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MPC's avatar

Guys, PLEASE don't use a Trump photo for any more articles. He makes me sick.

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the lurking ecologist's avatar

Perhaps the repulsiveness of the picture explains why only you and I have commented 2.5 hours after the post. Everyone else hit emergency close on their browsers or is still in the bathroom...

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Kevin H.'s avatar

Ehh you see him all the time, I was thinking big mistake by Mr Cittarelli...big...HUGE.

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Philip Austin's avatar

Why'd you say that really?

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the lurking ecologist's avatar

I appreciate Dems making gains on margins in R-held districts. But I'd appreciate more gains that turn into flips.

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BF's avatar

Could the Downballot team lay out the special election process and possible timelines for Sherrill's NJ-11 seat? (Caveated "in the event of winning as governor" but I can't imagine she'll lose the general election.) Would also be good to know the early candidate rumors jockeying for her seat (and how to position someone better on policy to succeed her in the House).

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David Nir's avatar

Given our very limited resources, we generally wait until we know there's going to be an election before writing about one. We'd have wasted a lot of time over the years if we focused on merely hypothetical elections, because many don't wind up coming about! If Sherrill wins, we will dive right in.

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BF's avatar

That's fair, this one just feels almost fait accompli lol. Ty all the same.

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Darren Monaghan's avatar

Tom Malinowski is apparently seriously considering it in the event of an open special election!! 💙🇺🇲

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RL Miller's avatar

This NJ Globe piece lays out the deadlines. It was written before the primary so it covers additional candidates, but TL;DR if she wins the Gov and vacates her seat on Jan 20 the primary would be no earlier than late March and general early June. HTH. https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/house-members-state-senators-and-mayors-are-vying-to-be-n-j-governor-what-happens-to-their-seats-if-they-win/

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Henrik's avatar

I’m skeptical that Sherrill picks a primary opponent as her LG, especially with how much Fluop went after her (and for that reason, not his faith as somebody was suggesting yesterday…). But who from the legislature would make sense as a good balance for her? Geographical balance seems less important these days than in the past

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Paleo's avatar

High up on the list of possible running mates are two state senators, Troy Singleton (D-Delran) and Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson), and Passaic Mayor Hector Lora. Singleton, who has strong relationships in state government, could help Sherrill in South Jersey, and Wimberly, a celebrated football coach, is hugely popular among his Trenton colleagues.

https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/next-up-choosing-a-lt-governor/

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Henrik's avatar

Those sound like excellent choices. I had expected incidentally Singleton to be Kim’s eventual successor in NJ-3

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Aaron Apollo Camp's avatar

Ideological balance might be less of a factor for Sherrill than had someone other than her won the primary, as Sherill defeated candidates who ran to the left (Baraka, Fulop) and right (Gottheimer, Sweeney) of her in the primary.

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Henrik's avatar

A fair point

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stevk's avatar

Agreed. There might be something to be said for geographic balance though (i.e. picking a South Jersey running mate).

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Paleo's avatar

Barring something unforeseen, I expect Sherrill to win. If for no other reason than Trump.

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MPC's avatar

All these political outlets thinking that the GOP candidate (who narrowly lost in 2021) has a shot this year, with FDJT in the Oval Office, are deluding themselves.

Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger are the odds-on favorites to win their respective state governor's races this year.

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Paleo's avatar

Ciattarelli is not a bad candidate. He came within 3 points not only because of a backlash to shutdowns, etc. If a Democrat were in the white house, I'd give him at least a 50-50 shot. As noted, it's been over 60 years, 1961 actually, since a party has won a third term in a row.

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Essex Democrat's avatar

not to quibble (because you are correct) but it's also only been 56 since the dems won 4 in a row--1965. Jack has been running for Governor since Obama was president. His former base-Somerset is fully lost for republicans, and Sherill puts Morris in play. Plus mikie is better than phil

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Paleo's avatar

She's probably more personable, but I have no real complaints about Murphy.

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bpfish's avatar

I wasn't a big fan of him trying to use his connections to get his wife elected to the Senate. I realize Tammy has her own connections and accomplishments, and people use their current platforms to get themselves or their friends elected to their next gig all the time, but she never would have been running for Senate if she were not the Governor's spouse. Just more insiders using their privilege to remain insiders.

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Paleo's avatar

Yeah, that was no good. But it worked out in the end. I think he was a good governor.

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Essex Democrat's avatar

and ironically if not for Tammy Murphy's run the line may still exist today

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bpfish's avatar

Yeah, but Andy Kim deserves the credit for actually being the one who got rid of the county lines. Tammy was undoubtedly counting on the county lines to give her the inside track (her entire campaign strategy), and Andy sued for that reason. Tammy was a reason reform was needed, not an instigator of reform.

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stevk's avatar

Agreed, and I don't think either one will be particularly close...

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PollJunkie's avatar

True, it's highly unlikely that Ciattarelli will be able to replicate Trump's record margins among NJ Latinos and Asians, especially Indian Americans. It will be a good indicator of how bad Democrats demographic woes are for the midterms and 2028.

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

Being "broadly acceptable" should suffice in a Trump midterm. Suspect she gets to around 53%, at least.

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michaelflutist's avatar

More, probably.

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

That's fair, I just don't allow myself to be optimistic anymore.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I fully understand. But this is New Jersey.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Also because New Jersey is generally a Likely-D state as a starting rating for any statewide race in a neutral environment.

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Diogenes's avatar

Trump's demand for a mid-decade Congressional gerrymander in Texas to give Republicans an even greater advantage highlights how distorted the district maps already are. Trump carried Texas with 56.14% of the vote, but Republicans hold 25 of Texas's 38 Congressional seats - 65.79%. The discrepancy is not quite as egregious as in North Carolina, but if the Texas districts had been determined fairly, in a nonpartisan fashion, Hakeem Jeffries would now be speaker of the House.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Did Jared Polis carry CO-03 is his landslide victory? I think flipping the district is possible in a blue wave as Colorado has been becoming bluer.

Edit: Jared Polis: 3rd 50% 47% : Rep: Lauren Boebert

He did win it.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Would be great if they nominate another MAGA wacko just like they did in 2022 Gov., GOP never disappoints. I wonder large Trump's majority in the House and Senate would be if his party didn't nominate wackos and extremists like Walker, Mastriano, Lake, Ganahl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Colorado_gubernatorial_election

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michaelflutist's avatar

It wouldn't be -Trump's- majority if the Republicans weren't nominating completely authoritarian, unapologetically racist candidates.

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Paleo's avatar

Good column from Kyle Kondik on the New Jersey results and possible Texas redistricting

https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/notes-on-the-state-of-politics-new-jersey-gubernatorial-race-set-texas-redistricting/

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PollJunkie's avatar

We need to put an end to this gerrymandering circus. Our house is almost clean now except for Fetterman, who met with Bannon and the CEO of Breitbart. He’ll almost certainly be primaried by Conor Lamb (once a Blue Dog, then moderate Democrat, now a resistance lib). Republicans can afford a Rand Paul, we can't. What we need next is a trifecta by winning the 2026 and 2028 Senate elections. The next Democratic president must pledge to end the filibuster or at least push for meaningful carveouts like for voting rights and redistricting. We should expect some defections, so any path forward will require winning the Senate with a margin of at least a couple of seats.

Flipping Maine and North Carolina is essential, those are obvious targets. Soros' group in Texas is planning a major investment for 2026, and if there’s a historical opportunity there, we can’t afford to miss it. Iowa could also become competitive with a strong Senate candidate, especially since Rob Sand is running for governor and Trump’s numbers are slipping there. Alaska is another state worth watching. It has a small population, a libertarian-leaning culture, less polarization, and a legislature where Republicans and Democrats actually work together. Voters there have also shown a preference for moderates at the national level. Ohio is likely off the table if Sherrod Brown runs for governor, and Florida is essentially gone.

The Senate is fundamentally tilted against us, and it’s deeply frustrating. Four million American citizens can’t vote in federal elections unless they move to the mainland. Our districts are heavily gerrymandered even in blue states, though not nearly as aggressively as on the other side. Our Supreme Court no longer reflects the will of the majority, as most of its justices were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. What's worse, they openly operate more like partisan operatives than impartial arbiters of the Constitution. Democrats have been unable to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and prevent looming fiscal crises simply because we lack consistent control of the Senate and the House even when we win more votes nationally while Republicans starve the beast with their zombielike obsession with tax cuts and explode our deficits. We "elected" George W. Bush under a broken system, and yet we still call ourselves an advanced democracy. In reality, we haven’t had a true governing trifecta since 2010. Every time Democrats have held nominal control of the Senate, figures like Manchin and Sinema have blocked core parts of the agenda (it doesn't matter for what reasons) making it impossible to govern decisively, even with a majority on paper. Trump will be off the political stage by 2028, and after that, Republicans are likely to stop nominating extremist candidates in swing state Senate races. The window for change is very narrow.

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Zero Cool's avatar

For the record, Fetterman's meeting with Steve Bannon was not planned, at least if we're going by what Fetterman said about his appearance at the restaurant. That said, agreed about cleaning house when it comes to him being primaried.

The restaurant, Butterworth's, is a French-themed restraurant in DC that happens to attract MAGA supporters. I think Fetterman intended to go there to check out the scene knowing this fact.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Ohh, I didn't know that. This must be new reporting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/magazine/butterworths-restaurant-washington-trump-maga.html

Maybe, this article spurred him to visit that place.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Possibly although Fetterman may have intended to go there thinking he’d run into Bannon or others there.

I have no idea what makes Butterworth’s attract MAGA but if I were in DC, I wouldn’t mind making a visit and see if there’s any particular kind of discussion going on with MAGA that we aren’t already hearing.

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michaelflutist's avatar

"Trump will be off the political stage by 2028, and after that, Republicans are likely to stop nominating extremist candidates in swing state Senate races."

The first part is uncertain; the second, highly doubtful. Good post, otherwise.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Agreed.

Extremist nominations by the GOP ever since the rise of the Tea Party back in 2009 are pretty much in the same boat. Trump or no Trump, they’re still extremists, especially since they have no interest in ending the Citizens United decision and want to continue to depress Democratic Party base turnout.

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Guy Cohen's avatar

The first part is certain. He's term-limited and will not be allowed onto any ballots. Also he'll be 82 so I doubt he'll want to run for a third term.

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michaelflutist's avatar

The first part is certain if the constitution still applies, which is not certain.

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Guy Cohen's avatar

The constitution still applies. Just because Trump doesn’t respect it doesn’t mean everyone’s going to sit back and let him do whatever he wants.

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michaelflutist's avatar

The only "everyone" who definitely count are forces that carry weapons.

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Guy Cohen's avatar

Not everyone in the military or police is loyal to Trump.

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michaelflutist's avatar

We may unfortunately have the chance to see whether there are significant results from that.

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sacman701's avatar

The actual question wording was this: "Republican Jack Ciattarelli, an entrepreneur, small business owner and former Assemblyman? Or Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor and current member of Congress?" Those are fair characterizations, but 'Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor' sounds a lot cooler than 'entrepreneur and small business owner'. They should have just said their names.

Edited: I'm skeptical that Sherrill is actually up 13, but leaving that aside the poll finds her up 66-18 among Latinos who were 19% of the adjusted sample. More evidence that the big red shift in 2024 was largely a one-off?

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PollJunkie's avatar

No, both descriptions are fair and appeal to the average Joe imo.

I also think the red shift among minorities in 2024 was an aberration, otherwise, Trump’s approval wouldn’t be down in Texas, and the early Senate polling there wouldn’t be this competitive. Nationally, his approval has shifted the most among nonwhite voters, Independents and younger people. His coalition is as fragile as ours was and will surely break if we stop taking minority votes for granted.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Stop taking them for granted by doing what different things?

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PollJunkie's avatar

e.g repeatedly making promises of fixing the broken immigration system with a points based immigration reform and amnesty but not actually doing that (for whatever reasons), not focusing on border enough and shutting it down too late.

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michaelflutist's avatar

And which of these things can be remedied by 2028? Also, sure, punish the Democrats for Sinema, Manchin, et al. in order to bring in people who campaigned on hating immigrants, instead of increasing their pro-immigrant members. Really, my attitude to a large degree is fuck American voters. People running campaigns can't say that; I can! At this rate, we're lucky if there are genuinely contested elections next year in which the winners are allowed to take office, let alone what may happen in 2028.

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PollJunkie's avatar

We can communicate better and project strength and a fundamental change in position on the border in 2028 and also simultaneously promise immigration reform by carving out the filibuster. The next President can say "I camapaigned on this, I have a historic mandate, I won by a landslide" and threaten primaries during backdoor negotiations like Trump. Strong arm Congress basically and be strong on the border and crime but also strong on immigration reform and compassion.

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Buckeye73's avatar

The rise of Trump has told us that unfortunately there are a lot more stupid people and assholes among the American voting public than most of us thought.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

The point is that any description of the candidates, even a "fair" one, is going to sway voters in a way that may not accurately represent how they would actually split as they learn more about the candidates. It's better to just do names and party id.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I think a 13-point victory is very plausible.

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Paleo's avatar

I would be surprised if it were that high.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Considering how other elections have been going, it could be higher.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Ciattarelli may be in for a rude awakening if he thinks he will be able to ride on the same kind of success this fall that he got in getting the 2021 race in making it closer.

As weird as NJ is for Democrats at the state level, the NJ primary race was one of the best ones Democrats have had in a long time. Turnout seems to have confirmed this as multiple candidates including Sherrill, Baraka and Fulop got double digit margins in the number of votes.

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Morgan Whitacre's avatar

Upper single to lower double digits is what I’m expecting.

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PollJunkie's avatar

FL - [Victory Polling]

2026 Gov. - Jolly v. Donalds Donalds +5.3% D-31.4% R-36.7%,

the rest are undecided and name recognition of both candidates are low, 40-50 percent. It's functioning more like generic D and generic R.

They also polled presidential primaries.

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Mike in MD's avatar

Democratic presidential primary poll results should probably be edited out of our postings, even when it's so early as to be meaningless.

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User's avatar
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Jun 11Edited
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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Ugh Trump wasn't even on mainstream social media when he ran rough-shod over the 2024 GOP primary.

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PollJunkie's avatar

He was on Twitter in 2016 when the conservative media led by Murdoch was attacking him left and right.

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michaelflutist's avatar

That's not a good reason to mention or include Democratic presidential primary numbers. At most, you can say they also polled hypothetical presidential primary candidates and leave it at that.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Ok, done.

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Martybooks's avatar

Q poll Trump at 38-54 and underwater on everything https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924

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Henrik's avatar

Has a President ever burned through the honeymoon phase this fast?

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Zero Cool's avatar

Trump was thinking being POTUS was going to save him from his legal liabilities.

He wasn’t prepared for how worse he’s being treated since he was inaugurated as POTUS. His problem.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Worse than a possible prison term?

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Zero Cool's avatar

Not worse but not exactly helping him either even if he avoids a prison term post-presidency.

During his first term, Trump Organization started to lose business in its hotels. Then post-presidency Trump moves to FL and stays in Mar-A-Lago only to find there’s an FBI investigation into classified files over there and doesn’t even have the strongest security. He doesn’t even move back to Trump Tower.

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MPC's avatar

If he survives past 2028, he will spend the rest of his days in court (I would love to see him get prison time but it won't happen). And if a future Democratic President appoints an AG with teeth, they need to go after FDJT and his lackeys and throw the book at them.

Not going to play nice when the tables are turned.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Yeah, in a nutshell, the presidency is all Trump has left.

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Darren Monaghan's avatar

More polls like this and 2026 may be a tsunami as opposed to 2018's wave!!

🙏💙🇺🇲😃

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Tim Nguyen's avatar

Remember, there's still over a year to go before the midterms, so things will likely only further worsen before then.

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Techno00's avatar

https://nitter.poast.org/JacobRubashkin/status/1930988506886594808#m

Tyler Macallister, former selectman from Mattapoisett, MA, bluefin harpoon fisher, and the host of "Harpoon Hunters" on the Discovery Channel, is considering a bid for MA-09 as a Republican. Incumbent is Democrat Bill Keating.

Harris +11, Warren +2 as noted by Jacob Rubashkin.

Make of this news what you will.

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JanusIanitos's avatar

MA-09 is the least blue district in the state. All else held equal if we were going to lose a seat it'd be that one. I'm not worried about it for 2026 but it'd be preferable if Keating opted to retire in a year favoring us and not in a future potential republican wave year.

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John Carr's avatar

I’m pretty sure MA-09 (MA-10 at the time) was the reddist open seat that Democrats were able to hold in 2010. It was around D+5 in 2010.

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Paleo's avatar

It’s his personal army. John Roberts.

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PollJunkie's avatar

https://x.com/MappingFL/status/1932610495158125001 : Analysis by Florida Democratic data guru Matthew Isbell

Democrats outperformed the registered partisanship of votes cast in Florida which means that a slice of Republican voters also voted for the Democratic candidates.

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Darren Monaghan's avatar

Too many in a Democratic primary will benefit Phoni Joni, no?! 😲

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PollJunkie's avatar

Only if they try to annihilate each other with a lot of negative attack ads, otherwise, no. It will result in a strong candidate emerging.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Yes, I was texted, as usual. I don't think campaigns are sharing the fact that I always text back "stop."

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User's avatar
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Jun 11Edited
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michaelflutist's avatar

Because ActBlue is sharing my information is my guess.

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Mark's avatar

I have my doubts of his ability to appeal outside of the five counties that voted for Harris.

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PollJunkie's avatar

The Trump-Musk feud was actually driven by immigration. Traditional Republicans are happy with increased deficits as long as the BBB massively increases funding for the border and deportation. Right Libertarians like Elon, tech right, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson wanted more cuts. MAGA populist Hawley, Bannon and "moderates" Susan Collins and Murkowski wanted less cuts. MAGA populists led by Vance even wanted tax raise on the 1 percent which Trump rebuffed. In order to bring all these factions together, Trump emphasized the funding for ICE and DHS not giving Elon what he wanted which sparked the feud.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/06/07/donald-trump-elon-musk-immigration-00392285

Hawley has become a yes since the LA protests which Trump has exploited to pressure holdouts, along with Collins and Murkowski. Musk has expressed regret over the episode.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/10/trump-protests-big-bill-los-angeles-dc

https://apnews.com/article/big-beautiful-bill-los-angeles-protest-deportations-cd4894cf9541b15468c39749d9c3b8e

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/11/politics/musk-vance-wiles-phone-call

The worst of "mass deportations" will come after the BBB.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/11/trump-illegal-immigration-deportations-los-angeles

Miller's quota order for noncriminal deportations and order to raid Home Depot set off the series of events.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2025/06/09/stephen-millers-order-likely-sparked-immigration-arrests-and-protests/

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Zero Cool's avatar

Musk expressing regret isn’t going to help him. He reaped what he sowed from the beginning and seems to forget everything.

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michaelflutist's avatar

He reaped what he sowed, you mean.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Yes. Re-edited what I originally said.

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