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Midterms: Worse For Dems Than Thought

Mike

Well-known member
By now, you are probably aware that Democrats got crushed in last night's midterm elections. As expected, ​Republicans won back control of the Senate, pulling through in nearly every tight race across the country, including swing states like Colorado, Iowa, and North Carolina, and expanded their majority in the House of Representatives. Any doubt as to whether this year's midterms would be a "wave" election for the GOP came crashing down around midnight, when it became clear that Democrats were going to fare even worse in 2014 than they did in the Tea Party storm surge of 2010.

It was even worse in the states, where the GOP won key governor's posts and expanded on legislative majorities the party has been building since 2010. Incumbent Republican governors pulled through in virtually every contested race (with the exception of Pennsylvania), beating back aggressive Democratic challenges in key swing states like Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The GOP even pulled off upsets in Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts—deep blue states where the GOP has no business winning. After last night, Republicans control 31 of 50 governor's positions in the country, as well as 64 out of 98 state legislative chambers—an unprecedented number not seen since the Great Depression.

On Wednesday, the finger pointing had already begun, with most of the blame falling squarely on President Barack Obama and the White House. That makes sense. Republicans had always tried to make the 2014 midterms a referendum on the president, and in the end, they succeeded. The administration did little to counter the GOP's narrative, ricocheting from crisis to crisis—the botched Obamacare website, the VA scandal, the border crisis, ISIS, Ebola—while Obama's approval ratings sunk lower and lower.

"The White House failed to define any agenda for voters in 2014," the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a leading liberal group, said in a statement after the election. ""Elizabeth Warren was the most popular campaigner in 2014 for a reason: Her clear economic-populist message of reforming Wall Street, reducing student debt, and expanding Social Security benefits is popular everywhere. Red, purple, and blue states."

Even Obama seemed a little remorseful Wednesday. "As president I have a unique responsibility to make this town work," he said in a press appearance. "So, to all of those that voted, I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters that chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too."
 
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