There are only 5 uncalled House elections and I don’t think any of them will flip. Adam Frisch already conceded to Boobert that he lost in CO-03 (by 554 votes, 0.17% in an R+7 district!!). Alaska’s at-large seat is even redder— R+8 but Democrat Mary Peltola won the special election when Republican Don Young died by beating Palin in the first round 39.7% to 30.9% and in the final round, 51.5% to 48.5%. This time Peltola is ahead by an even bigger margin in the first round— 48.7% to Palin’s anemic 25.8%. There’s no reason to think that Peltola won’t finish her off in the second round of the ranked choice tabulations.
The other 3 open races are in California’s redrawn districts. In 2020, but under the new CA-03 boundaries Trump won 49.7 to 47.9 and the PVI is R+4. With 71% of the votes counted, Republican Kevin Kiley is way ahead— 123,561 (52.1%) to 113,492 (47.9%) and there’s no reason to think Democrat Kermit Jones is going to catch up. Similarly, CA-13 is another open seat, although Biden won it 54.3% to 43.4%. The PVI is D+4 and it shouldn’t have been hard for the Democrats to win. But with the counting almost finished Republican businessman John Duarte is ahead of Assemblyman Adam Gray in the ultra-low turnout district, 63,539 (50.34%) to 62,673 (49.65%). Why should Duarte be ahead? Gray is about as bad a candidate as the Democrats picked anywhere. He’s a supper-corrupt conservative who shouldn’t be in any kind of office. And it’s the same with his “Mod Squad” partner, Rudy Salas, running the other uncalled district, CA-22, which is even bluer (D+5— Biden beat Trump 55.3% to 42.3%). Republican incumbent David Valadao, who voted to impeach Trump, is leading Salas— which is as corrupt and conservative as Gray— 44,862 (52.7%) to 40,315 (47.3%). Although only 86% of the votes are counted, I don’t see Salas taking the lead. There’s a chance Gray will but Salas is walking dead. Like I said, they both suck.
Anyway, there won’t be any more flipped seats.That leaves just 22 that did flip. Let’s take a look.
NY-03 (D+2)- blue to red, shitty Democratic nominee
NY-04 (D+5)- blue to red, shitty Democratic nominee
NY-17 (D+3)- blue to red, shitty Democratic incumbent (Sean Patrick Maloney)
NY-19 (even PVI)- blue to red, bad lines for a Democrat in a year like this
NJ-07 (R+1)- blue to red, bad lines for a Democrat, incumbent scandal
VA-02 (R+2)- blue to red, bad lines for a Democrat
NC-13 (R+2)- kind of red to blue but really a new district, MAGA candidate. (Under these lines Biden beat Trump 50.1- 48.4%)
GA-06 (R+11)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
FL-04 (R+6)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
FL-07 (R+5)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
FL-13 (R+6)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
OH-01 (D+2)- red to blue, bad lines for a Republican, Biden would have won the district 53.5% to 45.0% under these lines
MI-03 (D+1)- red to blue, MAGA lunatic won the GOP primary
WI-03 (R+4)- blue to red, bad lines for a Democrat
IL-13 (D+3)- red to blue, severely gerrymandered
IA- 03 (R+3)- blue to red, bad lines for a weak Democratic incumbent
TX-15 (R+1)- blue to red, bad lines and DCCC abandoned the Democratic candidate because they hate progressives
NM-02 (D+1)- red to blue, bad lines for a Republican
AZ-02 (R+6)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
AZ-06 (R+3)- blue to red, severely gerrymandered
WA-03 (R+5)- red to blue, MAGA lunatic won the primary
OR-05 (D+2)- blue to red, DCCC abandoned the Democratic candidate because they hate progressives
Yesterday Kevin McCarthy told Fox News viewers that he plans to remove Ilhan Omar, Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell from their committees, presumably without a vote. Great way for the weakest Speaker in contemporary history to kick off his shaky and probably short term! Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) was on Jake Tapper’s show yesterday. Tapper asked him what kind of a speaker McCarthy will be.
“[I]f you had asked me five years ago, I would have said a pretty good one. Now I think he has cut so many deals with bad people to get to this position that I think he's not going to be a leader at all. I think he will be completely hostage to kind of the extreme wings of the Republican Party. And I, frankly, don't think he's going to last very long. Maybe he will prove me wrong. But it's sad to see a man that I think had so much potential just totally sell himself. He's the one that resurrected Donald Trump. The second he went to Mar-a-Lago a week or two after January 6, he resurrected Donald Trump politically. So he owns everything that Trump says now as a candidate for reelection.”
Kinzinger also mentioned that he believes McCarthy will be “led around on a leash by Marjorie Taylor Greene and members of the Freedom Caucus.” I can imagine that many of those seats that flipped blue to red will be flipping back again in 2024.
If you presume that the donkey actually wants to maintain majorities, then, yes, it was NOT a success. But that's not the case, based on empirical proof, for over 50 years.
the donkey is far more concerned with keeping their donors happy than their voters. thus, they only TALK like they are Democrats. They have behaved, without exception since 1968, like the lying hapless worthless feckless CORRUPT neoliberal fascist pussies they are.
the donkey knows they can't maintain majorities unless they *DO* a lot of stuff that the nation needs. but they also know that if they *DO* that stuff, the money they serve so faithfully will be DISpleased. This they have refused to do.
Thus, you get the bait…
2022 was NOT a success for Dems, much less a "triumph." House went from a 5 seat Dem margin to 5 seat GOP margin. Dems got many good things through House with that margin--GOP can gum up the works considerably with that margin.
Dems lost a net of 23 House seats last 2 cycles. Everyone who reminded us that the incumbent's party ALWAYS loses mid-term House seats studiously ignored fact that a president who's elected with a majority of the popular vote shouldn't see his party simultaneously lose a net of 13 seats.
Finally, I'll note that Pelosi presided of that net loss of 23 seats since taking the speakership a second time. She never was able to hold th…