Dry zone
You could knock me down with a feather. Mark Kelly wins in Arizona:
Three days after Americans voted, the BBC’s US partner CBS estimates Democrat Mark Kelly has beaten Republican challenger Blake Masters.
That would leave the Senate at 49 Democratic seats and 49 Republican seats.
Just Nevada and Georgia are yet to be decided.
If the Dems win one they stay in control of the Senate because of the VP vote. If they win neither the Republicans control the Senate. Nail-biter. Not that the Dems have been able to accomplish much, but if the Republicans get the Senate everything will be that much worse.
It seems like the Georgia race is a real possibility for the dems, given what a ridiculous candidate that Herschel Walker is. On the other hand, the fact that Walker got even one vote at all, much less almost half, is a truly sad statement on the quality of the average American voter. (But we knew that, given how many voted for Trump.)
WaPo is now saying that Nevada’s senate seat will “probably” stay blue, but that the GOP challenger “still has a chance”. It’s encouraging that both of these races are leaning towards the democrat, especially given the weeks of red wave mania in the media.
Yes it is.
I’m cautiously optimistic about the Senate. Even the House is a surprising result. By my estimate the GOP will probably control with a majority of 3-6 seats, but it’s not out the question for the majority to be as little as 1 seat either way. Maybe the Dems in NY State shouldn’t have been quite so greedy with their gerrymandered maps that got struck in favour of neutral maps. Then again, even better, there should be neutral maps everywhere, along with laws that made voting for every legal voter easy.
On a tangent, I’ve seen posts saying that in many areas the Democratic Party has been saved by Gen Z finally turning out to vote. It looks as though the under 30 vote has broken 60% in favour of the D’s. That’s great, but the percentage of men Z voting is still actually very low, it’s just higher this election than usual.
This shows the power of the vote for those young people. Actually vote and you get a Government that is better than when you don’t vote. vote in huge numbers, and especially if you stand as candidates for everything from Senator to dog catcher, join the campaign teams etc, and you’ll actually have a say and maybe even form the government you’d love. I shudder slightly at that prospect.
The one thing that annoyed me in the bright spot of Gen Z voting was the number of Gen Z loudly proclaiming that they had ‘saved’ America and were now owed a seat at the table. Arguably they are. Then there was an outpouring of tweets fawning over them saying how wonderful and special they were. FFS, this is half the reason as a generation they are so self absorbed. Exercise of basic rights, privileges, and responsibilities that other generations have fought for and been keen to use just seem to be an intolerable burden for that generation and requires candy and praise when they finally make a half hearted effort.
Grump over, but I hope that generation finally get the bug for voting and politics. it’ll help unless they go right off the rails. if nothing else they’ll finally start to realise that making change takes more than a Tik Tok or a tweet. That chanting slogans is one thing, but changing minds is another. That having an identity is one thing, but accepting facts is grounds for moving forward.
Dems hold Nevada Senate seat!
Wonderful news, Rob!
Rob, my observation of Gen Z is that they grew up with things like smart phones and so forth, and came to the conclusion that they invented it.
No, our generation did not have computers in our pockets when we were their age. That’s why we had to invent them…
Very true iknklast. I’m sure there will be people in Gen Z who have or will go on to do important and wonderful things. I don’t think that generation has had a defining moment yet though, and at 30 on the upper end, they’re frankly running out of time to do so.
YASSSSSSSSSSS! (Nevada.)