Democrats rack up more gains in House as key tight races are called (+31 and may approach 40)

[book_worm]

WASHINGTON — The House Democratic majority continued to grow Thursday as Rep. Karen Handel, the Republican who won a high-profile Georgia special election last year, conceded to challenger Lucy McBath, bringing the party's net gain of seats in Tuesday's midterm elections to 31.

That number could grow again in coming days as more outstanding races are called. Many analysts have estimated that the number will climb closer to 38 seats by the time all votes are counted, and a dozen competitive House contests remained too close to call by midday Thursday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-rack-more-gains-house-key-tight-races-are-called-n934066?fbclid=IwAR0aul1NmaRcdz_CCBg-F7Ht23CBvE8iHZfh6nMANzzvX4JZpU9h9zO7E54

[marble falls]

1. Now for 2020. Do not let up on them. Let them know we're holding them to account on Nov 3, 2020.

[Small-Axe]

9. What is that supposed to mean?

[marble falls]

12. There's an election in 2020. Tell eveybody you know.

[Small-Axe]

13. We are all aware ofthat fact, methinks.

Who are you suggesting we vote out?

[marble falls]

15. Gee. This is Democratic underground. Who would you like to see voted out?

[chillfactor]

2. If I remember correctly remember....

pre-election predictions said we would pick up between 30-40 seats. Looks like the prediction has been reached despite some pundits heads pooh-poohing that prediction!

[John Fante]

3. 31 surpasses the total number of seats won in 2006.

They won the the national popular vote by 8%. How big is that? If HRC had won the popular vote by a similar margin she would have finished with 68 million votes (Trump got 62.9 million). She would have cruised into the WH. 😔

If democrats can maintain this enthusiasm, they'll win the 2020 election with ease - they're simply the larger of the two parties. Republicans, who were just as fired up, got smoked.

[bearsfootball516]

4. Yup, it's a good sign.

There were posters here saying that if we got anything less than a 10 point margin, we wouldn’t win back the house. Uh huh.

[David__77]

7. Wikipedia shows Democrats leading popular vote by 4.2%.

I don't know if that's right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018

I imagine that will increase, in any case, because California has a lot of votes to count. If those numbers are right, then it took a lot of less than a 10% win to take the majority.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. A presidential electorate will be even more Democratic.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. But we can't count on independents slanting in our direction

That is always the key variable from midterm to incumbent re-election. Those swing independents tend to go against the new president's party in a midterm, but restore benefit of a doubt to him two years later.

It's the reason both parties are so often fooled. I was laughing at Republicans who were asking after the 2010 midterm what could possibly change in 2012? Many prior examples.

Trump's approval rating can't go any higher than it is now. I think we need an economic downturn to keep him at 44 or below.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. They will when Trump is just as crazy and the economy is growing at 1% or we are in a recession.

Trump shot his wad with this tax cut. We will look back at the 2nd quarter of 2018 as the pinnacle of Trumponomics. This is setting up as a 1980 like situation with Trump being seen as an aberration that interrupted a succession of Democratic presidents.

[John Fante]

14. Whoever asked what could change from 2010 to 2012 is a dumbass.

The unemployment rate was in the 9-10% range at the time of the 2010 midterms - the economy had nowhere to go but up. Had it remained at 2010 levels, Romney would have likely won the 2012 election. Independents didn't give Obama the benefit of the doubt because he was the incumbent. He ended the War in Iraq, got OBL, and the economic picture improved.

Contrast that with Trump: he can't hope for a better picture in 2020 because this is as good as its going to get. The economy is on fire right now - it's at levels not seen since the late-90s. Unlike Obama in 2010, the economy has nowhere to go but down.

Truth is, Trump and the GOP had EVERYTHING going for them to retain the house: 3.7% unemployment, no unpopular wars. No nasty recession/recovery to climb out of, no badly mismanaged quagmires to answer for. Yet they lost the House, and it wasn't even close.

That's why I laugh at people who say Tuesday's election wasn't a repudiation of Trump. He's arguably the sole reason they lost the house and failed to pick up 6-8 seats in the senate.

[StevieM]

8. She would have won by that amount had it not been for James Comey's repeated interference.

He handed that election to the Republicans.