Good Morning Speaker Pelosi

The House:  The west coast results are still trickling in and as I type a few close races in other parts of the country haven’t yet been called but it is fair to say that life just got a little bit more complicated for Trump.  The Democrats have won back the House and in all likelihood, come January, Nancy Pelosi will be third in line for the presidency at least until she turns over her wand to someone new.  Though not a tsunami, the Democrats’ wave is likely to result in more than thirty seats turning blue.  NYC  may still have Trump Tower but it no longer has any Republican representatives since Staten Island, NYC’s last remaining red stronghold, elected veteran and Democrat Max Rose to replace Republican Dan Donovan who had initially gained his seat by appointment after Staten Island’s previous Congressman Michael Grimm ended up in jail.  Although Chris Collins, the upstate Republican who has been indicted for insider trading will be returning to the House, unless he ends up in jail or manages a plea bargain before January, Schenectady area Republican John Faso won’t be joining him, in the House that is, as far as anyone knows Faso, unlike Collins, is not a soon to be felon.  Faso lost to Antonio Delgado, the African American, Harvard educated Rhodes scholar, who Republicans had labeled as unqualified to serve because of his “Big City Rapper” past.  Further upstate, in the Binghamton area, Democrat Anthony Brindisi eked out a victory over Claudia Tenney in a district that went for Trump in 2016. It’s probably now fair to say that Virginia is no longer a purple state.  One time Democratic VP candidate Senator Tim Kaine cruised to an easy victory over his Trumpian competitor Representative Corey Stewart. The state now has two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Governor and a few more Democratic Congresspeople including Abigail Spanberger who unseated Dave Brat, the Tea Party Republican who a few years ago won a surprising victory over then Republican majority leader Eric Cantor.  Although most of the other newly minted blue seats, or at least the ones that have been called so far, are from districts that Hillary won in 2016, a few have been surprises.  In reliably red Oklahoma Kendra Hall beat Republican Steve Russell and in South Carolina Joe Cunningham beat Kate Arrington, the Republican who had upset Trump critic and former SC governor Mark Sanford, the guy who had once gone on a secret rendezvous with his Argentine lover while telling his constituents that he was hiking the Appalachian trail.  While the Chicago area Republican running as an avowed Nazi lost,  Steve King the Iowan white Supremacist held his seat.  Regardless of the final tally, one thing is certain, going forward Trump’s life has just gotten more complicated.  Adam Schiff will soon be running the House Intelligence Committee, Jerry Nadler will be running Judiciary and Elijah Cummings will be running Oversight and Reform.   Oh, and then there is Maxine Waters, the not so “low IQ” Democrat will now be chairing Banking oversight.  Last night, probably before Trump called to congratulate her, yes, he really did call, Nancy Pelosi announced  plans to get hold of his tax returns.  Certainly, that’s just a start, while impeachment may still be a bridge too far given the makeup of the Senate, the subpoenas are about to start flying.     

The Senate:  The story in the Senate is kind of depressing.  Though the likelihood of Democrats achieving a Senate takeover was always remote, the hope was that Democrats would hold their ground.  Sadly, they did not.  Though association with Trump probably doomed a lot of House Republicans it proved golden for too many Red State Senatorial wannabees.  Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp lost to Trump supported candidates.  It looks like Florida’s Nelson is out as well although his race against Governor Rick Scott is so close that it is expected to go to a mandatory recount.   As of now, though the outcome of his race hasn’t yet been called, with more than 80% of Montana’s districts counted Democrat Jon Tester is lagging behind Republican Matt Rosendale.  In Tennessee, Right wing, Trump fan girl Marsha Blackburn easily beat back former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen.  Republican Martha McSally appears to be edging out Democratic candidate Krysten Sinema in Arizona but final results won’t be announced there until later this morning.  In one bright note for the Democrats, Nevada Congresswoman Jackie Rosen has been declared the winner over Senator Dean Heller who was always seen as the most vulnerable Republican up for reelection.  Elsewhere, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin proved once again that he is probably the most loved Democrat to ever serve the state of West Virginia; he comfortably won his reelection even though Trump won bigly there in 2016.  Turns out that hiding in the bathroom until Senator Susan Collins cast the deciding vote for now Justice Kavanaugh and then following suit really was the right strategy, at least for him.   As expected, it looks like the Mississippi election to fill the seat of aged out former Senator Thad Cochran who retired earlier this year will be going to a runoff since none of the four candidates received the state required majority.  Former Democratic Congressman/one time Democratic Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy will face off against Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith who had been appointed to fill Cochran’s seat until the results of this election, in the runoff that will take place later this month.  Although he goes into the special election with almost as many votes as Hyde-Smith, Espy faces an  uphill battle since all of his opponents were conservatives whose supporters are likely to coalesce behind Hyde-Smith.     

The Governors:   Democrats also put in a fairly impressive showing in state Gubernatorial elections though once again they fell short in Florida where voters continue to vote against their own interest.  Maybe it’s because Trump campaigned so hard in the state or maybe it’s because too many voters, egged on by dog-whistles so loud that only a deaf dog could miss them,  couldn’t come to terms with voting for an African American candidate, especially one as progressive as Tallahassee Mayor Gillum.  Whatever the reason they elected Republican Ron DeSantis, the proud Trump mini me with no platform and no stated reason for running except that he thought that being Governor would be neat. It’s baffling how so many voters in Florida, a state that relies on tourism and agriculture and is the home to so many people with significant health care requirements could vote for a guy who is against Obamacare, won’t sign off on the Medicaid expansion,  would be okay with Medicare cutbacks and doesn’t understand or care about the red tide or climate science but then again they did. Floridians did vote to give felons who’ve served their time  the right to vote so next time around the electorate might be just a little bit more discerning, who knows?  Kudos to Kansans, they decided not to make Kris Kobach, the man who sees voter fraud beneath even more rocks than Trump, their governor.  In another notable loss for Republicans, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, once touted as a future presidential candidate, lost his reelection campaign too.  It turns out that paying Foxconn $4.5 billion of taxpayer money to move a plant to Wisconsin so that more jobs could end up in China is just as bad an idea as it sounds.  In Georgia, the much watched campaign between another Democratic African American progressive Stacy Abrams is still up in the air.  Though most of the votes have been counted, and her opponent, Brian Kemp, another race-baiting Trump fan who surprised many when he won his primary traveling around with an “immigrant round-up bus” appears to have garnered 50.5% of the vote, she’s not ready to concede.  To the extent that his vote count remains above the 50% threshold after all the votes have been counted and possibly recounted he won’t have to go to a state mandated runoff, one that he would get to oversee since he is currently Georgia’s Secretary of State.   

The Upshot: Trump’s communications guru Sarah Huckabee is already declaring yesterday’s election a major victory.  And of course, Trump has already been out on twitter bragging about his “resounding success” and his “magical skills.”  Assuming he really is a warlock, he may want to start sending some hexes towards the House, where the witch hunt has just begun and good or bad witch Nancy, depending on your view, now controls the wand.