Let’s try something a little different in this week’s open thread. I’d like to open the floor to ask: When (and how) did you first become a reader of The Downballot (or its predecessors, Daily Kos Elections and Swing State Project)?
For me, I became a daily SSP reader during its extensive coverage of the OH-02 special election in the summer of 2005, when Democrats nearly stole a dark red district from a complacent and unpopular GOP. How about you?
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Got into dailykos in 2005, found my way to SSP in 2006, in the leadup to one of the most incredible 2-election runs Democrats have had. Then back to DKE when the time came. I've appreciated the wealth of knowledge from site contributors, and community members in the comments, from big statewide elections, down to granular state legislative and even municipal races. In my earlier years I definitely had that "young person wants to argue with people on the internet" phase, but as time went on, I came to care more about increasing my own understanding than being right. Sometimes, the more you learn, the more you sense the enormity of what is not known. The past decade has challenged everything I thought I knew about elections, and the internet is awash in hot takes, disingenuous punditry, and misinformation. The Downballot has been a real anchor in all this, helped to improve my analysis, and make sense of what the results are telling us. And just maybe, get a sense of where we're going.
I'm the longest-time member so far. I came across Swing State Project on Daily Kos during the John Kerry campaign, when it was an attempt to find states that might swing to Kerry (none of them did). I started following SSP regularly and posting when it was an independent blog during the runup to the 2006 midterm elections. Maybe we should bring back linking to the video of "Another one bites the dust" every time a Democrat flips a seat this year.