The battle is now for the Senate
Putting last night's primary results in perspective
A long time ago comedian Louis Black hit the nail on the head when he joked that Democrats are the party of no ideas but Republicans are the party of very, very bad ideas.
This truth seemed to be borne out in last night's primary results, where (with the exception of Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejecting a state constitutional amendment to ban abortion), results showed Republicans goose-stepping into extremism and depravity while Democrats, offering little except a belated commitment to abortion rights and perhaps only sanity, tried to play catch up.
In Michigan incumbent Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Donald Trump, was defeated in the Republican primary by Trump-endorsed whackadoodle John Gibbs, who won thanks to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which purposely boosted the far-right candidate through attack ads on Meijer.
In Missouri disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens lost the Republican Senate primary to the "other" Eric — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Schmitt did not have Trump's endorsement but nevertheless tried to curry favor with the disgraced ex-president through extreme positioning on "anti-CRT" and other GOP "red meat" issues.
In Michigan, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, a FOX News commentator and part-time actress who has access to the deep pockets of Betsy De Vos, beat out three men for the job of Attack Mom. Dixon, who will face Gretchen Whitmer in November, is running on "anti-CRT" attacks, vouchers for religious schools, and opposing masking mandates.
In the Democratic primary in Michigan there was also bad news. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an Israel-focused lobby group once beloved by Democrats but which has now gone Full Trump, placed a bullseye on the back of Andy Levin, a Jewish progressive Democrat who opposes Israel's endless occupation of Palestinian territory and its racist policies toward non-Jews. In a race in a newly-gerrymandered district that pitted Rep. Levin against Rep. Haley Stevens, a centrist Democrat, AIPAC spent $4.2 million on negative ads against Levin.
In Arizona the returns are still coming in, but as I write this the Trump-endorsed gubernatorial primary candidate is leading the Pence-endorsed guy. But what’s the difference when Arizona is so hopelessly lost to mass psychosis? Mark Finchem, an election denier, won the Republican primary for Secretary of State. This is the guy who will have his thumbs on the presidential election in 2024.
If (after their predictions of a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton in 2016) you can still believe anything from fivethirtyeight.com, nuclear winter for House Democrats will come early in November. Here are their House projections:
Nancy Pelosi will almost certainly lose her job as Speaker of the House. If she does leave behind a legacy, it will likely be as the knucklehead who stuck her finger in China's eye with a reckless visit to Taiwan, bringing the world one step closer to "nuclear annihilation," according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Meanwhile, equally desperate to demonstrate Democratic testosterone, Joe Biden sent a Hellfire R9X, a "flying ginsu" missile with meter-long blades, smack dab into Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was standing on his porch in an upscale neighborhood of Kabul.
Although few Americans still remember Al-Qaeda's second-in-command 21 years after 911, and although domestic white supremacy is a much greater threat to the United States, this was Biden’s own chance to display the white American manhood that GOP voters (and a few swing voters) crave so much.
538's projections for the Senate are somewhat discouraging as well, but they do show a few opportunities to preserve a majority:
The most critical Senate races are in:
Georgia, where Democrat Rafael Warnock needs to preserve a slim lead over Republican Herschel Walker
Nevada, where Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto needs to preserve her slim lead over Republican Adam Laxalt
Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman needs to preserve his slim lead over Republican Mehmet Oz
Arizona, where RenewAmerica -> Forward party's Mark Kelly needs to preserve a slim lead over Republican challenger Blake Masters
New Hampshire, where Democrat Maggie Hassan only slightly leads Republican primary challengers Don Bolduc, Chuck Morse, Kevin Smith, and Bruce Fenton
Races that lean Republican, but where support could tip the advantage, include:
North Carolina, where Democrat Cheri Beasley only slightly trails Republican Ted Budd
Ohio, where Democrat Tim Ryan only slightly trails Republican "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance
To donate, click on one of the ActBlue links to the Democrats above. If you have to pick just one person, donate to Rafael Warnock. Given the mushy-headed nonsense that spouts from Hershel Walker's mouth, and given his penchant for lying and his personal lack of character, it is astounding that the race in Georgia is so close. Especially when Warnock, a preacher, is such a decent, honest, and obviously better-qualified candidate.