2024 - A Blank Canvas

[SaintStan86]

Hopefully Ron DeSantis governs the way he said he would instead of letting the Congressional GOP do everything a la Trump.

The congressional GOP never governed Trump's way for the most part. When you hear about where Republicans "increased deficits" while "Democrats reduced deficits", remember that the GOP never had a truly conservative Congress for either George W. Bush or Trump to rely on. Clinton's boast about how he reduced the deficit is largely a by-product of the Newt Gingrich Congress, and it's important to note that there was a report on excess defense spending that was about to be released when 9/11 occurred and led to our extreme security state that the neocons were happy to push.

Because DeSantis has a big enough Republican majority to where he can largely pass a lot of what he wants, and since Republicans are going to be hard pressed by their base to ACTUALLY reduce the deficit, keep taxes low, balance the budget, shrink the size of government and encourage work instead of beefing up the welfare and warfare states, I don't see DeSantis following the rulebook of the old congressional establishment. Yes, Cornyn is most definitely middling in his political views, but the newcomers in the Senate as well as long-time conservatives like Rand Paul are going to want more than just excuses like "we're sorry we didn't do this time, but we'll try again if you reelect us". Excuses like that aren't going to cut it anymore with the base, and Republicans who either continue to push "Jesus, guns and babies" because they're too chicken to put on their big boy pants and do some ACTUAL conservative governance - even in areas where Democrats are willing to break bread - deserved to be primaried out of office.

Don't get me wrong, with a majority like this, there are going to be many disappointed Republicans if DeSantis's demands are not met or his 100 days not fulfilled because some Republicans want to play "pattycake" because some "I'm pro-life but..." voter either from an impoverished rural area government actually failed or some pressure group tries to accuse you of being "heartless" or of "killing Granny" or of "offending little Timmy" or some other excuse to break your promise to your voters or potentially violate the Constitution in the name of "family values" or "doing what the people want", to where effectively Republicans fall back on "Nothing to see here, just say the right things about Jesus, guns and babies, pass another tax cut and don't rock the boat" like past Republicans have done - even under Trump. "Compassionate conservatism" and "neoconservatism" explain why Republicans have to deal with being called "hypocrites" about the deficit, spending, reforms, etc., and it's almost why Mitch McConnell deserves to be stripped of his title as Senate Minority Leader. I would like to see Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse or Josh Hawley run the damn joint...I don't care if Paul is a libertarian, Cruz is a Religious Right nut, Sasse voted to convict Trump or Hawley raised a fist over the results of 2020 and stood with Bernie in support of COVID "relief" - I care that Republicans actually follow the majority of their principles and stop worrying about some supposed "popular opinion".

[SaintStan86]

Hopefully Ron DeSantis governs the way he said he would instead of letting the Congressional GOP do everything a la Trump.

The congressional GOP never governed Trump's way for the most part. When you hear about where Republicans "increased deficits" while "Democrats reduced deficits", remember that the GOP never had a truly conservative Congress for either George W. Bush or Trump to rely on. Clinton's boast about how he reduced the deficit is largely a by-product of the Newt Gingrich Congress, and it's important to note that there was a report on excess defense spending that was about to be released when 9/11 occurred and led to our extreme security state that the neocons were happy to push.

Because DeSantis has a big enough Republican majority to where he can largely pass a lot of what he wants, and since Republicans are going to be hard pressed by their base to ACTUALLY reduce the deficit, keep taxes low, balance the budget, shrink the size of government and encourage work instead of beefing up the welfare and warfare states, I don't see DeSantis following the rulebook of the old congressional establishment. Yes, Cornyn is most definitely middling in his political views, but the newcomers in the Senate as well as long-time conservatives like Rand Paul are going to want more than just excuses like "we're sorry we didn't do this time, but we'll try again if you reelect us". Excuses like that aren't going to cut it anymore with the base, and Republicans who either continue to push "Jesus, guns and babies" because they're too chicken to put on their big boy pants and do some ACTUAL conservative governance - even in areas where Democrats are willing to break bread - deserved to be primaried out of office.

Don't get me wrong, with a majority like this, there are going to be many disappointed Republicans if DeSantis's demands are not met or his 100 days not fulfilled because some Republicans want to play "pattycake" because some "I'm pro-life but..." voter either from an impoverished rural area government actually failed or some pressure group tries to accuse you of being "heartless" or of "killing Granny" or of "offending little Timmy" or some other excuse to break your promise to your voters or potentially violate the Constitution in the name of "family values" or "doing what the people want", to where effectively Republicans fall back on "Nothing to see here, just say the right things about Jesus, guns and babies, pass another tax cut and don't rock the boat" like past Republicans have done - even under Trump. "Compassionate conservatism" and "neoconservatism" explain why Republicans have to deal with being called "hypocrites" about the deficit, spending, reforms, etc., and it's almost why Mitch McConnell deserves to be stripped of his title as Senate Minority Leader. I would like to see Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse or Josh Hawley run the damn joint...I don't care if Paul is a libertarian, Cruz is a Religious Right nut, Sasse voted to convict Trump or Hawley raised a fist over the results of 2020 and stood with Bernie in support of COVID "relief" - I care that Republicans actually follow the majority of their principles and stop worrying about some supposed "popular opinion".

Speaking of which did DeSantis run on any policies that were different besides actually doing what he promised? You don't win Delaware and Illinois on the current GOP platform. Are they finally accepting climate change or the ACA or something?

DeSantis effectively ran as the Reagan to Trump's Nixon, espoused his conservative "record of success" in the most important swing state in America, and vowed to run a 50-state campaign by running up the score in MAGA regions, getting back sizable chunks of the suburban vote that Trump lost in 2016, capitalized on GOP gains among demographic groups including Latinos, took Trump's line on gays and lesbians (where he is effectively nonchalant compared to past Republicans) and embraced effectively the Log Cabin Repubicans' on issues like gender transition (e.g. "Gender Altering Drugs Are For ADULTS Only!"), and also got a break through Andrew Yang siphoning off some more liberal votes.

In other words, his campaign left no state behind compared to past Republicans who in the past would have simply written off certain states for not being "red enough". Many voters were also swayed by concerns about the debt default and China, as well as the Harris campaign effectively self-inflicting damage upon itself as you've seen in this TL.

And...it's not over yet, but getting there...

[SaintStan86]

UPDATE: Another sad update to report, this time on the Democratic side. Longtime Missoula Mayor John Engen, who I had pegged as the Democratic opponent to Rep. Ryan Zinke in this TL for Montana's 1st District, died last week after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 57. Prayers be with the people of Missoula - a place that as a preteen I had the pleasure of visiting on a long roadtrip from Seattle back home to Texas - and with Engen's soul and the people who loved him and were blessed to have known him...may his memory be a blessing. As with the race in New York where a Republican nominee died IRL, I have also substituted his name. And yes, this race is in fact competitive in this TL...

And now, back to our usual timeline format...

"Congrats to President-elect, and the greatest Governor in the history of Florida, Ronald Dion DeSantis! He is going to be a fantastic President who will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN like never before!

After four very, very miserable years of an illegitimate and creepy President Joe Biden - aka Joe the Basement Boy - I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the GREAT and AMAZING progress our country made when I was your President - still the greatest this country has ever seen - restored in all its living colors. Ron DeSantis is TOUGH on borders, TOUGH on crime, TOUGH on China, TOUGH on the warmongers who favor endless wars over ACTUAL peace and prosperity and TOUGH on the HORRIBLE NATIONAL DEBT that I deeply regret adding to, thanks to some very bad advisors like Mitch "the Ditch" McConnell, who insisted I go along with his crummy desire to send checks and bankrupt our country instead of getting Americans back to work and reopening America like we should have when the WONDERFUL vaccines came out - vaccines that represent the greatest victory for humanity in our nation's history!

Enjoy your retirement Joe Biden, because that creaky Amtrak ride back to Delaware will be the most fun you'll ever have in your presidency!"

-Former President Donald Trump

November 5, 2024
DeSANTIS ELECTED 47TH PRESIDENT, DEFEATS HARRIS IN ELECTORAL BLOWOUT; REPUBLICANS GAIN HISTORIC MAJORITIES IN HOUSE, SENATE
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was elected the 47th President of the United States, becoming the first Italian-American and first resident of the Sunshine State to win a presidential election, winning 53 percent of the vote in the biggest electoral blowout since 1988, when Republican Vice President George H.W. Bush also won by 51 percent in his defeat of Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Vice President Kamala Harris, who had hoped to become the first woman elected President as well as the first Asian-American one, only received 40 percent of the vote, the worst performance for a Democrat since George McGovern's 1972 landslide defeat by incumbent President Richard Nixon, with Andrew Yang and his Forward movement receiving 6 percent of the vote nationally.

As of 7:00AM ET, over 147 million votes were cast across the country, with DeSantis winning over 76 million votes and Harris over 57 million, followed by Yang with nearly 9 million votes, with several million more (mostly on the West Coast) to be counted. The race was called for DeSantis during the 11:00PM ET hour, when the networks called Minnesota for DeSantis, making him the first Republican to win the upper Midwestern state since 1972 when Richard Nixon won it in his national landslide; it was the only state to have never been won by Ronald Reagan, who narrowly lost it in his 1984 reelection against favorite son and former Vice President Walter Mondale. Washington and Oregon are the last remaining holdouts for the 2024 election, with the most recent call coming early Wednesday morning for Illinois, which narrowly voted for DeSantis with massive gains both in downstate Illinois and in the suburbs of Chicago.

"I am not excited, but rather I am grateful to be your next President of these great United States of America!", DeSantis proclaimed to his overcapacity victory party at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an affluent suburb of Jacksonville that is home to the headquarters of the PGA Tour, for which the TPC Sawgrass's signature event, The Players Championship, is considered one of the tour's major tournaments. With mostly clear skies under the Florida moonlight, for which he remarked "There is no greater sunshine than what you see here in Florida. But even better than the Florida sunshine, is being under the moonlight right here in Florida!", and fireworks in the background at the end of his speech, DeSantis vowed "the beginning of a New Day for America", promising to bring the same "America First" conservative leadership DeSantis became known for - both in praise and in scorn - in Florida, and which defined the presidency of former President Donald Trump, who along with his family was in attendance on Tuesday.

Joining his wife Casey and their three young children were Vice President-elect and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina Governor who will now become the second female and Asian-American Vice President (and the first Republican in both cases) in American history. Following the victory party, Haley tweeted "Eternally grateful to @RonDeSantis and the millions of voters who voted to Stand FOR America and against the enemies that seek to divide us! America is back! #FreedomMatters #MAGAForever", in a tweet that at one point broke Twiiter's servers for nearly 10 minutes.

While the mood in Florida was celebratory and festive, the mood outside San Francisco City Hall, by contrast, went from energetic and packed with celebrity to more resemblant of a wake - with a brief respite upon California, long one of the most liberal states in the country, being called for favorite daughter Harris when its polls closed at 8:00PM PT. In her concession speech, Harris looked back on her time as Vice President, "It has been the honor of a lifetime to be your Vice President, and I am especially proud of the hard work and dedication that you all have given to this historic presidential campaign", and urged the crowd in San Francisco to "not let this disappointment lead us down a road of despair", touting the accomplishments of the presidency of Joe Biden, and thanking her family as well as her running mate, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, along with her supporters which she called "the wind in my sails that keep me going, like a cool Pacific breeze".

While DeSantis and Harris, rain or shine - and definitely far more of the latter despite rain eventually falling in Northern California overnight, chose to hold their watch parties outdoors, Yang opted instead for a hotel ballroom at the Hilton hotel near the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J., outside of New York City, joined by his supporters as well as his running mate, former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, known for his staunch opposition to Trump and his service on the controversial January 6th Committee. Yang reflected on his role "leading a movement to forever change the trajectory of America, with a movement that puts people before politics, and country before party", emphasizing such issues as voting and campaign finance reforms, "human-centered capitalism" and a tech-focused job training initiative, and vowing "Mark my words, our movement for a better, more unified America is only getting started!". While Yang drew support from both parties, including Kinzinger's fellow Trump critic in former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and other like-minded, mostly moderate Republicans, most of his support ended up coming from moderate Democrats and some progressives disillusioned with Harris.

Fast national ratings across all of television exceeded more than 70 million households, amounting to one-third of the country, including more than 15 million on Spanish-language networks such as Univision and Telemundo, as well as an additional 20 million streaming users on such services as Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount+. The coverage is most notable for CNN, where longtime political anchor Wolf Blitzer recently announced his retirement with this being his final presidential election, intending to retire sometime after DeSantis is inaugurated in January.

Republicans also made historic gains in the Senate, where the party won ten Senate seats held by Democrats on Election Night in addition to the win by default last June in California, where longtime retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein is set to be succeeded by outgoing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who defeated former U.S. Ambassador Ric Grenell despite the latter's endorsement from former President Trump as well as outsized support in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his potential to become California's first openly gay Senator drew outsized support. The party gained open seats in West Virginia, Delaware, Michigan and Minnesota, while also defeating incumbent Democrats in Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, New Jersey, New Mexico and Nevada. Four states - Pennsylvania, Washington, Montana and Maine have undecided races - with the latter expected to take days for a winner to be declared due to ranked-choice voting. So far, the Republicans have won 63 Senate seats - the most ever in the party's history - to 33 for the Democratic coalition of 32 Democrats as well as the Vermont Progressive Party's David Zuckerman, who won a three-way battle with the endorsement of outgoing Sen. Bernie Sanders.

At the House level, Republicans have made slight gains with 263 seats won - three more than their current levels at 260 from their surprisingly strong 2022 midterms, with Democrats winning 157 seats. 15 seats do not have a winner, with ten of these being undecided races on the West Coast as well as the congressional race in Alaska's lone congressional seat, where Republican incumbent and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin only has a plurality of 45.86 percent against a Democrat, a more moderate Republican challenger and a Libertarian candidate.

Of the other four congressional seats outside the largely mail-in heavy West Coast, the most intriguing of the uncalled races is in Georgia's 14th District, where President-elect DeSantis won the northwest Georgia- and northwest suburban Atlanta-based district convincingly with over 81 percent of the vote, but where former Republican-turned-Constitution Party incumbent Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to avoid a runoff with 49.11 percent. Her Democratic challenger Wendy Davis (NOT the former Texas gubernatorial candidate) has 22.85 percent, followed by a large number of write-in votes totaling 26.54 percent of the vote, with the lion's share of the latter presumed to be for GOP write-in candidate Jennifer Strahan, who qualified as a write-in candidate last September but who was also joined by various unlisted write-in choices from "Bugs Bunny", "Jimmy Carter", "Elvis Presley" and "Santa Claus" to even "Ted Turner", "Charles Barkley", "Robert E. Lee", "Lucas K. Duke" and "Harambe", perhaps to potentially depress Strahan's write-in chances enough to potentially deny a one-on-one matchup with the controversial Greene as Greene is overwhelmingly favored in a runoff with Davis in the most Republican congressional district in Georgia, and one of the most Republican in the nation.

The two other races that remain uncalled are in Montana's 1st District in the western part of the state - where Rep. Ryan Zinke is locked in a tight race with Democratic State Sen. Ellie Boldman, and in Pennsylvania's 8th District in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area where Rep. Jim Bognet is narrowly trailing former Rep. Matt Cartwright in a rematch of their 2022 race. Louisiana's 3rd District is expected to host a runoff on December 7th in the open seat being vacated by Rep. Clay Higgins, who announced he would not seek reelection and instead run for the U.S. Senate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee against embattled incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy in 2026; Cassidy was one of seven U.S. Senators to vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial for "incitement of insurrection".

November 6, 2024
BREAKING NEWS: DeSANTIS TRANSITION TEAM NAMES CHIEF OF STAFF, COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
On Tuesday, the transition team for President-elect Ron DeSantis named its first appointment to the DeSantis administration, as former White House Chiefs of Staff Andrew Card and Mick Mulvaney sought to put together "the most experienced, conservative and inventive Cabinet in the history of the United States, one that will deliver RESULTS for the American people". Not surprisingly, that first endorsement was for the President-elect's Chief of Staff, as DeSantis selected U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds to serve as the outgoing Florida Governor's main point guy on the direction of his Cabinet. After being introduced by Mulvaney, Donalds thanked DeSantis for his "enduring friendship in ensuring that Florida beckons as a beacon of light to America and the world", and vowed to "give it my all in ensuring the smoothest-run White House Americans have ever witnessed", calling the appointment "the opportunity of a lifetime".

The Brooklyn-born Donalds, who recently turned 46 last month and was raised in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood by a single mother, will become the first-ever African-American White House Chief of Staff. Prior to his election to Florida's 19th District, which is based in Naples, in 2020, Donalds was a financial services professional and served two terms in the Florida House of Representatives from a Naples-based district, with his second term dovetailing with the first two years of DeSantis's time as Governor. He is one of the most conservative members of Congress, and a prominent Black anti-communist in the Republican conference. Despite having been reelected last night to a third term in his heavily Republican district, Donalds will not take his seat in the upcoming 119th Congress, preferring instead to leave the seat vacant when Friday, January 3, 2025 commences.

In addition to Donalds, the transition team also announced the return of former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who will return to her previous role under the administration of former President Donald Trump, having served in that capacity during the last months of the Trump presidency and having served the entirety of her tenure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike the case with the pandemic, in which in-person contact was largely limited by social distancing and other habits to mitigate community spread of the contagious disease that McEnany herself contracted around the same time Trump himself did. In addition to McEnany, who described herself as "stoked to join the administration of the greatest Governor our nation has ever seen, and soon to be our greatest President", she will be joined by Christina Pushaw, a California-born DeSantis alum who joins the DeSantis administration as White House Communications Director, with McEnany joking "She's my Doublemint twin!" during her introduction.

November 6, 2024
MISSOURI REPUBLICAN ALLEGES "VOTER FRAUD" IN CLOSE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
Narrowly trailing his Democratic rival in the race for Governor of Missouri on Wednesday, Republican Secretary of State and nominee Jay Ashcroft brought up allegations of voter fraud involving his contest against his predecessor as Secretary of State, Democratic nominee and 2016 U.S. Senate nominee Jason Kander, who as of Wednesday morning was narrowly ahead with 48.7 percent to 48.1 for his GOP rival. In bringing up the allegations, Ashcroft pointed to "corruption from polling workers and election handlers in St. Louis and Kansas City who knowingly violated Missouri law in stuffing ballot boxes with dead people, provisional ballots and duplicates", and also announced the launch of a 24-hour hotline for "voters who feel that they have been disenfranchised by Democrat poll workers". Several thousand absentee ballots and late boxes remain to be counted with 99 percent of the boxes in and a recount on the horizon.

Unsurprisingly, Kander responded to the allegations during a press conference in Kansas City, where the Democrat, who pushed then-Sen. Roy Blunt into a surprisingly close reelection victory even as Donald Trump was winning the presidential vote statewide in 2016, once pursued a run for Mayor before dropping his bid to seek treatment for mental health and depression concerns, called Ashcroft out over his "crying wolf about blatantly false suspicions" and proclaimed "the Governor's Mansion belongs to the people of Missouri, NOT those who think they're entitled to it". The incumbent Republican, Mike Parson, is term-limited and could not seek reelection to a third term, having partially filled most of the term won by disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens in 2016, who later pursued an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Next post: More Cabinet developments and close race announcements...

[SaintStan86]

2024 Presidential Election Popular Vote (provided by SaintStan86)

Ron DeSantis/Nikki Haley (Republican) 76M+ Votes = 53 %
Kamala Harris/Gary Peters (Democrat) 57M+ Votes = 40 %
Andrew Yang/Adam Kinzinger (Forward) 9M+ Votes = 6 %
Others 1 %

Last time a Presidential Nominee won 53 % of the Vote was then Senator Barack Obama in 2008.

Total Turnout as of 7am ET Wednesday November 6th 2024: 147M+ Votes.

I think when all is said and done it will exceed 150M+ Turnout. That's lower than the 2020 Pandemic Election which had 158M+ Votes BUT not too much lower. I think the reason for this as I outlined previously is that there were two Women on each side of the Presidential Ticket as well as Andrew Yang.

Pennsylvania Senate is still not called. Probably means McCormick has gotten this close enough it might trigger an Automatic Recount in the State.

As for the Washington State Senate Race between DelBene and McMorris-Rogers I think that will close up as more Vote that was dropped off on ED gets tallied. Will it be enough for the Republican to overtake the Democrat? No one knows!

Having 46 % of the Vote in the 1st Round it looks like Palin will win Re-Election.

263 Seats in the House means Republicans are very close to a 2/3 threshold and could actually check their own President. There are pretty close to overriding a Presidential Veto if they want to which I doubt.

Great Appointments by President-elect DeSantis in selecting Byron Donalds, Kayleigh McEnany & Christina Pushaw. I called that so a little tap on my back Great Job SaintStan86

Very true, but I also predicted it would come to that as well, though these three initial picks are to no great surprise. The bulk of the Cabinet may be a surprise to some circles.

And - there's much more vote to count, not just on the West Coast. What was counted already is about 85-90 percent of the vote nationally, but even so the results are looking fairly consistent across states. Yes, a good chunk of the absentee ballots tend to be blue-hued, but the DeSantis camp, with their 50-state strategy, have also sensed "Hey, why not try to take a page from the Democrats and use it to our advantage with military voters and seniors?"

As such, there will have been some aggressive efforts to reach the latter demo, which will have swung towards the GOP due to COVID no longer being a serious concern and many seniors being concerned about their children and grandchildren's futures, worried about losing their retirement savings if not their retirement living spaces (Del Webb, anyone?), being forced to choose between not just food and medicine but perhaps even medicine and unmentionables, etc. - When it gets so bad that when adult diapers become a luxury to those who need them, you really know sheet has hit the fan...

[SaintStan86]

November 6, 2024
BREAKING NEWS: VOTES EXCEED 155 MILLION MARK AS WEST COAST VOTES CONTINUE TO BE COUNTED; ROSENDALE DEFEATS TESTER IN CLOSE SENATE RACE IN MONTANA
On Wednesday evening, votes in the 2024 presidential election exceeded the 155 million mark as many more states began to fill in their absentee ballots across a wide range of demographics. As of 8:00PM ET, Florida Gov. and now President-elect Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party received over 81.5 million votes and 52.6 percent, while Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party received a total of over 62 million votes and 40.1 percent, and Forward's Andrew Yang earned a total of over 9.4 million votes or 6.1 percent. Though somewhat diminished given California's sizable - though diminished - numbers for the Vice President at around 51 percent (to DeSantis's 41 percent - the GOP's best performance since 2004) and Yang's 7 percent), DeSantis continues to maintain a sizable lead with 80 percent of combined West Coast votes in.

In California, DeSantis also regained Orange County - a traditional, albeit increasingly diverse, GOP bastion that moved leftward in the Trump era - with 51 percent to Harris's 42 percent, as well as winning majorities in Butte (53 percent), Stanislaus (53 percent), Riverside (52 percent), Fresno (51 percent) and San Luis Obispo (50 percent), pluralities in San Bernardino (49 percent), Merced (49 percent), San Joaquin (48 percent), Ventura (47 percent) and San Diego (47 percent), and holding the Vice President to just 59 percent in her home county of Los Angeles with strong support for DeSantis in traditionally Republican parts of the Santa Clarita and outer San Fernando valleys, as well as slight Republican gains in the South Bay and largely Hispanic San Gabriel Valley. At least 5-10 percent (and in some counties, as much as 15 percent) of registered Democrats, many of them more moderate to conservative with a large number of them being Hispanic and Asian, voted for DeSantis.

While Harris did manage to win just under two-thirds of the vote in the San Francisco Bay Area, her numbers were also diminished compared to past Democratic performances, and fell under 60 percent in Solano, Napa and even Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties as well as Monterey County, south of the Bay Area, where Yang and Green Party candidate Norman Solomon, the only one of the presidential candidates actually residing in the Bay Area, won sizable numbers of votes. In Santa Clara, where DeSantis won only 32 percent in the heart of Silicon Valley, Yang won 10 percent and Solomon winning 3 percent - Harris won just 53 percent - the worst performance for a Democrat since 1992.

The only two states not accounted for are Washington and Oregon, both states in the Pacific Northwest, with DeSantis having taken a narrow lead in Washington with 49 percent as much of the vote in Seattle's populous, liberal King County has been counted, while much of the southwestern and eastern parts of the state are still rolling in; these areas tend to vote more Republican than the vote-rich Puget Sound region. In Oregon, DeSantis is winning 48 percent, albeit with deeply liberal Multnomah County - home to the progressive bastion of Portland - largely reported in. Washington also has an open Senate race that remains uncalled, with Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene leading Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers 55 to 45 percent; Republicans remain optimistic that remaining votes in the aforementioned areas will work to McMorris Rodgers' benefit.

One Senate race was called early Wednesday evening, as Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana lost his bid for a fourth term to Rep. Matt Rosendale, with the latter leading with 50 percent to Tester's 47 percent. Despite Tester touting his "bipartisan record in putting Montanans first", Rosendale hit back at Tester in ads where he called the three-term Democrat "a rubber stamp for President Biden and Kamala Harris", and also blasted Tester for "bringing Washington to Montana". One ad did draw controversy where the announcer portrayed Tester as "someone who likes to dig his fingers into our energy reserves and keep them hidden from the people of Montana" - drawing controversy as Tester had lost three of his middle fingers on his left hand in a meat-grinding accident as a young boy; Tester responded with an ad where he used his partially amputated left hand to butcher his own meat - which he often brings to Washington in frozen coolers: "I am Montana Tough - because in Big Sky Country - no matter what you look like even where you least expect, anything is possible". However, Rosendale romped to victory in every county he won in his 2018 contest against Tester, and this time flipped Cascade County (home to Great Falls) which went for Barack Obama in 2008 but is giving DeSantis over 60 percent of the vote, sealing Tester's defeat and eliminating the only remaining statewide elected Democrat in Montana.

Votes remain to be counted in two other undecided states. In Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey Jr. holds a narrow lead over Republican challenger Dave McCormick with 49.3 percent to McCormick's 48.6 percent, with Lackawanna County - home to Casey's hometown of Scranton - now just reporting in full vote totals and absentee ballots making up a large share of whatever remaining votes exist. In Maine, the vote will advance to a second or even third round as no candidate received a majority in a state that utilizes ranked-choice voting; as of Wednesday evening, Republican State Sen. Rick Bennett holds just 48.4 percent of the vote to 47.6 percent for Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree. Most of the remaining four percent of votes went to a Green Party candidate who received around two percent of the vote, while three other candidates including an independent running on an "American Renewal" platform split the remaining two percent.

November 6, 2024
"I DID MY VERY BEST": HARRIS REFLECTS ON CAMPAIGN, VICE PRESIDENCY; PETERS "LOOKING FORWARD TO SERVING MICHIGAN AGAIN"
During a press conference on Wednesday upon her return to Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris reflected on her ill-fated presidential campaign and what the results mean for her legacy. In response to questions regarding her campaign, Harris regarded "I did my very best, but what was unfortunate is that a campaign that focused on delivering for the people, with popular and sustainable ideas like quality, affordable healthcare, a clean energy revolution and reforming our tax code to favor employees and their families over employers, became misconstrued as a "backdoor attempt to bring Communism into America which is not what was intended". She also defended the actions of the Biden presidency, calling it "a transformative moment that empowered people to live their lives authentically and with fewer worries, and the impact that our administration has had on the American people will be felt for decades", and thanked President Biden for "giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to serve alongside him in rebuilding our country after the damage Donald Trump caused it".

Critics of Harris were unfazed by her comments. On Tucker Carlson Tonight, the show's namesake host took direct aim at Harris: "The Harris campaign crumbled, not because 'outside influences' turned it into a proxy battle against Communism, but because Kamala Harris was a downright terrible candidate and her core supporters - trial lawyers and their audience base of trashy daytime talk show viewers, government bureaucrats, defense contractor and corporate welfare fanboys, celebrity star chasers, bitter middle-aged suburban Karens in their 40s and 50s - represented the absolute worst and most shallow parts of American society. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, won the support of various groups of hard-working Americans: blue-collar workers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, young and optimistic families who spend their vacation time having wholesome fun instead of wasting away in woke corporate and woketivist purgatory, family farmers, successful and cheery young professionals who plan ahead for the future and not cave to excuses like so-called "student debt forgiveness", tradeworkers who actually use some ACTUAL debt forgiveness, supporters of our military and law enforcement, and get this - a majority of Hispanics and a bare plurality of Asian Americans - both groups of which Democrats viewed as their destiny".

Harris's former running mate, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, also reflected on his time on the presidential campaign trail and honored Harris as "a trusted colleague and friend who ran one of the most dynamic campaigns America has ever seen", and stated that "while I would have like to see the race turn out a little differently, I have no regrets about my time as a vice presidential hopeful". Peters then alluded to his current day job, announcing that he will seek reelection and that he is "looking forward to serving Michigan again" as he gears up for his 2026 reelection bid. While Peters viewed as a potential favorite for the 2028 presidential sweepstakes on the Democratic side, the seat is expected to have a credible Republican challenger with one possible candidate being outgoing Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is linked to the Romney family political dynasty that includes recently reelected Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 presidential nominee who still has a bitter taste in the minds of some Republicans over his treatment of former President Donald Trump.

November 8, 2024
SCHUMER TO REMAIN SENATE MINORITY LEADER AS DURBIN STEPS ASIDE AS MINORITY WHIP
On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced that he will remain in his current position, despite calls from some Democrats for fresh leadership in the wake of the party's massive nationwide defeat in which Democrats lost 12 Senate seats and failed to flip a single Republican seat. "There are a lot of people who wish that I step aside for the benefit of our party, but the fault for the staggering defeats we experienced can't necessarily be attributed to leadership failures at the top", Schumer said in pointing to "aggressive efforts" by Republicans to negatively affect Democratic incumbents in several states - particularly in the Midwest where the party narrowly lost four Senate seats, including two held by progressive incumbents. "The voters across America who voted against their interests in favor of Republicans who vow to strip workers' of their rights to family wages and don't wish to focus on good-paying, shovel-ready jobs, while stripping women and children of their rights, are going to regret it in six years when these Republicans are up for office," alluding to 1986, in which a number of Republican-held seats - some of which were gained by the GOP in the 1980 "Reagan Revolution" - were picked up by Democrats who regained control of the Senate chamber they lost six years prior.

However, while Schumer remained defiant in maintaining his post atop the Senate Democratic Caucus, the same will not be true for his No. 2 as Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois announced he will not continue in his current post. "It has been a privilege to serve the people of Illinois as your U.S. Senator for five terms, and it has been an even greater privilege to serve as the Whip amongst this great group of Senate Democrats I have been honored to lead", said the moderately liberal Durbin, whose service in Washington dates back to his first election to Congress in 1982, when he defeated 11-term Republican Rep. Paul Findley in a central Illinois district based in the state capital of Springfield. Durbin has served in the Senate since 1996 when he succeeded fellow Democrat and longtime friend Paul Simon, for whom he once served as general counsel to during Simon's time as Lieutenant Governor. After the 2004 defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Durbin became the Senate's Democratic whip in 2005, replacing Harry Reid of Nevada who replaced Daschle as Senate Minority Leader.

Durbin's decision is far from the only news surrounding the venerable Senator, who will turn 80 on November 21st. There is also speculation as to whether or not Durbin will seek reelection in 2026, especially given Ron DeSantis's narrow victory in the Prairie State on Tuesday including a strong performance in Durbin's original Downstate base. Durbin has not announced his intentions on whether or not he intends to seek a sixth term, and called the rumored demise of his Senate career "mere heresay from outside influences who have always underestimated the strength of the middle class vote that I have long championed in my decades of service to the people of Illinois, including alongside the greatest president I have had the pleasure of serving with, Barack Obama", referring to the former President whom Durbin served alongside from 2005 until Obama's 2008 presidential victory.

If Durbin were to not seek reelection, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has not indicated intentions himself to run for a third term, would be considered the "dream candidate" for the Democrats, while others have pined hopes for former First Lady Michelle Obama or Pritzker's sister, former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich also speculated during his podcast on Chicago radio station WLS that he would consider a political comeback running for the Senate should Durbin not consider reelection. Republicans, meanwhile are not waiting for Durbin to make a decision with some already laying the groundwork for a Senate bid, with former Rep. Peter Roskam, now a partner in the Chicago office of the locally-based Sidley Austin law firm who has done lobbying work on its behalf in Washington, exploring a potential bid for the seat; venture capitalist and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Jesse Sullivan and Bloomington-based State Sen. Jason Barickman (who is himself also considering a run for Governor) also have been rumored as potential Senate candidates.

November 9, 2024
GEORGIA RACE HEADS TO RUNOFF; GREENE BLAMES MEDIA, DETRACTORS FOR SUDDEN DECEMBER BATTLE WITH STRAHAN
On Friday night, following a final tally of write-in votes, incumbent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was forced into a runoff with only 49.02 percent of the vote, less than one percent short of outright winning the seat without a runoff, which Greene will now be forced into on Tuesday, December 3rd. Write-in votes accounted for 26.62 percent of the vote total, and of those the vast majority favored Republican physician Jennifer Strahan who amassed nearly 90 percent of the total write-in votes, with her votes amounting to 23.74 percent of the entire ballot count - less than one percent ahead of the 22.83 percent for Greene's Democratic opponent, Rome City Commissioner Wendy Davis who unlike Strahan was on the ballot.

Greene, a supporter of presidential candidate Mike Lindell who switched from the GOP to the Constitution Party late last June after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis clinched the GOP nomination, has developed one of the most conservative voting records in Congress but has also been a lightning rod for controversy, including her annual attendance at the controversial America First Political Action Conference, which she defended despite the views of its far-right organizer, white nationalist and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, claiming it was her duty to speak to a "lost generation of young people who are desperate for love and leadership". Davis, who endorsed Strahan on Tuesday, thanked her supporters and urged them to "turn out in force for Jennifer Strahan next month and put an end to this ignominious chapter in our country's - and our state's - history".

Greene called the smears "from elites in both parties" "mere sniping from the elites who want the people of northwest Georgia, many of whom feel left behind by their government leaders, to simply pay their taxes, go about their lives and shut up", and argued that a vote for Strahan would be a vote to "throw the hard-working people of northwest Georgia who wish to be served by the people who elect them to represent their interests under the bus". Strahan denied the "elitist" charge in response, pointing to Greene's taking out of a PPP loan during the pandemic as "evidence of rank hypocrisy" and argued that "Elected officials who are ignorant of our rising national debt, while taking part in the same government programs they complain about, are hypocrites who do nothing except epitomize the very sort of elitism they claim to oppose". Erick Erickson, a prominent Atlanta talk radio host who has criticized Greene recently for favoring "poorly informed hucksters who never take responsibility for their financial and health problems over aspirational people that Republicans must embrace at all costs if they want to have a lasting majority - the very people Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis champion unconditionally", has endorsed Strahan in the race.

Next: More updates as the countdown to January marches on...

[SaintStan86]

So if the GOP gets 65 senate seats in 2024, they probably only get knocked down to 63 in 2026. But since this TL is the way it is, the GOP will probably reach 70 seats in time for Ron DeSantis's landslide 45-state re-election.

Not necessarily. In Reagan's 1984 landslide, Democrats actually gained two Senate seats net - defeating Republican incumbents in Illinois and Iowa and winning an open seat in Tennessee that went from being represented by Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker to being represented by future Vice President Al Gore.

The one Republican gain that year? Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.

Two years later, Democrats took back the Senate with a net gain of eight seats - 9 Democratic flips and one GOP flip, in Missouri. And two years before 1984, Democrats and Republicans canceled each other out with two flips each.

Do note that Republicans have to defend 20 Senate seats (one of which has a special election where they are favored) and Democrats 13. Nine of the GOP seats - Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas - were won with 55 percent or less of the vote. With regards to this TL, Kentucky also had a close special election after Mitch McConnell left and was succeeded by Daniel Cameron, who will now have to defend his seat after winning the special election he was in in this TL by a close margin.

[SaintStan86]

Maybe Pam Biondi or Matt Gaetz for RNC chairman, both can be described as Trump loyalists; have their own respective strengths. Biondi would be a better option, she is not only a former state official (Attorney General of Florida). Matt Gaetz probably might be too radioactive and a tad controversial.

Gaetz would definitely be radioactive for anything other than reelection(or maybe the Senate seat if Rubio is appointed to the Cabinet and he decides to run against whoever is appointed). Biondi would probably be more interested and would be a better fit for the Attorney General's position quite frankly.

Just to give y'all a refresher, in this TL Gaetz resigned from Congress in May of 2023 over the lingering sex trafficking allegations he was ensnared in and decided not to run for President either, and has since moved to California where his wife is originally from. Even if he didn't resign, he still would not have been a unifying nor serious candidate for the thankless job of RNC Chairman. More than likely a state GOP Chairman who thrived in his role will get the job (hint: it's not going to come from Arizona...).

[SaintStan86]

November 11, 2024
BIDEN, DeSANTIS HONOR VETERANS AS McCORMICK CALLS FOR RECOUNT IN PA SENATE RACE
On Veterans' Day, falling this year on a Monday, both President Joe Biden and President-elect Ron DeSantis took time out of their schedules on the first full week since the election to honor America's veterans in separate ceremonies. At Arlington National Cemetery, President Biden laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and gave a speech remarking that "The veterans who sacrificed greatly for our country so that we can all live a life rooted in freedom forever have our gratitude, and America is grateful to their service". The President also stressed the importance of public service, and also stated that "One of things I will miss most about doing these things on this special day is seeing veterans and their families, and Jill and I remarking endlessly how important it is to understand the lessons learned from their service". Both the President and Dr. Jill Biden, who has made advocacy for active military and veterans her primary social cause in her role as First Lady, also visited the gravesite of former President John F. Kennedy and its eternal flame, where they paid their respects in a solemn moment.

Meanwhile in Florida, the outgoing Governor and incoming President spoke before a crowd at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell - located in the heartland of the state between Orlando and Tampa - as he spoke glowingly of the "sacrifices made by our veterans" and also encouraged the crowd "to never forget why our soldiers deserve our utmost respect", all while also stating "While I am certainly going to miss doing a ceremony like this here in Florida, please don't be sad when you see me at the legendary Arlington National Cemetery, because whether it's in Arlington, or California, or New York or right here in Florida, the veterans who are memorialized here all fought bravely for our country, because they all recognized that the freedom we enjoy today is never guaranteed to be free, and resilience tempered by vigilance is the motto by which we all serve to defend freedom". Naval reservist and former JAG DeSantis has held a number of events at Florida National Cemetery and elsewhere honoring veterans, and is widely expected to fill the same role as President at Arlington National Cemetery in his presidency.

While both Biden and DeSantis made headlines for the honoring of America's veterans, retired Army captain and Gulf War veteran-turned-former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick requested a recount for his U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey in anticipation of the result likely remaining above the 0.5 percent threshold required for an automatic recount. As of 5:00PM ET on Monday - less than two hours before the deadline to request one without waiting for the race to be canvassed, McCormick was trailing Casey with 48.7 percent of the vote to the incumbent's 49.3 percent with only scant absentee ballots, including several from military voters overseas, remaining to be counted. The recount was filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh where McCormick resides.

Casey responded to McCormick's request by calling his opponent "a stealth Donald Trump", calling McCormick's efforts at a recount "futile" and vowed that "when the ballots are finally counted, we will remain ahead and Dave McCormick will have no choice but to concede". "Pennsylvanians deserve a proven fighter who will stand up for their families and for our communities, including our veterans who stand to suffer from Dave McCormick's elitist, pro-corporate agenda that will harm them - which is why they rejected McCormick in the first place", Casey proclaimed. Recount requests are also being filed in three other counties where the result was close: Luzerne County, which is home to Wilkes-Barre; Pike County, which is situated in the Poconos and in the fringes of the New York City TV market; and the suburban Philadelphia bellwether of Bucks County.

November 13, 2024
DelBENE WINS U.S. SENATE RACE IN WASHINGTON, DEFEATS McMORRIS RODGERS; DeSANTIS CLINCHES OREGON, FIRST REPUBLICAN VICTOR SINCE REAGAN
With 90 percent of the postmarked ballots now having been returned, Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene was declared the winner of the U.S. Senate race in the state of Washington, with 53.1 percent of the vote to 46.9 percent for her Republican challenger, fellow Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. While the race largely broke along geographic lines, with McMorris Rodgers dominating east of the Cascades in central and eastern Washington and DelBene performing most strongly in the three core counties of the Puget Sound region, including Seattle's King County, Pierce County including Tacoma, and Snohomish County which DelBene won on the basis of her strong support in the Interstate 5 corridor from north of Seattle to Everett. Both southwest Washington (which includes the Evergreen State's share of the Portland, Oregon TV market) and the coastal areas of Western Washington across the Puget Sound from Seattle, including Bremerton and Aberdeen among other communities, decided the election for DelBene, with Clallam County - which gave a majority to Ron DeSantis in his national landslide, giving a slight majority to DelBene. Pennsylvania and Maine both remain undecided, with a recount already being requested in the former and the latter's final result to be announced later this week.

The presidential race remains undecided in Washington, where Ron DeSantis continues to maintain a narrow lead over Kamala Harris with 49 percent to 43 percent. Andrew Yang, running under his Forward ticket, won over 6 percent with a sizable performance in metro Seattle, especially among his fellow Asian Americans. Four of the state's five outstanding congressional races have also been decided, with Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood defeating State Rep. Greg Gilday in the 2nd District stretching from Everett to the Canadian border currently held by Fleetwood's fellow Democrat, retiring Rep. Rick Larsen, conservative first-term GOP Rep. Joe Kent fending off a fierce challenge from Democratic State Rep. Monica Stonier in southwest Washington's 3rd District, and another first-term Republican in Rep. Matt Larkin defeating Democratic trial lawyer Jason Rittereiser in the 8th District stretching from Seattle's eastern suburbs to the Wenatchee area - in central Washington.

Meanwhile, longtime Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell defeated liberal Seattle City Council member Tammy Morales in the diverse, majority-minority 9th District that connects southeast Seattle and most of Bellevue to such suburbs as Kent and Federal Way. A former Republican who became a Democrat in 2012, Ferrell previously ran for King County District Attorney and was endorsed not only by his former party, but also by the district's retiring Rep. Adam Smith and local law enforcement as well as Republican former King County Sheriff and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, who blasted Morales (endorsed by the Justice Democrats and U.S. Rep. and fellow liberal Pramila Jayapal from the nearby Seattle-based 7th District) as "too dangerous to serve the families of the 9th District". The only remaining congressional race is the all-Republican contest in Central Washington's 4th District, where incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse, who hoped that near-unified support from Democrats would help him in his reelection bid for a sixth term for this heavily Republican congressional district, currently trails veterans' advocate and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley with just 49.4 percent to 50.6 for his opponent; Newhouse was one of two remaining out of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump following the 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The Associated Press did make a call in Oregon on Wednesday, giving the state's eight electoral votes DeSantis holds a lead of 50 percent to Harris's 43 percent with 95 percent of ballots postmarked and returned. While only 80 percent of Multnomah County's results have reported in, whatever results remain in the deeply liberal county that is home to Portland are not expected to tip the statewide results in Harris's favor as DeSantis narrowly won the suburban counties of Clackamas and Washington, as well as the exurban county of Marion that includes the state capital of Salem. With the call in Oregon, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984, DeSantis extends his electoral vote total to 408 versus 118 for Harris.

Two districts situated west of the Cascades in Oregon also remain undecided as former State Sen. Chris Edwards continues to trail in the Eugene-based 4th District against first-term Rep. Alek Skarlatos with 48.5 percent of the vote to 48.7 percent for the incumbent; while almost all of Eugene's Lane County - home to the University of Oregon - has reported in, about 30 percent of Benton County - home to Oregon State University - remains to be counted, which could potentially affect the outcome as Benton County is considered to be more liberal than even Lane County - an area Edwards represented in the Oregon Legislature and where he has worked as an administrator at a UO applied science center named for Nike co-founder Phil Knight. In the southwest suburban Portland-based 6th District, Republican Rep. Mike Erickson maintains a slight lead over Cody Reynolds, a businessman and Army veteran who lost the 2022 primary but has run a competitive race since his primary victory earlier this year.

Outside of the Pacific Northwest, two California races were decided on Wednesday as well. In the 25th District anchored in the Coachella Valley, Riverside County Supervisor Manuel Pérez defeated Indio City Councilmember Glenn Miller to hold on to the 25th District of incumbent Democrat Raul Ruiz, who ran for the U.S. Senate, while in the 43rd District based in southern parts of Los Angeles and such historically Black inner suburbs as Inglewood and Compton, former State Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, the daughter of former Rep. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (who in giving birth to Autumn in 1973 became the first incumbent Congresswoman to give birth while in office), narrowly defeated former State Sen. Isadore Hall III in an all-Democrat battle to succeed retiring Democrat Maxine Waters. The only outstanding race in California is the all-Democrat race to succeed the retiring Mike Thompson in the 4th District connecting Sacramento's progressive-tinged western suburbs in Yolo County to most of Solano County and the Napa Valley, where Napa County Supervisor Ryan Gregory (who is endorsed by Thompson), narrowly leads State Sen. Bill Dodd whose outsized support from Republicans (of which Dodd used to be one before his election to the State Senate) has kept the race incredibly close at this point.

November 14, 2024
PRESIDENT BIDEN MEETS WITH DeSANTIS IN OVAL OFFICE
Thursday was an auspicious day for incoming President Ron DeSantis, as the Florida Governor met with President Joe Biden at the White House in their first face-to-face meeting since the election. When asked about whatever jitters may exist between the two men in terms of presidential stylings but also most especially policy, DeSantis remarked "Well, I don't really expect much in the way of differences from Biden, but I will say I will not hold back when it comes to doing what's right and saying what needs to be said. Obviously, Joe wants to feel a little more restrained, but I think the people who voted for me, including myself, would like to see their President tell it like it is - of course, Donald Trump fit that bill like a glove".

The two also exchange pleasantries between each other with DeSantis emphasizing the importance of curtailing the national debt as well as maintaining a "lean, mean defense machine" that DeSantis argues will be focused on both serving the needs of the U.S. military and defending the country from China and other potential foreign adversaries. Biden also expressed hope that whatever healthcare changes DeSantis wishes to see will not negatively affect Social Security and the Affordable Care Act that was passed under Biden's one-time contemporary, Barack Obama, to which DeSantis replied "I came to Congress when Barack Obama was President, I had to deal with Obama then, and I'm sure he'll appreciate the work I do in ensuring all Americans get to have health care as good as we get here in Washington - perhaps even better", with DeSantis also vowing to make infrastructure a priority: "No one wants to drive on pothole-filled roads and everyone would like to get onboard whatever magic carpet ride Elon Musk dreams of, and of course the less we taxpayers have to pay, the better".

Notably, at one point during the visit Biden and DeSantis, both former baseball players in their younger years, went outside to play a game of catch with both often remarking positively about each other's abilities to throw; at one point though the game was marred when Biden notably threw the baseball towards a window behind the Rose Garden, breaking it in the process, though they did continue for a few more minutes. The White House visit also comes as both existing members of Congress and incoming ones are set to arrive in Washington on Monday, the former group to do some unfinished business in the lame duck days of the outgoing Congress (with some also beginning to pack up their offices), and the latter to attend freshmen orientation with well over 100 new members of Congress set to attend in what is to believed to be the largest such freshman class in recent memory, with some of the soon-to-be vacant offices being located in the more desirable Rayburn House Office Building.

The visit with President Biden was not only the newsmaker on this day. Also on Thursday, NBC announced that next week's edition of Saturday Night Live, set to air November 23rd, will be hosted by the incoming President. The iconic show's legendary Executive Producer, Lorne Michaels, is set to retire at the end of this season, which is also the show's 50th, and in a statement noted that "we were planning on inviting the presidential winner to come on our show right before Thanksgiving regardless of who won the election"; while many speculate that the show's cast would have been "more thrilled" to see Vice President Kamala Harris host the upcoming broadcast, Michaels and much of the cast have no regrets about their decision and noted that former President Donald Trump appeared on the show in November 2015, almost exactly one year before his 2016 victory, in an episode that turned out to be the highest-rated for that season.

Over 200 NBC affiliates are set to air President-elect DeSantis's appearance guest hosting SNL, including Jacksonville, Florida's WTLV, where incoming First Lady Casey DeSantis was once host of a daily talk show. DeSantis reportedly has obtained the consulting services of comedian and SNL alum Dennis Miller, who served as anchor of the show's iconic Weekend Update segment from 1985 to 1991 (dovetailing with the second term of Ronald Reagan and most of George H.W. Bush's term as President) and later became a frequent guest on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News Channel show The O'Reilly Factor in his post-SNL career as his political views took a conservative turn, in order to prepare himself for his appearance on the show and "build up a lighter side of himself that most Americans are not used to seeing".

Next: The first shoes drop in the Cabinet sweepstakes...and Live from New York IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

[SaintStan86]

@President Stanton,
The National Security Team which consists of Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Advisor, Ambassador to the United Nations, Department of National Intelligence, CIA Director & FBI Director will almost certainly be named first. Given President-elect DeSantis is all new to this he will probably heavily rely on Andy Cards Recommodations. If you look at China consistently making threats to the Country and all these sort of things you need some proven people to counter that and not some nobodys and that's why Card comes in handy there.

As far as Mick Mulvaney is concerned and possibly Card himself I would not be surprised if both of them get named as White House Counsel & Deputy Counsel (the Roles Pat Cippolone & Patrick Philbin had under Trump) after the Transition Period at least for the first year of the DeSantis Presidency given that incoming White House CoS Byron Donalds is completely new to this as well.

Mulvaney will be tasked more of putting the Domestic Cabinet together.

And yes, Christopher Wray is almost certainly going to be fired as FBI Director.

At the same time President-elect DeSantis met with President Biden & Casey DeSantis met with Jill Biden I suspect that Vice President elect Haley met with Republican Congressional Leaders such as the 3 Johns (Cornyn, Thune and Barrasso) as well as incoming House Speaker Steve Scalise & Majority Leader Elise Stefanik.

Except I'm not certain that Card and Mulvaney will be in the Executive Office down the line, and DeSantis is not going to do something about the FBI until after he is sworn in. But I'm certain the moment Wray crosses the line - as expected - with him he's fried crispy.

Also, as far as House Leadership is concerned, Stefanik is chairing Education and the Workforce, a goal she has long sought IRL. Ashley Hinson is the Republican Conference Chair now in this TL, and the Whip race where Jim Banks is now Majority Leader is going to be a rough-and-tumble battle, but we shall see...

[SaintStan86]

For those who may be wondering, including the committee(s) that will be confirming them:

Economic Security
Treasury - Finance
Interior - Energy and Natural Resources
Agriculture - Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Commerce - Commerce, Science and Transportation
Labor - HELP
HHS - HELP and Finance
HUD - Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Transportation - Commerce, Science and Transportation
Energy - Energy and Natural Resources
Education - HELP
Veterans Affairs - Veterans Affairs
EPA Administrator - Environment and Public Works
SBA Administrator - Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors - Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
OSTP Director - Commerce, Science and Transportation
OMB Director - Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget
U.S. Trade Representative - Finance

National Security
State - Foreign Relations
Defense - Armed Services
Attorney General - Judiciary
Homeland Security - Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Director of National Intelligence - Intelligence
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - Foreign Relations

NOTE 1: HELP = Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
NOTE 2: OSTP = Office of Science and Technology Policy
NOTE 3: OMB = Office of Management and Budget
NOTE 4: The National Security Advisor serves at the pleasure of the President.

[SaintStan86]

November 18, 2024
DeSANTIS NAMES O'BRIEN SECRETARY OF STATE, OTHER APPOINTMENTS
On Monday, President-elect Ron DeSantis announced the first members of his Cabinet starting with Secretary of State, nominating former National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien to serve as his Secretary of State. Appointed in 2019 by former President Donald Trump to succeeded John Bolton, the Los Angeles-born and UCLA and Berkeley-educated O'Brien, who also served as a Major in the JAG Corps of the Army Reserve, is a traditional foreign policy conservative who took a hard line on China during his time as NSA, and has defended the intelligence behind Trump's takedown of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani, as well as criticism of China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also helped to secure peace agreements between Serbia and Kosovo (alongside then-acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell), as well as between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, along with four other Arab nations mostly in the Middle East, as part of the Abraham Accords. Before serving as NSA, O'Brien served as an envoy who released unjustly detained American prisoners and hostages on various occasions during the Trump administration, and for a time in the 1990s served as a legal officer with the United Nations in Geneva.

In announcing his appointment, DeSantis called O'Brien's service to the country "filled with distinction and courage" and stated that the appointment "represents a clear signal that it will not be business as usual at the State Department anymore". O'Brien thanked DeSantis for granting him "the greatest opportunity to serve in what will be the greatest administration this country has ever seen", and called DeSantis "the latest in a long line of great Republican leaders who focus on defending the country and not defending from ourselves, while also promoting peaceful negotiation and leadership that is sorely needed". O'Brien also acknowledged his lack of musical candor in contrast to outgoing Secretary of State Tony Blinken: "I may not have songs I can play on Spotify, but at least I know how to have a good time - when I'm off the job of course", but otherwise stressed the importance of "making peace through strength our motto once again".

In addition to O'Brien, DeSantis also named his Director of National Intelligence, selecting six-term U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, who was just reelected to a seventh term in Utah's 2nd District, which includes Salt Lake City along with its northern suburbs and much of rural western and southern Utah. A steadfast defender of Trump, Stewart is an energy and environmental consultant and retired Air Force major who has served on the House Select Intelligence Committee and is also a New York Times-bestselling novelist (most of work involving techno-thrillers and historical novels) who also co-wrote a memoir for noted child abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart and even co-authored with his wife another story that eventually turned into a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Stewart's appointment will likely trigger. As is the case with his incoming Chief of Staff Byron Donalds, in which DeSantis in his outgoing role as Florida's Governor issued a special election to take place sometime after his inauguration, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has also announced plans to hold a special election once Stewart's seat becomes vacant.

DeSantis also named his National Security Advisor, selecting Dina Powell, a former Deputy National Security Advisor, to serve in this role. While her husband, GOP Pennsylvania U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick, continues to make headlines over the impending recount of his race against incumbent Bob Casey Jr., Powell's credentials in past national security roles both under George W. Bush and Donald Trump are believed to have given her the edge over other candidates, though Powell argued that "my role is independent of what my husband is doing over there and what this administration will do, and my prerogative is to solely focus on ensuring that we have the best intelligence to counter our enemies in defense of our country".

Lastly, DeSantis also chose his U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the same role employed by his incoming Vice President Nikki Haley, who joined DeSantis at the press conference. That responsibility will fall to Ric Grenell, the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany under Trump who also served as an acting Director of National Intelligence at one point, and who recently ran in California as a candidate for U.S. Senate, losing an all-Republican "top two" battle earlier this month to outgoing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Grenell, who stands to become the first openly gay Ambassador to the UN, has years of experience both at the State Department and the UN, and also has served as an advisor to the Republican National Committee on outreach to LGBT voters. "The threats our country faces both here at home and overseas warrants the need for a strong and patriotic voice to defend our shared interests and values as a country, and at the United Nations both in New York and Geneva, that's what they will get from me", said Grenell in his remarks.

While today's appointments reflect the nature and extent as to how a DeSantis administration will handle foreign policy, it is far from the only such meeting. Future unveilings will take place stressing other parts of the upcoming administration, with a focus on domestic policy, judicial matters and social priorities. "These appointments represent the pinnacle of success for these individuals, but it is a duty that goes beyond service to the country and speaks to our better angels in the larger world", DeSantis proclaimed.

November 19, 2024
BENNETT EKES OUT WIN IN MAINE SENATE CONTEST AS OPPONENT DEMANDS OWN RECOUNT; BOGNET CONCEDES DEFEAT IN PA REELECTION
On Tuesday, two weeks after the polls closed nationwide, two divergent races saw their final results tallied in with a recount now being demanded in one of those races. That would be the Senate contest in Maine to fill the seat of retiring independent Angus King, where Republican State Sen. and former state GOP Chairman Rick Bennett received 50.4 percent of the vote to 49.6 for his Democratic opponent, Rep. Chellie Pingree, who hoped to reclaim the seat outright for Democrats for the first time since 1994, when Sen. George Mitchell retired (though King himself has caucused with the Democrats during his entire tenure in the Senate). Though Maine law requires five business days after the election concludes for a candidate to be eligible to request a recount, Pingree has called for her own recount, citing continued absentee returns that her campaign argues "appear to favor her", as well as the fact that ranked-choice voting resulted in Mainers waiting days for a majority winner to be declared. Bennett called Pingree's request for a recount "futile" and argued that "the people of Maine have decided who their Senator is going to be, and the margin is big enough to where effectively she's going to have a hard time seeing those magical votes come upstream". Still, Gov. Janet Mills stressed the importance of "counting every vote in this race" and noted that the Maine Legislature is "working on efforts in this coming session to address the long wait times for results to be announced".

Meanwhile, while the recount request in Pennsylvania of GOP U.S. Senate nominee and financier Dave McCormick is proceeding along with endorsement by Gov. Doug Mastriano (and despite strong objections from McCormick's incumbent opponent, Sen. Bob Casey Jr.), Republican Rep. Jim Bognet conceded a narrow defeat in his northeast PA-based 8th District, where he lost with 48.5 percent to 49.4 percent for the man Bognet defeated in 2022, former Rep. Matt Cartwright, who called Bognet "gracious" in his concession and crowed "Dave McCormick, it's time for you to follow suit and take your millions of dollars in dirty money back to Pittsburgh, or better yet, back to Connecticut or the DC swamp you're moving to with your trophy wife", referring to McCormick's wife Dina Powell, who was just appointed to be President-elect Ron DeSantis's National Security Advisor. Cartwright's comment towards Powell drew controversy especially from more Republican-friendly media sources including Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who called Cartwright "a sexist pig" and called on the Democrat to apologize for "an insanely hypocritical attack against a dedicated national security leader who has put our country first before and will again".

Some Fox News viewers and DeSantis loyalists, in response, have petitioned for the incoming President to "consider a role" for Bognet in his administration in response to Cartwright's comments. Cartwright's victory is believed to have been attributed to the strong showing by Sen. Casey in the district; Casey is a Scranton native who is deeply tied to the city and surrounding Lackawanna County, which more than provided Cartwright with his victory margin in the district with the rest of the counties favoring Bognet

Among other outstanding House races, Republican Sarah Palin has clinched a second term in her third consecutive close election (defeating former Rep. Mary Peltola in their third-straight contest, the first of which Peltola won in a 2022 special election only to lose in that year's midterms to Palin), as did Ryan Zinke in his western Montana-based 1st District, where he defeated State Sen. Ellie Boldman in a close race that was decided by a few hundred votes; Boldman has vowed to run again in 2026. And in California's 4th District, north of San Francisco in California's wine country, Napa County Supervisor Ryan Gregory narrowly defeated State Sen. Bill Dodd on the basis of Gregory's endorsement by retiring incumbent Democrat Mike Thompson, as well as sustained attacks by his camp against Dodd over his Republican past and what Gregory's camp derisively called "a pro-corporation voting record that puts special interests ahead of the people of California".

November 20, 2024
FINAL PIECE OF PRESIDENTIAL PUZZLE FILLED AS DeSANTIS WINS WASHINGTON
On Wednesday, outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won the final piece of the presidential electoral puzzle, winning Washington's 12 electoral votes and becoming the first Republican to win the Evergreen State since 1984 with 48.4 percent to 42.9 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris, who struggled under the weight of a campaign that many viewed as lackadaisical, lingering issues with the Biden administration despite a brief respite during the middle of 2022 after a series of Biden policy victories intended to benefit Democrats in what turned out to be a brutal midterm, and the strong performance of Andrew Yang and his Forward movement, which won 6.7 percent of the vote including over 12 percent in King County, home to Seattle, but otherwise failed to crack five percent east of the Cascades.

Not surprisingly, the projected final electoral result for DeSantis - 420 electoral votes - combined with the date being November 20, 2024, drew plenty on social media of attention given Washington's liberal marijuana laws, where adults 21 and up can possess up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use - various social media posts have images of cannabis and elephants juxtaposed with each other, while tweets have even shown cannabis plant emojis mixed in with conservative and Republican hashtags (including the DeSantis campaign's #FreedomMatters hashtag. Indeed, one gathering of libertarian-leaning Republicans in Seattle reportedly even hosting a "weed party" complete with patrons smoking marijuana, drinking marijuana-infused cocktails and even consuming pot brownies to celebrate DeSantis's victory. In Florida, DeSantis endorsed the use of medical marijuana, but has opposed recreational use due to uncertainties with the law enforcement consequences of unregulated marijuana use and possession. It is not clear what DeSantis's stance on the issue, as well as the broader and controversial War on Drugs, will be and may depend on who DeSantis selects to become his administration's director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy - the so-called "Drug Czar".

In addition to the decided presidential result in Washington state, three races in the Pacific Northwest were also decided. In Washington's 4th District, anchored in the Tri-Cities region including Pasco, Richland and Kennewick, as well as the Yakima area and the western fringes of the Spokane TV market, incumbent five-term Republican Dan Newhouse went down in defeat, losing to 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and veterans' advocate Tiffany Smiley by more than two percent as remaining ballots postmarked by Election Day broke slightly in Smiley's favor. With Newhouse's defeat, moderate GOP Rep. David Valadao, who won reelection in his Democratic-leaning 22nd District in California's Central Valley, is now the only remaining Republican out of the 10 who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for the second time for "incitement of insurrection" in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In Oregon, former State Sen. Chris Edwards narrowly defeated Rep. Alek Skarlatos with 49.1 percent to the Republican's 47.9 percent on the basis of Edwards' strong support in Benton County, whose reports finally came in including several hundred ballots from Oregon State University. Skarlatos conceded defeat, arguing that while "I am disappointed that we did not fight harder to defeat our opponent, and yes I do often question the integrity of some of these late-breaking votes, the voters of the district unfortunately have spoken and I wish Chris Edwards the very best in representing this district going forward", noting that the margin of victory for Edwards far exceeds the 0.2 percent required for an automatic recount and admitting that "we knew Benton County was going to be hard, but in every county we gave it our all". Republicans did manage to hang onto the 6th District in Portland's southwest suburbs, where freshman Mike Erickson won a second term with 50.7 percent, defeating businessman and Army veteran Cody Reynolds who won 47.6 percent.

November 23, 2024
DeSANTIS HAS THE LAST LAUGH ON 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE'
While much of the country was focused on preparing for their Thanksgiving plans the coming week, President-elect Ron DeSantis was in New York City for the last few days, appearing on NBC's long-running sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, as the guest host for the week. First appearing in the cold open, where Colin Jost - playing his portrayal of the outgoing Florida Governor - walks to his "desk" only to encounter the real DeSantis who chases him off, DeSantis began his night by giving a lesson of sorts on "authenticity" and "feeding my pet mules Diet Coke infused with 100% Florida oranges - which keeps them from committing voter fraud", among other quips, before being joined by his wife Casey (the incoming First Lady) who thanked her husband for "stressing the importance of not blurring the lines between humor and dark reality in ways that a Baby Yoda can understand" before saying "For all of us here at First Coast News, I'm Casey Black DeSantis (the name she used as a presenter at NBC's Jacksonville affiliate, WTLV). Thank you for joining us and..." with the President-elect joining her in saying those famous seven words: "LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!"

Continuing with his opening monologue, DeSantis made a serious of quips about his state, his election travels, his golf game ("Admittedly, Mason qualifies for the PGA Tour - something I can't even get a slightly failing score in even with a good handicap", and even about his feud with Disney over the "Don't Say Gay" bill: "My intention was never to harm gays or lesbians and everyone in between, because I had many of them rooting for me, reminding me that all the Disney executives in California fed them was expired and moldy cheese left sitting out in the Florida Keys", before SNL player James Austin Johnson - in his portrayal of President Biden - threw a baseball towards the SNL set and breaking a window in the process, much like the actual President Biden did during a game of catch he played with DeSantis outside the Rose Garden during DeSantis's White House visit. Johnson then responded "You suck, chump!", to which DeSantis responded "You call that a throw? I used to play Little League in Williamsport and led the Yale baseball team, let me show you how it's done!".

DeSantis then proceeded to throw the same baseball (handed back to him by a member of the Saturday Night Live Band) back to Johnson who pretend to writhe in pain when the ball hit his chest and later responded "You knocked the wind out of me, Governor!", as he proceeded to run around the studio with DeSantis chasing him before Johnson proceeded to say "Please don't hurt me, Governor! I promise to not call the FBI on you..." back on the SNL stage, as DeSantis offered a can of Diet Coke mixed in with orange juice (confirmed to be made with Florida oranges), which Johnson drank and then dumped over himself and went "Whooooo! Free beer!" as DeSantis remarked "So much for that Amtrak ride back home..." before remarking "We have a great show tonight!" as he proceeded to appear in a number of other skits during the show (including serving as a guest anchor on Weekend Update), plus a digital short where former SNL player Andy Samberg and his comedy group, The Lonely Island, made a cameo appearance in a short that drew comparisons to the opening sequence of The Sopranos, with many of the New York City stops replaced with "road trip" scenes from Tallahassee to eventually the White House.

The folk rock band The Lumineers provided the musical entertainment for the night, playing two songs from their newest album, as DeSantis closed out the night attempting to stop James Austin Johnson's impersonation of Donald Trump from interrupting him with lighthearted insults, responding by saying to Johnson "I'm bigger and wiser than you are, smartass - now sit down and accept your loss, snowflake!", with Johnson giving a pouty face and sniff similar to the ones used by Alec Baldwin in his portrayal of the former President. Despite obvious political differences and jabs at his performance as Governor backstage, DeSantis was well received by the cast and Lorne Michaels, who thanked the President-elect and incoming First Lady for "being incredibly charitable for someone like you, enjoyed having you guys over tonight" and even said "We hope to not offend you and we hope you don't get offended!" before DeSantis and his wife retired to their hotel room at the "breath of fresh air right next to Central Park" known as the JW Marriott Essex House. According to Live+Same Day ratings counts from Nielsen, the night's broadcast of Saturday Night Live had a share of 8.4 - arguably the highest of the season, with the next highest rated new episode (from the previous week) clocking in at 5.6, and nearly double the season average of 4.4.

Next post: One last turkey pardon for Joe Biden, as the Senate nears completion...

[SaintStan86]

I can't understand the Grenell pick either, no pluses there; unless it's a nod to the LGBT community; I think in selecting both O'Brien and Powell, DeSantis has played more than enough homage to the Trumpian element. Grenell's confirmation hearings, as Democrats will be trawling for potential flash-points, and his election denying will be source of aggravation. Also DeSantis may think he has the political muscle to give Grenell the UN job, it's problematic and if I were him, I'd steer clear of such a controversial nomination. It's a unnecessary distraction. Krobach for Homeland Security possibly. If anyone is thinking of Ted Cruz, possibly the worst choice possible.

I mean it could be an f-you to the Islamic countries

Oh yeah forgot,  being gay in the Muslim world is a no no and that being said, Grenell at the UN is certainly a red rag to the proverbial bull! You could say DeSantis is saying to Muslims "Hey if you're intolerant bigots, well guess what? I don't give a f**kahstan if Grenell being at the UN upsets your sensibilities such as they are! Bite me!"

Except when word came of an Islamphobic tweet IRL by Kathy Barnette, this is how Grenell responded:

"There are millions of Muslims who are conservative Republicans.

People who are on the front lines calling out radical Islam.

Anyone saying the American government should ban a religion is unfit for public office."

 - From Grenell's Twitter account via his iPhone, at 6:38 PM on May 11, 2022.

[SaintStan86]

November 25, 2024
McCORMICK RECOUNTS CONTINUE AS COUNTIES CANVASS VOTES
While several counties across Pennsylvania have already canvassed their county-level results for the 2024 election, including the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and his Republican opponent Dave McCormick, who has requested recounts for his election in several counties across the state, particularly in ones where the gap between President-elect Ron DeSantis and himself is notably wide or where a sizable "whiff of voter fraud" exists. However, while recounts do remain ongoing, a number of higher-profile counties, including Harrisburg's Dauphin County and suburban Philadelphia's Montgomery County, have decided against conducting such a recount as other counties, including Lancaster County in the heart of Amish country, as well as suburban Pittsburgh's Westmoreland County - a stronghold for McCormick, have already canvassed their results.

As of Monday, the results show Casey with 49.3 percent of the vote to 48.7 for McCormick. By contrast, DeSantis won 52 percent to 42 percent for Kamala Harris and 5 percent for Andrew Yang, with DeSantis outperforming McCormick in blue-collar northeast Pennsylvania, where Scranton-born Casey has deep ties. The results in Scranton's Lackawanna County, where Democrats generally outperformed the presidential ticket even when combined with the votes of Yang, also played a hand in the defeat of first-term Republican Rep. Jim Bognet, who narrowly lost to former Rep. Matt Cartwright in a rematch of their 2022 race. While updated totals won't be released until the recounts in individual counties are complete, many election law experts do not expect the recount to flip the result for McCormick.

November 27, 2024
BIDEN PARDONS ONE FINAL THANKSGIVING TURKEY; DeSANTIS HEADS OUT TO MAR-A-LAGO FOR THANKSGIVING EVE DINNER WITH TRUMP
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden hosted his last ceremonial Thanksgiving turkey pardon at the White House, pardoning a pair of 42 lb broad breasted white turkeys named Cass and Errol (a play on the dish term "Casserole") in a ceremony that was televised during the afternoon and carried live on cable news networks such as Fox News and CNN. In announcing the pardon of the turkeys, originally from Pennsylvania, Biden acknowledged the importance of "celebrating time with the people you love" while also extolling the values of the turkey farmers: "The turkey farmers of this great nation are a major reason why millions of families get to enjoy Thanksgiving this year, and their sacrifices and hard work to feed America's breadbasket are to be celebrated". He also expressed no regrets about his presidency and further added "America's best days are straight ahead, and these holidays are a great time for us to celebrate America and what she stands for".

For Thanksgiving, the Bidens intend to spend their Thanksgiving with their extended family at their vacation house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with his children Hunter and Ashley (the latter of whom is Joe's daughter with Jill) and his grandchildren. When asked about what he will miss most about being President, Biden cited "Being able to relate to millions of Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving together from a position of leadership - both during my time as a Senator and in a capacity of executive leadership, but what matters more is family, and family is what keeps me going". The Bidens have also requested privacy from the media for their Thanksgiving celebration, intending to celebrate "like any normal family would without the paparazzi chasing them", with additional Secret Service detail provided as security at the president's personal expense.

Meanwhile, the incoming President and his family headed further down the Florida peninsula to attend a Thanksgiving Eve dinner at Mar-a-Lago, hosted by former President Donald Trump and his family. During the dinner, Trump remarked endlessly about President-elect Ron DeSantis's appearance over the weekend on Saturday Night Live, particularly how DeSantis "literally schooled the guy pretending to be me about winning and losing, and then pretending to be Sleepy Joe", and considered it quite 'remarkable' that "Ron wasn't chased out of the room by Lorne Michaels - I probably wouldn't have lasted an hour in there knowing how it went then", referring to his own guest hosting of Saturday Night Live in 2015 during the early months of his presidential campaign. Trump also admitted "I haven't spoken to Larry David since then", referring to the comedian and former Seinfeld executive producer-turned-Curb Your Enthusiasm star who portrayed Bernie Sanders on the iconic NBC late-night sketch comedy show. (Coincidentally one of Trump's friendliest allies, former advisor Steve Bannon, continues to make money from reruns of Seinfeld courtesy of his investment in the show through its production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.)

The visit with Trump wasn't without the sort of "fatherly advice" that was expected for DeSantis, with the latter being advised to "hold the America First faithful in your thoughts every time you think through the issues facing the country", "never forget the people who put you in office and who got you there", and stressed the importance of "standing up to the swamp that is only there to bring you and your family down". Trump also made rank admissions on shortcomings within his administration, singling out former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as "someone who has thrown conservatives under the bus time after time and made Republicans out to look 'worse than the Democrats'". DeSantis was unsurprised by Trump's comments, vowing that "John Cornyn will know better than to screw over the very people who put me in office. I beat their guy in 2018 by running as a conservative, and I will succeed in Washington by governing as one", also referring to his 2018 rival, former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who DeSantis defeated in the Republican gubernatorial primary that year.

Notably absent from the discussion was the discussion surrounding 2020, save for Trump's continued assertion that "the election was swept out from under me from vile forces who hated me and will hate you no matter how good your deeds are". With DeSantis having blown out his opponents in 2024 for the most part, the memory of the 2020 election is now largely viewed in retrospect as (in Trump's words) "an aberration from our long-shared goal to 'Make America Great Again'". Trump also saw general approval with DeSantis's picks, calling would-be Secretary of State Robert O'Brien "someone who stands to become a great leader for our interests in the world" and defended his choice of Ric Grenell for Ambassador to the United Nations: "They can say all they want about the steal, but Grenell is going to make those clowns at the UN sh*t in their pants every time they try to throw America under the bus with help from China".

Perhaps in regards to California, Trump praised DeSantis for "building a great team for Republicans in California to build around with Robert O'Brien and Ric Grenell leading the way", and called on DeSantis to "remind Kevin McCarthy that the Republican gains in Kamala's backyard are 'just the beginning'", and argued that "Harry and Meghan should have their crowns defrocked and their celebrity privileges taken away for the awful things they advocated for - for all I care, they can go work for Kamala and whatever excuse of a 'charity' she has in mind for them". The DeSantises plan to spend their Thanksgiving with

Across the country Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving, with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Dog Show, three NFL games and countless Thanksgiving dinners going on simultaneously. Then comes a weekend full of shopping, as radio stations turn over their schedules to nothing but Christmas music. As Small Business Saturday, a recent shopping holiday created in part by American Express where shoppers are encouraged to patronize small businesses, commences across the country, a Senate result has become clear enough where no amount of difference would have changed the result...

November 30, 2024
PINGREE CONCEDES DEFEAT IN MAINE AS RECOUNT SHOWS BENNETT STILL AHEAD
On Saturday, following a last-minute recount of votes that failed to move the needle let alone change the outcome, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree conceded defeat in her very close bid for the U.S. Senate on Saturday afternoon. The announcement came just hours after the results of the recount - released just before Thanksgiving - failed to change the outcome projected ten days ago by most media sources, only to be retracted following Pingree's request for a recount being granted by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. The result, however, did not change much as Pingree remained at 49.6 percent, behind Republican State Sen. Rick Bennett's 50.4 percent; in fact, the recount resulted in Bennett gaining a few dozen more votes than previously, and attorneys for Pingree admitted that "nothing more could be done to change the outcome" with almost all of the absentee ballots now reported in.

In a press conference held on Saturday afternoon outside her home in the island town of North Haven, the 69-year-old Pingree conceded defeat with her family by her side, and thanked the people of her southern-based 1st District, which includes Portland and surrounding suburbs, for "giving me the opportunity to serve you in Congress for 16 years" and wished the best to Bennett going forward. Following the speech, Bennett thanked Pingree as well as the Senator he will be replacing, retiring Sen. Angus King, for their "unmatched record of service and accomplishments to Mainers that will forever persist for generations to come", while also remarking "The victory seen here and across the nation is proof that Americans are done with business as usual in Washington, and I intend to serve as a Senator for all Mainers".

With Bennett now projected to be the winner of his Senate race, the seat effectively returns to the Republicans (who had previously held it for three terms with Olympia Snowe from 1995 to 2013), even though Democrats themselves had never really held the seat since before Snowe given King chose to only caucus with the Democrats while being elected as an independent. Gov. Mills has vowed to reform the electoral process to "make it to where the final stage of election returns is counted instantly", pointing to Australia as "the example that we need to be following as a state, and as a country, going forward when it comes to our elections, because you have a right to know right away, not several days later, who your elected officials are going to be".

Republicans will now have 65 Senators in the upcoming Congress, the most ever in the history of the Senate, to 34 for the Democrats including a Progressive from Vermont that will be caucusing with the latter. The only outstanding race remains in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Bob Casey Jr. has maintained a narrow lead over his Republican challenger, Dave McCormick. Recounts requested by the McCormick campaign and other supporters are ongoing in several counties where the results are being disputed, though as some key counties have already chosen to canvass the results, McCormick's window to change the outcome is increasingly seen as diminished, with many Democrats calling on McCormick to concede the race. Republican Gov. Doug Mastriano, however, has encouraged counties to "keep counting the results until a fair outcome is reached", despite increasing odds against the outcome flipping in the Republicans' favor.

December 2, 2024
DeSANTIS TEASES 'CYBER MONDAY' TO HIGHLIGHT ECONOMIC PICKS FOR CABINET
While most of the country was shopping online on what has become known as "Cyber Monday", President-elect Ron DeSantis took the opportunity to highlight key members of his incoming economic team at a meeting held at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in Kiawah Island, S.C. Donning a sweater vest underneath a sportcoat, the outgoing Florida Gov. highlighted the importance of "creating a sustainable and productive economy that will make the United States the envy of the world once again" and called a strong economy "important to our national psyche and to our collective security".

Topping the list of DeSantis's latest appointments is Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for Commerce Secretary. A former McKinsey & Company consultant who later became co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, Youngkin received his Bachelor's degrees in managerial studies and mechanical engineering from Rice University (where he played college basketball) and an MBA from Harvard Business School prior to his eventual consulting and executive roles, and in 2021 became Governor of Virginia after a hard-fought race against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe that turned on Youngkin's vow to rein in "unaccountable school boards" that became lightning rods for controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as lingering issues with Virginia's economy under eight years of complete Democratic control. Youngkin, who cannot run for reelection as Virginia law prohibits Governors from serving consecutive terms, called DeSantis "a once-in-a-lifetime Governor whose governing philosophy served as the inspiration for my own leadership in the Commonwealth of Virginia". Youngkin has largely maintained relatively healthy approval ratings for most of his tenure as Governor, largely hovering between 45 and 55 percent in a state once thought of as "lost" to the Democrats due to rapid growth in the largely Democratic Northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, D.C.

Another key appointee of DeSantis, one even more familiar to the crowd of media and other dignitaries present at Kiawah Island is for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. Reelected to a second full term in 2022 (which he vowed would be his last political campaign), Scott called DeSantis "one of the most forward-thinking, visionary Governors in our nation's history" and called his appointment as HUD Secretary "the pinnacle of my distinguished career, one defined by service to the people and overcoming barriers once thought to be insurmountable". A financial advisor and owner of his own Allstate insurance franchise in Charleston, Scott has long been viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party for years and also serves on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee (among others), at one point even serving as Chairman of the subcommittee dealing directly with HUD. While Scott says he will miss serving as South Carolina's junior Senator, Scott expressed "eternal gratitude" to his fellow South Carolinians and vowed "The iniquities that divide us as a country demand a leader who will break those barriers, and as your next HUD Secretary, we are going to make the values of our communities mean something again".

DeSantis on Monday also announced his picks for Transportation Secretary, selecting former President Donald Trump's last Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in Nicole Nason to serve in this role, as well as for Administrator of the Small Business Administration, where he has selected Brad Close, the President of the National Federation of Independent Business which has become a force in both Beltway politics and election campaigns, endorsing DeSantis and dozens of other Republicans in races across the nation; though Close's personal political views are not well-known, most if not all of NFIB's endorsements have gone to Republicans. Other appointees announced include Steve Moore, co-founder of the Club for Growth, for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors; Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering for Tesla, for Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and recently defeated Rep. Jim Bognet to chair the Export-Import Bank of the United States. With the exception of Baglino, whose appointment is viewed as a nod to Tesla kingpin Elon Musk, these three appointees all have past experience in the Trump administration.

When asked about the appointments of the incoming DeSantis administration, incoming Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the picks, pointing out that "the transition team has been working very hard to build a Cabinet that speaks for the American people" and noted that the focus is on "who these people represent in the present tense, versus whatever past indiscretions may come about". For instance, when pressed by appointee to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ric Grenell, McEnany pointed to Grenell's experience as U.S. Ambassador to Germany as well as his past work both in a national security capacity and at the UN, and noted that whatever concerns regarding the 2020 election Grenell had "are not germane to the position he has been appointed to, as the unfortunate result of 2020 is a merely domestic matter".

Unsurprisingly, some critics of Republicans in general, but most particularly those who questioned the result of the 2020 election, were not amused; however, one source did state that "As bad as the cries of 'election integrity' look on the surface, the reality is 2024 is a completely different cycle and the issues surrounding Kamala Harris's shocking defeat are more of her own doing and Andrew Yang's than that of overzealous Republicans who spent the last four years crowing about an allegedly 'stolen' election - the fact that Doug Mastriano is more concerned about whether or not Dave McCormick wins his Senate race than whatever happened four years ago is just one textbook example of how 2020 really doesn't matter anymore."

Next: It's getting pretty crowded in the Capitol basement, plus DeSantis makes his next moves for his Cabinet - and himself...

[SaintStan86]

President-elect DeSantis Cabinet thus far (pending Confirmations)

Secretary of State: Robert O'Brien
Ambassador to the United Nations: Ric Grenell
Director of National Intelligence: Chris Stewart
CIA Director: TBD (To be determined)
Attorney General: TBD (To be determined)
Department of Homeland Security: TBD (To be determined)
Secretary of Commerce: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin
Secretary of Transportation: Nicole Nason
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: Brad Close
Secretary of the Treasury: TBD (To be determined)
Secretary of Education: TBD (To be determined)
Secretary of the Interior: TBD (To be determined)
Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency: TBD (To be determined)
NASA Administrator: TBD (To be determined)
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development: South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
Secretary of Health & Human Services:

Non-Cabinet Level Appointments

White House Chief of Staff: Byron Donalds
White House Press Secretary: Kayleigh McEnany
White House Communications Director: Christina Pushaw
White House Counsel (Head of WH Legal Team): TBD (To be determined)
Chair Council of Economic Advisors: Steve Moore
National Security Advisor: Dina Powell



When it says DeSantis makes a move for quote "Himself" it probably means he resigns his Governorship paving the way for his Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez to take over as Governor of Florida as first Woman and first Cuban-Hispanic.
And if Youngkin gets confirmed his Lt. Governor Winsome Sears will create even more History becoming the first Black Female Republican Governor in the History of the Country.

Given how this is going I wouldn't be surprised if indeed Pam Bondi gets the AG Spot. That move probably would be praised by Conservatives but shredded by Liberals.

One thing though is for sure: Given the extraordinary large Republican-House Majority President DeSantis will likely be secure from any Investigations for the entirety of his Presidency. He basically can do what he wants and no one can ask Questions or issue subpoeanas.

In response to that statement, knowing how Democrats despise the CW that DeSantis is "untouchable", some are saying "hold my beer", but you are very likely right. If Pam Biondi gets the AG spot, DeSantis is pretty sure that he could have anyone he pretty much wants as AG, and if Pam Biondi or someone else is chosen, who can also torque liberals off no end, and DeSantis wants to p*ss on them too, then he will do it, because he can and there's not much Democrats can do about it, except probably whine like crybaby little bi*ches on CNN, Sean Hannity can then give a monologue about how whiny little liberal crybabies need their hot cocoa, crayons, coloring books and special crying rooms!

You forgot blankies, adult diapers and an endless supply of wipes, barrier cream, Similac and Sesame Street for the crybaby socialists!

Also I have an UPDATE with regards to Alaska: Mary Peltola ekes out a win over Sarah Palin in the special election for Don Young's seat in real life. This doesn't necessarily mean that Palin is going to lose in November, but while this trend is certainly concerning of Democrats outperforming Republicans in a consistent string of special elections since Dobbs, this is certainly not how it's going to turn out. What Republicans do need to do is ask themselves if constantly crowing about 2020 + attacking Joe Biden without offering an ACTUAL prescription rooted in conservative principles is really worth it.

They also need to boost turnout not just to beat the Democrats, but rather crush them, all while treating ALL of their potential voters like family regardless of their attitudes about Trump, and it goes without saying that in the Hudson Valley, Marc Molinaro is going to have a better time in November than he did a couple of weeks ago, given that the current NY-19 is more an Ulster County seat that favored Pat Ryan than an Ulster-Dutchess split, and that Molinaro's only problems mainly are going to be that Dutchess County is not in the new NY-19 but Ithaca (where Josh Riley, his Democratic opponent) is. For Molinaro in November, Binghamton will be the true wild card, and it is the sort of region where Obama-Trump voters are quite plentiful and will likely prove crucial to him in November.

But getting back to point, this special election result in Alaska is more an indictment of Palin herself than that of the national mood. Again, Democrats are quite energized in the post-Dobbs stage of this election, but the whole "Caribou Barbie" and wannabe Gretchen Wilson/Teen Mom/Kardashian act has gotten quite old with enough Alaska voters of a certain persuasion to where some relatively rational Republicans who voted for Palin will unsurprisingly give Nick Begich III a second look in November. Indeed, Begich got the endorsement of both the state GOP (which also gave the big middle finger to a certain Senator who shall not be named in this cycle IRL) as well as the state chapters of AFP and FreedomWorks - two organizations whose emphasis on principled conservatism should never be ignored regardless of Trump's influence (and Palin's loss certainly doesn't bode well for him or Nikki Haley or Stefanik, who all endorsed Palin). For what it's worth, I can see this election all coming down to those who voted for Chris Bye, the Libertarian nominee, as well as the expected shift of a couple of Palin voters to Begich, including plenty of those who are looking forward to Sen. Kelly Tshibaka in November.

For now, in this TL I'm going to say that Palin will benefit from Trump's exposure to eke out a win in the midterms and will have gotten a second term, but it won't be easy and there will be a competitive reelection regardless of whether Palin or Begich is the winner, especially since Peltola will now get to serve four months as Alaska's Congresswoman and - as is the case with the aforementioned Pat Ryan in New York - will have a record of sorts that is going to get poo-pooed by the Republicans. But it's fair to say that if Begich overtops Palin in November - which actually would be the preferable course especially given what just happened (another one of Begich's endorseés happens to be the CURRENT Mayor of Wasilla, as well as Palin's ex-in laws), he will likely beat Peltola (especially with the exhaust votes that doomed Palin coming back online to help Begich) and will probably have an easier time getting reelected in 2024.

[SaintStan86]

December 4, 2024
CONGRESS DEPARTEÉS HEAD TO THE BASEMENT AS NEW CONGRESS BEGINS TO TAKE SHAPE
With members of the new freshman class and others beginning work on their congressional offices, those members of Congress who are not coming back are heading for the basement as defeated and retiring members begin to wind down their careers in the lame duck session of the 118th Congress. While there have been instances where Congress has adjourned their business sine die before the election, this has not been the case for most recent Congresses, and this meeting is certainly no different with both sides looking to wrap unfinished business, particularly areas of common ground between Democrats and moderate Republicans (especially in the closely divided, Republican-leaning Senate) likely to be lost with an exceedingly large Senate majority for the GOP on the horizon (and likely to guarantee what critics are already calling a "rubber stamp DeSantis administration").

Amongst the dozens of departing members heading to the basement is outgoing former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who is leaving Congress after 21 full terms out of 22, his first term having been won in a special election in 1981 to succeed Rep. Gladys Spellman, who became comatose and ultimately never regained consciousness following a heart attack days before her 1980 reelection. Having eventually rose to the rank of House Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, Hoyer has expressed zero regrets about his longtime career in Congress. "From the first day I served in Congress, I always sought to make a difference in my district", which originally was based in Prince George's County before eventually morphing into a southern Maryland district stretching across outer suburbs of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, while also vowing that "this is not the end for me and that the influence I have had in shaping America will survive the test of time". Restaurateur and Charles County Commissioner Bobby Rucci will succeed Hoyer next month, having held the seat for Democrats who have continuously held the seat since 1975.

Also departing is outgoing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, who will be moving across the Capitol to the Senate side after his victory over now-prospective U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ric Grenell, but who himself also had to move to the basement to allow for a new member to fill his space before the next Congress is sworn in on January 3rd. "Serving all of California, as opposed to just the people of Central Valley, is going to be a challenge, but I would say the sacrifice is worth it when you get the opportunity to represent a microcosm of America back home in California", McCarthy said as he also vowed that "the great work that I will be doing in the Senate these next six years is going to reenergize Republicans across the state, and also introduce our brand to millions of voters who have never witnessed governance under a Republican", without giving specifics as to how his style of leadership would differ from that of Democrats who had a strangehold on the state's Senate seats since 1992. He also remarked that the transition in his district, where his former aide Vince Fong will be taking over, will be "smooth" and noted that several of his current staffers will be going to work for Fong.

In all, a total of 118 members of Congress will not be coming back to the lower chamber, with a whopping 63 of those due to retirements (including Hoyer and former House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina), 31 due to Senate runs (including seven who actually have been elected to the Senate including Republicans McCarthy, Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, John James of Michigan and Matt Rosendale of Montana and Democrats John Sarbanes of Maryland and Suzan DelBene of Washington) along with another (Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana) who is running for the Senate in 2026, three who were defeated in their primaries, and 20 (13 Democrats and seven Republicans) who lost reelection last month, including Rep. Dan Newhouse who was one of only two remaining Republicans among the ten who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for "incitement of insurrection" following the 2021 attack on the Capitol. Democrats also lost a net of one seat in Illinois due to a court-ordered redistricting that resulted in the elimination of two heavily Democratic districts in Chicago and the creation of three competitive seats in the city's suburbs that all went to Republicans (two primarily serving DuPage and Will counties, along with a third primarily based in southwest Cook County where Rep. Keith Pekau won a second term).

One member of Congress who will be returning is Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who becomes the first ever member of the Constitution Party to win a congressional election, after leaving the GOP over the summer. Greene was reelected on Tuesday night in her otherwise overwhelmingly Republican district anchored in the state's northwest corner including the northwestern exurbs of Atlanta and the Georgia side of the Chattanooga TV market, winning 56 percent of the vote to 44 for her opponent, former write-in candidate Jennifer Strahan, who began to mount an aggressive write-in campaign following Greene's party switch, citing among other things Greene's "divisive rhetoric" as well as her endorsement of former GOP candidate-turned-Constitution Party nominee Mike Lindell. While Democrats made up around half of Strahan's total votes, Greene also gained some Democratic votes of her own, if only to "keep the crazy in the GOP", effectively cancelling out the argument that a unified Democratic vote would put Strahan over the top.

Greene, who continues to call for the impeachment of President Joe Biden despite his retiring from the White House, herself has not ruled out the possibility of running for Governor or for the U.S. Senate in 2026, when GOP Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited and Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is up for reelection to a second term, which Ossoff has already declared. Greene has also not ruled out running under her new banner, citing Georgia's election rules where an absolute majority is required to win and avoid a December runoff like the one Greene just faced. Kemp and outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have ruled out future political runs, while former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who has since been critical of former President Trump over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, has formed an exploratory committee to challenge Ossoff in 2026; GOP Reps. Barry Loudermilk, Buddy Carter and Austin Scott are rumored to be considering runs for either office.

The only remaining election in the House will be for Higgins' seat in Louisiana's 3rd District, which covers the Lafayette and Lake Charles areas along with most of the state's Acadiana region. Voters on Saturday will decide between former State Public Service Commissioner and former Trump administration official Scott Angelle and State Rep. Vincent Pierre. Though Pierre placed first with near-unified Democratic support on Election Night, Angelle is heavily favored to win the seat as the district voted for Ron DeSantis by a more than 2-1 margin. As this was the only race that was undecided before House freshmen had their orientation the week before Thanksgiving (which Angelle attended but not Pierre), the winner will also assume Higgins' existing congressional office for the coming Congress. "My constituents in Acadiana, especially if Scott Angelle is elected our next Congressman, will have the benefit of seeing their elected representative in Washington in the same familiar place I have been honored to meet them in these last eight years," said Higgins.

December 5, 2024
McDERMOTT DECLARED WINNER IN RAZOR-THIN INDIANA GUBERNATORIAL RACE; ROKITA CONCEDES FOLLOWING RECOUNT
After a month of wrangling over close votes in Indiana's gubernatorial showdown, a recount requested by state Attorney General and Republican candidate Todd Rokita failed to change the outcome in the open gubernatorial race between him and his Democratic challenger, Tom McDermott. After a final recount, McDermott won 47.7 percent of the vote to 47.2 for Rokita, with a Libertarian candidate, Donald Rainwater, winning the remaining 5.4 percent. Rainwater, who also ran in 2020 and won over 11 percent against Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb on the basis his criticism of Holcomb's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, targeted Rokita on his handling of the abortion matter - for which he favored banning abortion with no exceptions - as well as his "slow walking" of concerns regarding the moderate Holcomb's handling of COVID and other matters of concerns to conservatives who have viewed Holcomb's governorship with mediocrity, at least in comparison to now-former Vice President Mike Pence and before that, Mitch Daniels.

In a press conference outside his hometown of Hammond, a suburb of Chicago in northwest Indiana where he has served as Mayor since his first election in 2003, the 55-year-old McDermott (who also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022 against Sen. Todd Young) called the victory "a victory for Hoosier values and Hoosier families" and vowed to serve as "a Governor for all Hoosiers". McDermott will be the first Democrat to serve as Governor since the late Joe Kernan, who ascended to the role following the death of fellow Democrat Frank O'Bannon, lost reelection in 2004 to Daniels. (Evan Bayh, who was elected in 1988 and 1992 - the first Democrat to win since 1964 - and eventually was elected to the U.S. Senate for two terms from 1999-2011), is the only living Democrat amongst past Governors.)

Meanwhile, Rokita conceded defeat following the conclusion of the recount. A former Secretary of State who also served four terms in Congress before being elected Attorney General in 2020, Rokita hoped to draw on his conservative record and endorsements from both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, as well as from Holcomb himself, to continue the state's 20-year winning streak of electing GOP Governors, but largely underperformed amongst both suburban swing voters in the crucial Indianapolis area counties of Hamilton, Hendricks and Boone, as well as blue-collar voters in many of the state's smaller metro areas including around Terre Haute and Evansville, losing both of their respective Vigo and Vanderburgh counties which otherwise gave majorities to President-elect DeSantis.

One gubernatorial race still remains undecided. In Missouri, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft continues to dispute the election results in his race against his Democratic predecessor, Jason Kander, who won the final tally of votes with 48.66 percent to 48.17 percent for Ashcroft - a margin of just under 0.5 percent which is the required threshold for a recount to be requested. Ashcroft has brought forth allegations of ballot stuffing in key urban areas across the state; however election officials in St. Louis and Kansas City have disputed these allegations, and with increasing calls from Kander and his fellow Democrats, as well as Republican former Sen. John Danforth and the editorial boards of both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Kansas City Star, to concede defeat, many argue that Ashcroft's claims are "futile" and "carry little - if any - legal basis". Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who is term-limited from seeing a third term, has not spoken on the matter but could be pressured to respond in the coming days.

December 6, 2024
DeSANTIS UNVEILS DEFENSE SECRETARY, OTHER KEY MEMBERS OF INCOMING CABINET
On Friday, President-elect Ron DeSantis continued to roll out his Cabinet, this time by announcing his picks for Defense Secretary and other positions where the incoming President stressed the importance of "electing a team of leaders who not only will defend our country from enemies foreign and domestic, but also secure our future for generations to come" as the former Navy JAG and reservist, who is set to receive an honorable discharge effective December 31st, began to build his defense team. For Defense Secretary, DeSantis selected former Navy Secretary and fellow Navy veteran Kenneth Braithwaite to serve in this critical position, praising Braithwaite as "a distinguished leader both in our military and in the private sector who will work to ensure that our military is prepared to take on the challenges facing the country". A former town councilman in the Philadelphia suburb of Ridley Park, Pa. who also served as an adviser to the late Sen. Arlen Specter, Braithwaite was appointed to serve as Navy Secretary by former President Donald Trump following the latter's firing of Richard Spencer over a controversy surrounding whether or not a court-martialed Navy SEAL could retire with that designation, and at one point was even considered a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024.

In addition to Defense Secretary, DeSantis also made his (very notable) selections known for Secretary of the Interior and Energy Secretary, selecting South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for the former and former Ambassador and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for the latter. Noem has long been one of DeSantis's political allies, having both served in Congress during the 2010s and been elected Governor in closely contested races in 2018, and both had been strident in defying calls from health experts and others to mitigate the community spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19, with Noem notably hosting an Independence Day gathering at Mount Rushmore featuring a speech by then-President Donald Trump that critics cited as a major reason - along with that year's edition of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally - for her state's subsequent COVID surge that was among the worst in the country at a time when vaccines were only in their testing phases.

Huntsman, who served a highly-regarded tenure as Governor from 2004 to 2009 before becoming a U.S. Ambassador to China under Barack Obama and Russia under Trump, as well as also serving in the administrations of both George H.W. and George W. Bush, ran for the GOP nomination for President in 2012 won by fellow Mormon (and future Utahn) Mitt Romney and has since served on a number of corporate boards, including current roles with Chevron and Ford Motor Company. He supports an "all of the above" energy policy oriented towards environmentally sound upstream practices for fossil fuels (with an emphasis on natural gas), also involving continued research on renewables and a strong focus on nuclear power and biomass, as well as hydrogen-based sources including cars powered by water. During the press conference held on the waterfront in New Orleans on Friday (home to a joint military base and a key American port), Huntsman made the clarion call that "The days of America being dependent on other countries for our energy - coal, oil, gas, wind, solar, biomass, hydro - are over", and vowed to "undo the damage caused by President Biden to our energy economy and to our spirit of innovation that made America the envy of the world".

Highlighting his emphasis on strategic decisions in matters relating to the nation's food supply, environmental resources and space travel, other key appointments announced in New Orleans on Friday included former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles to serve as Agriculture Commissioner; Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, to serve as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Jon Niermann, Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, upgrading to the federal level as the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. Former Sen. Bill Nelson, who currently serves as NASA Administrator under President Biden, will continue in his capacity at NASA under DeSantis for "at least one, maybe two years" before the 82-year-old Miami native eventually retires, thanking DeSantis for his "dignified service to the Navy and to the people of Florida" and stressed the importance of "bipartisan leadership in one of America's most heralded frontiers - space", for which the former Senator and Congressman (who lost his reelection in 2018 to Sen. Rick Scott (who endorsed Nelson's appointment to lead NASA in 2021) in the same election that elected DeSantis Governor) once flew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia as a member of Congress in 1986, returning ten days before the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

December 7, 2024
LOUISIANA FILLS FINAL PUZZLE PIECE IN CONGRESSIONAL SWEEPSTAKES
It didn't take long late Saturday evening for a call to be made on the last remaining congressional race, as Louisiana's 3rd District held a runoff for the open seat of Republican Rep. Clay Higgins, who is leaving to focus on a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026 against embattled GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump for "incitement of insurrection" in the run up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. In the runoff, Republican former State Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, who briefly served as Lieutenant Governor during a time in 2010 when the state was dealing with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf that greatly affected the state's economy, and who later joined the Trump administration as Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, won the runoff with over 65 percent of the vote in the heavily Republican district over Democratic State Rep. Vincent Pierre.

Angelle benefited from the district's strong Republican leanings, as the district gave 70 percent of the vote to President-elect Ron DeSantis in November and is dominated by some of the most Republican areas in the state including the cities of Lafayette and Lake Charles along with much of the Acadiana region, where Angelle drew admirable praise during a rousing 2010 rally that strongly condemned the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which Angelle made mention of many of the region's familiar French surnames and its associated Cajun culture. While Pierre benefited from strong support amongst African-Americans and endorsements from various Democratic dignitaries including former Gov. John Bel Edwards, Pierre failed to gain much traction in the conservative district, where Angelle finished second to the more conservative Higgins in a runoff in 2016.

December 8, 2024
DeSANTIS COUNTS 30 DAYS TO LEAVING TALLAHASSEE AS NUÑEZ IS SET TO MAKE HISTORY
On Sunday with his family by his side, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced outside the Governor's Mansion that he will be resigning from the office on the morning of January 7th, 2025 - the first Tuesday of the incoming year, in order to prepare for his new role as the 47th President of the United States, during which DeSantis is expected to address the incoming session of the Florida Legislature before exiting the governorship. In making his announcement official, DeSantis thanked the people of his state for "giving me the golden opportunity to serve as your Governor, a Governor for all Floridians" and vowed that "Florida's best days are straight ahead and coming, and it's because of people like you who made it possible and gave me the opportunity to lead this wonderful state".

DeSantis also took the time to introduce Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who will be sworn in on January 7th as Florida's first female and first Latina Governor, as well as its first Hispanic since Bob Martinez was elected in 1986. Nuñez vowed to "continue the great progress our state has made under Ron DeSantis, as he himself makes great progress turning our country around", with the timing giving Nuñez the maximum amount of time to serve as Governor while also being eligible to run for reelection in both 2026 and 2030 (the latter year of which would not have been possible had DeSantis resigned earlier due to Florida's term limit laws).

Next: Pennsylvania comes calling, with one month to go before Inauguration Day...

[SaintStan86]

Before I continue to the next post, here are a few appendix entries relating to the House...

APPENDIX A: Party Flips in the House

AL-02: Became a minority opportunity district in south Alabama (specifically Montgomery, Tuskegee and parts of Mobile) after the state proceeded to correct its districts under a strong recommendation from the Justice Department. Democratic State Sen. Kirk Hatcher defeated Republican former U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin in this Democratic-leaning district that only gave Ron DeSantis a slim plurality.

CA-47: Coastal Orange County district vacated by Katie Porter who was one of the many Democrats who ran for the U.S. Senate only to be shut out by Republicans in the June primary. Republican former Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh defeated a comeback bid by former Congressman Harley Rouda.

GA-02: Southwest Georgia seat where Republican Chris West defeated 15-term Rep. Sanford Bishop in a stunning upset. State House Minority Leader James Beverly, whose caucus led the opposition to Georgia's controversial election reforms that culminated in the controversial pulling of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta, defeated West to take the district back for the Democrats, where Kamala Harris scored a narrow plurality win.

IL-05: While a favorably Democratic district on paper centered on Chicago's northwest side and such northwest suburbs as Niles, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg and Rosemont, Raja Krishnamoorthi spent considerably in a bruising primary, fueled by a court-ordered redistricting that declared Illinois's Democratic gerrymander unconstitutional, against fellow Rep. Mike Quigley that centered on Krishnamoorthi's ties to pharmaceutical lobbyists, only to become embroiled in such allegations as the FBI raided his congressional office. Former Schaumburg Township Trustee Nimish Jani, who lost his seat in 2021 just as President Biden's honeymoon period began to end (but before the momentum for Republicans that led to Glenn Youngkin's election as Governor of Virginia), narrowly defeats Krishnamoorthi to become the first Republican to represent a significant portion of Chicago since Michael Patrick Flanagan's 1994 triumph over another scandal-plagued Democratic incumbent, Dan Rostenkowski.

IL-06: With the new congressional map in Illinois having eliminated one of its three majority Black districts in Chicago and the old 7th being reformatted as a southwest suburban Cook County seat where incumbent Keith Pekau got reelected, a newly open 6th District is drawn exclusively within historically Republican DuPage County, which has not gone Republican for President since it last did in 2004. Republican former State Rep. Peter Breen defeated former Congressman Sean Casten in this suburban battleground, despite Casten's aggressive targeting of Breen - the Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society - over his pro-life views on abortion.

IL-13: After her gerrymandered and brazenly linear district connecting Democratic areas of central and southern Illinois got stricken in the courts, first-term Democratic Rep. Nikki Budzinski lost her reelection bid against former State Rep. Avery Bourne, who previously ran as the running mate of then-Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in the latter's 2022 bid for the GOP nomination that ultimately went to Darren Bailey, who went on to lose to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

IN-01: In a rematch of her 2022 bid against Rep. Frank Mrvan, Democratic pilot and Air Force reservist Jennifer-Ruth Green becomes the first Republican in decades to win this historically Democratic district in northwest Indiana (aka "The Region").

IA-01: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks loses her bid for a second term to Democratic Davenport Mayor Mike Matson in this southeast-based district that turned on Matson's moderate-to-liberal record and strong support in Davenport and Iowa City, which canceled out Miller-Meeks' base of support in the southern and eastern outer suburbs of Des Moines.

MD-06: After narrowly losing to Rep. David Trone in 2022, former State Del. Neil Parrott won a rematch against the wealthy Trone, becoming the first Republican to represent the northwest exurban Washington, D.C. district, which also covers all of western Maryland from Frederick onward, since 2012.

MA-09: Republican Jesse Brown, a businessman and Marine Corps veteran who ran a surprisingly competitive race in this district anchored in Cape Cod and such communities as New Bedford and Plymouth, defeats State Sen. Julian Cyr to become the first Republican in 28 years to represent Massachusetts in the House, succeeding retiring Democrat Bill Keating.

MI-03: After defeating first-term Republican Peter Meijer in a GOP primary that turned on Meijer's vote to impeach Donald Trump over the attack on the Capitol, first-term Republican John Gibbs loses a rematch with his 2022 opponent, three-time Democratic nominee Hillary Scholten, who becomes the first Democrat in decades to represent this traditionally Republican district anchored in Grand Rapids. Though academically gifted with degrees from Harvard and Stanford, Gibbs' penchant for controversial remarks including fringe conspiracies, as well as his criticism of more moderate Republicans (especially on social issues), ultimately led to Gibbs' defeat by Scholten after a narrow win in 2022.

MI-08: In another rematch, this Mid-Michigan district connecting Flint, Saginaw and Bay City saw a rematch between Rep. Dan Kildee and former Trump administration official and TV news anchor Paul Junge. In the rematch, Junge defeated Kildee to become the first Republican to represent the district since 1973, when incumbent and future U.S. Senator Donald Riegle became a Democrat over political differences with then-President Richard Nixon on the Vietnam War and other matters.

NV-04: Despite a strong reelection campaign in this northern Clark County and central Nevada-based district, Republican freshman Scott Peters lost reelection to State Sen. Mo Denis in a district whose core city of North Las Vegas and surrounding parts of Clark County is considered to be more Democratic than even Las Vegas itself, and which does not have as many of the upper-middle-class suburban areas such as Henderson and Summerlin that otherwise favored Republicans in other districts; Peters won every county outside of Clark in this district.

NJ-03: In a rematch with Rep. Andy Kim, Republican businessman Bob Healey wins his first term in a narrow defeat of the three-term Democrat most famously known for his cleaning up of the U.S. Capitol following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol that disrupted the certification of electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election.

NJ-05: A Republican surge in the suburbs surrounding New York City, especially following the revelation of potential national debt default and also the presidential candidacy of Andrew Yang, combined with revelations of cruel behavior towards his congressional office employees, prove too much for four-term Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer to overcome, as he loses to State Asm. Christopher DePhillips in the north Bergen- and Passaic County-based swing district.

NJ-11: After narrowly losing the Republican primary two years prior in this west suburban New York City-based district anchored in most of Morris and west Essex counties, Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen flips this district for the GOP, defeating former Parsippany Mayor Michael Soriano to reclaim the seat of three-term Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who lost the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate against now-departing Sen. Bob Menendez, who lost reelection to Selen's fellow Turkish-American, Dr. Mehmet Öz.

NM-03: Environmental engineer Alexis Martinez Johnson flips this district for the Republicans in northern and eastern New Mexico, defeating two-term Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez in a district where Martinez Johnson's large margins in such areas as Farmington and Roswell canceled out Leger Fernandez's stronger margins in Santa Fe and in Gallup.

NY-17: Former DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney lost reelection in this suburban Hudson Valley district connecting most if not all of Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam and northern Westchester counties, losing a rematch to former State Asm. Mike Lawler, who narrowly lost to Maloney in 2022.

NC-06: The addition of Republican-leaning Alamance County, combined with the loss of more Democratic-leaning areas such as High Point, in a mid-decade redistricting results in a narrow defeat for Democratic incumbent Kathy Manning, who loses in this Greensboro-based district to State House Majority Whip Jon Hardister.

NC-14: After redistricting made this district more Republican but still anchored in the southern and western suburbs of Charlotte, Rep. Jeff Jackson ultimately decided to move to the nearby 12th District where Rep. Alma Adams chose to retire. In a game of musical districts, Republican Rep. Dan Bishop moved to this district, with the 9th District in Charlotte's eastern suburbs being taken over by Rep. Richard Hudson and the 8th District - now anchored in exurban areas between Greensboro and Raleigh as well as much of Fayetteville and High Point - returning former Rep. and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate Mark Walker (who represented the old 6th District from 2014 to 2020) to Congress after a four-year absence.

OH-01: After a mid-decade redistricting resulted in this district being consolidated into all of Democratic-leaning Cincinnati and Hamilton County (save for a Republican-leaning northeastern sliver of it), Republican Rep. Steve Chabot chose to retire (though for reasons not related to the redistricting), as former Cincinnati Mayor and 2022 gubernatorial candidate John Cranley defeated former State Rep. Tom Brinkman to flip this seat for the Democrats.

OR-04: Despite a fiercely competitive reelection in the third-most Democratic district in the state (albeit not overwhelmingly so especially outside of the college towns of Eugene and Corvallis), Republican freshman Alek Skarlatos lost a narrow reelection to Democratic former State Sen. Chris Edwards.

PA-04: The combination of strong support in the Berks and northern Montgomery County portions along with a moderate voting record in Harrisburg is enough for Republican State Rep. Todd Stephens to narrowly defeat Democratic incumbent Madeleine Dean in this suburban Philadelphia district anchored in the lion's share of Montgomery County.

PA-08: In this blue-collar swing district connecting Scranton and Wilkes-Barre to more Republican areas bordering New York and New Jersey, Democratic former Rep. Matt Cartwright gets his old job back, defeating freshman Republican Jim Bognet who shortly after conceding defeat was asked to lead the Export-Import Bank of the United States - a position usually not appointed until after Inauguration Day - by Ron DeSantis in his upcoming administration.

TX-07: After getting a lucky break in the initial Texas redistricting, three-term Democratic Rep. Lizzie Fletcher's luck finally runs out as she loses in a district now anchored in west and southwest Houston (but now devoid of some of its more Democratic areas that were added in 2022) to Pierce Bush, who leads the local Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter and is the grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, who once represented the 7th from 1967 to 1971.

TX-24: The mid-decade redistricting ordered by the courts in Texas resulted in a second majority-minority district being drawn in Dallas County, this one covering downtown Dallas and its western environs along with much of Grand Prairie and south Irving, where Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia becomes the first Hispanic and first Latina to represent the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Congress. Not all is lost for the current incumbent, Republican Beth Van Duyne whose central Irving residence along with DFW Airport is moved into a new 12th District that extends across much of northeast Tarrant County and the northern parts of Fort Worth, where House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger announced her retirement with Van Duyne succeeding her.

TX-28: Following the retirement of Blue Dog Democrat Henry Cuellar, who recently switched to the Republican Party following the May runoffs, Republican former Ted Cruz staffer Cassy Garcia defeated progressive attorney Jessica Cisneros in this competitive district connecting Laredo to southern parts of San Antonio.

TX-34: After defeating Republican Rep. Mayra Flores in 2022, only to see her defeat Republican Rep. Michael Cloud in the nearby 27th District which got singled out in the court-ordered redistricting of Texas's congressional map (resulting in that district now stretching from Victoria and western Corpus Christi to McAllen), Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez loses a hard-fought reelection in the newly redrawn district that added several heavily Republican parts of Corpus Christi and several exurban areas to the north, which strongly favored Cameron County GOP Chairwoman Morgan Cisneros Graham.

[SaintStan86]

APPENDIX B: United States House of Representatives, 119th Congress

Alabama 1. Jerry Carl (R) 2. Kirk Hatcher (D) 3. Jessica Taylor (R) 4. Robert Aderholt (R) 5. Dale Strong (R) 6. Gary Palmer (R) 7. Terri Sewell (D) Alaska At-large. Sarah Palin (R) Arizona 1. Shawnna Bolick (R) 2. Eli Crane (R) 3. Laura Pastor (D) 4. Kelly Cooper (R) 5. Travis Grantham (R) 6. Juan Ciscomani (R) 7. Daniel Hernández Jr. (D) 8. Debbie Lesko (R) 9. Kelli Ward (R) Arkansas 1. Rick Crawford (R) 2. French Hill (R) 3. Steve Womack (R) 4. Bruce Westerman (R) California 1. Brian Dahle (R) 2. Mike McGuire (D) 3. Kevin Kiley (R) 4. Ryan Gregory (D) 5. Tom McClintock (R) 6. Ami Bera (D) 7. Richard Pan (D) 8. John Garamendi (D) 9. Tom Patti (R) 10. Mark DeSaulnier (D) 11. Catherine Stefani (D) 12. Loren Taylor (D) 13. Adam Gray (D) 14. Jenny Kassan (D) 15. Kevin Mullin (D) 16. Rishi Kumar (D) 17. Ro Khanna (D) 18. Sam Liccardo (D) 19. Jimmy Panetta (D) 20. Vince Fong (R) 21. Jim Costa (D) 22. David Valadao (R) 23. Jay Obernolte (R) 24. Salud Carbajal (D) 25. Manuel Pérez (D) 26. Matt Jacobs (R) 27. Mike Garcia (R) 28. Judy Chu (D) 29. Tony Cárdenas (D) 30. Laura Friedman (D) 31. Ed Hernández (D) 32. Adrin Nazarian (D) 33. Pete Aguilar (D) 34. Jimmy Gomez (D) 35. Norma Torres (D) 36. Ted Lieu (D) 37. Sydney Kamlager (D) 38. Ian Calderon (D) 39. Mark Takano (D) 40. Young Kim (R) 41. Melissa Melendez (R) 42. Robert Garcia (D) 43. Autumn Burke (D) 44. Nanette Barragán (D) 45. Michelle Steel (R) 46. Lou Correa (D) 47. Scott Baugh (R) 48. Darrell Issa (R) 49. Brian Maryott (R) 50. Scott Peters (D) 51. Sara Jacobs (D) 52. Juan Vargas (D) Colorado 1. Candi CdeBaca (D) 2. Joe Neguse (D) 3. Lauren Boebert (R) 4. Ken Buck (R) 5. Eli Bremer (R) 6. Jason Crow (D) 7. Erik Aadland (R) 8. Barb Kirkmeyer (R) Connecticut 1. Luke Bronin (D) 2. Mike France (R) 3. Ted Kennedy Jr. (D) 4. Jim Himes (D) 5. George Logan (R) Delaware At-large. Bryan Townsend (D) Florida 1. Michelle Salzman (R) 2. Neal Dunn (R) 3. Kat Cammack (R) 4. Aaron Bean (R) 5. John Rutherford (R) 6. Michael Waltz (R) 7. Cory Mills (R) 8. Bill Posey (R) 9. Darren Soto (D) 10. Maxwell Frost (D) 11. Anthony Sabatini (R) 12. Gus Bilirakis (R) 13. Anna Paulina Luna (R) 14. Kathy Castor (D) 15. Laurel Lee (R) 16. Vern Buchanan (R) 17. Greg Steube (R) 18. Scott Franklin (R) 19. Byron Donalds (R)* 20. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D) 21. Brian Mast (R) 22. David Silvers (D) 23. Jared Moskowitz (D) 24. Shevrin Jones (D) 25. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) 26. Mario Díaz-Balart (R) 27. Maria Elvira Salazar (R) 28. Carlos Giménez (R) Georgia 1. Buddy Carter (R) 2. James Beverly (D) 3. Drew Ferguson (R) 4. Hank Johnson (D) 5. Nikema Williams (D) 6. Rich McCormick (R) 7. Lucy McBath (D) 8. Austin Scott (R) 9. Andrew Clyde (R) 10. Mike Collins (R) 11. Barry Loudermilk (R) 12. Rick W. Allen (R) 13. Demetrius Douglas (D) 14. Marjorie Taylor Greene (C) Hawaii 1. Sonny Ganaden (D) 2. Jill Tokuda (D) Idaho 1. Russ Fulcher (R) 2. Bryan Smith (R) Illinois 1. Jonathan Jackson (D) 2. Robin Kelly (D) 3. Delia Ramirez (D) 4. Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (D) 5. Nimish Jani (R) 6. Peter Breen (R) 7. Keith Pekau (R) 8. Catalina Lauf (R) 9. Daniel Biss (D) 10. Brad Schneider (D) 11. George Pearson (R) 12. Mike Bost (R) 13. Avery Bourne (R) 14. Scott Gryder (R) 15. Mary Miller (R) 16. Darin LaHood (R) 17. Esther Joy King (R) Indiana 1. Jennifer-Ruth Green (R) 2. Rudy Yakym (R) 3. Jim Banks (R) 4. Beau Baird (R) 5. Victoria Spartz (R) 6. Greg Pence (R) 7. André Carson (D) 8. Larry Bucshon (R) 9. Erin Houchin (R) Iowa 1. Mike Matson (D) 2. Ashley Hinson (R) 3. Zach Nunn (R) 4. Randy Feenstra (R) Kansas 1. Tracey Mann (R) 2. Jake LaTurner (R) 3. Amanda Adkins (R) 4. Ron Estes (R) Kentucky 1. James Comer (R) 2. Brett Guthrie (R) 3. Morgan McGarvey (D) 4. Thomas Massie (R) 5. Brandon Smith (R) 6. Andy Barr (R) Louisiana 1. Steve Scalise (R) 2. Troy Carter (D) 3. Scott Angelle (R) 4. Mike Johnson (R) 5. Julia Letlow (R) 6. Garret Graves (R) Maine 1. Ethan Strimling (D) 2. Bruce Poliquin (R) Maryland 1. Andy Harris (R) 2. Johnny Olszewski (D) 3. Sarah Elfreth (D) 4. Glenn Ivey (D) 5. Bobby Rucci (D) 6. Neil Parrott (R) 7. Kweisi Mfume (D) 8. Jamie Raskin (D) Massachusetts 1. Adam Hinds (D) 2. Joseph Early Jr. (D) 3. Lori Trahan (D) 4. Jake Auchincloss (D) 5. Katherine Clark (D) 6. Seth Moulton (D) 7. Ayanna Pressley (D) 8. Robbie Goldstein (D) 9. Jesse Brown (R) Michigan 1. Greg Markkanen (R) 2. John Moolenaar (R) 3. Hillary Scholten (D) 4. Bill Huizenga (R) 5. Tim Walberg (R) 6. Jeff Irwin (D) 7. Tom Barrett (R) 8. Paul Junge (R) 9. Lisa McClain (R) 10. Mike MacDonald (R) 11. Haley Stevens (D) 12. Rashida Tlaib (D) 13. Shri Thanedar (D) Minnesota 1. Brad Finstad (R) 2. Tyler Kistner (R) 3. Melisa Franzen (DFL) 4. Melvin Carter (DFL) 5. Ilhan Omar (DFL) 6. Tom Emmer (R) 7. Michelle Fischbach (R) 8. Pete Stauber (R) Mississippi 1. Trent Kelly (R) 2. Chuck Espy (D) 3. Michael Guest (R) 4. Mike Ezell (R)

Missouri 1. Cori Bush (D) 2. Dean Plocher (R) 3. Travis Fitzwater (R) 4. Mark Alford (R) 5. Kevin McManus (D) 6. Sam Graves (R) 7. Eric Burlison (R) 8. Jason Smith (R) Montana 1. Ryan Zinke (R) 2. Corey Stapleton (R) Nebraska 1. Mike Flood (R) 2. Don Bacon (R) 3. Adrian Smith (R) Nevada 1. Mark Robertson (R) 2. Mark Amodei (R) 3. April Becker (R) 4. Mo Denis (D) New Hampshire 1. Matt Mowers (R) 2. Bob Burns (R) New Jersey 1. Donald Norcross (D) 2. Jeff Van Drew (R) 3. Bob Healey (R) 4. Mike Crispi (R) 5. Christopher DePhillips (R) 6. Frank Pallone (D) 7. Tom Kean, Jr. (R) 8. Rob Menendez (D) 9. Bill Pascrell (D) 10. Donald Payne Jr. (D) 11. Tayfun Selen (R) 12. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D) New Mexico 1. Melanie Stansbury (D) 2. Yvette Herrell (R) 3. Alexis Martinez Johnson (R) New York 1. Nick LaLota (R) 2. Andrew Garbarino (R) 3. George Santos (R) 4. Anthony D'Esposito (R) 5. Gregory Meeks (D) 6. Grace Meng (D) 7. Julia Salazar (D) 8. Hakeem Jeffries (D) 9. Yvette Clarke (D) 10. Dan Goldman (D) 11. Nicole Malliotakis (R) 12. Jack Schlossberg (D) 13. Adriano Espaillat (D) 14. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) 15. Ritchie Torres (D) 16. Alessandra Biaggi (D) 17. Mike Lawler (R) 18. Colin Schmitt (R) 19. Marc Molinaro (R) 20. Phil Steck (D) 21. Elise Stefanik (R) 22. Brandon Williams (R) 23. Nick Langworthy (R) 24. Claudia Tenney (R) 25. Joe Morelle (D) 26. Brian Higgins (D) North Carolina 1. Don Davis (D) 2. Deborah Ross (D) 3. Greg Murphy (R) 4. Valerie Foushee (D) 5. Deanna Ballard (R) 6. Jon Hardister (R) 7. David Rouzer (R) 8. Mark Walker (R) 9. Richard Hudson (R) 10. Patrick McHenry (R) 11. Chuck Edwards (R) 12. Jeff Jackson (D) 13. Bo Hines (R) 14. Dan Bishop (R) North Dakota At-large. Kelly Armstrong (R) Ohio 1. John Cranley (D) 2. Brad Wenstrup (R) 3. Mike Turner (R) 4. Warren Davidson (R) 5. Bob Latta (R) 6. Mike Carey (R) 7. Joyce Beatty (D) 8. Kris Jordan (R) 9. J.R. Majewski (R) 10. Max Miller (R) 11. Shontel Brown (D) 12. Troy Balderson (R) 13. Bill Johnson (R) 14. Dave Joyce (R) 15. Madison Gesiotto Gilbert (R) Oklahoma 1. Kevin Hern (R) 2. Josh Brecheen (R) 3. Grace Enmeier (R) 4. T.W. Shannon (R) 5. Stephanie Bice (R) Oregon 1. Suzanne Bonamici (D) 2. Cliff Bentz (R) 3. Steve Novick (D) 4. Chris Edwards (D) 5. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R) 6. Mike Erickson (R) Pennsylvania 1. Brian Fitzpatrick (R) 2. Brendan Boyle (D) 3. Dwight Evans (D) 4. Todd Stephens (R) 5. Mary Gay Scanlon (D) 6. Guy Ciarrocchi (R) 7. Lisa Scheller (R) 8. Matt Cartwright (D) 9. Fred Keller (R) 10. Scott Perry (R) 11. Lloyd Smucker (R) 12. Summer Lee (D) 13. John Joyce (R) 14. Guy Reschenthaler (R) 15. Jake Corman (R) 16. Dan Laughlin (R) 17. Jeremy Shaffer (R) Rhode Island 1. David Cicilline (D) 2. Allan Fung (R) South Carolina 1. Nancy Mace (R) 2. André Bauer (R) 3. Jeff Duncan (R) 4. William Timmons (R) 5. Ralph Norman (R) 6. Anton Gunn (D) 7. Russell Fry (R) South Dakota At-large. Dusty Johnson (R) Tennessee 1. Diana Harshbarger (R) 2. Tim Burchett (R) 3. Chuck Fleischmann (R) 4. Manny Sethi (R) 5. Andy Ogles (R) 6. John Rose (R) 7. Mark Green (R) 8. David Kustoff (R) 9. Tami Sawyer (D) Texas 1. Nathaniel Moran (R) 2. Brian Babin (R) 3. Keith Self (R) 4. Pat Fallon (R) 5. John Ratcliffe (R) 6. Jake Ellzey (R) 7. Pierce Bush (R) 8. Morgan Luttrell (R) 9. Mayes Middleton (R) 10. Michael McCaul (R) 11. August Pfluger (R) 12. Beth Van Duyne (R) 13. Ronny Jackson (R) 14. Bobby Eberle (R) 15. Monica De La Cruz (R) 16. Veronica Escobar (D) 17. Pete Sessions (R) 18. Amanda Edwards (D) 19. Jodey Arrington (R) 20. Joaquin Castro (D) 21. Cullen Loeffler (R) 22. Troy Nehls (R) 23. Tony Gonzales (R) 24. Elba Garcia (D) 25. Edward Pollard (D) 26. Michael Burgess (R) 27. Mayra Flores (R) 28. Cassy Garcia (R) 29. Sylvia Garcia (D) 30. Jasmine Crockett (D) 31. Dan Gattis (R) 32. Colin Allred (D) 33. Marc Veasey (D) 34. Morgan Cisneros Graham (R) 35. Greg Casar (D) 36. Matthew Wiltshire (R) 37. Kathie Tovo (D) 38. Wesley Hunt (R) Utah 1. Blake Moore (R) 2. Chris Stewart (R)* 3. John Curtis (R) 4. Burgess Owens (R) Vermont At-large. Becca Balint (D) Virginia 1. Rob Wittman (R) 2. Jen Kiggans (R) 3. Bobby Scott (D) 4. Donald McEachin (D) 5. Bob Good (R) 6. Ben Cline (R) 7. Yesli Vega (R) 8. Don Beyer (D) 9. Morgan Griffith (R) 10. Jennifer Wexton (D) 11. Gerry Connolly (D) Washington 1. Manka Dhingra (D) 2. Seth Fleetwood (D) 3. Joe Kent (R) 4. Tiffany Smiley (R) 5. Michael Baumgartner (R) 6. Derek Kilmer (D) 7. Pramila Jayapal (D) 8. Matt Larkin (R) 9. Jim Ferrell (D) 10. Marilyn Strickland (D) West Virginia 1. Carol Miller (R) 2. Gary Howell (R) Wisconsin 1. Bryan Steil (R) 2. Mark Pocan (D) 3. Derrick Van Orden (R) 4. Gwen Moore (D) 5. Kevin Nicholson (R) 6. Glenn Grothman (R) 7. Tom Tiffany (R) 8. André Jacque (R) Wyoming At-large. Harriet Hageman (R) Non-voting members American Samoa. Amata Coleman Radewagen (R) District of Columbia. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) Guam. Judith Won Pat (D) Northern Mariana Islands. Gregorio Sablan (D) Puerto Rico. Jenniffer González (R-PNP)[d] United States Virgin Islands. Stacey Plaskett (D)

Majority: 270 Republicans, plus 1 Constitution Party member
Minority: 164 Democrats
Second-largest Republican majority in American history. Only the 300-seat GOP majority of the 67th Congress from 1921-1923 had more Republicans.

*NOTE: Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Chris Stewart (R-UT) will be resigning to take posts in the DeSantis administration.

[SaintStan86]

December 10, 2024
REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS NAME NEW CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS
On Tuesday, as the Senate and House prepare to wrap up their unfinished business in the closing days of the 118th Congress, replete with tributes for departing members, reflections of last month's election and vice versa, both parties named their partisan leaders for the 119th Congress that will take office on January 3rd. As expected in the Senate, Republicans decided to keep their leadership team of Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn of Texas and Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, but there will be a change in leadership further down the pike as Joni Ernst of Iowa takes over as Republican Conference Chairwoman, replacing John Barrasso of Wyoming. Adam Laxalt of Nevada, a key ally and close friend of President-elect DeSantis, will serve as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

One of the more interesting Senate desk assignments in the next Congress will be for the coveted position of "Candy Desk", with first-termer Eric Schmitt of Missouri opting for a closer seat and not continuing at the desk near the very entrance where candies from Kansas City's own Russell Stover and other confectionaries had been handed out over the last two years. That duty will now fall to Sen.-elect Dan Crenshaw who plans to stock the desk with various candies manufactured in his home state of Texas, both from conglomerates like Mars (whose Snickers candy bars, Starburst chews and Skittles are mostly manufactured in Waco), along with local companies like Lufkin's own Atkinson's (known for their peanut butter bars and Chick-O-Sticks) and even a small company out of La Grange - called KatySweet - serving handmade pralines based off of a homemade recipe from the founder's grandmother. One particular item missing is Blue Bell ice cream, since Senate desks are entirely incapable of storing perishable goods let alone frozen treats like ice cream.

The Senate Democratic Caucus, meanwhile, will see considerable change below the top where Chuck Schumer of New York remains Senate Minority Leader. At Senate Minority Whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois will be replaced by Mark Warner of Virginia, who like Durbin is up for reelection in 2026 but is likely to be in less perilous territory going forward. Warner, who turns 70 on Sunday, calls his new leadership position "quite the birthday present" but stated that "this is not going to be taken for granted, because my leadership is not about me, it's about moving forward together as a country, and standing up to the impending damage that Ron DeSantis is going to do to our democracy - for which standing up requires putting the American people first in our decision making". Patty Murray of Washington will remain Assistant Floor Leader, while Chris Van Hollen of Maryland will become chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

Across the Capitol on the House side, incoming House Speaker Steve Scalise, who is set to finally become the first Speaker from Louisiana's 1st District based in suburban New Orleans - some 25 years after one of his predecessors, Bob Livingston, was sidetracked in his bid and ultimately resigned from Congress (future Sen. David Vitter and Gov. Bobby Jindal eventually succeeded Livingston before Scalise did in 2008), but not without a wild series of midterm election swings, presidential battles, and even surviving serious injury in a June 2017 mass shooting of members of Congress during a practice for that year's Congressional Baseball Game along the way. Scalise will now be second in line to succeed the President, behind Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, and expressed "enormous gratitude to everyone for joining me along on this crazy journey that got me here", referencing the obstacles he had to overcome in the path to the Speaker's gavel.

Joining Scalise in leadership will be House Majority Leader Jim Banks of Indiana's 3rd District (based in Fort Wayne), House Majority Whip Drew Ferguson of Georgia's 3rd District (which connects southwest suburbs of Atlanta to northern suburbs of Columbus) and Republican Conference Chair Ashley Hinson of Iowa's 2nd District (which includes Cedar Rapids, Mason City and Waterloo). On the Democratic side of the ledger, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York's 8th District (in the heart of Brooklyn), House Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts' 5th District (based in Boston's immediate northern suburbs including Cambridge) and Pete Aguilar of California's 33rd District (based in San Bernardino) will continue to lead in their positions for the Democrats despite calls for fresh leadership from mostly younger, more progressive members of the caucus. Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania's 12th District (based in Pittsburgh) indeed expressed reservations about the choices: "The Democratic leadership has forgotten that chasing after moral extremists and the wealthy who defend corporations is a lose-lose situation - they have learned nothing from their massive defeats and deserve no respect!".

December 12, 2024
McCORMICK CONCEDES TO CASEY AS COUNTY-LEVEL RECOUNTS FAIL TO FLIP RESULTS
With virtually every county in Pennsylvania having already canvassed their results and all remaining remedies having been exhausted, Republican financier Dave McCormick ended his recount challenge to Sen. Bob Casey Jr. on Thursday, conceding defeat in a race where the needle had not moved much from the 49.3 percent that Casey won versus 48.7 for the Republican, who in fact saw a net loss of 381 votes as a number of duplicate Republican votes were corrected in Harrisburg's Dauphin County as well as in his home county of Allegheny (which includes Pittsburgh). "While I am nonetheless disappointed that the result is not what we wanted it to be, I am at peace knowing the great work we have done to hold Senator Casey accountable, and pressure him to recognize that Pennsylvania is a state of 67 counties and not just a handful that decide elections", McCormick stated before continuing: "Dina and I wish our very best to Senator Casey and his beautiful family, and encourage all of my supporters to guide our Senator in the right direction for the next six years, working with Ron DeSantis to put America on the right track".

With the Senate now set at 65 Republicans and 34 Democrats, along with one Progressive caucusing with the Democrats, Casey stands alone as a blue-collar liberal in a Democratic caucus now largely dominated by center-left urban liberals and progressives, following a massive wipeout of much of the Class I contingent from the Midwest and even in parts of the Acela corridor and the West. Still, Casey remained upbeat, thanking "the people of Pennsylvania who showed themselves to be the independent, pragmatic thinkers they are" and vowed to "work with Ron DeSantis where Pennsylvanians stand to benefit and stand up to DeSantis when he bends over backwards for partisan Republican dividers who care more what Fox News hosts and corporate lobbyists think than what the people of Pennsylvania think".

While much speculation abounds about McCormick's political future, his wife Dina Powell is set to join the DeSantis administration as National Security Advisor and likely could be moving to Washington, albeit while maintaining his residence in Pittsburgh. Nonetheless, McCormick has denied rumors that he could potentially become Treasury Secretary - with iconic JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Justin Muzinich and Federal Reserve board member Miki Bowman amongst the other potential candidates.

And just like that...the news could not be any more worse for the outgoing Vice President, thanks to the power of faithless electors...

December 16, 2024
ELECTORS CERTIFY DeSANTIS PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY AS HARRIS SUFFERS FAITHLESS DEFECTIONS
On Monday, electors in all 50 states cast their presidential votes into stone as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won 420 electoral votes across 43 states - all but one of them being unanimous as DeSantis won three of the Maine's four electoral votes, the lone exception being the southern-based 1st District around Portland, which narrowly backed Vice President Kamala Harris. Among the electors casting votes for the Republican ticket of DeSantis and his vice presidential running mate, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, are Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who cast her electoral vote for DeSantis at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing as a resident of the Detroit suburb of Northville. "Honored to vote for @RonDeSantis as an elector in the great state of Michigan!", McDaniel wrote on her RNC Twitter account.

While DeSantis enjoyed perhaps the largest electoral mandate since George H.W. Bush won 426 electoral votes in 1988, Harris suffered a worse electoral college fate than even the elder Bush's 1988 opponent Michael Dukakis, ending up with only 110 of the 118 electoral votes she won on Election Night. While she did manage to win every electoral vote in her home state of California, she suffered defections in three states and the District of Columbia, losing a total of eight electoral votes. Among the votes lost were three in New York, with two faithless electors from upstate New York casting their votes for her vice presidential running mate, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, and a third faithless elector from New York City casting her vote for Andrew Yang, who mounted an aggressive third party bid under the banner of his Forward movement.

Two faithless electors for Massachusetts cast their votes for deceased Democrats - one well-known to many Americans and another largely known only to longtime residents of the Boston area (or more specifically, Cape Cod), with a faithless elector from the Boston suburbs casting his vote for John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States who served in the House and Senate before serving as President until his assassination in 1963, and an openly gay faithless elector from the LGBT hotbed of Provincetown voting for Gerry Studds (who died in 2006), a former Congressman who represented many of Boston's South Shore suburbs and Cape Cod (including Provincetown) from 1973 to 1997 and was the first openly gay member of Congress (a fact revealed in his infamous revelation of a sexual relationship with an underage male congressional page in 1983). Other faithless votes included one in Vermont for the state's retiring Senator and two-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, another in Rhode Island for longtime Sen. Jack Reed, and one in the District of Columbia for the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the noted civil rights activist who ran for President in 1984 and 1988.

While the faithless electors expressed no ill will towards Harris, their votes were seen in their eyes as "legitimate protests" against (in the words of one of the delegates) "a Democratic Party that has abandoned American workers and the common good in favor of faceless corporate cronies and pearl clutchers - like Kamala Harris - who will never be satisfied". Despite the faithless electors, Harris continued to express no regrets regarding her ill-fated presidential bid, while also noting that "Of course tensions do remain high within our party, but it's important to note that we have been down like this before, and we are going to bounce back in 2026 and 2028. When voters see who the true Ron DeSantis is, they will regret having even voted for him".

Overall, after the complete tally of the nationwide vote, the DeSantis-Haley ticket won a total of 87.4 million votes totaling 51.2 percent of the vote, to 68.2 million votes or around 40.3 percent for the Harris-Peters ticket. Yang and his running mate, former GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, won over 10.8 million votes or 6.4 percent. The remaining 2.1 percent included over 1.3 million votes (approximately 0.77 percent) for the Constitution Party ticket of businessman Mike Lindell of Minnesota and attorney Jenna Ellis of Colorado (with the most votes coming from Lindell's home state, mostly concentrated in rural areas), just under 900,000 votes (over 0.5 percent) for the Libertarian Party ticket of comedian Dave Smith of New York and former White House economist and police officer Mike ter Maat of Florida, and under 500,000 votes (approximately 0.29 percent) for the Green Party ticket of journalist and media watchdog Norman Solomon of California and computer scientist Katie Roedersheimer of Texas.

December 17, 2024
DeSANTIS NAMES TREASURY SECRETARY; WRAY TO LEAVE FBI SOMETIME AFTER DeSANTIS INAUGURATION
On Tuesday, President-elect Ron DeSantis was in Pittsburgh to make his latest additions known to his incoming Cabinet, with the marquee pick of the day coming from just around the corner. That pick would be his new Treasury Secretary, financier and two-time U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who days earlier conceded defeat in his bid against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. after weeks of aggressive recounts that largely fell flat as many counties certified their results across Pennsylvania. In his acceptance speech as DeSantis's nominee for the Treasury, McCormick stressed the importance of "a sound financial footing for our country" and vowed to do "whatever it takes to restore the integrity of our monetary system, restore the nation's trust in our financial institutions, and build up policies that will get our spending our control and our government on a badly-needed diet after years of torturous abuse".

In addition to McCormick, who along with his wife and incoming National Security Advisor Dina Powell will form one of the most prominent power couples in the upcoming administration, DeSantis also announced other key members of his White House staff, nominating Florida State Sen. and state Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters (a former campaign manager for Sarasota-based Rep. and current House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Vern Buchanan) as his Counselor and lead White House advisor, Florida GOP strategist Brad Herold as a Senior Advisor on Strategy, and former Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls (whose state house district covered much of Pinellas County including DeSantis's childhood hometown of Dunedin) as White House Counsel. Two former deputy secretaries in different departments were also unveiled as Special Advisors whose work will be related to DeSantis's fiscal aims, with former Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinich returning as Special Advisor on Debt Control and Entitlements and former Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, the brother of Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist, as Special Advisor on Defense Spending Reform.

While DeSantis was making several of his picks at the Treasury Department and elsewhere known, a major shakeup occurred during the day as FBI Director Christopher Wray announced his retirement upon the appointment of a successor sometime after the inauguration of DeSantis next month. In a statement, Wray expressed a desire to spend more time with his family (who resides in Atlanta) as well as a desire to "unplug from the complex and frazzling realities of the justice system that can be very exhausting after a long while". While his appointment under former President Donald Trump was initially heralded as a refreshing change from the controversial tenure of his predecessor, James Comey, Wray eventually fell out of favor in Trumpworld following the events of the 2021 attack on the Capitol, and especially after the controversial raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. As Wray intends to stay onboard until DeSantis names a replacement - a decision Wray has encouraged DeSantis to make at his own convenience, an acting Director is not expected to be named in the interim.

Outside of the Cabinet selection process, DeSantis's campaign has used a sizable portion of its remaining campaign fundraising receipts to acquire millions of dollars worth of TV air time on almost every major broadcast and cable network, featuring a Christmas advertisement of DeSantis and his family, as he and his wife Casey wished everyone a "Merry Christmas from our hearts to yours, and a joyful New Year full of great promise". The ad was produced by an advertising firm with links to Hallmark Channel and has gone viral on YouTube with over 300 million views as of Tuesday evening.

Next: More Cabinet reveals, and the exit polls tell the tale just before Christmas...

[SaintStan86]

December 19, 2024
TALE OF THE TAPE: DeSANTIS BENEFITED FROM UNIFIED TRUMP RURAL AND ROMNEY SUBURBAN VOTES, YANG SPLIT FROM HARRIS
A probing analysis of the 2024 electorate, which saw the most votes ever cast in American history at over 169 million votes, revealed some trends that reveal more information about an increasingly diverse electorate that became less focused on the racial and cultural politics that defined much of the last 30 years and more interested in dealing with concerns relating to the economy and other domestic concerns such as crime, as well as a reckoning over the nation's unprecedented national debt of over $33 trillion.

While America is certainly more multicultural than before, with the share of the non-Hispanic White electorate having dropped to just 62 percent of the vote, the Democratic argument of "demographics is destiny" is now most certainly broken with Hispanic voters - long a key cornerstone of the Democratic coalition - now having broken 51 percent for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, surpassing the 44 percent garnered by George W. Bush in 2004 and dominating the Cuban American vote with a whopping 73 percent. This vote has been crucial in flipping much of traditionally Democratic South Texas towards the GOP, along with Florida's Miami-Dade County, which went Republican for the first time since George H.W. Bush in 1988. California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico also saw sizable movement towards the GOP in middle-class Hispanic communities, despite efforts by Democrats to target them on such issues as immigration. Overall, Hispanics (who now make 18.7 percent of the population) constituted 14 percent of the vote.

While opposition to communism has long been a factor behind the shift of the Hispanic vote to the right, other matters including social issues (where Hispanics, particularly Catholics and Evangelicals, are particularly sympathetic to anti-abortion and pro-family values appeals) as well as DeSantis's appeals to working-class Hispanics also played a factor. Puerto Ricans favored Harris, but only with a bare plurality as Mexican Americans swung rightward (particularly in more rural and suburban areas) along with various South American groups such as Venezuelans (who have been particularly harsh towards the Maduro regime) and Brazilians (some of whom are devotees of Jair Bolsonaro). Vice President Kamala Harris won only 42 percent, with Forward nominee Andrew Yang receiving four percent; in effect, these numbers closely mirror the national result that saw DeSantis win over 51 percent to just over 40 percent for Harris and six percent for Yang, effectively making the Hispanic vote a crucial swing constituency in national elections.

As expected, Harris dominated among African-Americans (who constituted 14 percent of the electorate), but her share of them was underwhelming compared to past elections with DeSantis winning 21 percent of the Black vote, particularly among younger and more affluent Americans and particularly those living in more racially diverse areas. Harris's 74 percent share of the Black vote was mostly concentrated in more urban and majority Black neighborhoods, as well as among older Americans for whom Harris maintained strong political cohesion and goodwill. Many of these same voters also voted for Black Senators such as Georgia's Herschel Walker in past elections, and also were more likely to identify as evangelical Christians compared to mainline Black denominations, with congregations from historically Black denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention voting overwhelmingly Democratic, along with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church USA.

Across all races, the Evangelical vote went well over 80 percent for DeSantis, with Harris's 13 percent share amongst them the smallest in decades for a Democrat. Harris performed best amongst unaffiliated voters (61-30-7) and non-Christian faiths including 58 percent of the Jewish vote to DeSantis's 33 percent, though amongst Muslims DeSantis won 31 percent to 60 percent for Harris - the highest since 2000 when around 60 percent of Muslims voted for George W. Bush before the aftermath of September 11th and the War on Terror, on top of ensuing anti-Arab rhetoric by conservative commentators, drove Muslims out of the GOP en masse (Black Muslims, though, did vote overwhelmingly for Harris much like their Protestant counterparts). Mainline Protestants backed DeSantis with 59 percent, with DeSantis winning a majority of votes from such denominations as the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. DeSantis won 58 percent of the Catholic vote (which fellow Catholic Biden narrowly lost by one point in 2020) versus 35 percent for Harris and five percent for Yang, an unsurprising fact given DeSantis himself is Catholic and despite his criticism of Pope Francis. Mormons gave nearly 70 percent of the vote to DeSantis, who also is believed to have won nearly 60 percent of the Scientology vote.

The most intriguing vote is that of the Asian American vote, which constituted six percent of the vote but proved crucial in many urban areas not just to DeSantis's hopes but also significantly undercut Harris in areas where Yang's candidacy proved to be a spoiler. In fact, Yang won 17 percent of the Asian vote, and created situations where many predominantly Asian neighborhoods across Oriental (Japanese, Chinese, Korean), Desi (Indian, Pakistani) and Arab (Iranian, Saudi Arabian) communities gave Harris some of the worst showings for a Democrat in years, including amongst traditionally more conservative groups such as Vietnamese and Filipino populations who went heavily for DeSantis. Those who trace their diaspora to Hong Kong and Singapore were especially hostile to Harris, as DeSantis endeared himself to these groups over concerns with authoritarian regimes such as the CCP and issues like trade and free speech, with many of the non-DeSantis votes migrating to Yang. While the half-Indian Harris still won this demographic - her share at 45 percent (compared to 35 percent for DeSantis) is the worst showing for a Democrat since the 1990s.

Overall, DeSantis won 56 percent of male votes, while Harris won a shockingly low 33 percent and Yang 8 percent, and became the first Republican since George H.W. Bush to win a majority - albeit a plural majority - of women at 48 percent versus 45 percent for Harris and 5 percent for Yang. While not much is known about the Native American vote, which traditionally favors Democrats, Harris's numbers were also underwhelming with most predominantly indigenous precincts voting around 50-60 percent in Arizona's Navajo Nation, while those in other places like Oklahoma broke strongly for DeSantis. As expected, working-class voters performed strongly for DeSantis, breaking 67-26-4 in his direction, with those described as "affluent working class" (non-college degree holders with high five- to six-figure occupations such as electricians, plumbers, mechanics and truck drivers) breaking well over 70 percent for DeSantis, with even union households in such occupations leaning towards him. White college-educated women favored DeSantis by a 53-42-4 margin, with White non-college women giving two-thirds of their votes to DeSantis.

Also true to form, postgraduates favored Harris, but her numbers were particularly underwhelming even with a majority at 51 percent, versus 41 percent for DeSantis (the highest in many years) and seven percent for Yang. College graduates who swung heavily against Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 swung to a plurality for DeSantis at 49 percent, versus Harris's 40 percent and Yang's 8 percent, with business and STEM degree holders tending to perform more strongly for DeSantis while liberal arts degree holders favored Harris. Professional degree holders generally favored Harris, who particularly did well amongst academics at well over 70 percent. DeSantis won majorities amongst those with some college experience (51-39-8) and a high school diploma or less (54-33-9), with younger and less educated voters drawn to third party candidates in sizable numbers - not only Yang but also other candidates such as Libertarian nominee Dave Smith (who had particular appeal to fans of podcaster Joe Rogan who endorsed Smith) and Mike Lindell (who made particular appeals to tradesmen in numerous campaign appeals on issues such as "worker autonomy"). While Black degree and non-degree voters voted similarly, working-class Hispanics gave a majority to DeSantis (54-40-6) while degreed Hispanics narrowly favored Harris (51-45-4).

Amongst generational voters, Zoomers (aged under 30) favored Harris with 48 percent of the vote to DeSantis's 38 percent and 10 percent for Yang, with Smith and Green Party nominee Norman Solomon getting their strongest numerical support from this demographic, while Baby Boomers (at least 60 years of age) and Silents (80 years+) clearly favored DeSantis with 55 percent to Harris's 40 percent and Yang's 4 percent. DeSantis notably became the first Republican to win a majority of Millennials (ages 30-44) at 50 percent, and in many cases constituting the first time some Millennials voted for a Republican as Harris fell to just 41 percent and Yang won 7 percent. Generation X voters (aged 45-60, including the top three presidential candidates) who voted narrowly for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden broke for DeSantis with 53 percent, compared to 41 percent for Harris and five percent for Yang.

Along the lines of the urban-rural divide, suburban voters who swung to Democrats in the Trump era swung to DeSantis, giving the Republican 52 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Harris and six percent for Yang - virtually mirroring the national result, with wealthier suburban households favoring DeSantis even more proportionately regardless of educational status. Harris's gap over DeSantis amongst urban voters - a paltry 13 percent - proved to be much worse than even Biden's 33 percent in 2020 as Yang took a sizable number of urban votes, with the Vice President winning just 51 percent to 38 percent for DeSantis and nine percent for Yang (whose share when combined with Harris's amounts to a 22 percent urban gap for DeSantis). To no great surprise, DeSantis dominated in rural areas, winning 68 percent to just 26 percent for Harris and 3 percent for Yang.

(Editor's note: DeSantis's exceedingly high urban performance - on top of Trump's improvement from 2020 - is also partly a reflection of both the strong trends exhibited towards the GOP among urban Hispanic voters (though not to the extent of the Hispanic shift in more suburban and rural areas) and voters of all stripes in gentrified areas which, while admittedly more favorable to White liberals, has also attracted a number of conservatives in search of upgraded and remodeled inner-city houses in close proximity to commercial work opportunities. This also may have to do with certain industries such as crypto for which either DeSantis has endeared his campaign to or where Yang had a particular niche base of support, with Miami in particular being one such example of an urban area where Kamala Harris absolutely got trashed in this TL, even underperforming in Broward, narrowly losing Palm Beach, and failing to crack 40 percent in Monroe County - 99.9 percent of whom live on the Keys. Wouldn't shock me if the only counties DeSantis lost in Florida were Broward, Orange, Leon, Alachua and tiny Gadsden County, while winning pluralities in Osceola and Palm Beach, winning narrowly in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Pinellas, taking back Seminole by a sizable margin and winning favorably in - dare I say - DUUUUVAAAAL!)

December 20, 2024
118TH CONGRESS ADJOURNS SINE DIE BEFORE CHRISTMAS BREAK
On twas the last Friday night before Christmas, the 118th Congress adjourned sine die after a series of marathon storylines involving departing members of the House including Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a last-minute tying of loose ends on various Biden administration initiatives ranging from funding packages for Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics and foreign aid resolutions involving independent nations once tied to the Soviet Union including Ukraine, to the filling of several open judgeships in many states and last-minute technology appropriations for the 2025 fiscal year, as well as acknowledging the role of foreign election observers in the United Kingdom (whose general election is next month) and Canada (whose election takes place next fall).

The departing Congress, which had already been one of the most Republican in history, will stand to become even more so in the next Congress with 270 Republicans plus 1 from the Constitution Party set to serve as the majority with the other 164 seats being held by Democrats, who lost a net of 10 seats in last November's election, though still not as stern as the damage done last November where Democrats lost a net of 13 seats including much of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic that had been up for election. Despite these challenges, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was upbeat, pointing out that "Voters are going to see very quickly how unfettered Republican rule - from President DeSantis and the Republican Congress down to the Supreme Court and a majority of the states - will prove to be downright destructive to millions of American families, workers and children". Incoming Speaker Steve Scalise, meanwhile, thanked outgoing Speaker and Sen.-elect Kevin McCarthy for "laying the groundwork for what will be one of the greatest times ever to be an American", and even hinted the possibility of possible amendments such as a Balanced Budget Amendment being ratified in the next Congress with a sizable enough majority to "make the magic happen".

December 21, 2024
"OUR SAFETY AND OUR STANDING MATTERS" AS DeSANTIS REVEALS KEY HOMELAND SECURITY, AMBASSADOR APPOINTMENTS
On Saturday, as Americans headed to the airport, the open road and vice versa for their holiday travels with Christmas and Hanukkah approaching, President-elect Ron DeSantis named key members of his Homeland Security team along with a number of key ambassadorships that show, in DeSantis's words, that "our safety and our standing matters", making this announcement on the 36th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing in which terrorists set off a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103, killing all 259 of mostly American and other passengers onboard along with 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland. While acknowledging a desire to "more than ever, keep Americans safe" and highlighting his successes during his time as a Navy Judge Advocate General (including stints at Guantanamo Bay during the War on Terror), DeSantis also acknowledged how "many Americans miss the days when they could wish their loved ones well at the gate...We may not be ready to cross that bridge, but I promise you with the work we're going to do to strike a perfect balance between safety and freedom, maybe we'll get there."

At the meeting at the Westin Denver International Airport Hotel northeast of downtown Denver, DeSantis announced his nomination of Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida's 28th District (which includes much of Miami-Dade County south of Miami as well as the Florida Keys) to become his Homeland Security Secretary. A native of Havana, Cuba who moved with his family to Miami as a young boy, Giménez is a retired Miami firefighter who at one time served as Fire Chief and eventually became Miami City Manager and Miami-Dade County Mayor before his election to Congress. He serves on the House Homeland Security Committee (as well as the Transportation and Infrastructure & Science, Space and Technology committees) and is generally regarded as a moderate Republican. "More than ever, defending Americans against terrorism, preparing them to protect their families in a natural disaster, securing our border - these are all things we should not be taking for granted. As your DHS Secretary, I will take the lessons learned in decades of service as a firefighter and as an administrator to protect our country from all threats foreign and domestic. I know our next President does - because I dealt with him quite a lot!", quipped Giménez during his speech following his introduction by DeSantis.

DeSantis also announced the nomination of Rep.-elect and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to serve as the new director of the CIA. While his experience in matters related to intelligence has been disputed, leading many to argue that his appointment to the role under Trump was merely a "political power play", Ratcliffe's appointment is viewed as a "direct affront to the intelligence establishment" that has been widely panned by conservatives in recent years. Indeed, Ratcliffe, who had just been elected to return to Congress from the 5th District in Texas, having served in the nearby 4th District prior to his appointment as DNI in 2020, stated that "As your new Director of the CIA, I am committed to restoring the trust of the American people when it comes to our intelligence community, focusing the department on its stated mission of gaining information on terrorists and other foreign enemies who seek to undermine our freedoms and our security", vowing to get aggressive on matters involving China and Russia (among other "frenemy states") and most certainly directing away from what Ratcliffe called "a blatant politicization of the CIA at the expense of the integrity of our foreign intelligence".

Other appointments announced by the incoming President included his new Homeland Security Advisor, former Virginia Attorney General and Trump DHS alum Ken Cuccinelli; Pete Peterson, Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy but perhaps best known for his close 2014 bid for California Secretary of State against now-U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Microsoft Deputy General Counsel C.J. Mahoney, who oversaw the passage of the USMCA free trade agreement in Congress under former President Donald Trump, as U.S. Trade Representative; and former federal prosecutor and Trump administration alum Kash Patel as Director of National Drug Control Policy - the so-called "Drug Czar". Similar to the situation with Ratcliffe, Patel is particularly controversial due to his reputation as a "Trump loyalist" that was well-documented in the last days of the Trump presidency as well as his subsequent appearances on Fox News since the end of the Trump presidency, though DeSantis defended Patel's work as a public defender both in Miami-Dade County as well as at the federal level.

DeSantis also took the opportunity to announce a quartet of U.S. Ambassadorships in advance, leading off with perhaps the most important such assignment - that of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (or more specifically, the Court of St. James's) - going to former Rep. George Holding of North Carolina (whose wife is an English native). Other appointments included Oracle CEO Safra Catz as U.S. Ambassador to Israel (itself also considered critical due to the U.S.'s longstanding support for the Jewish state); real estate developer Christian Anschutz (son of prominent Republican financier Philip Anschutz) as U.S. Ambassador to Germany; and Rafael Díaz-Balart, a Miami investment banker whose brother is Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (and is arguably the least well-known of four brothers between himself, Mario, former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart and NBC/Telemundo journalist José Díaz-Balart), as U.S. Ambassador to Cuba. "These are just the first four, but these will be excellent representatives of American interests to the world, part of our commitment to promoting 'peace through strength' around the world, free of unnecessary conflict, but otherwise committed to a strong national defense that exudes confidence from our allies and sends a stern message to our enemies that we will not bow to their hatred for our freedoms," DeSantis added in his remarks.

Next: A very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!...

[SaintStan86]

Based on the results seen so far, this is what the map pretty much looks like with the kind of result that has happened:



And for those who may be wondering "This would never happen!", it shall be noted that such socioeconomically divergent counties as Fairfield County, Connecticut, Monongalia County, West Virginia, Marshall County, Mississippi, Snohomish County, Washington, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Gwinnett County, Georgia, and Mahoning County, Ohio - along with San Diego County, California, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Jefferson County/Louisville, Kentucky, Hidalgo County, Texas, York County, Maine, Clark County, Nevada, and Loudoun County, Virginia - all gave pluralities to DeSantis in the range of 45-50 percent that highlight just how much of a spoiler Andrew Yang proved to be in this race, as well as the end product of what an amalgamation of Trump-style numbers in rural and working-class areas, a Glenn Youngkin-style suburban shift in all 50 states, and unprecedented support among Hispanic and Black voters for a Republican presidential candidate can produce for the GOP. When the aforementioned Jefferson County/Louisville as well as Fayette County (home to Lexington) are giving pluralities to DeSantis who wins every other county in Kentucky, it's hard to imagine how Democrats cannot plot their future without some attempt to a) reach out to the voters the Democrats bled away over the past two decades; b) how the triangulation of yore has worn thin over time; and c) at least having enough decency to reach out to Andrew Yang if not at least his supporters.

In other words, Democrats have plenty of explaining to do as to what direction they will need to take going forward. With that in mind, I'm going to go on a limb and say that if Jaime Harrison does not return as DNC Chairman, Tim Ryan - who at one time considered challenging Nancy Pelosi for control of the Democratic caucus - could be a likely pick to head the Democrats in the DeSantis era, sensing that the party has "lost its way" with the working class, and it's fair to say that if Donald Trump had the sort of demeanor that DeSantis has thus far shown as Governor of Florida (a "strategic bulldog" playing chess and not moaning like a toddler who doesn't get his way), he most likely would not have suffered a good chunk of the suburban slump that Trump got in 2016 and 2020, and the whole discussion about 2020 - coronavirus notwithstanding - would have focused on how badly the Democrats have fallen in the post-Obama era.

[SaintStan86]

While Ron DeSantis is assembling yet another part of his incoming Cabinet, the result of the last outstanding race of the 2024 election cycle is finally set in stone...

December 21, 2024
ASHCROFT CONCEDES DEFEAT IN MISSOURI AS KANDER FINALLY DECLARED WINNER IN RACE FOR GOVERNOR
With all potential legal options now fully exhausted and his campaign account near broke, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft finally conceded defeat on Saturday in his bid to become Missouri's next Governor to his Democratic opponent Jason Kander, whom Ashcroft succeeded in 2016 when Kander pursued an ultimately competitive bid for the U.S. Senate against now-retired Sen. Roy Blunt. According to the final results, canvassed last month but repeatedly subject to probes by the Ashcroft campaign alleging voter fraud, Kander won 48.66 percent of the vote versus 48.17 for his GOP opponent, and also won the counties of Clay and Platte counties in northern Kansas City - both of which went to President-elect Ron DeSantis, along with a few other counties in addition to also outperforming DeSantis across the entire state in both urban and rural areas, not unlike his 2016 run for the Senate.

In his concession, Ashcroft thanked the people of Missouri "for their tireless support in my two terms as Secretary of State for which I have been grateful to serve" and vowed to stay active in politics afterwards, also acknowledging that "while I am disappointed in how the results turned out, I'm not going to let it define me and plan to celebrate a wonderful Christmas with my wonderful family, while also wishing every one of you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a festive Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year to all Missourians from the bottom of my heart". Ashcroft is the son of former Governor, Senator and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and had been elected Secretary of State in 2016 and reelected in 2020, two years removed from losing a competitive State Senate race in an open Republican-held suburban St. Louis County seat that defied a national trend against the Democrats that year.

Meanwhile Kander, with his family by his side, thanked Ashcroft for his "graciousness" in finally conceding the race over a month and a half following the election and also reflected on his recent past with regards to his recent mental health struggles: "Given everything that Diana and I have been through over these last couple of years, taking time off to rediscover himself, becoming a bestselling author, advocating for those with PTSD and raising a family, I never imagined going through a battle like this, but while it's fair to say these holidays are unforgettable, I never imagined it being this unforgettable". Kander, who will become Missouri's second Jewish Governor (after disgraced Republican Eric Greitens who won in the same 2016 cycle he ran against Blunt in before resigning in the wake of sexual misconduct and eventual domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife) and the first to be elected as a Democrat, wished Missourians "a very Merry Christmas, a festive Kwanzaa, and for us and many others a Happy Hanukkah, but most of all Happy Holidays no matter what you celebrate" while also declaring "the hard work now begins to put Missouri FIRST and show the world what we really mean by the Show Me State!".

With a total of 32 Republican Governors and 18 Democratic ones for at least the next year, any attempt by Republicans to push forth amendments from the DeSantis administration - such as a Balanced Budget Amendment, term limits and even a potential Convention of States long championed by conservatives - will all but certainly require a few Democrats in order to achieve the goal of ratification. When asked about the possibility of any potential amendments being ratified in the incoming DeSantis administration, Kander responded "You know, that's a good question. I have no doubt that Ron DeSantis is going to have a lot of bold things he's wanting to do, but as I do with everything on the table, if it benefits Missourians - who represent the heart of America - then it's worth joining in ratifying certain things, but if it's not worth ratifying, then that's a bridge too far to cross". For instance, Kander already has called a potential "Human Life Amendment" at the federal level "dead on arrival": "A woman should not be compelled to put her dreams on hold because of an unwanted pregnancy she didn't ask for and where the social services needed to take care of that baby may not be there".

Across the country, millions of Americans have wrapped up their last-minute holiday shopping across the three major holidays, packing into special Christmas Eve services and midnight masses celebrating the birth of Jesus, while NBC proceeds along with its traditional Christmas Eve airings of "It's a Wonderful Life" and the midnight mass with Pope Francis from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Santa Claus devours billions of cookies from homes around the world, ABC chugs along with its quadruple-header of NBA basketball games, and the following Wednesday is a hump day full of already exhausted retail employees and stockers now back for one last grind as shoppers return unwanted gifts of various degrees from the shelves of Walmart and the conveyor belts of Amazon to the extravagant catalogs of Neiman Marcus...

Meanwhile, at a hotel conference room north of Dallas, Ron DeSantis makes clear his next set of appointments...

December 27, 2024
DeSANTIS APPOINTS NEXT LINE OF CABINET SECRETARIES FOR DOMESTIC AGENDA
On Thursday, President-elect Ron DeSantis made his latest lineup of Cabinet appointments at a hotel in Frisco, Texas, in the heart of an area of the Dallas suburb known to many as "the five billion dollar mile", where the President made clear his latest set of appointments primarily centered in a number of domestic areas. "These next appointments I am making represent the high standards of leadership that my administration will bring to the American people, and it is because of these leaders that Americans will benefit like never before, with healthcare that reflects your unique concerns, care for our veterans that is superior and not substandard, a workforce that is second to none, and a government that puts parents, taxpayers and entrepreneurs first, not the same DC swamp that has caused too much damage for too long".

Topping his appointments is that of 73-year-old former HUD secretary and celebrated neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who was one of a handful of Trump administration Cabinet members to have lasted in their position to the very end and has lived in West Palm Beach, Fla. since 2013, to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. "This appointment, by far, is the pinnacle of my life, and I am more than honored to be appointed by Ron DeSantis - the greatest Governor in America - to serve as your next HHS Secretary", Carson proclaimed as he spoke glowingly of his heralded career and "the promise of America". Already well-known as both a prominent neurosurgeon and an emerging Black conservative, Carson would become even more well-known for his 2016 presidential bid (where he at one point placed second behind Donald Trump in Republican primary polls) and is regarded as one of the more positively received members of Trump's Cabinet.

While Carson is certainly far from the only Floridian selected to serve in the DeSantis administration, he was certainly not alone in this regard as well. A nearby colleague of Carson's in the Treasure Coast region, Rep. Brian Mast, was also joined as he was announced as Secretary of Veterans Affairs by DeSantis. An Army veteran who served during Operation Enduring Freedom, Mast was deployed as a bomb disposal technician in Kandahar alongside his disposal unit when he stepped on an IED that critically injured him and resulted in the amputation of both of his legs and his left index finger. The incident, which resulted in his honorable discharge, did not stop Mast from continuing his career in public service, serving as an explosives specialist for the Department of Homeland Security, among other capacities, before his election to Congress in 2016 when he picked up a swing district north of Palm Beach that was held by a Democrat at the time, and has gone on to serve four terms (and already reelected to a fifth) in Congress from what is now the 21st District. "The veterans I served along, have served with dignity in Congress, and will be serving in this new journey as your VA Secretary, inspire us all and bring out the best in America", Mast proclaimed as he thanked DeSantis for his friendship and service to "our beautiful and United States of America".

The next two appointments announced by DeSantis, both from areas being speculated as potential chopping blocks should DeSantis's greatest ambitions on "starving the beast" become reality, come from completely opposite ends of the Trump spectrum. For Labor Secretary, DeSantis has selected Blake Masters, the 38-year-old Stanford-educated venture capitalist and protege of GOP megafunder Peter Thiel who ran for the U.S. Senate in Arizona in 2022, losing to Sen. Mark Kelly in a close contest that year that was hurt by both Kelly's popular persona as a former astronaut and moderately liberal voting record and Masters' outspoken support for the allegation that the 2020 election had been stolen from former President Donald Trump (as well as infighting within the Arizona GOP, also stirred by both the controversial gubernatorial campaign of Kari Lake and the disdain of the old McCain political machine towards the party, that led to a shakeup in leadership within the Arizona Republican Party). The married father of three sons acknowledged the significance of his new role, vowing "With President DeSantis in tow, I am going to help build a workforce that is prepared to tackle the challenges that America faces, encourage fair opportunities and wages that benefit workers and their families, and protect the dignity of all workers from those who game the system to their advantage at the expense of their employees".

On the other end, DeSantis appointed Senator and former presidential rival Ben Sasse of Nebraska to serve as his Education Secretary. Unlike Trump loyalist Masters, Sasse has been an outspoken critic of the former President, having voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial following the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol during the counting of electoral votes for Joe Biden. Before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2014, Sasse was the President of Midland University and was credited for turning around what had been a languishing Lutheran college in Fremont, Nebraska, dramatically increasing its enrollment numbers, graduation rates and financial endowments under his watch. Sasse has also written books during his U.S. Senate tenure, has often taken aim at what Sasse calls "the managed decline of America that both sides are guilty of engaging in", and voted to confirm all three of former President Trump's picks for the Supreme Court while maintaining a largely conservative voting record, notwithstanding his vote against Trump in 2021.

In his announcement, DeSantis acknowledged the nature of his selection of Sasse: "Of course Donald Trump doesn't agree with me about it, we did discuss this beforehand, and I certainly don't agree with the dumb move that Ben made to convict Trump over that horrible tragedy that he certainly did not directly cause. But 2021 is a long way away, and this is not the Donald Trump administration, this is my administration, and what matters is putting the American people and our conservative principles first, more than anything. Ben Sasse has a record of success turning around a floundering college in his home state, and he will do a great job empowering teachers and parents first in his new role". Having already announced he will not seek reelection in 2026, Sasse (whose wife homeschools their three children back home in Nebraska) vowed to make great use of his new role: "This new journey is one I am honored to take part in, and as your Education Secretary we are going to create the most prepared and dedicated workforce this country has ever seen". Even Trump himself gave a tongue-in-cheek endorsement of the pick: "Glad to see Ron DeSantis putting Little Ben Sasse in as Education Secretary - because he certainly will be the last one!", alluding to the likelihood that the Department of Education (among other departments including Labor and Energy) stand to be eliminated in a "starve the beast" scenario floated by many conservatives.

Alex Wagner, on her MSNBC show, was not exactly charitable of the news however: "What a way to end the holiday season: two token Black brand-name Republicans, a token Hispanic brand-name Republican, a token Trump critic already well-known to most Americans, a token Millennial with the right ingredients, and a token woman who is essentially Ron DeSantis with a vagina under her pink diapers. Whoop-de-doo! A far cry from the diverse administration that President Biden will be leaving behind, only to be wasted because old white men are once again running the show". Raymond Arroyo, filling in the following night for Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show The Ingraham Angle from his studio in New Orleans, responded to Wagner's derisive quip: "So Kristi Noem is wearing pink diapers. How convenient? If that's the best you can say on air, Alex Wagner, bless your heart, you'll probably need them and cry wearing them every time Ron DeSantis cleans up the mess President Biden and his sad sack henchmen made, liberal tears and all".

December 28, 2024
HARRISON, McDANIEL STEP ASIDE AS SENATE RUMORS SWIRL; RNC BANS DISGRUNTLED "NEVER TRUMPER" FROM CAMPAIGNS
At two last-minute meetings of both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee in separate corners of the Capitol Beltway, change is all but certain as DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison announced he will not be seeking another term, an announcement he made at the Washington Hilton hotel - in the same ballroom where Ronald Reagan had spoken before his assassination attempt in 1981. The former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman, who unsuccessfully ran a close campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020, has not announced his future intentions as rumors have begun to swirl not only of a potential 2026 run in a year where South Carolina's governorship also hangs in the balance due to incumbent Republican Henry McMaster being term-limited (Former Columbia mayor Steve Benjamin, who is also Black, has announced his intentions to run on the Democratic side), but also of whether or not Graham will be running for a fifth term as Senator. The lifelong bachelor Graham, who will be 71 in 2026, will be termed out of serving a fourth term as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee by the end of his term (having served in that capacity from 2019-2021) and signs have pointed to Graham likely heading for the exits, his hawkish foreign policy views likely to be at odds with the more traditional realist/fairly noninterventionist views of the incoming DeSantis administration.

When asked about the speculation surrounding his future plans, Harrison denied that he was stepping aside to make a run for the Senate: "I am not going to speculate on my future plans in service to our country, and more specifically my home state of South Carolina, but Democrats are fired up and ready to defend their turf in 2026, and we are going to make gains with an eye towards states like Texas, Florida, Ohio and several others. We are going to be back, and we are going to be back stronger than ever before". He also acknowledged the desire for reaching out to working-class voters the party has bled in recent election cycles, stating "We have learned our lesson, and we are currently plotting our strategy and getting to the bottom of why the Democratic brand is in the 'toilet', where we don't deserve to be. Because as the saying goes, there's nowhere to go but up".

Meanwhile, at the Republican National Committee meeting at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland - down the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. and across the Potomac from Alexandria, Virginia, outgoing Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was roasted by her fellow colleagues (in this case, meaning she is being honored in the tradition of a comedy 'roast' with satirical jokes) during a farewell ceremony. During the ceremony, McDaniel remarked "It's been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, helping to work alongside one great President - Donald Trump, and working overtime to elect another great President - Ron DeSantis. Two of the finest men this country has ever seen, and it has been my honor to play a role in their presidencies". While rumors have swirled of McDaniel's political future, including a potential role in the DeSantis administration as well as speculation surrounding a 2026 Senate run in Michigan against incumbent Democrat and former vice presidential running mate Gary Peters, McDaniel - whose uncle is Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, stated "My focus now is not on what goes on in the Senate elections in 2026. My focus now is laying the groundwork for a strong Republican Party to stand with Ron DeSantis and his incoming administration, and helping to elect a new RNC Chair that will take our party even further".

While much of the focus has been on unfinished business in the run up to Inauguration Day, there was also some last-minute business of the 2024 cycle to tackle. During the post-Christmas meeting, the RNC voted to bar its candidates from participating in any electoral activities with disgraced former Republican strategist Rick Wilson, citing Wilson's involvement as the leader of The Lincoln Project - a controversial "Never Trump" group that has often attacked Trump and other Republicans including Senate and gubernatorial incumbents and candidates across the conservative spectrum, and especially Wilson's involvement in the controversial "Republicans Are Trailer Trash" ad that aired during an NFL game last September. "Wilson's vile attacks on our party, including the invoking of false and inflammatory stereotypes regarding Republicans, including the blatant lie that we advocate for the Confederate flag, justify barring Wilson from all future involvement in our party and related activities. For all I care, he is a Democrat, an actual racist who disregards the gains we have made with minorities and Millennials, an enabler of pedophiles (referring to a controversy involving a former Lincoln Project strategist accused of grooming young men - some of them teenagers), and nothing more than that, and he's where he belongs - right there with them", said Republican National Committeeman Dr. Robin Armstrong of Texas, who is African-American and who authored the resolution to admonish Wilson.

In response to his censure by the Republican National Committee, Wilson responded in a live response on the Lincoln Project's YouTube channel by attacking his former party as "hypocrites when it comes to the First Amendment", and added that "when it comes to the incoming DeSantis administration, we are going to hold them accountable and remind everyone of who these vultures in disguise are. And they are vultures in disguise, because say what you will about Donald Trump, at least he never hid his true self when he was destroying our country". During his opening statement on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson responded, chuckles in between: "Good luck trying to sell us your latest millions of dollars worth in throwaway ads, Mr. Wilson. Because you'll be laughing to the bank the next time the media gives you an undeserved pat on the back while Ron DeSantis is working overtime to bring our country roaring back to life!".

In another unrelated development, meanwhile, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has announced that his replacement for Sen. Ben Sasse, who will be taking over as Education Secretary in the DeSantis administration, will be announced "some time in between the certification of what should be a peaceful transfer of power on January 6th and the inauguration of President Ron DeSantis two weeks from that time". While many speculate the choice will be Pillen's predecessor as Governor in 60-year-old Pete Ricketts, former TD Ameritrade executive and part-owner of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, others have speculated that Pillen will select a placeholder (such as Sasse's predecessor in 74-year-old former Senator, Governor and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns), though Pillen has argued "the Senate seat belongs to no one but the people of Nebraska, and the choice I make to select Ben Sasse will be a choice that every Nebraskan will be proud of".

Next: The 119th Congress is sworn in, as Ron DeSantis makes an explosive choice to complete his Cabinet...

[SaintStan86]

Updated Post to reflect President-elect DeSantis recent Announcements

President-elect DeSantis Cabinet thus far (pending Confirmations)

Vice President: Former South Carolina Governor & Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki R. Haley

Secretary of State: Robert O'Brien
Ambassador to the United Nations: Ric Grenell
Secretary of Defense: Kenneth Braithwaite
Director of National Intelligence: Utah Congressman Chris Stewart
CIA Director: Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe
FBI Director: TBD (To be determined)
Attorney General: TBD (To be determined)
Department of Homeland Security: Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez
Secretary of Commerce: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin
U. S. Trade Representative:
Secretary of Transportation: Nicole Nason
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: Brad Close
Secretary of the Treasury: David McCormick
Secretary of Education: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse
Secretary of Energy: Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.
Secretary of Agriculture: Former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles
Secretary of the Interior: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem
Secretary of Labor: Blake Masters
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Florida Congressman Brian Mast
Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency: Eric Eikenberg
NASA Administrator: Bill Nelson (Democrat) Holdover from the Biden Administration
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development: South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
Secretary of Health & Human Services: Former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson

Non-Cabinet Level Appointments

White House Chief of Staff: Byron Donalds
White House Press Secretary: Kayleigh McEnany
White House Communications Director: Christina Pushaw
White House Counsel (Head of WH Legal Team): TBD (To be determined)
Chair Council of Economic Advisors: Steve Moore
Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality: Jon Niermann
National Security Advisor: Dina Powell


The only 2 Appointments President DeSantis has left to make are for Attorney General & FBI Director.
There will be 5 or 6 House Special Elections in 2025 and my guess is that incoming Florida Governor Jeanette Nunez will schedule them all on the same Day.

Looking good. Also don't forget that the U.S. Trade Representative is former Deputy United States Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney, who is currently a Deputy General Counsel with Microsoft, and the White House Counsel is former Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls who used to represent DeSantis's hometown of Dunedin in Tallahassee. Also shall note that the NASA, CIA and FBI positions don't require Senate approval, but the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors does.

Other appointees include:

Requires Senate approval:
Director of the Office of Science and Tech Policy: Drew Baglino (former Tesla executive, political party not known)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Pete Peterson

Executive Office, not requiring Senate approval:
Homeland Security Advisor: Ken Cuccinelli
Counselor to the President: Joe Gruters
Senior Advisor to the President: Brad Herold
Director of National Drug Control Policy: Kash Patel

[SaintStan86]

The ball has dropped in Times Square where revelers have rung in 2025. College football bowl games rule the TV from coast to coast as the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and other bowl games (as well as to a lesser extent, hockey's NHL Winter Classic) has dawned upon the country. And two days later, on a Friday that otherwise would be excused to a large extent, a whole new Congress has begun...

January 3, 2025
119TH CONGRESS SWORN IN WITH EXPANDED SENATE MAJORITY, NEW HOUSE SPEAKER
The first day of the 119th Congress commenced on Friday as Steve Scalise took his place at the speaker's gavel. With the largest Republican majority in over a century, the representative from Louisiana's 1st District in suburban New Orleans - one whose life was almost cut short in a mass shooting during a practice session for the Congressional Baseball Game - exhibited "a good dose of gratitude" and looked forward to "fighting for the American people every day, for the right to prosper and thrive, for the right to speak their mind without retribution, and for an America where all regardless of their economic, social, racial, ethnic or sexual background can be judged on the merits of their character and goodwill, not the class warfare, corporate cronyism and politically correct programming that has divided us over these last four years." The 59-year-old Scalise, joined with his family by his side, vowed to lead "a Congress for all Americans, standing for what's right and good about our country" and looked forward to "working with President Ron DeSantis to make freedom matter in America once again!" While new rules and a ceremonial Constitution reading will be taking place today, work in the House is expected to be humdrum until DeSantis is sworn in as President.

The new House will have 268 Republicans, along with 1 member of the Constitution Party, Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene, serving in the 269-member majority conference, and 164 Democrats - the largest such Republican majority since the 67th Congress elected in 1920 alongside Republican President Warren Harding (and also a trifecta with 59 GOP Senators out of 96 total). Two Republican-held seats are vacant, because those two Republicans - Byron Donalds of Florida and John Ratcliffe of Texas - chose not to take their seats after being appointed to positions in the incoming administration of Ron DeSantis. Donalds was nominated to be White House Chief of Staff under President-elect DeSantis, while Ratcliffe, the last former Director of National Intelligence to serve under Donald Trump, will become head of the CIA under DeSantis; their respective districts, Florida's 19th District (based in Naples and southwest Florida) and Texas's 5th District (based in the eastern Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex) will hold special elections no earlier than March called by Florida Gov. DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Three other Republican-held seats are also set to become vacant, including two in Florida - the Treasure Coast-based 21st District of Brian Mast and the south Miami-Dade and Key West-based 28th District of Carlos Giménez, as well as the 2nd District in Utah (including northern suburbs of Salt Lake City and much of western and southern Utah) of Chris Stewart. Mast has been nominated to become Secretary of Veterans Affairs, while Giménez has been selected to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security and Stewart is expected to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Unlike the case with Donalds and Ratcliffe, these three positions require Senate confirmation and to no surprise, all three will continue to serve in Congress until confirmed, even though both DeSantis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox - as well as Abbott in Texas - have all called special elections. Of the five seats, Giménez's seat is considered the most vulnerable, as it narrowly voted for Joe Biden in 2020 before swinging to favorite son DeSantis in 2024, though Mast's seat also takes in a sizable northern chunk of traditionally Democratic-leaning Palm Beach County and Stewart's portion of Salt Lake County (which includes most of Salt Lake City itself) is considered competitive.

Across the Capitol in the Senate, unlike the case with the House both in terms of structure and the body of work, the upper chamber is vastly different with 65 Republican Senators - the most in American history - and a bevy of nomination hearings scheduled for the next two and a half weeks along with the certification of the Electoral College on January 6th. The Senate will be led by Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn of Texas, who has already indicated his desire to run for reelection in 2026 despite criticism from some conservatives over his moderate voting record (though not unlike the criticism his predecessor Mitch McConnell faced himself), and has committed to working round the clock "over the next few weeks to make sure that Ron DeSantis has the leaders and the gravitas he needs to get America back on track". Despite the unwieldy size of the Republican conference, Cornyn has vowed a disciplined conservative conference "with no exceptions just to please a vocally unstable Democratic minority that is going to just whine instead of lead".

Among the new Senators is former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who took his place as the new Class I Senator from California after being sworn in by John Seymour, the last Republican to serve as a Senator from the Golden State, having been appointed to the seat in 1991 following the election of incumbent Pete Wilson as Governor, before losing to former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein (whom McCarthy succeeded in the Senate) in 1992. When asked by a reporter about how it feels to be a "junior" compared to no longer being second in line to the presidency, McCarthy expressed zero regrets: "You know, I believe we are in a good place as a country, and for me service has always been about serving the people of California, not using the spoils of Congress as a stepping stone to higher power".

The new Senate Republican Conference will have 14 new Senators - the most out of one party in at least recent history - with 13 of those coming from formerly Democratic seats. Among the newcomers besides McCarthy are Dr. Mehmet Öz, who was sworn in by former appointed Sen. Jeff Chiesa (who served briefly in 2013 following the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg), two years removed from his defeat for another Senate seat in Pennsylvania against then-Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. Indeed, almost all of the new Republican Senators were either sworn in by current (Maine, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin) and former (Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia, plus appointed former ones from California and New Jersey) Republican Senators. Ben du Pont of Delaware, whose most recent Republican Senator - William Roth - died in 2003, was sworn in by departing Democratic Sen. Tom Carper who had defeated Roth in 2000, while Dan Crenshaw, the only new Republican Senator from a seat already held by a Republican, was sworn in by his now-predecessor, former Sen. Ted Cruz. When asked what he is going to miss the most about serving in the Senate, Cruz responded: "Well, there's not really much that I miss about being a Senator, but I am looking forward to spending more time with my family back home in Houston, and that's what matters more than anything is family", also alluding to writing his memoirs.

Vice President Kamala Harris was present to gavel in the new Senate in her ceremonial role as President of the Senate, but with the Senate now having a lopsided Republican majority, she mostly retreated to the gallery with little fanfare as Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn took the reins, gaveling in the 119th Congress with a busy schedule of hearings for appointees of the incoming presidential administration, preferring to wait to act on matters affecting the American people until Inauguration Day. Save for one particular day...

January 6, 2025
CONGRESS CERTIFIES 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WITH ZERO CONTROVERSY, LITTLE DISRUPTION
After a weekend of rest following a busy Friday morning and afternoon of celebratory luncheons, congressional office openings and new leadership posts announced, the Congress went to work on Monday to certify the 2024 election in a joint session of Congress presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris at around 1:00PM Eastern time. With little to no disruption outside and no objections from the Congress - save for one futile questioning of the results in the state of Washington by progressive Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of the Seattle-based 7th District that was ultimately rejected, the results were certified with 420 electoral votes for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his running mate, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, and 110 electoral votes for Harris, plus eight faithless electors' votes that otherwise would have gone to Harris including one awarded to Andrew Yang, who as the nominee of his Forward movement becomes the first third party candidate to win an electoral vote since George Wallace in 1968.

After Harris took an initial ceremonial lead with the counting of her home state of California's 54 electoral votes for her, DeSantis took the lead going forward after his home state of Florida's 30 electoral votes were counted and never looked back, with Ohio's 17 electoral votes ceremonially securing the magical 270 for DeSantis. As expected, DeSantis won 420 electoral votes, with 110 of the 118 electoral votes allocated to Harris going to her. Four states produced eight faithless electors, with three coming from New York - two for her vice presidential running mate and Sen. Gary Peters in addition to a third for Yang, two from Massachusetts (former President John F. Kennedy and former Rep. Gerry Studds, both deceased), and one each from Rhode Island (Sen. Jack Reed), Vermont (former Sen. Bernie Sanders) and the District of Columbia (civil rights activist and former presidential candidate, the Rev. Jesse Jackson). As conservative talk radio host and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr put it aptly on his WRKO radio show in Boston: "The fact that Kamala Harris even lost two electoral votes here in Massachusetts - one to a dead President, the other a pedophile (referring to Studds who was the subject of a 1983 scandal in which he reportedly had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male page), two to Gary Peters and another to Andrew Yang in New York, lost a vote to Bernie in Vermont and Jack Reed in Rhode Island, and even lost one in Washington, D.C. to Jesse Jackson of all persons, tells you just how terrible a candidate Kamala Harris was."

The day was also marked by the four-year anniversary of the 2021 attack on the Capitol. On the Democratic side, the occasion was marked as if it were on par with the September 11th attacks - with various tributes to the Capitol Police officers who died in the aftermath of the attack, as well as speeches remarking on the symbolic nature of the anniversary with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer remarking: "That day four years ago was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation, and it is a day we hope to never relive". House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also remarked on the anniversary by also extending his thoughts on the members of Congress still remaining: "A great many of us who were there that day are no longer here in Congress, but the memories of that day still ring deeply in our souls, and serve as a reminder as to why democracy - more than ever - should not be taken for granted".

On the Republican side, much of the discussion with regards to the 2021 attack also centered on tributes to the Capitol Police officers who died, while others expanded the discussion to focus on other matters. For example, Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, a former Sheriff of Fort Bend County, Texas who fought off Capitol rioters face-to-face in the House chamber and later was one of a handful of Republicans selected to serve on the January 6th Committee only to have his appointment scuttled by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denounced the violence exhibited by the rioters but also remarked that Ashli Babbitt, a rioter shot to death by police in the midst of the attack, "would be alive today if it weren't for the gross security failures that caused this tragedy to happen in the first place". Others denounced Antifa, while still others such as Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado remarked that "If only they gave us a chance to look at the results for themselves an interpret a credible decision as to whether or not these last-minute votes are real, and we didn't have all these supposed COVID modifications in different states over a virus that most every American got and became immune to anyway, this tragedy wouldn't have happened, and regardless of whether or not Trump or Biden won, there wouldn't have been a January 6th".

With the vote having been certified by the joint session of Congress, both President Biden and Kamala Harris have started to accelerate their already ongoing moves out of the White House and Number One Observatory Circle, their respective residences in Washington, as both residences are being prepared for the incoming administration. As for one particular Senator - forget the talk about more "spending more time with my family", for it was all a mirage compared to DeSantis's next big move...

January 7, 2024
DeSANTIS PICKS HIS ATTORNEY GENERAL, WILL NOT ANNOUNCE FBI REPLACEMENT UNTIL "AFTER INAUGURATION"; NUÑEZ SWORN IN AS GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA
On Tuesday, while the paint was still dry on the electoral college vote, President-elect Ron DeSantis announced his pick for Attorney General, selecting former Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to serve in this role. A former Solicitor General of Texas until then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Princeton- and Harvard-educated Cruz, who once served as an editor for the Harvard Law Review and other Harvard law publications, clerked for federal and Supreme Court justices and assisted on George W. Bush's presidential campaign before serving as an associate deputy attorney general in the Justice Department under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. In 2003, Cruz became Texas's Solicitor General for six years, and his legal pedigree became widely regarded across various legal publications and conservative legal circles.

In 2012, with endorsements from various conservatives including former Reagan-era Attorney General Edwin Meese (who served as his national campaign chairman) as well as groups like the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks, Cruz scored an upset victory in the 2012 U.S. Senate primary against the favored choice, then-Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, and went on to defeat Democratic former State Rep. Paul Sadler to become Texas's first Hispanic U.S. Senator, in a race where he outperformed Mitt Romney among Hispanics statewide. This set the stage for his ascendant 2016 presidential run, finishing second to Donald Trump in a bitter Republican primary battle where Cruz and Trump lobbed personal attacks against each other, culminating in his infamous speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland where he urged the delegates to "vote your conscience" instead of directly endorsing Trump - which he eventually did and went on to become one of Trump's more reliable supporters in the Senate, even voting to object to electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania from 2020 hours after the infamous attack on the U.S. Capitol that occurred four years and one day ago - which led to calls from Democrats and the media for Cruz to resign or be expelled.

After being introduced by DeSantis at a press conference announced on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California near Los Angeles, where the two once debated during the 2024 presidential cycle, Cruz thanked DeSantis for his "undying friendship and camaraderie through the years" and called his appointment as Attorney General "the opportunity of a lifetime", also remarking "If this is what one means by spending more time with family, it's fair to say I will have plenty of that going on before my teenage daughters get too big for our own liking". Still, Cruz remarked that being Attorney General will "afford me more personal time with my family, because all I'm doing really is directing the Justice Department that I was proud to serve in before my daughters were even born - something that as a U.S. Senator I was almost never able to have", as his wife Heidi and his two daughters, Caroline and Catherine, stood besides him.

While family was certainly in focus for Cruz, he laid no stone unturned in his opening statement as an appointee: "The American people have gone through enough abuse with the DOJ, with the FBI, the ATF, our prison system, the pandering to our drug cartels, our open borders, the attacks on our Constitution. They are sick of these attacks, and it's time they deserve a Justice Department that works to their better angels, not their worse demons. Merrick Garland is one of the biggest devils in disguise ever to have served in the federal government, and we are going to finally get to the truth about 2020, about 2021, about Afghanistan, the targeting of gun owners, concerned parents, and other crimes committed by the Biden administration".

The reaction from the left, unsurprisingly was harsh though not unanimously vile. On one hand Cruz's former professor at Harvard, liberal constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz, remarked "Of course he is definitely biting, he certainly is wrong on many levels, but the guy is so brilliant that it's hard to argue with him without crying or laughing. If Ron DeSantis had to make his call for Attorney General, he practically has gotten what he wanted, and Ted Cruz was effectively made for this moment". However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was far less charitable: "We are definitely going to have a probing and thorough confirmation process for my former colleague on the other side of the Senate, but this has to be one of the most divisive picks from the DeSantis administration, and I'm not certain how Ted Cruz as Attorney General will be compared to Ted Cruz as a Senator".

As for one particular vacancy of note in the incoming administration, DeSantis made his stance on the FBI directorship clear: "I'm going to give Christopher Wray all the time he needs to pack his bags and prepare to head back home to Atlanta, as I make my decision clear as to who our next FBI Director will be. That decision is one I am going to give great thought to, and it's a decision I will be making after I am inaugurated as President. But it goes without saying that the FBI is in dire need of an overhaul, new leadership that will effectively serve the American public and not the special interests that were cozy to Joe Biden."

The afternoon in California capped off an auspicious day for the President-elect, which began early in the morning in Tallahassee, where at 10:00AM DeSantis officially resigned as Governor of Florida, remarking his gratitude to "the people of Florida for the friendship and trust you have given me as your Governor, and it is a legacy I leave behind that will never be forgotten by the people of Florida", handing over the reins to his Lieutenant Governor, Jeanette Nuñez. The first Latina to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Florida, Nuñez was born in Miami and worked as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Florida International University, as well as a hospital executive in Miami before her election as a State Representative in a South Florida district that stretched westward across the Everglades from Doral to Naples. Nuñez would go on to be selected as Lieutenant Governor by DeSantis in his successful 2018 bid and subsequent 2022 reelection, and is married to her husband Adrian with whom she has three children.

In her introductory speech, which concluded shortly before DeSantis took a charter flight to California to introduce Ted Cruz as his Attorney General (which happened at 3:00PM Pacific time), Nuñez remarked "I would like to thank Ron DeSantis for the great work his governance has done in making Florida the "shining state on a hill" while also remarking "As your new Governor, Florida is going to go even farther and our economy, our communities and our people will be even prouder than before. Because in Florida, we believe in hard work and infinite dreams".

Next: Getting closer to the end for President Biden...

[SaintStan86]

Interesting choice, while the choice of Ted Cruz as AG is the choice of a top drawer legal mind; one thing that can be said of Cruz, he has a brilliant legal mind
Now onto a bit of housekeeping and due to some update from 2016 on the counties he reckons Harris won overall, here's my version of the 2024 County Map.

Overall Harris could only manage to carry 266 (the lowest number since Mondale's performance of winning 307 counties in 1984),  compared to the 2,877 allocated to DeSantis. It appears that the so-called "Blue Wall" which Trump managed to crack in 2016, has crumbled and if DeSantis as President implements policies that appeal to what can now be regarded as  "DeSantis Democrats" and Democrats fail to wean themselves away from the progressive "woke" counter culture ideology, they will endure an even bigger shellacking in 2028. Here's a question, could  DeSantis be the American version of Boris Johnson (re: cracking the red wall in the 2019 UK General election)?
It will be interesting to see if Biden takes that Amtrak ride back to Wilmington on Inauguration Day or hitch a ride on Air Force One, as was the case with Obama, Bush or Clinton. If Trump attends the DeSantis Inauguration, I can imagine the sour faces on the dais, if that's the case.

Looks very good on your end! For those keeping score at home, here are the differences between our maps with my explanation:

• Arizona: We split on Apache, Coconino and Santa Cruz, as in Stanton's map only Pima goes blue. Natives still voted for Harris by a decent margin, which explains why I put Apache in the blue column since much of the Navajo Nation is actually in Apache. Santa Cruz is mostly Hispanic, but even with the big Latino shift it wouldn't have been enough for DeSantis to carry it. Coconino has a sizable population of Lululemon Liberals - outdoorsy types with a liberal streak - that carries Flagstaff and Sedona (among other areas) for Harris, though DeSantis does get some of the more moderate Rs Trump lost in the prior two cycles.
• California: While much of California has certain been more charitable to DeSantis compared to Trump (looking at you, Orange County!), Sacramento still goes for favorite daughter Harris as much of the capital city is clearly more pronounced in their liberal views compared to the 1980s. Do expect areas like Folsom and even places like Arden-Arcade to be a bit more charitable to the R side in this scenario.
• Colorado: San Miguel, Ouray and Costilla have enough Democratic and Native votes to where it likely would have been an uphill climb for DeSantis to prevail, and Summit, Eagle, Routt, Lake, Pitkin, and Gunnison are all Ski Country counties whose Lululemon Liberal votes hand those counties to Harris. We are in agreement on the rest as Denver and Boulder are deeply pronounced in their Democratic leans, and Broomfield amounts to a slight win for Harris given it has taken on many of the characteristics of nearby Boulder demographically speaking.
• Florida: Even with the favorite son effect, I still don't see Leon County (Tallahassee) going to DeSantis given Tallahassee's government bureaucrat + Black votes, the latter of which explains the phenomenon that to the northwest is Gadsden County.
• Louisiana: Given what I mentioned about the record Black percentages for DeSantis and my comments about Harris's strongest urban performances being amongst urban Blacks, it wouldn't be a shock if the rural Black vote represented a higher enough percentage to tip the parishes of Iberville, St. Helena, St. James and Tensas towards DeSantis, not to mention the exurban effect from being between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. And while East Baton Rouge Parish certainly has lots of Capitol bureaucrats and college students with LSU and SU in the area, there is also enough movement back towards the GOP amongst both Trump Democrats and at least the Ben Sasse end of Never Trump Republicans to nudge East Baton Rouge Parish in the DeSantis column.
• Montana: Big Horn County was the only disagreement we had, given the Native population at the Crow Indian Reservation, but I figured that DeSantis would barely get it by virtue of the coal industry there. It's also not a terribly conspiracy-filled area (at least compared to the Idaho Panhandle).
• New Mexico: Santa Fe County is the only county that goes blue in both of our maps. McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel and Taos counties have a combination of sizable Native populations, deep Democratic votes or ski town votes (looking at Taos) that keeps them in the Democratic column. And while Stanton thinks Doña Ana would pretty much stay blue, I actually think it flips to the right given what DeSantis gained among Hispanics.
• North Carolina: Anson County has only gone Republican once since 1972, which explains why Stanton lit it blue. I projected the county would go red given the Black rural vote + spillover from both the exurban vote from Union County (south Charlotte suburbs) + the "DeSantis Democrats" vote out of Richmond County (Rockingham). It shall also be noted that the county voted for George Wallace in 1968.
• Virginia: Prince Edward County is home to Farmville as well as Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College, which may explain why this county was put in the blue column on Stanton's end. I gave the benefit of the doubt to DeSantis as the results here were close for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and, given DeSantis would likely have improved here, would have gone red in an election like this where Yang splintered part of the vote that would have gone to Harris.
• Washington: Thurston County is home to the state capital, Olympia, where the Democratic vote is usually 3-2. Given the capitol bureaucrat vote, I don't expect DeSantis to win here compared to Stanton's analysis though I do imagine it will give at least a plurality to Harris given what Yang gets in western Washington and apparently also what Gary Johnson got in 2016. However, the highest a Republican got in the last three elections before Trump was 42.5 percent for George W. Bush in 2004 - and I will be shocked if DeSantis crosses that number unless Yang really goes big in Thurston. OTOH Whatcom County (Bellingham), I figured, would give a plurality at around 45 percent, and perhaps benefit from not just Andrew Yang but also the Green Party candidate, Norman Solomon, splitting off a good chunk of the Democratic vote that otherwise would have gone to Harris. Also shall be noted that George W. Bush got around this amount in both of his races, winning it in 2000 and losing it in 2004.

Other than these differences on this Siskel & Ebert-style comparison, we are most definitely in agreement that this is pretty much what the map would have turned out like with a result like this.

[SaintStan86]

The week has been filled with preliminary hearings on various legislative priorities of the new 119th Congress, as the Senate patiently awaits the appointments of President-elect Ron DeSantis's incoming Cabinet. But for these last days before the inauguration, the focus in Washington is on the final days of the Biden administration...

January 10, 2025
TRUMP TO ATTEND DeSANTIS INAUGURATION
On Friday, former President Donald Trump announced that he will be attending the inauguration of President-elect Ron DeSantis in a statement released to the media via his personal website, which has gone from "Save America PAC" to simply "Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States". In the statement, Trump writes "I am beyond honored to attend the inauguration of my good friend and your next President, Ron DeSantis, the following Monday after next week, January 20th. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing a whole new era begin in our wonderful country, and look forward to joining everyone in attendance on what will be a glorious day for America!".

As expected, Trump was critical of outgoing President Joe Biden, "Can you imagine all the damage that President Biden has done to our country? It is such a sad shame what Sleepy Joe has become over the years, all demented and out of touch with reality". But Trump saved his harshest criticism for outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris: "If you really think about it, it was really the President Harris administration all along - the puppet strings she had over Joe, the condescending attitude she showed everywhere she went, the whole darned "bossy lady" attitude she showed? No wonder people turned from her at the polls!" Trump, though, had a more measured purview of incoming Vice President and one-time frenemy Nikki Haley, even going as far as using her full name: "Nimrata Randhawa Haley is going to be an excellent Vice President for our country. She is going to defend our Constitution, stand with our military and police, marshal the troops in the Senate like no other Vice President has done!".

The former President has largely stayed in the background since DeSantis clinched the Republican nomination, save for a number of rallies including the penultimate one in Atlanta at the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves, Truist Park. However, Trump's old political and fundraising network continues to remain very active and stands to be a major influence for more nationalist- and populist-oriented Republicans (at least in comparison to more traditional conservatives aligned with the network of DeSantis), and Trump's own family has expressed interest in future political runs with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump (wife of Eric) potentially looking at a Senate run in North Carolina in 2026 (regardless of what incumbent Republican Thom Tillis's plans are) and his son Donald Trump Jr. reporting looking at running for the Senate in Pennsylvania in 2028 against Sen. John Fetterman, whom the elder Trump described as "just a sad sack of a Senator...is he still living in Mommy's basement?"

January 12, 2025
GEORGE W. BUSH: DeSANTIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT PRESIDENT
On CBS's long-running 60 Minutes, former President George W. Bush revealed that he voted for President-elect Ron DeSantis during his interview with correspondent Scott Pelley. During the interview, Bush pointed to DeSantis's "all-American persona, playing baseball as a kid, serving our country at Gitmo when other Ivy League grads like him sought to go into the legal profession, marrying a wife who often shared the local TV schedule with Jenna (referring to his daughter, NBC Today host Jenna Bush Hager in reference to DeSantis's wife Casey, a former daytime host at the NBC affiliate in Jacksonville), rising to Congress, then Governor and now President - he took a pretty standard and boring track to the White House". Bush then spoke of DeSantis's governance of Florida: "It's not exactly a storybook time as Governor, I probably would have done a few things differently, but he really galvanized the people of Florida to become the best they've ever had - and I never imagined anyone doing better than Jeb!", referring to his brother Jeb Bush who was Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

When asked about why he chose to cast write-in votes for President the last two years as opposed to voting for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, Bush cited "Well you know the whole thing, him being drunk on his own power, slow to respond to those crazy KKK people in Virginia, you know...the whole isolationist attitude around his administration, it was just too much for me. All things said, why would I waste my time with two Senators who opposed me on most everything I did as President? I can say that what happened in Benghazi wouldn't have happened on my watch unlike Hillary - my dad mostly voted for her because he was best buddies with Bill (referring to his father, former President George H.W. Bush, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016). And what Biden did over in Afghanistan? I wouldn't have pulled them out that quick...look at the can of whoop-ass he opened there...like he's done with most every foreign policy move he's made". Bush wrote-in "None of the above" in 2016 and for his former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in 2020, but otherwise has largely stayed out of the spotlight.

Bush also was asked about other matters in the interim since his presidency, ranging from whether or not he was to blame for the rise of the national debt ("We did our part to lower taxes without affecting national security, but Democrats didn't do their part to cut spending"), to whether the bailouts of the banking system during the 2008 recession were worth it ("The alternative would have been seeing all of our banks go to default"), to his thoughts on former Rep. Liz Cheney ("Well her heart was in the right place, she stood for a strong military like Donald Trump wanted, except when truth became reality she took a big fall"), and even regarding the portrait of DeSantis unveiled at the Republican National Convention ("Ron told me afterward he really liked it, and they plan on hanging it somewhere in Florida, wherever their southern White House or whatever is located, I'm guessing next to the PGA Tour?"). The interview concluded with his reflection on the 2004 60 Minutes report by Dan Rather that questioned his service in the Texas Air National Guard: "Scott, you know you have to be grateful to not be in Dan's shoes...the poor old man thought so badly of me he forgot to check what time it is, but he probably was missing his chicken fried steak".

The interview, which took half the broadcast time, had a ratings share of 1.9 in the 18-49 demographic and 24 million viewers, also benefiting from an NFL Wild Card game that preceded it between the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos, a game won by the former in Denver. The interview received wide media coverage the following Monday, not only on CBS but on other networks as well. Fox News host Tucker Carlson put it plainly on his namesake show: "Yes we all know, of course, that George W. Bush is and always will be a raging warmongering neocon, but you do have to give credit to him for voting for Ron DeSantis, which is the least he could do. This is after all, an America First Party, defined by prosperity, peace, liberty and justice for all - things that seemed so foreign to the very establishment that Bush and Cheney perpetuated, and as the new de facto leader of the Republican Party, both Bush and Donald Trump have no choice but to accept him as the leader of the Republican Party accordingly".

January 15, 2025
PARTIES SELECT NEW LEADERS FOR 2026 CYCLE
On Wednesday, in dueling meetings of both the Republican and Democratic parties in separate locations, both parties selected their new party chairs going forward for the 2026 cycle with Republicans looking to solidify their base behind President-elect Ron DeSantis and Democrats looking to regroup before a 2026 midterms that is widely expected to favor them given the conventional wisdom of long odds of Republicans gaining seats in the next Congress.

At the Hilton hotel in downtown Columbus, Ohio, Republicans congregated at their winter meeting to select their new Chair of the Republican National Committee, naming Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi to serve as the next Chairman of the RNC. As Chairman of the Texas GOP, Rinaldi rode the party to gains in both the Texas Legislature as well as sizable gains in the state's congressional delegation during his 3 1/2 half-year tenure while also holding all of the statewide offices despite aggressive efforts by Democrats to torpedo those gains. In his acceptance speech, Rinaldi remarked "With Ron DeSantis as President, Republicans are going to do great things if they haven't already, and as a party we are going to keep the good work that Ronna McDaniel has done going". Other Republicans Rinaldi beat out in the run up to becoming RNC Chairman included New Jersey GOP Chairman and 2018 U.S. Senate nominee Bob Hugin (who helped lead New Jersey Republicans to unprecedented gains in the last four years), former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, and Oklahoma pastor and "Stop the Steal" hardliner Jackson Lahmeyer.

Neither Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (who recently turned a very young 78, is term-limited in 2026 and retiring altogether from politics) nor Sens. J.D. Vance and Jim Jordan were in attendance as all three were busy tending to matters both at the Ohio Statehouse and the Capitol. Rinaldi will succeed outgoing Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is stepping aside after a record eight years dating back to the presidency of Donald Trump - a tenure that surpassed that of Ohioan Mark Hanna, a close ally of former President and Ohio Gov. William McKinley who served as Chairman from 1896 to 1904, if only by a few months.

Meanwhile, Democrats gathered for their own winter meeting at the Sheraton Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City - ironically the same hotel where former Republican Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a rally for his presidential campaign last year - where the party is seeking to "restock the cavalry" under new leadership after losing their trifecta gained in the 2020 elections. After much debating and voting that took several hours, as well as a "moment of appreciation" for outgoing Chairman Jaime Harrison and a rousing speech by newly sworn-in Missouri Gov. Jason Kander, the DNC elected former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who vowed to "restore the trust of the voters" as the new Chairman of the DNC and also made it clear where his focus would be: "The resurgence of the Democratic Party will be fought, not in the echo chambers and safe spaces of so-called 'ivory towers' and shallow corporate forums that look more vanilla than what America is, but in the union halls and town squares of Middle America, the community schools and assembly lines that dot the heartland, and on military bases, in senior condominiums and other places where Americans desire to live the classic American life. By reconnecting with middle America and not letting cultural purists call the shots when our diversity - white, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Christian and non-Christian, straight and LGBTQ+ - speaks otherwise, we are going to come roaring back, take back the Congress, and make Ron DeSantis a one-term wonder."

The Democrats will be tasked with a monumental goal of 54 Republican-held seats to gain the majority in the House and 16 to gain back the Senate. While acknowledging that the road to the Senate is "virtually impossible", Ryan pointed to the fact that Republicans controlled more seats in the Class II seats up for consideration in 2026 - 20 compared to the Democrats' 15, as well as newly vacant Senate seats in South Carolina and Nebraska (both due to Tim Scott and Ben Sasse being appointed to Cabinet posts in the DeSantis administration, with the latter already up for election in 2026 and open as Sasse previously announced he would not seek re-election following the suspension of his presidential campaign on the same night DeSantis clinched the GOP nomination (even though Sasse himself had been mathematically eliminated weeks prior).

In addition to Scott's and Sasse's seats (the former of which whose next regular election is in 2028), many prognosticators are projecting competitive Senate races in Republican-held seats in Montana, Iowa, North Carolina and Maine, along with South Carolina's other Senate seat (held by Lindsey Graham), Kentucky and Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn's seat in Texas. For the Democrats, seats expected to be targeted by the GOP - looking towards a potential two-thirds partisan majority that would require a net gain of just two seats - include seats held by Senators in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia and Illinois.

January 17, 2025
HARRIS REPORTEDLY BUYS HOUSE IN MONTECITO WORTH MILLIONS
As Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to leave Number One Observatory Circle and head back to California, rumors have abounded that the departing Vice President and her husband Doug Emhoff have reportedly put their house in the Brentwood neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles and bought a $10 million estate in Montecito, a wealthy enclave east of Santa Barbara that is home to numerous celebrities, businessmen and other high-income dignitaries, with the separated wife of former Vice President Al Gore, Tipper Gore, among the more notable political dignitaries that Harris will be joining.

The house, marketed by a local Sotheby's International Realty office, is a gated two-story mansion built in an Italian Renaissance motif with an Olympic-size pool, a hot tub and grilling cabana, a private "she shed" with a mezzanine floor in the background, and a large wine cellar in the bottom floor, among other luxuries. Though Emhoff's two children - for whom Harris is their stepmother and "Momala" - are now grown adults and living on their own, the Second Couple bought the large house with an intent to "entertain guests and friends we know by heart". The couple has a net worth of $8 million, mostly gained through endorsements, speaking engagements, Emhoff's heralded career as an entertainment lawyer, and Harris's connections as well as newfound involvement in a foundation that Harris intends to start with an intent to "empower young women of all colors and promote racial equity and justice in every corner of the world".

As expected, the reaction from neighbors in Montecito was quite celebratory (or not) depending on your politics. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, for instance, celebrated the move and announced they were "looking forward to giving them a royal welcome back home to California", while Tipper Gore (who herself shares a villa with her separated husband in Montecito) batted off a number of points of interest for the couple to "see in and around Santa Barbara". Chynna Phillips, one-half of the musical duo Wilson Phillips, expressed support for their "California homecoming" in a joint video with the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, while former Saturday Night Live player and comedian Dennis Miller was much less enthused, unsurprising considering his right-leaning political views: "Who knew that the Vice Presidency was a stepping stone to eternal wealth? Guess if you're a Democrat that what happens! So much for 'caring about the poor'...".

On Friday night, Vice President Harris made her final televised appearance as Vice President, appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she reflected poignantly (and of course, with a few cackles) on her four years as second-in-command to Joe Biden, with her name being "retired" into the rafters of the Ed Sullivan Theater where the CBS late-night show is taped. The night's cold open alluded to news of the real estate deal by Harris and her husband - set to the graphical style and theme music of the opening title card to the long-lost CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing, whose coastal Southern California setting has drawn comparisons to Montecito - albeit somewhat out of character as the soap opera spun off of another CBS primetime serial of yore, Dallas, was actually set in the San Fernando Valley.

January 19, 2025
BIDEN GIVES HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE NATION
On Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden gave his farewell address to the nation as he reflected on "the tremendous progress that we have made as a country, restoring the soul of the nation". Throughout the nearly hour-long speech, carried on all of the major networks shortly after 1:00PM Eastern time (likely moved to the afternoon in order to accommodate NFL divisional playoff games), Biden made numerous references to his family including his first wife Neilia and daughter Amy, who were killed in a car accident in Hockessin, Delaware, in which Neilia reportedly drove into a tractor-trailer and where Biden's sons Beau and Hunter were critically injured just weeks before Biden was sworn into the Senate, as well as regarding the cancer battle of his late son Beau among other family struggles, and how they shaped his emphatic worldview on the world surrounding him. "Having lived through tragedy and survived with immense courage, it helped me to relate to the struggles of everyday Americans, to heal their wounds, and help guide our country back to the great position we were in under Barack Obama".

The outgoing President went on to also make reference to a number of accomplishments within his administration, including his aforementioned achieved goals in infrastructure, social spending, helping shepherd the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, making progress on racial and environmental justice, and "restoring the leadership the world comes to expect from Americans here at home and abroad". He concluded his farewell speech by alluding back to his deceased son Beau who died in 2015: "A major reason why I entered this race, was because I wanted to fulfill a promise I made to my son, my dearly beloved Beau, after his death, that I will work with every fiber of my being, to ensure that his death will not be laid in vein, to pursue a run for the presidency that I am sure Beau would have truly want to pursue carrying the Biden name. I am grateful for the journey I have gone on, and these four years, however exciting, chaotic, whatever you want (brief pause) want to call them, these are some of the most challenging but rewarding years America may ever see".

After the swearing in tomorrow of Republican Ron DeSantis as the 47th President of the United States on the West Side of the Capitol, Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden will then be guided by DeSantis and his wife Casey to the East Side of the Capitol opposite where DeSantis will be sworn in, as the departing first couple is escorted to a limousine that will take them to Union Station where the Bidens will hop onboard Amtrak's Acela train back home to Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden is expected to speak before his supporters at a "welcome home" rally in the afternoon, sometime shortly after the Inaugural Parade concludes. The rally will take place at Frawley Stadium, a minor league baseball stadium that is home to the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a farm team of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals, and which is adjacent to the Chase Center on the Riverfront, a convention center west and south of the train station where Biden held his presidential victory speech in 2020. Unlike the case with the 2020 events, which were drive-by rallies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a packed, over-capacity crowd is expected at the baseball stadium. According to one source, the Bidens will reportedly be held at the Amtrak/SEPTA train station that bears his name for at least an hour, while his family and other dignitaries arrive to join him in a motorcade that will take them to the stadium.

Next: Hail to the Chief, and some final words to wrap this story...