-By Warner Todd Huston
The media failed once again to predict a mass takeover of Washington by Democrats as their hoped-for “blue wave” turned into a red trickle when Republicans unexpectedly won in key areas like Texas, Florida, Indiana, and Missouri.
While the Democrat Party did take control of the House of Representatives with a 34 seat gain giving the Democrats a 28-seat majority (with a few more seats still to be determined), it is nowhere near the 50 and even 60 seats many prognosticators expected. Further, the Republicans kept control of the U.S. Senate up three more seats for their majority — something else few expected.
Even CNN’s sold-out left-winger, Jake Tapper, said “This is not a blue wave,” during his election coverage on Tuesday night.
Also, it should be remembered that this election is not exactly a full refutation of Donald Trump. The fact is, since the early 1900s, the party in power has lost between 15 and 35 seats in a president’s first midterm election.
Contrast last night’s results to Obama’s first midterms in 2010 when he lost 67 Democrat seats to Republicans. Now THAT was a refutation of a president!
Speaking of Obama, we just HAVE to note that nearly every candidate he stumped for in the last few months lost.
Finally, not many of the seats that the GOP lost were surprises. Nearly every seat was lost in a district that has been trending blue in the last few years. Only about three Republican congressmen lost their seat to a Democrat despite being in a likely of solid Republican leaning district. Indeed, the GOP won three that were deemed tossups and one that was “likely Democrat.”
There are still a few, though that have yet to be determined and all are in Democrat or likely Democrat districts, so the Democrats will increase their number soon.
So, what does this all mean?
Yes, it was a bad night for the Republican Party since it lost control of the House of Representatives. This means Washington will become a pit of snakes as Democrats seek to destroy the Trump administration with nuisance lawsuits, investigations, and road blocks to every policy the Trump administration tries to put into effect.
However…
Still, several good things happened for the Republicans last night. Texas Senator Ted Cruz beat back a highly publicized and funded Democrat challenger to keep his seat. This is a serious blow to Hollywood which came to Beto O’Rourke’s side by the dozens and all with their deep, deep wallets open and flowing with campaign cash. But all that cash and love did not sway enough Texas voters.
In a few other very important and key races, Florida Gov. Rick Scott beat his Democrat opponent, Bill Nelson, for the U.S. Senate in the Sunshine State. And Republican Josh Hawley beat Democrat incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri.
It was a bad night for Senate Democrats. Four sitting Democrat Senators lost their seats last night including Heidi Heitkamp, ND; Joe Donnelly, IN; Claire McCaskill, MO; and Bill Nelson, FL.
Speaking of Florida, once again the Democrat apple cart was upset when Republican Ron DeSantis barely edged out his Democrat opponent to take the governor’s mansion. Georgia also rejected a left-wing candidate for governor when Republican Brian Kemp beat Stacey Abrams — the latter was another candidate Hollywood went wild to help.
In fact, quite a few far, far left candidates lost despite heavy stumping by Hollywood elites. Florida rejected left-winger Andrew Gillum, and as noted Abrams and O’Rourke were shunned. And Hollywood didn’t matter for the Tennessee Senate race, either. Singer Taylor Swift’s pleading for Democrat Phil Bredesen didn’t move the dial for her candidate as conservative Marsha Blackburn won that seat.
In the end, what we have is bad news for the Republican Party and the Trump administration. Good news in the Senate. And solid news in the state houses and governor’s mansions. We also saw bad news for Hollywood as nearly every candidate they worked for lost.
The 2018 midterm was in no way at all a blue wave. But it was still destructive, nonetheless.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, YoungConservatives.com, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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