Mark Kelly, retired astronaut and husband of Gabby Giffords, announces run for US Senate

[Lonestarblue]

17. Excellent news!

We need to pick up at least four seats to retake control of the Senate. We will most likely lose the Doug Jones seat in Alabama because the next Republican candidate will not be as weak as Roy Moore. The 2020 Senate election is not a slam dunk for Democrats, but we really need to have a majority if we are to get anything done, including appointing another SC justice should the need arise. Of course, the presidency is also a must, along with keeping the House!

Control of the Senate is one reason I do not support Sherrod Brown. He would be a fine candidate, but he would be replaced by a Republican and we have an equally good midwestern candidate in Amy Klobuchar. Strong Democratic candidates might be able to win the seats held by Cory Gardner in Colorado and Susan Collins in Maine. Assuming Kelly wins, that’s three. But with the likely loss of Doug Jones, where do we get at least one more and preferably two? John Cornyn is up for re-election here in Texas, but even Beto would have a tough time defeating him and there’s no one else here who could. The major cities here are blue (except for Fort Worth), but rural Texas is still ruby red.

Here’s a chart from Fivethirtyeight that is pretty sobering, but I’ll support any candidte to ensure we win!

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-senate-will-be-competitive-again-in-2020-but-republicans-are-favored/