8 November 2018

CNN: 7 takeaways from election night 2018

House Democrats placed a MASSIVE bet on women in their plan to retake the majority. Dozens and dozens of Democratic female candidates jumped into races across the country. Democrats tailored much of their messaging on health care, on taxes, on everything to female voters -- especially in the suburbs. That was clearly the right bet. Women made up 52% of the overall electorate, according to preliminary exit polls, and they went for Democratic candidates over Republicans by 20. According to the Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman, there will now be more than 100 women in the House in 2019 for the first time in history. [...]

That, by the way, is not unique to Trump. Midterm elections are almost always referendums on the president and his party. And they are almost always negative referendums. (Americans like divided government.) It's why the president's party has not lost House seats in only three midterms since the Civil War. (What years were those? 1934, 1998 and 2002.) [...]

The Ohio Democratic Senator cruised to a third term on Tuesday night against a credible opponent -- Rep. Jim Renacci (R) -- in a state that Trump won by eight points two years ago. That won't get all that much attention -- no one on either side thought Brown would lose -- but it should, as the party turns to 2020. Remember that Trump is President because of 80,000 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The Midwest is, literally, where he built his path to the White House -- and where he will look again in 2020. [...]

If you asked Democrats going into Tuesday night which governor race they wanted to win the most, they'd likely name Florida first and then Ohio. They won neither. And there's meaning well beyond simply losing at the gubernatorial level. Both are swing states -- maybe the two swingiest states -- going into the 2020 presidential election, and it's always better to have a governor's political machine working for you rather than against you in a swing state. And Republicans will have the upper hand in redistricting in 2021 in that trio of states -- which matters a whole hell of a lot.

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