Obituaries: Former Rep. Ben Jones (D-GA), more known as a prolific actor than a politician, has died at 84.
Jones's most famous, breakout role was as Cooter Davenport on The Dukes of Hazzard. After a career in the entertainment industry, Jones pivoted to public service and unseated Rep. Pat Swindall in the eastern Atlanta suburbs in 1988.
During Georgia's 1992 redistricting, however, the district added a substantial Black population, and Jones's reputation as a conservative Democrat forced him to run in the open 10th, but lost the primary to one term Rep. Don Johnson (not to be confused with the actor). The iconoclastic Cynthia McKinney succeeded Jones in his old seat, and it is today represented by Hank Johnson.
But Jones's career was not over in 1992. He ran for the suburban Atlanta seat represented by future Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1994. Although he lost, predictably as it was the Republican Revolution, an ethics complaint Jones filed resulted in Gingrich's 1999 resignation and the end of a powerful career.
His wife says before his death Jones planned to watch the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Yankees. They did, 2-1.
Please: Rep. Case is not a moderate- any Democrat who voted for the Save Act is someone who put Trump ahead of voting rights. We need to get rid of (politically) any Democrat in Congress who votes for Trump and voter suppression.
Minnesota U.S. Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Primary Prediction
I'll probably do this more often for the general election in November and throughout the 2028 cycle and beyond, but, for this cycle, I'm only going to do one primary projection where take into account every possible factor I can (scientific pre-election opinion polling, late campaign momentum, fundraising, outside spending, online campaign presence, social media, ad buys, coalitions, endorsements, public comments by endorsers, past election results, party/faction strength, news media coverage, candidate/campaign competence, spoiler/non-major candidates, and other factors, although I don't factor in prediction market odds due to how easily those can be manipulated). For the 2026 primaries, I'm going to do this for the Minnesota DFL primary for U.S. Senate this cycle. In the past, I would make election predictions and post them on one social media platform, comment section, or blog when I felt like it and typically without being as versed as possible in the election campaign in question, but I'm going in a different route going forward. As I'm just starting out with doing this, I won't provide an extremely detailed analysis on how I come to a final prediction, but I will give the prediction and mention the stronger criteria for who I predict will win.
Before I make the prediction, I will mention that the DFL is the Minnesota state-level chapter of the Democratic Party.
My prediction for the Minnesota DFL U.S. Senate primary in 2026 is that Peggy Flanagan will win the DFL nomination by four percentage points. The stronger criteria in Flanagan's case include social media (I've not noticed a ton of Angie Craig supporters on social media as I have for some other moderate candidates, but I've noticed a lot of Flanagan supporters), the strength of the progressive Democratic faction in Minnesota and, in the 2026 primary cycle, nationally, and candidate and campaign competence. Pre-election opinion polls, even though there were only two I could take into account, one of which was an internal poll for an organization that Flanagan is a member of until early next year, provide a very slight edge to Flanagan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/obituaries/ben-jones-dead.html
Obituaries: Former Rep. Ben Jones (D-GA), more known as a prolific actor than a politician, has died at 84.
Jones's most famous, breakout role was as Cooter Davenport on The Dukes of Hazzard. After a career in the entertainment industry, Jones pivoted to public service and unseated Rep. Pat Swindall in the eastern Atlanta suburbs in 1988.
During Georgia's 1992 redistricting, however, the district added a substantial Black population, and Jones's reputation as a conservative Democrat forced him to run in the open 10th, but lost the primary to one term Rep. Don Johnson (not to be confused with the actor). The iconoclastic Cynthia McKinney succeeded Jones in his old seat, and it is today represented by Hank Johnson.
But Jones's career was not over in 1992. He ran for the suburban Atlanta seat represented by future Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1994. Although he lost, predictably as it was the Republican Revolution, an ethics complaint Jones filed resulted in Gingrich's 1999 resignation and the end of a powerful career.
His wife says before his death Jones planned to watch the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Yankees. They did, 2-1.
Please: Rep. Case is not a moderate- any Democrat who voted for the Save Act is someone who put Trump ahead of voting rights. We need to get rid of (politically) any Democrat in Congress who votes for Trump and voter suppression.
FWIW, he has since said he no longer supports it. But yes: he should be primaried again in 2028.
Minnesota U.S. Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Primary Prediction
I'll probably do this more often for the general election in November and throughout the 2028 cycle and beyond, but, for this cycle, I'm only going to do one primary projection where take into account every possible factor I can (scientific pre-election opinion polling, late campaign momentum, fundraising, outside spending, online campaign presence, social media, ad buys, coalitions, endorsements, public comments by endorsers, past election results, party/faction strength, news media coverage, candidate/campaign competence, spoiler/non-major candidates, and other factors, although I don't factor in prediction market odds due to how easily those can be manipulated). For the 2026 primaries, I'm going to do this for the Minnesota DFL primary for U.S. Senate this cycle. In the past, I would make election predictions and post them on one social media platform, comment section, or blog when I felt like it and typically without being as versed as possible in the election campaign in question, but I'm going in a different route going forward. As I'm just starting out with doing this, I won't provide an extremely detailed analysis on how I come to a final prediction, but I will give the prediction and mention the stronger criteria for who I predict will win.
Before I make the prediction, I will mention that the DFL is the Minnesota state-level chapter of the Democratic Party.
My prediction for the Minnesota DFL U.S. Senate primary in 2026 is that Peggy Flanagan will win the DFL nomination by four percentage points. The stronger criteria in Flanagan's case include social media (I've not noticed a ton of Angie Craig supporters on social media as I have for some other moderate candidates, but I've noticed a lot of Flanagan supporters), the strength of the progressive Democratic faction in Minnesota and, in the 2026 primary cycle, nationally, and candidate and campaign competence. Pre-election opinion polls, even though there were only two I could take into account, one of which was an internal poll for an organization that Flanagan is a member of until early next year, provide a very slight edge to Flanagan.
Change Research poll (conducted between 8/3 -8/6) for Carolina Forward.
NC-SEN
Cooper - 50%
Whatley - 43%
NC-LEG
Democrats - 48%
Republicans - 41%
https://carolinaforward.org/news/the-august-2026-carolina-forward-poll/
In reference to the NV election -
https://media.tenor.com/XyiXcdTThBcAAAAM/let-them-fight-dr-ishiro-serizawa.gif