I guess I'll go first! DavidNYC, born and raised New Yorker, lifelong Upper East Sider, perpetually disappointed Mets fan, cocktail enthusiast (making and drinking), and hopeless election nerd. Hello, everyone!
Hey! Haven't commented for a long time and probably won't be a regular commenter in the future, but I was around pretty regularly in the SSP and early DKE days. Excited to see what fun new things you'll do at your new home.
Hi all! I haven't hung around in the comments for a while, but I've had lots of usernames over the years. My time in the DKE comments helped inspire a lot of different research interests, which ultimately led to legal scholarship on election and state constitutional law, and then into academia! I owe a lot to this community, and I'm excited about its new home.
Hi All! I'm ProudNewEnglander. As my screen name suggests, I've lived my whole life in New England, think it's the best region of the country, and live in New Hampshire now. I was a geography nerd before I became a political nerd, and it's still the geography, maps, and election results data that turns me on the most. I think redistricting is fascinating, and I may be the only person in America (certainly the only Democrat) who claims Tom Hofeller as an inspiration. I've drawn thousands of fantasy redistricting maps in DRA.
When I'm not working or following election news, I'm most likely out hiking in the beautiful White Mountains. Hiking is my other big passion, bordering on obsession, and in fact it was the biggest reason why I originally decided to move to New Hampshire. I've completed five different hiking lists so far in my hiking career, and I'm 95% complete with a sixth list (my biggest one yet!).
I started posting on DKE in 2012, and it quickly became a big part of my life. When I heard it was becoming its own site, it was a very quick decision to subscribe. I hope this community will continue to grow and thrive here!
According to The New York Times, Hofeller's "mastery of redistricting strategy helped propel the Republican Party from underdog to the dominant force in state legislatures and the United States House of Representatives."
In the 1980s, he was behind a strategy to increase Republican power in the South by using the 1965 Voting Rights Act to create more majority-black districts and thus pack African-Americans into fewer districts and make it easier for Republican candidates to win the remaining white districts.
Yup! My absolute dream job is to be the Democratic Tom Hofeller - i.e. to draw Democratic gerrymanders for a living, to help Democrats win and keep majorities in Congress and state legislatures.
All 9 Democratic districts voted for Biden by at least 9.5%. All 8 Democratic incumbents have districts they can run in, the 1st is the open seat at Biden +11, and the 4th is the only Republican district at Trump +26.
Democrats have a trifecta in Washington. If not for their independent redistricting commission, we could've drawn a map like this.
Darth Jeff, born and raised in Silicon Valley (in an actual way, not an Elon way), college in New Orleans, now live in Boston. Pub trivia player, Trekkie, person who listens to audiobooks at 3X speed while on long walks. I also defend a lot of film and TV antagonists in my spare time.
Also, I’m probably not alone here in being obsessed with the works of Robert Caro. I may be alone here, though, in having a poster of Robert Caro hanging right next to my desk.
My greatest fear in life might be that Caro dies before finishing that last volume. I will buy it off Amazon the day it is released and probably not leave the house until finished.
Hi all! I've been happily collecting elections data and making maps for twenty years now. I'm a sucker for cat pictures and creative data visualizations. I'm generally pretty quiet in the comments, but I do read them. I'm so excited to see how successful this first week of The Downballot has been!
Twenty years! That beats me - I've only been making them for 16 years. My first map ever was a town-level map of Connecticut with the results of the 2008 presidential election. What was your first map?
Hey everyone! I'm born, raised and currently live on Long Island (with 6 year interlude in New Jersey for college/post college life). Followed Presidential elections casually since 2000, and all elections intensely since 2006. The (second) Iraq War was a pivotal moment in my political awakening as a liberal/lefty as a teenager. I would just watch GWB smirk his way through a press conference on TV and think "Who actually buys this crap? Like, where do they live where enough people think like this that this joker could win the Presidency?" Which led to a crash course in political geography I still find endlessly fascinating, since it's always evolving.
Hey All! I was known ad DanteDFL on DKE but havent lived in MN in years so am using the switch as an opportunity to change to DanteTheDem. Originally from Syracuse NY I've lived all over the US (including California and Minnesota, which means i've been lucky enough to vote for both Harris and Walz for state level offices!) usually a lurker but try to comment every once in a while. Looking forward to more of the same excellent elections coverage I've become accustomed to since i first started reading DKE in 2012
Greetings! I'm AWildLibAppeared. I live in Southern California and have been following the Daily Kos Elections blog for almost a decade. Initially after college, I worked in political organizing, but then realized I was someone who actually liked the stability of a humdrum 9-to-5 job. Thus, I did a career change to something something corporate America.
Because I do work with some more conservative-minded individuals who might not love all my thoughts on politics, I have preferred to maintain my anonymity on Daily Kos, and I'm continuing to do so here. However, I will divulge that I have on-and-off engaged in local politics where I've lived, and I always try to help out campaigns come election season, which is what brought me to DKE initially. I've found the information that DKE/The Downballot publishes to be invaluable, and I've also greatly appreciated the perspectives and insights of commenters in the community. Very happy to see that this transition to Substack has gone well!
ehstronghold checking in here! I've been part of the SSP community since high school (2009) when I discovered a diary about the 2010 Senate elections. That diary was overly optimistic vs. the election results in 2010. I've lived my entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area and have witnessed the rise of Kamala Harris' career from when she was DA in San Francisco to hopefully come January, the 47th President of the United States.
I hope this next chapter in the SSP story is as successful as the first two chapters. May fortune favor the bold as they say.
OK, I guess I'll do this. mejDB. After about a year of lurking on DKos I signed up as mej. Then went back to mostly lurking for 20 years, only occasionally chiming in. As a scientist who teaches research methods and some stats, I early on read about or even actively 'de-skewed' polls - before deciding it wasn't (usually) useful. One of the sections I most enjoyed at DK were the Elections and Morning Digests, so naturally I migrated over here. I followed the discussion of DNC (and more!) all week, and enjoyed live-commenting on it last night. I look forward to riding this roller coaster for the next 75 days, and hopefully will bask along in celebration for a while after that. I live outside Chicago these days (just most of the last 30 years); moved around a bunch before that but mostly grew up in NewEngland - but enjoy hearing local input from all over.
Dgoodmantrublu. Democratic political consultant who mostly works on state and local races, though a few congressionals. I am originally from NY and live in Maryland. NY sports fan-Giants, Knicks, Yankees. Been reading great content here since the Swing State Project days.
It's so peculiar reading the self-descriptions of folk whom I've followed for years now.
Hey y'all. Long time lurker and reader since 2017 when I wanted to find down ballot information that also was interdisciplinary and not just resistance-lib content, and now a first-time commenter. I'm a Houston born, but Chicago raised chemist that likes to do the physical sciences for work and do the social sciences for my hobbies. Fifth generation educator here (though I am presently in the private sector after defending my dissertation) where all the women (and some of the men) in my family (that weren't from WV as they were already devout democrats) became democrats thanks to the incredible Ann Richards. Now I'm the political and election resource for not only my family, but also my friends and coworkers (though I make sure that they ask me for help first and I try to come off as nonpartisan).
When I'm not working or disappearing down some political research hole, I'm a Trekkie (sci-fi is probably my favorite artistic genre), enjoy cooking new dishes with my mom, exploring new musicians and genres of music, and enjoying the company of the wonderful friend-network I've cultivated here in the windy city.
I wondered about whether we would do a grand unmasking party like this. However, I was looking forward to being far more coy and letting people guess/wonder for a while what my previous handle was. The new UID is a hint, but I also like to think that my writing style, pedantic and complicated in its syntax as a general state of being (with ample use of parenthesis like here, but, I’ve been told, my sentences are not hard to follow despite their length), would cue people on to my identity.
I spent much of the week following the Dem convention. I was most moved by Biden’s speech; there was such a strong pathos there and it was such an excellent capstone that he delivered quite well with the pressures of being a candidate removed. Michelle and Barack Obama also gave excellent speeches, Michelle especially should have reminded Trump why he’s terrified of her. The surprise was that Hillary gave, for her, an unusually good speech, and Bill, despite the tarnished legacy, showed he can still deliver those biting zingers and speech in an extremely approachable, non-condescending way. I would like to see Dems keep using the “Don’t count the lies, count the I’s” line because its a really good way to center Trump’s narcissism and that is one thing that many less political voters and lower education voters particularly dislike. I’ve been big on focusing less on cultural war issues and more on hitting Trump on notes (age, weirdness, narcissism), that are relatable to average voters and don’t have a particularly political slant to their criticism.
Walz’s speech was okay. His family stole the show but the content of his speech could have been better. It needed more crystalline personal details to frame his story around and lacked intimacy. It had the ring of something put together by a team of scriptwriters trying too hard to create a brand, but he delivered it well.
Harris gave a Biden speech when it came to policy mostly, but she did it very well and also introduced herself well. It was kind of a predictable speech, but it did everything it needed to do well. I think it was an effective introduction and she fired off on all cylinders. It was a great delivery that grew a lot of praise and more importantly, continued to cement the narrative of her as a precise, forceful, and impressive candidate. It’s even more amazing how, despite being incumbent vice president, she’s managed to revitalize the Dem party while feeling like the challenger. Trump’s been in the public conscious so violently and for so much longer, that Harris is the new face and the new platform despite running as the incumbent. I’m looking forward to stopping Trump once and for all this election.
Hello everyone. My name is Oghomwen and I first started following DKE in 2017 to keep up to date with U.S elections in the early Trump years (long may he NEVER reign again!). As a Nigerian living in Canada with an interest in American politics, you might say I am somewhat attracted to dysfunction in different spheres! Happy to meet you all after my sojourn as a silent admirer.
Hello! You are by no means the only Canadian here. James Lambert, who is the second-longest tenured member of the team, is an Edmontonian. There’s even a funny story about that …
Glad to meet you! I'd be interested in your takes on Nigerian and Canadian politics as well as U.S. politics, if you ever feel inspired to post about them.
Welcome! I connected with a Nigerian a while back who worked as a country manager for a business there (can't recall the city or region of the country). He has confirmed with me there are renewable energy education and training programs as well as overall renewable energy development in the country.
Politics I can't say I'm familiar with what's happening in Nigeria.
I guess I'll go first! DavidNYC, born and raised New Yorker, lifelong Upper East Sider, perpetually disappointed Mets fan, cocktail enthusiast (making and drinking), and hopeless election nerd. Hello, everyone!
Hey! Haven't commented for a long time and probably won't be a regular commenter in the future, but I was around pretty regularly in the SSP and early DKE days. Excited to see what fun new things you'll do at your new home.
Twohundertseventy, is that you?
Yes!
Hi all! I haven't hung around in the comments for a while, but I've had lots of usernames over the years. My time in the DKE comments helped inspire a lot of different research interests, which ultimately led to legal scholarship on election and state constitutional law, and then into academia! I owe a lot to this community, and I'm excited about its new home.
Hi All! I'm ProudNewEnglander. As my screen name suggests, I've lived my whole life in New England, think it's the best region of the country, and live in New Hampshire now. I was a geography nerd before I became a political nerd, and it's still the geography, maps, and election results data that turns me on the most. I think redistricting is fascinating, and I may be the only person in America (certainly the only Democrat) who claims Tom Hofeller as an inspiration. I've drawn thousands of fantasy redistricting maps in DRA.
When I'm not working or following election news, I'm most likely out hiking in the beautiful White Mountains. Hiking is my other big passion, bordering on obsession, and in fact it was the biggest reason why I originally decided to move to New Hampshire. I've completed five different hiking lists so far in my hiking career, and I'm 95% complete with a sixth list (my biggest one yet!).
I started posting on DKE in 2012, and it quickly became a big part of my life. When I heard it was becoming its own site, it was a very quick decision to subscribe. I hope this community will continue to grow and thrive here!
Yeah, I think you may be the only Democrat inspired by Tom Hofeller: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofeller
According to The New York Times, Hofeller's "mastery of redistricting strategy helped propel the Republican Party from underdog to the dominant force in state legislatures and the United States House of Representatives."
In the 1980s, he was behind a strategy to increase Republican power in the South by using the 1965 Voting Rights Act to create more majority-black districts and thus pack African-Americans into fewer districts and make it easier for Republican candidates to win the remaining white districts.
Yup! My absolute dream job is to be the Democratic Tom Hofeller - i.e. to draw Democratic gerrymanders for a living, to help Democrats win and keep majorities in Congress and state legislatures.
In case there are people here who have never seen my gerrymanders, here's an example - a 9D-1R map of Washington: https://davesredistricting.org/join/9101acdd-b0f0-4885-9bf6-ea630799bb13
All 9 Democratic districts voted for Biden by at least 9.5%. All 8 Democratic incumbents have districts they can run in, the 1st is the open seat at Biden +11, and the 4th is the only Republican district at Trump +26.
Democrats have a trifecta in Washington. If not for their independent redistricting commission, we could've drawn a map like this.
I believe abgin would approve!
Darth Jeff, born and raised in Silicon Valley (in an actual way, not an Elon way), college in New Orleans, now live in Boston. Pub trivia player, Trekkie, person who listens to audiobooks at 3X speed while on long walks. I also defend a lot of film and TV antagonists in my spare time.
Also, I’m probably not alone here in being obsessed with the works of Robert Caro. I may be alone here, though, in having a poster of Robert Caro hanging right next to my desk.
My greatest fear in life might be that Caro dies before finishing that last volume. I will buy it off Amazon the day it is released and probably not leave the house until finished.
LBJ was my deceased father's favourite President.
If I ever saw Caro in the wild I think I’d run to avoid risking any chance of getting him sick.
I didn't know these things about you. Defend how?
I make all sorts of arguments on why, for example, Scar from the Lion King is the true hero.
Hi all! I've been happily collecting elections data and making maps for twenty years now. I'm a sucker for cat pictures and creative data visualizations. I'm generally pretty quiet in the comments, but I do read them. I'm so excited to see how successful this first week of The Downballot has been!
Twenty years! That beats me - I've only been making them for 16 years. My first map ever was a town-level map of Connecticut with the results of the 2008 presidential election. What was your first map?
First elections map I released into the wild was Bush approval ratings!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/11/18/166070/-
Hey everyone! I'm born, raised and currently live on Long Island (with 6 year interlude in New Jersey for college/post college life). Followed Presidential elections casually since 2000, and all elections intensely since 2006. The (second) Iraq War was a pivotal moment in my political awakening as a liberal/lefty as a teenager. I would just watch GWB smirk his way through a press conference on TV and think "Who actually buys this crap? Like, where do they live where enough people think like this that this joker could win the Presidency?" Which led to a crash course in political geography I still find endlessly fascinating, since it's always evolving.
I went to grad school at Stony Brook, so I have lived on Long Island, though I maintained my New York City voting residence while I was there.
Hey All! I was known ad DanteDFL on DKE but havent lived in MN in years so am using the switch as an opportunity to change to DanteTheDem. Originally from Syracuse NY I've lived all over the US (including California and Minnesota, which means i've been lucky enough to vote for both Harris and Walz for state level offices!) usually a lurker but try to comment every once in a while. Looking forward to more of the same excellent elections coverage I've become accustomed to since i first started reading DKE in 2012
Greetings! I'm AWildLibAppeared. I live in Southern California and have been following the Daily Kos Elections blog for almost a decade. Initially after college, I worked in political organizing, but then realized I was someone who actually liked the stability of a humdrum 9-to-5 job. Thus, I did a career change to something something corporate America.
Because I do work with some more conservative-minded individuals who might not love all my thoughts on politics, I have preferred to maintain my anonymity on Daily Kos, and I'm continuing to do so here. However, I will divulge that I have on-and-off engaged in local politics where I've lived, and I always try to help out campaigns come election season, which is what brought me to DKE initially. I've found the information that DKE/The Downballot publishes to be invaluable, and I've also greatly appreciated the perspectives and insights of commenters in the community. Very happy to see that this transition to Substack has gone well!
ehstronghold checking in here! I've been part of the SSP community since high school (2009) when I discovered a diary about the 2010 Senate elections. That diary was overly optimistic vs. the election results in 2010. I've lived my entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area and have witnessed the rise of Kamala Harris' career from when she was DA in San Francisco to hopefully come January, the 47th President of the United States.
I hope this next chapter in the SSP story is as successful as the first two chapters. May fortune favor the bold as they say.
I didn’t know till now you were also from the Bay Area (and unlike me stayed)!
OK, I guess I'll do this. mejDB. After about a year of lurking on DKos I signed up as mej. Then went back to mostly lurking for 20 years, only occasionally chiming in. As a scientist who teaches research methods and some stats, I early on read about or even actively 'de-skewed' polls - before deciding it wasn't (usually) useful. One of the sections I most enjoyed at DK were the Elections and Morning Digests, so naturally I migrated over here. I followed the discussion of DNC (and more!) all week, and enjoyed live-commenting on it last night. I look forward to riding this roller coaster for the next 75 days, and hopefully will bask along in celebration for a while after that. I live outside Chicago these days (just most of the last 30 years); moved around a bunch before that but mostly grew up in NewEngland - but enjoy hearing local input from all over.
Dgoodmantrublu. Democratic political consultant who mostly works on state and local races, though a few congressionals. I am originally from NY and live in Maryland. NY sports fan-Giants, Knicks, Yankees. Been reading great content here since the Swing State Project days.
It's so peculiar reading the self-descriptions of folk whom I've followed for years now.
Hey y'all. Long time lurker and reader since 2017 when I wanted to find down ballot information that also was interdisciplinary and not just resistance-lib content, and now a first-time commenter. I'm a Houston born, but Chicago raised chemist that likes to do the physical sciences for work and do the social sciences for my hobbies. Fifth generation educator here (though I am presently in the private sector after defending my dissertation) where all the women (and some of the men) in my family (that weren't from WV as they were already devout democrats) became democrats thanks to the incredible Ann Richards. Now I'm the political and election resource for not only my family, but also my friends and coworkers (though I make sure that they ask me for help first and I try to come off as nonpartisan).
When I'm not working or disappearing down some political research hole, I'm a Trekkie (sci-fi is probably my favorite artistic genre), enjoy cooking new dishes with my mom, exploring new musicians and genres of music, and enjoying the company of the wonderful friend-network I've cultivated here in the windy city.
Swing State Project!!! Those were fun times
Jlgarsh
I wondered about whether we would do a grand unmasking party like this. However, I was looking forward to being far more coy and letting people guess/wonder for a while what my previous handle was. The new UID is a hint, but I also like to think that my writing style, pedantic and complicated in its syntax as a general state of being (with ample use of parenthesis like here, but, I’ve been told, my sentences are not hard to follow despite their length), would cue people on to my identity.
I spent much of the week following the Dem convention. I was most moved by Biden’s speech; there was such a strong pathos there and it was such an excellent capstone that he delivered quite well with the pressures of being a candidate removed. Michelle and Barack Obama also gave excellent speeches, Michelle especially should have reminded Trump why he’s terrified of her. The surprise was that Hillary gave, for her, an unusually good speech, and Bill, despite the tarnished legacy, showed he can still deliver those biting zingers and speech in an extremely approachable, non-condescending way. I would like to see Dems keep using the “Don’t count the lies, count the I’s” line because its a really good way to center Trump’s narcissism and that is one thing that many less political voters and lower education voters particularly dislike. I’ve been big on focusing less on cultural war issues and more on hitting Trump on notes (age, weirdness, narcissism), that are relatable to average voters and don’t have a particularly political slant to their criticism.
Walz’s speech was okay. His family stole the show but the content of his speech could have been better. It needed more crystalline personal details to frame his story around and lacked intimacy. It had the ring of something put together by a team of scriptwriters trying too hard to create a brand, but he delivered it well.
Harris gave a Biden speech when it came to policy mostly, but she did it very well and also introduced herself well. It was kind of a predictable speech, but it did everything it needed to do well. I think it was an effective introduction and she fired off on all cylinders. It was a great delivery that grew a lot of praise and more importantly, continued to cement the narrative of her as a precise, forceful, and impressive candidate. It’s even more amazing how, despite being incumbent vice president, she’s managed to revitalize the Dem party while feeling like the challenger. Trump’s been in the public conscious so violently and for so much longer, that Harris is the new face and the new platform despite running as the incumbent. I’m looking forward to stopping Trump once and for all this election.
Hello everyone. My name is Oghomwen and I first started following DKE in 2017 to keep up to date with U.S elections in the early Trump years (long may he NEVER reign again!). As a Nigerian living in Canada with an interest in American politics, you might say I am somewhat attracted to dysfunction in different spheres! Happy to meet you all after my sojourn as a silent admirer.
Hello! You are by no means the only Canadian here. James Lambert, who is the second-longest tenured member of the team, is an Edmontonian. There’s even a funny story about that …
Glad to meet you! I'd be interested in your takes on Nigerian and Canadian politics as well as U.S. politics, if you ever feel inspired to post about them.
Welcome! I connected with a Nigerian a while back who worked as a country manager for a business there (can't recall the city or region of the country). He has confirmed with me there are renewable energy education and training programs as well as overall renewable energy development in the country.
Politics I can't say I'm familiar with what's happening in Nigeria.