Sweeping GOP state legislature wins ensure redistricting control, cast doubt on Biden victory claims
As J.R, Dunn quipped a couple of hours ago, “This is the first coattail election with no coat.” President Trump drew a vast number of his supporters to the polls, and they paid attention to down-ballot races. How odd that the suspicious Biden votes that keep getting discovered didn’t include state legislative races and dogcatcher votes (in their haste?)
The Washington Examiner realizes what a big loss the Democrats suffered (except for those late-discovered Biden votes):
Democrats had been hoping their landslide victory would hand them power in a number of new state legislative chambers.
This was key to their goal of cementing themselves into power. Not only would it give them opportunities to advance their policy agenda, but it would also hand them much greater control over the redistricting process than they had enjoyed in 2011.
Alas, with only Arizona’s results still outstanding, it appears that Democrats failed to flip even a single legislative chamber in their favor. The latest tally by the National Conference of State Legislatures suggests that Republicans gained full legislative control in New Hampshire (and thus full control of the state government), and that's about it.
This failure will echo through the next decade. Democrats, given greater power at the state level, could have erected massive obstacles to Republicans’ goal of staging a post-Trump comeback. Instead, they now look forward to a second dismal decade of living under maps they did not themselves draw.
A for the US Congress, despite far more Senate GOP incumbents up for re-election, it appears the GOP will hold onto a majority. On Twitter, lots of people noticed the missing blue wave:
What's wrong with this picture?
— james mccomb (@denver_mccomb) November 6, 2020
Georgia voters re-elected a very conservative Republican Senator with a 100,000 vote margin of victory.
And then turned around and voted for Joe Biden? I don't believe that for a heartbeat.
Of course. Didn't make any gains in the Senate, lost seats in the House, but Joe had a record turnout!
— Jim Kaldem (@jimkaldem) November 6, 2020
This is an important question to answer.
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) November 5, 2020
"Why Does Biden Have So Many More Votes Than Democrat Senators In Swing States?"https://t.co/Stml3FscW3
So the official narrative is that despite Trump outperforming his 2016 numbers everywhere in PA, the inner cities were more fired up to turn out for a cadaver than they were when Obama was elected president. Okay sure.
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 5, 2020
image credit: Twitter screengrab