Tag: 2018 election

Trump admits he was a liability in 2018

New books states president deliberately hindered Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen’s reelection

President Donald Trump still won’t publicly admit he was a significant factor in Republicans’ loss of the House in 2018. But a behind-the-scenes moment captured in a new book suggests he is more politically self-aware than he leads on.

We know that Trump doesn’t admit mistakes or commit sins. It’s not in his personality or good for his brand to acknowledge any weakness. But, according to Politico’s Tim Alberta, the president endorsed a vulnerable member of Congress in an intentional effort to weaken his candidacy.

“In one case, Trump endorsed as a means of punishment. Having heard that Minnesota congressman Erik Paulsen was distancing himself from the White House in the hope of holding his seat in the Twin Cities’ suburbs, the president stewed and asked that the political shop send a tweet of support for Paulsen — thereby sabotaging the moderate Republican’s efforts,” according to an excerpt in Alberta’s new book “American Carnage,” shared with Axios.

View the complete July 16 article by Nathan L. Gonzales on The Roll Call website here.

Way too many Americans say suppression tactics stopped them from voting

Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun, AP Images

This is a scandal for anyone who cares about free and fair elections in America.

Democrats dominated the midterm elections this year and took back the most House seats they have since Watergate.

But the news was also full of reports about Americans facing long lines and broken voting machines — or even being unable to cast a ballot at all because of Republican-passed laws that make it harder to vote, especially in minority communities.

And a new post-election poll includes a shocking indication of just how bad this problem was: At least 10 percent of people who didn’t vote say that either voter suppression tactics or voter ID laws got in the way when they tried to vote.

View the November 16 article by Emily Crockett on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Trump thinks people can vote twice by putting on disguises

Credit: THibault Camus, AP Photo

Trump is making up wild conspiracy theories after GOP’s massive midterm defeat.

Trump is now ranting incoherently about mythical fake voters in a desperate attempt to blame anyone but himself for massive Republican losses on Election Day.

Without any evidence whatsoever, Trump declared in an Oval Office interview that Republicans lost because some voters put on disguises to vote more than once.

“Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again,” Trump told the Daily Caller, a far-right outlet with ties to white nationalists.

View the complete November 14 article by Dan Desai Martin on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Voters all over America finally said no to the NRA

Credit: Mark Humphrey, AP Photo

The NRA has been a powerful force in elections. But on Tuesday, NRA-backed candidates who have refused to support gun safety went down in humiliating defeat.

Voters soundly rejected the NRA and the candidates carrying water for its anti-gun-safety agenda in 2018. The gun extremists refused to change course even after mass shootings claimed the lives of dozens of innocent Americans, and their candidates suffered because of it.

The NRA was already in something of a retreat before Election Day. They significantly reduced spending on the midterm elections, cutting their donations to Republican candidates.

It did not help the NRA that the FBI, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), and Senate investigators have opened up probes looking at the flow of Russian money to their bank accounts during the 2016 election. In that contest, the NRA gave $54 million to Republicans, with $32 million backing Trump.

View the complete November 9 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

The Blue Wave that Everyone Missed: Democrats Had a Huge Win in the Midterms — But We’re Only Realizing It Now

Many Democrats were disappointed Tuesday night. But that reaction now looks premature.

After the initial results from the 2018 midterm elections were tabulated this week, most observers seemed to accept the conclusion that while the Democrats had a decent but disappointing night — even as President Donald Trump and his allies implausibly treated the night as a vindication for the GOP.

But the mildly despondent Democratic reaction is beginning to look misguided. The much-predicted blue wave actually did come in this week in a big way — even if few observers noticed at first.

Part of the problem was that many of the races were far from decided by the end of Tuesday night — and many are still up in the air. But as of this writing, FiveThirtyEight projects that Democrats will win a net gain of 37 seats in the house. That not only gives them control but represents a monumental turnaround — which is particularly impressive considering the GOP’s extensive gerrymandering of the country.

View the complete November 8 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

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.