Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Midterm Updates (Live-ish)
9:15 pm ET
Republican Mike Braun is the projected winner of the Indiana Senate race. He was challenging the incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly, who had been leading in most polls. With 52% of the votes in, Braun is leading, 53.6% – 42.3%.
Republican Marsha Blackburn is also projected to win in Tennessee. With 19.9% of the vote in, Blackburn leads Phil Bredesen 61.9% to 36.9%.
James Carville: I See Chances of a Blue Wave ‘Dissipating’ https://t.co/jNrUXE6teQ pic.twitter.com/HVR3Ct7xn7
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 7, 2018
9:30 pm ET
Joe Manchin is projected to hold onto his Senate seat in West Virginia. Manchin leads his challenger, Republican Patrick Morrisey 50.8% to 44.8% with 48.2% of the votes in.
New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez is also projected to retain his Senate seat. Menendez is leading Bob Hugin 49.4% to 47.4% with 35.5% of the vote in.
Among the supporters tonight @SenatorMenendez’s HQ is Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby, a juror on his federal corruption trial. She achieved some fame when she left the jury last year during deliberations to go on vacation. She would’ve voted for acquittal. @northjersey pic.twitter.com/mVNSJdwGtK
— Scott Fallon (@NewsFallon) November 7, 2018
CNN's Jake Tapper: "When you look at what is going on here tonight, this is not a blue wave." pic.twitter.com/jxmfMQ2QPe
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 7, 2018
9:45 pm ET
https://twitter.com/BenSmithDC/status/1059997553410875393
I'm calling Florida Senate for Rick Scott. Not enough votes left in Broward, Miami and Palm Beach to gain 76,000 votes. That's the second GOP Senate gain and eliminated the possibility of Democratic Senate control.
— Henry Olsen (@henryolsenEPPC) November 7, 2018
10:00 pm ET
So far, only Fox News has projected that the Democrats take the House. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, they project a 7 in 9 chance Dems take it.
At just under 40% of precincts reporting so far, Republican Brian Kemp is leading in the Georgia gubernatorial race against Stacey Abrams.
Live results: https://t.co/fSzpDWxXyc pic.twitter.com/T0IS4vNrfm
— POLITICO (@politico) November 7, 2018
NBC News: Laura Kelly (D) defeats Kris Kobach(R) in KS GOV. Democratic gain
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) November 7, 2018
Van Jones on CNN: 'This Is Heartbreaking' https://t.co/U9DHals3uf
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) November 7, 2018
10:15 pm ET
JUST IN: Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer projected to defeat Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota https://t.co/4yNg8n30sj pic.twitter.com/7Ryss9sNDb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 7, 2018
BREAKING: Republican incumbent Ted Cruz will win Texas' U.S. Senate race, defeating Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, @ABC projects based on vote analysis https://t.co/QKK9VJilpS pic.twitter.com/NIchNubKco
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 7, 2018
BREAKING: With Cruz victory in Texas, @NBCNews projects Republicans control the Senate.https://t.co/6pqqY4AD1c
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 7, 2018
10:30 pm ET
NBC News and ABC News have now joined Fox in projecting a Democratic-led House.
In Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis is leading Democrat Andrew Gillum for the governorship 48.9% – 49.9% with 98.5% of the vote in. For the Senate, Rick Scott (R) is leading Bob Nelson (D)
49.6% – 50.4%.
10:45 pm ET
Still too early to call, but Hawley (R) is crushing McCaskill in Missouri. With 43.2% of the vote in, Hawley leads 53.4% – 43.4%.
NBC News projects Mike DeWine (R) wins Ohio, where D"s had big hopes. Sherrod Brown, who's winning easily, has built some personal brand there.
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) November 7, 2018
11:00 pm ET
.@AndrewGillum has conceded to Gov.-elect @RonDeSantisFL, multiple sources say. #FlaPol
— Peter Schorsch (@PeterSchorschFL) November 7, 2018
FiveThirtyEight.com is projecting a GOP gain of +3 in the Senate and a Democrat gain of +36 in the House.
11:15 pm ET
For the Arizona Senate, Martha McSally (R) is leading Krysten Sinema (D) 49% – 48% with about 10% of the precincts in. Incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey (R) is crushing his opponent, David Garcia (D), 58% – 40%.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley will oust two-term Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill in one of the most closely watched races in the country. pic.twitter.com/TaWK5PE3xM
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) November 7, 2018
Blue Wave Downgraded To Gentle Misthttps://t.co/t8zLEq9508 pic.twitter.com/kS4Paxmdnb
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 7, 2018
Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
11:30 pm ET
BREAKING: Republican John James concedes U.S. Senate race to Debbie Stabenow. #Decision2018 Election Night coverage continues: https://t.co/hC2RhNvle5
— WOODRADIO (@WOODRADIO) November 7, 2018
Every Democratic Senator in a red state who voted against Judge Kavanaugh has so far lost their election.
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) November 7, 2018
Although the polling looked bad, both the Florida gubernatorial and US Senate races have been called for the GOP.
11:45 pm ET
The Wisconsin governor race is a tight one. With 75% of the votes in, Democrat Tony Evers is leading Republican Scott Walker by … 1,600 votes.
I predicted McSally would beat Sinema by 0.87%.
So far, McSally is leading Sinema by 0.93%.
I apologize for the error.— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 7, 2018
12:00 am ET
CNN's @DanaBashCNN: Democrats have suffered “big heartbreaks” in 2018 midterm election. pic.twitter.com/hup2FiQ8H5
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 7, 2018
Mitt Romney is the first person to serve as governor one state and senator from another in 173 years. Last was Sam Houston, who served as Gov of TN and Sen from TX.
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) November 7, 2018
12:15 am ET
In what was considered a vulnerable seat, Kristi Noem (R) is projected to defeat Billie Sutton (D) in the South Dakota governor race. With 85% reporting, Noem leads Sutton 51.6% – 47%.
In another tight gubernatorial contest, Kim Reynolds (R) is projected to defeat Fred Hubbell (D) in Iowa. Current numbers are 49.6% – 48.3% with 85.3% of the vote in.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker leads his Democratic opponent by 226 votes (85% reporting).
12:30 am ET
Rove says on Fox that Pelosi is going to "break" the new Dems who promised not to vote for her. "Their first vote" will the one they promised they'd never make, he said with a grin.
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) November 7, 2018
In Montana, Democratic incumbent Jon Tester is leading his GOP opponent, Matt Rosendale, 50.6% – 46.5%, with 32% of the vote in.
Only 29% of the precincts are in, but Arizona Senate candidate Martha McSally (R) is holding on to her slim lead over Kyrsten Sinema (D), 49.12% – 48.58%.
12:45 am ET
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Keith Ellison wins Minnesota attorney general race amid allegations from an ex-girlfriend that he once physically abused her.
— Nick Riccardi (@NickRiccardi) November 7, 2018
Scott Walker is now 2,400 votes ahead, 92% in. #WIGOV
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) November 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1060042976070696960
1:00 am ET
The D cavalry. https://t.co/3LSVkXqEjh
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 7, 2018
In the Connecticut governor race, Republican Bob Stefanowski is leading Democrat Ned Lamont, 49.0% – 46.3% with 68.8% of the vote in.
With 33% of the vote counted, Martha McSally is leading Kyrsten Sinema in the Arizona Senate race, 49.79% to 49.05%.
1:15 am ET
BREAKING: Republican Devin Nunes wins re-election to U.S. House in California's 22nd congressional district. #APracecall at 10:04 p.m. PST. @AP election coverage: https://t.co/miEWlbTVZW #Election2018 #CAelection
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 7, 2018
4 out of the 4 candidates that Obama campaigned for lost tonight.
— Aaron J. Carpenter🇺🇸 (@aaronjcarpenter) November 7, 2018
BREAKING: @MarthaMcSally election night party wrapping now as official do not expect to have a final decision in hotly contested Arizona Senate election tonight. May have to wait a day or two. @CBSNews #ElectionNight2018 #Arizona https://t.co/VUuKMzGFTr
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) November 7, 2018
1:30 am ET
#MTsen 54% in:
Tester 🔵 48.7
Rosendale 🔴 48.4%— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) November 7, 2018
#GAGov 99% in:
Brian Kemp 🔴51%
Stacey Abrams 🔵48%— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) November 7, 2018
With 51% of the votes in, Montana Senator Jon Tester (D) is leading Matt Rosendale (R) by just 1,048 votes.
1:45 am ET
Nevada numbers are coming in slowly, but with 17% reporting, Dean Heller (R) is leading Jacky Rosen (D) in the Senate race, 49.7% – 46.4%
With 56% of the votes in, Matt Rosendale (R) is leading Montana Senator Jon Tester (D) by 2,134 votes.
In Georgia, Stacy Abrams (D) is refusing to concede to Brian Kemp (R) despite losing the governor’s race by 3% with 97% reporting.
2:00 am ET
The votes are also slow coming from Arizona, but with 47% in, the margin remains nearly the same. Martha McSalley leads Kyrsten Sinema 49.40% to 48.33%.
In Wisconsin, Tony Evers (D) has recovered his lead over Scott Walker (R) but with just 604 votes. 99% reporting.
And with that…
We’re closing the play-by-play coverage for the evening (or should I say morning). Keep posting updates in the comments, night owls!
Published in Elections, Politics
God bless the Sunshine State!
If the D’s do this, and there is every reason to think they shall, it will be the best campaign advertising for the R’s in 2020 that money could buy. And if they are stupid/psychotic enough to elect the odious, unctuous hypocrite Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House again, they will be handing the R’s a loaded gun aimed at the heart of their electoral prospects.
How many of them promised not to vote for her as Speaker? We’ll see how long that promise holds.
I will note the Democrats could draw very conflicting lessons:
The AZ gubernatorial candidate ran an openly progressive campaign, and was smoked. The Senate candidate ran a slick, gauzy, pastel campaign and is in it to win it still. There was almost the same result in Texas. So, run away from your party core and you may win nationally.
On the other hand, a new crop of Representatives are coming up who are progressing towards straight socialist, so give the base what they want.
The very first test will be when the new crew are forced to bend the knee and kiss Pelosi’s ring, after promising voters they would not. Not sure how many of these ran as democratic socialists, and how many ran as centrists. Either way, they are compromised by the day they take office.
Shocked, shocked I tell you.
That’s a lot of votes to turn up at the last minute. Apparently moved it from an essentially tied race to Evers with a large enough lead to probably avoid a recount. In itself doesn’t mean anything underhanded, but it’s weird and should be looked into. Thoroughly.
I’d be surprised if Walker concedes tonight, and he probably shouldn’t, but I think it’s a done deal. I was guessing an Evers win, but it looked promising for a little while. Overall the night sees to be going better for Republicans than anticipated, and I understand that Florida and Ohio are more important, but this one I cared about more.
So you call Cornyn by a bunch in 2020?
Yes, he should win re-election comfortably.
Hmm.
I’m thinking of the initial failure of the House to pass HR 1628 after years of promising to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. It was a real blow to the GOP. As things progressed in the House it became obvious Ryan pushed health care first for policy/budget purposes without having either a consensus health care plan to replace or the votes to pass it. The initial House failure and McCain’s thumbs down on Lindsay Graham’s “skinny bill” to repeal Obamacare are probably what most voters keeping track of legislative basics remember re: GOP and healthcare…that and Dems’ midterm allegations ‘GOP wants to take away your health care’ (especially Obamacare pre-existing condition protection).
It’s just weird. Just too perfect in both timing and number.
It’s weird. And there are a lot of people who really believe Wisconsin was stolen in 2016, which is how someone ends up feeling justified playing something underhanded themselves.
I’ll take my lead from the governor — his people aren’t going to take anything lying down that they shouldn’t. When Walker concedes I’ll accept the concession. I’m not going to jump to conclusions, and I’m not going to spend the next several years insisting Tony Evers is illegitimate.
I make no promises on that score…oh wait, you mean regarding the election. Never mind.
On substance losing the Wisconsin governorship in a squeaker isn’t the worst thing ever; Republicans actually did very well in the legislature. Walker was a more consequential governor than Evers will be.
But sometimes good governance and decency just ought to be rewarded — for the sake of the country — and it’s painful to see it otherwise.
Keith Ellison is now in control of 200 Government resourced attorneys. His stupid lumberjack shirts worked. He is going to go crazy with all of that power. The only issue is how good of a job he does he keeping it out of the news, just like all of the cop killer stuff, his endorsements of Symbionese Liberation Army types, and his endorsement of Lewis Farrakhan. Ridiculous.
Then there is my congressman, Ilhan Omar. The dumbest hackneyed socialist this country has seen in decades and she makes up for it with all varieties of legal chaos that follows her everywhere she goes. Good thing she’s cute and this country is so terrified of political correctness.
Seth Mandel
Native Americans mate with their Senate seats for life, bro. Part of the culture.
I don’t really mind the Democrats taking the House. They will make total idiots of themselves, without getting anything done. That’s not a bad result. And it’s not as if we were going to see any major conservative legislation get passed in the next two years even if Republicans had held the House. The greater margin in the Senate is more important – it means we will get more judges confirmed. Now if RBG would just, umm… retire. So at the national level, I’m pretty happy.
What is happening here in Nevada, though, is seriously depressing. In 2015 I fled the toxic dystopia that the socialists are creating in California. I came to a Nevada with a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, plus one Republican Senator and a good chance that Dr./Gen. Beck would take Harry Reid’s seat. Now, only three years later, everything has flipped to blue. Everything. What the hell happened here? What is wrong with these people? Can’t they look across their western border and see what they are getting themselves into? California has infected Nevada, and it seems to be in the process of infecting Arizona as well. As I said – depressing.
And TX…
You know, its almost as if people don’t really change all that much when they move.
Bill Kristol had a serious revelation last night: Maybe demographics are destiny.
I think the GOP needs to come up with a grand strategy to deal with creeping socialism (see this) Alinsky tactics, critical theory, the Frankfurt school (Andrew Breitbart was right about all of that stuff) and our screwy health insurance system. It’s just inexcusable that they botched the repeal of the ACA. They should’ve waited a year if the GOP Congress was so full of liars. We have to switch to universal system that foils single-payer and is honest and transparent about the subsidies. Something like Switzerland without all the screw ups.
The other thing is if you steal just a very tiny percentage of the black vote the Democrat party is toast. Kevin Williamson has written about the black electorate and why they are so difficult to persuade, but you can’t tell me there aren’t a ton of libertarians and conservatives there, given some decent political leadership.
This seemed to be a pedestrian mid term. With pretty boring results, except for the house being in play, which can be attributed to the end of conservative democrats starting in the 90s.
I suspect future midterms will look like this one, gone are the days of giant waves of 2010. 25-30 seats swings.
If this is the best the Democrats can do when there base is at Maximum Overdrive 2020, is going to be a walkover for Trump, cause the Republican base was not energized at all.
I saw that. The type of government and society that he wants isn’t going to be possible given that. All of those Niskenen Center Republican’s want “conservative” big government. Good luck making that work like it did in the Cold War or something.
Were you mad that Desantis didn’t just let the agriculture secretary run? It sounds like it would have been easier for him.
I don’t know. Putnam was a wishy-washy R. He said the right Trump things, but he lacked the conviction in the policies. He just sounded like he was mouthing things. The Rs in Florida may be split on Trump, but the ones who don’t like Trump are battling a sense of ingrained civic duty that voting is the right thing to do and voting party is important while the Trump supporters don’t suffer that malady. I don’t think Putnam would have gotten the R showing that DeSantis got.
Wishy-washy Rs didn’t really fair well in this election.
However, Desantis ran a REALLY bad campaign. He was pretty invisible the last several months. He never should have apologized for the “monkey it up” comment – I would have gone on a network and outright said it’s a kid-friendly euphemism for “$&%* it up.” – actually used the word. Shock and confidence with a bit of an edge. The apology was his campaign’s low point and he never really recovered. Putnam seemed to be more smooth in the primaries and wouldn’t have made such a blunder. He probably would have run a more polished campaign.
I think Gillum could have squeaked past Putnam… with the race being just as tight.
Thanks for the great answer Stina. Gillum is a bad sign. He’s obviously a lousy political and government executive. Socialist. But he went far because he’s good-looking and smooth talking. Florida. My god.
Is the final Democrat count 219? I can’t figure this out.
I wonder why Dave Bratt lost.
It was a 43 year old record of retirements. The Republicans had to overcome that.
Interesting side note:
Glenn Beck was coming up with all kinds of interesting facts like this.
On my predawn bicycle ride I was surprised to find so much Beto signage already gone. I’d imagined the partisans of Nuestro Cholo Loco would be bitter-enders. I guess they did indeed hang on, or stay up, ’til the end; but when it came, with no audible ado they plucked the litter off their lawns.
I confess I did look once at an Austin “news” website yesterday evening to see how things were going. I read that O’Rourke was slightly ahead of O’Rourke. Huh? I think – the article never actually said – that Cruz was ahead, as well he might be, because of his Ivy League background. That was mentioned. Unmentioned was O’Rourke’s Ivy League background. Still trying to show how unfairly disadvantaged the latter was, the reporter noted that he represents a part of Texas whose time zone is different from most of the rest of Texas.
Maybe it’s just as well that nobody edits: there might have been enforced a mention of Central America’s time zone, which is conveniently the same as that of most of Texas. Because when you’re a reporter, every day is Say Something Stupid Day, and every night is Say Something Stupid Night.
Would seem to omit Wisconsin, where he might actually have made a difference.