections.

Turnout among minority voters and younger voters could affect the result in a district here or there, but an increase in suburban turnout or a substantial shift by suburban voters (especially suburban women) from the Republicans to the Democrats could have a much broader impact on the fight for control of the House.

In Virginia’s 2017 gubernatorial election, Democrat Ralph Northam ran ahead of 2013 Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe by 11 points in Fairfax County and 10 points in Loudoun County, two large suburban areas outside Washington, D.C. He also did 9 points better than McAuliffe in two Richmond-area suburban counties, Henrico and Chesterfield. Continue reading “Analysis: Will the Suburbs Flip the House? Watch These Seats”

Russia Sees Midterm Elections as Chance to Sow Fresh Discord, Intelligence Chiefs Warn

The following article by Matthew Rosenberg, Charlie Savage and Michael Wines was posted on the New York Times website February 13, 2018:

Leaders of American intelligence agencies testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Credit Lawrence Jackson for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Russia is already meddling in the midterm elections this year, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday, warning that Moscow is using a digital strategy to worsen the country’s political and social divisions.

Russia is using fake accounts on social media — many of them bots — to spread disinformation, the officials said. European elections are being targeted, too, and the attacks were not likely to end this year, they warned.

“We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee at its annual hearing on worldwide threats. Continue reading “Russia Sees Midterm Elections as Chance to Sow Fresh Discord, Intelligence Chiefs Warn”

Pence: Republicans Will Maintain Majorities in House, Senate After 2018

The following article by Joe Williams was posed on the Roll Call website January 31, 2018:

VP notes that ‘conventional wisdom’ didn’t play out in 2016

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Karen Pence, Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Paul D. Ryan to members during the GOP retreat in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., on Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday predicted Republicans would maintain their majorities in the House and Senate after the midterm elections, but urged GOP lawmakers to tout last year’s conservative victories to constituents.

Pence, who was speaking here at the annual Republican retreat said the White House would be with the members “every step of the way in 2018.”

“We’ve got an incredible story to tell,” the vice president said, citing specifically the record amount of appellate judges the Senate confirmed last year. Continue reading “Pence: Republicans Will Maintain Majorities in House, Senate After 2018”

Democrats Leave Few Seats Unchallenged in Quest for House Control

The following article by Rachel Shorey and Lilia Chang was posted on the New York Times website December 24, 2017:

A voter last year at a polling location in the county courthouse building in Marion, Ark. Democrats are putting forward candidates even in states like Arkansas where Republicans remain heavy favorites. Credit Andrea Morales/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Representative Pete Sessions, a veteran Republican, was re-elected to his affluent Dallas-area House seat in 2016 with 71 percent of the vote, the remaining 29 percent split between the Libertarian and Green Party candidates.

Hillary Clinton won the district by three percentage points, but no Democratic candidate even showed up to ride her coattails.

Federal Election Commission filings show that if a wave crashes on the Republican House majority in November, as many have predicted, Democratic surfers will be on their boards to catch it. Nearly a year out from the election, Democratic candidates have filed in all but 20 House districts held by Republicans. By comparison, Democrats in 80 districts do not have a Republican opponent for their seat. Continue reading “Democrats Leave Few Seats Unchallenged in Quest for House Control”

McConnell bracing for ‘knock down, drag out’ 2018 midterms

The following article by Louis Nelson was posted on the Politico website December 22, 2017:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also said he is prepared to wade into GOP primaries to “make every effort to make sure we have a nominee on the November ballot who can appeal to a general election audience.” | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington Examiner Thursday that he anticipates a “knock down, drag out” 2018 midterm election for Republicans, who will look to maintain their majorities in both houses of Congress with a historically unpopular president in the White House.

“The environment today is not great, the generic ballot’s not good, and I’d love to see the president’s approval rating higher. So I think we should anticipate a real knock down, drag out — even on the Senate side,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview Thursday. Continue reading “McConnell bracing for ‘knock down, drag out’ 2018 midterms”

The GOP Knows The End Is Near

The following article by Michelangelo Signorile was posted on the Huffington Post website December 21, 2017:

Republicans are looting the store, taking everything they can grab off the shelves, anticipating the demise of Donald Trump as progressive energy explodes.

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. The feud between President Donald Trump and Corker flared up again Tuesday when the Republican senator said the president should stay out of the tax-overhaul effort, expressing concern that the White House has been making it harder for Congress to craft legislation. Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Bloomberg

Republicans in Congress, as well as people surrounding Donald Trump’s inner circle in the White House, clearly know something. They’re trying to get everything they can, looting the store, taking everything off the shelves like it’s the end times. The walls are closing in as the special counsel investigation continues unabated ― causing some in the GOP to to try to damage it ― and as the Resistance becomes supercharged, expanding the Democrats’ chances of making big wins in 2018.

The GOP has even lost its last fig leaf of moderation―Maine senator Susan Collins―who’s been having a meltdown in the past few days after being exposed in much of the media, having voted for the Trump tax scam and not received in return promised votes on shoring up Obamacare markets. (Now GOP leaders are telling her they will come in 2018…sure.) Collins, who voted for Trump’s most misogynistic judicial nominees, hostile to a woman’s right to choose, has devolved into claiming she’s now a victim of an “unbelievably sexist” media, sounding every bit like what the alt-right would call a whiny snowflake. Continue reading “The GOP Knows The End Is Near”

The Democrats’ Wave Could Turn Into A Flood

The following article by Harry Enten was posted on the FiveThirtyEight website December 22, 2017:

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. Today’s theme song is “Fame” from the television show “Fame.”

Poll of the week

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES

A new CNN survey released this week showed Democrats leading Republicans by an astounding 56 percent to 38 percent on the generic congressional ballot. That’s an 18 percentage point lead among registered voters — a record-breaking result. No other survey taken in November or December in the year before a midterm has found the majority party in the House down by that much since at least the 1938 cycle (as far back as I have data). Continue reading “The Democrats’ Wave Could Turn Into A Flood”