Election 2018 Open Thread - Part 1

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Yoder just lost.

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Yeah, it looks like we won the house....but FL is disappointing.

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So a little after 9 everything looked bad for Democrats, now it's looking better?

(Just trying to confirm, I had to drive for a half-hour)

Senate looks bad, but we should win the house.

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Democrats are cooking in these house races.

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If it wasn't for dumbass Florida, I'd be feeling great right now.

FL Dems are like the Buffalo Bills of American politics.

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Beto lost.

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Holy cow Luria ha a 4K lead with only votes outstanding in VA Beach and James City. SIX precincts left.

Looks like Luria and Spanberger both held on!

They already called for Luria.

Still waiting to call it for Spanberger, but they should soon.

[Yank2133]

The Democrats shouldn't consider winning the House as a consolation prize: that means the GOP can't bribe their donors with another budget-busting tax cut for the remainder of Trump's term. That has to mean something, since it's literally half of his "legacy".

Winning the house and the majority of the governorships is a good night for Dems.

FL still really hurts though.

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Dems picking up 30-35 seats is not a ~blue wave~, sorry.  Republicans are way over extended in the house right now.  This election is just bringing us back to a more evenly divided Congress.  A blue wave would be pushing the GOP under 200 seats.

Moving the goalpost I see.

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My guess is Manchin switches, especially if R's win either or both AZ and NV.   

Based on what?

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Red D's on here are the worst. We might win 35-45 seats and some of you are still upset?

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At the end of the day, tonight was a good night for Dems. But this bonds terribly for future elections. TERRIBLY.

Not really. Dems winning enough states for 270+ electoral votes...

Dems winning the popular vote by a good margin...

The only really bad thing is gerrymandering and the rural bias of the Senate.

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I'm a big fan of Josh Hawley. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in the national spotlight in the future.

I would pay to see that weasel get destroyed on the national stage.

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The sad thing about FL is those old farts will not reap any repercussions since Democrats won the house. It elections like this that sometimes makes me wish R's swept everything so these assholes finally see what they voted for.

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The sad thing about FL is those old farts will not reap any repercussions since Democrats won the house. It elections like this that sometimes makes me wish R's swept everything so these assholes finally see what they voted for.

The problem with that is we'd all suffer just to make a point to the other side.

Yeah, which is why I said sometimes.

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McSally's lead is now down to 0.3%.

CNN seems to have forgotten about this race.

R's already won the senate, so they don't care anymore.

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It's obviously a really big deal that your party lost the House, even though the districts were gerrymandered back in ~2011 for this not to be possible this decade.

Not only lost the house, but lost ground in the three states that put the president over the top.

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It's obviously a really big deal that your party lost the House, even though the districts were gerrymandered back in ~2011 for this not to be possible this decade.

Not only lost the house, but lost ground in the three states that put the president over the top.

Pennsylvania is a complete catastrophe for Trump.

Yeah, but no one in the media is going to say anything about it. Democrats improvement in PA and teh midwest for that matter should be a bigger story.

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James only took 8% of the black vote in MI.

But he still managed to keep Stabenow within single digits. He is the first Republican to come within that range since Spencer Abraham in 2000.

Overall, though, this election has been a bizarre one. Democrats picked up the House, as many expected, but they have lost three seats in the Senate and did not do as well in many of the gubernatorial and state level-races. Bright spots for Democrats, I would say, include the victories of Kelly and Davids in Kansas and the upset in Oklahoma-5. But Donnelly, Heitkamp, O'Rourke, McCaskill (presumably), and even Nelson (also presumably) losing, along with the gubernatorial putdowns in Georgia and Florida, are the bright sports for Republicans.

Yeah I agree with all of this besides Davids(not really a bright spot it was expected) and Texas . Texas raises fire alarms for the GOP. AG and LG are within 5 and Beto is within 3. Beto was expected to lose and he probably overperformed.

I think TX is more about Cruz's quality as a candidate then anything significant long-term.

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Just going to point this out... Kara Eastman is only down by 4 in NE-02 with 88% reporting.

Maybe, just maybe, if national Democratic groups like DCCC, House Majority PAC, etc which spent hardly anything there had spent a few million more there instead, perhaps it could have been enough.

But we will never know, because they never really gave her a chance.

Yep. A perfect example of the corrupt Democrat leadership shooting themselves in the foot yet again. It's why they lost in 2016 and why they are under-performing again tonight.

Imagine thinking Democrats are underperforming in this election.

God, the left sucks in the country.

[Yank2133]

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Democrats were never favored to win the senate, even you said this yourself. They won the house fairly easily even with the gerrymandering and look to be on pace to win 30-40 seats.

Honestly, Dems are never going to win with some of you no matter what they do.

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It is funny how R's are spinning this.

You guys lost the house by 9 points in a economy with less 4% unemployment and a President with a 40-44 approval rating with those conditions.

You guys are lucky that this is the worst senate map for Democrats in recent memory.

[Yank2133]

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Democrats were never favored to win the senate, even you said this yourself. They won the house fairly easily even with the gerrymandering and look to be on pace to win 30-40 seats.

Honestly, Dems are never going to win with some of you no matter what they do.

They weren't favored for the Senate overall, but there's no reason Arizona should be this close, no reason Florida should've been lost, and no reason the margins in Indiana or Missouri should've been what they were, or the seat retentions in the upper Midwest. And we're looking at the increasing possibility of Tester losing as well.

And remember without the Senate the GOP owns the courts--unlikely as it was I would've taken it over the House which doesn't stop Trump's long term damage.

Arizona has always been close and FL is FL. Them losing in MO and IN by that margin when Trump won those states by double digits is no surprise.

Like I said, it doesn't matter how well Dems did today. You already had your narrative set. I mean you were saying how the Dems blew it in the house earlier in the thread.

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Democrats won SC-01.

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F*** that. Democrats have to get over trying to win Miss Congeniality or be happy with the silver medal. Go for the win. This is why people have trouble taking the Democratic party seriously.

Democrats need to understand that it is perfectly okay to adopt Vince Lombardi's motto that winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing! And yet at the same time not be some date raping Joc from like for example grab a 15 year-old girl in a party cover her mouth keep her against her will while squee turns Up the Volume so others can't hear her struggling.

I mean, Dems won the national popular vote by something like 10 points, right? What do you want? How much do Dems have to win by and still lose for you to stop blaming voters for voting for Dems and start blaming the system for not reflecting the will of the voters?

If Dems won by 15 and lost seats in the Senate, would you blame the voters for not voting strongly enough Dem?

If Dems won by 20?

Should Dems need to win by 25?

What would be the appropriate threshold?

Posters have not come to terms with how undemocratic the senate is.