I think the man is battling severe depression. He may have considered resigning right after he won the election. I wonder if he felt some sort of obligation to at least show up some of the time. I don't know exactly what he is going through, but he doesn't have any fight in him, and he still struggles remembering words. I know he is making terrible decisions, but I am not sure his brain is functioning fully. I am not saying that to be snarky. Someone should offer the guy a job in a non-controversial cause that he believes in and maybe he would resign with Shapiro appointing his replacement.
Why don't relevant people that they both respect put together a list of names that they both find respectable? I honestly think something happened to John Fetterman and he shouldn't be blamed for all of this. Yes, some of it. I say that even though a Democrat that votes with their caucus as often as he does is probably where the average PA voter is. I think he seems extremely sad about life in general, though. He wasn't hated by progressives during his time as LG. that I am aware of. He is having a mental health issue.
I’m one of those Democrats who believes while I don’t want Fetterman to be Senator, I think he could have an opportunity to get a beefier salary and a more comfortable career trajectory either in lobbying, a think tank or somewhere else. If he’s unseated in the primary and decides to go in this direction, I would support that out of empathy.
Yeah, I understand that he is casting votes that absolutely horrify many people, and I understand their anger. I am a split ticket voter in the name of full disclosure, so his votes or statements don't bother me most of the time. I am surprised that he hasn't reached out to someone and said get me out of here, please.
He could switch, but he wouldn't be embraced by the GOP, either. If he started voting party line for the Dems he wouldn't feel good about that. I haven't followed vote by vote closely enough, is Dave McCormick breaking with the GOP on some stuff.? I assume he has to throw a bone to Dems every once in a while.
How likely is it that the GOP works hard to get Fetterman to switch parties? They have to be slightly worried about their senate majority. I have no idea if Fetterman would, but I really don't recognize what he has turned into.
IL-Sen: Democratic primary results by Chicago wards - Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi finished last, despite winning more wards than Rep. Robin Kelly, who won none. (Kelly represents many wards on the southeast side of the city, while Krishnamoorthi represents part of ward 41, based in the O'Hare neighborhood mostly absorbed by the airport).
That race turned out to be a complete replica of what happened in MD-Sen 2024 Democratic primary. The rich Democratic man had the entire campaign to raise and spend nearly unlimited dollars and was ahead in the polls at first, but reached a plateau in support that never moved up. He ad the airwaves to himself and built up a big lead. The other candidate was patient, started to suck up all the local party elected endorsements and started to gain some ground as voters started moving from undecided to their candidate of choice.
She only really ran her campaign in the media for the last couple months because she couldn’t compete financially with her opponent well before voting started. She trained her fire to blitz the state just before the primary voting started when the most Democratic voters would start paying attention and had late momentum that ended up with her winning the primary with a larger than expected voting margin.
Carbon copy really, of now Senator Angela Alsobrooks campaign strategy.
And now the rich Democratic man in MD is trying the same strategy again for a House seat against a woman who again has most/all the state and local party elected endorsements. A key difference being that this time his female opponent is an incumbent even if he's subconsciously trying to deny it.
Yes. I don't think we've had more than one simultaneously prior to last year.
Anything even remotely approaching gender parity is a 21st century phenomenon. 1992 was dubbed "The Year of the Woman" because the number of women in the Senate went from 2 to 6. Likewise, every female Senator was either the wife or daughter of a male Senator until 1980. (Last sentence is wrong, see below.)
Gladys Pyle had already been elected on her own in the brief 1938 special, and same with Hazel Abel in the brief 1954 special. Other appointees like the first woman (for one day) Rebecca Felton and Eva Bowring were also not children or widows of senators. More prominently, Margaret Chase Smith succeeded her husband in the House in 1940 but had been elected to the Senate in her own right in 1948. And Nancy Kassebaum was the daughter of Alf Landon, the 1938 Repub nominee for POTUS and Kansas governor from 1933–1937, but she was elected over 40yrs later in 1978.
It's very caveated on Hawkins's own page. She was the first woman without a relative as a "prominent politician" to be ~~elected~~ to serve a ~~full~~ term.
There have only been 4 black women Senators total up until now, and it was only when Alsobrooks and Rochester were elected that we had two in the Senate at the same time, so yes this is significant for representation.
The LA metro board planning and programming committee caved to nimbys on approval of the K line northern extension. This line would run from Torrence and currently stops at LAX. The proposal would extend northbound through Mid City, Beverly Center, West Hollywood's Sunset Strip, Hollywood, ending at Hollywood Bowl.
While LA has drastically improved transit the last couple decades, connections are downtown. The K line extension, in addition to a N S line along the 405 will provide connections to existing E W lines.
It's rumored that Karen Bass is lukewarm on the extension and she controls 4 slots on the board. We'll find out next week when the full board considers the non recommendation from planning. This could become an issue in the mayor's race.
LA sure is a mess of a city to run from an institutional standpoint. I don’t envy anyone who is working to keep the city running, especially Mayor Karen Bass.
That said, last I checked there are a lot of single-family homes in the city and within LA County along with multi-family units as well as apartments. Can’t comment on the affordable housing situation but getting change from a public transit improvement standpoint sure seems to be a pain.
In the Bay Area, where I live, at least BART has been able to extend well throughout the Bay Area and even outward a bit along with SF Muni getting extensions covering more of the city in the last 20 years.
Actually, the public transit in LA in the last 40 years has gone from truly awful to fairly functional. One fact outside LA that most people don't grasp is that the LA/Long Beach/Anaheim statistical metropolitan area is the most densely populated one in the United States. More densely populated than NY/NJ's or SF/Oakland's.
Within the LA basin, transit options are decent and getting better. The further out you get, the worse it is, but that's true in every US city I'm aware of. The biggest hole currently in service is N/S in the mid city area and west side, both very densely populated areas. You have to use buses or connect downtown.
I use LA transit frequently, and I can't remember the last time I drove into LA proper. I'm generally happy with it's transit but support improvements and expansion, particularly the K line expansion, which will be subway.
Sounds like LA has a better public transit system than what exists in the Bay Area even while expanding it in this sense is challenging. I will have to try it out whenever I get to the point of making a visit to LA.
BART connects most of the Bay Area with the exception of Marin County, half of the Peninsula and South Bay but the system has been inundated with funding needs and system brake downs for decades with no formula apparently besides more funding and higher fees.
Frankly, I think public transit agencies should get off their high horse and start lowering ticket fees if they have problems with drops in ridership. I just don’t understand how they expect to make up for revenue shortfalls by charging more for less riders. It’s reverse logic.
Metrolink recently dropped fares by offering a day pass for $15 system wide, half fare for seniors or disabled. Most SoCal transit agencies accept the Metrolink pass for free transit. Until recently I've been paying $10 from Tustin, so now it'll be $7.50 RT. On weekends the day pass is $10 or $5 for seniors. The Metrolink service on weekends is limited and it doesn't run really late at night.
I worked in SF a lot in the 1980s and used transit extensively. At that time it was far superior to what LA had, but that's changed. I haven't been up there in years. Since becoming disabled, San Francisco's hills have become frightening.
To top it all off, remember the Summer 2028 Olympics are coming to LA. It's gonna be a massive boondoggle and I imagine there's gonna be many logistical hurdles, setbacks and backroom deals. Whoever wins the mayoral race in 2026 will have the looming Olympics to deal with, which is always it's own double edged sword.
Oh yes, it’s going to be a logistics nightmare in 2028.
Public transit isn’t going to be the problem with the Olympics so much as those who drive in and around though LA at the time which the events happen. Tourists ought not to get car rentals during this time because it’s going to be hell with the commute.
"Bluer areas of Virginia are picking-up voting: As of Monday, votes cast in the 5-GOP held districts were 60% of all votes cast so far (vs 40% in 6 Dem-held districts). As of today, gap shrunk to 55% to 45%"
Dems seem to be picking up at a decent pace in Virginia and the satellite EV sites haven't even opened up in most of the blue counties. I think they close strong and have a real chance at winning this by at least double digits.
⬆️"Dems seem to be picking up at a decent pace in Virginia and the satellite EV sites haven't even opened up in most of the blue counties."
I have been writing postcards to vote YES on VA redistricting. Names & addresses are still available at www.activateamerica.vote.
There are also a bunch of phone banks between now and election day. Jessica Craven (Chop Wood Carry Water) was promoting one from MoveOn on Monday evenings. www.mobilize.us/moveon/event/796084/
Center for Common Ground focusses on Black and minority voters and is hosting phonebanks that include training & support on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Experienced phone bankers can also watch a video and do it on your own time. IIRC, you are allowed to leave messages for these calls. (www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/903710/)
Boebert is against the Iran War funding, citing concerns over not enough attention being paid to her constituents' real issues of affordability and other matters domestically at home.
Yup, this is why Boebert’s district was left alone in CO redraw ballot amendment hypothetical new maps. She’s a loose cannon that sometimes decides to fire on her own party and is useful to us even if she votes Trump/GOP on most legislation. Obviously I’d prefer a Democrat run and beat her this year or if there ends up not being a redraw in the future, but if she’s the lone Republican of Colorado left standing in a new map, it’s the next best thing for Democrats regarding her district.
Her district would be the perfect spot for a GOP vote sink in a 7-1 Gerrymander favoring the Democrats. I also suspect that she is aware that Trump's war in Iran will not be popular in her district. A disproportionate number of casualties in a possible ground war come from rural areas of the country like CO-4, but people who live in rural areas will be hit much harder by increases in gas and energy prices than urban people because they tend to drive many more miles per year than urban people and are much more sensitive to gas prices.
Trump vetoed the bill with water infrastructure stuff for her district because she was part of the Epstein file release crowd. So now she's firing back.
Luna’s close to being aligned with MTG and Lauren Boebert although I don’t think she’s officially said she’s supported QaNon. She’s just strange like they are and I don’t mean this in a good way.
And if you say Luna is a fraud, her making enemies with Trump helps Democrats even more. Last I checked she represents a Lean GOP, right after Charlie Crist did.
One theory is that he targeted Boebert because she signed the Epstein discharge petition, but I personally think that it's more likely he just wanted to hurt Colorado (perhaps because of that election clerk they convicted) and didn't think about the fact that there are Republicans in Blue States.
A state judge on Friday ordered a new, toned-down description of the redistricting plan after Missouri’s Republican secretary of state acknowledged that he had crafted an unfair summary likely to create bias for the new districts by describing the old ones as “gerrymandered.”
No, the map is the same one they’ve already passed into law, it hasn’t changed, but the amendment to repeal the redraw is getting a new summary closer to an actual description summary of what people are voting for. I don’t trust Republicans to produce fair language, so it’ll be biased to them, but it won’t be as egregious as saying they’ve replaced an old gerrymandered map so vote no on repeal.
Good news, though this won’t happen before the midterms, but I’m glad other Democrats are catching on. Rebecca Katz neatly sums up my feelings. Schumer’s good at recruitment, terrible at everything else, I’m grateful for how much that’s contributed to a majority, but he hasn’t changed with the political times and needs to step aside. Though I don’t know if Schatz would even be an improvement given the votes he’s taken, so hopefully it’ll be someone else.
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are discussing how to get New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to step aside as Senate minority leader amid concerns about his negotiating style and midterms strategy.
Schumer began his rise to the top of the party when then Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, picked him to lead the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. Schumer recruited centrists and flipped the Senate in 2006, laying the groundwork for the majority that passed the 2010 Affordable Care Act—a signature achievement.
“We would not have won back the Senate without Chuck Schumer,” said Rebecca Katz, a former Reid aide who is a partner at Fight Agency, a political consulting firm that represents antiestablishment candidates. “A lot has changed in the last 20 years. I’m not convinced Chuck Schumer has changed with it.”
I wonder how good Schumer still is at recruitment. I feel the highs are very high this cycle -- Peltola as the best example, but we also have Brown and Cooper running and I think he had at least a hand to play for those two as well. But the lows feel comparably low themselves: Stevens, Craig, and Mills, are not impressing me at all even ignoring ideology.
Schumer has one playbook with recruitment these days I'm not sure if he has his finger on the pulse of politics well enough to know when "current or former moderate governor or member of the house" is appropriate and when they're not as strong as they appear at first glance.
Durbin and Schumer repeated our Pelosi and Stoyer problem of staying around too long and being age cohorts. There's no obvious successor to Schumer. I guess Schatz is the most likely person, but he's not a lock. Klubuchar is running for governor, so she's out. Booker and Murphy could make credible runs but as far as I know haven't laid the groundwork the way Schatz has.
I'll take just about anyone over Schumer at this stage. He makes me think of Germany's Scholz. He simply is not the right person for this moment. Schumer would have been a solid party leader during the Obama era, but not today.
The one thing I will say in defense of him is that his candidates in blue states are very meh, but the states where candidate quality makes the difference between a win and a loss and is far less of a foregone conclusion, he hit a home run with, in the states where we needed it most.
The candidates were beyond obvious to any Democratic supporter for those races (AK, OH, NC), but he still got them to run. Brown running 3 campaigns in 6 years. Peltola running for a much harder Senate race over a glide path to the Governors office. Cooper who stated he hated the Senate and had no interest in running for a decade to finally decide to jump in.
These are all impressive recruits who had a ton of other options for their future careers that he had a hand in getting, if not, was the main reason they ran. But as far as handling the caucus after he’s elected leader, it’s like a F- grade of a leader who has no clue what Democrats actually want in response to Trump 2.
He’s just doing exactly what got us to and what we in general wanted in the 1st Trump midterms. The problem is he doesn’t realize that Democrats don’t want 2018 anymore trying to elect problem solvers. We want the biggest and best fighters who will say no and stand with a backbone against enormous pressure to oppose the entire GOP’s agenda, tooth and nail, plank by plank.
Recruiting Mills, Craig and Stevens to run is how it used to be in Democratic primaries and is a tactic that belongs almost exclusively to nearly a decade ago. “It used to work before so it’ll still work today” magical thinking, stuck in the past. There’s no refresh, there’s no messaging change, there’s no change in how elected Democrats are voting with a GOP trifecta compared to what it was like back then.
That’s where the friction and revolt from our party supporters comes from. It’s just more of the same that we’ve done for the last 20 years, acting as if politics is still normal.
⬆️"The candidates were beyond obvious to any Democratic supporter for those races (AK, OH, NC), but he still got them to run."
I would agree that those are the best candidates for those states, but I'm not sure how much Chuck Schumer had to do with it. Do you have any facts to back up your assertion that Schumer was the catalyst?
Pelosi was absolutely a far better leader than Schumer. It isn't even a contest. Not just in her ability to get things done as a leader, but also in her ability to lead her caucus to get the right things done. She's overwhelmingly superior at both.
Doesn't change that her and Stoyer made the same mistake that Schumer and Durbin did, of sticking around too long while being of the same age cohort and thus leaving us without an obvious successor. It's not exactly a huge mistake but it is one all the same.
Peltola very clearly was done after conversations with Schumer, but I think Cooper pretty plainly had nothing to do with Schumer. He pulled himself out of the selection process for Harris's running mate in 2024 as her known frontrunner to be picked, and it was pretty widely accepted that this was because he planned to run in 2026 (albeit, expected to be against Tillis of course). How much he was the deciding factor in Brown going for Senate again instead of governor is also a question. And Mills/Maine is a total recruiting failure, as are him and Gillibrand leaning on Stevens/MI and Craig/MN, while not being able to stop Crockett nor support Talarico in TX (they wanted Allred). He maybe helped talk Jones into running again in AL, but failed to with Edwards in LA (and seemingly the same with Davids and KS). Seems like IA, NH, NE and FL have developed without DSCC at all too.
Edit: Remembered Jones is running for governor and not Senate, so also a failure lol
How are you figuring all those races had nothing to do with Schumer contacting the candidates behind the scenes? We don't know what did or didn't happen, I think.
⬆️"How are you figuring all those races had nothing to do with Schumer contacting the candidates behind the scenes?"
Where did you get that idea? It isn't whether Schumer contacted the preferred candidates behind the scenes - it's whether he actually influenced them to run.
⬆️"We don't know what did or didn't happen, I think."
I agree with you on this, but dragonfire5004 stated "The candidates were beyond obvious ... but he still got them to run".
We don't know what we don't know, and I think that even if candidates were leaning toward running, Schumer could have helped by putting them in touch with big donors, etc. I'm inclined to give him more credit for recruitment while still being really pissed off at some of what he's done as Leader and in his voting record.
Chuck Schumer turns 76 later this year. It's time to step aside and let someone younger to lead. Too many politicians are guilty of staying on for one term too many.
Yes because Ty Pinkins had previously been a candidate in two races back in 2023 and 2024. I am not sure why he decided to be an Independent this time around.
I think he saw Osborn's example and wanted to attempt the same thing, which I don't think is unfair. And it was surprising for the party to put so much investment in Colom.
The problem in that state is that white people are like 90-10 95-5 Republican voting there. There’s a large number of of black people to make our base pretty high, but you just said the problem we have there. It’s always closer, but it’s not a victory yet. There’s 50-53% of hard GOP voters who will always vote Republicans when they show up to vote. That’s where all of our candidates have failed. Getting to 45-47% is pretty easy with a decent candidate considering how red it is, but that last 3-5% is SO hard to overcome.
We’d be winning MS right now if white people were even only 20-30% Democratic voting. But with a 90-10 rural wipeout for the party, to actually win the race by getting that last 3-5% you need 3 things to simultaneously happen.
You need a slight shift of white voters who haven’t shifted in, oh, about 2-3 decades, of like a very small 5-10% gain (that’s all we can get for now imo, these states aren’t very elastic in the Deep South). You need rural voters to stay home in large numbers unexpectedly (see Roy Moore AL). Lastly you need black turnout to be back to 2008. Even a Libertarian on the ballot wouldn’t do it because of that rock solid GOP rural vote turnout machine.
Presley couldn’t win, Espy couldn’t win. Can Colom? Sure, but we need a perfect storm, which hasn’t happened in any MS Democratic election in the last 20 years. I hope it does happen for the state’s Democrats, just don’t bet on it coming true.
So to sum it all up: it’s VERY hard for Democrats to win MS. I’m not saying don’t try and fight, but just be realistic of how many things need to happen to put this seat as a Democratic victory.
This will be the first midterm under a GOP president where we will see the full effect of the parties double realignment where Trump picked up working class voters who will show up for him but aren't regular voters and the Democrats picking up college educated suburban voters who vote in every single election. Combine this with a blue leaning electorate and an unpopular war and struggling economy, the blue wave may actually be larger than most people see at this time.
Trump's approval rating sinks to lowest EVER as Americans turn on Iran war and skyrocketing gas prices
President Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to the lowest ever, with voters expressing displeasure with the war with Iran and the cost of living.
A new Daily Mail/JL Partners poll found that Trump's approval rating has slipped to 42 percent.
That is down from the 44 percent approval he received on March 3, just days into the Iran conflict. Trump held a 48 percent approval rating as recently as late January.
I am wondering about Iranian-American sentiment. I recall seeing reports that Iranian-Americans cheered the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but after that, I have doubts of the sentiment they originally exhibited has remained.
Here in the UK, the local émigré community is continuing to hold regular rallies against the regime, waving the pre 1979 flag and displaying photos of those massacred in the pre-war uprising. I'm pretty sure they support the US-Israeli war effort.
At the outset, the Daily Mail is probably the most right-wing widely-distributed tabloid in the UK. It seems to feature a continuing editorial campaign against all things Labour.
I wish he was the national party chair, but there's a lot to be done in WI. With court drawn maps all around, the state lege is finally up for grabs after the Walker-Fitzgerald-Vos days.
I don’t like the idea of party chairs running for major office in swing states. It’s very easy to polarize swing voters against you then. We have a decent bench in Wisconsin that we can avoid that.
I would prefer DNC Chairs to be more focused on building party apparatus, funding and supporting state parties with more traction. Basically improvement of things from a nuts and bolts + grassroots standpoint.
Who are you thinking? Josh Kaul would be solid and his decision not to run for governor this year makes me think it's Senate or nothing for him, but that's all I know. I'm not familiar with our bench in Wisconsin, but it's always struck me as surprising that in '22 and '18, there weren't any standout candidates for Senate and governor respectively. Even now, I'd say the field for governor is kind of weak, so I'd be interested in any names you could offer.
For any postcard writers out there interested in WI Supreme Court race:
Postcards to Voters (https://postcardstovoters.org/) still has addressed for Judge Chris Taylor in the WI race. (Their other campaign is for Shawn Harris in the runoff for the GA special election). NOTE: They always use a mail by date of 3 days from when you download the addresses (but no later than a week before the election).
Activate America (www.activateamerica.vote) still has names & addresses for the WI Supreme Court race (mail ASAP but the last date to mail these postcards is March 28th). [They also have campaigns to Flip CA-48 (currently Rep. Issa's district; last mail date March 30), vote YES for VA redistricting (last mail date April 8th) and OH primary for newly registered voters (last mail date April 20).]
South Australia had their state election yesterday, and as expected Labor has won in a rout, with One Nation and the Australian Liberals dividing the right. Of 47 seats in the Assembly, Labor has won 32, the Liberals are on 4, with one independent and 10 seats still TBD. Looks like One Nation may win a few rural seats. In the Legislative Council (Senate equivalent), 11 seats of 22 were up, with Labor winning 4 so far, Liberals and One Nation with 2 each, 1 Green, and 2 TBD.
It's similar to the ranked choice voting in places like Maine and Alaska. Voters rank their choices from 1 to x on the ballot and their votes get transferred based on their preferences as lower performing candidates are eliminated. The South Australian Liberals did a daft thing and told their voters to preference One Nation ahead of Labor, with no offer of reciprocity from One Nation, so they ended up getting screwed both coming and going.
One Nation does have some fiscally left position and I can definitely see some traditional Labor voters vote for ON based on social issues (especially immigration) but rank Labor above the Liberals
Continuing with this thread rather than start a new one. As of now, Labor still at 32, Liberals still at 4, One Nation officially has 1, and 1 Independent. 9 seats in doubt. Labor leads in 1, Liberals in 3, Independents in 3, and One Nation in 3. The LC is still showing Labor winning 4 seats, Liberals 2, One Nation 2 (with a third likely), Greens 1, and 1 in doubt.
The Liberals have almost been wiped out in Adelaide with Labor taking 4 Liberal seats. Liberals officially have 1 seat in Adelaide and are clinging to an 8 vote lead in another Adelaide seat. Here is an interactive map of the South Australia results: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-21/mapping-seats-sa-election/106477958
This article on the results discusses the historical success of One Nation with this result being their best statewide primary vote since Queensland in 1998. This one also mentions how in 1998 the Liberals lost the Queensland state election after preferencing One Nation above Labor. Four months later in the federal election, PM John Howard preferenced One Nation below Labor and he ended up winning. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-22/one-nation-analysis/106483618
NM-Gov: Republican state Sen. Steve Lanier has been disqualified. The remaining candidates are businessmen Duke Rodriguez and Doug Turner as well as Rio Rancho mayor Gregg Hull, who has been speculated to drop out.
Rodriguez appears to be the frontrunner, and he has an endorsement from former Gov. Gary Johnson.
NJ-4: Rep. Chris Smith, the second longest-serving member of the House, has a little over 2 days to file for re-election. Most incumbents filed on Friday. He hasn't - his former opponent says he doesn't have the signatures and that his team is scrambling.
Unfortunately even if Smith somehow screws this up, there is another Republican on the ballot so this would just lead to a new Republican congressperson (the district was won by Trump by 30 points in 2024, 23 points in 2020, and 28 points in 2016, we're not flipping it even in a wave).
Yeah his district served as the Republican vote sink in the last redistricting (yes it was an independent commission but they adopted the Democratic plan)
He has no chance in that district unfortunately. The only hope for Missouri at this point is a successful gerrymander veto referendum. I doubt the courts will do much to stop the map at this point.
Trump won it by more than 20 points in 2024. Any district or state where trump got at least 60% of the vote will be almost impossible for a dem to win.
Yes, but republicans here are ignoring precedent. There’s a case in court right now to determine if the map should be put on hold. But the judge has been taking his sweet time.
Still WISC for the next 2.5 weeks. We have a couple flip opportunities in special elections next week, but Wisconsin is the big one.
John Fetterman's had a 108 pt drop in his net approval with PA Dems since 2023.
His net rating is -40 pt net approval with them.
https://x.com/forecasterenten/status/2035044129135112219?s=46&t=sbdQQeYBqp0h_Zql717iTw
That sounds mathematically impossible until you remember that +100% to -100% are 200 points away from each other.
At -40, his approval is 60 points too high.
I think the man is battling severe depression. He may have considered resigning right after he won the election. I wonder if he felt some sort of obligation to at least show up some of the time. I don't know exactly what he is going through, but he doesn't have any fight in him, and he still struggles remembering words. I know he is making terrible decisions, but I am not sure his brain is functioning fully. I am not saying that to be snarky. Someone should offer the guy a job in a non-controversial cause that he believes in and maybe he would resign with Shapiro appointing his replacement.
He and Shapiro despise each other, which is (at least in part) why Fetterman won't step down.
Why don't relevant people that they both respect put together a list of names that they both find respectable? I honestly think something happened to John Fetterman and he shouldn't be blamed for all of this. Yes, some of it. I say that even though a Democrat that votes with their caucus as often as he does is probably where the average PA voter is. I think he seems extremely sad about life in general, though. He wasn't hated by progressives during his time as LG. that I am aware of. He is having a mental health issue.
I’m one of those Democrats who believes while I don’t want Fetterman to be Senator, I think he could have an opportunity to get a beefier salary and a more comfortable career trajectory either in lobbying, a think tank or somewhere else. If he’s unseated in the primary and decides to go in this direction, I would support that out of empathy.
Yeah, I understand that he is casting votes that absolutely horrify many people, and I understand their anger. I am a split ticket voter in the name of full disclosure, so his votes or statements don't bother me most of the time. I am surprised that he hasn't reached out to someone and said get me out of here, please.
He could switch, but he wouldn't be embraced by the GOP, either. If he started voting party line for the Dems he wouldn't feel good about that. I haven't followed vote by vote closely enough, is Dave McCormick breaking with the GOP on some stuff.? I assume he has to throw a bone to Dems every once in a while.
How likely is it that the GOP works hard to get Fetterman to switch parties? They have to be slightly worried about their senate majority. I have no idea if Fetterman would, but I really don't recognize what he has turned into.
Honestly if Dems manage to flip 4 Senate seats in November (inshallah), I think they'll try very hard. Of course we can do the same with Murkowski.
https://yt3.ggpht.com/YgRktlUa1x-GGmwfXvRihOoF1FxYoKe-_LliHWgJJjeBoureU0FA9dNbbQG6iLI42S2LLT05dcKwDw=s959-rw-nd-v1
IL-Sen: Democratic primary results by Chicago wards - Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi finished last, despite winning more wards than Rep. Robin Kelly, who won none. (Kelly represents many wards on the southeast side of the city, while Krishnamoorthi represents part of ward 41, based in the O'Hare neighborhood mostly absorbed by the airport).
That race turned out to be a complete replica of what happened in MD-Sen 2024 Democratic primary. The rich Democratic man had the entire campaign to raise and spend nearly unlimited dollars and was ahead in the polls at first, but reached a plateau in support that never moved up. He ad the airwaves to himself and built up a big lead. The other candidate was patient, started to suck up all the local party elected endorsements and started to gain some ground as voters started moving from undecided to their candidate of choice.
She only really ran her campaign in the media for the last couple months because she couldn’t compete financially with her opponent well before voting started. She trained her fire to blitz the state just before the primary voting started when the most Democratic voters would start paying attention and had late momentum that ended up with her winning the primary with a larger than expected voting margin.
Carbon copy really, of now Senator Angela Alsobrooks campaign strategy.
And now the rich Democratic man in MD is trying the same strategy again for a House seat against a woman who again has most/all the state and local party elected endorsements. A key difference being that this time his female opponent is an incumbent even if he's subconsciously trying to deny it.
This means we will after November have three black women Senators:
Angela Alsobrooks
Juliana Stratton
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Would this be the most black women Senators we’ve had in history?
Yes. I don't think we've had more than one simultaneously prior to last year.
Anything even remotely approaching gender parity is a 21st century phenomenon. 1992 was dubbed "The Year of the Woman" because the number of women in the Senate went from 2 to 6. Likewise, every female Senator was either the wife or daughter of a male Senator until 1980. (Last sentence is wrong, see below.)
Gladys Pyle had already been elected on her own in the brief 1938 special, and same with Hazel Abel in the brief 1954 special. Other appointees like the first woman (for one day) Rebecca Felton and Eva Bowring were also not children or widows of senators. More prominently, Margaret Chase Smith succeeded her husband in the House in 1940 but had been elected to the Senate in her own right in 1948. And Nancy Kassebaum was the daughter of Alf Landon, the 1938 Repub nominee for POTUS and Kansas governor from 1933–1937, but she was elected over 40yrs later in 1978.
You're right. Not sure where I got that factoid, but it's wrong.
It's very caveated on Hawkins's own page. She was the first woman without a relative as a "prominent politician" to be ~~elected~~ to serve a ~~full~~ term.
There have only been 4 black women Senators total up until now, and it was only when Alsobrooks and Rochester were elected that we had two in the Senate at the same time, so yes this is significant for representation.
Four elected (Moseley Braun, Harris, Alsobrooks, Blunt Rochester) and one appointed (Butler).
Oh right I was just thinking of elected.
The LA metro board planning and programming committee caved to nimbys on approval of the K line northern extension. This line would run from Torrence and currently stops at LAX. The proposal would extend northbound through Mid City, Beverly Center, West Hollywood's Sunset Strip, Hollywood, ending at Hollywood Bowl.
While LA has drastically improved transit the last couple decades, connections are downtown. The K line extension, in addition to a N S line along the 405 will provide connections to existing E W lines.
It's rumored that Karen Bass is lukewarm on the extension and she controls 4 slots on the board. We'll find out next week when the full board considers the non recommendation from planning. This could become an issue in the mayor's race.
https://la.streetsblog.org/2026/03/18/metro-committee-again-sides-with-nimbys-postpones-key-north-k-line-rail-decision
LA sure is a mess of a city to run from an institutional standpoint. I don’t envy anyone who is working to keep the city running, especially Mayor Karen Bass.
That said, last I checked there are a lot of single-family homes in the city and within LA County along with multi-family units as well as apartments. Can’t comment on the affordable housing situation but getting change from a public transit improvement standpoint sure seems to be a pain.
In the Bay Area, where I live, at least BART has been able to extend well throughout the Bay Area and even outward a bit along with SF Muni getting extensions covering more of the city in the last 20 years.
Actually, the public transit in LA in the last 40 years has gone from truly awful to fairly functional. One fact outside LA that most people don't grasp is that the LA/Long Beach/Anaheim statistical metropolitan area is the most densely populated one in the United States. More densely populated than NY/NJ's or SF/Oakland's.
Within the LA basin, transit options are decent and getting better. The further out you get, the worse it is, but that's true in every US city I'm aware of. The biggest hole currently in service is N/S in the mid city area and west side, both very densely populated areas. You have to use buses or connect downtown.
I use LA transit frequently, and I can't remember the last time I drove into LA proper. I'm generally happy with it's transit but support improvements and expansion, particularly the K line expansion, which will be subway.
Sounds like LA has a better public transit system than what exists in the Bay Area even while expanding it in this sense is challenging. I will have to try it out whenever I get to the point of making a visit to LA.
BART connects most of the Bay Area with the exception of Marin County, half of the Peninsula and South Bay but the system has been inundated with funding needs and system brake downs for decades with no formula apparently besides more funding and higher fees.
Frankly, I think public transit agencies should get off their high horse and start lowering ticket fees if they have problems with drops in ridership. I just don’t understand how they expect to make up for revenue shortfalls by charging more for less riders. It’s reverse logic.
Metrolink recently dropped fares by offering a day pass for $15 system wide, half fare for seniors or disabled. Most SoCal transit agencies accept the Metrolink pass for free transit. Until recently I've been paying $10 from Tustin, so now it'll be $7.50 RT. On weekends the day pass is $10 or $5 for seniors. The Metrolink service on weekends is limited and it doesn't run really late at night.
I worked in SF a lot in the 1980s and used transit extensively. At that time it was far superior to what LA had, but that's changed. I haven't been up there in years. Since becoming disabled, San Francisco's hills have become frightening.
To top it all off, remember the Summer 2028 Olympics are coming to LA. It's gonna be a massive boondoggle and I imagine there's gonna be many logistical hurdles, setbacks and backroom deals. Whoever wins the mayoral race in 2026 will have the looming Olympics to deal with, which is always it's own double edged sword.
Oh yes, it’s going to be a logistics nightmare in 2028.
Public transit isn’t going to be the problem with the Olympics so much as those who drive in and around though LA at the time which the events happen. Tourists ought not to get car rentals during this time because it’s going to be hell with the commute.
"Bluer areas of Virginia are picking-up voting: As of Monday, votes cast in the 5-GOP held districts were 60% of all votes cast so far (vs 40% in 6 Dem-held districts). As of today, gap shrunk to 55% to 45%"
https://x.com/Taniel/status/2035052209713328159
Dems seem to be picking up at a decent pace in Virginia and the satellite EV sites haven't even opened up in most of the blue counties. I think they close strong and have a real chance at winning this by at least double digits.
⬆️"Dems seem to be picking up at a decent pace in Virginia and the satellite EV sites haven't even opened up in most of the blue counties."
I have been writing postcards to vote YES on VA redistricting. Names & addresses are still available at www.activateamerica.vote.
There are also a bunch of phone banks between now and election day. Jessica Craven (Chop Wood Carry Water) was promoting one from MoveOn on Monday evenings. www.mobilize.us/moveon/event/796084/
Center for Common Ground focusses on Black and minority voters and is hosting phonebanks that include training & support on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Experienced phone bankers can also watch a video and do it on your own time. IIRC, you are allowed to leave messages for these calls. (www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/903710/)
There are other phone banks sponsored by other groups. You can search for them using this Mobilize query: www.mobilize.us/?event_type=2&is_virtual=true&q=Redistricting
CO-04:
Boebert is against the Iran War funding, citing concerns over not enough attention being paid to her constituents' real issues of affordability and other matters domestically at home.
She could be the next MTG at this point.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5792922-lauren-boebert-iran-war-funding-request-trump-hegseth/
Yup, this is why Boebert’s district was left alone in CO redraw ballot amendment hypothetical new maps. She’s a loose cannon that sometimes decides to fire on her own party and is useful to us even if she votes Trump/GOP on most legislation. Obviously I’d prefer a Democrat run and beat her this year or if there ends up not being a redraw in the future, but if she’s the lone Republican of Colorado left standing in a new map, it’s the next best thing for Democrats regarding her district.
Indeed Boebert is a loose cannon. How long she will be able to sustain doing this without ending up with the same fate as MTG remains to be seen.
Her district would be the perfect spot for a GOP vote sink in a 7-1 Gerrymander favoring the Democrats. I also suspect that she is aware that Trump's war in Iran will not be popular in her district. A disproportionate number of casualties in a possible ground war come from rural areas of the country like CO-4, but people who live in rural areas will be hit much harder by increases in gas and energy prices than urban people because they tend to drive many more miles per year than urban people and are much more sensitive to gas prices.
Notably, CO filing deadline just passed and she avoided a major primary challenge this year.
Trump vetoed the bill with water infrastructure stuff for her district because she was part of the Epstein file release crowd. So now she's firing back.
Oh man. It’s definitely on!
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna could be next.
Why that fraud, Luna?
Luna’s close to being aligned with MTG and Lauren Boebert although I don’t think she’s officially said she’s supported QaNon. She’s just strange like they are and I don’t mean this in a good way.
And if you say Luna is a fraud, her making enemies with Trump helps Democrats even more. Last I checked she represents a Lean GOP, right after Charlie Crist did.
She is a very big fraud. You forget: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/anna-paulina-luna-jewish-grandfather-nazi "While Claiming Jewish Heritage, Anna Paulina Luna Forgot to Mention Her Nazi Grandfather". And it goes on from there. More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Paulina_Luna in the "Early life and family" and "Military service, education, and early career" sections.
Ahhh yes, I remember reading this. She’s phony indeed.
But at this point, all I care about is flipping her seat.
APL is also obsessed with conspiracy theories especially UFOs
Probably Trump nuking the previously uncontroversial water bill for her district.
He sure seems to be unrelenting in making enemies within the GOP.
Not like this is a new thing.
One theory is that he targeted Boebert because she signed the Epstein discharge petition, but I personally think that it's more likely he just wanted to hurt Colorado (perhaps because of that election clerk they convicted) and didn't think about the fact that there are Republicans in Blue States.
A state judge on Friday ordered a new, toned-down description of the redistricting plan after Missouri’s Republican secretary of state acknowledged that he had crafted an unfair summary likely to create bias for the new districts by describing the old ones as “gerrymandered.”
https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-gerrymandering-congress-missouri-trump-73ed894ef4201f1c21c1ee36ee57d29f#
So what, a red-leaning swing district that Cleaver could possibly win in a wave year, like the situation regarding Marcy Kaptur's re-election?
No, the map is the same one they’ve already passed into law, it hasn’t changed, but the amendment to repeal the redraw is getting a new summary closer to an actual description summary of what people are voting for. I don’t trust Republicans to produce fair language, so it’ll be biased to them, but it won’t be as egregious as saying they’ve replaced an old gerrymandered map so vote no on repeal.
Good news, though this won’t happen before the midterms, but I’m glad other Democrats are catching on. Rebecca Katz neatly sums up my feelings. Schumer’s good at recruitment, terrible at everything else, I’m grateful for how much that’s contributed to a majority, but he hasn’t changed with the political times and needs to step aside. Though I don’t know if Schatz would even be an improvement given the votes he’s taken, so hopefully it’ll be someone else.
https://x.com/TimJHanrahan/status/2035160573906760064
New in
@WSJ
just now:
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are discussing how to get New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to step aside as Senate minority leader amid concerns about his negotiating style and midterms strategy.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/chuck-schumer-democrat-leadership-replacement-talks-666f1d75
https://archive.ph/yHvWt
Schumer began his rise to the top of the party when then Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, picked him to lead the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. Schumer recruited centrists and flipped the Senate in 2006, laying the groundwork for the majority that passed the 2010 Affordable Care Act—a signature achievement.
“We would not have won back the Senate without Chuck Schumer,” said Rebecca Katz, a former Reid aide who is a partner at Fight Agency, a political consulting firm that represents antiestablishment candidates. “A lot has changed in the last 20 years. I’m not convinced Chuck Schumer has changed with it.”
I wonder how good Schumer still is at recruitment. I feel the highs are very high this cycle -- Peltola as the best example, but we also have Brown and Cooper running and I think he had at least a hand to play for those two as well. But the lows feel comparably low themselves: Stevens, Craig, and Mills, are not impressing me at all even ignoring ideology.
Schumer has one playbook with recruitment these days I'm not sure if he has his finger on the pulse of politics well enough to know when "current or former moderate governor or member of the house" is appropriate and when they're not as strong as they appear at first glance.
Durbin and Schumer repeated our Pelosi and Stoyer problem of staying around too long and being age cohorts. There's no obvious successor to Schumer. I guess Schatz is the most likely person, but he's not a lock. Klubuchar is running for governor, so she's out. Booker and Murphy could make credible runs but as far as I know haven't laid the groundwork the way Schatz has.
I'll take just about anyone over Schumer at this stage. He makes me think of Germany's Scholz. He simply is not the right person for this moment. Schumer would have been a solid party leader during the Obama era, but not today.
The one thing I will say in defense of him is that his candidates in blue states are very meh, but the states where candidate quality makes the difference between a win and a loss and is far less of a foregone conclusion, he hit a home run with, in the states where we needed it most.
The candidates were beyond obvious to any Democratic supporter for those races (AK, OH, NC), but he still got them to run. Brown running 3 campaigns in 6 years. Peltola running for a much harder Senate race over a glide path to the Governors office. Cooper who stated he hated the Senate and had no interest in running for a decade to finally decide to jump in.
These are all impressive recruits who had a ton of other options for their future careers that he had a hand in getting, if not, was the main reason they ran. But as far as handling the caucus after he’s elected leader, it’s like a F- grade of a leader who has no clue what Democrats actually want in response to Trump 2.
He’s just doing exactly what got us to and what we in general wanted in the 1st Trump midterms. The problem is he doesn’t realize that Democrats don’t want 2018 anymore trying to elect problem solvers. We want the biggest and best fighters who will say no and stand with a backbone against enormous pressure to oppose the entire GOP’s agenda, tooth and nail, plank by plank.
Recruiting Mills, Craig and Stevens to run is how it used to be in Democratic primaries and is a tactic that belongs almost exclusively to nearly a decade ago. “It used to work before so it’ll still work today” magical thinking, stuck in the past. There’s no refresh, there’s no messaging change, there’s no change in how elected Democrats are voting with a GOP trifecta compared to what it was like back then.
That’s where the friction and revolt from our party supporters comes from. It’s just more of the same that we’ve done for the last 20 years, acting as if politics is still normal.
⬆️"The candidates were beyond obvious to any Democratic supporter for those races (AK, OH, NC), but he still got them to run."
I would agree that those are the best candidates for those states, but I'm not sure how much Chuck Schumer had to do with it. Do you have any facts to back up your assertion that Schumer was the catalyst?
I agree with most of that, but when you bring up Pelosi, you're bringing up a far superior leader.
Did Pelosi ever call for a House vote that she lost?
I don't remember that ever happening.
Pelosi was absolutely a far better leader than Schumer. It isn't even a contest. Not just in her ability to get things done as a leader, but also in her ability to lead her caucus to get the right things done. She's overwhelmingly superior at both.
Doesn't change that her and Stoyer made the same mistake that Schumer and Durbin did, of sticking around too long while being of the same age cohort and thus leaving us without an obvious successor. It's not exactly a huge mistake but it is one all the same.
"Stoyer" = Steny Hoyer?
Yes
... Oops. I honestly have no idea why I kept getting his name wrong like that. Yes, Steny Hoyer. Thanks for pointing that out!
Peltola very clearly was done after conversations with Schumer, but I think Cooper pretty plainly had nothing to do with Schumer. He pulled himself out of the selection process for Harris's running mate in 2024 as her known frontrunner to be picked, and it was pretty widely accepted that this was because he planned to run in 2026 (albeit, expected to be against Tillis of course). How much he was the deciding factor in Brown going for Senate again instead of governor is also a question. And Mills/Maine is a total recruiting failure, as are him and Gillibrand leaning on Stevens/MI and Craig/MN, while not being able to stop Crockett nor support Talarico in TX (they wanted Allred). He maybe helped talk Jones into running again in AL, but failed to with Edwards in LA (and seemingly the same with Davids and KS). Seems like IA, NH, NE and FL have developed without DSCC at all too.
Edit: Remembered Jones is running for governor and not Senate, so also a failure lol
How are you figuring all those races had nothing to do with Schumer contacting the candidates behind the scenes? We don't know what did or didn't happen, I think.
⬆️"How are you figuring all those races had nothing to do with Schumer contacting the candidates behind the scenes?"
Where did you get that idea? It isn't whether Schumer contacted the preferred candidates behind the scenes - it's whether he actually influenced them to run.
⬆️"We don't know what did or didn't happen, I think."
I agree with you on this, but dragonfire5004 stated "The candidates were beyond obvious ... but he still got them to run".
I think that is where the pushback comes from.
We don't know what we don't know, and I think that even if candidates were leaning toward running, Schumer could have helped by putting them in touch with big donors, etc. I'm inclined to give him more credit for recruitment while still being really pissed off at some of what he's done as Leader and in his voting record.
Chuck Schumer turns 76 later this year. It's time to step aside and let someone younger to lead. Too many politicians are guilty of staying on for one term too many.
Primary turnout is really good for Democrats compared to the last midterm and even the last presidential election in some red states.
https://x.com/Alex_Roarty/status/2035044495260352899
To give you a perspective on how big the turnout jumps have been in just Senate Dem primaries, in terms of percentage increase:
Illinois '22 ----> Illinois '26: 49% increase
North Carolina '22 ----> North Carolina '26: 34% increase
Mississippi '24 ----> Mississippi '26: 90% increase
Texas '24 ----> Texas '26: 137% increase
Some of this is because of differences in candidates, especially in Texas. But the sent here is broad and strong
https://www.notus.org/2026-election/democratic-primary-turnout-surge-midterm-hopes
‘Rage Turnout’ Ahead? Democrats Are Hopeful their Primary Bump Fuels Midterms
Democrats have seen a turnout surge in multiple Democratic primaries this year.
I’d sure like to see Scott Colom or Ty Pinkins (formerly a Democrat now an Independent) unseat Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith with this kind of turnout.
Difficult with both of them in the race, though.
Yes because Ty Pinkins had previously been a candidate in two races back in 2023 and 2024. I am not sure why he decided to be an Independent this time around.
I think he saw Osborn's example and wanted to attempt the same thing, which I don't think is unfair. And it was surprising for the party to put so much investment in Colom.
Possibly but Mike Espy also made his original Senate run against Cindy Hyde Smith closer than expected.
The problem in that state is that white people are like 90-10 95-5 Republican voting there. There’s a large number of of black people to make our base pretty high, but you just said the problem we have there. It’s always closer, but it’s not a victory yet. There’s 50-53% of hard GOP voters who will always vote Republicans when they show up to vote. That’s where all of our candidates have failed. Getting to 45-47% is pretty easy with a decent candidate considering how red it is, but that last 3-5% is SO hard to overcome.
We’d be winning MS right now if white people were even only 20-30% Democratic voting. But with a 90-10 rural wipeout for the party, to actually win the race by getting that last 3-5% you need 3 things to simultaneously happen.
You need a slight shift of white voters who haven’t shifted in, oh, about 2-3 decades, of like a very small 5-10% gain (that’s all we can get for now imo, these states aren’t very elastic in the Deep South). You need rural voters to stay home in large numbers unexpectedly (see Roy Moore AL). Lastly you need black turnout to be back to 2008. Even a Libertarian on the ballot wouldn’t do it because of that rock solid GOP rural vote turnout machine.
Presley couldn’t win, Espy couldn’t win. Can Colom? Sure, but we need a perfect storm, which hasn’t happened in any MS Democratic election in the last 20 years. I hope it does happen for the state’s Democrats, just don’t bet on it coming true.
So to sum it all up: it’s VERY hard for Democrats to win MS. I’m not saying don’t try and fight, but just be realistic of how many things need to happen to put this seat as a Democratic victory.
The sent?
This will be the first midterm under a GOP president where we will see the full effect of the parties double realignment where Trump picked up working class voters who will show up for him but aren't regular voters and the Democrats picking up college educated suburban voters who vote in every single election. Combine this with a blue leaning electorate and an unpopular war and struggling economy, the blue wave may actually be larger than most people see at this time.
💯 agree with this. I don’t think most realize what’s exactly coming. It’s going to be bigger than anything we’ve seen in recent history.
Wow. Look at the source.
https://x.com/DailyMail/status/2035057936746033566
Trump's approval rating sinks to lowest EVER as Americans turn on Iran war and skyrocketing gas prices
President Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to the lowest ever, with voters expressing displeasure with the war with Iran and the cost of living.
A new Daily Mail/JL Partners poll found that Trump's approval rating has slipped to 42 percent.
That is down from the 44 percent approval he received on March 3, just days into the Iran conflict. Trump held a 48 percent approval rating as recently as late January.
I am wondering about Iranian-American sentiment. I recall seeing reports that Iranian-Americans cheered the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but after that, I have doubts of the sentiment they originally exhibited has remained.
Here in the UK, the local émigré community is continuing to hold regular rallies against the regime, waving the pre 1979 flag and displaying photos of those massacred in the pre-war uprising. I'm pretty sure they support the US-Israeli war effort.
The Iranians I know in SoCal hate both the current regime in Iran and the current regime in the US.
That’s a pretty internally fair and consistent take in all honesty
Hmmm. Interesting.
Why is the Daily Mail noteworthy as a source?
At the outset, the Daily Mail is probably the most right-wing widely-distributed tabloid in the UK. It seems to feature a continuing editorial campaign against all things Labour.
I see. But aren't even a lot of Conservatives anti-Trump, however disgustingly their government acts as his lapdog?
Probably, but my grasp of UK politics is very limited.
Not the Daily Mail.
Daily Mail I have observed is filled with a lot of junk stores, speculation and tabloids.
Being that I have a life and like to enjoy it, I skip publications like Daily Mail. Just saying.
The Daily Fail, and its owner Lord Rothermere, were big fans of Hitler in the 1930s. It hasn’t changed all that much since then,
I like Daily Fail. I would love to see the name change. ;)
Without Wikler. I like it.
https://x.com/devinremikerwi/status/2035151411147583735
Wisconsin State Party Feb Fundraising
Total Receipts
🔵 WisDems: $1,515,042
🔴 WisGOP: $167,242
Total w/o Non-Federal Transfers
🔵 WisDems: $525,846
🔴 WisGOP: $83,316
Last fed filing ahead of the 4/7 WI Supreme Court election. Next state filing due on 3/30.
Wow. WI Democrats are killing it.
Not even Scott Walker and Charles Koch can save the GOP at this point.
I wish he was the national party chair, but there's a lot to be done in WI. With court drawn maps all around, the state lege is finally up for grabs after the Walker-Fitzgerald-Vos days.
Ken Martin has been fine anwyaws. I hope Wikler runs against Johnson in 2028
I don’t like the idea of party chairs running for major office in swing states. It’s very easy to polarize swing voters against you then. We have a decent bench in Wisconsin that we can avoid that.
I would prefer DNC Chairs to be more focused on building party apparatus, funding and supporting state parties with more traction. Basically improvement of things from a nuts and bolts + grassroots standpoint.
Who are you thinking? Josh Kaul would be solid and his decision not to run for governor this year makes me think it's Senate or nothing for him, but that's all I know. I'm not familiar with our bench in Wisconsin, but it's always struck me as surprising that in '22 and '18, there weren't any standout candidates for Senate and governor respectively. Even now, I'd say the field for governor is kind of weak, so I'd be interested in any names you could offer.
For any postcard writers out there interested in WI Supreme Court race:
Postcards to Voters (https://postcardstovoters.org/) still has addressed for Judge Chris Taylor in the WI race. (Their other campaign is for Shawn Harris in the runoff for the GA special election). NOTE: They always use a mail by date of 3 days from when you download the addresses (but no later than a week before the election).
Activate America (www.activateamerica.vote) still has names & addresses for the WI Supreme Court race (mail ASAP but the last date to mail these postcards is March 28th). [They also have campaigns to Flip CA-48 (currently Rep. Issa's district; last mail date March 30), vote YES for VA redistricting (last mail date April 8th) and OH primary for newly registered voters (last mail date April 20).]
Great song choice this week
South Australia had their state election yesterday, and as expected Labor has won in a rout, with One Nation and the Australian Liberals dividing the right. Of 47 seats in the Assembly, Labor has won 32, the Liberals are on 4, with one independent and 10 seats still TBD. Looks like One Nation may win a few rural seats. In the Legislative Council (Senate equivalent), 11 seats of 22 were up, with Labor winning 4 so far, Liberals and One Nation with 2 each, 1 Green, and 2 TBD.
Tracker here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/sa/2026/results?sortBy=latest&filter=all&selectedRegion=all&selectedParty=all&partyWonBy=all&partyHeldBy=all
Though with transferable vote, the right being divided is not decisive. It's more that the Australian Labour Party is really popular right now.
What is transferable vote, and how does it work?
It's similar to the ranked choice voting in places like Maine and Alaska. Voters rank their choices from 1 to x on the ballot and their votes get transferred based on their preferences as lower performing candidates are eliminated. The South Australian Liberals did a daft thing and told their voters to preference One Nation ahead of Labor, with no offer of reciprocity from One Nation, so they ended up getting screwed both coming and going.
I'm a bit confused as to what type of One Nation voter would preference Labour over Liberal
One Nation does have some fiscally left position and I can definitely see some traditional Labor voters vote for ON based on social issues (especially immigration) but rank Labor above the Liberals
It was basically Labor/green 50% Liberal/One nation 41%
Continuing with this thread rather than start a new one. As of now, Labor still at 32, Liberals still at 4, One Nation officially has 1, and 1 Independent. 9 seats in doubt. Labor leads in 1, Liberals in 3, Independents in 3, and One Nation in 3. The LC is still showing Labor winning 4 seats, Liberals 2, One Nation 2 (with a third likely), Greens 1, and 1 in doubt.
The Liberals have almost been wiped out in Adelaide with Labor taking 4 Liberal seats. Liberals officially have 1 seat in Adelaide and are clinging to an 8 vote lead in another Adelaide seat. Here is an interactive map of the South Australia results: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-21/mapping-seats-sa-election/106477958
This article on the results discusses the historical success of One Nation with this result being their best statewide primary vote since Queensland in 1998. This one also mentions how in 1998 the Liberals lost the Queensland state election after preferencing One Nation above Labor. Four months later in the federal election, PM John Howard preferenced One Nation below Labor and he ended up winning. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-22/one-nation-analysis/106483618
https://sourcenm.com/briefs/secretary-of-state-disqualifies-republican-gubernatorial-candidate-lanier-from-june-ballot/
NM-Gov: Republican state Sen. Steve Lanier has been disqualified. The remaining candidates are businessmen Duke Rodriguez and Doug Turner as well as Rio Rancho mayor Gregg Hull, who has been speculated to drop out.
Rodriguez appears to be the frontrunner, and he has an endorsement from former Gov. Gary Johnson.
NM GOP really is inept these days.
https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/chris-smith-has-just-hours-left-to-submit-petition-for-re-election-in-new-jersey-cd-4-congressional-race/
NJ-4: Rep. Chris Smith, the second longest-serving member of the House, has a little over 2 days to file for re-election. Most incumbents filed on Friday. He hasn't - his former opponent says he doesn't have the signatures and that his team is scrambling.
(R)
Unfortunately even if Smith somehow screws this up, there is another Republican on the ballot so this would just lead to a new Republican congressperson (the district was won by Trump by 30 points in 2024, 23 points in 2020, and 28 points in 2016, we're not flipping it even in a wave).
He could always have a local elected file and do the Issa-Daines-Garcia strategy
Yeah this seat isn't flipping. Van Drew could go down in a wave, but Smith or any successor isn't.
If Van Drew goes down in a wave, I’d prefer him go over Smith, who never joined the GOP after being a Democrat name-in-only.
Yeah his district served as the Republican vote sink in the last redistricting (yes it was an independent commission but they adopted the Democratic plan)
https://fox4kc.com/politics/your-local-election-headquarters/will-he-run-mayor-lucas-weighs-high-stakes-congressional-run/
MO-4: Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas is expected to challenge Republican Rep. Mark Alford under the new map.
He has no chance in that district unfortunately. The only hope for Missouri at this point is a successful gerrymander veto referendum. I doubt the courts will do much to stop the map at this point.
Just how bad is that district?
Trump won it by more than 20 points in 2024. Any district or state where trump got at least 60% of the vote will be almost impossible for a dem to win.
The bottom would have to drop out completely for them like it did in some special elections.
Apologies if I missed, but isn’t there some precedent where the new map gets put on hold if a referendum is taking place?
Yes, but republicans here are ignoring precedent. There’s a case in court right now to determine if the map should be put on hold. But the judge has been taking his sweet time.